Far From Home Read Free Page A

have I?’ Mrs Burrows gave a cackle. ‘Thought I might. I usually do. Most young people think that I should be in my bath chair – or in a wooden box!’ she added, giving a further cackle. ‘But I’m not, and don’t intend to be, not just yet at any rate.’
    ‘I’m delighted to hear it,’ Georgiana said warmly. ‘So very pleased. One of the reasons for my leaving England is because I know I will be old before equality comes to English women.’
    ‘And what’s the other reason?’ Mrs Burrows demanded, glancing up and nodding at the officers as they arrived and Captain Parkes introduced them one by one. She watched as the cabin boy dished up the soup with an unsteady hand. ‘You’re new, are you not?’ she asked him, conducting two conversations at the same time, then told him he would eventually get used to the motion of the ship before he had time to answer.
    ‘Not looking for a husband?’ She continued her conversation with Georgiana with hardly a pause and gazed at her with an unflinching eye.
    ‘No, that is not on the list of my priorities,’ Georgiana murmured, conscious that the attentions of the officers were on her. ‘I want to build a life of my own.’
    ‘Rich, then, are you?’ Mrs Burrows asked. ‘For there’s not much open to single women even in the bright New World. Well, not for young women such as you. You’ll not want to be chasing after the
forty-niners
like some foolish young women did!’
    Georgiana stared blankly. What was she talking about?
    ‘Gold miners!’ Mrs Burrows expounded. ‘You’ll find New York almost empty. All the men rushed off to California two years ago when they heard of the gold. And half the females in New York went after them. Not gentlewomen, of course,’ she added and broke her bread into pieces.
    ‘Were none of you gentlemen tempted to jump ship and look for gold?’ Mrs Burrows addressed the officers quite informally and in a loud voice.
    One or two of the officers shook their heads and answered, ‘No, ma’am.’
    The captain spoke up hurriedly, as if he had been waiting for a chance to say something. ‘I lost some of my crew last year,’ he said. ‘The cook went and a couple of the apprentice lads. They were swayed by the lure of gold.’
    ‘All they’ll get is dirty fingernails,’ Mrs Burrows said tetchily, ‘and an aching back. My son lost half of his employees, but they’re drifting back, one by one.’
    ‘What is the purpose of your trip, Mrs Burrows? Are you visiting family?’ Georgiana was curious about her: she was either very brave or very foolhardy to be travelling so far at her age.
    ‘I’ve upped sticks now.’ Mrs Burrows took a sip of wine from a crystal glass. ‘I’ve been twice before to New York to visit my son, but this will be the last time. I shall stay. Shan’t return to England again. I’ve nobody there any more. All my friends are dying. Got no backbone.’ She took another drink. ‘No, I’ll stay in New York and set off a few crackers, wake some of them New York gels up a bit.’ She turned and gave Georgiana a wicked grin which creased her face into wrinkles. ‘They think I’m an eccentric old Englishwoman,’ she said. ‘Can’t think why!’
    They met frequently after that and, wrapped in cloaks and shawls, took walks together along the deck. Georgiana told Mrs Burrows of her involvement with the Women’s Rights group which she had belonged to, and how she hoped that women in America had more equality with men than they had in England.
    ‘Don’t be disappointed when you find that they don’t,’ Mrs Burrows harrumphed. ‘Men make the rules just as they do at home! And though there are some women who are very committed to equality, I have found that the majority are very lethargic. Did you hear of that northern tour with the young woman who made a great impact by speaking on poverty and child labour?’ she asked abruptly. ‘Grace something? Miss Grace? The newspapers said that she was very poor,