Holly, Bob and James were calling them to hurry up from outside, but Ginger ignored them.
‘Come on, Ginger, let’s get out of here,’ Nick attempted to lead Ginger to the door, but she shook off his arm as she turned and advanced towards Dolly.
‘That’s just mad talk,’ Ginger said sharply. ‘Burying babies in the backyard, and not to mention the rest of what you were both privy to out here! You go on about your mother as if she was a saint, but you have to take responsibility as well for what happened with Shalimar! If it hadn’t been for you two—’
‘Screams, blood and dolls were my earliest memories,’ Dolly continued as if Ginger hadn’t spoken. ‘ “Sleeping angels”, Mother called the dead children, and she was proud of her work. She learnt her trade from her mother, and her mother from hers before her. It was honourable work and this family – indeed this village – was lucky to have her.’ Dolly looked around at them all as if suddenly woken from a trance, then she glanced towards the doorway. Light had begun to spread through the trees. ‘But for now, it’s best we do leave,’ she said, rather dazedly. ‘These woods still aren’t safe and you never know what could be around.’
The seven of them began slowly walking along the path that led back to the manor. The snow and frost made the track treacherous. It was difficult to see the path under the heavy overnight drift of snow. Elizabeth glanced around, shivering as Bob and James’s flashlights illuminated ferns and trees, making small animals retreat from their nocturnal activities. Snowflakes continued to drift, and Elizabeth, grateful for the warmth and strength of Nick’s arms as he supported her, was touched that these people had gone to such trouble to locate her. It particularly meant a lot that Nick had cared enough to look for her in the snow. He looked at her now, his gaze tender and concerned, and they exchanged a tentative smile.
Ginger’s voice disturbed the moment. ‘I was planning on leading into all of that macabre backyard business with my tapes. Some of them are Miss Sharp’s pets, others are—’
‘The house must always stay,’ Dolly interrupted. ‘You do know that, don’t you, Holly?’ She almost shouted the words, and the group of people turned to face her. Out in the woods in her natural element, she presented a formidable figure.
‘Rupert and Dennis built it for Mother after they discovered her in the glen, in the waters that were sacred to her, her face and body covered in bruises from Rupert’s father, Reg.’ She chewed her lip for a second as if deliberating before she continued. ‘He raped my mother in 1937. It was Rupert, on one of his visits from town, who came looking for her.’ She addressed Elizabeth directly. ‘It was Rupert who washed and held Mother as she wept. Mother never forgot his kindness. Unlike the rest of his family, Rupert had a heart.’
She indicated everyone should keep walking along the path and they did so, Dolly continued speaking, although her eyes continued to scrutinise every shadow.
‘And so when she discovered she had fallen with me, as a result of the rape, she brewed her potions, then waited for the moon to wane. She knew all about which herbs disposed of unwanted children, and she always worked her healings and dollmaking around the moon. But for some reason, this time her potions failed. I was determined to live.’
She laughed unexpectedly, a sound that made Elizabeth flinch. ‘I was stronger than Mother and she had no choice but to succumb to my will. How I was conceived – by lecherous old Reg inflicting his power onto my mother – is how I was born, and it determined my life. I believe it to be so with all of us. The thoughts of the father and the unspoken dreams of the mother form the child’s path. Traps the child, if you will, in a web of parental destiny. It’s a strong mortal who recognises the sticky threads that bind them and can break free.’
‘That’s why Ivy Partridge and later Rupert were so benevolent towards your mother?’ Nick guessed, turning to assist Dolly over an icy patch of ground. ‘Because of this alleged rape?’
Dolly pursed her lips. ‘Partly. And I don’t allege, Mr Cash. I know what happened. Mother never trusted the Partridges again. She moved out of the manor, and with Rupert and Dennis’s help, built her little cottage in the woods. There she was free to ply her trade in secrecy. Desperate women were given the cottage’s location so that they could seek her out in the privacy of the bush if they chose, rather than Mother being spotted entering their homes and inciting gossip in the village.
‘Mother’s work was important and she took it seriously. She had always been an intelligent woman and people trusted her. Women would beg for her services.’ Her eyes flicked to Ginger, who flushed and looked away. Dolly continued in her flat voice, ‘Doctors were no use at all to women – they could have helped them but they chose not to. They’d report them to the priest if they even had wind the woman wanted to rid herself of an unborn child. Mother knew her herbs well – and if the woman was too far along, she did the other if she had to.’ She glanced again at Ginger. ‘She’d scrape it out of her. We were in a secluded spot where the screams wouldn’t be overheard.’
They finally reached the glen. Their feet crunched on the snowy track. The water looked like a sheet of black ice. The birds were sounding their early-morning chorus. Rupert’s statues were silent dark shapes in the mist.
‘Bloody creepy place,’ Nick said.
Elizabeth shook her head. ‘No,’ she disagreed. ‘Mermaid Glen will always be one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.’
Ginger made a strained noise. ‘Not if you had witnessed here what I did,’ she said.
‘You can never let anything go, can you?’ Dolly said. ‘All these years, you’ve been festering away, blaming my mother and me for it. Some things are just meant to happen, Ginger. Some plants are never meant to thrive.’
‘You sicken me, Dolly!’ Ginger snapped. ‘Don’t lie to yourself, anymore. You led Shalimar here. You knew what could happen.’
Dolly shook her head. ‘I’m no more guilty of what happened to her, than you, or him.’ She pointed her hand at James, who looked stunned at being singled out. ‘Ooh yes, wipe that innocent look from your face, your father was just as much responsible as anyone.’
A large black swan appeared through the mist, gliding over the water. The group watched it with a sense of awe at its graceful majesty.
‘Well, tell us,’ Elizabeth urged, turning to face Ginger. ‘What really did happen to Shalimar?’
A kookaburra’s cry echoed in the clearing of water as Ginger replied, ‘When we return to the manor and get you warmed up, I’ll tell you all what happened to Shalimar and the truth of what I saw here. But first let’s get away from this cursed place.’
29
Death at Mermaid Glen
‘Shalimar! Come back!’
My words ribboned around the gum trees and echoed through the woods. Ahead I could hear the crashing sound of water and I followed the noise, continuing my frenzied pace along the path leading to Mermaid Glen. Surely the stupid girl hadn’t gone wandering off the path? Rupert was going to have my guts for garters if he lost Shalimar in these bloody woods and found out that when she vanished I’d been in the garden but not paying attention.
I slipped in some mud and stumbled, twisting my ankle painfully, but continued to hobble along, desperate to find her. Kitty and Wanda were just behind me. Then I thought I heard Shalimar screaming ahead and I increased my pace again, wincing at the pain in my ankle.
Above the trees in the brilliant blue sky I imagined a thousand birds were watching me with uncaring eye and sharp beaks; biding their time, waiting to swoop and attack me.
‘Damn you!’ I screamed – but who I was damning I had no idea. My ma, Dennis and Rhonda with their accusing eyes? Doris, for coldly taking from me what I had no choice but to give her? Rupert for choosing his family over me? The villagers at Mount Bellwood for treating me as if I was a cheap whore, inferior to them? If Shalimar didn’t return . . . But of course she will return, I tried to tell myself as I skidded along the damp and treacherous path.
/> I cried out for Rupert and his daughter, following the screams. It felt as though my lungs were about to burst as I neared Mermaid Glen. ‘Shalimar?’ I called.
As I came into the glen, standing by the bank of the water was Miss Sharp holding on to Dolly. The unexpected sight of the housekeeper in her long black outfit shocked me so much I stopped in my tracks. She regarded me with the oddest expression. I didn’t know what to make of it at the time as I had never seen it on her face before, but on reflection I realise it was fear. Miss Sharp was frightened. Rupert was in the water, in a panicked attempt at swimming towards a small pale body. A scream of disbelief and horror rose from my core, and I went to run towards them. Miss Sharp grabbed my arm. ‘Stay back!’ she ordered. At that moment, I heard screams from behind me, as Wanda and Kitty emerged from the trees.
I don’t know for how long we stood there, frozen with horror, a few metres from Rupert and his daughter. And then cries of terror from Wanda and Kitty shattered the paralysis that held us all: from the trees on the far side of Mermaid Glen came the most unexpected, shocking sight I could have imagined.
Coming straight towards us at a run was a large black panther.
Some nights I’m just about to drift off to sleep when that nightmare tableau plays itself out again in my head. Currawongs gather like a storm cloud. That pitiful, floating body. Shalimar’s blonde hair splayed around her in long wet strands, her white dress billowing in the glen’s murky waters. Rupert’s frantic efforts to reach his daughter. And then the bush shadows reveal what they had long concealed: the panther, heading straight towards me.
When those disturbing images replay themselves all over again, I’m racked with remorse, sorrow and horror. If only things had turned out differently
But I pray that with the book and my tapes it will help set some of the ghosts to rest and draw a line under what happened – and explain why we all kept the secrets we carried for as long as we did. In our state of shock, we were only too ready to keep the secret as Miss Sharp demanded. Wanda was in love with Rupert, and Kitty was terrified of Miss Sharp’s threats. I think we all believed he had paid enough.
***
As Ginger fell silent, there was a shocked hush in the room.
Nick spoke first. ‘How could it be a panther?’ he asked, incredulous. ‘Are you sure it wasn’t some overgrown wild cat?’
Elizabeth turned to Dolly. ‘Did you raise the panthers out there?’
Dolly nodded. ‘For a short while, until Mother grew afraid of people spotting them and disrupting the service she was doing for the women of the village. The cats were brought to the manor before Christopher went overseas in 1942 by two Americans who came to stay at the house in January of that year. A battalion of Americans was stationed in Sydney and among them was Frank, the son of an old friend of Reg’s, and Frank’s friend Joseph. Mrs Partridge – Ivy – invited them to stay for a couple of weeks until they were transferred back to Sydney prior to being shipped overseas.’
‘The two soldiers were in one of the photographs Kitty sent me!’ Elizabeth exclaimed. ‘I was so busy looking at the family photos I didn’t fully register them.’
‘When I discovered that Kitty was trying to meet you, I knew she was going to break our vow,’ Ginger said. ‘I had thought of doing the same thing over the years, but Lois would never respond to any of my efforts to contact her. Before my cancer, I didn’t think it right to ignore her wishes and contact you directly, Elizabeth. And I was terrified of the uproar if Rupert’s photographs of Shalimar got out and how they would blacken Rupert’s reputation even more. We felt we needed to protect him.’
‘But why did the Americans bring panthers with them?’ asked Nick.
Dolly looked off into the distance. ‘I can still recall their arrival at the manor. Two keen-eyed, handsome Americans, with charming smiles; I remember their white teeth and the taste of the stick of gum they gave me. Photos of their sweethearts in their pockets – and two cub panthers on leashes. All the Americans back then were crazy over their mascots. Australia didn’t have strict quarantine laws at that time and you could bring in whatever you wanted to. You would see photos in the papers Ivy kept for Mother of them strolling around Sydney with exotic animals – a parrot on their shoulder, a lion on a lead, snakes around their bodies and so forth. Frank and Joseph’s navy ship was called the Panther, and so that’s what they had collected on one of their island stops on the way to Australia.
‘Ivy was afraid of the cubs, but Mother, of course, had no fear of them and she helped Frank and Joseph care for them. They were kept chained in the old shed at the back of the manor. The Americans always had them leashed but fussed over them and often treated them as you would a normal house cat. Mother despised them for keeping wild animals chained . . .’ Dolly broke off, reliving some old painful memory, and a silence fell upon the group.
‘Did your mother set them free?’ Nick prompted, finally.
Dolly shook her head. ‘On the night before they were due to return to Sydney, the visitors had orders to kill their mascots before leaving. Into Owlbone Woods they reluctantly went with their two mascots and a rifle. Perhaps they did intend to carry out the order, but once they were in the bush (which must have seemed to them to be an impenetrable jungle that stretched forever), fuelled up with the alcohol they had consumed to carry out the deed, they chose a different path.
‘And so they released their cubs into freedom, firing their rifles into the air, startling the birds and fooling anyone who overheard the shots into thinking the panthers were no more. But Mother, who knew everything there was to know about Owlbone Woods, soon discovered the cubs. And they would always come to her when they spotted her, relishing being caressed and stroked. Mother found these wild animals, normally so feared, trusted and responded to her nurturing.
‘Soon, the Panther had sailed from Sydney. I have no idea what happened to Frank and Joseph, but they never returned to Currawong Manor. But it wasn’t Mother’s fault, nor the cats’ what happened to Shalimar. Sometimes life is just cruel and meaningless. I had confided in Shalimar, sworn her to secrecy about the wild animals in the bush, but she was forever yearning for a glimpse of them. After what they’d done to Buster, you’d think she would have had the sense to keep well away, but she was jealous of my bond with them. She panicked when I told her they were near. She ran into the glen to try to escape them and that’s where she drowned. They were normally the most gentle of beasts if you knew how to handle them and you weren’t afraid. They didn’t have malice towards her or try to eat her. It was just a game to them. I was never afraid of them. I do feel bad about her death. She was my own blood, after all.’
Ginger glared at her. ‘Why don’t you tell the truth – you were jealous of Shalimar! You were angry, resentful that you were denied the treat of the circus and so you decided to show off and try to impress her with the big cats. Don’t give me your codswallop about the cats being gentle after what they did to Buster. You and your mother must have known they were dangerous. You led Shalimar into the woods and frightened her so much with your wild beasts that she drowned in her panic to get away from them. Don’t keep lying to yourself and to us, Dolly Sharp!’
Dolly shook her head in denial. ‘I wasn’t jealous, even if Shalimar was treated as some sort of little princess by everyone. Oh yes, she had all the toys, the comfortable house and life – just like a real princess. She had a mother and father and was allowed to do nearly everything she wanted. Everybody felt sorry for me, and they all praised Shalimar’s beauty. It may have looked to you as if I was jealous, but I had the bush, my animals and my mother who loved me with all her heart. I saw the way Doris treated Shalimar at times. I had the sky, the trees and my glen. Shalimar had only her father’s love and a huge creepy house. No, I wasn’t jealous of Shalimar – but her mother was! I was only a child – I didn’t realise Shalimar would react to the cats like that. She was a fool to run! I told her not to show any fear. She drowned, but it wasn’t my fault!
And I won’t have you trying to blame me for it because of your own guilt over doing nothing!’ Dolly spat the words out, shaking with emotion.
‘You could have done more,’ Ginger said. ‘You just stood and watched her drown, didn’t you? You can lie to them as much as you like, but we know the truth, Dolly Sharp!’
‘I was a child . . .’ Dolly began again, but Ginger cut her off.
‘You could swim like a fish,’ she said. ‘Miss Sharp often boasted about your swimming but you did nothing. It was Rupert, who didn’t know how to swim, who went into the water to save her.’
Elizabeth felt torn between wanting to comfort Dolly – who looked about to crumble – and placate Ginger, pacing the room on the verge of tears. ‘Dolly was only seven,’ she pointed out. ‘Even if she could swim, is it fair or reasonable to expect a seven year old to save a much older girl from drowning? Shalimar’s death was a tragic accident – an accident, Ginger! I’m convinced Dolly meant no malice.’
Ginger shot Elizabeth a sceptical look. ‘I hope you’re right, but it does my head in – keeping wild animals as some sort of lapdog. I’ve never forgotten my terror when that one came towards us in the bush.’ She hung her head for a moment. ‘It was the shock of seeing Shalimar drowned, and then that terrifying animal, all black like something straight from hell. Just as it was about to reach us, Miss Sharp called to it and it slunk away. And then Rupert kept saying it was all his fault, that he had killed Shalimar. He blamed himself – she had run off when Doris was screaming at him over the photographs. He took off into the bush and when we returned with Shalimar’s body, Doris was there. It was a terrible scene. The poor woman went out of her mind.
Currawong Manor Page 30
