Chapter 23
Elanora and Sallyanne held each other in their narrow bed waiting for morning. Neither spoke. Between them were the two bears. All four remembered Nelly. Leaving her in the shed was the hardest thing to do but what choice did they have? They had kissed her pallid cheek and said goodbye, knowing that her spirit was already free. Elanora drifted in and out of sleep thinking about the Great Destination. What was it? Who was behind it? Why did the thought of it simultaneously calm and excite her?
Sallyanne thought it best not to alarm the other girls with what Nelly had said, except to say that they should all be particularly careful of Miss Barton and give away nothing. “Pretend you don’t know anything about Nelly,” Sallyanne warned.
“But where’ll she be buried?” asked Olive.
“I don’t know,” replied Sallyanne. “But I think we should have our own ceremony for her. We can find somewhere nearby. A special place where we can share all our memories of her. Lay some flowers.”
“That’s a great idea,” agreed Elanora. “Who has something we can place there? You know, like a memento.”
“I’ve got a pretty ribbon she used to tie in my hair,” said Helen.
“An’ I can pick ‘er favourite flowers,” suggested Mary.
“I’ve got somethin’ she liked,” said Olive and dashed over to her bed returning with a brown shrivelled marble from under her pillow.
“What is it?” asked Sallyanne.
“Nelly ‘n’ I filled our pockets with ‘em when we arrived in Sydney. There were these ‘uge trees all covered in fruit. Once we knew you could eat ‘em we collected as many as we could. We did some silly things with ‘em too,” she grinned, “so I know she’d remember ‘em.”
Elanora stared in wonder. She took the fruit from Olive’s hand and inspected it closely.
“It’s a fig fruit,” her stomach flipped and her finger tips tingled. “A fig. It’s a fig!” she shouted and whirled around and around grabbing Sallyanne’s hands and dancing with joy.
“What are you doing?” Sallyanne laughed.
The other girls looked about in surprise but started to relax and join in on whatever joke was being had.
“Here we go round the fig tree, the fig tree, the figgy tree, here we go round the figgy tree on a hot and dusty morning,” Elanora sang, and they all joined hands in a spinning frenzy. One rhyme led to another and soon they were “all fall down.”
“I hate to spoil such fun, but we must get our chores done before she notices,” said Sallyanne and the merriment ended. Elanora tucked the fruit into her apron pocket but not before giving it a heartfelt kiss.
As they walked to the kitchen Sallyanne asked, “Why are you so excited about a fig?”
“It reminds me of home,” she said and smiled as they headed in to prepare the stove. Sallyanne was sure she saw a flame of red illuminate the short shafts of Elanora’s hair.
A group of girls lingered in the kitchen cleaning up after lunch which left no chance for Elanora and Sallyanne to discuss their next move privately, so instead Elanora asked about her bear.
“Where is your bear from?”
“Edward? My parents gave him to me as a present when I was very young. My father brought him back from a trip to Germany. He worked a lot over there.”
“But I thought you’re parents were...I thought the girls sent here had parents from poor backgrounds.”
“Not all of us started that way. My father died and my mother couldn’t pay back his business debt. They sold our house and our furniture and nearly put my mother in a debtors’ prison. We had nowhere to live but the streets. Mother earned money where she could but it was never enough. Then winter came. Mother got sick and...that was that.” She scrubbed harder at the stove top. “I was lucky to be found by Lord Marshfield. He was in charge of the Institute for the Betterment of Girls. He was so full of promises. He seemed really sweet, actually. Maybe he doesn’t know what goes on over here,” she added in a hushed voice.
“So Edward is German?”
“Yes, but he understands English perfectly well.” They giggled.
“Thanks for helping with Nelly,” Sallyanne said under her breath.
“It’s a crime what that woman is doing. You girls have rights, you know, and I promise I’ll do my best to fix it. We have to start by telling the authorities.”
Sallyanne smiled at her courageous friend. “You’re a really stand out girl, Elanora Lacey.”
Elanora stopped wiping at crumbs, wondering what it was about those words that struck her heart. “Nobody’s ever noticed me before,” she said staring down at her hands.
“How could they not, you’re remarkable!”
“It’s true. Nobody’s ever really noticed me until I came here.”
Except for Ash.