While this story begins in the present, it is set largely in the mid 19th century. It is set in Sydney and rural New South Wales during the reign of Queen Victoria where sex was, for men not much more than a release of sperm inside a woman, and for women, they were encouraged to 'lay back and think of England', sex was seldom a joy for them. Under the 'Chattel Laws' they were expected to be totally submissive. That there were exceptions to this is obvious, but these were not spoken of in public in polite society.
This narrative looks at what became to be known as the 'Squattocracy', those men who took up large landholdings and became very wealthy as a result of the toil of the farm labourers. This fortune enabled them to build large city houses where they mixed with the high society of the time.
When the action centres on the 'society' it will use the dialogue of that class and eschew such vernacular as 'cunt', 'pussy', 'fuck', 'cock' and 'dick'.
C.
* * *
Somewhere between a rural city and a hamlet is the small country town.
Some of these have delusions of grandeur, viewing themselves in a magnifying mirror, the reality of their existence somewhat blurred by their refusal to accept their status.
Some are acutely aware that the glory days, when they were the centre of some vital rural industry, were long gone, along with the young people who, witnessing the reality of the slow death of their families that coincided with the town, moved to the city where they found better opportunities, better lives.
Some were stars on the rise, a commodity in demand was driving them ever upwards, new life, new people, coursed through the veins and arteries of these towns bringing with them a renewed, infectious, vitality.
Astoria now had no delusions of grandeur, the magnifying mirror had broken when Astoria Park, the last of the original land holding of the founding Astor family was sold up by the bank, a bank that had no sense of history, driven instead by commercial reality.
There were no rising stars living in Astoria, the commodity that for so long had supported it had, because of climate change and an inability, or the unwillingness, of the farmers to change, to seek new farming strategies, slowly clogged the arteries, atrophied the muscles, of the district, the town.
Astoria the town grew from Astoria the village that grew from the need to supply the provisions to the growing workforce that drove Astoria Park towards its pre-eminent position in the rural scene.
Astoria Park, a property of some ten thousand acres that in its heyday had witnessed such things as the annual migration of shearing crews, come in a wave of rowdy behaviour to remove the fleece from the prize sheep for sale to the world, along with the harvest crews, and their powerful horse teams dragging the combine harvesters across the fields of gold, reaping the grain for the bread of the world.
Sir William Astor was a proud man who stood on the broad veranda of his homestead, his tweed jacket over moleskin trousers and beneath his broad brimmed hat that kept the harsh summer sun from his eyes and from the skin he brought with him from England, watching the labourers toiling to earn his wealth.
Beside him stood Lady Priscilla Astor, her broad brimmed artificial flower laden bonnet made useless by her floral printed parasol that shaded her floral printed ankle length dress. "It is a pity is it not, Willy, that young William isn't here to see this, it would make him so proud."
Young William Astor aged seventeen, was in Sydney attending his final year at boarding school along with other sons of rural gentry. The distance from family was accepted by these young scions of the country as an integral part of their future that consisted of boarding school followed by a sea voyage to the 'Old Country', England that is, where they would attend either Oxford or Cambridge to further their education, or become part of London debauchery, also to further their education. Either way they were expected to return to the family property with an education, and/or a wife acquired through family connections from a wealthy country family. What they were not supposed to bring home with them was a wife from the more disreputable sections of England, such as an actress or musical hall artiste, usually accompanied by a dose of 'Vicar's Dilemma', the inevitable consequence of mixing in that society.
Lady Priscilla did not mention in that observation their other two children who were also in boarding school in Sydney.
Elizabeth, at eighteen was the oldest of the three children. She was blessed with her mother's good looks and, along with the social graces acquired from her schooling, both from the Private School that she attended until last year, and her year at the Constance Armitage Academy, a finishing school for young ladies, that prepared her for her inclusion in the social elite of Sydney, was attracting the attention of young men, and was well on her way to a potentially suitable marriage.
Isobel was fifteen, cursed with her father's stature and coarse features, was an intelligent young girl who had realised at that early age that she had little chance of a suitable marriage and had chosen to concentrate on her education. She had always taken an interest in the property and its management, something that pleased her father who held little hope for the property under his son.
While Elizabeth was the belle of the Debutante's Ball that coincided with the annual Agricultural Society Show held over Easter each year, Isobel was content to hover in the background. Not for her the superficiality of her sister's friends, their frivolous chatter about nothing more serious than the latest modes to be found in the society dressmaker's stores, and who was interested in whom.
What Isobel didn't realise was, that beneath this veneer of sophistication, emotions of a more basic nature flowed. Elizabeth's first real exposure to this occurred after a lavish dinner party held at the home of one of her friends at Vaucluse, the city base of many wealthy 'Pitt Street farmers', those who spent more time in the city than on their property.
The men had adjourned to the smoking room to discuss affairs of state and the latest commodity news from England, over Cuban cigars and brandy. The ladies were in the salon discussing over tea and petit fours such esoteric topics as the latest needle point patterns, rumours of dalliances within their circle and the latest society news to arrive by mail ship from England.
The young gentlemen were gathered in the games room playing billiards and various card games and while no sizable amounts were wagered on the outcome of these games, they were taken very seriously indeed. In undertones around the room, notes were compared on the availability and desirability of the young ladies gathered in another part of the house. The name of Elizabeth Astor was prominent in these discussions.
In the bedroom of the young lady of the house, Isabella Hamilton, 'Bella' to her friends, the discussions centred entirely on boys, in particular one Hamish Macgregor, rumoured to be the heir to a Scottish dynasty that had survived the clan wars and the short-lived and bloody Stuart attempts to regain the throne of England. The general consensus was that he was a handsome and desirable young man and that the young lady who enticed him into her arms was lucky indeed.
"I wonder if he wears anything under that kilt of his?" Lucy Standish asked rhetorically.
"It is rumoured that Scottish gentlemen wear nothing under their kilts." Bella responded. "There is but one way to find out."
"And who is to find out?" The answer was a universal flood of volunteers.
"I wonder what it will look like?" Lucy asked.
"Have you never seen a man's thing?"
"No."
