Now Kitty knew how ill she must be, as another Drummond appeared from the drawing room, a glint of amusement and warning in his eyes.
‘Pray, let me introduce my brother, Andrew,’ he continued. ‘As you may have just realised, we are twins, although Andrew was born two hours earlier than I.’
‘Oh,’ Kitty said, thanking the Lord that Drummond had arrived when he did, or she might have revealed all to Andrew. ‘Forgive me, sir, I did not realise.’
‘Please don’t worry at all, Miss McBride. I can assure you, it’s a very common mistake.’ Andrew walked towards her and held out his hand. ‘I am very pleased to finally make your acquaintance and delighted that you are well enough to join us this evening. Now, shall I escort you into the dining room? We must introduce you to our father.’
Kitty took Andrew’s proffered elbow gratefully, her legs still feeling unsteady beneath her. She caught Drummond giving her a sly wink but turned her head away and ignored it.
The dining table was bedecked with festive decorations: elegant gold napkin holders and sprigs of fir tree with red baubles nestled inside them shimmered in the glow from the candles. Kitty watched in fascination as the Mercers said a prayer in German, before Andrew lit the fourth candle in the intricate wreath that sat in the centre of the table.
As everyone sat down, Andrew caught Kitty’s look of curiosity.
‘They are Advent candles,’ he explained. ‘My parents were kind enough to wait for me to return home so I could light the last one before Christmas Eve – it was always my favourite thing to do as a child. It is an old German Lutheran tradition, Miss McBride,’ he added.
Over a dinner of beef, which she managed to swallow if she took very small bites and chewed each one thoroughly, Kitty studied the twins surreptitiously. Even though identical in looks, with their dark hair and blue eyes, their personalities were anything but. Andrew seemed much the more serious and thoughtful of the two, sitting next to her and asking her polite questions about her life back in Edinburgh.
‘I must apologise on behalf of my brother. He should have known that the midday sun was far too strong for any young lady, especially one so newly arrived to these shores.’ Andrew frowned across the table at Drummond, who responded with a nonchalant shrug.
‘You know me, brother dear. I’m totally irresponsible. Good job you now have Andrew around to protect you, Miss McBride,’ he added.
At the head of the table sat Stefan Mercer, the twins’ father. He had the same blue eyes as his sons, but was rather on the portly side, with a large bald patch covered in freckles atop his head. He told her of how his family had arrived on Australia’s shores seventy years ago.
‘You may already know that many of our forefathers originally came to Adelaide because it allowed them to worship the Lord in any religion they chose. My grandmother was German and joined a small settlement named Hahndorf up in the Adelaide Hills. My grandfather was a Presbyterian from England, and they met here and fell in love. Australia is a free-thinking country, Miss McBride, and I no longer subscribe to any particular man-made doctrine. As a family, we worship at the Anglican cathedral in the town. Tomorrow night we will go there for Midnight Mass. I do hope you will feel able to accompany us.’
‘It will be a pleasure,’ said Kitty, touched that Stefan was obviously concerned that it was not a Presbyterian church.
Struggling over pudding – a delicious trifle with real cream on the top of it – Kitty listened to the three men talk about the family’s business interests, which seemed to have a lot to do with something called ‘shell’, and how many tons of it the crews had brought back on something they called ‘luggers’. Drummond talked of ‘mustering’, which she surmised was somehow linked with ‘heads’ of cattle. His best ‘drover’ had not returned and Drummond announced without irony that he’d been ‘cut up into pieces by the blacks and put in a pot for supper’.
Sitting here in this elegant, comfortable house, Kitty thought it extraordinary that such things could take place outside the boundaries of a town which, compared to the rough streets of Leith, was positively genteel.
‘You must find the conversation quite shocking,’ said Drummond, mirroring her thoughts.
‘I have read a book by Darw—’ Kitty stopped herself, not knowing if Drummond would approve ‘. . . an author who spent time on these shores and who made mention of it. Do the natives really spear people?’
‘Sadly, yes.’ Drummond lowered his voice. ‘In my opinion, only due to severe provocation from their unwanted invaders. The Aboriginal tribes have been on their land for many thousands of years – they are perhaps the oldest indigenous population in the world. Their land and their way of life was taken by force from right under their noses. But—’ Drummond checked himself. ‘Such a subject is perhaps for another time.’
‘Of course,’ said Kitty, warming to Drummond a little. Then she turned her attention back to Andrew. ‘Where do you live?’
‘Up on the northwest coast in a settlement called Broome. I have recently taken over the running of Father’s pearling business. It is an . . . interesting part of the country, with a long history. There is even a dinosaur footprint stamped into a rock, which can be seen at very low tide.’
‘Goodness! How I would love to see that. Is Broome far away? Perhaps I could take a trip there by train.’
‘Sadly not, Miss McBride.’ Andrew suppressed a smile. ‘By sea it would take you several days at least and by camel, many more than that.’
‘Of course,’ said Kitty, embarrassed by her geographical naivety. ‘Even though I know the dimensions of the country in theory, it’s difficult to believe that travelling across it could actually take so long. I hope I may have a chance to advance beyond the town here, even if just to touch a rock that has been there since the dawn of time. I hear there are interesting carvings and paintings adorning many of them.’
‘Indeed there are, although knowledge of the interior – especially the area surrounding Ayers Rock – is my brother’s province. It is close, in Australian terms at least, to where he runs our cattle station.’
‘One day I would love to visit the rock. I have read about it,’ Kitty enthused.
‘I gather that you are interested in ancient history and geology, Miss McBride?’
‘I am most interested in how we—’ Kitty checked herself for a second time, ‘. . . God came to put us here in the first place, Mr Mercer.’