Chapter Seven - Friends and Strangers


It was inevitable I suppose, but it was not too long before I first met Ned Kelly. He was a polite fella, even a bit shy at times until you got to know him and then he had a smile that was like the sun coming out from a cloud. God’s own truth I was a bit shy of him too at first. It was not that he was unfriendly or anything, and here I feel rather silly, but it was his beard, in my mind there was always Ned and the beard. Like they was two people. That beard always seemed like it was alive to me, full of a crackling sort of energy and at least in my view it made Ned seem taller, bigger than he was. He had a presence about him did Ned and when he talked people listened. Though of course they may have been awed by the magnificence of all that bristling hair as well. I said something to Joe about it one time after we had had a few drinks and was talking silly stuff. I thought he was going to laugh until he snapped in two he thought it was so funny. From what he said I took it as understood that Ned was rather fussy about his beard and hair. But then he had a fine beard and a fine head of hair so I suppose he had a right to be.

Joe and Ned they had became real good mates and it weren’t long before they was all riding up and down the country, Melbourne to New South Wales in the horse business they was, not that I wanted to know too many details and all but they was making a fair profit from it as well. Joe he did explain it all once and it was a pretty complicated business, lots of dressing up and acting if you asked me. But they had fine horses now and new clothes and looked like they was making a go of it. Joe loved that life and they all had some great adventures, for they was all in it, Aaron, Ned, a fella called Steve Hart, Ned’s brothers and a bunch of others, it seemed that once you was mates with the Kelly’s you was mates with all their cousins and cousins cousins. It was hard to keep track at times. But however they all fitted and by the very nature of being Joe’s friend I found meself with new friends too, the Kelly girls and their cousins and all those other cousins, neighbours and friends as well. Now when I rode into Beechworth to sell me butter it would take me an extra hour most days as I would be talking to these people that had somehow become part of me own life.

I was glad to have them as Joe was about less and less, being so busy with the horse business it would be weeks sometimes that would go by before he would come riding in to visit. He was near living out at the Kelly’s now and coming home to see his Mam but rarely. But we managed to still meet and talk, sometimes I would even ride out to the Kelly farm, me and Kate becoming quite friendly so that she would call in at times to see if I wanted to go riding out to Greta with her.

The Kelly’s they were a proud family. No father there either just like me and Joe but Ellen Kelly she was strong. I often wished that me own Ma had been more like her. I both admired Mrs Kelly and feared her. She held that family together and you could see how much they loved her in everything that they did. Ned especially. As time went by and I got to know him better I came to like Ned an awful lot. I still think of him and me heart goes soft and sad both at the same time. He and I we just was easy in each others company. I trusted Ned, would have trusted him with anything and he was a man that was all at once both gentle and strong. He and I, well we shared a few dances over those times, even some kisses and cuddles every once in a while. But it never went beyond that moment or two of waltzing close, like we was both taking a little comfort from the closeness of the other, each knowing that it was alright to be doing that. Safe he always made me feel safe. Like there was nothing in the world that he could not face up to and face down.

Me world had expanded outside of the Woolshed and I am thinking now that having that made everything else just more bearable. It was a better time at home. Me Mam was still dying by inches but Meg and I well our unlikely friendship had continued, we had come to an arrangement, she had met a lad from up Chiltern way so I minded our Ma while she had time with him and then she would take her turn so that I could be going to meet me new friends on a Friday or Saturday night, sometimes not getting home to the next day but Meg didn’t mind. I didn’t ask but I think her Danny was coming by as soon as I rode over the ridge. We all knew that you shouldn’t be doing this sort of stuff before you was married but we all knew that life could be snatched away in a minute so we lived it for what it gave us and prayed for understanding afterwards. I figured Meg knew what she was doing and if she fell pregnant well the way that her Danny looked at her I figured he would be marching up the aisle in a minute.

I looked forward to those days away from the farm like I had never looked forward to anything before, finding a part of meself that I had never known or never looked at. I fitted in, could dance as fast and ride as furiously as any of those other Irish girls, all the stuff that me Ma had despaired of was allowed, celebrated even. Some evenings Joe would come down and we would ride up together other times I would gallop in to town on me own but whether I had company or I was alone I would go there wherever the party was whenever I could, no matter the rain or heat or cold. And so it was that one Saturday night towards the very end of summer more autumn I suppose but I did not want to be thinking of winter yet, that I found meself sloshing into Beechworth, it had rained all day and the road was muddy and slippery. Meg had thought that I was mad to be going but there was no way I was going to be sitting at home listening to her and Dan whisper to each other. And so I set out. Prepared for a night like all the others never realizing that something momentous was about to happen.

I was all wet and muddy by the time I slid off me horse outside the Hibernian, one of the lads took pity on me and stabled her, waving at me to get inside out of the rain. I didn’t have nothing to give him but a smile, but he seemed happy enough with that. So I cleaned me face off and pushed me hair down as best as I could before pushing open the door. The warmth and laughter washed over me and I found me self smiling even as I looked around the room. Joe and Ned was in the corner sitting at a small table talking to a man, a stranger, a big man with black hair, a black beard. Serious talk I could tell. I hesitated and in that moment the stranger he looked up at me. At me and it seemed like right into me very soul. My heart well it gave a lurch and then began pounding like it was going to jump out of me very chest and something inside me, a voice, a thought said “there you are” as if I knew this man and had been waiting for him forever.

And I had not spoken to him or he to me, but I could see in his eyes that he could feel whatever this was too and I did not stop looking at him even as I walked across the room. Whoever this man was I loved him and somehow I knew that I had loved him forever.