The Pride of the Peacock

4. THE PEACOCK

Change was in the air. Even my grandmother was slightly different. I often caught her watching me furtively; Miriam had grown a little bolder; Xavier was even more withdrawn; and I believed that the way in which I had stood up to my grandmother had impressed them all. It was clear that I had scored a victory, and they were less overawed by her than they had been before. Miriam grew mildly pretty. She was always going to church on some pretext or other, and I believed she was seeing more of the curate. The really alarming change, however, came from Oakland Hall.

Ben was gleefully hobbling round on his crutch. This old wooden stump will soon be as good as a leg,” he kept telling me.

Then you won’t be content to stay here,” I suggested fearfully.

Time never stands still,” was his comment.

“Shall you go back to the opal fields ?”

“I reckon I will at the end of the summer, perhaps. That would be the best time to sail. The seas would be kinder and I’d be sailing from summer to summer.”

There was a twinkle in his eye, which suggested he was making some plans, and I believed that I might be included in them.

There was certainly something unreal about that summer. The weather was hotter than it had been for many years and people were talking about records. There was not a cloud in the sky for days on end and the conversation at meals was concentrated on the weather and the possibilities of a drought, but I knew no one was thinking seriously about it. Even my grandfather had changed and was less subservient to my grandmother.

Ben was both elated and disturbed by my clear indication of what his departure would mean to me and encouraged me to go to Oakland more frequently. Not that I needed much encouragement.

I was there every day. The servants were now accustomed to seeing me and welcomed me. Hannah told me that Mr. Wilmot had said it was like the Family’s coming back again.

One of my favourite places was the gallery. This was some hundred feet long and about twenty wide. The Family had used it as a ballroom and it was where my mother and Desmond Dereham had first met. There were window seats at either end and sitting there I could imagine how grand it had looked when the Claverings danced through the ages while their family portraits lined the walls. The place where the spinet had stood was conspicuously empty, and the Persian rugs on the floor were those which Ben had purchased from the Claverings when he had bought the house.

I liked to sit in the window seat and picture my mother in her cherry red dress and Desmond setting eyes on her for the first time. Once she had thought her coming out dance would be held here. I remembered her saying that when she was a child she had crept up here to play the spinet, and when the servants came to see who was playing she would hide, so that the rumour started that a ghostly hand touched the keys.

Ben must have felt sentimental about her to have had the spinet removed to Australia.

One day he said: “You’d miss me if I went away, Jessie.”

“Please don’t talk of it,” I begged.

“But I want to talk about it. I've got something very important to say about it. You don’t think I’d go away and leave you here, do you ? If I went I’d want you to come with me.”

“Ben!”

“Well, that’s what I thought. We’d go off together. How’s that?”

I immediately thought of myself going into the drawing-room at the Dower House and announcing my departure. They’d never let me go,” I said.

“Oh yes, they would… when I got at them.”

“I don’t think you know them very well.”

“Don’t I just! They hate me, don’t they? I took their fine mansion away from them. For hundreds of years there had been Claverings at Oakland and then along comes Ben Henniker - an old gouger - and swipes the lot. Well, of course, they hate me. There’s a bit more to it than that, though. I met your grandfather before I came here. I’ve got to tell you. I don’t want any secrets between us … well, not more than we can help. Your family’s got a special reason for hating me.”

“Please tell me,” I begged.

“I told you some of it. There’s truth and there’s half truth, and it’s funny what picture you can build up by telling just what you want to tell and holding back the rest. You can make a fine picture of it and it all looks so natural … but then out comes the truth and that puts a very different complexion on it. I told you I came down here and saw the house and made up my mind I was going to have it, and I told you I made a fortune and put myself in a position to buy it. All true. Well, there was I with my fortune and there was Grandfather Clavering finding it hard to make ends meet but stumbling along somehow like his ancestors had before him. I’m a wicked old man, Jessie. That’s what you’ve got to learn. I’m rich. I’ve got money to play with. The world’s my stage and I like to shift the players around a bit to make them dance to my tune. I’m also a bit of a gambler, as I’ve told you before. Not so much as the Claverings, though. I wonder if you’re a gambler, Jessie. I reckon you are. You’re a Clavering, you know.

“Your grandfather belonged to one of those London clubs. I knew it well , .. from the outside. I used to pass it with my tray of ginger breads when I was first starting out. Fine, imposing sort of place with some lions guarding the door to keep out poor gingerbread-sellers like me. One of these days, I promised myself, I’ll strut up those steps with the best of ‘em, and one day I did. I joined this club and there I met your grandfather. We discovered a love of a game called poker. It’s one where you can lose a fortune in an afternoon and I saw that he did. Well, it took two or three afternoons actually. I made up my mind I was going to sit at that table till the day came when he’d have to give up Oakland. It was easier than I thought.”

“You … deliberately did that!”

‘now don’t look at me like that, Jessie. It was all fair and above board. He had as much chance of winning as I had. I wasn’t staking all I’d got, though. He was the more ruthless. Gamblers both-I was staking a fortune; he was staking his house, and he lost. He had to sell, and I got Oakland Hall. They never forgave me for that . particularly your grand mother. It was no use trying to be neighbourly after that.

Now I’ve told you. ”

” Ben,” I said earnestly, ‘you didn’t cheat? That’s what I want to know. I couldn’t bear it if you had.”

He looked straight at me.

“Cross my heart … as we used to say when I was a little ‘un.” He put his forefinger to his lips and chanted :

“See my finger’s wet. See my finger’s dry (he wiped it on his coat) Cross my heart (waving his hand across his chest) And never tell a lie.”

He grinned at me.

“No. It was a gamble … nothing more. I just won.”

“And my grandmother knew this?”

“Yes, she knew, and she’s hated me ever since. Not that I care for that, but I shouldn’t like it if you took against me because of it.”

“No, I don’t, Ben. It was a fair game and he lost.”

“Goodo. Now we understand each other. I reckon I could arrange for you to come to Australia with me.”

“It sounds so exciting I can’t believe it.”

“Well, we’ll start hatching plots, shall we?”

They’d be horrified, I know. “

That makes it all the more exciting, doesn’t it? ” he retorted mischievously.

He would sit there laughing to himself and I wondered what was in his mind. He talked a great deal about the Company, the town which had grown up and was known by the name of-the Fancy or Fancy Town. He often mentioned Joss; in fact he seemed to be obsessed by Joss, which I supposed was natural since he was his son, but the more I heard of that arrogant gentleman the less I was able to share Ben’s enthusiasm for him.

It was always: “When you’re in Australia …” but nothing was said about how I was going to escape from my family. I had been eighteen that June so I was still not my own mistress.

I did enjoy our talks, though. I loved hearing about his home out there and I felt I knew the ostentatious house already . for I was sure it was ostentatious with a name like Peacocks. I could never picture it without peacocks on the lawn and the human Peacock strutting with them. There was a housekeeper, a Mrs. Laud, to whom Ben referred now and then and who seemed to be a most efficient woman for whom he felt some affection. She had a son and daughter - Jimson working with the Company and Lilias who helped her mother in the house; there were also a number of servants, and among them were several what he called “Abos’, the term for aborigines.

I would listen avidly and again and again I asked: “Yes, Ben, but how am I going to get there? Then he would give his sly laugh.

“You leave that to me,” he would say.

I saw Hannah now and then and was still on good terms with the servants at the Hall, for I always found time to visit them.

“Mr. Henniker’s told me he’ll be leaving soon,” said Mrs’ Bucket.

“He’s told Mr. Wilmot too. So then we’ll arrange to shut up again and it’ll be as it was before he came back without his leg. I don’t think it’s right for a house like this. The servants don’t like it. That’s what comes of people who don’t belong. You’ll miss them, I reckon.”

I almost blurted out that he had plans, but I realized then how wild those plans were, and it occurred to me then that he talked of them to placate me and that he knew as well as I did that I should never be able to leave.

There was a knock on the door of my room and Miriam came in. She looked quite pretty.

“I want to talk to you, Jessica,” she said.

“What do you think? Ernest and I are going to get married.”

I put my arms round her and kissed her because I was so pleased that she had at last come to her senses. I didn’t remember when I had last done that, but I knew it pleased her because she went pink to the tips of her ears and nose.

“I’m very happy,” she went on.

“We decided that no matter what Mama said we would wait no longer.”

“I’m so glad, Miriam,” I cried.

“You should have done it years ago.

Never mind. You have at last. So when shall you be married? “

“Ernest says there is no sense in waiting. We have waited long enough.

We were waiting, you know, for him to get St. Clissold’s because the vicar there is very, very old, but he just goes on living and could live for another ten years. “

“No use waiting for dead men’s shoes or dead vicars’ vestments. I think it’s wonderful, and I’m glad you’ve come to your senses. It’s lovely and I hope you’ll be very happy.”

“We shall be very poor. Papa can give me nothing, and I still have to tell Mama.”

“Don’t let her stop you.”

“Nothing could stop me now. Ifs rather a blessing that we have been so poor lately-though not as poor as Ernest and I shall be. It means that I have learned how to make everything go a long way…”

“I’m sure you’re right, Miriam. When is the wedding to be?”

Miriam looked really frightened.

“At the end of August. Ernest says we’d better put up the banns right away and then no one can stop us.

There’s the little curate’s cottage in the vicarage grounds where Ernest lives alone. But there’ll be room for two of us. “

“You’ll manage very well, Miriam.”

I was glad she had made the decision and the change in her was miraculous. My grandmother was naturally angry and sceptical. She referred slightingly to ‘our lovesick girl’ and how some people seemed to think they could live like church mice on the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. I bubbled over with mirth at that and pointed out that she did not know her Bible as it certainly was not the mice who had devoured those very special crumbs.

“You have become impossible, Jessica,” she told me.

“I don’t know what this household is coming to. How different things might have been if some people had taken their responsibilities more seriously. Perhaps then we shouldn’t have foolish old maids making laughing-stocks of themselves in the mad rush to marry anybody-just anybody before it is too late.”

Miriam was wounded and wavered, but only slightly. She was Ernest’s future wife now, not merely my grandmother’s daughter, and she quoted him whenever possible. I was delighted. I talked to her often and we grew more friendly than we ever had been. I told her she was doing the right thing in escaping from my grandmother’s tyranny, that she was fortunate to be able to and that she was going to be very happy.

“I wonder what will happen here when I have left,” she said on one occasion.

“Jessica, what of you?”

“What do you mean ?”

“You’re going a great deal to Oakland Hall. Sometimes that frightens me. It’s what your mother did.”

“I enjoy going there. Why shouldn’t I go? You must admit life is not exactly hilarious at the Dower House.”

“Her trouble began there.”

“It’s going to be quite different with me. Stop worrying, Miriam.

Think of the future. I know you’re going to be happy. “

“I’m determined to be,” she said defiantly, as though she were thinking of her mother.

Miriam was married, as she had said she would be, at the end of August. My grandmother went to the wedding because it would look unsuitable if she did not, and this seemed to be her sole reason for going. My grandfather performed the giving away ceremony and I was a bridesmaid. It was a quiet wedding-necessarily so, my grandmother pointed out about a hundred times after the banns had been called, in our reduced circumstances.

There was no wedding feast.

“What is there to celebrate?” demanded my grandmother.

“Just an old maid’s folly.”

She was cruel, but Miriam seemed impervious to her insults; she was so happy to be married at last and to have made the decision which had hung over her for so many years. There was a permanent sneer about my grandmother’s lips when she referred to the married pair, and she took to calling them ‘the church mice’, gloating over their future poverty and making it out to be so much worse than it was.

There was no honeymoon.

“Honeymoon,” sneered my grand mother.

“You know what their honeymoon will be-a piece of bread and cheese eaten from that cottage wooden table which my daughter will have to learn to scrub. Then she will discover her folly. A honeymoon in that miserable little hut … for it is no more! I wish them joy for it.”

My grandfather spoke up: “Sometimes there can be more joy in a humble cottage than in a mansion. It says some thing like that in the Bible, and it seems to me that Miriam can only congratulate herself that she has escaped from this place.”

My grandmother stared at him and he picked up The Times and walked out of the room.

Change indeed when my grandfather stood his ground with his wife.

It was a week after Miriam’s wedding when the accident happened. Ben was walking in the grounds one morning when his crutch apparently slid on some damp leaves and he fell. He was in the grounds for an hour before he was discovered. He was carried in by Banker and Mr. Wilmot, who called the doctor. It seemed that his injuries were by no means slight as the wound on his leg had burst open and he would have to remain in bed until it was healed.

He was looking not only disgruntled but ill when I called.

“Look what the old fool’s done, Jessie,” he grumbled. There was I sprinting along, you might say, one minute and the next my crutch has gone flying and I’m rolling on the grass and there’s that old leg letting me know it was once there and mad because they lopped it off and its there no longer. Why weren’t you there to save me this time ? "

“How I wish I had been.”

Well, you’ll have to come and see me now and then. “

“As often as you like, Ben.”

“You’ll get tired of this sick old man. But I’ll be up and about soon, you’ll see."

” Of course. “

“It means postponing our going to Australia. Why, that doesn’t seem to upset you.”

“I couldn’t bear to think of your going.”

“Not when you were coming with me ?”

“I don’t think I ever really believed I would.”

That’s not like you, Jess. You wanted to come, didn’t you ? You didn’t want to stay in that house. You’d be stifled there. What’s going to happen to you if you stay there? It’s no place for a bold spirit like yours. You want to live, see the world, spread your wings You’re a gambler, Jessie. Oh yes, you are. It’s in your blood, the same as ifs in mine. Look at it like this. Ifs a postponement One day you’re going off to Australia. I promise you. “

“Are you going to gamble with them for me this time?” I laughed.

That’s not a bad idea, I’d take your grandfather on any day. ” He grimaced.

“But suppose I lost, eh, Jessie? What then?”

“You’re a gambler. You’d take a risk.”

There are some things too important to take a chance on. ” He gripped my hand firmly.

“You’re going to Australia. That’s something I’ve made up my mind about.”

“Well, Ben, all you have to do is get well.”

“Leave it to me. Next week I’ll be on the hobble again.”

But he wasn’t.

September passed and October was with us, and still the wound did not heal. Until it had, the doctor insisted, he must stay in bed.

He raged a good deal, cursed doctors, declared they didn’t know what they were talking about, but he was uneasy. Why wouldn’t the miserable wound heal? He was not going to stay in bed. He had plans. He tried to get up, but the effort of attempting to walk was too much for him and he had to admit defeat.

I went in every day to see him and I knew that he watched the door at half past two every afternoon so I made a point of never being late, and it made me happy when I left him more cheerful than I found him.

Then one day-it must have been towards the end of October-the doctor arrived with another member of his profession whom he had called in, and there were grave faces at Oakland Hall. There was something wrong-something more than a wound which obstinately refused to heal.

This was indeed a symptom of something else.

Ben at first insisted that it was all a lot of nonsense and wanted to get up to prove it; that was where he was proved wrong. He simply could not get up and in time he had to admit that the doctors were right Being Ben, he insisted on knowing the truth and when I called he told me what he had got out of them.

“I’m going to talk to you very seriously, Jessie,” he said.

“I made them tell me the troth. They didn’t want to but they soon saw the sort of man I was.

“Ifs my body,” I told them.

“Now don’t you go treating me as though I’m a child or a weak old woman. If it’s the end of Ben Henniker, then that’s Ben Henniker’s business. I want to leave everything in order!” Well, they told me I’ve got some blood disease.

That’s why the old leg won’t heal. If I hadn’t had the fall it would have shown itself sooner or later. That just gave them the clue they wanted. They reckon I’ve got a year at the most and that I’m not going to get up from this bed. You might think that there go all Ben Henniker’s fine plans . but if you think that you don’t know Ben Henniker. It means an adjustment and I made them tell me the truth because I wanted time to make this adjustment. You follow me, Jess? “Of course,” I said.

“All right then. I’ve not got long. I’ve got to be prepared. So I’ll make preparations. Don’t look so sad. I’m an old man. I’ve had my day and a pretty good day it’s been. The point is, I don’t want to be snuffed out like a candle. You know, there was a light there and then suddenly there’s no light … and that was Ben Henniker, that was.

No. It’s not going to be like that. It’s always been a dream of mine to see my grand children pea cocking on my lawn. “

You mean Joss’s children. “

That’s right. I used to picture them . sturdy little ‘uns . looking just like him. Not just one of them . I wanted lots of ‘em.

Little boys and little girls. He’d have pretty girls if they inherited his eyes. I’m glad he’s shown no signs of marrying yet and there’s a reason for it’ What reason ? He’s not so very young, is he? “

“He’s the other side of thirty. To think ifs all that time since he came strutting across that lawn with his suitcase.

“I’ve come here. I like it here. I like the peacocks …” What a boy! I reckon he’s liked it there ever since. I want him to marry the right woman. That's important. So I’m glad he hasn’t married yet. “

“You were going to tell me the reason.”

“Oh, he’s been involved here and there. He’s a man who likes women and they like him.” Ben chuckled in that fond way which I always found irritating in this connection.

“Everything Joss does is done with more energy than ordinary people use. So ifs like that with women. He’s got the roving eye all right, but he never seemed anxious to settle.”

“He gets more attractive than ever,” I said sarcastically.

“He’s now added promiscuity to his arrogance.”

“Joss is a man, remember. He’s strong, proud, sure of himself. He’s all that a man should be. He’s myself made tall and handsome and got the right education too, which was what I missed. I sent him to school over here when he was eleven years old and he stayed here until he was sixteen. I was a bit worried about that. Afraid it might change him too much. Not a bit of it. An English education just gave him something more. When he was sixteen he refused to stay at school any longer. He was raring to get to work. He was mad about opals and mining and all that went with it. When I showed him the Flash that night I remember the look in his eyes … But that’s past. What I want to talk about is now. A year at the most, they say. Well, perhaps old Ben can make it a bit longer. But before I go everything will have to be in order. Now you can do all sorts of things for me. You can write letters and such like.”

“I’ll do everything I can. You know that, Ben. ” Well, the first letter I want you to write is to my solicitors. Now they’re in London and in Sydney. I want you to write to the London address right away and tell them that their Mr. Venning is to come and see me down here without delay. Will you do that? “

“Of course. Immediately. You must give me all particulars.”

“Ifs Mr. Venning of Venning and Caves, and they’re in Hanover Square and you’ll find the complete address in a book in that drawer over there. That’s the first thing.”

I wrote the letter and said I would post it.

I sat by his bed, and he said: “I’m glad there’s some time left to us, Jessie.”

The doctors could be wrong,” I insisted. They have been known to be.”

That’s so. I wonder if it is the curse of the Green Flash after all. I told you that misfortune dogged those who owned it, didn’t I? “

“But you don’t own it. You lost it… nearly twenty years ago.”

“Yes. Yes, of course. But there was my accident in the mine … and there’s the suggestion that I might have caught this infection of the blood, or whatever it is, in those mines. Perhaps that’s the price you have to pay for gouging those beauties out of the rock, taking them from where they belong a sort of revenge they have.”

“Surely something beautiful shouldn’t be hidden in rock. It should be brought out for people to enjoy.”

“Who knows? But it could be the curse of the Green Flash getting me.”

“You don’t believe that, Ben. How can you? You were well enough when you owned it.”

He didn’t answer. He merely took my hand and held it.

“Later on,” he said, “I shall send for joss.”

“You mean bring him here?”

His shrewd eyes were on me.

“I can feel your pulse quicken. He excites you, doesn’t he … I mean the thought of seeing him does?”

“Why should it?” I asked.

“I know you think a great deal of him, Ben, but what I have heard doesn’t make me admire him very much.”

He started to laugh so hard that I thought it might be bad for him.

“Stop it, Ben,” I said severely.

“It’s not a bit funny.”

“It is because I know you’re going to change your opinion when you meet him.”

“So you really are going to ask him to come here?”

“Not yet. I’ve got some time left to me. When he comes it will be to see me out. He’s got work to do out there. He can’t dilly-dally shilly-shally for a year. But when the end is near-and I’ll know it-there’s no doubt of that, I’ll send for Joss. I’ll have to tell him what I want him to do before I go.”

I was unhappy, for I could see the change in him every day. Being Ben, he would cling to life tenaciously, but in the end he would have to give way.

This time next year . I thought; and I was filled with melancholy.

The weeks passed, and I continued to visit Ben every day.

My grandmother could not be kept in ignorance of my visits, and while she expressed disapproval she did not attempt to stop them. I was sure she knew that if she did I should blatantly disobey her.

“Your friend, the miner, seems to be getting his just deserts,” she commented sourly.

“People of his station clambering about in mines so that they can ape their betters are bound to come to grief.”

I couldn’t respond with my usual flippancy. I felt too deeply about Ben.

He used to talk incessantly about the days in Australia and I would encourage him to do so because it comforted him. He often mentioned the Green Rash opal and once or twice he seemed to be wandering in his mind because he talked as though he still had it.

“People get fancies about opals,” he said, ‘and the Green Hash was no ordinary gem. Diamonds can be of greater value, but they don’t seem to have the same effect on people. I’ve seen men going for gold . it’s a sort of fever, but the lust is not for the gold in itself. It’s what gold can bring them. Perhaps it’s because opals are different One nugget looks very like another, but opals are varying. There are such legends about that stone. People read messages in the colours. In the past they were omens of good fortune. People say they can bring bad luck, though. I always used to say this was because some of them could be so easily chipped, and a stone a man has regarded as his fortune can thus lose much of its value. I’ve known men desperately in need of money and yet refusing to part with a stone that could save them.

That’s how it was with the Green Rash. “

“Yet you say it was called the Unlucky Stone. There’s bound to be legends about a stone like that. It was one of the first black opals to be found. It’s odd that there should never have been anything like it since. There never will be in my opinion.”

Who found it? “

“It was an old miner … fifty years ago. He’d had bad luck all along the sort of fellow who’d give up just as he was almost on a find and then someone else would come along and reap the reward of his labour. He was called Unlucky Jim. Then . he found her. It was rather like what happened to me with Green Lady. The rock collapsed on him, and he was found dead clutching the Green Flash in his hand. Perhaps that’s what started it all. I think bad luck’s sometimes wished on you . if you follow.

Unlucky Jim finds the Flash and, taking her, loses his life. His son found him and the stone and he knew right away that she was a winner.

One look at her was enough . though she was in the raw state then.

He wanted to get her into Sydney right away, but he’d showed her round a bit. He couldn’t help it, he was proud of her. He was warned by an old gypsy’ woman that it wouldn’t be wise for him to carry that stone through the Bush because already people were talking of it . how it was the finest opal in the world and worth a fortune. So he had a plan. He gave it to his younger brother to take . and none knew he had it. A bushranger shot him on the way determined to get the opal, but of course he couldn’t find it because the brother had it. So that was two deaths already. “

“And what happened to it then?”

“It was cut and polished and, by heavens, what emerged dazzled just everyone who saw it. The size … the colour … it had never been expected that such a stone existed. This younger brother had it then.

I only half-remember what happened to him. His daughter eloped and he tried to stop her and in the scuffle with the would-be husband, the owner of the Green Flash was thrown downstairs. He spent two years in acute pain before he died but he wouldn’t give up the Green Flash. I heard he used to carry it with him so that he could look at it every day and he thought it was worthwhile . everything that had happened just to possess it. His daughter, though, was afraid of it and she put it in the hands of a dealer and from him it passed to some Eastern ruler. That’ll give you an idea. It was worthy to fit into some jewel-studded crown. He was assassinated a year or so after, and it passed to his eldest son who was sold in slavery but not before the Flash was taken from him by his captors. One of them stole it and ran off with it and when misfortune started to hit him he blamed the stone. He died of a fever, but not before he’d told his son to take it back where it be longed. That was how it was brought back to Australia. Old Harry I told you about gambled for it. It was one of those occasions when Harry won. “

“Did he believe the legend?”

“All I know is that when people get that stone they want to keep it at all cost, ” And you weren’t afraid when you had it? “

“No. But look what happened to me. Look at me now.”

“You can’t blame that on the ill luck the stone has brought you because you no longer have it. I wonder what happened to whoever took it?”

He held my hand firmly and began: “Jessie …” I waited for I thought he was going to tell me something but he seemed to change his mind.

He looked very tired and I said: “I’m going to leave you to sleep now, Ben.”

Oddly enough, he made no protest so I quietly left him and went back to the Dower House.

The next year was with us. Every now and then Ben rallied so that I thought he was going to defy the doctors and get well, but there would be days when he would appear to be exhausted in spite of his efforts to hide it.

It was in the middle of February, a cold day with a north wind blowing and flurries of snow in the air, that I went to see him.

There was a fire in the grate and Hannah looked sad. She whispered:

“He’s failing, I think. Lord help us. What’s going to become of us all?”

“I dare say he will have made some provision,” I assured her.

“That Banker is really cut up, and Mr. Wilmot hasn’t mentioned Mr. Henniker’s not the right sort of master of Oakland for the last six weeks. I reckon he’d give a good deal to have things go on as they were.”

“We all would, Hannah,” I said.

So I was prepared when I went to his room. It may have been the cold white light of the snowy weather which gave his face that bluish tinge, but I didn’t think so. He smiled when he saw me and tried to appear jaunty.

“What I call roast chestnut and hot spud weather,” he said.

“I once did very well with them … chestnuts and roast potatoes cooked on a little brazier at the corner of the street.

Lovely to warm your hands on. It’s a cold day today, Jessie. “

I went to the bed and took his hands. They were indeed very cold.

“I can’t seem to keep myself warm these days,” he said. We talked of Australia and the mines and men he had known; and I made tea on the spirit lamp, which he liked to see me do.

“I picture you boiling the billy-can out in the Bush. That’s what I used to think we’d be doing one day. They say Man proposes and God disposes. He’s disposing a bit today, I’m afraid, Jess.”

I gave him the tea and watched him drink it.

“Good strong stuff,” he said.

“But, you know, tea never tastes as good as it does out in the Bush. I’d like to have been out there with you, Jessie. I’d have liked to see you-a damper in one hand and a cup of good brew in the other, and I’d like to have heard you say you’d never tasted anything so good. Never mind, you’ll know it all one day.” I must have looked very sad because he went on: “Cheer up, my girl. Oh yes, you’re going out there. I’m certain of that I won’t have it otherwise.”

I didn’t answer. I let him go on with his fancies, and I wondered what I was going to do when he was gone and I should no longer come to Oakland Hall.

“I’ve been thinking of something,” he said.

“I reckon the time has come. Joss should be told. He ought to start thinking about coming over now. It’ll take him time. You can’t expect him to catch the first ship. He’ll have things to arrange. With out Joss the Company will be in need of a bit of organizing.”

You want to write to him? ” I said. I took paper and pen and sat down by the bed.

“What do you want me to say?”

“I’d like you to write it in your own way. I want it to be a letter from you to him.” - “But…”

“Go on. It’s what I want.” So I wrote:

Dear Mr. Madden, Mr. Ben Henniker has asked me to write to you to tell you he is very ill. He wants you to come to England. It is very important that you should leave as soon as possible. Yours truly, Jessica Clavering.

Read it to me,” said Ben, and I did.

“It does sound a bit unfriendly,” he commented.

“How could it be friendly when I haven’t met him?”

“I’ve told you something about him.”

“I suppose it doesn’t make me feel particularly friendly.”

Then I haven’t told you the right things and I’m to blame.

When you meet him, you’ll feel like all women do . you’ll see. “

I’m not a silly little peahen to goggle at the magnificent peacock, you know, Ben. “

That set him laughing so much that once again I was afraid it might be bad for him.

When he was quiet he lay back smiling happily, as through I thought, he had discovered a rich vein of opal.

“Anyone would think you’d found the Green Rash,” I told him, and a strange expression crossed his face. I could not guess what he was thinking.

He rallied a little after that and in due course I received a reply from Josslyn Madden. It was addressed to Miss Jessica Clavering at Oakland Hall, and Mr. Wilmot handed it to me on a silver salver when I arrived.

I saw the Australian postmark and the bold handwriting, and I guessed from whom it came, so I took it up to Ben and told him that Joss Madden had answered my letter.

I opened it and read aloud:

Dear Miss Clavering, Thank you for your letter. By the time you receive this I shall be on my way. I shall come immediately to Oakland Hall when I arrive in England.

Yours truly, J. Madden.

“Is that all he says ?” cried Ben querulously.

“It’s enough,” I replied.

“All he has to tell us is that he is on his way.”

April had come. I should be nineteen in June.

“You’re growing up,” said my grandmother.

“How different it might have been. We should have done our duty by you and you would have come out with dignity. Here … in this place … what can we hope for? There isn’t even a curate for you. Mind you, your fondness for low company might exclude you from such as Miriam has turned to.”

“Miriam is very happy, I think.”

“I’m sure she is … wondering where her next meal is coming from.”

“It’s not as bad as that. They have enough to eat. She enjoys managing and I know she is much happier than she was here.”

“Oh, she was glad enough to get someone to marry her … anyone … it didn’t matter who. I hope you’re not going to get into that desperate state.”

‘you need have no anxieties on that score,” I retorted.

I was feeling very sad because I knew that Ben’s health ‘it V. for the worse; he was visibly deteriorating of what would happen when he died and I pro sited Oakland. The future stretched out drearily as I was still doing what my grandmother called des expected of people in our position, even though Are in such reduced circumstances. That meant taking the poor dusters and the preserves which had not turned as well as my grandmother had expected them to, taking harge of a stall at the church fete, attending the sewing class held at the vicarage, putting flowers on the graves, helping decorate the church and such activities, I could see myself growing old and sour as Miriam had been before she married her curate-but even she had had him in the background, I was no longer very young. I was now a woman and the older I grew the more quickly would the years slip by The days began ordinarily enough with prayers in the drawing-room where the family assembled with the servants while my grandmother, as I once irreverently observed to Miriam, gave the Almighty His instructions for the day.

“Do this …” and “Don’t do that…” By force of habit I counted up the injunctions.

That April Mrs. Jarman had been delivered of another child and Jarman was more melancholy than ever. Nature, he told me, showed no signs of curbing her generosity. My grandmother sharply retorted that he was not so simple that he did not know that a little restraint might ease the situation. He was indeed Poor Jarman; he looked at my grandmother with such reproach that he made me want to laugh.

“Talk of Poor Jarman,” she said to me sharply.

“I think it’s a case of Poor Mrs. Jarman.”

In an outburst of generosity she packed a basket for the fertile lady and even put in a pot of raspberry jam which had not started to go mouldy, a small chicken, and a flask of broth.

You can take this over to Mrs. Jarman, Jessica,” she said.

“After all, her husband does work for us. Take it while he is working, for I am sure he seizes the best of everything for himself and she needs nourishment, poor woman.”

That was how on a breezy afternoon in late April I came to be walking over to the cottage where the Jarmans lived, a basket on my arm, thinking as I went of Ben and wondering how soon the day would come when I went over to Oakland Hall and found that he had left it.

Outside the Jarman cottage was a muddy pond and a scrap , of garden overgrown with weeds. It was strange that Poor Jarman, who spent his days making other people’s gardens beautiful should so neglect his own. I contemplated that they could have grown some flowers there, or perhaps some vegetables, but instead of daffodils and flowering shrubs there were little Jarmans playing games which seemed to involve the maximum of noise, confusion, and an abundance of litter.

One of the young ones who must have been about three years old had a small flowerpot into-which he was shovelling dirt and turning it out into neat little mounds which he patted with hands understandably grimy, after which operation he rubbed them over his face and down his pinafore. Two others were tugging at a rope and another was throwing a ball into the pond so that when it bounced a spray of dirty water rose, splashing him and anyone near to the immense delight of those who were thus anointed.

There was a brief silence as I approached, all eyes on the basket, but as I went into the cottage the noise broke out again.

I called out: “Good afternoon, Mrs. Jarman.”

One stepped straight into the living-room, and I knocked on a door which I knew from previous visits to be that of the connubial bedchamber. There was a spiral staircase leading from the room to two rooms upstairs which were occupied as sleeping quarters by the ever-increasing tribe.

Mrs. Jarman was in bed, the new baby in a cradle beside her. She was very large. Like a queen bee, I had once remarked to Miriam, and indeed Nature had clearly furnished her for a similar destiny.

“Another little girl, Mrs. Jarman,” I said. , “Yes, Miss Jessica,” said Mrs. Jarman, rolling her eyes reproachfully up to the ceiling as though Providence had whisked this one into the cradle when she wasn’t looking, for she shared Poor Jarman’s complaint that it was Nature at her tricks again.

The little girl was going to be called Daisy, she told me, and she hoped God would see fit to bless her.

“Well, Mrs. Jarman,” I said, ‘you have your quiverful and that’s supposed to be a blessed state. “

“It’ll mean getting another bed up there in time,” she said.

“I only hope the Lord sees fit to stop with Daisy.”

I talked for a while and then came out of the house to where the noise seemed to have increased. The maker of dirt mounds had had enough of them and was cheerfully kicking them down to the pond. The ball went into the pond and the Jarman who had thrown it shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

I was about to cross the road when the mound-maker having seen the ball go into the pond decided to retrieve it. He walked in, reached for the ball and fell flat on his face.

The other children were all watching with interest, but none of them thought of getting the child out. There was only one thing for me to do because he was in imminent danger. I waded into the pond, picked up the little Jarman and angrily strode with him on to dry land.

As I stood there with the child in my arms I was aware of a man on horseback watching the scene. The horse looked enormous, so did the man; it was like a centaur or some legendary creature.

An imperious voice said: “Can you tell me the way to Oakland Hall?”

The eldest Jarman present, who must have been about six, shouted: “Up the road there…”

The man on horseback was looking straight at me expecting the only adult to give the answer.

I said: “You go straight up the road, turn to the right and you will see the gates a little way along the road.”

“Thank you.”

He put his hand into his pocket and brought out some coins which he threw at us.

I was furious. I hastily put down the little Jarman and stopped to pick up the coins with the intention of throwing them back at him, but before I could reach them two Jarmans had swooped on them and had run off as fast as they could with their prize.

I looked angrily at the back of the horseman and turned on the small Jarman whose mud-spattered face was lifted to mine, one finger in his mouth while he regarded me with curiosity.

“You dirty little creature,” I stammered. Then I was sorry because it wasn’t his fault.

“All right,” I said.

“Go in and get one of your brothers and sisters to dry you. And don’t dare walk into the pond again.”

I strode off to the Dower House. As soon as I reached my room I looked at myself in a mirror. There was a smudge of dirt on my cheek; my blouse was muddy, my skirt wet at the hem and my shoes saturated. “ What a sight I looked. And the man on horseback had taken me for a cottage girl! I guessed who he was. Hadn’t he asked for Oakland Hall? Hadn’t he behaved in a per fe arrogant manner? Hadn’t he the conceited looks of a peacock?

To think that my first meeting with him should have been like that!

“I knew I’d hate him,” I said aloud.

I could not bring myself to go to Oakland Hall the following afternoon. I thought: He’ll be there, and I don’t want to see him. Ben will be all right, I thought jealously. He’s got his precious Peacock.

He won’t want me.

I was wrong.

Maddy came knocking at my door.

“Hannah gave me a message for you.

It’s from Mr. Henniker. He’s asking you to go over there. He wants you particular I had to go then, so I dressed with care. I wore my blue alpaca, which if it was not my most becoming gown gave me an air of dignity.

As soon as I arrived at the Hall I was aware of the change. There was tense excitement in the atmosphere. Wilmot greeted me in the hall, urbane and dignified.

“Mr. Henniker wishes you to go straight up to his room, Miss Clavering.”

Thank you, Wilmot,” I said.

I knew it was no use asking the questions which came into my mind.

Wilmot would be too correct to discuss one visitor with another. But I did see Hannah at the top of the staircase where she was lurking, obviously hoping to catch me.

“Oh, Miss Jessica,” she said in an awe struck voice, ‘he’s come. the gentleman from Australia. “

“Oh?” I said, waiting.

“My word!” The expression on her face irritated me. Usually sensible, Hannah looked quite foolish.

“He seems to have had an extraordinary effect on you,” I said sharply.

“Mr. Henniker’s that pleased. I reckon ifs given him a new lease of life. He came into the hall yesterday it was … You’d have thought he owned the place. Wilmot says it looks like the place could belong to him. I don’t know when I’ve seen such a big gentleman, and he’s got a way of talking too. You can hear him all over the place… one of them carrying voices. My word! I reckon he knows what he’s about.

Wilmot seems to think he’s some sort of relation. A son, Wilmot’s heard. Though we didn’t know Mr. Henniker had been married, and he’s a Mr. Madden. “

“I suppose I’m to meet him,” I said, cutting her short, ‘so I must go and see this-‘ I was going to say ‘peacock’ but I changed it to ‘paragon’- “of yours whose huge body and booming voice seem to have bewitched you.”

I went past her, knowing she was thinking I was very touchy today.

I knocked at Ben’s bedroom door and heard him say: This will be Jessica. ” Then loudly: ” Come in, my dear. “I went in. Ben was sitting in the chair by the bed in a dressing-gown and with a rug about his knees. A tall figure rose and came towards me. I was annoyed because I had to look up so far.

Of course it was the man I had met on horseback outside the Jarman cottage.

He took my hand and kept it too long for me.

“So,” he said, ‘we meet again. “

“Hey? What’s this?” cried Ben.

“Come over here, the two of you. I want to make a proper introduction. This is a very important occasion. I want you two to know each other, and when you do you’re going to like each other a good deal. I’ve never had any doubt of that. You’re two of a kind.”

I couldn’t help showing the resentment which flared up with me at the thought of being compared with this man. I noticed his eyes then-those deep blue eyes the colour of a peacock’s feather; I noticed the rather large nose, slightly aquiline, which suggested the arrogance I was convinced I would find, and the long, rather thin lips, which could have been cynical or sensuous or both. It was not so much a handsome face as a distinguished one-the sort that would never be passed in a crowd and once seen remembered. The brown velvet jacket and the very white cravat suggested fastidiousness, but the brown riding boots and corded breeches were essentially masculine.

What I disliked most was the mocking expression in his face which told me that he was remembering the sight of me emerging from a muddy pond with a grubby Jarman in my arms. That was his first impression and it was something he was not going to forget.

“We have met before, Ben,” he said.

“Come and tell me about it.”

I said quickly: “I went to the Jarmans. Mrs. Jarman produced again and my grandmother sent me over with son things. As I was coming out of the house one of the children fell into the pond. I got him out and Mr. er …” I nodded towards him.

‘you must call him Joss, my dear,” said Ben.

“We don’t want any formality. We’re all too friendly for that.”

“But I don’t know him,” I protested.

“We have met before,” said Joss Madden, and I sensed the mockery.

I said firmly: “Mr. Madden came by, asked the way-and paid for the information.” I turned to him.

“I can assure you the fee was unnecessary and would have been returned to you had not the children seized whatever it was and run off with it.”

Ben laughed.

“Well, fancy that! And you didn’t know each other?”

“Having heard that Mr. Madden was due, I guessed it was he. His actions fitted what I had heard of him.”

Joss Madden laughed. It was a quick bellow of a laugh. It exploded and was over.

“I trust that was meant as a compliment,” he said, ‘because I’m going to take it as such. “

“I will leave you to judge,” I replied.

Ben Was smiling as though-I found I was using this simile often in connection with him-he had found the Green Flash.

“It does me good to see you here getting along so well with Jessica,” said Ben.

“It’s the best thing that’s happened since my fall. Now, let’s all sit down and get comfortable, shall we? We’ve got a lot to talk about, and I don’t know how much time there is left to us.”

“Don’t say that, Ben,” I cried.

“You’re going to be so much better now that er … Mr. Madden has come.”

“Let’s look the truth straight between the eyes,” said Ben.

“It’s always the best way. That’s so, eh. Joss ?”

“I believe it to be,” he answered.

‘now come on . bring the chairs up . one of you on either side of me. There. That's what I’ve been wanting for a long time. Now I’m going to be sentimental. It’s allowed for a poor old man who hasn’t got much time left to him. There’s two people who mean more to me than anything eke in the world, and I’ve set my heart on one thing and that is that I want them to be together . work together . “

I could feel Joss Madden’s eyes on me, assessing me in a way I felt offensive. No man had ever looked at me like that before. It made me strangely aware of myself. I had expected him to be arrogant and offensive, but I had not guessed he would arouse such hitherto unexperienced feelings in me. I found myself remembering that there was a strongish breeze which had made my hair untidy and that my alpaca was not in very becoming. I must have looked quite terrible yesterday when I had emerged from the pond.

I heard myself say shrilly: “Work together … I Whatever do you mean, Ben?”

“Well, that’s something I’m coming to. I can see Joss here thinking it’s a bit soon. I reckon he’s thinking you and he ought to get better acquainted first. Is that it. Joss?”

“It may be that Miss Clavering would find the shock too great. Give her a day or two to get used to me.”

This is all rather mysterious. “

“Ifs really very straightforward and practical,” said Joss Madden.

“Are you practical. Miss Clavering?”

“Now what did I say,” interrupted Ben.

“No formality.”

“Are you practical, Jessica?” asked Joss Madden.

“I think I am,” I answered.

“Yes. You have that air. I would say you take a pride in being a sensible young woman.”

“It seems a sensible thing to take a pride in,” I retorted.

“Brisk,” he said.

“No nonsense. That’s going to be very helpful, I can see.”

“Look here,” said Ben.

“I’m rushing things. I begin to see that. I’ll tell you what we’ll do. Tomorrow we’ll have a good talk. The three of us together, eh?”

That seems a good idea,” said Joss Madden.

All right, then,” said Ben. That’s settled. We’ll just chat now, eh?

Tell me how things are back home. “

“I’ve told you the essentials already,” said Joss with a laugh.

Things-are running as smoothly as they can be expected to. There are no dire problems. We struck a rich vein near Deny Creek. “

“Good black opal, eh? And not too much potch. That’s what I like to hear. Jimson Laud coming along all right?”

“He’s all right.”

“You sound lukewarm.

“Jimson’s the one who’s lukewarm.”

“Can’t expect everyone to blow hot like you. Joss. Jimson’s a figure man. They don’t get excited-but accounts arc important to the business.

And Lilias? “

The same as ever. “

“And Emmeline?”

The entire family has changed little since you last seen them. “

Ben looked into space, murmuring: “Oh, I’d like to Peacocks once more before I went. Mind you, I’ve got a clear picture in my mind’s eye. I’ve loved every brick of that place . every blade of grass on those lawns. Not the same as here … of course … that sun, that burning sun … all those months of drought. What was it like when you left?”

“Dry as a bone. There were some forest fires a few miles away.”

“It’s a perpetual danger, Jessica,” said Ben to me.

“You’ll find it very different from here. Won’t she. Joss?"

” If she decides to accept your terms. “

"Terms? ” I demanded.

“What terms?”

“I thought you said it was too soon to talk,” said Ben.

“So it is,” replied Joss Madden.

“If we did, I reckon we’d get a blank refusal. You’ve got to give Miss Clavering time … er, I mean Jessica. You’re not the puppet master, Ben, simply because neither Jessica nor I are of the stuff which puppets are made of. Don’t you agree … Jessica ? You wouldn’t want to be jerked round on the stage. Go this way … go that way … because that’s the way the master’s twitching the strings.”

“I can assure you that I would not and that you are talking of something of which I know nothing. I think you ought to let me into the secret without delay.”

Ben looked at Joss, who shook his head. Then Ben said:

“There’s something I have to tell you first, Jessica. Joss knows it already. I’ll tell you when we’re alone and then you’ll understand.”

I looked at Joss meaningly, because their mysterious talk was giving me a burning desire to discover what it was all about.

“I see,” said Joss, ‘that that’s a sort of hint. I’m going to have another look at your stables, Ben. I want to see if there’s anything good enough to ride here. “

“Impertinence,” laughed Ben.

“We breed good horses here, I might tell you. You’ll find several there as good as that one you hired to travel on.”

“I hope so. I had to take him because he was all they had. Then shall I leave you? You can have your talk. You and I will meet again soon… Jessica.”

He went out, and Ben turned to me at once.

“What do you think of him?” he asked eagerly.

“He’s exactly what I expected.”

“So I gave you a good description of him, did I ?”

“I based my judgement on the little anecdotes you told me.”

“And you like him, Jess ?”

I hesitated. I didn’t want to hurt Ben by telling him that the more I saw of Joss Madden the less I liked him.

I said cautiously.

“I don’t fed I know him.”

Ben shook his head.

“You’ll soon get to know him. I wish I’d asked him to come earlier.”

“Ben,” I said, ‘you were going to tell me what you and he have been hinting at. What is it? “

He hesitated.

“I hardly know where to begin. I’ve been very wrong, and I’m sorry for it. But it’s a good thing really. You’ll see that and understand, I’m sure. It’s to do with the Green Hash at Sunset.”

That seems to be at the centre of our lives,” I commented dryly.

That was all true . what I told you about how I won it. I’d got the stone and it made a difference to my life. Funny how the possession of that opal changed everything. It was true that those who had owned it had been dogged by bad luck. I knew that everyone was watching me . waiting for the ill luck to hit me. There were those who wished me well. There were others who had seen it, felt its fascination and wanted it. Men are strange creatures, Jess. A girl like you . a sensible girl. Joss called you . wouldn’t know about this. And you’ve never seen the Green Flash either. Perhaps it you had seen it you’d understand more. That flashing blue and the red of the sun . it just bewitches you. So where was I? There were those who watched me and others who sought to steal it. I reckoned my life wasn’t worth what it was before I had the stone. There were some who would have cut my throat or put a bullet through my heart for the sake of it. I’d got a red hot property on my hands and I was going to bum myself pretty badly one way or another.

Then there came the day when they were all here and I showed them the stone. This is going to hurt a bit, Jessie. I didn’t want to tell you.

I know you have a beautiful picture of your father and his love for your mother, and it’s right for young ladies to have these feelings tor their parents. But it wasn’t quite like that. Your mother was a sweet pretty creature. She was like you . oh, very much . but different. You’ve got your feet more on the ground, that sensible quality, eh? She could be gay, a bit wilful; she was a bit of a gambler too. It’s in the family. You can’t escape it. I bet you’ll be ready to take a gamble when the time comes. I hope you will be, and I’ll tell you you’re going to come out a winner. I was more than a bit in love with your mother. “

“Yes; I said.

“I know that.”

“I thought it would be a nice rounding off if I married her and brought her back to her old home. I thought we’d have children and my name would be on that family tree in the hall. I couldn’t see her in Australia, though … not like I can you. She was more delicate, fragile-like. Well, then Desmond came along. A handsome young fellow he was, with what I call the gift of the gab. A bit of a rogue too. Oh yes, I’ve got to tell you the truth. He’d roamed the world a bit and learned a few tricks. He was dead serious about his Fancy, though, and he’d got opal fever as bad as the rest of us. He was always one for the ladies and when he came down here to stay for a while to persuade me to invest in the Fancy and we waited for David Croissant to join us, he took up with your mother and in his way he was in love with her. She was innocent and believed all he told her. He might have married her. I reckon he would have, but he couldn’t, the way it turned out.

“I was mad with him … mad for his being young and handsome and having his way with women. Joss was here … home from school, agitating about not going back there, and he was learning a lot about opals. That brings me to the night when I showed them the Green Flash.

I saw the way it had got Desmond. He couldn’t take his eyes from it.

He picked it up, and I remember now how his fingers curled round it.

Desire! There’s no other word for it. Mad, demanding desire . like thirst in the desert, like food to the starving. You look sceptical, Jessie. That’s because you haven’t experienced it. But I saw it and I knew what the result would be, so I was ready. When I went to bed that night I left my door open and I sat fully dressed listening. Then I heard the sound of creeping footsteps so I came down to the study.

“He was there at the safe. He had the Flash in his hands. I said:

“What are you doing, Desmond Dereham?” He Just stared at me . white as these sheets. I said: “You’ve seduced little Jessica Clavering and now you’re trying to steal the Green Bash. And when you’ve got it what would you do? There’s only one thing you could do. Get out of here .. sharp … and leave her, eh. You’d desert her, wouldn’t you, for the sake of the Green Flash? Do you know, I. reckon you’re not fit to live.”

“Oh Ben,” I cried, ‘you killed my father! “

He shook his head.

"No . no . not that. Though I had a gun in my hand and would have done it too. But I thought, No. I don’t want this man’s life on my hands. It’s not worth lais was even m< it. So I said: “I’ve caught you red-handed. You’ll put that opal back in the safe where it belongs and you’re going to get out of here fast.

You’ll never show your face here or at the Fancy, for if you do I’ll expose you for the thief you are. Get out. Leave my house . now.

I’ll swear you’ve got your bags packed and are ready to leave. ” Oh, I was mad with him. I can’t tell you what restraint I had to put on myself to prevent my pulling the trigger. That would have been silly . messy … and wouldn’t have done me any good. So he put the opal back in the safe and I marched him back to his room. Sure enough, there were his bags … already packed. He planned to get the opal and clear out … like a thief in the night… which was what he was.”

“So you sent him away … away from my mother.”

“He would have been no good to her. He knew he’d have to keep out of the way if he’d got the Flash. He’d planned it all. He was going to take the opal and get out.”

“My poor mother!”

There’d been women in his life. Nothing had lasted. I knew this. I wanted him out of the way . for her sake. I didn’t know you were on the way then. That could have been different. “

“You said he had stolen the Green Bash.”

That's what I want to tell you. It was a pretence on my part. He’d gone . disappeared in the night. He wasn’t coming back. He wouldn’t dare face me for I’d let it be known that he was a would-be thief.

We’re very rigid in Australia. We have to be. There’s a rough and ready justice. We don’t tolerate thieves and we don’t tolerate murderers. We can’t. There’s too much to take care of. He was finished for the Fancy when I found him at the safe. He knew that and he had been ready to risk everything for the Green Flash. That was the effect it had on people. I thought then:

I’ll make people believe he’s got the Green Flash, then no one would seek to rob me of it. No one would ill-wish me with that certainty that misfortune was going to overtake me. I left soon after for Australia . taking the Green Flash with me. “

“Does Joss know this?”

“He does now because I’ve told him as I’ve told you. Believe me, Jessie, I’d have acted different if I’d known you were on the way … You don’t speak.”

“I fed so shocked.”

“It’s in the past. Your life is about to open out. You’re going to be happy. You’re going to have all your mother didn’t have. I promise you you’re going to find life a great adventure.”

I can’t think of the future. I can’t stop dunking of my mother. “

“You’ve got to forget all that.”

“I wonder where my father is.”

"He’d fall on his feet. he always did. “

“All those years you have allowed him to be suspected, and my poor mother…”

She should never have done what she did. “

“She was driven to it.”

No, Jess, we’re none of us driven. We act on our own free will, and if we find life too much to be borne, then dearly there’s no one to blame but ourselves. “

I turned my face away. I was going over it all, my father caught at the safe, Ben forcing him to get out. His belongings already packed, so he had meant to go with the Green Hash and leaving my poor little mother to bear me and then destroy herself.

Ben was caressing my hand.

“Don’t think badly of me, Jessie,” he said.

“I’ll not be here much longer, you know. I couldn’t bear there to be bitterness at the end.

I’m a violent man. I’ve lived dangerously. I don’t belong in a historic manor like this. I’ve had to fight throughout my life and it’s made me hard and strong and ruthless. Perhaps I don’t set so much store on morals as I should. In the Outback there were men who were ready to kill me for the Green Flash. Do you understand? Tell me you do understand. “

“Yes, I do understand, Ben.”

“And we’ve loved each other, haven’t we? Didn’t your life change when we met and wasn’t it for the better?”

“It did, and I love you, Ben.”

Then you’ll have learned something. When you love it’s not for rhyme nor reason. And whatever the loved one’s done makes no difference . not to true love. I don’t love you any less because I’m a wicked man on some days. I’m still the same old Ben, sentimental and loving where he gives his love, and when he gives it he gives it for good. “

“It’s true, Ben. I could never do anything but love you. I can’t bear to think of your not being here…”

“Never mind, never mind, because I’m not leaving your life empty.

There’s better coming into it than was ever there before. That’s what I’m going to promise you if you’ll listen to me, if you’ll take my advice. There’s a lot I know about human nature and that means I know you perhaps even better than you know yourself. I’m going to talk to you tomorrow. You’ve had enough for one day. You’re a gambler as I am, and you’re going to have to gamble a bit with life. I always have. You wouldn’t want to turn your face away from life. You wouldn’t want to live out your days in that dismal old Dower House, would you? “

“Oh, Ben,” I said, “I wish it hadn’t been like that… about my father, I mean. And the Green Flash is still in your possession … with its ill luck. Is that why you had your accident? Is that why this is happening to you now?”

That’s what people would say, but I’ve never regretted having it. Ifs meant a lot to me. I used to go down in the dead of night and take it out and look at it . and I felt it was telling me, “Go on … enjoy your life. Never mind if you live dangerously. I’m yours and if you have to pay for having me, pay cheerfully.”

“Does Joss know all this … about my father and mother?”

“He knows it all.”

“And the Green Flash will be his when…”

“When I die. Oh, I’ve plans and that’s something the three of us are going to talk about tomorrow.”

Tell me now, Ben. “

“Oh no. You’ve had enough to digest for one day, I reckon. You’ve got to be in the picture to see it all clearly. Don’t fret, Jessie. I want my last weeks to be cheerful. There aren’t many left to me.”

Please, Ben, don’t. “

“All right, I won’t. Go home now and come back tomorrow afternoon.

Then I’ll tell you my plans and don’t worry, my dearest girl. “

I left him then and went to the Dower House. I was very disturbed; the revelations coming immediately after my meeting with Joss Madden had completely bewildered me.

As I went into the house my grandmother was in the hall arranging a bowl of flowers.

“Oh dear,” she said, ‘ifs so difficult here. How I miss the flower room we had at Oakland! By the way, I see your friend has a visitor staying there. He looked slightly superior to the mining type . almost a gentleman. He sits his horse like one. “

I did not answer. I was too full of emotion to think of one of my retorts so I merely went quietly to my room.

I spent a sleepless night and fancied I looked a little haggard next day. Why this unaccustomed attention to my appearance? I asked myself; but I knew of course that it was due to that man. He had a way of assessing me and there was something in his expression which I felt was shaming. I began to wonder about him, and remembered Ben’s saying something about his being fond of women. I thought: I know the type-wondering whether every woman he meets is going to find him irresistible. He really is an odious character. But I was still too upset by Ben’s confession to think very much about Joss Madden. I wished that he would not keep intruding into my thoughts when my desire was to keep him out.

When I arrived that afternoon it was to find them awaiting me and I sensed an impatience in them both.

“Oh, here you are at last,” said Ben.

“Now come and sit down.”

He was in bed. I supposed the excitement of yesterday had exhausted him. He certainly looked less well, and I noticed the bluish tinge about his mouth.

“One on either side of me,” he commanded and as we sat there I saw those peacock blue eyes on me and again I sensed that uncomfortable feeling Joss Madden’s too close scrutiny aroused in me.

Now, I’ll start,” said Ben.

“I’m going to die very soon and I don’t want to. There’s so much I wanted to see before I went. One of my dearest dreams was to watch my grandchildren playing here on these lawns or those of Peacocks. You see, I never had any little ones around me. I was always too busy making a fortune, and then because it was not orthodox my children were never with me. Not until Joss came marching across the lawn with his suitcase … and he was never a little ‘un. You were a giant for your age even then. Joss, and you talked like a man and acted like -a man. So I was cheated out of babies. Joss, you never married and I used to fret about that… until I came here and met Miss Jessica Clavering. I’ve always had a feeling for the Claverings. I can’t tell you how much I’ve wished I was one when I look at that family tree in the hall. Ifs grand to belong to a family like that. So what I want more than anything is to bring the families together. I want our blood mingled that of the boy who sold gingerbread fancies in the Ratcliffe Highway and those who served kings in their historic battles. those who have been born to riches and it hose who had to fight their way to the top. I reckon there couldn’t be a better combination for future generations. “

I lifted my eyes and met that dark blue stare. What is he hinting? I asked myself. Oh no, Ben, even you could not be so audacious as that.

I tried to read what was in Joss Madden’s eyes. He must be as horrified as I was.

“So that’s why I want you two to be friends … more than friends. The plain fact is that more than anything I want to see you two marry.

Don’t fly into a rage, Jess. I know it’s a shock. But you haven’t heard it all. Joss will be a good husband . if you go along with his ways. And Jessica will be a good wife. Joss, if you’re careful how you handle her. “

I said hotly: “Please, Ben, let us have an end of this. I’m sure I could never go along with Mr. Madden’s ways, nor would I agree to place myself in his careful handling.”

"You see. Joss, our Jessie can fly into a temper pretty quick,” said Ben.

“But you won’t mind that. You wouldn’t want a mild and meek gentle little dove, would you ?” Joss did not reply. I imagined he was regarding me with the same horror I felt for him.

‘now I should have had time to condition you,” went on Ben, ‘but time is running out for me. Who knows when the powers that be will come for me? Could be tomorrow. Could be the next day … or six months hence.

All we can be sure of is that they’re coming. Now I’d like the wedding to take place soon because I want to know it’s done. Then I’ll rest happy. “

"You don’t know what you’re suggesting, Ben,” I cried.

“Oh yes I do, my dear. I’ve been thinking of it for a very long time.

As soon as I got to know you I said to myself:

That’s the one for Joss. That’s the girl I want to bear my grandsons.

I’ve thought of nothing else for weeks. “

‘now, Ben,” said Joss, ” you see from Miss Clavering’s horror that your little scheme will have to be abandoned. “

For the first time I gave him a look of approval.

“Marriage is a bit of a gamble,” said Ben.

“Well. you’ve both got gamblers’ blood in you. When you’ve considered everything involved, Jess, you’ll fall in with my schemes. Joss is already half way there.”

“Not,” he replied, ‘now that I have seen Miss Clavering’s repugnance.”

“Oh proud … proud as a peacock I You always wanted others to do the running. You thought it was your, right’ He turned to me. That's Joss for you. Now why are you both being so stubborn ? Jessica’s an attractive girl. Don’t you think so. Joss ?

Now, Jessie, you’ve got to admit Joss in a fine figure of a man. You could search through England and Australia and where would you find a better mate? Be sensible, both of you. I tell you this is my dying request. You can’t refuse me that, can you? “

“We can,” said Joss.

“Ben, you’re outrageous.”

“I know,” he replied with a hoarse chuckle.

“But I never wanted anything in my life so much as I want this. I can only die happy if I see you two married first. I just know it’s right. I can see into the future.”

I thought: He’s mad. Surely the old Ben would never have talked like this.

“Now listen to me,” he went on.

“I’ve made all the arrangements. I’m leaving everything to you … except for a few minor legacies … that’s if you’re married.”

“And if we don’t?” said Joss.

“My dear Joss, you get nothing… nothing.”

“Now look here…”

“You can’t argue about a man’s estate when he’s on his deathbed,” said Ben, and there were lights of mischief in his eyes.

“You don’t get a thing … either of you … unless you marry. That’s plain fact.

Joss, do you want to see the Company pass out of your hands ? “

You couldn’t do that. “

“You’ll see. Jessica, do you want to spend your days in the Dower House with that virago of a grandmother … looking after her when she gets more fractious … or do you want a life of excitement and adventure? It’s for you to choose. You’re right, both of you, when you say I can’t force you. I can’t. But I can make it very uncomfortable for you if you don’t do what I want.”

We looked at each other across the bed.

This is absurd,” I began, but Joss Madden did not answer. I was aware that he was contemplating the loss of the Company. Ben had conjured up a picture for me too. I saw myself ten … twenty years hence, growing pinched about the lips as Miriam had begun to look … decorating the church, taking baskets to the poor, growing old, growing sour because life had passed me by.

Ben knew what I was thinking.

“It’s a gamble,” he said.

“Don’t forget that. What are you going to do?”

He lay back on his pillows and closed his eyes. I stood up and said I thought he was tired.

He nodded. "I've given you something to think about, haven’t I ? ” He seemed full of secret amusement.

Joss Madden came with me to the door.

I said: “I’ll go by the back way across the bridge and the stream.”

“I’m afraid this has been a shock to you,” he said.

"You are right,” I answered.

“How could it be otherwise?”

“I should have thought young ladies in your position often had husbands chosen for them.”

"That does not make the position any more acceptable."

“I’m sorry I’m so repulsive to you. You have made that very clear.”

“I don’t think you showed any enthusiasm for the proposed marriage.”

“I suppose we are both the sort of people who would want to choose for themselves.”

“I think Ben must be losing his senses.”

“He believes he’s in full possession of them. You Claverings have cast a spell on him. Ifs those grand antecedents of yours with your ancestral home and so on. He wants your blue blood to be brought into his family.”

“He will have to think of another way.”

“I hardly think he can if you refuse to comply.”

‘you surely don’t mean that you would ? “

I had stopped short in my amazement and looked at him searchingly. His lips twisted into a wry smile. There’s a great deal at stake for me,” he said.

I said shortly: “I’ll leave you here. Goodbye.”

“Au revoir,” he called after me as I sped across the grass.

I went back to the Dower House in a kind of daze. As I came into the hall the familiar smell of lemon wax struck me forcibly, although I should have become accustomed to it after all these years because it was always there. My grandmother used to say that even though we had come down in the world we must show people that we had not given up our standards and there was no excuse for even the most humble dwelling not to be spotlessly clean. There was a bowl of flowers in the hall-lilacs and tulips arranged by my grandmother neatly and without artistry. I could hear voices in the drawing-room-those of my grandmother and Xavier, and I wondered whether my grandfather was there in his usual role of penitent. I paused for a moment and contemplated the confusion which would result if I opened the door and announced that I had had a proposal of marriage and would in due course be leaving for Australia. That would scarcely be true, for I could hardly call it a proposal since the intended bridegroom was more reluctant than prospective. It then occurred to me how deeply I should have enjoyed confronting them with such news.

I went to my room-a pleasant little one with a picture of one of our ancestors on the wall. She had once graced the gallery at Oakland. My grandmother had been hard put to it to find suitable spots in which to accommodate all the pictures in the Dower House. With a characteristic desire to improve us all she had distributed ancestors with considered judgement. I had Margaret Clavering, circa x669, a handsome young woman with a hint of mischief in her eyes. I had never heard exactly what she did, but I knew that it was something shocking, but in such a manner as to make even my grandmother’s lips twitch with amusement.

Her misdemeanour must therefore have been committed in high places-I suspected the King himself was involved as indeed he was with so many.

Even so, poor Margaret did come to an untimely end when she was thrown from her horse while escaping with a lover from one of her husbands-she had apparently had many of the former and three of the latter.

In my grandfather’s room gamblers looked down from the walls. I always thought they were a jolly-looking crowd, all those wastrel Claverings, and might prove an inducement rather than a deterrent; and they certainly looked nicer to know than the virtuous saviour of our fortune from the eighteenth century who looked down primly, and I am sure approvingly, on my grandmother.

The four-poster bed was a little overpowering for my small room; and there was one chair with the tapestry seat and back worked by another ancestress, and the fellows of this were distributed round the house.

There was also a beautiful Bokhara rug-another relic of Oakland. I saw all these articles with greater clarity it seemed than before. I suppose because Ben had suggested that if I were wise I should soon be leaving them and if I were not I might be with them for the rest of my life.

I couldn’t stay long in my room. There was one to whom I could talk, though the idea of doing so a few months ago would have been out of the question - Miriam. I ran out of the house and went along to Church Cottage -the name of the tiny house at one end of the vicarage grounds. It looked quite pretty, I thought, with the shrubs on either side of the crazy paving path which led to the front door.

Miriam was at home. How she had changed! She looked several years younger, and there was a new dignity about her. I did not need to ask if she was happy.

I stepped straight into the livingroom; there was only a kitchen and this room on the lower floor and from the livingroom a staircase twisted up into two bedrooms above. Every thing was highly polished and a bowl of azaleas and green leaves stood on the red table doth there were chintz curtains at the window and another bowl of flowers on the hearth, on either side of which were two chimney seats. One or two of Miriam’s possessions-brass candlesticks and silver ornaments-looked rather incongruous, but charming, in this humble room.

Miriam’s hair was dressed in a less severe style than she had worn it before and she looked very domesticated in her starched print gown as she carried a duster in her hand.

"Oh Miriam,” I cried.

“I had to see you. I wanted to talk.”

That she was pleased, there was no doubt.

“I’ll make some tea,” she said.

“Ernest is out. The vicar works him too hard.”

I put my head on one side and studied her.

“You’re a joy to behold,” I said.

“A walking advertisement for the married state.” It was true.

How she had changed! She was indulgent, in love with her curate and with life; and the fact that she had turned her back on this blissful state for so long only made her appreciate it more now that she had achieved it.

“I’ve had a proposal,” I blurted out.

“Well, a sort of proposal.”

Little lights of fear showed in her eyes.

“Not… someone at Oakland?”

“Yes. ” Oh, Jessica! ” Now she looked like the old Miriam, for my words had transported her back in time to that other occasion when another Jessica had had a proposal from a visitor to Oakland.

“Are you sure.. ”

"No,” I said.

“I’m not.”

She looked relieved.

“I should be very, very careful.”

“I intend to be. Miriam, suppose you hadn’t married Ernest … suppose you had gone on as you were…”

I saw the look of horror in her face.

“I couldn’t bear to think of that,” she said firmly.

“Yet you hesitated so long.”

“I think if was a matter of plucking up courage.”

“And even if it hadn’t worked out so well with Ernest would you still be glad you left?”

“How could it possibly not have turned out well with Ernest?”

“You didn’t always think that, did you, or you would have done it before.”

“I was afraid ” Afraid of your mother’s sneers and prophecies. They don’t worry you now. “

“I don’t care how poor we are … and we can manage. I’ve discovered I’m a good manager. Ernest says so. And even if things hadn’t turned out so well, to tell the truth, Jessica, I should have been glad to get away from the Dower House.”

“Who wouldn’t?” I thought of living there for years and years without the compensation of going to Oakland to see Ben, and I knew I couldn’t face it. Rather . Oh no . not marriage with that man . and yet I wanted to contemplate it. What would it be like? It would be a marriage of convenience if ever there was one. Perhaps we could come to terms. Perhaps we could do it for Ben’s sake and lead our own lives.

I began to tingle with excitement. I knew I could not face dreary years at the Dower House.

“But lets talk about you,” said Miriam.

“What about this man?”

“He’s Ben Henniker’s son and he’s come over from Australia.”

“You can’t have known him very long.”

“One does not have to know people all one’s life … just because you and Ernest did.”

“But then you can be so much more sure."

” Perhaps ifs more exciting not to be. “

“Whatever do you mean? Oh, Jessica, you are headstrong. You’re like your mother, but she had a more gentle nature.”

“Miriam, I can’t stay forever in that miserable Dower House listening to Grandmother’s saying the litany ten times a day:

“We’ve seen better days, O Lord, don’t You forget it. Look down on this miserable husband of mine who brought us to this and never let him forget it because I’m not going to.”

“You can be very irreverent, Jessica.”

“Perhaps, but what I say is true. I don’t, want to be a prisoner all my life as you were for so much of yours. This proposal is a secret as yet, so don’t mention it.”

“I shall have to tell Ernest. We never have any secrets. He might consider it his duty “Let him remember how Grandmother kept you apart all those years. This is my secret and I expect it to be kept. I’ve only told you because I wanted to talk about marriage and I’ve not made up my mind yet. I thought you’d understand.”

“Oh, I do, and I think that if you really love each other you shouldn’t hesitate. I do wonder what Mother will say.”

“She is my least concern. You were scared of her all those years. I wouldn’t be. But you took the plunge eventually. You snapped your fingers at your mother who had been keeping you and Ernest apart all those years and now you’re glad.”

“Yes, I’m glad,” said Miriam fervently.

She was thoughtful for a while, swaying in her opinions. The same old Miriam! Much would depend on what Ernest thought, for he was the rock on which she rested now, and she would change her colour—chameleon that she was-according to his views.

She went to a cupboard and brought out a bottle of wine-her own make, which she had -brought from the Dower House. She had always been proud of the wines which she had made in the still room My grandmother had said: You’d better learn to be useful about the house for soon we shall have no servants. ” Miriam had busied herself and how glad she was of that now ! ” We’ll drink to the future,” she said. This is more suitable than tea.”

So as we sat at the table and drank to my future and hers, I was wondering why I had talked to Miriam as though I were actually contemplating marriage.

I scarcely slept that night. Next morning at prayers I did not listen to my grandmother’s voice but said my own personal prayer, which was a call for help, and I thought ironically that I had never prayed so fervently before and that it was only when I wanted something that I really prayed at all.

After breakfast I performed the tasks my grandmother had set for me since she insisted that I too learn to manage a house. So I helped Maddy get the vegetables from the kitchen garden and prepare them.

Her sharp eyes detected that something had happened.

You’re up to something,” she said.

“You’re not here … no, you’re not. You’re miles away. What’s brewing. Miss?”

“I’m no longer a child,” I retorted.

“I think you sometimes forget that. I have a perfect right to be preoccupied with matters outside the trivial preparation of garden vegetables ”

"Hoity toity,” she replied.

“You’ve not been the same since you’ve been on visiting terms at Oakland. And I’m sure I wonder why it’s allowed.”

“As long as you keep your opinions to yourself, Maddy, it is of no consequence.”

Talk about giving yourself airs That will be all for this morning,” I said with dignity.

Immediately after luncheon I went to the stream. The world seemed to have turned upside down. Ben, whom I so dearly loved, had lied about my father. How could I reconcile myself to that . and yet how could I stop myself loving Ben and feeling miserable because I feared he would not be with us much longer? And now he had come along with a proposition which he knew was repugnant to me and to Joss whom he so dearly loved adored might be a more apt word. I just could not understand him. The alarming fact was that I did not understand myself, because, somewhere at the back of my mind, I was assessing the situation. I was actually considering the possibility of making this marriage.

As I sat there I saw Joss Madden emerge from the copse and come towards me.

“I saw you from the turret,” he said.

“I thought it would be a good idea to have a talk. Come over.”

It seemed to me that it would be more convenient to be on the Oakland side of the stream than on that of the Dower House where I could be seen by someone from the house, so I obeyed.

As we walked across the grass and into the copse he said:

“Have you decided?”

“It’s an impossible situation,” I cried.

“It exists and therefore can’t be impossible. On the other hand it’s a straightforward proposition.”

“Have you made up your mind ?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m ready to go ahead.”

‘you mean. you would marry me? “

That was the proposition, I thought. Oh come, don’t look so mournful.

You won’t be going to your execution, you know. “

“It feels rather like that.”

He gave that loud explosive laugh. Then he was serious.

“I’m afraid Ben won’t live much longer. He was very weak this morning. And he wants the ceremony to take place before he dies.”

That could be. soon. “

“Once you’ve agreed there’ll be no reason for delay.”

We came to a tree trunk, and he took my hand and pulled me down to sit beside him. He dropped my hand immediately but I was very much aware of him. I felt an excitement which I could not suppress.

“I gather,” he said, ‘that you had no one else in mind?

“In mind?”

“Let’s talk plain English. You haven’t a lover … you weren’t contemplating marriage with someone else?”

No. “

Then it’s fairly straightforward, I could get a special licence; I think . in view of Ben’s illness. We could be married very shortly. ”

I replied: “What of you? Were you contemplating marrying someone else?”

“I was not,” he said.

"You seem to take all this in your stride. “

How else could I take it? I see what Ben feels. He had a fixation on your mother. It was not only herself . it was all this . the stately mansion, the family tracing itself back to the Conqueror . and he wants the families linked. He has the house, but he hasn’t got the blood. If you and I married, our offspring would have a modicum of the blue-blood variety through you, and with the generations to come the family could be rather proud of itself. ” He laughed cynically.

I was scarcely listening because I had been caught up in what he had said about offspring. That was too much.

I said sharply: “I’m afraid I never could.”

He looked straight at me, and it was as though he were probing my innermost thoughts. I felt very uncomfortable because I knew that he understood what had alarmed me.

There’s a great deal at stake,” he said.

“Ben means what he says. I know him well. He’s set on this and he knows that the only way he could get us married at such short notice is to threaten what will happen to us if we don’t. He can be ruthless, our Ben.”

“I know that. ” He’s told me a great deal about you. That family of yours . your life here . how stultifying it is. He’s sentencing you for life to the Dower House unless you marry me. The devil or the deep blue sea.

That’s your choice. And for me: The loss of command of the Company which I have helped to a build up as surely as Ben has. I have some shares in it, but Ben Has the major noiamg and he’s threatening to pass them to someone else. It would mean if I stayed with the Company I’d be there in a minor capacity. He knows very well I never would. So he has netted me.

He knows I’d accept anything rather. “

“Even me?”

“Even marriage. Which for thirty-two years I have successfully eluded.”

“So there have been those who have angled for you? ” Countless numbers. “

“Perhaps they came in time to regard their lack of success as good fortune.”

They wouldn’t realize that. The lost prize is always more desirable than that which is won. Did you know that? “

“I don’t believe it’s true-but that’s beside the point.”

“You’re quite right. We don’t want to be side-tracked into frivolous discussion when there is something so much more important to occupy us. We are both faced with a dilemma. If we marry we benefit considerably. We both have a great deal to lose if we don’t. I know what it will mean to me. You must have realized that too.”

I was contemplating going back to the old life before I had known Ben older now, knowing a little more of how exciting life could be, and I knew I should hate it.

“So,” he went on, “I’ve made up my mind. I’ll marry you immediately, so all you have to do is say you’ll marry me.”

He put an arm about my shoulders, and I drew back in dismay. Again he gave that brief laugh.

“All right,” he said.

“I’ll make it easy for you. We’ll marry and it’ll be, as they say, a Marriage In Name Only. That’s until both parties want it otherwise. What about that?”

I was silent, and he went on: “I sense your relief.”

I said: “Ben may not agree to those terms.”

“They would be a matter for us to decide, surely. ” I’m not sure. It’s grandchildren he wants. “

“He can’t have it all his own way. Listen to me. We’ll marry and go our own ways. You will escape from the Dower House, and I shall have the full command of the Company. Now you must admit that does seem a way out.”

I stood up suddenly. He did the same, towering above me. There was an amused twitch to his lips as he laid his hands on my shoulders.

“Negotiations seem to be progressing favourably,” he said.

“Shall we go and tell Ben ?”

“ Not yet. I’m undecided. “

“All right. But don’t delay too long. At least it’s just a matter of indecision and not a blank refusal.”

I turned and left him, going back over the stream to the Dower House.

I went to see Ben. I was glad that he was alone. He looked a little better and I commented on this.

“Yes, I’m determined to live until I see you two married. Tell me, Jess, have you thought any more about it?”

“I have thought a great deal.”

“Of course you have. You’re going to wake up and live now. You’ll have to keep your eyes on Joss. He’s a favourite with the women.”

“It’s too much to ask, Ben. Now then, are you going back to the Dower House life? I’d rather go to the penitentiary, that I would. That grandmother of yours … she’s like vinegar now. What’ll she be like in ten years’ time … gall, bitter aloes … She’s not like a wine that’ll improve with age.

You’ll love the excitement of it. The Company . Fancy Town . It’s in your blood. You’ll come back here to Oakland now and then . It’ll be a wonderful life. “

I was silent, and he went on: “Look, Jess, you’ve got to grow up … if you’re going out there. Lite’s lived in the raw there. But it’s life. That’s the great thing. I can see you at Peacocks. Has Joss talked to you of Peacocks?” I shook my head.

“He will. He loves the place. This will be yours, too. Just think of that. When you come to England you’ll be the lady of the manor. I wonder what the old lady of the Dower House is going to say to that! I’d like to see her face .. that I would. Just think of your little ‘uns … playing on these lawns, in the copse, just as you would have done if you’d had your right There’s one thing I have to tell you, Ben. If I did marry him, I couldn’t … I couldn’t live with him as his wife, and that means that your idea of the little ones on the lawn would simply not be possible.

I’m sure that in these circumstances the whole thing falls through.”

I had expected dismay, but there was nothing of the sort. Ben laughed so much that I feared he would exhaust himself.

“You know, Jessie,” he said when be had recovered from his laughter, ‘you’re enlivening my last days, you are. You never fail to please me.

So you’ve made up your mind to marry him, have you? “

“I didn’t say that. I’ve just told you why it’s impossible.”

“Listen. I want you two married. I knew Joss would agree. There was too much to lose. I could only rely on the pride of my Peacock. As to the other little matter, well, I’m ready to leave that to Joss.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Ah, danger signals! I’ll leave it like this. I’ll see you married, and I’ll die hoping that one day you two are going to see what’s staring you in the face and that is that you were meant for each other. It’s the looker-on that sees the best of the game, and I’m a very observant looker-on. I’ve lived every minute of the days God gave me. I’m like a cat that’s had nine lives. I’m coming to the end of my ninth now, but I’ve picked up a lot in those lives and I know what I am talking about. So it’s settled, is it? I accept your terms and you’ll accept mine. I want a nice wedding in the church … so that everyone knows.”

That will take a little time. “I reckon I’ve got that little time left to me. I just won’t go until I’ve seen you and my boy Joss joined together in holy matrimony.”

“Ben,” I said, ‘if you love us, how can you ask so much of us? “

“It’s just because I do love you both that I’m making this bargain.

Years ahead when you and the family are visiting England and you’re sitting on those lawns, the like of which you don’t see outside this green land, there’ll be the shade of old Ben looking on with contentment because it’s all come about as he meant it to. I’ll be here . and I’ll be at Peacocks . a happy ghost who saw what should be and did his little bit to make it come about. “

“You’re tired, Ben,” I said.

“Happy tired. A good sort of tired to be. And don’t forget, in years to come, remember me.”

“I’m never going to forget you.”

“And you’ll be grateful to old Ben, I promise you.”

I kissed him gently and slipped away.

I knew as I went out of Oakland Hall that I was about to bum my boats.

“I had accepted this incongruous situation. I was going to many Joss Madden.

I don’t know what Joss said to my grandmother. He was in the drawing-room with her, my grandfather, and Xavier for an hour. From my bedroom window I saw him stride across the lawn to the bridge. He walked as though the place already belonged to him.

Maddy was knocking at my door. They wanted to see me in the drawing-room, she said.

As I entered I was aware of the change in their attitude towards me. I had become important, but my grandmother was not going to show me her gratification too readily.

“So,” she began, ‘you have clandestinely been meeting this man from the wilds. “

“If you mean Mr. Josslyn Madden, it is true I have been meeting him.”

“And become engaged to him! He did not ask our consent before asking you, which would have been the proper thing to do. But I suppose we cannot expect good manners from people brought up as he must have been.”

“He has been educated in England.”

She grudgingly admitted that she realized this saving grace.

“Of course, after all we have done for you we might have expected a little gratitude. When our terrible tragedy was brought upon us-‘ She sent a venomous look towards my grandfather, who nodded in a rather jaunty way, I fancied’ we had to prepare ourselves for our great sacrifice. Our daughter disgraced us and now Miriam has committed herself to a life of penury ” I always thought she endured that here.”

“Compared with what she was accustomed to before our fortune was wantonly thrown away, Miriam once lived in grace and dignity with her family.” She laughed. ” Now this cottage. I believe she scrubs the floors.” She shivered.

“No matter. Don’t let us distress ourselves by even mentioning Miriam’s folly. The fact is that you should have kept me informed. After all we did for you, giving you a home …”

“And selling the silver salver and the George IV punch bowl.”

She smiled-very rare with her and this was an indication of her true feelings.

“At least you have spared us the humiliation of seeing you scrub floors and living in abject poverty. I only hope this offer is genuine. You will not, I hope, in convenience us as your mother did.

If it is genuine, all may not turn out too badly. But I must let you know that I am displeased that you should associate with people who have been no friends to your grandfather. However, I can see the hand of fate in this. We have suffered great misfortune. We lost Oakland and if this man is telling the truth, he will inherit it and you will live there. “

I thought she was like an eagle about to pounce on its prey. Oakland Hall coming back to the family . and through me!

I couldn’t help being thrilled that I was doing this. I knew then that if a way out was offered me, if Ben said he had been joking after all, I wouldn’t want to take it. The extraordinary fact was borne home that I wanted the excitement of marrying Joss Madden-providing of course that we kept to that all important clause which he had laughingly acknowledged he would respect and which Ben had thrust aside as though he did not believe it was important.

Xavier spoke then.

“Mr. Madden has told us that he has asked you to marry him and that you have accepted. We understand he is Mr. Henniker’s heir and that Oakland as well as property in Australia will pass to him. They ask for no dowry for you, but Mr. Henniker will make a settlement on you of Blueberry Farm, which as you know went to him with the Oakland estate. The management of this will be left to me, so it is in a measure as though that land has been returned to us. It seems to be a very satisfactory arrangement.”

My grandfather’s eyes looked watery.

“It’s almost like Oakland coming back to us through you, Jessica,” he said.

My grandmother would not be left out of the conversation.

“In spite of your deception, this seems to have turned out better than we could have expected,” she said.

“I hope your children will be born here. Perhaps we could get Mr. Madden to change his name to Clavering.

That has been done before in the family. “

“I know that would be quite impossible.”

My grandmother waved the matter aside as though that was something she would deal with later.

“We must be practical,” she went on.

“It must be a wedding worthy of the old days before we were reduced to this. I think we should sell the silver candlesticks so that we can do everything as it should be done. As you know the candlesticks were given by William IV to Jeremy Clavering in 1832, and they are worth a great deal.”

Then please don’t sell them on my account. “

“It is not on your account but for the good name of the family. Oh dear, how I wish you could be married from Oakland itself.”

“Never mind. Mother,” said Xavier, “perhaps Jessica’s daughter will be.”

“Pray let us get her married first before we mention such things,” said my grandmother, forgetting that a moment before she had done so.

I had never seen her look so pleased, and the knowledge that it was due to me seemed very ironical.

The next Sunday, Ernest, officiating for the Reverend Jasper Grey, read out the banns.

Ben seemed to recover quite a bit. It was obvious that he was delighted, and his pleasure seemed to give him a new energy.

“So they read the banns,” he cried.

“So there was no opposition from the family. I should think not. See what this means to them.”

My grandmother had engaged a dressmaker and I was to have a white satin wedding gown-the best possible satin from Liberty. My grandmother made a journey up to London to buy that and other materials on the proceeds from the silver candlesticks.

“I hope William IV won’t haunt you in his displeasure,” I commented.

“You are much too flippant,” was her retort.

“You always were. You will have to be more sober when you marry.”

“I can’t change my nature. Grandmother,” I said.

She sighed, but even she could not criticize me too much, considering the change I had brought about in the family fortunes.

I stood for hours while the seamstress, her mouth full of pins, fitted my dresses, for I had to have a trousseau besides the wedding dress.

“We don’t want people in Australia to think we’re savages,” said my grandmother. She was determined that I should go not only adequately but elegantly clothed.

The banns had been called twice and the excitement at the prospect was beginning to be replaced by apprehension. Joss Madden had to spend a week in London negotiating some business and I felt easier in my mind when he was not there.

When he returned, however, he seemed determined to spend a good deal of time with me.

“Doing his courting,” as Ben described it to my chagrin.

Joss said: “We’d better get to know each other as this wedding is imminent. How good are you on a horse? You’ll have to ride a great deal in Australia.”

I said that I had been taught to ride but had little opportunity of doing so. There had been a pony, but when that died it had not been replaced. We only had one horse now which Xavier used.

There’s a small stable in Oakland. Let's , riding. I want to see what you can do. ” I immediately felt resentful, objecting to his patronizing manner. He chose my mount, a brown horse with a frisky look in his eyes which made me somewhat apprehensive. Our pony had been of about thirteen hands, and I had never ridden a better steed. I was about to protest when I caught his eyes on me amused a little triumphant, so superior and arrogant-every inch the peacock. I mounted uneasily. He said: These horses need exercise.

They’re too fat. Riding here is different from riding in Australia.

You’ll have to get used to the difference because you’re lost without a horse in the Bush. “

“Is this house Peacocks in the Bush, then? ” It in its own grounds and Fancy Town is about two miles away.

Surrounding all this is some pretty wild country. You’ll need to feel as much at home in the saddle as you do on your own two feet. ” My equestrian knowledge was not great, but it was obvious even to me that he chose the finest horse in the stable for himself.

As we walked our horses side by side I could feel his eyes on me appraisingly my posture, my hands, my heels, everything . and that smile which I hated played about his lips.

“In other words,” he was saying, ‘you could loosely say that we live in the saddle. “

“Have you a good stable at Peacocks?”

“It would be hard to find a better in Australia.”

“Naturally,” I commented.

“Oh yes, naturally."

” So you ride everywhere? “

"Yes, everywhere. There are Cobb’s coaches which ply between the big cities. I rarely use them. You’ll find the country different out there, I can tell you. “

“I expected to.” This . why, it’s like a garden. You don’t go far without some sort of habitation. And these little fields and roads .

"Oh, it’s very different. “

“So you have said more than once Then I must apologize for repeating myself.”

“A common fault,” I said lightly, to remind him that he was not without them, which I was sure he imagined himself to be.

He broke mio a canter, and I tried to follow him but my horse refused.

Instead he lowered his head suddenly and gripped a bush by the roadside.

“Come on,” I whispered urgently.

“He’ll laugh at us.”

But the horse seemed determined to mock me too.

Joss Madden turned and I heard that quick gust of laughter, “Come on.

Joker,” he said, and the response was immediate. The sly Joker immediately relinquished the bush and went on with an injured air as though to say: What can you expect me to do with this amateur on my back ?

“You have to control your horse, you know,” said Joss, smiling, well pleased with Joker’s cooperation.

“I’m very well aware of that,” I retorted.

“He knows who’s the master. You see, I only had to call his name and he obeyed.”

“I’ve never seen this horse before,” I protested.

“He’s a little mischievous when he thinks he can get away with it.

It’s understandable. Now, Joker, no more nonsense. You’ll do what the lady tells you. Come on. “

I hated that morning because I sensed that he was trying to show me how inferior I was. He proved that to me more than once. There was one occasion when he galloped across a meadow and called Joker to follow.

I thought he was hoping I’d fall and break my neck. It was maddening that he should be commanding my horse, and when it sped after him I knew that I couldn’t control it and the thought came into my mind:

He’s trying to kill me so that he won’t have to marry me. If I’m dead Ben won’t cut him out. He’ll get the precious Company without having to pay the price-marriage -for it. Oh, he is so arrogant He’s nothing more than a peacock . flaunting his superiority as a peacock flaunts his tail.

He was beside me suddenly. He had seized my bridle and for a few moments we galloped side by side. When we stopped he was laughing at me.

“I’ll have to teach you to ride,” he said, ‘and I’ll do so before we leave. You can’t go out to Australia like this. “

“Don’t you think it would be a good idea if we abandoned the whole thing?” I asked.

“What! With the dress being made, the banns being called .."

He was serious suddenly.

“Besides, what of Ben?”

“I hate it all,” I said vehemently.

“You mean you hate me?”

“You can look at it that way if you like.”

“A firm basis on which to build a marriage,” he mocked. Feelings often change, they say, afterwards, so at least yours can’t change for the worse since they are as bad as they can possibly be before. “

“Isn’t the whole thing rather farcical?”

“Life often is rather farcical.”

“Rarely as much as this ridiculous wedding.”

“Don’t you think it makes it rather piquant? You and I will go to church and take our vows and everything we vow to do we shall be promising ourselves not to do. Marriage is for the procreation of children. That comes in the service. But for us … marriage in name only."

” Your expression,” I said.

“It’s a good one. It conveys the meaning as well as anything could. To love and to cherish, we shall say, and here are you telling me you hate me.”

“You’re giving very adequate reasons why the whole thing should be called off.”

“But we’re not going to, are we? We’re two sensible people don’t you agree? There’s too much to gain and too much to lose. We’re better off making the best of it. Who knows, I might succeed in making a tolerable horsewoman of you and you might succeed in keeping me at a distance.” His eyes glittered suddenly, and I saw the pride there which I was beginning to think was his main characteristic. He was put out because I was not attracted by his virility . or masculinity . whatever it was.

“Let me say,” he said with a hint of anger in his voice, “I think the latter will be easier to achieve than the former.”

We walked our horses back to Oakland-a pace, he commented dryly, more suited to my accomplishments.

I certainly hated him, and he appeared to despise me. Well, there was no need to fret about that for I should not have to worry about his forcing his attentions on me; and because he had made this so obvious I began, perversely, to hope that he might-solely that I could have the pleasure of rebuffing him.

The servants were excited about the wedding. Miriam was making the wedding cake; even my grandmother became slightly benign towards me and my grandfather regarded me as the saviour of the family fortunes.

Ben would lie in his bed or sit in his chair chuckling to himself. It was certainly a popular wedding-with everyone except the bride and groom t

Twice a day Joss insisted that I ride with him.

“It’s a necessity,” he said.

“You must know how to master a horse before we go to Australia.”

I saw the wisdom of this and decided to put up with his patronizing attitude. I worked hard, and I was sure that I was an apt pupil. Not that he would admit when I showed improvement. He seemed to enjoy humiliating me.

Once skilled, I promised myself, I should be independent of him, and I was really beginning to enjoy riding as I never had before. He never complimented me; and I inwardly accused him of showing off. To myself I always referred to him as Peacock.

At last my wedding day arrived. It was like a dream standing there at the altar while the Reverend jasper Grey married us. I felt a shiver of emotion as Joss slipped the ring on my finger and I couldn’t quite define it. Apprehension was certainly there, but if I was honest with myself I would have to admit that if I could have cancelled it I shouldn’t have wanted to.

Ben was in the church. Banker had wheeled him there. I could imagine his contentment. His will had been done.

Miriam at the organ played the Wedding March and as I came down the aisle on the arm of Joss Madden aware of those watching us-Xavier, my grandfather and grandmother -gleams of contentment in their eyes, I remembered my grandmother’s saying that God had brought Oakland Hall back to the family because of all they had done for me. It ; was His reward for their virtue.

We went to the Dower House where the reception was held, and when it was over joss and I walked across the bridge to Oakland Hall. Ben was in his bedroom but he had left word that he wanted to see us as soon as we came in. He was sitting up in bed and his eyes were shining.

“You two have made Ben Henniker a very happy man to day,” he said.

“Come and sit on either side of me. There, that’s good. Give me your hands. You’re going to bless me for this day. Before it’s over there’s something I want to say to you , I and I’ve been saving it up till now.”

“You’re exhausted, Ben,” I said.

“You should rest.”

“Not till I’ve told you this. You know the story of the Green Flash. You know how I took it to Australia with me , all the time, pretending it was lost. I had to have a hiding place for it. You’re the only two who’ll know where that hiding place is. It belongs to you both now. Now this hiding place … I made it myself … so that no one else should be in the picture. Ha, that’s a joke. You know The Tride of the Peacock in the drawing-room. Joss. It was always a favourite of yours. It’s a picture, Jessie, of our lawn, and there’s a magnificent peacock on it, looking as a peacock does.

Look-at-me attitude. Don’t you think I’m the most wonderful creature in the world? This picture is set in a beautiful frame . carved wood and gilt. It’s a thick frame . a very thick frame. At the right-hand corner of the frame, there’s a spring catch. No one would know it was there. It’s so cunningly placed. You touch the spring and the back opens like a door. There’s a cavity there and wrapped up in cotton wool is the Green Flash. I’ve locked myself in that room many a time and I’ve taken it out and gloated over it. Well, that stone is yours when I die . yours jointly. It’ll be up to you to do what you like with it. “

He was getting too excited. I felt alarmed for him so I said soothingly: Thank you, Ben. Now you must please rest. Everything is settled now. “

He nodded. Joss pressed his hand and for a moment or two they looked steadily at each other. Then I bent over and kissed him.

“Bless you both,” he said; and we went out.

The bridal suite had been prepared for us. Apparently Oakland brides had used it through the ages.

I was apprehensive when I entered it. Joss shut the door behind him.

He stood leaning against it looking at me mockingly.

They tell me that all the future mistresses of Oakland Hall spend their first night of marriage in this room,” he said.

I glanced quickly at the four-poster bed. He followed my gaze and I knew he was amused.

This is a rather different case,” I said.

“One’s own case always is,” he replied. He walked across the room.

“Here’s the dressing-room. Shall I occupy it or will you?”

“Since you say it is a tradition of Oakland brides to occupy this bed I will do so. The dressing-room can be yours. It will be quite comfortable, I dare say.”

“A nice wifely concern for her husband’s comfort is always to be admired,” he said.

“So… good night.”

He took my hand and kissed it and when he aid not immediately relinquish it I felt afraid.

“I trust you are a man of your word,” I said.

He shook his head slightly.

“It would be unwise to trust me too far.”

I snatched my hand away.

“But,” he went on. ‘have no fear. I would never force myself where I am so dearly not wanted. “

Then I will repeat Good night. “Good night,” he said.

He walked to the communicating door.

When it shut behind him I ran to it and to my dismay saw that there was no key. As I stood there the door opened. He was there with the key in his hand. He gave it to me with a bow.

“You will want to feel safe,” he said.

I took the key and locked the door. I was safe.

Six weeks after the wedding Ben took a decided turn for the worse. It was as though he had made up his mind that as his mission was accomplished he was ready to go.

We were with him constantly. He talked a good deal about Peacocks and how he would be there with us in spirit.

“Remember me, Jessie,” he said, ‘and particularly remember that everything I wanted was for your happiness . yours and Joss’s.

You’re goin' to see that one day. I always knew it. You don’t like plans being made for you. Sometimes, though, you can’t see the wood for the trees and that’s how it is with you two just now. It’ll change. I’d like to see you together; I’d like to hear you sparring.

You were meant for each other. And now you’re man and wife. God bless you both. “

Joss and I rode together each day. I both dreaded and enjoyed the lessons. I knew I had improved and Joker would not now dare refuse to come when I ordered him to.

They were long days of waiting, and with the passing of each one it became clear that Ben could not be long with us.

He died in his sleep. Hannah called me and I went to his bed and was struck by the utter peace of his face. It was almost as though he were smiling at me. I kissed his cold bflbw and went away.

We buried him in the churchyard not tar from the Clavering section. It was what he would have wanted. Joss and I stood , side by side at the graveside and as I listened to the clods of earth falling on his coffin I knew that was the end of a phase. My new life was about to begin.

There were solicitors to be seen. I had begun to wonder whether Ben had played a trick on us and had not changed his will at all with the new conditions. I was wrong. It was precisely what he had done.

Joss and I were joint owners of Oakland and the house in Australia known as Peacocks. I was given a good share of Ben’s holding in the Opal Mining Company and Joss was given another to match mine. There were other legades to people including the Laud family, his housekeep and her children, and the opal known as the Green Flash at Sunset was left to Joss and me jointly.

It seemed as though Ben was determined that we Should be together.

This bequest depended on our marriage and if it had not taken place at the time of his death it must do so immediately afterwards and on its taking place the properties would be ours. We were to be given a year, and if we had not married at the end of that time the shares and the houses and the Green Flash opal would be in trust for the Laud family.

There is no need for us to consider this,” said Mr. Yenning, ‘for the marriage has already taken place before his death, so I may congratulate you both.”

During the next weeks preparations were made for our, departure.

Miriam was frankly delighted that it had all gone so smoothly. Ernest thought I was doing the right thing and therefore she did. She was an expert at tatting and gave me some exquisite mats for a wedding present.

Xavier wished me happiness.

“Weddings are infectious,” he said; and I wondered whether that meant that he and Lady Clara might at last come to an understanding.

My grandmother tried to hide her gratification by faintly amused scepticism right until the wedding was over; now and then she would shoot the occasional barb and refer to life in the wilds and comment that some people had strange tastes and like fools rushed in where angels feared to tread. When people had perfectly good homes in civilized surroundings she could not understand why they must go dashing off to the other side of the globe. How much more satisfactory it would have been if I had stayed at Oakland and entertained in a manner to which the old house was accustomed. I knew hat she sometimes mentioned me at prayer’s, commanding God to look after me and not to punish me too severely for my thoughtlessness in leaving Oakland, when it would have been so much more pleasant for the family if I stayed, in a manner which in fact admonished Him not to be too slow in bringing me to my senses. I could laugh more than ever. I was free of her. Joss went to London on business and I was alone for some time. It was strange sleeping in the big four-poster bed in Oakland Hall, the mistress of it all, Wilmot was delighted. So were the other servants. It was right and proper, Wilmot told her, according to Hannah.

“Now Claverings would be back at Oakland Hall.”

I rode every day, determined to improve; and when Joss returned he said we would be leaving England very soon.

Banker went back soon after the funeral. He was going to settle in Melbourne, he said. It was October before Joss and I sailed for Sydney.