The Stars Blue Yonder Read online

  “Benjamin, are you bothering Mrs. Osherman?” she asked, smiling warmly.

  Cohen rose to his feet. “Lady Darling,” he said, in a tone that wasn’t quite cordial.

  “You can prattle on, you know,” Lady Darling said. “You wouldn’t want to abuse Mrs. Osherman’s kindness by boring her, would you?”

  Jodenny’s impression of Cohen was distinctly opposite. She thought he wasn’t much for prattling on at all. She wondered what history the two of them had, what quarrel or fundamental disagreement.

  Cohen had flushed in the cheeks but was standing his ground. “I thought you were in Katoomba, my lady.”

  “The farm and village grow tiresome when so many exciting things are happening here,” Lady Darling said. “Won’t you find me a glass of wine? My throat is parched.”

  Cohen backed away with a small bow and hurried into the house.

  Lady Darling sat beside Jodenny on the bench. She really was a striking woman, all of her teeth intact, her complexion healthy and undamaged by sun. The jewels around her neck sparkled in the sunlight—blue and green on silver filaments, with similar rings on her fingers. She gave junior’s bump an appraising glance, but Jodenny couldn’t decipher if that was envy or disgust in her gaze.

  “We shouldn’t speak long,” Lady Darling said, lifting her eyes. She leaned forward in earnest. “Too many prying ears and eyes. But you must understand. We have a mutual friend.”

  “We do?”

  “He calls himself Homer.”

  The glass in Jodenny’s hand nearly slipped from her grasp. “You know Homer?”

  “Yes, I know him,” Lady Darling said. “And he’s told me such wonderful tales of his travels. Into the future, Mrs. Osherman. The future you yourself come from.”

  The glass of apple juice tipped, spilling the brownish liquid across the grass.

  Lady Darling rose to her feet. She pressed a calling card into Jodenny’s hand. “You must understand there are some things Captain Osherman doesn’t want you to know. He’ll be very cross if he finds out I’ve told you, and he’ll forbid you to come see me. But you must. I’m staying at the Hotel Victoria on College Street, near the museum. Find me tomorrow, and I’ll tell you everything.”

  “What about Terry Myell?” Jodenny demanded. “Did Homer tell you anything about him?”

  “Find me,” Darling said, and walked away.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Jodenny pushed her way through the crowds at Government House, determined to find Lady Darling again. Here was a link back to the future other than just Sam. Here was someone who might know what Homer had done with Myell.

  Lady Darling, however, had disappeared. There was no sign of her in the dining room or hallways, or on the grand stairs, or anywhere that Jodenny could see. The well-dressed, loud crowds of resplendent men and women swirled around her, opening and blocking doorways, moving back and forth in the increasingly warm air with their loud voices and strange accents. Jodenny was hot and flustered and getting dizzy again. But still she kept looking.

  “Josephine,” Osherman said, grasping her by the elbow. She hadn’t even seen him approaching in the hallway. His face was a mixture of concern and annoyance as he said, “Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

  She blinked at him and tried to come up with a convincing lie. Her capacity to obfuscate had vanished in the heat.

  “I got lost,” she said. “I couldn’t find you.”

  Osherman said, “You look terrible. Come on, sit down.”

  He escorted her to a velvet settee in a small room lined with bookshelves and leather volumes. Jodenny sat and tried to compose herself. The room wasn’t empty; two men in fine summer coats were conferring by the window.

  “Your Excellency,” Osherman said, with a bow. “Forgive the intrusion. My wife needs to rest.”

  The governor of Australia, Sir Charles FitzRoy, nodded graciously. “Of course. Captain Osherman, is it? Lady Scott has spoken highly of you.”

  “She flatters me,” Osherman said.

  FitzRoy took Jodenny’s hand. “Mrs. Osherman. I hate to leave Australia with loveliness such as yours newly arrived on shore.”

  Jodenny wasn’t in the mood for flattery, and she didn’t care who FitzRoy was. She needed to find Darling and shake the truth out of her. But years of ingrained respect for authority kept her from shaking off FitzRoy’s hand. She offered the only smile she could manage, under the circumstances.

  “Your Excellency,” she said. “I’m sorry to hear of your departure.”

  “England calls.” He tilted his head at her. “Forgive me. You remind me very much of my Mary.”

  “My lord?”

  Sadness darkened his face. “It was a tragic accident that took her from me.”

  She didn’t need to hear about any tragedies. She was close enough to tears of frustration as it was. Luckily a secretary came to the door in search of Governor FitzRoy, and he left to attend to some pressing business. Osherman watched him go and turned a grateful look to Jodenny.

  “You did great,” he said.

  Jodenny wanted to hit him. “Take me home.”

  “I can’t,” he said. “It’s Lady Scott’s carriage and she’s not ready.”

  “Tell her I want to go home,” she insisted. “You can send the carriage back later.”

  She would have set off on foot, crossed the wilds of unknown Sydney on her own, but she didn’t know the city’s geography and she didn’t think she’d get far anyway. At that moment she resented junior for everything—the weight, the dizziness, no stamina, swollen ankles, the constant pressure on her bladder. She was tired of being kicked from the inside. Tired of missing Myell. Tired of the heat and the flies and the stink, and tired of being tired.

  She sat there, hating everything, but hatred was no good. Hatred didn’t solve anything, nor did acting like a spoiled child. Jodenny wiped her face and sat up straight until Osherman returned. On the ride back to Lady Scott’s house she was silent, mulling over Darling’s words. She knew Osherman was worried about her, but she wasn’t about to reassure him if it was true that he knew more than he was letting on. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d deceived her, but it was damn well going to be the last.

  Back at the house, Lilly and Sarah helped Jodenny to bed and fussed over her with wet cloths until she sent them away in irritation. Fatigued, she dozed off and on until darkness, and then roused herself enough to go downstairs. Osherman had gone out without leaving word when he’d be back, but Lady Scott was enjoying a cold snack by candelabra in the dining room. The older woman’s hair was down, her dressing gown billowing and flowing around her.

  “My dear girl, are you better?” Lady Scott asked. “Sit and eat something.”

  Jodenny sat down carefully, hating how the chair groaned under her weight. “I feel much better now. I’m sorry I had to leave early.”

  Lady Scott smeared soft cheese on a cracker. “I remember what it’s like to be with child. Never again, I swore. Each and every time. And then the Admiral would have his wicked way with me, and there we were. Parents again.”

  Jodenny reached for a cracker of her own. “I think this will be my only one.”

  “The Captain doesn’t want as many as he can get?”

  “He might,” Jodenny allowed.

  Lady Scott gave a quite unladylike snort. “A woman who knows her own mind. You are a rare creature. Don’t let them convince you otherwise.”

  “I suspect we are both rare creatures,” Jodenny said. “May I ask how it is that you came to help my husband so? I know he came to Sydney without many friends or resources.”

  “You’d be surprised how many people wash up on these shores needing help,” Lady Scott said, reaching for more cheese. Candlelight flickered across her face. “He was robbed, you know. Frightful business. Those people down on the Rocks, I suspect. Hooligans, thieves, murderers all. But Lady Darling, she found him. Rescued him from a terrible fate.”

  J
odenny’s hand dug against her thigh. Carefully she said, “Lady Darling found him?”

  “Remarkable woman, you know. We had a Governor Darling here, back before I arrived. Distant relations, I gather. Of course, she travels so much among her businesses and homes that it was impossible to take him in. Knowing my kind heart, she asked me to shelter him for a time.”

  Osherman had lied. He’d said Homer had brought him here. Why lie about that? Jodenny said, “There’s kindness, and there’s generosity. Not only did you take him in, but you helped him get on his feet and have spoken up for him with the governor.”

  Silence for a moment, while Lady Scott examined her cracker with detachment. Eventually she said, “Women of my age, Mrs. Osherman, find little hope of suitable companionship in New South Wales. Tea parties. Luncheons. Dinner parties, occasionally. Old men want young, pretty girls for their wives. Those who profess interest in me are more likely to be passionate about my jewels and fortune than anything I say, do, or am.”

  “But what about Professor Wallace?” Jodenny asked.

  “Dear Joseph has many admirable qualities, but a romantic appreciation of women is not among them,” Lady Scott said. “If I did your husband any kindness, it was motivated entirely by a foolish old woman’s self-interest.”

  “I thank you anyway.”

  Lady Scott rose and gave Jodenny a kind smile. “You’re a lucky woman. If I were you, I’d count my blessings every day.”

  Jodenny sat at the table for several more minutes, listening to the quiet night. junior’s fist punching her ribs persuaded her to head back to her room and get some rest. She had her foot on the first step when she heard low worried voices from the kitchen. Sarah and Lilly were there, hovering over a girl sitting in a chair. Candles sputtered on the tabletop.

  “What’s wrong?” Jodenny asked from the doorway.

  Sarah jumped. Lilly said, “Sorry, ma’am. No need to bother you.”

  The visitor was only a teenager, and she wore servant’s clothes. She was several months pregnant and very haggard, with dark circles under her eyes and high cheekbones made stark by malnourishment.

  “Is she ill?” Jodenny asked.

  “Just tired,” the girl said.

  “This is our youngest sister, Helen,” Sarah said. “She works for the Frasers.”

  Lilly patted Helen’s shoulder. “It’s normal to be tired. It’ll pass.”

  Jodenny sat down next to Helen. Carefully she felt the girl’s wrist with the tips of her fingertips. “Have you always been tired, or is it something new?”

  “Just this last week, ma’am,” Helen said.

  “Do you sleep?”

  “Every night, like the dead.”

  Sarah crossed herself and Lilly said, “Heaven forbid.”

  Helen’s pulse was fast and weak. Jodenny consulted the Digital Duola. Without lab results she couldn’t be sure, but one diagnosis jumped out at her.

  “You need iron,” she told Helen. “Your body’s spending all its resource on the baby, draining you.”

  “What’s she going to do with an iron beam?” Sarah asked.

  Jodenny said, “It’s a vitamin. Something you get when you eat the right food. Eggs and liver, green vegetables, yams—the more you eat of that, the better you’ll feel.”

  Helen wiped a tear from her eye. “So I’m not dying?”

  “You’re not dying,” Jodenny said.

  “Food like that’s not cheap to come by,” Lilly pointed out tightly.

  Jodenny didn’t have her purse with her, and she didn’t have any shillings or pounds anyway. Osherman had all the money. She was irritated with Lilly for bringing up the subject, but poverty and the scarce resources of Sydney couldn’t be ignored.

  Sarah stroked Helen’s hair. “We’ll get it for her, ma’am. Thank you for advising us. They’ve got good doctors back in England and America, yes? Not like the butchers here.”

  Jodenny went to her room and climbed gratefully into bed. Sleep came hard. Lying on the lumpy bed, the pillows flat and feathery, she stared out the open window into the nighttime sky and thought about governors and servant girls, midwives and babies. She had to find Lady Darling again and learn more about Homer. At some point she must have slept, because the sky was light and Osherman’s side of the mattress was still empty, but she felt exhausted all the same.

  Sarah brought morning tea and news of Osherman.

  “He slept on the sofa downstairs, ma’am. It looks like he’s been in an awful fight! His eye’s all bloody and there’s a bruise on his chin.”

  Jodenny pulled on her dressing robe. “I’ll go talk to him.”

  “Thanks again for your help last night,” Sarah said. “Helen, she’s the youngest. We love her dearly.”

  “I can tell,” Jodenny said. “Are you going to market this morning? I want to come.”

  “You’re sure, ma’am? It’s not quite right for a lady like yourself—”

  “Don’t leave without me.”

  Jodenny went to see Osherman, who was nursing a cup of tea at the dining room table. He smelled like whiskey and tobacco smoke, and his gaze was unhappy.

  “Don’t tell me,” he said. “I know I was an idiot.”

  Jodenny remained standing in the doorway. The morning light was strong through the windows and already the weather was broiling hot. “Where did you go?”

  “Saloon,” he said.

  “Why?”

  He shook his head.

  She was angry with him, and suspicious, and all sorts of feelings she couldn’t quite put a finger on. It had occurred to her that maybe he thought he was protecting her in some way—that he’d lied about Darling and Homer because her safety and well-being were still important to him.

  “I’m going out with Sarah today,” she announced. “To the market. It’s about time I get out and around, as you’ve said. And soon I’ll be too big to walk anywhere. I need money.”

  Osherman reached into his pocket and handed her a small sack of coins. He pressed the steaming cup of tea against his swollen left cheek. “You really think that’s wise?”

  “You don’t?”

  He sighed. “I think you’ll do whatever you mean to do, Commander, whether I agree or not.”

  “At least you’ve learned that lesson,” she said, and left him to his tea.

  They set out in the early morning on foot, Sarah carrying a basket, Jodenny armed with a parasol against the sun. She was carrying her own canteen of boiled water and had stripped out the heaviest of her undergarments. She figured that the fine citizens of Sydney had no need to know what was going on under her skirts and propriety was best reserved for women who gave a damn.

  Junior seemed happy enough with the activity. Jodenny had more tolerance for the interior kicking and squirming today than on other days and so she simply poked back occasionally as Sarah led them past the small mansion houses on Lower Fort Street toward the market shops downtown. Though it was barely eight a.m. everyone in town seemed up and about already, maybe trying to get things done before the later heat. Dogs and dirty children ran loose in the streets, full of noise and energy, while housekeepers and servants haggled with shopkeepers. Carriages, wagons, horses, and pedestrian traffic made Jodenny walk close to the stone and wooden buildings that rose up on either side of the street.

  “Is this a lot like London, ma’am?” Sarah asked. “I hear London’s very fancy. Much bigger, much fancier.”

  “Yes, it’s much bigger,” Jodenny said, though she had little idea what Victorian London looked like. She watched a horse slurp from a wooden trough while flies buzzed around its tail. “Your parents came from London?”

  “My dad was from Ireland and my mum from Liverpool,” Sarah said. “My mum, she said that Sydney then was nothing but shacks and cesspools. Nothing would grow right and all the animals would up and die. She was set down to Parramatta with the rest of the women on her ship and that’s where my dad met her while he was looking for a wife.”

  �
��They were happily married?”

  “Not so much,” Sarah said. “Not like you and the Captain, ma’am.”

  A mangy horse and a long wagon were stuck in the middle of the street while two beefy men unloaded its cargo. Jodenny felt bad for the horse. As the years marched on, beasts of labor would be replaced by streetcars, automobiles, flits. Gas lamps would be erected, followed by lights powered by electricity or fuel cells. The buildings around her would fall into decay and be leveled for the next wave of shops, banks, businesses. Some would be saved for posterity but most would be ground to dust. Civilization would steamroll through here the way it did every other corner of the Earth, leading to the Debasement and the settlement of the stars, and Jodenny’s own birth on Fortune just a few centuries away. But if Jodenny didn’t find a way back to the future this here-and-now would become junior’s world.

  Sarah was still talking. “My dad, he wasn’t a bad man. Just liked to drink a bit. He helped build the Rum Hospital. All those stones! And he worked on the roof, too.”

  “I hear there’s a museum,” Jodenny said.

  Sarah’s nose wrinkled. “Big stone building, over by Hyde Park. They don’t let people in it except on special occasions.”

  “Maybe we could walk that way.”

  “I need to get today’s chicken,” Sarah said doubtfully. “Lilly won’t be happy if I don’t get the best of the offerings. And we need eggs. And some brown sugar, some apples—”

  Jodenny squeezed Sarah’s arm. “Of course you do. And food for your sister, remember? Full of iron. Here’s some money. I want you to take it and spend it on her. While you’re busy with that I’m going to do some shopping and sightseeing of my own. I’ll meet you back at Lady Scott’s house.”

  “You don’t want to be walking alone in your condition,” Sarah protested. “You could turn your ankle or trip, ma’am.”

  “I’ll be perfectly fine. I promise.”

  Sarah looked doubtful but the shillings Jodenny pressed into her palm were obviously too tempting to ignore. Jodenny set off on her own toward Hyde Park. It was both a relief and a worry to be surrounded by strangers in this half-civilized wilderness. A relief not to have anyone hovering over her, but worrisome that she didn’t have a gib or a comm-bee or any way of reaching Osherman if she or junior suddenly needed help. Her life as a Supply Officer in Team Space was more remote than it had ever been—a dream she half-remembered, as if someone else had lived through it to end up here.