Rémi watched the wild-eyed man’s every move, waiting for an opportunity to grab him. But Barrett kept waving that knife around, its blade gleaming in the lamplight, and only a fool would run on to it. He wasn’t a fool, didn’t intend to get killed or injured.
‘What I want to tell you all,’ Barrett yelled and waved the knife again as if for emphasis, ‘is—’
His rear foot, the one on the outside of the rail, slipped suddenly and he had to grab the rail with one hand to stop himself falling. Somehow he kept hold of the knife and righted himself before anyone could get close enough to grab him.
But Rémi and the sailor were another step closer. And a second sailor was moving gradually towards them all as well.
Rémi prayed that something would stop the madman from speaking and ruining his friend’s life.
‘I’ll stab anyone who comes near me,’ Barrett shouted at the top of his voice. ‘I will, I will!’
The two men near him froze again, exchanging quick frustrated glances.
‘Now keep quiet and listen! I have something very important to tell you.’ Barrett seemed to forget that he’d just said something similar.
A child began to cry and its mother tried to shush it.
‘Stop it making that noise!’ Barrett waved the knife so wildly it flew from his hand, clattering along the deck.
That was what the two men were waiting for. They moved towards him, arms outstretched to grab him.
He screamed, a high thin sound, more like a woman’s scream than a man’s. As he leaned backwards, trying to stay away from the hands reaching out for him, his rear foot slipped off the rail again, throwing him off balance.
Though he scrabbled for the rail, he missed it and, with shocking suddenness, he vanished from sight, falling towards the water, arms and legs flailing.
Though Rémi lunged forward to grab him, he wasn’t quite close enough. His fingers closed on air only a few inches away.
‘Nooooo!’ Barrett’s voice trailed through the night, growing fainter as he fell and splashed into the dark, heaving sea.
Rémi and the sailor leaned over the rail to see Barrett struggling in the water, his face pale against the darkness, showing only because of the ship’s lights.
But the vessel was moving inexorably on.
Barrett’s head bobbed up further along, then sank beneath the water. One arm waved from further away still, as if pleading for help. Then it vanished. After that, there was no sign of the man.
And the ship travelled on relentlessly, like all such vessels unable to stop for some time. By which time Barrett would be long out of sight.
One officer had grabbed binoculars and was leaning over the rail at the rear of the ship, training them on the water, his head moving as he scanned to and fro, to and fro …
After a few moments, he let the binoculars drop and looked across at the captain. ‘I’m pretty sure he’s gone under, sir. I could see pretty clearly, with the moon just out from behind the clouds. I’d have seen him if he’d surfaced, I know I would.’
The captain shook his head, sighing. ‘Dear heaven, why did he do that?’
‘Can’t you let down a small boat?’ a passenger called.
‘I’m afraid not, sir. It’d take too long to get it in the water and by then he’d be a mile behind us. We’d never find him, even if he were still alive. Nor would we find his body in such deep water, even if we did stop and turn the ship round.’
‘We have to try, surely?’ another gentleman said.
‘How do we find the correct area of the sea, once we’ve slowed down and turned the ship?’ the captain asked. ‘There is nothing around us but water, nothing to mark the spot.’
One of the two officers standing next to the man said softly, ‘The sea can be cruel.’
The silence on deck broke suddenly and people began talking, weeping, shouting, clutching one another.
Rémi stood by the rail, feeling sick to have seen a man die like that, to have been so close to saving him. Then he turned towards his friend.
But Fergus wasn’t looking at anyone except his wife, and what showed in his face was love. Rémi envied him that. He had never found a woman he could love in that enduring way.
Well, at least Cara was safe now. Good had come out of the terrible incident.
When he saw Barrett fall, Fergus pushed his way through the crowd to Cara and dragged her into his arms. As she tried to speak, he whispered, ‘Shh. There are people all around us.’
So she let him hold her close, trembling in reaction, huddling against his warm, strong body, drawing comfort from him.
He murmured, for her ears only, ‘You’re safe now.’
She kept her own voice down. ‘But he’s dead. I didn’t want to be safe because he’d died!’
‘You didn’t cause his death. Nor did I, thank God. He slipped and fell because of his own foolishness.’
‘He did, didn’t he?’ She relaxed a little more.
Sean pushed his way through the crowd to join them. He was holding Mal by the hand, and both boys were looking shocked. Neither protested when Fergus pulled them close to him and Cara.
Ma and Pa followed them and the family stood close together, not sure what to do next.
‘That was a terrible thing to happen,’ Pa said at last. ‘Terrible.’ He crossed himself.
Ma also crossed herself. Cara’s father would have scorned this papist action, but if it brought Pa and Ma comfort, Cara couldn’t see anything wrong with doing it.
‘The poor man had run mad. May his soul rest in peace.’ Ma looked up at Fergus. ‘Didn’t I tell you something bad was going to happen tonight?’
‘You did, Ma. And sadly, you were right.’
‘It’s over now. Things will be better for us from now on. I know it.’ She linked her arm with her husband’s.
Other families were doing the same thing: standing close, holding one another, seeming to derive comfort from the touch of a hand, or an arm round their shoulders. Some women were weeping. One elderly gentleman was blowing his nose, then blowing it again, to hide his tears. Children were pressing close to their parents, shocked by what had happened.
The captain went to what had been the stage and an officer called for attention.
‘I’m sorry you had to witness that unhappy incident, ladies and gentlemen. I can only think that the poor man went suddenly mad. But though he caused his own death, I’m sure he didn’t mean to do it, so I think it would be appropriate if we all bowed our heads and said a prayer for his immortal soul.’
They did as he’d asked, and when he began the Lord’s Prayer, most joined in.
After a few minutes had passed, the captain said, ‘I thank everyone for the concert, which was excellent, in spite of the way it ended. We should all seek our beds now, and perhaps the stewards can organise a cup of tea and a piece of cake for those wishing some supper.’
On the way out, he stopped to say, ‘Mr Newland, could I have a word with you in my cabin, please?’
Still shocked and subdued, the cabin passengers followed the titled couple out, and the steerage passengers waited for their departure, before retrieving their children and going below.
Fergus stayed on deck, moving to a corner where he and Cara could be alone.
She looked at him and opened her mouth to say something, but he again made a shushing sound.
He leaned closer as if to give her a hug and whispered, ‘Least said, soonest mended, don’t you think?’
‘Poor Jeffrey.’
‘Yes. He was quite mad, you know. Rémi’s been worried about his strange behaviour for a while.’
‘You’re such a comfort to me.’ Cara planted a light kiss on her husband’s cheek, blushing slightly at her own impulsiveness.
He was delighted by her spontaneous kiss, but rather ashamed of how relieved he felt about their situation. Thanks to that man’s death, Cara was safe, and the family would be free to settle in Australia.
Now he could enjoy the rest of the voyage, before facing the ordeal of meeting his eldest brother again, and accepting his help in settling in Australia.
He was still dreading that, hated the thought of being beholden to Bram, of all people.
Unthinkable to go anywhere else than Western Australia, however. Families needed to stick together, so that they could help one another in the bad times and enjoy the good times.
Surely he and Bram would get on better now that they were older?
Rémi followed the captain to his cabin and the doctor joined them there, followed by the head steward.
‘Mr Newland, I shall have to write a report on this tragic incident,’ the captain began. ‘I would be grateful if you could tell us about Mr Barrett’s behaviour for the past few days.’
Rémi explained how strangely Barrett had been acting, and the steward corroborated his observations, mentioning that they’d felt it necessary to restrict Mr Barrett’s access to alcohol.
The doctor put a few questions to them, then shook his head sadly. ‘I’m fairly certain it was delirium tremens, Captain.’
‘What exactly is that?’ Rémi asked.
‘It’s strange behaviour, like a form of madness, associated with someone who has been a heavy drinker and has been suddenly deprived of alcohol. It can lead to agitation, confusion, hallucinations, and there’s nothing much to be done about it. This is a classic case, I fear.’
Rémi left the cabin feeling better for knowing what had caused Barrett’s strange behaviour, but sad that the poor man had lost his life so young.
If he’d known about the problems that could be caused by cutting off the supply of drink to Barrett, he might not have conspired with the steward.
You could never be sure where an act would lead you, but it was the good intentions that made the difference when things went wrong, he had decided years ago when he first went to work for his uncle, who had thought only to make money from his nephew.
Rémi would never let himself be ruled by a lust for money, he’d decided that too.
But it had been a sad end to the evening.
It seemed strange not to worry about the future, but as the ship steamed across the Mediterranean towards Port Said the next day, Cara felt lighter, as if she were suspended in a delightful place outside the harsh reality of daily life. She had the strange fancy that happiness was beginning to tiptoe into her days on little velvet feet.
She was starting to feel that Fergus cared for her, as she had begun to care for him. That was so wonderful after the worst year of her life. A real miracle.
She’d even been given a child, and though she still grew sad at times thinking of her poor, dead little baby, Niamh was there to cheer her up, growing plumper, making noises, pumping the air vigorously with her arms and legs.
Cara knew she was biased but she wasn’t the only one to admire the baby, who was showing every sign of growing into a pretty child. Even Sean played with her sometimes now, smiling at her and touching her gently. That pleased Cara immensely.
A shout alerted the passengers to the fact that Port Said was in sight. That was not to be missed, so they went up on deck. But to their disappointment, all they could see was a faint blur on the horizon.
As the day progressed, however, the details of the port came gradually into sight, and people grew excited, pointing and commenting on how different it looked from an English town.
Matron was full of information about the city, which she was happy to share, and she soon gathered a group around her. Port Said had only been founded in 1869, it seemed, after the completion of the Suez Canal.
‘But the town’s so big,’ Fergus marvelled. ‘You’d think it’d been there for decades at least.’
Matron smiled. ‘That just shows how important the Suez Canal is, Mr Deagan. It’s cut the voyage to Australia by about a third, you know, and shortened the voyage to the Orient too. Such a lot of good it’s done already.’
As the Peshawur slowed down to make its way into the harbour, the passengers stared at the houses which were built up the slope of a hill. In one area the dwellings had grand balconies on all the floors.
‘It must be wonderful to sit there and watch the ships enter the harbour,’ Cara said. She pointed to a large building with a narrow tower. ‘I think that must be a mosque.’ She saw the others didn’t understand, so explained, ‘That’s a place of worship for Muslims. The tower is called a minaret and they call people to worship from it.’
Ma stared at it in mingled dismay and awe. ‘Don’t they go to church, then?’
‘It’s a different sort of religion. This is their equivalent of a church.’
‘Father Joseph used to say there was only one religion, the church of Rome, and one true way of serving God.’ Pa shook his head. ‘But it stands to reason that the people who live here can’t all be wicked, so he must have made a mistake. Unless he knew the truth and was after keeping us in line?’
‘He was doing his job the best way he knew,’ Ma snapped. ‘And the good father helped us get to England, didn’t he? I’ll not hear a word against him, because he saved our lives during the Famine.’
A little later, when he and his wife were alone, he said softly, ‘Things are getting better, aren’t they?’
‘Yes. But we’ll not forget our Eileen, will we?’
‘We could never forget our daughter. And we’ll tell Niamh about her mother. Cara won’t mind that, I’m sure. She’s a lovely woman, isn’t she, Cara? We all fell lucky when we met her.’
Brown-skinned men wearing very few clothes swarmed everywhere as soon as the ship moored. They worked hard to replenish the coal supplies and load fresh food into the hold.
The following day, the ship sailed from Port Said to enter the big canal that cut across the isthmus. The entrance to it was marked by two stone obelisks, so huge they had people pointing and exclaiming.
The ship was sailing much more slowly than usual, and every passenger who could stand upright was on the deck to see the famous canal.
‘It’s narrower than I’d expected,’ Fergus said. ‘It’s a good thing they have a steam engine to propel the ship.’
They stopped at a gare to let another ship pass in the wider section of the canal, then continued on their way.
Bundles of clean clothes were now brought up from the trunks in the hold, because some of the passengers would be disembarking at Suez. After they’d traversed the Great Bitter Lake the following day, everyone who was leaving finished packing up their possessions.
The Deagan family group had put their dirty clothing into their trunks, but Ma insisted they have a good wash all over their bodies before they changed into the clean things.
In fact, Ma was taking more control of the domestic management of this temporary life than Cara – though they shared the care of the baby – because Ma knew far more about managing the details of daily living. Cara sometimes felt ashamed of how much she’d taken for granted from the maids who looked after her family in England.
She had been so lucky to meet the Deagans … especially Fergus. What a fine man her husband was.