Read Band of Gold for Free Online

groaned as he heaved himself out of bed. The frame was relatively sturdy, but the mattress left a lot to be desired. He glanced at the heap of blankets on the vacant mattress on the floor. ‘Where’s Amber?’
    ‘Gone downstairs to wait for the wagon. She’s worried that Bodie might have frozen to death overnight.’
    Rian snorted as he reached for his trousers. ‘I doubt it. Not while Pierre’s still breathing.’
    Kitty turned away from the window. ‘They won’t be here until after midday, though, will they?’
    ‘Not if they stopped overnight at Bacchus Marsh.’
    ‘Well, I’m starving. Shall we go and have breakfast?’
    Rian slid his hand over Kitty’s hip, the silk of her chemise sliding under his fingers. The skin on his naked chest was goose-bumped, and she set her palm against his hard, flat stomach.
    ‘I’m starving, too,’ he said, ‘but not for food.’ He nuzzled her neck, and she pushed him away, laughing. ‘Can you think of nothing else?’
    ‘Not really,’ he replied cheerfully. ‘But I suppose, if I absolutely have to, I can think about what we’re going to do today.’
    ‘We’re going gold mining, aren’t we?’ Kitty said as she stepped into her dress, wriggled her arms into the sleeves and turned her back. ‘Can you do me up?’
    Rian deftly fastened her buttons. ‘No mining today. There’s a lot we have to do before that.’
    ‘Such as?’
    ‘We need to have a look at this house of ours. And the claim, and pay off the bloke who’s been minding it. And when the others arrive we’ll need to unload all the gear.’ He turned her around and kissed her nose. ‘And then we’ll have to buy ourselves a licence. Apparently you have to repeatedly pay the government to break your own back digging out enough gold to make a living.’
    ‘To make a living? I thought you said this claim is a guaranteed winner?’
    ‘It is a winner. Or will be, according to Mrs Murphy. She said Mr Murphy had a nose for it.’
    ‘A nose? Good God,’ Kitty said. ‘Is that what happened to her husband—he died from a broken back?’
    ‘No, I gathered it might have been a heart attack.’
    Kitty poked him in the chest. ‘But you’re not going to have a heart attack, are you?’
    ‘Hardly.’ Rian flexed his muscles and struck a pose. ‘Look at me, I’m as fit as a fiddle.’
    ‘Yes, well, you’ll also be late for breakfast if you don’t hurry up and put your shirt on.’
    Breakfast was fried potatoes, porridge and black pudding. Whereas Rian had two helpings, Amber refused to eat the black pudding, insisting that it looked like rounds of dog turd. Rian laughed, but Kitty told her to watch her language and keep her voice down—other patrons were looking at them.
    After breakfast, they set out for the diggings that spread out on both sides of the main road heading south towards Geelong. The night before, they had come in along the Melbourne Road through the diggings that extended eastward, and there were other heavily mined leads to the north, but their claim was to the south of the town proper and the Camp. On the advice of the publican’s wife they hired a cart: the going would be very mucky and wet, even on the road.
    The going was indeed extremely muddy, particularly down the hill on the Main Road into the basin that was Ballarat Flat. The carthorse, though, was an enormous animal, and negotiated the greasy slope with a minimum of snorting and head-tossing. There was little room on the seat of the cart, so Amber and Simon sat on the back, holding grimly onto the sides. Once they reached the flat, the ride was marginally smoother, but still hazardous and slow, and the holes to be avoided in the road even larger.
    It was immediately evident that the Ballarat basin was a swamp. But, despite this, the Main Road was lined with stores and hotels, and behind them and to the south, as far as the eye could see, was a vast number of tents, slab and log huts, and tiny bark-and-tin shanties. Above the