The Soldier's Curse Read Online Free PDF Page A

called?’
    â€˜Hydrotherapy or hydropathy, sir,’ said the surgeon. ‘It’s not fully understood, even by me, but it entails improving one’s health through immersion in sea water. My own hypothesis is that seawater contains beneficial minerals which are absorbed through the skin. I also believe the exposure to cold – just briefly, mind – improves the circulation. Makes it work harder, you see, renders it more vigorous.’
    â€˜Yes. Well, she is certainly enthusiastic about it. Just for a brief period, as you say, I suppose that can’t do harm. There’s the issue, though, of decorum. Of modesty. Bathing in the sea, where anyone could walk past.’
    â€˜I was intending to ask you for some assistance on that point, actually.’
    Monsarrat heard the shuffling of papers, and assumed that Gonville was laying before the major the plans which had entered the inner office under his arm.
    â€˜Interesting,’ he heard the major say. ‘But how will you place it in the ocean?’
    â€˜It could be backed in by draught horse, and moved as the tides dictate. Of course it is only for use on the calmer days, but better than nothing.’
    â€˜And you want a work crew to build it? Very well. Cowley was a carpenter. You can have him and two others for a week.’
    Monsarrat, whose job was to make this promise an administrative reality, found that the project in question was a square wooden framework, covered in canvas and open at the bottom, with wheels which would enable it to be manoeuvred into the sea. And now, it seemed, the structure was complete.
    â€˜She wants me to get in the box and go in the ocean with her,’ said Mrs Mulrooney, as though trying to convince herself that this was indeed what was being requested.
    â€˜I’m sure it would be more enjoyable in there with company,’ said Monsarrat.
    Each Sunday, before muster and prayers in a building which also served as the schoolhouse for officers’ children, Monsarrat was required with the rest of the male convict population of the settlement to take sea baths, and the colonial authorities cared not a whit for his modesty as he did so. He had come to enjoy the practice on warmer days, and had also learned to be vigilant aboutwhere he put his feet. Carpet sharks, referred to near Sydney as wobbegongs, didn’t appreciate being stepped on, and weren’t shy about showing their displeasure.
    He decided not to mention the sharks to Mrs Mulrooney, reasoning that the wheels of the contraption would scare them off should any be lurking near the shore. ‘Dr Gonville,’ he said instead, ‘seems to believe immersion in salt water is a powerful tonic.’
    â€˜I don’t see him doing it,’ Mrs Mulrooney muttered.
    In fact, Dr Gonville regularly went into the ocean, bare-chested and in breeches, even in the cooler months. Mrs Mulrooney either didn’t know or chose not to.
    â€˜So, will you accompany Mrs Shelborne?’
    â€˜Of course. I can’t refuse. I’m to report to her any changes in my health in the days after, so she can see how well the cursed box works.’
    â€˜I’m sure it won’t be as bad as you fear,’ said Monsarrat.
    â€˜It will probably be worse. You know how to reach my son, should you need to inform him of my drowning.’
    Mrs Mulrooney quite enjoyed the experience in the end, bobbing up and down in a linen shift with a woman for whom she had a great deal of affection. She exhorted the other servants to try it, and reported on her health in detail to Mrs Shelborne.
    The settlement’s few female convicts had come as rather a surprise to one of the major’s predecessors, who had expected to be ruling over a collection of male felons. The women, unlike their male counterparts, did not partake in the regular Sunday bathing ritual for the sake of modesty. Mrs Shelborne had intended to ask her husband to build