Kitty Read online

‘How do you know that?’

  Kitty frowned. ‘What about the treaty? Isn’t that supposed to stop that sort of thing from happening? Isn’t that the whole point of it?’

  ‘In principle, yes, I’m sure it is.’

  ‘So why will the Maoris need the muskets?’

  ‘I’m not saying they definitely will. But I do think that they should be prepared. And so do a number of the chiefs, I might add—I’m not just taking a hold full of firearms to New Zealand on a whim. They need to be stockpiling now, not cursing themselves because they didn’t when it’s too late.’

  A kitten crept out from under the blanket, wobbled precariously on the edge of the bed and fell onto the floor. Absently, Rian picked it up and began to stroke it; Kitty could hear it purring from across the cabin.

  She said, ‘Are you saying that you think there might be war?’

  ‘I’m saying that, for them anyway, it’s better to be safe than sorry.’

  ‘That’s treason.’

  ‘No, Kitty, it’s fair, and I think you just don’t want to admit it. Or even think about it.’

  Over the next twelve days Kitty did think about it. She cleaned up after the kittens, helped to look after the baby, took it in turns with Haunui to milk the goat, learned how to make Pierre’s catfish courtbouillion, only with trevally instead of catfish, and thought a great deal.

  Haunui tucked his grandson securely inside his jacket and climbed onto the rope ladder, placing his big feet very carefully to ensure he wouldn’t fall. In less than a minute he was at the bottom. Mick dipped the oars into the water, manoeuvring the boat so that it stayed alongside the Katipo.

  Haunui rearranged the baby so he wouldn’t be squashed, sat down and called up to Kitty leaning over the bulwark above him. ‘You ready?’

  Kitty’s gaze lifted to take in Paihia’s church and the orderly houses and gardens around it, and the distance between the Katipo and the shore suddenly seemed to her to be made up of much more than just choppy water.

  What would she be giving up to go back and live in one of those little houses? She would be safe in the knowledge that she was needed and appreciated, and that she would never want for any of the basic necessities in life. There would be plenty more people here soon because of the treaty—people from England, the sort of people she knew well and had lived happily among at home. There would be fighting and perhaps bloodshed, too. She believed that now, but the idea didn’t upset her as much as it once would have.

  There would also be night after night when she went to her bed lonely and alone, knowing exactly what it was she would be doing the next day, and the day after that.

  There would not be the feel of ocean winds and sea spray on her face, the roll of a swift deck beneath her feet, and the promise of challenges and adventures just beyond every horizon.

  And there would not be Rian.

  He was capable and he was decent and he was flawed. He was dangerous and he ran on the wrong side of the law. He also loved her; she knew that now beyond doubt.

  All she had to do was trust him. Or was it herself she needed to trust? Could she take such a risk and survive the worst if it happened? She certainly loved him. There was no point denying it to herself any longer, and the thought of living her life without him was very bleak. She would always wonder what might have been. Always.

  Haunui called again, ‘Are you coming or not?’

  With her heart in her mouth, she turned to face Rian. He reached out and touched her cold cheek.

  ‘Mo ghrá,’ he murmured.

  ‘Rian, you know I don’t speak Irish.’

  ‘My love,’ he said. ‘It means my love. Please, Kitty, sail away with me.’

  She hesitated, just for a moment, then turned and hung over the bulwark again, the wind snatching her hair and whipping it around her face.

  ‘No,’ she shouted. ‘I’m not!’

  Haunui nodded gravely.

  And then he winked.

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  Union Belle

  When the first effects of the 1951 waterfront workers’ strike ripple through the country, Ellen McCabe—wife, mother, union supporter—is happy with her life in Pukemiro, a small Waikato coal-mining town. Even when her husband’s union lays down tools in support and the strain of making ends meet begins to wear her down, she’s ready to play her part in the lean months ahead.

  But when Jack Vaughan comes to town, something inside her shifts. Jack is handsome, a charismatic war veteran—and a friend of her husband’s. Suddenly everything changes, with irrevocable consequences, as the turmoil and divided loyalties swirling through the town threaten to tear Ellen apart.

  Union Belle is a story of love, duty and passion played out against the backdrop of the infamous strike that turned friends into enemies, shattered communities and almost brought New Zealand to its knees.

  Tamar

  When Tamar Deane is orphaned at seventeen in a small Cornish village, she seizes the chance for a new life and emigrates to New Zealand. In March 1879, alone and frightened on the Plymouth quay, she is befriended by an extraordinary woman. Myrna McTaggert is travelling to Auckland with plans to establish the finest brothel in the southern hemisphere, and her unconventional friendship proves invaluable when Tamar makes disastrous choices in the new colony. Tragedy and scandal befall her, until unexpected good fortune brings vast changes to Tamar’s life. As the century draws to a close, uncertainty looms when a distant war lures her loved ones to South Africa. This dramatic story—the first in a sweeping three-volume family sags—has a vivacious and compelling heroine who will live with the reader long after the final page has been turned.

  White Feathers

  In 1914, Tamar Murdoch’s brothelkeeping days are behind her. Her life is one of ease and contentment at Kenmore, a prosperous estate in the Hawke’s Bay, as storm clouds over Europe begin casting long shadows.

  In this gripping second instalment of Deborah Challinor’s sweeping family saga, Tamar’s love for her children is sorely tested as one by one they are called, or driven, into the living hell of World War One.

  During the Boer War, Joseph, her illegitimate eldest son, fought as a European, but this time he is determined to enlist in the Maori Battalion, despite his growing attraction for his childhood friend, Erin. As loyalties within the Murdoch clan are divided, and the war takes Tamar and Andrew’s only daughter far from her sheltered upbringing, the people and experiences their children encounter will shape the destiny of the Murdoch clan for generations to come.

  Blue Smoke

  On 3 February 1931, Napier is devastated by a powerful earthquake—and Tamar Murdoch, beloved matriarch of Kenmore, is seriously injured. As she recovers, Tamar is preoccupied with the ongoing effects of the Great Depression. When her grandson threatens to leave for Spain to join the International Brigade, she feels a familiar dread—once again her family is threatened by war and heartbreak, as Hitler’s armies march.

  In the final volume of the Tamar trilogy, the story of the feisty Cornish seamstress who became a brothelkeeper and landowner is brought to a stirring and memorable conclusion.

  Acknowledgements

  As always, the characters in this story are all fictional, except for the ones already in the history books. The term ‘Maori’ was not common in 1839 and 1840, but I have used it all the way through the book to avoid confusion and clumsy descriptions of the indigenous inhabitants of New Zealand. The moko song is a traditional Maori waiata, and the Irish lament is also traditional.

  Thank you to Historic Places Trust staff at Waimate and Kerikeri, and to Rachel Paul for doing the Maori translation. Thanks also to Lorain Day and everyone at HarperCollins for their ongoing faith, encouragement and really good ideas, and to Anna Rogers for being such a good editor.

  About the Author

  Deborah Challinor is a writer and historian living in the Waikato. Author of the bestselling Children of War historical romance series—Tamar, White Feathers and Blue Smoke—her most recent nov
el, Union Belle, was an instant bestseller.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  Copyright

  HarperCollinsPublishers

  First published 2006

  This edition published in 2010

  HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited

  P.O. Box 1, Auckland

  Copyright © Deborah Challinor 2006

  Deborah Challinor asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.

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  National Library of New Zealand Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

  Challinor, Deborah.

  Kitty / Deborah Challinor.

  ISBN 978 1 8695 0601 4 (pbk.)

  ISBN: 978 0 7304 0136 0 (epub)

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  NZ823.3—dc22

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