Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Great Reading from Smashwords


Murder at Wairere
by
Peter Blakeborough
Published on October 10, 2011. New Zealand historical fiction. 127310 words.
Available now from Smashwords at $4.99 USD
Great reading. Just a click away: 
 http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95508

Free sample read . . .

Chapter 1
Sydney, Australia, 1902
The Elingamite made an impressive sight with her long slender black hull, twin masts and huge steam funnel with three large lifeboats lining each side of the superstructure.
Newlyweds, Cedric and Doris Asker, approached some crewmen at the ship end of the gangway. An older man spoke first.
‘Mr. Asker?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘I’m First Officer Coombes. Is this your missus?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘I believe she’s going to be a maid to Mrs. Jessop-Prior. I will show her to their cabin. You will accompany Mr. Hardwick to the engine room. He has a mountain of coal awaiting your strength and stamina. And if you have notions of turning the voyage into a honeymoon, best forget it. On this ship there is no fraternizing between passengers and crew. Understood?’
‘Yes, sir.’
The Askers turned to face each other with bleak expressions. It would be five days before they would meet again to start their married life in a new country. But they knew they could not afford the trip any other way. The value of the passage was more than they had between them and they were eager to start their life in New Zealand. To be able to travel free of charge, he as a crewman and she as maid to a wealthy passenger, was a marvelous opportunity, even if it meant they could not see each other during the voyage.
‘Apart from that,’ Coombes continued with a twinkle in his eye. ‘If you’re going to earn a free passage to the land of milk and honey, you’re going to need all your strength for the shovel. Take him below, Mr. Hardwick.’
After three days and nights, three hours on and three hours off, Cedric was almost done for. The heat in the engine room was unbearable. He was caked in a thick layer of coal dust and sweat. He coughed continuously and his spittle was as black as the Ace of Spades. On the morning of the fourth day at sea the crew expected to sight the northern-most part of New Zealand. But just after sunrise a thick fog descended and Captain Atwood ordered the engines to half speed. Asker welcomed the lower speed. It meant he could shovel the coal at a more leisurely pace. It was still hard work though and he stopped for a moment and took a swig from a water flask hanging from his belt. He took a bite from an apple and placed it back in the pocket of his dungarees. Even at half speed the engines made enough noise to drown out the frantic cry from the bow.
‘Land ahead! Go astern!’
The Elingamite held its course and speed.
Atwood had expected that the Three Kings Islands would be one and a half miles away to the north of the ship’s track. Another shout came from the bow.
‘Rocks ahead, sir! God save us, sir. Full astern! Christ Almighty!’
In the depths of the ship Cedric Asker added some more coal to the inferno. Suddenly the ship lurched violently and he was flung towards the companionway. The sound of rocks ripping open the hull could be heard above the noise of the engines. Even more terrifying for Asker was the immediate invasion into the engine room of powerful jets of water. Asker ran for the steps.
‘Let’s get the hell outta here before we’re done for, Mr. Hardwick,’ he shouted at the sleeping crewman.
Hardwick sat up as though waking from a nightmare. The water was already thigh deep and rising rapidly. Cedric reached the deck and saw lifeboats being prepared for lowering over the side. It was no dream. The Elingamite and its compliment were in mortal danger. The sea was calm, the fog still thick. She was going down fast. He saw Doris with the Jessop-Prior’s on the other side of the ship.
‘Go with them!’ he shouted to his bride of five days. ‘I’m going back down for Mr. Hardwick. He’s still in the engine room.’
The Elingamite was groaning loudly, listing precariously, and still impacting violently against the rocks. Near the bottom of the stairs Cedric met the water coming up, surging, gurgling, foaming and slapping against cold, hard steel. Desperately he tried to force his way down against the rushing internal tide. He had to rescue Henry Hardwick before he went down with the stricken ship. He shouted to Hardwick but could only hear the tormented sounds of the dying ship. The force of the water lifted him like a cork on the ocean, flung him through the hatch and dropped him with a bruising thud onto the deck. Reluctantly, Cedric accepted he had no chance of getting to Hardwick and hoped the older man had already found his way out.
Cedric must have been below the deck longer than he thought because when he looked around he realized that the lifeboats had vanished into the fog. A raft near the ship was moving away, crowded with passengers and crew. Another smaller raft, apparently overlooked in the confusion, lay on the sloping deck. With it were a paddle and a canvas cover. He reached the raft and grasped hold of it just as another lurch of the ship sent him sliding and tumbling into the sea. Under the water he was disorientated, not knowing which way was up or down. He had hit the water holding his breath in terror rather than taking a deep breath to sustain him under water. When he opened his eyes he saw the underside of the raft against the sky and struck out for the surface.

Chapter 2
As his head broke the surface of the water, Cedric Asker heard a great crash and the sound of splintering timber and ripping steel somewhere close in the fog. He scrambled aboard the raft and tried to paddle toward some voices calling frantically for help. A massive explosion very close by was followed by a deathly silence.
He never heard the voices again.
As he sat alone in the silent fog, clinging to the small raft, he shivered and prayed for a miracle.
‘Please, God? If there really is a God, take me to dry land, anywhere.’
Time lost all relevance as he sat alone, cold, wet and afraid, on the raft, unable to see anything but the thick blanket of fog around him. A long time later, when the fog finally lifted, he saw a raft and lifeboat in the distance. He called at the top of his voice, waved the paddle, then the canvas, trying to get their attention. It was useless. They were too far off. The Elingamite was nowhere to be seen. She must have gone down with the explosion. After a few minutes the fog drifted in again and Cedric drifted aimlessly in the whiteout for what seemed like hours. It had been unbearably hot in the engine room. But on the sea it was unbearably cold. He started to shiver again and he put the canvas around his shoulders to ease the chill.
He wondered about Doris; was she alive and warm, or was she dead beneath the waves. He wished he had stayed with her instead of trying to rescue the old man.
He would never see her again.
He thought about his mother. His earliest memories were of a beautiful young woman who adored him. They had some wonderful times together and he missed her terribly when he left Carrathool to go to school in Sydney. After that he only saw his mother once a year and gradually they grew apart. In a way Granny Ruby, really his great-grandmother became more like a mother to him. He spent most weekends with her at Ruby’s Boarding House in Caraher’s Lane. She was the grand old lady of the Rocks, widely admired and respected, in Sydney’s oldest housing area.
He thought about the father he had never known. He had died a long time ago and his mother had promised to tell him about his father when he was old enough to understand. But in later years the subject of his father was never raised.
With the Elingamite gone and seemingly the passengers and crew too, he was now alone on the sea and he wondered if he too was about to die. . . .

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