Whispers of Heaven (48 page)

And he understood then that they'd both lost parts of themselves over the years, to life, to the struggle to survive. But they had control of the rest of their lives now, and they had each other, and a brave, vital new country waiting for them across the sea. "I love you," he said, rubbing his open mouth against her hair. "I'll always love you."

A cat's paw of wind ruffled the sunlit surface of the sea, dancing the studding sail above their heads. His arms still clasped tightly around the woman he loved, Lucas lifted his face to the breeze, and drew the taste of joy and freedom deep into his being.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Lying in the South Pacific Ocean off the southern coast of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania is, today, a peaceful land of picturesque stone villages nestled amidst gently rolling green countryside, of pristine waterfalls and enchanted temperate rainforests, of rugged, nearly impenetrable wilderness areas of awe-inspiring grandeur.

Yet behind this quiet beauty lies a dark and violent past. Tasmania witnessed both the most shudderingly brutal excesses of the British convict system and the complete genocide of the island's warlike Aboriginal inhabitants, who were hunted to extinction as thoroughly as the now-vanished Tasmanian tiger. The silent stone ruins of such infamous penal institutions as Port Arthur or Macquerie Harbor still seem to echo with the tormented screams of the thousands of men who suffered and died there, and it is perhaps not surprising that Tasmania is said to be one of the most "ghost haunted" areas in the world.

Originally named Van Diemen's Land, the island changed its name to Tasmania in the 1850s, when it became a separate colony. But the colony was popularly known as Tasmania for decades before its official name change, and for the sake of familiarity, I have used that name here.

A startlingly rich collection of early-nineteenth-century towns, homesteads, and penal institutions are still preserved on the island, and make fascinating visiting for those interested in the past. I would especially like to thank the friendly staff of Entelly House, Clarendon House, Stanley House, and

Richmond Gaol, for patiently answering a multitude of questions, and the owners of the Fox Hunters Retreat, a convict- built coaching inn in the quaint village of Campbell Town, who provided me with an unforgettable experience. The tale of Finnegan's Luck owes much to an amusing collection of reminiscences by Tom Roberts, who once handled troublesome horses for the British cavalry. The tragic stories of the fictional Grimes House and the children stranded aboard the wrecked ketch were inspired by familiar Tasmanian ghost stories, while Lucas Gallagher's escape from a fictional Black- haven Bay echoes similar feats accomplished by more than one Irish convict with the aid of the tyranny-hating American whalers who once plied the southern oceans.

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