by Lucy Walker
‘Could I begin to-night?’
‘Of course. Let’s begin by steaming …’
‘Would there be much difference by Sunday?’
‘Sunday?’
‘The tennis …’
‘Heavens, Peg, you’re in a hurry, aren’t you?’
Peg looked at Kate pensively.
‘Yes, Kate, I am in a hurry. Do you know, I’ve just discovered something … I only found it out to-day … I’ve discovered …’
She stopped.
‘What have you discovered, Peg?’
Peg quite literally hung her head.
‘Well, never mind,’ she said. ‘I’ll tell you … I’ll tell you some other time.’
When Kate had brought a bowl with steaming water and some soft face towels to begin operations on Peg the latter had pinned up her thick black hair in a nob on the top of her head.
‘Of course it makes me look taller,’ she said. ‘But also somewhat striking, I think.’
She sat down at a little table obediently. Just as Kate lifted the first hot towel Peg favoured her with one more shattering remark.
‘I think everyone does Mrs. Weston an injustice, Kate. She is the best friend I ever had.’
Kate paused and looked with amazement in to Peg’s eyes.
‘She wants to help me,’ Peg went on. ‘And quite suddenly I realise she’s right. I only discovered it to-day … I fell … I feel … as if I’ve come through a glass darkly … or something. No, I don’t. I just feel as if I’ve never seen something that’s been there all the time … and I’d never seen it before.’
She looked back into Kate’s astonished face. If Kate had any doubts Peg’s next words dispelled them.
‘Don’t laugh at me, Kate. I’m only doing what you wanted me to do all along.’
When Kate got into bed to have her thinking session after Peg’s beauty treatment was over and the lights were out she could allow herself to savour what she thought both Mrs. Weston and Peg had meant by their extraordinary behaviour to-day.
She closed her eyes tight.
‘Peg’s going to do what I wanted her to do … I must be awfully glad about that. She’ll forget Hal … she’ll be happy. She’ll have the forest and the orchard and the hay-smelling fields and the horses and the smell of burning gum leaves. She’ll have everything I’d love to have so dearly. Everything I’ll have to go away from on Monday … and forget I’ve ever known. And she won’t have to have a life of misery with Hal either …’
Oh yes, I can see what they’re both doing, Mrs. Weston for mean motives and Peg for loving and generous ones.
‘Well, that’s the way I wanted it. Good old Peg!’
But Kate was tense in every muscle of her body.
‘I’m only unhappy because I have to go away from here. And it is lovely. Any girl would be unhappy to have to leave it …’
She turned on her side and stared out over the paddock. The moon had risen long since and there was no path of gold. Only a flooding white pale light over everything.
‘How still it is …’
She thought of the night she had slept on the Benallens’ veranda.
‘Right out in all the stillness.’ She remembered the light over Benallens’ orchard … and that someone in the middle of the night … had put a rug over her. It had made her feel so warm … so cared for … she had fallen asleep.
Kate had fallen asleep.
Saturday was too busy a day for Kate to worry about the depleted family.
Even with Peg and Judity the routine of the care of Sugar and Baby went on with an almost religious zeal. It took up nearly all the morning.
Peg remained in her new mood. She was serious … and found time to shampoo her hair and work hard at creaming and massaging her skin. She drank large quantities of clear cold water.
‘You said it helped clear the skin …’ she reminded Kate.
Mrs. Weston spent an unconscionable time at the telephone.
‘Organising the tennis …’ Peg said sagely. Kate had an overwhelming desire to loiter in the kitchen and hear what mischief was brewing.
‘Heavens,’ she thought. ‘What would I be like if I stayed here for a year? I would become one of the Blackwood band of professional eavesdroppers.’
At breakfast Uncle Harry had been preoccupied.
‘Bellew will cut up rough over Chester,’ he told Mrs. Weston.
‘Stuff and nonsense,’ she said angrily. ‘He won’t know to begin with. I think he’s on the back fences of Arundel this week. And who owns the horse anyway?’
‘Why will Bellew mind about Chester?’ Kate asked in Uncle Harry’s ear.
‘It’s his horse, m’dear. He nurses it along like a baby. Beautiful horse … touchy, delicate, but fleet as a bird. Bellew’s training it up for the steeplechase. He broke it in himself. Looked after it since it was a foal.’
‘Nonsense,’ said Mrs. Weston. ‘Chester belongs on Appleton same as any other horse. Anything on Appleton’s mine.’
‘Does Appleton own that big bay gelding he rides most of the time?’ Kate asked innocently.
‘That’s different,’ said Mrs. Weston. ‘When he came here he came on that horse. It’s his. The chestnut was a foal running round. He took it for his own … didn’t ask anybody. Just took it.’
Kate didn’t have to ask Uncle Harry why Bellew would be upset at Hal taking Chester. She had seen for herself how Hal treated horses. Whether the technical ownership of Chester lay with Appleton or Bellew his heart belonged to the boundary rider. And it would break the boundary rider’s heart if Hal bullied the horse.
‘Why did he take him?’
‘Perverseness,’ Uncle Harry said. ‘He probably didn’t get his own way about something and then took a horse that he knew would upset the whole property.’
‘Rubbish,’ Mrs. Weston said. ‘Bellew won’t know anything about it. You can get Sixpence to groom Chester when Hal comes back and put him out to grass. Bellew won’t know.’
Kate, for Bellew’s sake, hoped that this would be so.
However, after lunch, Uncle Harry’s fears were realised. They were all just drinking the last of their four cups of tea when Millie, one of the servants, sidled up to Uncle Harry.
‘That fella Bellew, he’m outside, boss. He’m pretty sick fella. You come an’ see’m, boss.’
Uncle Harry didn’t hear, so Peg shouted obligingly in his ear.
‘Hell and damnation!’ the old man said, getting up to his feet. ‘If I was a young man I’d take a stockwhip to Hal. So I would.’ He disappeared around the kitchen veranda corner.
‘Now what?’ asked Kate forlornly. Peg shrugged. She too was unhappy for Bellew.
An hour later Judity came in search of Kate.
‘Miz Kate. That fella Bellew. He’m outside. He’m wantum speak to you.’
‘Me?’
‘Yes’m. He’m pretty mad, that fella. He tink you kin git that Chester fella back from Mister Hal.’
Kate went out on to the veranda. Through the flywire mesh she could see Bellew standing on the garden path. His hat was in his hand. There was something sadly pathetic about him. His straight black hair was plastered across his forehead as if he had just wet and combed it down. His eyes were barely perceptible slits in his face.
‘Bellew?’
‘Miss Osborne … Madam … my horse …’
He stopped. His eyes opened a fraction. They were pale grey lightless orbs.
‘Yes, I know, Bellew. I’m so terribly sorry. But Mr. Hal is a very good rider, after all. He’ll be back on Monday or Tuesday. It is not very long to wait.’
‘Miss Osborne. You are going to marry Mr. Weston. He would bring back Chester if you asked him.’
Kate nearly wrung her hands.
‘But how could I ask him … he is travelling, you know. There wouldn’t be a telephone anywhere.’
‘You could send after him, madam. He would bring back that horse for you.’
Kate sat abrupt
ly down on the doorstep and took her head in her hands.
‘Oh, Bellew … if only I could …’ Here was the man who had saved her twice from a horrible accident. Her own countryman and one to whom in her own undemonstrative way she had pledged her friendship. He was asking her to do something she couldn’t do.
‘Bellew,’ she said, looking up, ‘I want to tell you something. Mr. Weston would not bring back that horse for me. He took it because he was angry with me and he knew that when I found out it was your horse, and that you were upset, I would be hurt and angry. In other words, he took Chester to punish me.’
Bellew looked down at her for quite a long time. His lips moved a little and his hands began the terrible shaking she had seen before.
‘Oh, Bellew …’ she said. Tears sprang into her eyes. ‘He would never bring back Chester for me.’
‘No, madam …’
Still he stood there, his hands trembling, his strange immobile face turned towards her.
‘Mister Benallen, madam. He would get the horse for you.’
‘Rick?’
She thought hard. Could she ask Rick? Wasn’t it rather disloyal to the Westons? But did loyalty matter when Bellew’s heart was breaking. How much did one do for a boundary rider in Australia? She herself owed him everything … but would Rick Benallen feel he had to pay her debts? Might he do this for Bellew anyway? Whatever his feelings, could he interfere to this extent in Appleton business?
Kate sighed and stood up.
‘I’ll ask him, Bellew. I must think how to do it. I promise you I will ask Mr. Benallen for advice anyway.’
Kate went to the switchboard and plugged straight through to Allandale. A farmhand answered the ring. Mrs. Benallen and her son had gone to the out-back of their property. They would not be in before sundown!
With reluctant feet Kate went back to tell Bellew.
‘Couldn’t you ride out to Benallens’ and tell them?’
He shook his head.
‘Mr. Benallen couldn’t do it for me, Miss Osborne. But he would for you. Mr. Benallen would do anything you asked, madam.’
Would he?
Kate felt all her heart surging forward over those miles of bush and forest.
‘Rick …? I have a debt of honour; have I any right to ask you to pay it for me?’
When she went back to the billiard-room where Peg was idly strumming the piano she put the question, in a modified form, to Peg.
‘Could I ask Rick to do that, do you think, Peg?’
Peg stopped playing and considered.
‘It’s the unwritten law that one farmer doesn’t interfere in the domestic running of another farmer’s property. My guess is Rick wouldn’t break that law for anybody. After all, the Westons and not Bellew do own that horse.’
Peg got up and walked in a carefully studied walk down the length of the billiard-room. She examined herself in the mirror. She patted her hair which, shampooed, set and dressed, sat in a shining coil on the top of her head.
What she saw in the mirror she didn’t find unpleasing.
‘Rick might do it for someone he was very fond of …’ she said. ‘It’s not very likely … but …’
Mrs. Weston had hobbled into the billiard-room. She surveyed Peg with evident pleasure.
‘Do you think …’ Peg said, addressing her much more respectfully than had ever been evident before, ‘do you think I could borrow the jeep? Kate and Bellew think that Rick might go after Hal and rescue Chester from him. I think that I could ask Rick what he thought … if I could go over there for an hour or two after sundown.’
Mrs. Weston looked first surprised, then considering, and finally pleased.
‘Yes, Peg, you go. Rick’ll listen to you . ..’
She turned to Kate.
‘You stay here and help me with the children, Kate. Leave those two to talk it out. Peg will know how to handle Rick.’
Kate was almost stiff with silence.
Saturday night! Alone at Appleton with Mrs. Weston! Peg and Rick … Perhaps Peg would spend the night in the spare bed on the veranda! … and meantime Bellew …!
Oh, poor Bellew!
Mrs. Weston took Kate’s arm and leaned on it as they left the billiard-room.
‘Mrs. Benallen and Mrs. de Berhans!’ she said. ‘I know what those two are up to … well, I’m going to hoist them with their own petard!’
Kate didn’t know what the two ‘B’s had been up to, and she didn’t want very much to know. But she knew what Mrs. Weston was up to. And strangely … strangely … Peg was more than acquiescent. Good old Peg!
Yes, good old Peg! She had to keep saying that to herself. She had wanted good things for Peg. She had wanted happiness and security … and Rick for Peg. Now it looked as if Peg was going after them herself.
Good old Peg! That’s all there was to it.
Saturday night alone with Mrs. Weston.
Uncle Harry could hardly be called present. He sat by the pick-up and played the New World Symphony. He listened intently and Kate, watching him, thought he didn’t miss a note. When he closed the lid finally she saw him put his hand in his breast pocket where the battery for his hearing aid rested. There was a movement of his finger as if he turned the battery off.
So, thought Kate. He can hear better than he wants to hear most times!
Mrs. Weston played patience with her miniature set of ivory cards. Kate leafed through farmers’ catalogues and back numbers of the Bulletin … that pink-covered farmer’s Bible that sat in every waiting-room, every hospital annex … every farmer’s home in Australia.
The homestead seemed large, empty, and curiously loveless. It was meant for people, not for silence.
Kate made some late tea and took it to Uncle Harry and Mrs. Weston and then said ‘Good-night.’
In her own room she pulled out her cases and began packing her clothes. There was something hateful about it. ‘They think I’ll be here for another week at least and all the time I’m plotting to go … I feel as if I’m skulking … and I wasn’t born to be a natural skulker.’
What should one do?
Kate sat on the bed and thought her problem out all over again. ‘It’s just not decent to stay after the engagement is officially broken. And it’s just not decent to go on pretending I have an official status here. I just must pack and go.’
God willing, Annabel would be back on Monday.
‘I don’t have to wait for Hal … He has shown me neither chivalry nor consideration … Thank God the age of niceties is past after all. Otherwise I’d have to wait for him …’
Kate undressed, took a long time having a luxury bath, and after creaming her face and shoulders crawled into bed. She switched off the bedside lamp and, turning on her side, looked out of the long window across the paddock.
A man was standing on the edge of the lawn outside her window.
For a moment Kate felt sick. She hadn’t drawn the curtains! Then with relief she recollected she had undressed in the bathroom and got into her pyjamas and dressing-gown there. How long had that man been there?
As her eyes grew accustomed to the change of light she began to see his outline more clearly. It was Bellew.
Kate could feel her heart pounding. She didn’t know whether to be frightened of him or not. Clearly he was standing there, outside her window, to see … or to watch her. No one would stand there for any other reason.
Bellew was eccentric. Kate had realised that long since. How eccentric … and how much did one need to be afraid of him?
She lay still for a long time. Perhaps nearly half an hour passed and then Bellew moved away. He went and stood under the pines at the far end of the lawn. He stood in the shadow and if Kate had not seen him move she would not know there was anyone there.
He was worried about his horse … and somehow he had put faith in Kate.
Kate crept out of bed, pulled her dressing-gown and slippers on, and without turning on the light went out into the passage.
&nbs
p; Appleton was in darkness and silence. Mrs. Weston and Uncle Harry had both retired to bed. Kate felt her way down the passage to the far veranda. Here she could see well enough without light. The moon and bright starry sky cast a luminous glow over everything. Kate stole round to the kitchen veranda and the switch-board. The clock over the board said ten minutes to eleven. She was surprised it was so early. They’d all be up at Benallens’. Kate pulled the switch across and plugged in the Allandale number. It only rang for a few minutes and Mrs. Benallen answered.
‘It’s Kate speaking … I’m so sorry to worry you … but Peg didn’t come back and I’m worried about Bellew. I wondered if Rick could tell us what to do …’
Mrs. Benallen’s voice came clearly across the wires.
‘He’s going to take Peg over first thing in the morning, Kate. I think he’ll have a talk to Bellew then … if Uncle Harry doesn’t mind.’
‘I know it’s not very easy … I mean I know the horse really does belong to the Westons … I shouldn’t ask Rick. It’s just that I owe Bellew so much …’
‘That’s all right, Kate dear. You shouldn’t have to worry … Rick will help if he can. Would you like to speak to him?’
Like to speak to him?
Kate closed her eyes tight.
‘No, it’s all right, thank you. I won’t bother him now. It’s just nice to know he’ll come over in the morning.’
‘We’re just having tea … and then to bed …’
‘Yes. We’ve just had ours …’
She couldn’t tell Mrs. Benallen she had gone to bed out of sheer loneliness … and that Bellew was standing outside her window … It sounded silly and melodramatic. How comfortable and happy was the picture of them all over there at Allandale.
‘I suppose you played three-handed rummy?’ Kate said in a small voice. Mrs. Benallen’s easy laugh came through clearly.
‘No, indeed we didn’t, Kate. We keep that for you. We must have another evening before you go back. As a matter of fact I’ve been working in the study and Rick and Peg have been sitting in the living-room working their tongues to a standstill.’
