All that week Pippa helped Dom. No blessed events occurred, but there was plenty to do in the stables. Dom had six ‘pupils’ to learn the niceties of show business. How to canter winningly, come to a gentle halt; remain quiet and erect while a judge circled you.
It was fascinating work, and now that she had learned her lesson not to explore with these strictly arena creatures, Pippa got on quite well.
One afternoon Dom brought an intended rider along with the ‘pupil’. Marilyn was the daughter of a couple who had bought a house in the neighbouring Highlands town of Bilgong, and it was expected that Southern Highlands children ride. Marilyn had lived in a city flat and never ridden, and she looked with frank dislike on the mild little chestnut her parents had purchased for her.
Davy would have helped, only Pippa kept Davy and the horses away from each other. The boy had no fear, but Pippa had fear for Davy. He had to have a restricted life, and a pony ride was one of those many restrictions.
‘At least get on Billy Boy, Marilyn,’ pleaded Pippa.
‘No.’
‘At least pat him.’
‘He’ll bite me.’
‘He won’t. He likes apples to bite, not little girls.’
‘In fact he’s frightened of little girls,’ said a voice, and Crag Crag joined the group. ‘I have the same trouble sometimes up at Falling Star with the piccaninnies.’ Crag looked at Marilyn. ‘Do you know piccaninnies?’
‘Yes,’ Marilyn said.
‘Well, my scrubbers ... do you know scrubbers?’
‘No.’
‘I can tell her.’ It was Davy by Crag’s side, but then where else would Davy, given the chance, be?
He proceeded to do so.
‘Only these are scrubbers who’ve learned better.’ Crag took on from Davy. ‘They’ve learned enough to go after other scrubbers. See?’
‘Yes. But I still wouldn’t like them.’ Marilyn wrinkled her nose. ‘They’re dangerous.’
‘They think you are,’ corrected Crag. He went up to Billy Boy. ‘Look, mate, she won’t hurt you. I know how you feel, but she’s quite safe.’ He turned to Marilyn. ‘Silly, isn’t it, Billy Boy being scared of you like this.’
‘Is he?’ Marilyn’s eyes were wide.
‘Yes. But perhaps I can help him by letting Davy show him how safe children really are.’
Pippa gave a half-step forward.
‘Can I? Can I, Crag?’ Davy’s voice was eager.
‘Reckon I’m not your boss, scrubber, your sister’s that.’
‘She’ll say no.’
‘Reckon she mightn’t.’ Crag turned to Pippa and said in such a low voice that only she could hear it: ‘Reckon she could feel, that living for ever means rides on ponies, too. Reckon she could if she’d only give it a try.’
Pippa faltered, ‘He’ll get excited.’
‘But he’ll enjoy it. Better to fill up a cup even if it overflows than leave it empty.’
‘I—I don’t know.’
‘You know,’ he said, waited a moment, then swung Davy into the saddle. Davy was ecstatic. His ecstasy showed so much that Marilyn became querulous.
‘It’s my pony,’ she cried, ‘it’s my turn!’
Davy was put down and Marilyn was put up.
‘That was beaut, Pippa,’ Davy said. No harm seemed done.
A lot of good was done for Marilyn. When Dom came over later, Davy and Crag having left, he was pleased with the result.
‘It was Mr. Crag really who won the day,’ reported Pippa.
‘Oh, he’s still around, is he?’
‘Did you expect him to be gone?’
‘He doesn’t like the city. He calls the Southern Highlands the city. He never stops longer than he can help. I wonder why he’s extending now.’ Dom stood silent a moment, his lips pursed.
He came out of his thoughts to ask Pippa if she would come and look at Velvet with him. On his calculations Velvet was not ready yet, but Velvet had her own ideas.
‘If you’ve any way with cows, Pippa, tell her to hang off, her vet’s out of town.’
‘You said that picking times like that was a favourite pastime with Velvet.’
‘Yes,’ sighed Dom. ‘It would be just like her to do it again now.’
When they reached the cow her spasm was over and she was contentedly ruminating.
‘That’s Velvet for you,’ said Dom bitterly. ‘I really believed she was beginning. I suspect her of staging these alarms especially to keep us on our toes.’
Pippa was squatting beside Velvet, a pretty, rather small cow, who wore a bell locket and had big plum eyes. She examined her as she had seen neighbours in the village examine their cows.
‘She mightn’t be pulling our legs,’ she told Dom, ‘she could be on the way. I’d ring that vet if I were you.’
‘I rang,’ he said dolefully, ‘he’s out of town.’
‘Any other vets?’
‘Several in the Highlands, but they’re all away. There’s a Sydney conference, and seeing it only means a day away from their practices it’s being well attended. Also, Velvet was declared only last week as a month off.’
‘Could be, too,’ agreed Pippa. ‘Anyway, she seems all right now.’
‘It was just an act she was putting on,’ declared Dom determinedly. ‘Wasn’t getting enough attention. Look here, my girl’ ... to Velvet ... ‘if you moo me back here again, I’ll—’
‘Moo-oo!’cried Velvet.
‘She’s an actress,’ repeated Dom, ‘she has to project herself. Sorry to have brought you along, Pippa, we’ll leave this female to chew it over on her own.’
‘Moo-oo!’ protested Velvet, but they laughed and went off.
But not far. Velvet gave a very loud ‘Moo-oo’, and going back just for a final look and an admonishment, Dom called, ‘By jove, she’s right, Pippa, she’s on the way, well on it.’
Pippa hurried to his side. The little cow had got on to the job in a hurry as soon as they turned away. The feet were protruding from the unborn calf.
‘It shouldn’t be long,’ said Pippa, but Dom groaned.
‘It could be an hour, more, she’s only small but she has big children. The vet was trying to keep the size down, but Velvet’s a cunning girl, she’s always so proud of herself I wouldn’t put it past her rejecting his size-determining medication when our backs were turned again, spitting it out again. This girl knows more than she should.’
He was on his knees, manipulating, massaging, soothing. He kept it up until his aims protested, then Pippa took over.
They did this in turn for well over an hour. Dom was getting worried.
‘If only she’d co-operate,’ he despaired.
‘I think it’s a bigger calf than ever before,’ Pippa offered, ‘I think as you said that Velvet spat out that medication.’
‘Can you keep going while I see if Ferguson is back from Sydney yet? I feel this needs more than we can give.’
Pippa nodded, and Dom ran across to the office. He was gone some time, which she knew was not a hopeful sign. Evidently Ferguson was still away, and he was trying other districts.
As she manipulated, massaged, edged downwards, encouraged and persuaded, Pippa saw a car go up to the house. The doctor, she thought, calling on Uncle Preston.
She had a sudden idea.
‘No go.’ Dom was back again. Pippa only gave him time to say that, then she interrupted his explanation again of the city conference with the breathless ... for it was no easy job massaging and manipulating Velvet ... announcement that Doctor Burt was up at Uplands.
Dom caught on at once.
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Hang on, Pippa.’ He was away in a flash.
Pippa was talking to Velvet now, soothing, ‘Good girl’ ... ‘Not long’... ‘Just another try.’
The feet of the unborn calf still stopped there.
‘Darling, try,’ urged Pippa.
Velvet looked reproachfully at her, then gave a large moo-oo, and it was happening at
last. There was no need for the thin, disinfected rope that Dom had ready, the little fellow, cow or bull calf Pippa had no time to discover yet, was on the straw floor of the light, airy calving pen. After all that fuss no trouble at all. Also, Pippa said severely to Velvet, not such a remarkable size. Velvet ignored her. She also ignored her plum-eyed baby, which she should have started to lick. Pippa knew from her country days that when a mother did not lick her calf she had to be encouraged to do so by sprinkling a little salt on the baby. Dom had thought of everything; he had the salt at hand.
Pippa bent over to take it up.
‘Moo-oo!’ called Velvet.
‘Yes, pet, you’ve been wonderful, but just now it’s baby’s turn.’
Baby’s turn! But which baby? For another set of little feet were protruding.
‘Twins!’ Pippa exclaimed, delighted.
She knew how unusual it was, and longed for someone to helpand join in the miracle. But immediately there was much to do. Too much for one pair of hands. With one arm Pippa held off the first baby, who had got to its feet already and was actually searching clumsily for the teats, and with the other she went through the first ritual again, that massaging, soothing, encouraging. She hoped help would not be long.
It was longer than she anticipated. Had she known Dom would not return for what seemed hours but, of course, wasn’t, Pippa knew she could not have coped. She learned later that Uncle Preston had had a minor relapse and Doctor Burt had needed Dom’s aid to take him upstairs. As soon as he was able, Dom had told Glen Burt what was happening, and they had hurried back, but by then...
The second calf was born, daintier than the first ... a girl? ... and this time, without salt, Velvet was licking her child. The first one had found the teats and was sucking contentedly.
‘You clever Velvet,’ Pippa awarded, ‘a Silk and a Satin at the one go. Yes, we’ll call them that.’
One arm around the new baby ... the old baby was looking after itself ... and one arm proudly fondled the mother. Elation and triumph shone in Pippa’s hillside green eyes, not only the wonder of birth but the miracle of two small offerings. Two.
She was laughing maternally, at Silk’s floppy wet ears, at Satin’s astonished expression, at Velvet’s assured look as her tongue darted back and forth in her cleaning duties when the two men came into the calving pen.
She looked up in triumph, waiting for their applause, feeling, with Velvet, the need of a pat, a ‘Good girl’, a ‘Well done.’
They did not speak. Had she stood there, she might have been silenced, too, in the moving picture of a soft-eyed girl and a cow and two calves. And life itself.
But instead she sat waiting, wondering uneasily was something wrong? something amiss?
At that moment Rena, who had caught up with the men, pushed past them, took a long hard look at the scene, then said thinly, ‘You can come with me to the house, now, Pippa. I need you there.’
CHAPTER FOUR
As Pippa walked from the stables back to Uplands beside her cousin she darted a nervous look at the cold, set face. Nervous, because Rena’s tone had insinuated a reckoning, and although Pippa had never found herself in such a position with Rena, all at once she was remembering with distaste Janet’s warning, ex-schoolmate Janet who once must have crossed swords with her cousin because she had warned: ‘Leopards don’t change their spots.’
Rena was not beautiful now, she noted, or if she was it was hard to find beauty in that bleak look. What on earth had she done, Pippa wondered, for Rena to be furious with her like this?
She must have wondered it aloud, though she hadn’t intentionally formed the words, for Rena stopped abruptly, stopping Pippa with her, and accused, ‘You’re the sly one, aren’t you? Timed that beautifully, didn’t you? Arranged yourself sweetly, made everything look your doing—’
‘What are you talking about, Rena?’
‘As though you don’t know!’
‘I don’t—unless you mean ...’
‘I mean the happy event. Happy, anyway, for you.’
‘Oh, Rena, don’t exaggerate, I had no idea that Velvet was going to—’
‘But Velvet did, didn’t she, and you acquitted yourself admirably, didn’t you, and—and—’ Rena’s voice cracked.
‘I should think you would be pleased I was there,’ endeavoured Pippa. ‘After all, calves are an asset to a farm, and—’
Rena gave a dismissive gesture. ‘Oh, that,’ she put aside. ‘Anyone would think you were being merely farm-minded.’
‘I was. What else?’ But even as she asked it, Pippa put herself in Rena’s place, and she knew how Rena felt.
In Rena’s opinion she had ‘upstaged’ Rena ... that had been Dom’s phrase—because Rena herself had wanted to score on the maternal angle, paint a pretty picture with the help of Davy to impress the doctor, but Pippa had beaten her to it and of all things with two calves. The absurdity of the position brought a laugh to her lips.
‘Rena, you’re quite ridiculous. How appealing could I possibly look squatted down beside a cow? How on earth could Doctor Burt—’
‘Doctor Burt?’
Rena looked at her quite stupidly for a long moment, looked at her as though she didn’t understand her. Then she said, ‘It wasn’t that, it was your know-allness with Dom Hardy. He would appreciate that. He would like a girl who was resourceful.’
‘Of course he would. He’s a land-man and—’
‘And you’re a land-woman.’
‘No more than I was a nurse. I wish you’d make up your mind what I was, more than that what you want me to be, because I’m certainly confused, Rena. I just don’t understand.’
‘There’s nothing to understand,’ Rena said dully.
‘The way I see it there is,’ persisted Pippa. ‘Not only must I watch my step with Glen Burt for you, it seems to me I must also keep my distance from Mr. Hardy.’
‘I never said so. I—I—’
‘But you’ve just criticized me for helping him.’
‘Nothing of the sort. I—why, I loathe the man. You have a vivid imagination, Pippa, but then your father was a poet.’
‘It was Davy who took after our father,’ said Pippa quietly. She asked: ‘Where is Davy? Did Doctor Burt see him?’
‘Not yet. He was to, but Father suddenly had this thing.’
‘Badly?’
‘No. Just, a minor turn. He’s in bed now, and will stop there a day or so. I think it’s just a case of trying to make up for his last rest. Every minute must pay. That’s typical of Daddy.’ She paused. ‘Davy should be around somewhere.’
Pippa asked could she help now with Uncle Preston, but was told no. Considering that ostensibly she had been brought up from the calving pen for this explicit cause, Pippa felt like demanding the real reason why she was here. Really, Rena would be restricting everyone soon. She turned to demand an explanation, but found to her surprise that Rena’s lips were thinned no longer, but full and soft and trembling. Her lovely eyes were bright with unshed tears.
‘Why, Rena—’
‘Oh, go away. Go away!’
Pippa went.
She wandered around aimlessly, feeling an anticlimax after the earlier events of the day. She felt she wanted to talk about it all. Uncle Preston’s door was closed, so obviously he was resting. She was sorry, because she knew that at least he would have liked to have heard about Velvet, even if the resultant glitter in his eyes was the vision of cents and dollars and not the miracle of birth.
Where was Davy? She looked in his favourite haunts to no avail, then decided to go down to the planting in case he had decided to visit his ‘best friend’ once more. Only this morning as she had dressed him Davy had spoken proudly of: ‘My best friend, Crag Crag.’
She crossed the fields, then plunged into the cool green, not aware that although there was no panic now, Davy knew his way and would not lose himself, that she was running. Then, out of breath, she did realize it, and she stopped abruptly. Why, she de
manded of herself, am I hurrying to Crag like this? Is it because he’s the only one available to be run to, or is it— No. No, of course it’s not.
She made herself turn back.
A voice halted her, and she whirled round again. Crag Crag was standing beneath a pine and watching her.
‘The scrubber’s not with me, if that’s what you’ve come about,’ he said. ‘On the other hand, if it is Yours Truly you’re after’ ... he pushed the ridiculous ten-gallon hat he wore, ridiculous, anyway, for cool Tombonda, back over his head ... ‘if it’s me,’ I’m here.’ He grinned foolishly.
‘I—I was looking for Davy.’
‘Then he’s at the calving. Oh, yes’ ... taking out his pipe and tobacco... ‘the news has got around. The scrubber was with me when we heard, so we strolled across. He was so enthralled I left him there. After all, birth is a first importance, isn’t it? And not just one young feller but twins! Congratulations, Pippa.’
‘You should give those to Velvet.’
‘I did, but she—and Hardy—referred me to you. You did a fine job, girl.’
‘It was an honour,’ she said, rather pink with pleasure, ‘to be there at the arrival of Silk and Satin.’
‘Suitable names,’ he agreed. ‘You’re an artist as well as a midwife. But you’ll need to think of something less falutin’ when my Daisy calves.’
‘You’re having a blessed event, too?’
‘At Falling Star, not here. And being Falling Star it will be on a much leaner scale. We run to muscle, not beauty, up top.’
‘And you actually have a cow there?’
‘Yes. Daisy, as I said. Original, isn’t it?’ he laughed. ‘But having a cow up there is original. Most often you don’t. But Daisy’s a tough old girl. Her offspring may lack your Silk and Satin beauty, but they’ll wear.’ He packed the pipe, tapped it to his liking, then lit up. ‘Were you coming over to see me as well?’ he asked.
‘No.’
‘I don’t think that’s entirely true. I think you were. I think you wanted to tell me, to shout it. And why not, Pippa? Birth is—’
‘A first importance,’ she quoted him.
‘Yes, but something more.’ He searched for words.
A Thousand Candles Page 6
