I shivered. I hated the thought of waiting on Death. When people had said to me “When your aunt dies, you will be comfortably off,” it had shocked me. It was horrible to wait for death to remove others from your path. I was reminded of the vultures on Malabar Hill.
I feared that the slightest response from me would have released a flood of words which were better left unsaid, but as Chantel would have pointed out to me, the thoughts existed whether they were spoken or not.
Edward came up and saluted.
“Captain, what’s that thing with the handle?”
The moment had passed. “Better show me, Bo’sun.” He had christened Edward Bo’sun much to Edward’s delight; Edward made Johnny address him as such.
I felt deeply touched to see them together. I would never believe he could kill a man for a fortune. He was innocent. And yet…he had come to the Queen’s House and had not told me he was married. And now was he really suggesting that I should wait?
What a dangerous situation could arise when someone else stood in the way of something which was passionately desired. A common enough situation to have earned a cliché title—the eternal triangle. And to think that I should have been at one point of this.
I had left the sheltered life and come out into the danger zone, I, homely Anna (as Monique called me). I might have been safe in England, adviser to an antique dealer, companion to an old lady, governess to a child. Those were the alternatives.
Edward was absorbed.
“He’ll be a sailor one day,” said Redvers coming back to me.
“That would not surprise me, although children change and often ambitions of their early days lose their appeal as they grow older.”
“What was your ambition as a child?”
“I think it was merely to be like my mother.”
“She must have been a successful parent.”
“As you are with Edward.”
He drew his brows together. “I wouldn’t give myself full marks. I see so little of him.”
“I did not see a great deal of my mother.”
“Perhaps children idealize a parent when they don’t see too much of him…or her.”
“Perhaps. To me my mother was the ideal of grace and beauty, because I never saw her anything but gay. I suppose she was sad sometimes, but not when I was there. She laughed a great deal. My father adored her. She was quite different from him. It brought it back so vividly when we were in Bombay.”
“Did you enjoy your trip ashore?”
I hesitated. Then I said, “I went with Dick Callum, Mrs. Malloy, and the First Officer.”
“A pleasant little party.”
“He has sailed with you many times, I gather.”
“Callum? Yes. He’s a good conscientious fellow.”
I wanted to say: “He hates you. I believe he would do you some harm if he could.” But how could I?
“I believe he thinks that I arranged the whole thing on The Secret Woman and that I have the jewels in safe keeping.”
“You know he thinks that?”
“My dear Anna, everyone thought it. It was the obvious conclusion.”
I was startled and delighted by the way in which he said “My dear Anna” because it made me feel as though I really was.
“But you accept that?”
“I can’t blame them for thinking the obvious.”
“But doesn’t it…upset you?”
“It has had its effect on me. It makes me determined to solve the mystery, to say ‘There, you were wrong!’”
“Only that?”
“And to prove I’m an honest man, of course.”
“And you can only do that by discovering the diamonds?”
“I believe them to be at the bottom of the sea. What I want to discover is who destroyed my ship.”
“These people think that you did.”
“That’s why I want to prove I did not.”
“But how?”
“By discovering who did.”
“Have you any hope of doing this?”
“I always hope. Every time I go to Coralle, I believe that I am going to find the answer to the riddle.”
“But the ship is lost and the diamonds with her. How can you?”
“Someone somewhere in the world, and very likely on the island, knows the answer. One day I shall find out.”
“And you think the answer is on Coralle?”
“I feel it must be.”
I turned to him suddenly. “I shall try to find it. When Serene Lady has sailed away and left us there I shall do everything that is in my power to prove your innocence.”
He smiled. “So you believe in it?”
“I think,” I said very slowly, “that you could make me believe anything you wished.”
“What a strange statement…as though you believe against your will.”
“No, no. My will would force me to believe, because I want to.”
“Anna…”
“Yes.”
His face was close to mine. I loved him; and I knew that he loved me. Or did I know it? Was this an example of my will forcing my mind to believe?
“I was thinking of you all the time in Bombay. I wished that I could have been with you. And Callum… He’s not a bad sort but…”
I put out a hand and he took it. Then he put into words the thought that had been in his mind. “Anna, don’t do anything rash. Wait.”
“What for?” demanded Edward who had come over to us suddenly. “And why are you holding hands?”
“That reminds me,” I said. “We must go and wash our hands before lunch.”
I had to hurry away. I was afraid of my emotions.
On the boat deck Gareth Glenning and Rex Crediton were playing chess. Chantel was in the cabin in close attendance on Monique who had been ill during the night. Mrs. Greenall had cornered Mrs. Malloy and I could hear her talking about her grandchildren.
“Naughty of course. But boys will be boys and he’s only six years old. Why I said to him, by the time we get back to England you’ll be quite a little man.”
Mrs. Malloy grunted sleepily.
Edward and Johnny were playing table tennis on the green baize table at the end of the deck with a net round it to save the balls and through which I could keep a comfortable eye on them.
I had a book in my lap but I was not reading. My thoughts were in too much of a turmoil. I kept hearing one word in my ears, “Wait.”
He never spoke of his marriage to me; he never mentioned what he suffered through it. It was from Chantel that I was able to understand what a miserable failure it was. Chantel listened to Monique’s confidences; she lived close to them; she had spent some time in the Captain’s quarters when Monique had been there.
“I wonder he doesn’t murder her,” she said. “Or she him. She works herself up. Once when I was up there she picked up a knife and came at him. It wasn’t serious of course. She could hardly find the energy to breathe let alone drive a knife into that solid manly breast.” Chantel might joke about it, I could not.
“You see,” said Chantel, “he was trapped into marrying her. What he thought was a light love affair turned into something more. He had to marry her. There was some old nurse who threatened to put a curse on him if he didn’t. She told me this. You can’t have a captain with a curse.”
I didn’t tell her that I had heard this before.
“Master Edward may or may not have been on the way. Dear, dear, the sins ye do by two and two you pay for one by one. At least you do if you’re found out. As for poor Monique, she continues to adore her Captain. She writes letters to him. I am continually taking them up to his cabin. She won’t trust them with anyone but me. Passionate, passionate Monique. Well, perhaps he might be nice to her. She can’t last for long.”
I said it was a very tragic situation.
“Less so than if she was a strong and healthy woman, though.”
I couldn’t bear it when Chantel talked like that. There were times when I thought we should have been wise to have stayed in England, both of us.
And here I was on the boat deck listening to the plop-plop of balls on a green table and the sudden shrill cries of joy and protest from the boys, glancing at the printed page, reading a paragraph and afterward not knowing what I had read, looking up and watching the porpoises frolicking or the flying fishes rising and swooping over the water.
A warm soft wind was blowing and perhaps this was what brought the voices to me so clearly.
They were coming from the chess table. It was Rex speaking with more intensity than I had ever heard from him before.
“You…devil.”
He could only be addressing Gareth Glenning; and anyone less like a devil it would be hard to conceive.
I suppose he has put him in check, I thought idly. But how vehement he had sounded, and then I heard Gareth’s laugh. It was unpleasantly mocking.
I must have been half asleep and full of fancies. They were merely playing their favorite chess together and I suppose Gareth was winning.
Soon, I thought, we shall be in Sydney and then it will be quite different. So many will have left us. Rex, the Glennings, Mrs. Malloy and all the passengers. The only ones who will remain were myself, Edward, Chantel, and Monique. And once we reached Coralle, there would be change again, but I should not be there to see that.
A ship had appeared on the horizon, her sails full blown in the strong winds. The boys came running out to look at her.
“Yankee Clipper!” cried Edward.
“China Clipper,” contradicted Johnny.
They argued together, forgetful of their table tennis. They stood watching the ship while Edward boasted of his superior knowledge gleaned from the Captain.
Miss Rundle strolled along, her big hat tied under her chin by a chiffon scarf to protect a complexion which Chantel had once said was hardly worth the trouble.
“Hello, Miss Brett.” The very way she spoke my name was a reproach. “Have you any objection to my sitting beside you?”
I had, but I could scarcely say so.
“Oh dear.” Her eyes rested on Mrs. Malloy and Mrs. Greenall. “She is not going to like saying good-bye to her officer.”
“I think it’s just a shipboard friendship.”
“I think you are very charitable, Miss Brett.”
Which was more than I could say for her.
“But then…”
She paused with a snigger; but she had really said enough.
“And you will be staying on after we have said good-bye.”
“Only for a short time until we reach Coralle.”
“You’ll have the crew…and the Captain…to yourselves. But you’ll have to share them with the others. How is poor Mrs. Stretton?”
“She is keeping to her cabin, Nurse Loman tells me.”
“Poor creature! What she has to put up with, I shouldn’t like to imagine.”
“Shouldn’t you?” I asked with some irony.
“Dear me no. With a man like that. The way he smiled at me when he said good day…”
“Really?”
“He’s a born philanderer. Yes, I’m very sorry for her…and anyone else whom he seems to fascinate. Of course people should have more sense, and more decency. But I don’t know. People amaze me. There is your friend Nurse Loman…and er…” She looked round at Rex. “What does she think she will get out of it?”
“I don’t think everyone is wondering what they are going to get out of their friendships. Well, they’d hardly be friendships if they were.”
“Oh you’re very clever at talk. I suppose a governess would be. Those boys… How they shout! Shouldn’t they be kept in order? My goodness, when I was young…”
“The old order changeth and gives place to the new,” I said, and thought of Chantel, who liked to quote and usually misquoted, as I was probably doing now.
“H’m,” she said.
“It is a Yankee Clipper,” Edward was shrieking. “I’m going to ask the Captain.”
He came running along the deck, Johnny in his wake.
“Edward,” I called, “where are you going?”
“To see the Captain. I want to look through that thing he has up there. It’s wonderful. You can see things far away ever so clearly.”
“When did you see it?” jeered Johnny.
“I’ve seen it once…and twice. I have seen it, haven’t I, Anna? I saw it when we were up there. You know that time when the Captain was holding your hand and telling you to wait. That was the time. There was a great big ship then. I asked the Captain and he said it was a Yankee Clipper.”
Miss Rundle could scarcely contain her excitement.
I said: “You can’t go now. What of your game of tennis? Go and finish that.”
“But…”
“You can describe it to the Captain when you see it. Perhaps he’ll show you pictures and you can identify it.”
“He’s got lots of pictures up there, hasn’t he, Anna?”
I said: “Yes and I daresay he’ll show them to you both sometime. But you must remember that he has the ship to look after. So go and finish your game and see them later.”
So we sat on the deck. The ship had sunk below the horizon, and the porpoises were leaping with joy. Rex and Gareth were still intent on the chessboard; Mrs. Malloy and Mrs. Greenall were dozing, and Miss Rundle departed. I knew she was looking for someone to whom she could whisper her latest discovery.
The Captain had held my hand and asked me to wait.
***
It was fortunate, I believed, that we should soon reach Fremantle. The excitement of coming into port always seemed to smother everything else among the passengers. Even Miss Rundle could not be greatly excited about scandal concerning people to whom she would soon say good-bye forever.
I had no doubt that she had spread Edward’s revelation, but it no longer seemed as important as it was three or four weeks earlier. Mrs. Malloy was less absorbed by the First Officer; that friendship was dying a natural death. She was fussily preparing everything for her landing at Melbourne. Mr. and Mrs. Greenall were in a state of fervid excitement and asking each other twenty times a day whether the grandchildren were to be brought to Circular Quay to meet them.
“Not the youngest, surely,” she told me repeatedly. “Not at his age surely.”
Chantel and Rex were in each other’s company at every possible moment; I was afraid for them. I came upon them once leaning on the rail talking earnestly. I was worried about Chantel. Her indifference was not really natural. Edward and Johnny were the only ones who behaved normally. They would part at Melbourne but in their minds that was, as they would say, ages away. A day in their lives was a long time.
And one morning I awoke and there we were.
***
On the quay people stood welcoming the boat wearing long white gloves and big hats trimmed with flowers and ribbons. Somewhere a band was playing “Rule Britannia.” Redvers had told me that there was a welcome and send-off from Australian ports for ships from England which was “Home” even for those who had never even seen it. On the big passenger ships, of course, people came to meet visitors, but we were essentially cargo. Still we had our welcome and the bands played patriotic tunes.
The children were excited and as I had given them lessons in the history of the countries before we reached them their interest was heightened. They were looking forward to seeing their first kangaroos and koala bears, so Mrs. Blakey and I took them ashore for the few hours we were in port. It was very hot but the boys seemed unaware of this. They kept shrieking their delight; and I must say I was enchanted as we d
rove along beside the Swan River where the red flowering gum and the yellow wattles made a great splash of color. But our stay was necessarily short and all the time we had to keep our eyes on our watches. During the trip I caught sight of Chantel and Rex riding together in one of the open carriages and I fervently hoped that Miss Rundle would not see them.
Poor Chantel. Soon she would have to say good-bye to Rex. Could she keep up her flippancy, her feigned indifference? I wondered.
And ahead of us—not so far ahead of us—lay our parting with the ship. Soon we should reach Coralle and she and I, with Edward and Monique, would be left behind. Whenever I thought of that a great apprehension came to me. I tried to dismiss it, but it wasn’t easy.
I saw Dick Callum when we came aboard. He was coming out of his office, busy as he often was during our stays in port.
“How I wish I could have taken you for a trip ashore,” he said.
“Mrs. Blakey and I took the boys.”
“Pressure of business prevented me…perhaps a little unnaturally.”
“What does that mean?”
“Some in high places might not have wished me to be free.”
“It sounds very mysterious,” I said and left him. I was really rather delighted that the Captain may not have wished me to be in Dick Callum’s company.
They were just about to take the gangway up when Chantel and Rex came hurrying on board.
She saw me at the rail and she came to me. Rex did not join us but went past.
“That was a near thing,” I said. “You might have missed the boat.”
“You can trust me never to miss the boat,” she said meaningly.
I looked at her flushed, lovely face. I had to admit that she did not look like a girl on the point of saying good-bye forever to her lover.
***
At Melbourne Mr. Malloy, a tall bronzed man who was making a success of his property some miles out of town, came aboard to collect his family.
There was a change in them all. Johnny looked very sober in his sailor’s suit and round sailor’s hat with HMS Success on it. Mrs. Malloy was dressed in a big straw hat with flowers and ribbons more suited to London than to the outback of Australia; but in her gray coat and skirt and pearl gloves and gray boots, she looked very attractive. Mrs. Blakey also wore her best clothes.
The Secret Woman Page 26
