Chapter EightWhen the engines finally shut down inside Port Phillip Bay, I was placed back with the other women while we waited to be taken ashore. Lizzie and I greeted one another warmly, and I returned her locket. We both noticed the scents of eucalyptus and hot iron drifting across the water and down to us.
‘How long do you think it’ll take us to escape?’ I asked her.
The smile dropped from her face. ‘No, Emmeline.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘This is all my fault!’ Her voice shook, and she gestured down toward my personal prison. ‘I have such silly ideas, and I always put such trust in them.’ She touched her locket unconsciously, and I remembered the way she’d gazed at Dunne in the moonlight. ‘It’s time I grew up and paid for my mistakes. In a few years I’ll have my ticket of leave, and t
