Grace’s first obstacle was her husband, and when Spit and Sadie had gone to bed that night she said to Jack, ‘I’m going to try and adopt him, Jack. He’s a good boy and Sadie likes him, and I trust him because he has always been very honest. So I’m going up to the Shire Office tomorrow to see how to go about it.’
‘You’ll do no such thing,’ Jack Tree said incredulously. ‘You must be out of your mind to think of it. I forbid it.’
‘I’m not out of my mind at all, and I’m going to do it.’
Jack Tree was seated at his roll-top desk making out his complicated reports on herd testing, a task that his wife would not normally have dared interrupt. But Grace stood at the side of his desk looking so close-mouthed and determined that Jack Tree was nonplussed.
‘I’ll tell you this,’ he said, taking off his spectacles with a snap. ‘Even if you want to adopt him, you haven’t a ghost of a chance because Spit is a Protestant and you’re a Catholic. They’ll never let you do it.’
Grace had already considered this most obvious of problems in a country as divided and as passionate as Australia was by sect and prejudice, but she had not come to that problem yet so she had pushed it out of her mind.
‘I’ll face that when I come to it,’ she said, ‘but I wish you would think about it,’ she told him, appealing to him now as if she would be quite willing to return to her docility if he would only agree. ‘He’s still so young, and whatever you think is wrong with him now, you can do something with him. I like him, Jack, and I don’t want him to end up in an orphanage. It would be so wrong, and you know it yourself. Think of Sadie, if something happened to us.’
‘If you start thinking that way you’ll end up with all the lame ducks in the town at your doorstep. I’m not going to turn this place into a charity.’
‘I’m not asking you to. I’m simply asking you to let me adopt him and bring him up properly.’
‘It wouldn’t work.’
‘I’ll make it work.’
‘You would spoil him. He’s already twisting you around his little finger, though how on earth he does it I don’t know. Or even why.’
‘That’s not true, and you know it. I’m thinking of the boy.’
‘All right, then. I have a suggestion.’ Jack pointed his spectacles at her which was usually intended to intimidate her. ‘Will you do what I tell you?’
Grace hesitated and said for the first time in their married life, ‘I’m not sure, Jack. But what are you saying?’
‘Will you go and talk to Betty Arbuckle and see if you can persuade her to adopt Spit instead of sending him off to that home in Bendigo?’
‘I’ll do no such thing,’ Grace said angrily. ‘Betty Arbuckle is a very kind woman. She means well. But Spit is not for her. He would simply turn against her and become a criminal or run away or do something terrible.’
‘And what makes you think you could do any better with him?’
‘Because if I were a child I would sooner be our Sadie than Ben or Joannie Arbuckle.’
‘Well I can tell you this, Grace. Betty Arbuckle is not going to stand aside and let you adopt a Protestant boy like Spit MacPhee. She’ll fight you tooth and nail.’
‘Then I’ll fight her tooth and nail. I’ve made up my mind, Jack, and I only wish you would too.’
‘I have. And I say No.’
‘I think you are wrong, and if I can adopt him I know that you’ll change your mind.’
‘Have you considered for a moment what his influence would be on Sadie?’
‘Sadie is a very quiet girl. She doesn’t make friends easily because she is too quiet. But she likes Spit and I know he would always look after her, so I’m not worried about that. I didn’t tell you before but he taught her to swim, which I thought was a good thing, living so near the river.’
‘He what?’
‘He taught her to swim.’
‘Why, for God’s sake, didn’t you tell me?’ Jack said angrily and yet helplessly.
‘Because you would have stopped her.’
‘I give up,’ Jack Tree said in exasperation. ‘Do what you like, but don’t expect any help from me.’
Grace Tree stood quietly for a moment, troubled that she should be so determined about something which affected her husband as profoundly as it was affecting her, perhaps more so. If he wanted a son, which he couldn’t have from her, he obviously didn’t want Spit as a substitute. Yet she was sure he would change his mind if she succeeded in adopting Spit. And, falling back on her old habit of silence, she left him to his work, although this time her silence was not an admission but rather a denial of his authority, which surprised and troubled her as much as it did her husband.