her mother to a lovely bungalow guesthouse. It had broad verandahs and looked out onto Murat Bay over the sand rampart defenses for the huge water desalination plant, smoking away inland of it, and the city of Ceduna, huddled behind the wall.
Mr. Darlington, the big, bluff-faced official from the Westralian government, with his muttonchop sideburns and suntanned face, had smiled at her as they’d been introduced. “Pleased to meet you, Clara. Welcome to Westralia. You look to be about the same age as my daughter Linda. I was just about to pass on an invitation to dinner—erm, you’ll find our hours here rather odd. We sleep during the heat, and get up once it starts to cool down. Most people in Ceduna would consider this the middle of the night.” He waved a hand at the sash window and the blue of the sky and the sunlit sparkle of the bay. “But I was wondering, as it’ll be a rather crusty affair tonight, with nothing much for a young lady, whether you would like to come and take tea with Linda and milady wife. I’m sorry, Dr. Calland, m’wife won’t be home with them all of the time tonight, but they’re not children that need constant overseeing, eh?” He straightened out the neatly embroidered antimacassar on the back of the Morris chair next to which he stood. “My wife chairs the local Westralian Women’s Association, and they have their annual general meeting tonight. She can’t miss it! But she will only be away for a couple of hours while we’re out—this dinner is unlikely to finish much before one in the morning. I could have my driver come pick the two of you up, bring you to our home, introduce you to my daughter, and then take us on to our dinner at the Clarion. Professor Henderson and a number of other scientists and several industrial people will be there.”
Clara had been a bit wary of being parted from her mother in this strange environment. But she didn’t want to sound like a baby. Her mother smiled encouragingly at her. “Thank you very much,” Clara said in her best St. Margaret’s Girl accent. “That would be lovely.”
And oddly enough, it had been lovely. Linda proved to be the sort of person Clara had always thought she might like to have as a friend, had all the girls at St. Margaret’s not been so set on ignoring someone whose father was in jail, and worse, whose mother was divorced. After a first polite, but slightly uneasy exchange, Linda said something about her stepmother being home soon.
After an awkward moment Clara said, “I’m sorry. Did…did your mother die long ago?”
“She’s not dead. Just divorced.” The way Linda said it struck a chord in Clara. “She’s living in Sydney. She didn’t like Roxby. Honestly, I sometimes think I should say she is dead.”
Without thinking about it Clara had reached out and squeezed Linda’s hand, which startled the primly dressed young lady. “I know. I used to get the same back in Ireland. My…my parents divorced, too.” That this was a paper divorce, designed to protect her, was not something she needed to mention just then.
Linda blinked. “It’s like that…back in England, too? I heard in America nobody cares.”
“Well, I’m Irish.” It was odd to say that with pride. “But people treated me as if I had lice because of it. It used to make me so mad. It wasn’t my fault.”
And that was enough to seal the friendship. Within ten minutes Clara had heard a great deal about Linda’s mother, stepmother, the other girls in the new school in Ceduna, and life in Westralia, and was soon subjected to an inquisition about her own life.
“Oh, I would love to have been on a submarine! You’ve had such adventures. All I ever do that’s fun is ride. I have my own horse.”
Clara had left out a few adventures that she’d rather not talk about yet. “It was fun. I miss it.”
“And all those young men…My stepmother won’t let me alone with one.”
Clara blushed. Linda noticed, read it at least partly right, and looked warily around as if scared someone would notice. “A boyfriend?” she asked in a hushed tone. “Don’t tell step-mama, but I’ve got a beau, too, now. But…well, he’s a bit older. He keeps asking me to sneak out to meet him, but there’s not many places you can go in Ceduna. And I’m not going to Murat beach with him…”