Her eyes scanned the page. “There was a mutiny,” she exclaimed.
The divers had discovered a small treasure chest and when the sailors wanted their share Reginald refused.
I raced onto the far beach. It was a massacre with bodies lying all over the ground and Tom was bent over John. I shrieked as I dropped to my knees beside him. He had a deep cut in his side and Tom was wrapping a torn piece of his shirt around it to stem the bleeding.
Oh, I cannot describe the fear in my heart. I thought he might die and begged him not to leave me. I realised how much I loved him.
The sailors who had arrived behind me swore and one ordered his men to help ‘Mr Stokes’.
It was not until they bent to help John that I realised they’d mistaken him for Reginald. I was too distraught to correct him, but it made me look for Reginald who was lying dead not far from us. Both he and John had the same bushy beard, so it was easy to see how the mistake had been made.
“How can Reginald be dead?” Faith asked.
“Lilian must already be pregnant,” Amy answered.
“But she couldn’t have set up the station on her own,” Brandon argued.
It was then the reality of the events hit me. I was a widow. With Reginald dead, I had the freedom I longed for, but what I really wanted was John. The irony was not lost on me and when a sailor arrived to ask ‘Mr Stokes’ what to do with the bodies, a most shockingly bold idea came to me. I sent the sailor away with instructions to bury the dead and then told John my idea.
The sailors already believe him to be Reginald, and with none of the mutineers left alive, it would not be difficult to continue the deception.
Georgie gaped at her siblings. “John took on Reginald’s identity.”
“We’re descendants of convicts not lords.” Ed grinned.
The ruse was pulled off because those sailors who’d spent any time with both men were now dead.
Help arrived three days after the mutiny. The men they had sent to Tien Tsin Harbour returned with a ship to rescue them and the first mate didn’t realise John was not Reginald.
With John taking Reginald’s identity they needed to avoid anyone else who might have spoken with him in the short time he’d been in Western Australia. The constabulary at the harbour sent letters to Fremantle requesting permission for them to buy the lease and keep the convicts and it was a long month before a response was received.
During that time the captain’s journal which had led Reginald to the sunken treasure ship had been stolen, though they still had the English translation. The original was never recovered and Lilian suspected it was the other pearl divers who had taken it as they were the only others who knew of its existence.
“Could one of Stonefish’s employees be a descendant of those pearl divers?” Darcy asked.
“Could be,” Brandon answered. “Dot mentioned people had been digging there, and Lilian said some of the treasure from the ship had been buried on the island.”
“What happened next?” Lara asked.
Georgie continued as Lilian and John received permission to buy the pastoralist’s lease and to take responsibility of Tom and Patrick. They set out on the long journey over land taking the supplies and being led by an Aboriginal tracker named Jimmy. Along the way Lilian wrote of encounters with the indigenous tribes of the area. Likely Matt’s ancestors. Georgie would have to show him the journal later.
By the time they returned to the gulf, Lilian had figured out the location of the buried treasure, and the four of them had dug it up and shared it between them. Tom and Patrick agreed to stay to help them build the house and set up the station, but afterwards they planned to return to Ireland without serving the rest of their sentence.
“So the treasure’s gone?” Lara slumped back against the couch.
Georgie read the final page and shook her head.
Reginald and I have no need for such riches yet, so we have buried ours and I have included clues in this journal and elsewhere. Where shelter, food and water collide, you will find the treasure hide. The money will help us, and our family, during times of need. For that is my other news. I am with child.
“Where?” Lara demanded. “Where did they bury it?”
“She says she’ll tell her children when they’re old enough.”
“Then it could be gone,” Darcy said. “Any of our ancestors could have discovered it.”
“It said, ‘Where shelter, food and water collide, you will find the treasure hide,’” Faith said.
Ed frowned. “That’s not a great clue.”
