The Painted Ladies

By John Ivor

The nude painting of a senior officer's wife scandalises Britain's Swan River Colony in the 1830s. Young Maggie from the bakery fears for the mild male artist, her friend, who is challenged to a duel. This is a humorous excerpt from the novel "Great Land of Dreams".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Darling Newspaper Press
• Release date: May 25, 2009
• ISBN: 9781452309743

Book preview

The Painted Ladies

by John Ivor

© Darling Newspaper Press

The nude painting of a senior officer's wife scandalises Britain's Swan River Colony in the 1830s. Young Maggie from the bakery, having witnessed all, fears for the mild male artist, who is challenged to a duel.

THE dirty drawings were in his sketchpad. Maggie discovered them while sharing a ferry across Swan River with Lieutenant Robert Dale, former Ensign of the 63rd Regiment and now seconded to the colony's permanent military administration.

At seventeen, and without the protection of parents, she was not blind to the yearnings of men, who far outnumbered the females in Australia's first Free Settlement.

Oh! Sorry! was all she could gasp after casually flicking through the pages, red-faced when the artist snatched his pad from her.

A young lady shouldn't be looking at those. But she had seen.

Nobody else had. The four oarsmen were screwing up their eyes in the sun-glare; the five other passengers bunched for shade beneath the stern awning. Only Maggie and Dale had chosen seats open to sun, breeze and