 Chapter 2I don’t think my feet touched the ground
when I walked across the valley to start work. My heart was so full of Joe that
it wouldn’t have surprised me if he’d suddenly stood in front of me. Just
thinking about him made me go all hot and light-headed and I fervently hoped
that I would see him again soon. He had been coming to the Vine regularly
enough, and when I’d casually asked Mr. Vandenberg about him, he’d told me that
Joe was great friends with Aaron Sherritt and had pointed him out to me when he
came in. There was something about Aaron that I didn’t like, he seemed a bit too
flash and almost false somehow though I didn’t know him at all so maybe I
shouldn’t really offer my opinion. Mr. Vandenberg also said that the two of them
were often seen visiting the Little Canton camp where the Chinamen lived, and
Joe was said to be able to talk their language. I puzzled over that a bit, I had
never known anyone who could speak a foreign language and wondered how you could
be sure of what you were saying. I had been working at the Vine for about
a year when Joe started coming there; I had first worked as a general servant
for the Vandenbergs and only occasionally helped out at the bar to begin with.
They were having trouble keeping the barmaids on account of it being a bit of a
rough place – the Vine was at the very edge of Beechworth, the last licensed
house on the road before it dropped down into the valley and we got rougher
types there than in some of the better bars like the Commercial in Ford Street.
Anyway, when Mr. Vandenberg saw how well I handled it all he asked me if I would
like to work permanently at the bar and I didn’t mind. It was a lot more
interesting than scrubbing dirty floors that’s for sure. Mr. Vandenberg always
treated me well and paid me promptly so we got along just fine. It wasn’t exactly my dream to be a
barmaid but sometimes you have to make do with the cards life deals you. My Ma
and Da had come over to Victoria from Ireland before I was born, in search of a
better life and freedom but I don’t know if they found what they were looking
for in the end. When they both died from pneumonia one harsh winter within weeks
of each other, my brother Patrick and I were left to fend for ourselves. Patrick
was sixteen and I was fourteen; he went to work as a labourer and I took a
maid’s job in the first big house that would have me. We didn’t see each other
often after that, and when Patrick decided to go and try his luck in the
goldfields, our only contact was through letters that got less and less
frequent. So I guess you could say I was well prepared for life, I knew it was
up to me to look after myself. I won’t deny that I sometimes dreamed of
living in a big house like the families I served but then what would I have done
with my time? I saw the ladies embroidering and playing the piano, drinking
endless cups of tea and ordering the servants around and I thought I would die
of boredom if I had to live like that. It may have been rough at the Vine but it
sure was never dull and after I met Joe… well you could say that I went to work
happy every day, knowing that I might see him that night. I had never felt quite
like that about anyone, like I said I’d had my heart broken a couple of times
when I thought I was in love but it was nothing compared to the way I felt about
Joe. The mere mention of his name made my heart race and I tried to find out as
much about him as I could, without being too obvious about it. Mary, the other
barmaid who helped out at times, told me that Joe was on friendly terms with
barmaids all over the district and I can’t deny that didn’t hurt me a little
bit. It wasn’t like I was expecting him to marry me or anything – you only had
to meet Joe to understand he wasn’t the marrying kind, as lovely and respectful
as he always was to women. There was something in him that needed to be free to
come and go the way the wind blows where it wants to. It hurt me about those
other girls because I knew that when he was with them, he wasn’t with me, if you
know what I mean. Like I was missing out on precious time with him, which of
course I was as it turned out later. The thing with Joe was that he was quite
unpredictable, you never knew when he would turn up and where. After our first
time together I was like on hot coals, watching the door every time it opened,
my heart in my mouth, only to have it drop down into my boots when it wasn’t him
who walked through. Even Mr. Vandenberg noticed that something was up with me
and took me aside to have a ‘fatherly’ talk to me. “Is it Joe Byrne that has you jumping out
of your skin like that lass? I saw him walking you home last night. I don’t have
anything against him, I know his mother and he’s a decent lad, never causes any
trouble. Just be careful, some of the people he mixes with can be bad news.” I
really didn’t know what he meant by that and to be honest I didn’t care. All I
cared about was seeing Joe again. It was another three days and restless
nights later when I stepped up to my door after a weary walk home from the bar
and suddenly Joe was just standing there in front of me. “Hello lass” barely
left his lips before we were falling through the door, his arms were around me,
lifting me up and I was kissing him desperately. He must have kicked the door
shut though frankly at that moment I was past caring if the whole world saw us,
all I wanted was him. It seemed it was the same for him, his hands were
feverishly working to remove my clothes and he was all fire and passion. I could
feel his need from where his body was pressed against mine and when I slid my
hands down his naked back inside his trousers, pulling him even closer, he
moaned and wrenched his mouth away from mine. “Jesus Eileen, I need you, been thinking
about nothing else, waiting for you here,” he panted as he finally freed himself
from the last of his clothes. “Show me then,” I said as I pulled him
down onto the bed with me. He crushed his mouth on mine and in one swift
movement we were together again and I couldn’t believe how good it felt. There
was no stopping or thinking about anything, I was his to take and he knew it,
the same way he was mine and we burned together until we both cried with relief
and collapsed in each other’s arms. Afterwards we talked and he told me that
he’d been up in New South Wales selling horses with his mate Ned Kelly. I knew
that this most likely involved changing the brands on the horses first; that was
the way things were and who was I to judge anybody else’s way of making a
living. I knew that Joe had done time at Beechworth Gaol for unlawful possession
of meat so he was no stranger to the law but then most of the selectors and
their families, especially those of Irish descent had had run-ins with coppers.
I had heard of Ned Kelly of course, who in the district hadn’t. I knew his
sister Kate slightly even though she was a couple of years younger than me, and
their brother Dan could often be seen riding around with his flash friends,
drunk and making a nuisance of themselves. I asked Joe about Aaron then and he
gave me a long look. “Aaron and I grew up together. I know he comes to the Vine a lot – he hasn’t been bothering you has he?” I was surprised by his asking me that and wondered why he would. When I shook my head he started talking about something else but what he said stayed in my head and I was to remember it much later when I was looking for reasons why.  Banner by Krazymoonkat |