The Far Horizon Read Online Free PDF Page A

‘The Duke of Wellington recommended you?’
    ‘Yes – sour-face himself and John Moore. So while those two are over on the continent living the life of soldiers and fighting Napoleon and the French – they are sending dispatches to the Duke of York saying I am the man who should be sent out to that dump-hole to oversee a crowd of stinking felons and bring a regiment of bad soldiers back into line! Look at me – do I look that old and decrepit? Do I look like my soldiering days are over?’
    Elizabeth looked at her beloved husband with tears shimmering in her eyes. To her, he was the most wonderful man in the world, active and strong and full of energy … and yes, she could fully understand his bitter feelings of betrayal against his two former friends. Why had they done it?
    Lachlan’s anger was consuming him to a point that he had to walk out of the room, out of the house, and then mounted his horse and rode straight back to General Balfour.
    ‘It’s because they were asked in dispatches from the Duke of York to recommend a good man who would be up to the job,’ Balfour explained. ‘London doesn’t care a jot about the convicts – it’s the soldiers out there that need controlling. What London wants is a good officer who, unlike Captain Bligh, knows how to command the respect of his men, but also – a man who would also be able to command the respect of the civilian colonists as well.’
    ‘I’ll not go,’ Lachlan said firmly. ‘I’ll resign first. My regiment is the 73 rd and I’ll not exchange them for a bunch of mutineers.’
    ‘You wouldn’t have to exchange them,’ Balfour said, lifting a dispatch from his desk. ‘This came about an hour ago, just after you had left … It seems that London has anticipated your refusal and your reluctance to leave your own regiment … and so they have sent this urgent dispatch informing me that they have decided to send the entire 73 rd regiment out there with you.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘It makes sense, I suppose, now the New South Wales Corps have proved themselves to be unfit for the task. And remember, dear boy, not only would you be accompanied by your own men, you would all only be out there for about two years, quite a short posting really.’
    ‘Oh, this is unbelievable …’ Lachlan was about to turn away and leave, and then stopped … this latest news just beginning to sink in.
    ‘So,’ he said, turning back to General Balfour, ‘if they are preparing to send out the entire 73 rd , then …’ he smiled self deprecatingly, ‘well I’m just a colonel – but as commander of the regiment that means you are now being posted out there too.’
    ‘I certainly am not!’ Balfour exclaimed, his personal anger only now beginning to show. ‘London is not going to succeed in getting me out to that hell-hole on the other side of nowhere – not even for two years – and I have just sent a dispatch to the Commander-in-Chief informing him of that fact. I’ll take my pension instead.’
    Still holding the dispatch from London, Balfour crushed the paper in his hand and then flung it into the waste-paper basket.
    ‘And remember, Macquarie,’ he said huffily, ‘it’s you they have chosen to be their new Viceroy, not me!’

Chapter Four
    When Lachlan returned home Elizabeth had gone out for a walk.
    ‘Aye an’ a long walk it’s been,’ Mrs Burgess said, ‘I expected her back along before this. An’ young Mister George has been looking for ye. He came asking me a few times if ye were back yet.’
    ‘Where is George?’
    ‘He’s out in the back yard, filling a bucket of water from the pump for me.’
    George had his shirt sleeves rolled up and had just filled the pail when Lachlan approached him.
    ‘Helping the servants again I see,’ said Lachlan.
    George shrugged a grin. ‘I’m not as proud and aloof as they say I am.’
    ‘Were you looking for me for any reason in particular?’
    George straightened and began to roll down his sleeves. ‘Yes,