The Pioneers

by Katharine Susannah Prichard

  CHAPTER XXIV

  Mrs. Cameron was not seen in Wirreeford during those months of herhusband's illness. Cameron drove into the township unexpectedly one daywhen the sales were in progress and she was with him. He went to theyards and she turned the horse, a sturdy daughter of old Lassie, backalong the road and halted her outside the Schoolmaster's cottage.

  Deirdre went out to meet her.

  "I only heard you were back a few days ago, Deirdre," Mrs. Cameron said.

  "Didn't Davey tell you?" Deirdre asked.

  "No," his mother replied.

  They went indoors and Mrs. Cameron sat with her back to the window inthe Schoolmaster's wicker chair. Deirdre noticed that she looked olderand wearier than when she had last seen her.

  "They tell me you're to marry Conal, the drover, dear," Mrs. Cameronsaid.

  "It's not true!" Deirdre gasped, turning away from her. "Who told you?"

  "Mrs. Ross, it was," Mrs. Cameron replied. "She was over the other day... she and Jess. She said the boys had heard at the sales."

  "They tell me," Deirdre's eyes met Mrs. Cameron's, and her voice ran asquietly as hers, "that Davey's to marry Jess Ross."

  "Oh," Mrs. Cameron exclaimed, distressfully, "I don't know! They say so,but Davey--"

  Her face worked pitifully.

  "He's so strange. I don't understand him at all, Deirdre. He's sochanged. I can't help him ... can't do anything for him. He seems tohave become a man quite suddenly, and--"

  She put her hands over her eyes and began to cry.

  Deirdre bent over her.

  "Don't! Don't cry, Mrs. Cameron, dear," she whispered, kissing her.

  "It's so foolish," Mary Cameron said tremulously, as if askingforbearance, "but my heart's just breaking to see Davey like he is! Ihave managed to keep his father from knowing, so far, but I'm afraid--Idaren't think what will happen when he knows."

  Deirdre said nothing, but her eyes were full.

  Mrs. Cameron stretched a hand out to her.

  "Oh, dear," she said, "they say it is Jess, Davey's going to marry, butI can't think it's anybody but you he cares about. When first you wentaway we used to talk about you; Davey used to say: 'She's a Pelling, Ido believe, mother'--because of the fairy-tale I used to tell him. Hemade me tell it over and over again after you'd gone away. It was aboutPenelop, the tylwyth teg, who married the farmer's boy. Do you remember,Deirdre? I'm sure I told it to you, too, in the old days."

  "Yes," Deirdre cried breathlessly, "and ever afterwards theirdescendants were called Pellings, the children of Penelop, and it wassaid, if they had dark hair and bright eyes, there was fairy blood intheir veins."

  Mrs. Cameron smiled.

  "Yes," she said, "fancy you remembering it after all this long time,dear. Once, soon after you'd gone away, Davey said to me, 'I wonder ifDeirdre married me, mother, would she melt away if I touched her with apiece of iron.' He sat thinking and smiling a long time, Deirdre, and Ifelt so happy about you both.... Then you came back ... and it was alldifferent."

  "I've been thinking perhaps it was Conal has come between you." The eyesof Davey's mother were very wistful. "But if you're not going to marryConal, perhaps you can be good friends with Davey again, Deirdre. Hewould do anything in the world for you once. The other night when hecame home--he had been at McNab's until late and the drink was strong onhim--I couldn't let him into the house for fear of his father waking. Heslept in the barn and I sat near him ... I was afraid he might light amatch and drop it in the hay ... and he talked in his sleep--sobbing andcrying--and it was your name he was saying, over and over again tohimself, as though his heart was breaking over it, 'Deirdre! Deirdre!'"

  "And there's some affair with McNab troubling him," Mrs. Cameron wenton. "I don't know what it is. Oh, I don't know what he's been doing toget mixed up with McNab in anything--I know he can mean Davey no goodwhatever. He has sworn to have vengeance on his father for long enough.They say you're the most beautiful woman in the country, Deirdre. Ifonly you'd help me to keep Davey away from McNab's! You could! He'd doanything for you in the old days. What is it has come between you?"

  Mrs. Cameron's eyes were very like Davey's had been when he kissed herunder the trees, Deirdre thought.

  She put her hand in Mrs. Cameron's.

  A shadow darkened the window, breaking the blank of the sunlight beyondit. The Schoolmaster came in at the door that overlooked the road.

  An exclamation drew his gaze to the far end of the room.

  Mrs. Cameron held out her hand to him.

  She had not seen him since the night of the fires. Deirdre went to herlittle lean-to of a kitchen and busied herself making tea.

  When she returned, Mrs. Cameron was sitting as she had left her, on thewicker chair with her back to the light; but there was an added pain inher eyes: her hands lay limp in her lap.

  Deirdre had a tray with tea and the cups on it. She set it down on thetable in the middle of the room, and they gathered their chairs aboutit.

  "What a nice home you've got," Mrs. Cameron said, smiling at theSchoolmaster. "Deirdre has turned out a wonderful housekeeper afterall."

  The Schoolmaster laughed.

  "She was always more eager to be 'possuming and chasing calves withDavey than to be learning to cook and sew, wasn't she?" he said.

  "But after a while she made butter as well as I could." Mrs. Cameronsmiled. "And as for spinning, Deirdre could take my old wheel and twistup a yarn for me in no time. Will you let her come soon to stay with mefor a while?"

  "Yes."

  The Schoolmaster's eyes dwelt on the girl for a moment.

  "There are not enough children coming for schooling. We won't be herefor much longer," he said. "We'll be going up to Steve's soon."

  "Going up to Steve's?" Deirdre asked. "When?"

  The Schoolmaster did not answer at once.

  "When Conal gets back. I want to see him first," he said. "We'll just bestaying a few weeks with Steve for a holiday and then be leaving thedistrict again."

  Mrs. Cameron sat talking to them of the every-day affairs of her life, alittle longer. Then she got up to go.

  "Is it true what they say--that he will lose his sight?" she askedDeirdre when they were outside.

  Deirdre nodded. She could scarcely speak of the time when the light ofthe world would be blotted out for ever from Dan.

  "We saw a doctor in Rane. He said so," she replied.

  Mrs. Cameron's exclamation was in the soft tongue of the spinning songshe sang when she sat with her wheel in the garden. Deirdre did not knowthe words, but she understood their distress and the little gesture thatwent with them.