Kitty by Deborah Challinor Page B

the heat. Harry, who had become very pink and grizzly, was clad in nothing but a sagging napkin;Kitty watched as Grace trickled small handfuls of dirt down the back of it.
    ‘Don’t do that, dear,’ Rebecca said mildly. ‘Albert, why don’t you take your brother and sisters down to the beach for a paddle? Only up to your knees, mind.’
    Albert leapt up, eager to do anything that didn’t involve helping to tidy the picnic things.
    When the children had charged off, leaving a screaming Harry behind because he was too little to go, Rebecca said to Sarah, ‘Mrs Williams called in while I was getting the picnic ready and asked me to tell you that your two new housegirls will be arriving later this afternoon. She said she was sorry she couldn’t tell you herself but she’s very busy getting Reverend Williams’s things ready for his trip, and she’ll come by tonight to make sure you’re comfortably settled.’
    ‘I think we will be very comfortable here,’ Sarah replied. ‘And I’m more than happy to begin my work with the girls immediately.’
    Rebecca began to collect plates and cutlery. ‘Actually, one of them is rather special. She’s Tupehu’s youngest daughter.’
    ‘Who?’ Sarah said. She was getting very confused with all these strange native names.
    ‘Tupehu is the local chief. You haven’t met him yet.’
    ‘Really?’ Sarah said. ‘To what do we owe that honour?’
    ‘Well, he originally wanted Mrs Williams to school her, because Mrs Williams is the wife of a “proper reverend”, but she has seven girls at the moment, and her own children, and is quite frankly rushed off her feet. Tupehu, who is a very forceful man, as I’m sure you’ll realise when you meet him, insisted that nothing less would do for his daughter, so he was very pleased when Mrs Williams told him a few months ago that you and Reverend Kelleher were on your way out.’ Rebecca looked faintly apologetic. ‘He was asked to wait for a week until you had settled in, but he was very insistent that his daughter come here today. So I’ve brought some spare linen back for the beds. I hope it doesn’t inconvenience you, Mrs Kelleher, but Tupehu is our benefactor and we’ve found that it does pay to humour him. They can be very sensitive at times, the Maoris, andperceived slights can give rise to the most dreadful problems.’
    ‘I’m sure it won’t be an inconvenience, Mrs Purcell. We’ll manage, won’t we, Kitty?’
    Kitty nodded, her interest aroused by the prospect of what the daughter of a Maori chief might be like.
    She didn’t have to wait long to find out. She and Sarah were making up the beds in the two back rooms downstairs, when Albert excitedly announced that Tupehu and his party had arrived.
    There was a distinct air of ceremony about the group of twenty or so Maoris gathered in the front garden. At the fore was a tall, imperious-looking figure, and Kitty wasn’t at all surprised to see that it was the man she had noticed yesterday standing in the waka. He wore dark trousers, a white linen shirt and, in spite of the heat, a most beautiful feathered cloak; his dusty brown feet were bare. His hair was drawn up in a topknot, and heavy carvings of bone hung from each pendulous ear. It was his face, however, that demanded attention. If his brother Haunui was ugly, Kitty thought, then Tupehu was positively hideous. His nose was large and hooked, his lips and brows prominent, and his scowling features marked from hairline to bushy black beard with a complex pattern of sweeping lines and spirals. Where his right eye should have been there was nothing but a twisted mass of scar tissue. He waited, motionless and menacing.
    Rebecca stepped forward. ‘Good afternoon, Tupehu. Welcome to Reverend and Mrs Kelleher’s new home, which will also be your daughter’s home.’ She drew Sarah forward. ‘This is Mrs Kelleher, who will be schooling your daughter.’
    Tupehu inclined his head slightly. ‘Good afternoon,’ he