Out of the Shadow: Sequel to Pursuit of Happiness

By Neill Florence

Georg and Gretchen Schillingberg continue their pursuit of happiness across Australia as they travel from Townsville, on the coast, to Aramac in central Queensland with Georg’s brother, Johannes. Gretchen has been redeemed from the hopeless drudgery of service to a cruel mistress, and she and her family have begun a truly new life.

Before the journey, the group is persuaded to accept the assistance and protection of a bullocky named Joel Skipton and his Aboriginal assistant, Bindi. They were assured that there would be no Aboriginal attacks during the trek. But Joel’s reputation as an immoral, antisocial, and unreliable person catches up with him, leaving the family to face the dangerous trip on their own. Gretchen, who has suffered social rejection in Germany, refuses to write off the native people and recognizes that there is a mystery surrounding the landscape they are passing through. Now these newcomers to the land must reach their own conclusions and find a way to achieve peace and harmony in the place they now call home.

In this novel, the second in a series, an immigrant family from Germany crosses the Australian bush in search of a new home, facing dangers along the way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: May 31, 2018
• ISBN: 9781504313131

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Copyright © 2018 Neill Florence.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The characters are fictional and that any resemblance to any persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-1312-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-1313-1 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 01/28/2019

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

CHAPTER 1

Gretchen Schillingberg sat on the sand, a prim and becoming picture, her long white skirt red-sashed, and a red necklace at the throat brilliant against her white skin providing a different contrast as it disappeared into the soft dark curls tumbling down. Gretchen gave no thought, though, to the visual aspect she presented. Vanity was not an element of her nature, but serious thought was and she contemplated just now the question of what it meant to be human. Her thoughts on the topic didn’t run to the complexity of an Aristotle as he considered the tyranny of the irrational, and she didn’t try to define her social, emotional, intellectual, or spiritual capacities that complemented her own rationality, nor was she troubled by the dichotomy between the absolutely simple and the impossible to know elements of the teachings of Jesus. She just knew that her adulthood and her humanity had been redeemed from the hopeless drudgery of service in the household of Frau Sandenberg of Gluckmutter, and from the awful uncertainties that followed the escape from that service. She had emerged from the shadow of the Villa and indeed of Prussia, a shadow that had not melted away even on the boat. She rejoiced that she was free now to soak up the sunshine and dream of the opportunities waiting for them in a new land.

Gretchen looked at Emma and Wilhelm playing in the sand on the beach dominated by the baronial bulk of Castle Hill and she felt a warm satisfaction with the way the children continued to handle their new experiences. They had never played on any beach before, but they embraced fully the new resource of damp sand with Emma setting it to use building her castle and Wilhelm discovering that he could make smooth roads through barren wastelands to get his crops to market.

Georg and I will be like children at play, Gretchen thought. We will never again be under the yoke of a perverse authority, we will travel whatever roads we choose to travel and we will build our castle somewhere out there beyond this castle mountain that traps its people against an erratic ocean.

On the boulevard above the beach two men were walking towards her discussing the achievements of their morning. One was older than the other, his weather beaten face and thinning hair attesting to hardships endured, but overcome, to give way to the easier living that had contributed the swelling girth of indulgence to his figure. The younger man was more at the height of his physical prowess although the paleness of his skin tended to mask the potency of muscles at the ready beneath. But despite their differences even the casual observer would have to concede that they were brothers. The Schillingberg brand was so well stamped on their features that it allowed no quarter to the ravages of time or environmental attacks.

‘Well I can’t thank you enough for helping me this morning, Johannes.’

‘You already had a good set of tools, George, but you’ll find that the more basic ones that we’ve added won’t go astray when you’re working hundreds of miles from a saw mill. You’ll find a lot of use for the broad axe and the adze and the big crosscut saw, not to mention the snips for cutting corrugated iron. You mightn’t have worked with corrugated iron in Europe, but you’ll work with it in Australia.’

‘I’m keen to try new things, Johannes, even the cooper’s tools you bought. Coopers have been building barrels for centuries, but I’ve yet to try my hand at making one.’

‘A carpenter on a station needs to be a Jack of all trades. I’m sure you’ll find a use for the in-shave and the croze for grooving, and the bung borer even if you never have to make a barrel.’

‘It won’t be for the want of trying them out.’

‘With the isolation out west, you’ll need to be prepared for all eventualities. That’s why I insisted you buy the guns.’

‘It wasn’t me that bought the guns, Johannes, since you insisted on paying for everything, but I could hardly not accept them as part of your generous gift. I don’t know what I’ll do with them though.’

‘You needn’t do anything with them until you’re forced to.’

‘Do you mind not mentioning them to Gretchen? I’ll keep them well hidden and there won’t be any need for her to know that I have them — not the shot gun for the wild ducks though, that’s legitimate. It’s the rifle for killing people that Gretchen will object to after our experience with the Prussian army and the Prussian police.’

‘I used to think like that, Georg, as you probably know, but I’ve been out here for about seventeen years and it’s hard to escape the conclusion that most people come to that we’ll only be safe when the blacks are wiped out.’

‘You’ve been personally responsible for killing blacks?’

‘No, but I’ve accepted the protection of the soldiers and the police who’ve been authorized to kill them and I do keep a rifle handy at all times in case of an attack.’

‘There’s Gretchen down there on the sand with the children. We’d better drop this conversation, but thanks for making sure I have some weapons to protect them even though I can’t imagine using them to kill human beings.’

‘I understand where you’re coming from, Georg, so from now on I’ll keep my silence on the subject.’

‘Vater, Vater,’ the children shouted when they saw Georg coming down the stairs with Johannes. ‘Come and see what we’ve done in the sand,’ Emma said running up and catching his hand.

‘In the sand, in the sand,’ Wilhelm repeated using the English phrase that his big sister had used. The children’s English was almost in place as a natural means of communication thanks to the efforts of Mary Smith who had shared the cabin with them on the voyage after a suspicious and autocratic captain had banished Georg to the isolation of the single men’s steerage compartment.

With Georg now occupied with the children, Johannes welcomed the opportunity to get to know his sister-in-law. He settled himself down on the sand beside her.

‘And how are you feeling now, Gretchen, after a full twenty-four hours in Australia?’

‘Relaxed and happy to be here, Johannes, although I can still feel the motion of the ship.’

‘Not surprising after 66 days at sea. That feeling will soon pass. There’s no land mass on earth more stable than Australia.’

‘Georg and I can’t thank you enough for the tickets you sent to get us here. You might have been thinking that we weren’t going to use them, but they were a lifeline when we really needed them.’

‘Yes, Georg told me that, but he didn’t want to dwell on what happened. He just wanted to know what life would be like for you at Marathon Downs.’

‘I’m the same Johannes. We’ll tell you about the past when we’re well clear of its shadow. It’s our future we want to talk about now. Tell me, what is Marathon Downs like?’

It’s huge, Gretchen, every bit as big as all of Schleswig and Holstein together, but the comparison with our homeland stops there. Nearly all the inhabitants are sheep and the only development consists of a few fences and tracks, a couple of dozen huts and three big sheds.’

‘Oh no, that sounds awful, Johannes.’

‘Well I didn’t want to paint too rosy a picture or you’d be disappointed when you saw it.’

‘I’m disappointed now, but if Georg has a job there, we’ll make the most of it. As soon as the job finishes though we’ll need to move somewhere where there’s a school for the children.’

‘Where you’ll be living is right on the edge of the property and that’s only about ten miles from Aramac where we are. Emma can stay with us during the week if she needs to start school straight away.’

‘Thanks for that, Johannes, but I think I’ll continue teaching her myself. It will give me something to do,’ she added a little forlornly.

‘Cheer up Gretchen, I think you’ll like living at Marathon. The seasons have been good through most of the seventies and everything’s green there now. There are lawns and gardens and the huts are actually very liveable. It’s not like when I was living there for a couple of years in the sixties. Bark huts then, severe drought no grass, dry creeks and dead sheep all over the place and on top of all that there was disaster when . . . but never mind that, nature hurled enough missiles at us and the owner of Marathon was on the verge of walking away from the whole sorry mess. He didn’t though and now he’s going to build a proper homestead there and from what I hear it’s going to be built on a grand scale and Georg will be one of the builders.’

Gretchen was all smiles. ‘You are talking about two different places. I hope we are going to the second one.’

‘No it’s only the one place, but some people would get the first picture and hate it.’

‘It reminds me of our Wald Plast farm on a grand scale with Georg involved in a major building project there as well. We can’t thank you enough, Johannes, for getting that job for him.

‘I didn’t have to do much. The job fell into his lap, Gretchen.’

‘How could it? They knew nothing about him.’

‘I’ll tell you how. The manager from Marathon came into my Smithy one day because his horse had lost a shoe and, as people do in a Smithy, he got talking about his other problems. At the owner’s insistence he had these three qualified builders lined up to work on the homestead project, but one of them had fallen off his horse and was no longer available. Well, with the shortage of skilled labour in the colony, he was despairing of ever finding a replacement. There were a few bush carpenters about, but the owner was insisting on qualified builders. When I told him my brother was a builder and he was on his way to Australia as we spoke he was so relieved he hired him on the spot.’

‘What, he hired him without any proof of his qualification?’

‘Not quite. He did ask about his experience as a builder and I told him what Vater had written after I made contact with him again. Vater wrote that Georg had done his apprenticeship as a carpenter in Hamburg and then, after serving in the Prussian army for a couple of years, he got a job with Baron Von Gluckheim as a builder, and that’s just what I told the manager from Marathon. It was building for a Baron that seemed to give him status in the eyes of the Marathon manager. I hope Georg did a good job on the Gluckheim estate.’

‘He did,’ Gretchen said, ‘and when he left he was presented with a very good bonus. You needn’t have any worries about Georg’s skill as a carpenter. He even got a commendation from the captain of the Waroonga for the good job he did after he was appointed as the ship’s temporary carpenter. Getting recognition from that captain was like getting sugar out of a salt bush so he must have really earned it.’

‘Good for Georg,’ Johannes said, ‘but it seems that Georg wasn’t the only one to get a glowing commendation on that voyage.’

‘Yes. Some of the men in steerage formed a concert party and they saved the sanity of the whole ship when we couldn’t get into Batavia because of the plague there and we spent two weeks outside the harbour while the steam engine was being repaired. Earlier the captain had wanted to close the concert party down, but he ended up eating humble pie and he presented them all with certificates of commendation like the one Georg got.’

‘No, no Gretchen, I’m sure that the concert party deserved its recognition, but I was referring to someone else on that voyage whose actions have come to the notice of, shall we say management, and steps have been taken to hand out another token of appreciation.’

‘You must be referring to Doctor Frazer then. The British East India Company has heard of the good work he did. He’s an exceptional doctor and right at the top as a human being.

‘Wrong again, Gretchen. It’s not Doctor Frazer, although I’m sure he is as you describe him.’

‘Who then?

‘You, Gretchen.’

‘Me!’

‘Yes.’

‘No, no Johannes. Whatever rumour you’ve got hold of, you’ve mixed it up well and truly. I spent the voyage isolated by lack of English and treading on toes because Georg had been banished from our cabin. The East India Company has no cause to value my contribution as a passenger.’

‘The East India Company has nothing to do with it,’ Johannes said as he looked across at Georg. ‘Georg is still tied up with the children so I’ll steal his thunder and tell you about it.’

‘Oh, it’s something that you and Georg have cooked up.’ Gretchen said laughing. ‘Whatever it is, I’ll really appreciate it, Johannes. It will mean more to me than some official award. Now that we are so isolated from the family in Holstein, it’s very important that we bind our family together here with little demonstrations of appreciation and affection.’

’Yes, that is important, but you are still missing the mark, Gretchen. I’d better put you in the picture. Georg and I were walking down Flinders Street when this chap came chasing us along the footpath. He’d spotted us from his office in the big building across the street and he rushed down from the third storey and caught up with us. When he did, I recognized that he was Gerhard Smith who we met on the wharf when you arrived. I thought he was a clerk when your friend Mary introduced him, but it turns out that he’s much higher up in the railway than that.’

‘Yes,’ Gretchen said, ‘he’s an engineer and I don’t just mean an engine driver. Mary said that he has a university degree and he’s in charge of the railway machine shop here.’

‘I’m not surprised that he has university learning, because he’s now been appointed acting general manager of the Northern Railways. The General Manager is away in Brisbane for a conference and Gerhard Smith has been left in charge up here.’

‘How wonderful for Mary that her father is doing so well. I’d love to see Mary again before we leave Townsville.’

‘There’s no way that the Acting General Manager of Northern Railways is going to let you go without seeing them. He’s invited us all to dinner tonight at the Queens Hotel to thank you, Gretchen, for what you did for Mary. He had no idea that she was so ill until Mary told him last night about what she went through.’

‘She did have a strange problem, but anything I did for her was more than paid for by what she did for us. She taught us English, Johannes.’

‘I have a feeling that Gerhard Smith doesn’t think in terms of payment for services rendered when it comes to his daughter. His eyes were filled with tears when he talked about what she went through and his gratitude for the way you helped her has no limits.’

‘For Mary’s sake I hope he doesn’t dwell too much on her condition then. She’s over it now and doesn’t need reminding. I hope we’ll all have a happy night at the Queens. Is it a good hotel, Johannes?’

‘The Queens is the best hotel in Townsville. It rivals anything they’ve got in Brisbane. The Governor stays at the Queens when he visits up here.’

‘Ah,’ Georg said coming up to them. ‘You’re talking about the Queens. You’ve told Gretchen about our invitation?’

‘Yes,’ Gretchen said, ‘what a wonderful opportunity. It will give us a chance to get to know Mary’s father. I’d like to keep in touch with Mary and knowing her father will make that easier.’

‘From what he said, I think he recognizes that you have a special place in Mary’s heart,’ Georg said, ‘but I still have some reservations about the man.’

‘Why?’ Johannes said. ‘He seemed very genuine to me.’

‘Seemed, yes, but I can’t help wondering how it is that an affluent man like the Deputy General Manager of a big railway enterprise allowed his daughter, who he says is very special to him, to travel across the world in a crowded steerage compartment even if he didn’t know that she had a serious health problem.’

‘That has crossed my mind too,’ Gretchen said, ‘but I just assumed that he was having a struggle getting started in Australia. Knowing now how well he’s actually doing, I can’t help thinking that he could have provided Mary with a first class ticket.’

‘You said yesterday that his wife had just died. Perhaps he wasn’t thinking straight,’ Johannes suggested.

‘Perhaps,’ Gretchen said, ‘but his job in management would depend on his ability to think and communicate. Telegraphing the shipping company with his requirements for Mary’s passage would have been easy for him no matter how upset he was.’

‘In Australia there are too many things that can go wrong. I still think the man has a genuine affection for his daughter and I won’t pass any judgements until I hear what he has to say,’

‘You’re right, Johannes,’ Gretchen said. ‘We know very little about Australia and we shouldn’t assume that communications will run as smoothly here as they do in Europe. We’ll take Gerhard Smith as we find him and we’ll look forward to a happy evening with him and Mary at the best hotel in Queensland,’

‘We still have lunch at the less pretentious Strand Park Hotel to enjoy if we can persuade the children to leave the new-found pleasures of their sandy beach. I’ll round them up,’ Georg said.

They crossed the Strand dodging little heaps of horse manure, and the drays, carts and sulkies drawn by the horses responsible for the deposits, and entered their hotel just as the bell was ringing for the midday meal.

CHAPTER 2

Georg left Gretchen and the children to rest in their room at the Strand Park Hotel, and went out to locate the Queens Hotel, keen to view in daylight what some had designated as the best hotel in Queensland. He found it further down the strand and he crossed to the boulevard along the sea front to take in all its grandeur and its simplicity from that vantage point. He wondered why two words opposite in meaning had both come into his mind to interpret what he saw. How could a building be both grand and simple? He studied the building for five minutes before he found his answer. The long elevation of the two storey structure couldn’t avoid making it look grand, but there was something about the proportions of the building, from the wrought iron railings at both levels and the appropriate spacing of the double veranda posts along the entire length to the neat view of corrugated iron curving over the upper veranda that settled a harmony on the whole structure that could only emerge from simplicity.

Georg wondered if the builders had contributed their skills to complement the vision of harmony and proportion that the architect had obviously provided. He crossed the road for a closer inspection and was delighted to find that the carpenters had indeed lavished great care on the preparation of their timber. All the veranda posts were chamfered to get rid of harsh corners and the capping of all the posts was faithful in every detail down to the drip moulds that had been used over the centuries to prevent any staining of the posts below.

Stimulated by the workmanship of the building’s exterior, Georg looked through the open leadlight doorway and found that the simple splendour of the outside changed to a grander ambience inside, no doubt to pamper and comfort the fortunate guests. The polished cedar floors with their deep pile rugs, and the carved newel and banisters of the imposing stairway to the second floor, and the tapestry on the wall, and the grandfather clock ticking away joined with the low upholstered armchairs, complete with their gilt legs, to assure the guests that it was right to enjoy the leisure that their wealth had brought them.

As Georg made his way back down the strand to the Strand Park Hotel, he was sure of two things. Firstly he would enjoy the dinner at the Queens simply because he was in that building even if the cooking suffered from a colonial blandness and he continued to find Gerhard Smith less than appealing. Secondly he would