Mystic Mountains

free and indentured who'd like to warm his bed." Thelma waved a pea pod at Isabella and laughed.
    Isabella turned away. The man was no better than a stallion if the tales she 'd heard about him were true. And what infuriated her was, at least from stories she'd overheard after church, that the women who whispered about his exploits with a touch of shock were also the ones who fluttered their eyelashes and blushed coyly when he happened to allow them the time of day.
    "Oh, how grand it must be to be a man, eh? They come and go as they please, take whatever women tickle their fancy, then discard them without a second 's thought when they tire of them." Isabella got up and went to the window. "I wish I'd been born a man. This world was made for them."
    "Maybe so. But what about them having to provide a roof over our heads eh? And food for us to eat. They can 't just sit back and say, I think I'll take a few weeks off, the animals will thrive without being fed and shorn and protected, the crops will plant and harvest themselves."
    "But they 'd not get far without us women to wash their linen and cook that food they've carefully grown."
    "I guess it works both ways, then. A truly perfect combination is when a pair work together to make life go smooth for each other."
    "Oh, Thelma, you think that way because you have Gillie."
    "And someday you'll have a husband who cares for you, then you'll think the same as me. Likely it will be Dougal."
    Isabella drew in a ragged breath and kept her thoughts to herself. Much as she liked and respected him she couldn 't see herself ever thinking of Dougal as a husband. But who else was likely to give her a moment's thought?
    Certainly not the man who filled her every waking thought, and most of her dreams, these days.

 
     
     
    Chapter Seven
     
    Isabella frowned. Thelma looked so frail. There was only one thing for it. "I'll go to the doctor's house and pick up some medicine for you," she decided. She couldn't bear to see her friend suffer with this body-racking cough.
    "No, dear." Thelma sat on one of the high-backed chairs, a hand to her temple. Massaging the pale skin she shook her head. "I don 't want you going off on your own. 'Tis too far."
    Isabella waved a hand. "Goodness me, what harm can come to me on the road to town? You 've been coughing real bad through the night, and the medicine the doctor mixes up for you is the only thing that eases it."
    "I know, but best wait until the men com e in from the fields." Another bad spasm had Thelma striving to catch her breath.
    Isabella picked up one of her blue-veined hands and stroked it. "I hate to see you this poorly, Thelma."
    "But it's too far for you to walk." Thelma wheezed with each breath she took.
    "Nonsense. " Isabella tapped her chest. "I'm as fit as can be now and a little walk on such a nice day won't do me any harm."
    In truth she was worried sick by Thelma 's insistent coughing. Gillie was too and only last evening he'd mentioned taking her into town again to visit the doctor. But she needed the medicine right now.
    "It 's eight miles or more." Thelma shifted uncomfortably. "I don't know, Bella. Tiger will go mad if he knows I've let you go all that way alone." 
    Isabella gave her a confident smile. "I 'll get a ride on a dray or wagon easy enough. There's always plenty of farmers going in to town at this time of the day. Tiger won't even know I'm gone. I'll be back before they get in for their evening meal, you'll see."
    "I don 't know." Thelma still grumbled as Isabella tied her bonnet strings. "It's in King Street, you know," she reminded her as Isabella went to the door.
    "Didn 't I go there to see about my foot, silly? I know where 'tis. Now you just sit there and take it easy 'til I get back."
    Isabella went down the path to the outer gate, one of the bitches who 'd recently whelped loping along at her side. How good it felt to stroll along and enjoy the singing of the birds and the scenery. In the dreary back streets of Stepney even the sky had always seemed to be dull and grey. The wild beauty of this country thrilled her, made her forget for a while that she was a convict; that her family were so far away there was little possibility of seeing them again.
    It was cooler now, more like a spring day in England. The weather was all upside down here in the colony. They 'd been here three months and Dougal was as happy as a pig in muck. Tiger Carstairs had bought more of his precious merinos and Dougal and