The Pride of the Peacock

5. OUTWARD BOUND

It was a golden autumn day when we embarked on the Hermes, which was to take us to the other side of the world. I quickly realized that Joss was a person of some importance and was known, as Ben had been, to the Captain and a number of the crew. He told me that when the ship docked in Sydney they were often entertained there by some members of the Company and this meant that innumerable little concessions were granted to us.

“One of these,” said Joss, ‘is being provided with single cabins which they think is rather unorthodox in a newly married pair, but I am sure you will feel exceedingly grateful for that. “

“I do."

" It was quite adequate, that cabin; and Joss’s was next to it. I was thankful for the partition which divided us.

The weather was rough at first, but I was delighted to find that I was a good sailor. He was, of course! I should have hated to have given him an advantage over me in that respect.

There was little to do on board except sleep, eat, talk and study our fellow passengers. Naturally Joss and I must spend a good deal of time together. He talked then about the Company and life in Australia and I had to admit that I found it enthralling.

We breakfasted at nine and dined at twelve. On one particular occasion the ship was rolling and pitching badly, and as the atmosphere below was stuffy I decided it would be more pleasant on deck in spite of the high seas. I staggered up there to find it was almost impossible to stand upright. The waves were pounding the side of the ship, which was so much at the mercy of the sea that as the prow rose up towards the sky it seemed as though it would never come down again; then after a while it would plunge down so deep that I feared we were going to turn over. The wind tore at my cape, threw back my hood and my hair streamed all over my face so that I could scarcely see. I found it exhilarating.

I tried to walk the deck, but I had reckoned without the wind. It tore at me and lifted me off my feet. I was caught suddenly and held. It was Joss and he was laughing at me. There was spray on his eyebrows and his hair stuck up round his head. His ears looked more pointed than usual.

“What are you trying to do?” he demanded.

“Commit suicide? Don’t you know it’s dangerous to walk the decks in weather like this?”

What of you? “

“I saw you come up and followed you, guessing you’d be foolhardy enough to defy the wind.”

He was still holding me and I made an effort to free myself.

“I’ll be all right now,” I said.

“I beg to contradict.” The ship rolled and we fell against the rail.

“You see?” he taunted, his face close to mine.

"Yet another occasion when I have to admit you’re right, I suppose. “

There’ll be so many. I wouldn’t bother to count. “

“Perhaps I might turn the tables one day.”

“Who knows? Miracles have happened. Look. There’s a bench over there set against the bulkhead in the shelter of those hanging lifeboats.

We’d get the freshness without the buffeting there. “

He put his arm through mine and held it close against him. He gave the impression that he enjoyed such contacts not because they pleased him physically but because he knew they disturbed me.

We sat down and he put an arm about me.

“Safer,” he said with a grimace. the only reason, I assure you. “

“Had I in my folly been washed overboard everything yo now share with me would have been yours, wouldn’t it?”

That’s true. “

“A consummation devoutly to be wished, surely?”

“Perhaps there are other consummations which would be more devoutly so.” I drew away from him.

“Be prepared, Jessica,” he went on.

“One of these days you’re going to grow up.”

“It seems that you never speak to me without attempting to denigrate me in some way. So of what interest will it be to you when I reach this adult stage?”

That’s what I can’t wait to discover. “

“You seem to think you should instruct me in this art of growing up?”

“A husbandly duty, perhaps. ” And when I do. “

“Ah, then we shall see. I am impatient to discover.”

Tell me about the Company and the life I’m going out to. “

” It’s something you’ll have to experience for yourself. Ben has told you a great deal. You’ll be right in the midst of opal company. We’re all opal men in Fancy Town. You know the town got its name because Desmond Dereham had all hunch about it. ”

” Yes, I do know. He was my father. ”

” I know that too. Ben told me the story. Tell me how you; felt about Ben. You were fond of him, I know. He fascinated you, didn’t he? He was a great man. But he sent your fathers away, branded him a thief and deceived us all about these Green Flash. You don’t brood on that, do you? One of the things you’ll have to learn is to accept our code of behaviour! out there. It’s something you’ll have to adjust to. Ben felt r~” compunction for having behaved as he did towards yo father.

He was going to steal the Green Hash and desert yo mother. Ben was fond of your mother and when he got for of people, he was really devoted to them. He was a gamble at heart. We all are. We wouldn’t be there if we weren’t That’s how it is with men who go after gold, sapphires, diamonds, opals, whatever it is. Nature plays tricks and you compare it with playing a card game. You don’t know what card is given to you till you turn it up. It might be the ac of spades; it might be the ace of hearts; that’s death and love they say. But it might be the deuce of clubs and that won’t mean much either way. There’s a lot of luck in life, and I’ve always thought you we got to believe hick to gci’ll.

He told me about some finds which had come to light in the Fancy. He explained to me how there were pieces attached to fossilized wood which itself was impregnated with opal, but only fragments of it-nothing that could be used.

“Sometimes,” he said, ‘it’s like a sandwich. What a sandwich I There’s the precious bit in the middle and on top you get the sandstone and underneath the opal dirt. Ifs in between that there’s the meat. But these are not the lumps I’ve been telling you about. They consist of a lot of fine grains of sand stuck together . and the cracks there’ll be this hint of opal. There are times when you can gouge out enough to make a small stone but the effort is hardly worth it. But I tell you this-when you find these, you can wager that not far off you’re going to come across the precious stuff. It might be opal matrix, opal dirt or just plain potch, but where it is there’s always hope that somewhere, nearby, if you can only find the spot, is the precious stuff, and every miner believes that what he is going to find is going to be better than anything that ever came to light before. “

It was fascinating listening to his talk. He seemed then as though he forgot the need to score over me, which I believed had its roots in my repugnance to him and the terms I had insisted on before marrying him.

When I saw him as the director of the Company, the man who understood opals and loved them-for this came out whenever he talked of them -I saw a different side to his nature from that of the conceited male whose dignity had been affronted because the woman he had been forced to marry for the sake of a fortune had insisted on the marriage’s being, as he called it mockingly, ‘in name only’.

So we sat there while the storm raged round us and as’ll listened to his talk of the life to which I was going, my feelings towards him changed a little. I had realized that there were many sides to his nature and I must not allow my dislike of one to blind me to the existence of the rest.

Our first port of call was Teneriffe and when we called there Joss took me for a tour round the island. We went to Santa Cruz in a gay little carriage drawn by two donkeys and Joss, who was very knowledgeable about the place, enlightened me a good deal. The weather was gently warm and I felt so exhilarated that I did not want the day to end. I admired the wonderfully coloured flowering shrubs and the lushness or everything. joss snowed me banana plantations and we lunched in a small restaurant overlooking the sea on potage de berros - a sort of watercress soup and fish which we had been told had been caught that morning and was served with a delicious sauce with the name of mo-j’o pi con. It was very exotic and exciting. As we sat overlooking the sea Joss told me that when the Romans had come there they had found this group of islands to have a larger population of dogs than any other country they knew, so they called them Canaria, the Islands of Dogs.

The natives were the Guanches - a savage people-who were in due course subdued by the Spaniards.

As we ate young men and women came to dance the local dances and there were singers too. We enjoyed the isa and the tolia which, said Joss, were characteristically Spanish. He was dearly gratified by my wonder and delight in everything and even his pleasure in his superior knowledge failed to dampen my pleasure.

I was sorry when we had to go back to the ship, and as we sailed off he and I leaned over the rail and watched the dominating peak of Pico de Tiede fade out of sight.

When we reached Cape Town, Joss had some business to do and he suggested that I go with him to the house of a man whom he had to see.

It would be good for me, he said, now that I was a shareholder in the Company, to learn everything I could about it.

Cape Town must surely be one of the most beautifully situated cities in the world. I was overwhelmed by the magnificence of Table Bay with flat-topped Table Mountain clear in the sunshine and the Twelve Apostles Mountains looming up beside it.

We had a horse-drawn carriage to take us up the slope to Joss’s business associate. The house was delightful in the Dutch Colonial style, and to step inside those beautifully cool rooms was like walking into a Dutch painting. There were stone steps leading to a terrace and on this was a table with chairs ranged round it.

As we came up the steps Kurt van der Stel and his wife came to greet us. They were clearly very pleased to see Joss, who introduced me as the wife he had recently married in England.

Grete van der Stel was a rosy plump woman, rather severely dressed, and she bustled around serving us with wine, which she explained came from a nearby vineyard, and with cakes which she had made herself.

When Joss told them of Ben’s death they were deeply distressed.

“It’s sad to think we shall never see him again,” said Grete.

“He had never been completely well since his accident, replied Joss.

That is one of the hazards of mining,” Kurt reminded him.

“And one of the reasons why people like you must pay high prices for that which the miners have risked their lives for,” answered Joss.

The van der Stels talked for a long time about Ben, his exuberance, his unpredictability. They agreed that the opal world would not be the same without him.

Then Grete asked me if I would like to see the house and I told her that I should.

How beautiful that house was with that ambience of peace and order which I had experienced before through the intriguing interiors of the Dutch school of painting. Everything was highly polished and treated with loving care.

Grete told me that her family had been in Cape Town for two hundred and fifty years.

“It is beautiful and it is home,” she said.

“Life is full of chance.

Nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, two Dutchmen were shipwrecked here. They were enchanted by the place, as all must be-the climate, the fruit, the flowers and the possibility of making a great colony occurred to them, so they went back to the Dutch East India Company and reported what they had found, and as a result they sent out three ships under the command of Jan van Riebeck. Here they settled and then more Dutch came out to join them and so we built a city, and it has been home to us through the generations. “

I stood at the window and looked out at the sparkling sea with the Mountain-indeed resembling a table-rising proudly out of the waters.

Grete took me into the garden where exquisite shrubs flowered in abundance about the one-storey dwelling where her servants were housed, and then went back to the terrace on which the two men were sitting, before them the rolled-up cases which I had so often seen in Ben’s possession. They were discussing the opals which lay in the cases.

Grete said that luncheon would be served in a few moments so Joss rolled up the cases. As he did so we heard the sound of horses’ hoofs on the road below.

“He’s here,” said Kurt van der Stel.

“I’ll be interested to see him,” said Joss.

“Perhaps he’ll be able to give me some news about what’s going on at the Fancy.”

A man mounted the steps to the terrace and Joss rose and shook hands with him.

“It’s good to see you, David,” he said.

“You too. Joss.” The newcomer shook hands with Kurt and as he did so Joss drew me forward.

“I want you to meet my wife,” he said.

The man ‘found it difficult to hide his astonishment.

“Jessica, this is David Croissant,” said Joss.

I had heard that name before. David Croissant, the merchant who knew more about the quality of opals than any other. He was not tall, and his dark hair grew low on his forehead, meeting in the centre in what we called a ‘widow’s peak’. He had light eyes which because of his general darkness gave him an unusual appearance, and those eyes, I noticed, were too closely set together.

“You’ve not heard about Ben,” said Joss. David Croissant looked startled and Joss told him.

“Good God!” said David Croissant.

“I had no idea. Ben … old Ben!”

“We shall, all miss him sadly,” said Kurt.

“What bad luck,” murmured David Croissant.

“If he’d still got the Flash you’d think it was that. I wonder what happened to Desmond Dereham. He disappeared off the face of the earth. He went to some outlandish place, I don’t doubt. Perhaps he’ll escape the bad luck.”

“Why should he?” asked Grete.

“Some say there’s evil in that stone and if that were so it might favour someone who stole it.”

“What a crazy idea,” said Joss.

“I’m surprised at you, David, an opal man, talking such nonsense. Ill luck! For heaven’s sake let’s put a stop to all that talk. It’s not good for business.”

He flashed me a warning look, which told me that he did not want me to mention the fact that the Green Rash had not been stolen. I wondered why and felt resentful that my father should go on being accused of stealing something which at the very most he had only attempted to.

However, I was unsure of myself and remained silent.

“It’s true,” said Kurt. “Who’s going to buy opals if they’re considered unlucky?”

“Lucky! Unlucky!” said Joss vehemently. “It’s a lot of nonsense. Long ago opals were the good luck stones and then it was discovered that they can sometimes be fragile and uus talk of bad luck started.”

“What have you brought to show us, David?” asked Kurt.

“Ah,” replied David, ‘some stones that will make you dance with joy.

There’s one in particular. “

Let’s see it,” said Joss.

“Mind you,” answered David, ‘it’s not cheap. “

“If it’s what you’re implying who’d expect it to be?” retorted Joss.

When I saw the Harlequin Opal I had my first real understanding of the fascination a stone could convey. It was aptly named. There seemed so many colours which changed as one watched. There was a gaiety about that stone. It definitely had a quality which even I could recognize.

“You’re right,” said Joss.

“It’s a beauty.”

“I only know of one stone I’d compare it with.”

"Now we’re back to the Green Flash,” retorted Joss.

“You can’t expect anything to compare with that’ ” Of course not. But this is superb. “

“I wonder you’re not afraid to travel around with it,” “I only show it to people I know. I keep it apart from the rest. I’m not going to tell you my secret hiding place. How do I know you might not turn bushranger?”

That’s wise of you,” said Joss. He held out the stone to me. Take a look at that, Jessica.”

I held it in the palm of my hand and I felt a reluctance to let it go.

“You see the beauty of it?” said Joss eagerly.

“Not a flaw in it. Look at those colours and the size…”

“Don’t praise it too much. joss,” begged Kurt.

“You’re putting the price up. Not that I’m going to bid for it. I know I can’t afford it.”

“I’ve others you’ll like, Kurt,” said David Croissant. "I'll put Harlequin away or she’ll outshine everything else. “

I was still staring at the stone I held.

“You see,” said David, ‘your wife doesn’t want to lose it” ” She’s beginning to understand something about opals. That’s true, eh, Jessica? “

“I’m very ignorant,” I said, handing the stone back to David, ‘but at least I’m aware that I know nothing about them. “

“Which is the first lesson,” answered Joss.

“So you’ve mastered that.”

We looked at the other opals as David Croissant unrolled case after case and Joss explained the properties of each to me.

Then suddenly he looked at his watch. we must go, unless we are going to miss the ship. I’ll see you in Australia, David. I dare say you’ll be coming back soon. “

“As soon as I can. One or two calls to make and then it’s the next ship back.”

So we said goodbye and our horse-drawn carriage which had been waiting for us took us back to the ship.

There were long days in calm waters when the ship seemed to move hardly at all. I would sit on deck with Joss and we would talk desultorily while we sipped cool drinks. There was a quality about these days which suggested erroneously that they would go on like this for ever. Now and then we would see a school of porpoises or dolphins sporting in the water and the flying-fishes rising from the deep blue depths to flutter on its surface. Once an albatross followed the ship for three days, and we would lie back in our chairs watching the infinite grace and calculate the immense strength of that twelve-foot span of wing as it circled above us.

Even my desire to discover the truth of my father’s disappearance receded. This was peace, and I wondered whether Joss felt it too.

We would sit on deck until sunset, which was about seven o’clock, and it was fascinating to experience the quick descent of twilight. How different from home where the subdued light lingers for a long time after the sun has set. Here it was bright day with that great ball of fire shedding its heat upon us until it sank into the sea, followed by almost immediate darkness.

The sunsets were superb and one night Joss said: “In waters such as this we could see the green flash.”

So each night we sat there and we were all hoping for a glimpse of it.

Anxiously we would scan the sky for the signs.

“Everything has to be perfect for it.” Joss explained.

“No clouds, the sea calm, every little detail has to be just right.”

Each evening when we sat there I would say: “Will it be tonight?”

“Who shall say?” answered Joss.

“One sits and waits as for an important visitor. If it comes and you are not watching for it with your complete attention, you’ll miss it. Don’t forget it’s there in a flash and gone again. If you blink an eye you’d miss it.”

It had become a fetish with us. Joss had seen it of course but, he admitted, only once.

“And I’ve been where it could be many a time,” he told us.

“And only once was I honoured.” So each evening at sunset we watched-but we waited in vain. The natural phenomenon was as elusive as its namesake.

We were on deck as we sailed into Bombay and before us lay a wonderful panorama of mountainous islands and away to the east the gently swaying palm trees and high peaks of the Western Ghat Mountains. Here was the gateway to India.

Joss and I spent an exhilarating morning in exotic surroundings, the like of which I had never seen before. How beautiful the women were in their brilliantly coloured saris, but the contrast between them and the multitudes of beggars who surrounded us appalled us, touching our pleasure with a depression created by such horror. We gave to the beggars, but the more we gave the more seemed to gather around us, and we had in the end to turn away from those big pleading eyes and little up stretched brown hands.

We had stopped to watch a group of women washing then-clothes in the river, but because of the beggars we returned to our gaily coloured mule-drawn carriage and left the river. But I could not get them out of my mind.

We were taken to a market where there were stalls of the most exciting merchandise and voluble salesmen, eager to sell their wares. There were beautiful carpets, all kinds of objects in carved wood, ivory and brass; and we were fascinated.

The bright black eyes of one of the salesmen were on us.

“You give a little present, eh?” he suggested.

“To show love … to bring good luck.”

I hesitated and Joss whispered: “He’s going to be very disappointed if we don’t.”

This lady, very lucky,” said the salesman.

“It was ivory charm. The goddess of good fortune … talisman against evil. ” I’m going to buy that for you,” I said. The Green Flash is yours now… you may need it. ” It’s partly yours too and to show that I don’t believe in bad luck I’m going to buy you that cherry-coloured silk to make a gown. “

So we made our purchases with the minimum of bargaining for, said Joss, the salesman would be disappointed if we did not haggle a little.

I felt as we walked away that that incident seemed to imply that our relationship was changing.

We had a light luncheon and during it I asked him why he had allowed David Croissant to believe that the Green Flash was still missing and may has been stolen by my father.

There’s always a great deal of speculation about that stone,” said Joss.

“And David’s a talker. I don’t want people talking about it until I have it secure. I think that’s the wise thing to do.”

And I did not feel I could argue with him on that score. After luncheon we drove in the carriage to the, impressive Rajabai Tower built in the fourteenth century and went up Malabar Hill to Malabar Point. We paused by the Tower of Silence where, so our driver told us, the Parsees disposed of their dead according to their religious tradition, which was to leave the bodies to the sun, the weather, and the birds.

“No woman is allowed in,” we were told.

“Why not?” I asked.

“Why should they be excluded?” The driver could not understand us, for his English was limited, but Joss replied: The inferior sex, you know. ” That’s quite absurd,” I retorted hotly. I could see he was pleased to have aroused my indignation, and the change in our relationship which I had fancied I detected had evaporated. We were back to where we had started.

As we were approaching the end of our journey, a restraint had grown up between us. Joss was often thoughtful, and once or twice I caught him regarding me intently.

We continued to sit on deck together in the evenings at sunset. We would sit in silence watching the great ball of fire slipping down to the horizon.

When we did. ” talk we often mentioned Ben. Joss quoted him frequently.

It was clear that he had been greatly influenced by him throughout his life.

“Do you think we’ll see the real green flash one day?” I asked.

“Perhaps. Though there’s not much time left. You have to wait for it.

I believe some people imagine they’ve seen it. “

“Are you one of those? ” Not I. I’m much too practical. I don’t have day dreams. “

“Perhaps it might be better if you did.”

“Why should one want to indulge in fancy when there’s reality all around one? ” ” It shows imagination. “

He laughed at me. I knew he enjoyed laughing at me, proving to me that I was young, inexperienced of life and somewhat foolish.

Once he said: “Ben used to say love comes quickly in a flash sometimes, but you have to recognize it for the real thing. Lots of people think they’ve found it because they want to. That’s how it is with the green flash. They want to have seen it so they delude themselves into thinking they have.”

“I can assure you that I never delude myself.”

He went on: “Look at the sun. There are opal lights in the sky today.

Look at that touch of yellow over there . with the blue. I found an opal just like that once. We called it The Primrose because someone fancied he saw the shape of the flower there. In half an hour the sun will be going down. Who knows? Tonight we could see it It’s a night for the green flash. “

We sat there watching.

“Any minute now,” said Joss.

“How bright it is! It’s as though it wants to blind you so that you’ll miss it. Be careful. Be sure you don’t blink.”

The great red ball low on the horizon was dipping into the water-now only half of it was visible, now less and then just that red rim.

“Now!” whispered Joss; and there was a quick intake of breath to indicate disappointment, for the sun had completely disappeared below the horizon, and neither of us had seen the green flash.