The Far Horizon Read Online Free

tightly in her arms as an eight-year-old boy and told him he was now her child, and would always be protected by her love, and she had even legally giving him her own surname of Jarvis to prove it to him.
    In the time that followed he and Jane had gone through so much together, gone from Calicut to Bombay together, from Bombay to China together, and every minute of every day he had simply adored her … Jane Jarvis Macquarie … the greatest love, and the greatest tragedy of Lachlan’s Macquarie’s life.
    And therein lay Elizabeth’s problem now, Elizabeth’s dread of losing her hold on the husband she dearly loved as much as he had loved Jane.
    Elizabeth Campbell had been twenty-five-years old when Lachlan and George, leaving the heartbreak of India far behind, had arrived on the Isle of Mull and met her for the first time. She had been visiting Lachlan’s mother that day, and George had seen immediately that she was a young lady of the gentry, albeit the daughter of an impoverished estate run by her older brother in Airds.
    In the weeks that followed, George had seen the way Elizabeth Campbell had lost her prim reserve and bubbled with laughter and life when in the company of Lachlan.
    After that George saw no more of their relationship because he had been forced to go to college, so determined was Lachlan that he would receive a sound education.
    And yet, two years later, George was not at all surprised when Lachlan made an unexpected visit to the college to tell him of his proposal of marriage to Elizabeth Campbell.
    He and Elizabeth had found and enjoyed a special companionship with each other, Lachlan had explained, but he could not keep Elizabeth hanging on indefinitely as a friend and nothing more. They were both still young enough for a new start, but he had been honest with Elizabeth when he had told her that his love and his heart had been given and would forever remain with Jane, but he would endeavour to be the best husband he was capable of being, which might not be a very good one. Yet Elizabeth had accepted his proposal regardless.
    Cool, sensible, practical Elizabeth, she had not allowed his past to stand in the way of her happiness, and so far it had been a good match and a good marriage, marred only by the tragic loss of their beloved baby daughter.
    George returned to the garden bench and sat down and looked at Elizabeth. She was thirty years old now, tall and slender with russet hair and wide blue eyes and her manner was normally full of wit, no-nonsense and absolutely charming. But look at her now … her hands still trembling, her composure bowed low.
    It distressed George to see Elizabeth so upset, and it was only recently that she had come to terms with the loss of her child – so to relieve her of this new worry would not be breaking a confidence, but simply the right thing to do.
    ‘Elizabeth, you are worrying unnecessarily,’ George said finally. ‘It is all in the past now. Lachlan loved Jane then. He loves you now. That is all you need to think of.’
    ‘I feel…’ Elizabeth took a deep breath, ‘that in India it would all come back to him. The life he had with her there. All the memories would come back to him, and she would come back to him … not physically of course … but in a spiritual way. Do you understand?’
    ‘Yes.’ George’s vision was focused on some pink flowers growing at the far edge of the garden. ‘But I think you are wrong in your thoughts, and worrying without cause.’
    ‘Then help me to understand, George. You know him better than anyone, even better than I do, because you know his past, you were there! So why am I wrong, George? Why am I worrying without cause?’
    George was still gazing at the flowers. ‘Because Lachlan will never go back to India. Not even if the Army commands it. He would resign his commission if they insisted.’
    ‘What?’ A rush of colour came into her cheeks. ‘How do you know this, George?’
    ‘He told me.’
    ‘Told