The Pride of the Peacock

14. THE GREEN FLASH

I rose in a leisurely way, washed and dressed. I was still feeling a little dazed. Mrs. Laud came to my room to see how I was.

“Not at all bad,” I answered.

“Just a little tired.”

“It’s to be expected after what happened. What would you like to eat?”

“I’ll wait for luncheon.”

“Come to my room and I’ll make a cup of tea.”

That would be nice,” I said.

“Come up when you’re ready. I’ll go and put the kettle on.

Within five minutes I was knocking at her door.

“Do come in. You look so much better. The tea’s all ready. I’ve poured out.”

“What a cosy room this is,” I said.

“I always thought so. Mr. Henniker used to like to come in for a cup of tea.”

I sat down in the chair she had pulled up to the table with the plush runner. Her workbox was open, and a piece of needlework lay on the table.

“Oh, Mrs. Madden, what bad luck you’ve had lately. First you nearly fall down the stairs and then you get into that mine. It looks like bad luck, doesn’t it? People will be saying you must have taken the Green Flash and this is the result of it.”

I sipped the tea, which was refreshingly warming.

“People will say anything.”

That’s a fact, they will. But it was bad luck, wasn’t it? first one and then the other. I’d like to know what that.

“It’s very good, thank you.”

“Drink it up and I’ll give you another cup. I always say there’s nothing like a nice cup of tea.”

There’s a good deal in that. “

They’re regular tea drinkers out here . every bit as much as We are at Home. Let me give you that other cup. “

Thank you, Mrs. Laud. “

“Do you feel rather sleepy?”

“I feel a little… strange.”

“I thought you did somehow. The house is quiet now, isn’t it? Do you know, we’re the only ones here. Everybody’s out. They’ve all gone on this wild goose chase. All except two of the girls and I said they could ride into the town and get some goods for me. They’re both friendly with gougers there.” She chuckled.

“I reckon they won’t hurry back.”

Then I noticed that she was watching me very intently and that there was a strange gleam in her eyes.

Tm going to show you something before you go,” she said.

“Show me something… before go… where?”

“It’s in my workbox. There’s a little secret drawer. You remember that night … the treasure hunt? That Ezra … he knew. I could see the look in his eyes that something had led him to my workbox.”

I tried to stand up but I couldn’t. My legs seemed as though they were not part of my body.

“Don’t try to go yet. You’ll want to see this. I had it since he went away. Mr. Henniker couldn’t have been far out at sea when I found it. I was always particular about the spring cleaning. You can’t trust those servants. There was always a lot I liked to do myself. I was always very fond of that picture. Mr. Henniker used to like it. He said it reminded him of Joss and he had a way of looking at it and laughing to himself and it struck me that there was something rather special about it. That was why I paid such special attention to it. I found the spring and then I knew it was meant. That was how it happened.” She leaned forward, her arms on the table. There’s something inside it, something that’s alive . a living god. Do you remember Aladdin’s lamp? Well, it’s like that, you see. The genie is there and it does your bidding. “

I said: “You’re talking about the Green Flash at Sunset, Mrs. Laud.”

“Yes; she answered. That’s what I’m talking about’

” Are you telling me that you had it all the time? “

She laughed. It was as though she had been impersonating someone at a masque and now it was the time for the unmasking. I had never known this woman.

No wonder I had felt that she was like the chorus in a Greek play-she and her family. She was no longer the mild housekeeper so grateful to have become the master’s mistress and found shelter for herself and her family all those years. She was someone else. But perhaps the mild housekeeper was the real person and that it was another which looked out at me from those wild eyes. She was possessed.

She repeated: “You shall see it before you go. I want you to see it. I shall never forget the moment when I found it at the back of that picture and it just burst on me … all that brilliance, all that power.

“I’m yours,” it said to me.

“Keep me. I’ll work for you.

Anything you want will be yours. ” I wasn’t going to keep it at first.

I was just going to have it in my room and look at it. I used to wake up in the night and remember I’d got it. I’d get out of bed and look at it. And then I started to see that I could do anything I wanted because the Green Flash would give it to me. “

“Show it to me, Mrs. Laud,” I said quietly.

She drew the workbox towards her and fumbled there. I have never seen a miser counting his gold, but I could imagine what he would look like and that was as Mrs. Laud looked at that moment. Her face changed again; her mouth twitched and her eyes blazed. I thought: She really is mad. The Green Flash has driven her mad.

She took out a mass of cotton wool; her fingers shook as she unwrapped it. Then she took something in the palms of her hands and crooned over it as a mother might over a baby.

She leaned across the table and there it lay in all its fabulous glory, the most magnificent opal of all time, the stone which had shaped my destiny, the unlucky one, the most beautiful jewel I had ever or would ever see in my life.

It is impossible to put into words the qualities of that stone. I can say it was large . even larger than I had expected it to be; even with my sparse knowledge I knew that it was perfect in every way. I can say that there was the deep blue of a tropical sea and the lighter blue of a cloudless sky and the glint of red was like shafts of sunlight breaking over the sea. But this does not convey the utter fascination, the aura, the living quality. It had life; it changed as one looked. I was feeling more and more dizzy and hazy and it really seemed drown in that deep, deep blue sea. It had a power, that stone; a subtle emanation came from it. It was magnetic and I could not stop myself reaching out to take it.

“Oh no you don’t,” she said.

“You think you’re going to take it from me, don’t you? You think you’ve found it at last. I tell you this, Mrs. Madden, I’m only showing it to you, that’s all. I thought you should see it before you died.”

“Before … I died… ?”

“Feel sleepy, don’t you? It won’t hurt. You won’t know anything. It was something I put in your tea … nice peaceful sleep, that’s all.

Look at my hands. They’re strong. You’ve got a little neck. I’ve often looked at it. It’ll be easy. I know just where to press. But I’ll wait until you’re fast asleep. I don’t like hurting things . so it’s better that way. You’ll know nothing about it. “

I could feel the hair rising on my scalp and it was because she spoke so quietly in such a matter-of-fact way that it was so sinister. It was only when she mentioned the Green Flash that her hysteria became apparent. I was alone in this house with a madwoman. I had not really taken her seriously until I had seen the Green Flash. Then I knew that she was indeed mad. She had put a sleeping draught into my tea; and I was going to get more and more drowsy under its influence.

I wondered if I could make a dash for the door, but my limbs were already leaden. I kept thinking: Alone in the house . everybody gone . alone with a woman who is mad.

She was looking down at her hands . those hands which were waiting to strangle me . but not till I slept, so I must not sleep. I must keep awake. I must find some way of out witting her.

I said: “You play the spinet well, Mrs. Laud.”

It was eerie-the manner in which she supped from the malevolent personality of the murderess to that of the homely housekeeper.

“Oh yes, I used to play for Mr. Henniker. He told me about this Jessica who was your mother. I didn’t like that much because I was fond of Mr. Henniker myself. He had this fancy about playing and her coming back.

So I played for him and he said it reminded him of her. “

“And then you played for me?”

You started to pry, didn’t you? As soon as you got back you did. You always had your eyes open and you were looking for the Green Flash. I knew that. I got wonderful ideas from the power that’s there. I was there when you looked with Mr. Madden and I saw you with Mr. Dickson. I watched you take down The Pride of the Peacock. I didn’t want Lilias to many Jeremy Dickson. I wanted Mr. Madden for her. That was a fancy of mine. I guessed Mr. Henniker would leave him the Green Flash and then it would be partly hers. But no, it was mine. Never mind Lilias . because you’d come then and you’d have to be got rid of. I didn’t want Lilias to have it, even. It was mine and I wanted to keep it. “

“You’ve been getting it to work for you, have you?" She nodded.

“It first came to me when Tom Paling came’ over to the house and I went into the stables and meddled with the wheel of the buggy. Then he had his accident and Jimson had his job and did very well at it. You see, the Flash puts the notions into your head and shows you how to do it.”

“So you lured me to the gallery.”

“I wanted you to think it was your mother warning you.”

“Why did you want me warned?”

The Flash is clever. It never does anything without reason. I wanted you to tell people you were afraid . because you thought your husband wanted you out of the way, didn’t you? When wives die mysteriously husbands are the first to be suspected. I knew how things were . separate bedrooms and Isa Bannock. I thought you’d tell someone. He used to play the spinet long ago. Ben liked to hear him at it. And he knew about the stairs, didn’t he ? “

“So it was you who played, and you escaped by way of the stairs and then you arranged for me to have an accident and if I was killed you would have seen that my husband was suspected?”

“It was not really the Flash’s idea. That was mine. It wasn’t very good. It was hardly likely that a fall down those stairs would have been the end of you … and there was all that playing to get you up there and I could easily have been caught at that. But if you’d had a bad accident it would have stopped your prying for a bit and it would be a sort of preliminary if you know what I mean. Lilias spoilt it. She got hysterical about my playing the spinet and she and Jimson tried to stop me. They were always watching me closely. They didn’t know I had the Flash, of course, but they thought I’d changed and they got frightened.”

I must stay awake and keep her talking so I said: T$y this . time had you given up the idea of Lilias’s marrying my husband? “

Well, it could have been a good idea but the main thing . was to keep the Flash. When I came into my room that night and saw Ezra Bannock looking into my workbox I knew he had guessed. There was something in his face which told me. ”

” So you killed him? “

“Yes, I did. I waited for him at Glover’s Gully and I shot him and buried aim there. He’d have stayed there hidden for y, years if it hadn’t been for that horse. And you were the one who found him. That was it … The idea came to me that you were Danger. The Flash put it into my mind so I knew it was right’ ” And the letter from Jeremy Dickson ? “

“I spent hours copying his writing on his acceptance to the invitation to the treasure hunt. I think I did well. There again it was the Flash. I thought that would have done it. (( And Lilias … my own daughter stopped it. She found that letter. What was she doing prying in your room? She was jealous of you with Jeremy. Well, she found it and she swore it wasn’t his writing. She went into the town with the letter and it was all spoiled again. Now of course something’s got a to be done.”

Her face puckered and she looked as though she were going to burst into tears.

“I could see it in Mr. Madden’s face. I could see he wasn’t going to let it rest. Someone had threatened you and he’ll find out too much.

He’s like Mr. Henniker. He’ll go on and on until he gets to the bottom of things . and I’ve got stop him. ”

"You will never be able to.”

She looked cunning. The Flash has the answer. The Flash always has the answer. There’s no beating the Flash. It’s only when I don’t let myself listen that I go wrong . like burying that purse. That was silly. I took it because I wanted them to think it was for robbery. I should have thrown it away in the Bush somewhere. Then it wouldn’t have mattered if it had been found. So then I had to get it back and that was wrong . ,. I won’t act without the Flash again. The Flash is all-powerful. No one can go against it. ” You tried to kill me and you didn’t. Twice you’ve failed.”

“I didn’t Understand what the Hash was telling me.”

“And you think you do now ?”

"yes. I’ve got it all clear now.

Oh God, I prayed, help me to fight off this overwhelming desire to shut my eyes and escape into oblivion, help me to keep awake. While I’m awake I’m safe. I’ve got to keep her talking.

“It won’t work, Mrs. Laud,” I said.

She looked startled.

“You have drugged me. You’ve got so far and you think you’re going to kill me.”

She nodded, smiling benignly. She looked down at her hands and stretched her fingers, flexing them.

“Suppose you kill me,” I went on.

“I shall be in this room. How will you explain what happened to me? You’ll be exposed as a murderess.

They don’t let murderesses live, Mrs. Laud. So what good will it do you ? “

“You won’t be here,” she said.

“You’ll disappear.” She laughed and it was a demoniacal laughter that sent cold shivers down my spine. It reminded me that I was fighting for my life with a woman who was mad and yet had the strength to kill me. One false step could be the end of me. I could see no way of escape. I felt trapped.

In the palm of her hands she still held the Green Flash. She seemed as though she could not put it down, as though she were afraid that if she let it go some power would leave her.

All these months when I had been living in this house with her she had been mad.

I did not speak because while she forgot my presence, as she appeared to now, I was gaining precious moments. She would not touch me while I was conscious. She was not by nature a violent woman; it was only this thing which had possessed her which could make her capable of perpetrating acts of violence.

I thought of Joss . I could not stop thinking of Joss. I was still tingling with memories of our encounter. There was so much explaining to do . but one fact surpassed all others. He had come down into the mine to bring me up. He had risked his life to save me. He had come riding to the mine with all speed when he had seen the letter. He loved me. He wanted me. Those steps in the corridor had been his. He had given Isa Bannock the Harlequin to sting me into awareness of my true feelings and he had done so, because it was after this that I had realized my need of him. We had both been foolish; we had refused to see the truth. Ben had been wiser than we had. auu iiuw wiicii i saw n cic any I was in deadly danger of losing it. Our pride had kept us apart-mine no less than Joss’s; and now in his ignorance he had left me! alone with the murderess.

Death faced me and if it was victorious I would never know ou the life Joss had promised me. I could see two roads stretch-ring out before me-one ended abruptly in death and the other was full of exciting twists and turns which life with Joss ‘, would be. I should long ago have started down that road.

Why had I been such a fool as to fear it ? Oh, where are you now. Joss? I wondered. I want us to start to live. now.

Where would it end? He was off on a false trail, hunting for Jeremy Dickson who was no doubt sitting in his Sydney office discussing the properties of certain stones which had recently been found in the Fancy mines. Mrs. Laud was remembering.

“Everything is ready. It’s in the garden … I shall bury you ( there and no one will think to look. I shall hide your travelling bag and some of your clothes will be missing.”

“You couldn’t do it, Mrs. Laud. Think what happened to Ezra Bannock’s purse. The Flash wasn’t very clever about that, was it?”

“I told you that it did not want that. It was where I went wrong. I wouldn’t mock it, if I were you. It’d never forgive you. It was warning me then. It was saying: ” Bury her deep. No one must find her like she found the purse . “

“Still you were wrong about the purse.”

“It was meant as a warning to me. It was a preparation for this. That’s how it happens sometimes.”

“It seems strange to be sitting here discussing my burial.”

“What are you getting at, Mrs. Madden? You’ve always been one for a joke. But this is no joke. I shall tell them that you have the Green Flash, that you showed it to me, that I tried to persuade you to give it up. That you’ve gone right away with the Flash.”

“It wouldn’t be possible. Unless you are going to kill Wattle and bury her too.”

“Oh no. You’ll have gone away with someone who came for you. He brought horses and you rode away together.”

“Jeremy Dickson, I suppose.” That could do for a start. “

“And when he comes back?” The Flash will know. Why don’t you go to sleep? It’s better if you do. Then we can get it over “I’m not going to sleep.”

“You must. You can’t help it.”

She was wildly fanatical. I saw the greed in her eyes and I thought:

This stone has done this to her. She means to do exactly what she has told me. This stone ruined my mother’s life and now I may well die because of it. I have seen it and that is enough, for I understand what it can do. There is evil in it and it has taken possession of this woman.

I gripped the table. Waves and waves of weariness swept over me. I tried not to think of the softness of a feather bed and downy pillows.

I thought of death and Joss’s coming back and finding me gone. Would he really believe that I had gone off with Jeremy Dickson . and later when Jeremy returned, with some person unknown . taking with me the Green Flash?

Others had been possessed by that stone. Would he believe that it could happen to me?

I must stay alive. I was fighting for my life as I had never fought for anything. I must remind myself that all that stood between joss and me and our exciting future was a madwoman.

I heard myself saying over and over again: “You could never do it…”

I saw her face as though it floated before me . the mask down . the madness of the possessed, and I knew that her very madness would give her the powers she needed.

The scene in this room was getting more and more remote. I felt that I was outside looking in on the actions of others: myself limp and lifeless being dragged to a spot in the garden where the sandy loose soil encroached on the cultivated part. It would be easy to bury me quickly there and later she would make ,a better job of it. She would give me a deeper grave. She would take my clothes away and hide them . I saw Joss returning from the hunt for Jeremy Dickson which would prove fruitless. How could it be otherwise when he was working in Sydney? I could see his anger, his fury, his wounded pride. How. he had hated to be repulsed by me! How he had retaliated by wounding me through Isa Bannock!

And now he would believe that I had deceived him. How could he? Her plan could not work. With whom should I have gone off? There was no one who could possibly be suspected.

Yet who would believe that the quiet unassuming housekeeper could be capable of such diabolical plans? But it was not really this one. It was the devil which possessed her. I; I heard myself murmuring: “No … no .. no …” hap The minutes were ticking by.

“Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo …” said the silly little bird in out her dock. I could hear the cuckoos going on and on in my tur head, as I felt myself slipping away. But every time I brought myself back. I s. She was getting worried.

“I don’t understand this. You should be off by now.”

“My will-power is stronger than your drug, Mrs. Laud.”

“Why,” she said, ‘anyone would think you had the Hash. “

“It is mine … by right. I share it jointly with my husband. Perhaps it knows that.” I saw the real fear in her eyes.

"Yes" I went on.

“It knows. See how it shines for me. It cc knows it is mine.”

“No, no. I’ve had it all this time. It’s not the one who owns it by law. It was meant to be mine. I’d never had anything very much before but with the Flash I had everything. It’s possession that counts. All this time ifs worked for me.”

“But not against me, Mrs. Laud. You made an accident for Tom Paling. You killed Ezra Bannock. You lured me to the stairs but see how I saved myself.

Then you tried the mine a and I was rescued. “

Her face had turned a pale grey.

You see,” I went on, ‘the Flash won’t hurt me because I’m’s the true owner. It’s mine, Mrs. Laud.”

"I'll never give it up. never,” she screamed.

“Look, Mrs. Laud, it’s only a piece of opal… silica deposited at some time in the rock. How can you attach special powers to that?”

She looked at me as though she did not understand what I was talking about.

“It’s done you a great deal of harm,” I went on.

“Don’t you see?” She stared at me blankly.

Oh, thank you. God, I prayed, I’m fighting off my sleepiness. I’m going to do it. I’m going to live. Keep her talking. Keep remembering that Joss is waiting for you and you are going to start to live as you never have before.

“You’ve become obsessed by a stone … by a legend … you’ve built all this up in your mind, but it doesn’t really exist.”

“How dare you call it just a stone. You haven’t lived with it. You haven’t held it in your hands. Look now …”

“Yes, let me see it. Let me hold it in my hands.”

She shook her head craftily.

“Oh no. You can see it from where you are. Look at it. It’s the sun going down into the sea. If you look closely you might catch a sudden flash of green. That’s what the sun does and that’s what my Green Flash does too.”

I was alert suddenly. I thought I heard sounds from below.

Someone was coming. I looked at her, but she was staring at the opal absorbed in the wonder of it and her own beliefs.

Waves of relief were sweeping over me. I believed I had won.

The door was flung open. Joss was there. Someone else was with him. It was Jimson.

Jimson cried out in a voice of anguish: “Mother.”

She stood up, her eyes on her son.

“You’ve brought him back,” she screamed. "Lilias did it before . and now you. My own children." “She stood up clutching the stone."

Joss’s eyes were on me and I stood up and tottered towards him, for now that the need to hold tightly to consciousness was no longer urgent I felt the waves of drowsiness too much to resist.

Joss caught me in his arms. He said my name twice. It was wonderful how much he could express by just that. He held me against him and I was content to stay there.

I heard Jimson’s voice, anguished, pleading: “Mother, I had to. I knew something was wrong.”

Joss said: “Give me what you’re holding in your hand, Mrs. Laud.”

Her agonized scream broke into my unconsciousness bringing me back into the room. There was silence which seemed to go on and on.

When I awoke from my drugged sleep I remembered it all vividly every intonation of her voice, every expression on her face.

Joss told me how she had cried out that she would never give up the Green Flash, and before they could stop her she had dashed on to the terrace.

When they picked her up from the stones below she was dead, but still clutching the Green Flash in her hands.

It was six months later when Joss and I went back to Oakland a new me, a new Joss. They had been a wonderful six months of discovery and adventure-the greatest adventure of all, being loved and loving.

Lilias had married Jeremy Dickson before we sailed. She son talked to me a great deal and told me how she and Jimson out both realized that their mother was verging on madness, though they had not guessed how far she had gone. They had not been aware of course that she had the Green Flash, I s; but they suspected that something had turned her brain. They had discovered that she played the spinet and this was what had so upset Lilias on that occasion when I had discovered her hysterically crying. Both she and Jimson, while being eager to protect their mother, had wondered what her motive had been. When I had had the accident on the stairs and had been lured to the mine they became very suspicious; and that was why Jimson, when he had heard that I had been left in cc a weak state with his mother, decided to tell Joss of his anxieties for my safety, which resulted in Joss’s speedy return to the house.

Lilias, in great distress, tried to explain to me, but I told her there was no need to. I understood perfectly. They had tried hard to protect their mother who had done everything for them when they had been helpless children. She had come to Peacocks, had worked for Ben, had loved him and hoped a to marry him. But Ben did not want marriage and she had had to content herself with a home for herself and her children. She had been a very conventional woman and the’s situation had worried her a great deal. I could imagine how she grappled with her conscience and how she might have quietened it by telling it she did what she did for her children’s sake. But it would have preyed on her mind, I realized, and she would have been constantly trying to make things right. If Lilias had married Joss she might have felt everything was worthwhile. That was certainly in her mind, Lilias told me, and it was the reason why she had tried to stop a match between her daughter and Jeremy Dickson.

Then she had discovered the Green Hash and the madness had set in. It had led her to maim Tom Paling, to murder Ezra and to attempt to kill me. Still, somewhere at the back of her mind must have been the idea that if I were not there Joss might marry Lilias, but her great fear was that I would find the Green Bash. She had been jealous of my mother and that had meant that she had been against me from the start.

But how well she had concealed her animosity, with her humility and her constant expressions of her desire to help me. It did not seem possible that she could be so devious, but I had come to the conclusion that there were really two Mrs. Lauds-the housekeeper eager to please and help run the house smoothly, and the madwoman whose mind had become deranged When the fascination of the Green Flash had caught her and made her its prisoner.

I was sorry for Jimson and Lilias, but Jeremy was about to comfort Lilias, and Jimson seemed to find a certain solace in his work.

And when Joss and I decided to go Home, it was due to the Green Flash.

I had talked this out with Joss and it was one of the matters over which we were in disagreement. There were, of course, many matters over which we disagreed and somehow that gave a stimulus to our life together.

Joss used to laugh when we argued fiercely.

“Well, I always knew I must expect fireworks from you,” he said.

“Fireworks make such a glorious blaze,” I retorted. "You must admit they’re exciting to watch. “

“I always enjoy them,” he answered.

“And they make the occasions when we do agree extra good.”

Of course everyone in the town was waiting for bad luck to strike us.

There’ll always be legend attached to that stone,” I said.

“Naturally, it’s unique.”

Joss liked to take it out and look at it.

“You’re getting obsessed,” I accused him.

“Nonsense. There’s only one thing in the world I’m obsessed with.”

"And that? “

"You know very well it’s you. “

“Oh Joss,” I cried, ‘you say such marvelous things sometimes.

Obsessions can be momentary, though. They often don’t last. “

There you are. Never satisfied. “

“Well, there was a time when you were obsessed by Isa Bannock.”

That was before you came. Everyone was obsessed by Isa. I fell in love with her when I was sixteen in common with everyone around here. “

“But you continued with the affair.”

“She seemed to expect it.”

“And you gave her the Harlequin Opal.”

“Ah, but only to spite you.1 hap ” Sometimes I hate you, Joss Madden."

“I know. It makes the times when you love just marvelous.” out He was serious suddenly.

“Forget Isa. It’s over. I behaved as I did because you wouldn’t have me. You scorned me … scorned the Peacock. Peacocks don’t like that. They get spiteful. “

"That was the cruel lest thing you did to give her the Harlequin.”

“I’m going to make up for it. I’m giving you something more valuable. The Green Flash.”

No, Joss. “

“Yes, you’ll forget that Harlequin incident then. I’m going to relinquish my share. Ifs yours. Ifs a thousand times more cc valuable than the Harlequin.”

“I’ve been meaning to speak to you about the Green Flash. I’m frightened of it.”

“You Frightened of a stone?”

“Yes, I am. It ruined my mother’s life. It changed mine. Ezra died for it. Tom Paling nearly died … and so did I."

” You’re not going to let all that talk upset you. “

“I’m not thinking of myself, but my family … I won’t run a risks. There are some things which are too precious to be put in jeopardy.”

"Me? The child? ”

I nodded.

He was moved, I could see, so he laughed at me, half derisive, half tender.

“So what do you propose to do ?” he asked.

We’re taking the Green Flash to London and we’re presenting it to a geological museum there. People will be able to see it and marvel at it and I’ll cheat the evil in it because it won’t belong to anyone.”

“So you’re resigning all claim of my gift to you?”

Tour gift to me. Joss, is not a stone. It’s much more than that could ever be. “

“Do you know,” he said, ‘you’re getting sentimental as you grow up. “Do you mind that?”

How can I when you’re making me the same? I wanted my baby to be born in Oakland Hall and it was a whim Joss was ready to humour. I knew Ben would have been pleased. Joss was his son and there would be a new line to add to the genealogical tree in the hall which had always intrigued him. Mr. Wilmot and Mrs. Bucket thought this right and proper.

Oakland had not changed. Why should it because I had been to Australia and fallen in love and come near to death, when it had stood for hundreds of years and had no doubt witnessed as many tragedies and comedies?

Miriam had a child now.

“She’ll live to rue the day,” said my grandmother.

My grandfather was a little bolder than he had been, and the whip with which my grandmother had scourged him had lost some of its sting since I had brought Oakland back to the family in a way, and because Xavier had now married Lady Clara and was managing the Donningham land.

My grandmother was quite respectful to me and most interested in the child who was to be born at Oakland-a gesture with which she entirely agreed. She even took to Joss after the first few skirmishes. I think she recognized some power in him which it would be impossible even for her to subdue.

She used to say: “Well, he received a large part of his education in England,” as though that made him acceptable; and the fact that he had brought Oakland back to the family made him almost admirable in her eyes.

My son was born on a mellow September day in the vaulted chamber where my ancestors had made their first appearances.

This was the culmination of my happiness. I sat up hi the big four-poster bed and looked out on those lawns which had mellowed for hundreds of years and I had a feeling that I had come home; and yet I was well aware that nothing was half as important to me as the rich and full life I should live with my husband and son.

Joss came and looked at the baby, marvelling at the tiny creature as though he couldn’t believe he was real. Then he turned to me.

“Ifs good, eh ?” he said.

What? ” I asked.

‘life,” he answered.

“Just life.”

“Ifs good,” I agreed, ‘and going to be better."

“Who can be sure of that ?” he asked.

“I can.” I retorted.

“And I will. ”