Dry retching again, she held her hair away from the bush. She couldn’t have anything else to bring up, she thought! When does this stop? How would she tell him?
“Elizabeth, where are you, where is my breakfast?” bellowed the Lieutenant coming toward the kitchen.
Wiping her mouth on her sleeve, she scurried through the back door, just before he entered the kitchen.
“It won’t be long Sir, I just stepped out to get the eggs,” she replied, swallowing bile again. Just breathe, she thought, I’m not ready to let him know, I don’t want to leave ’ere.
Placing his plate on the table she found herself remembering the day The Pitt sailed into Sydney Cove.
Seven years transportation, was a long time, she would never see her family again. She felt him watching her as soon as she came on the deck with the others. It sent a shiver of fear down her spine. Names were being read out by a scrawny soldier standing near the gangplank. Fate had been kind to her that day, she hadn’t expected to leave the boat as housekeeper to Lieutenant Thomas Rowley!
“Elizabeth, what is wrong with you?” asked the Lieutenant. “You are miles away, it’s not like you to be wool gathering.”
She should have been more careful, she thought, he didn’t want a babe! Could she get rid of it? How could a convict bring up a baby without a father? Now he would send her to the barracks, as she deserved.
“I’m with child!” she blurted out as she burst into tears, running out the door to her favourite bush!
Reflective Statement
I chose to write this story as it is the beginning of my Family Saga in Australia.
I can only imagine what it must have been like for Elizabeth, to find herself pregnant to Thomas only a month after being assigned to him and arriving in Australia.
I am finding that I like writing dialogue as I think, it is an outlet for my overactive imagination! I am also finding that although I want to stay true to facts that I have found, I am definitely enjoying the Creative Non- fiction genre!
Wiping her mouth on her sleeve, she scurried through the back door, just before he entered the kitchen.
“It won’t be long Sir, I just stepped out to get the eggs,” she replied, swallowing bile again. Just breathe, she thought, I’m not ready to let him know, I don’t want to leave ’ere.
Placing his plate on the table she found herself remembering the day The Pitt sailed into Sydney Cove.
Seven years transportation, was a long time, she would never see her family again. She felt him watching her as soon as she came on the deck with the others. It sent a shiver of fear down her spine. Names were being read out by a scrawny soldier standing near the gangplank. Fate had been kind to her that day, she hadn’t expected to leave the boat as housekeeper to Lieutenant Thomas Rowley!
“Elizabeth, what is wrong with you?” asked the Lieutenant. “You are miles away, it’s not like you to be wool gathering.”
She should have been more careful, she thought, he didn’t want a babe! Could she get rid of it? How could a convict bring up a baby without a father? Now he would send her to the barracks, as she deserved.
“I’m with child!” she blurted out as she burst into tears, running out the door to her favourite bush!
Reflective Statement
I chose to write this story as it is the beginning of my Family Saga in Australia.
I can only imagine what it must have been like for Elizabeth, to find herself pregnant to Thomas only a month after being assigned to him and arriving in Australia.
I am finding that I like writing dialogue as I think, it is an outlet for my overactive imagination! I am also finding that although I want to stay true to facts that I have found, I am definitely enjoying the Creative Non- fiction genre!
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