The Pride of the Peacock (13 page)

I thought about that quite a lot, but I continued to go down to the stream, and one day I shall go down there and not come back. I think of you, my daughter, growing up, and I wonder what they will tell you about me . and your father . and that is why I have decided to write so that you can know the truth as I saw it. And that is the real truth, Opal. So I sit by the stream and write and as I sit here the past comes vividly back to me. You see, you must know what happened and how it happened. I shall give this to Hannah, and she will give it to you when the time comes. It may be that the time will never come and that I shall tell you the story myself.

Today I am giving this to Hannah so this will be the last I shall write to you.

“Goodbye, little Opal. May God bless you and one day you will discover the truth about your father. I promise you there will be nothing to discredit him. One last word, my dear little daughter, if I should not be there when you grow up and if I am, you will not have read this-never let anyone say a word against him. Perhaps one day you will be the one to discover the truth.”

I stared ahead of me. I was seeing it all so clearly.

Then I went and knelt by her grave and when I touched my cheeks I found that they were wet, although I had not known that I was weeping.

I did not appear at dinner that evening because I could not face them.

I was thinking of them as different people; I was seeing them all so much more dearly than I ever had before. I was angry with them. They drove her to it, I thought. If they had been kinder to her, she would have been alive today and I should have had a mother. How miserable she must have been! I wanted to storm at them every one of them; ;

my poor ineffectual father my grandfather in fact; my proud unloving grandmother (how glad I was that she was not after all my mother);

Miriam, who always had to have her mind ;

made up for her; and Xavier with his negative kindness, so remote that he had not done anything to save her. ;

I feigned a headache and when Miriam came to see me I Sl closed my eyes and turned away. y The next day I saw Hannah who, I think, had been watching for me. |j “So you read it. Miss Jessica?” she said. | I nodded. Tell me what happened afterwards. “

They found her in the stream. She was lying face downwards. The water was quite shallow. It just washed over her. “

“And they buried her there,” I said, pointing to the Waste Land.

“Reverend Grey was very strict about it. They don’t bury suicides in consecrated ground.”

“How cruel!” I cried.

“I’ll make it consecrated ground! She was good and meant no harm to anyone. I shall clear her grave and grow plants on it and keep them watered.”

“Best not. Miss.”

“Why not ? She was my mother.”

“I knew you’d take it bad. She wouldn’t have Wanted that. She wouldn’t have wanted you to know, if it was going to make trouble.”

Tell me exactly what happened, Hannah. “

They found her there and buried her quietly; That’s all. People didn’t speak of it . much. They said she’d always been different from the rest of the family. It was put about that she’d fallen in love and that he had gone away. Her heart was broken and she, being young, had thought there was nothing left to live for. I always put flowers on her grave at Easter time. “

Thank you, Hannah. Did anyone suspect I was her child? “

“If they did, it wasn’t said. It was accepted that you were an ” afterthought”. It happens that way sometimes, and Miss Jessica was drowned some time after your birth. It was a hot July day I remember.”

She turned away, her lips quivering. They’d only been home a few weeks so people said it was someone she’d met in Italy. It was the last day in July, and you were born on the first of June . so that tells how^ old you were . nothing but a baby, little knowing what your coming had cost. “

“How she must have suffered! You must have known my father. Tell me about him.”

“He seemed such a nice young gentleman. Tall, with a pleasant face. He was quite a favourite with Mr. Henniker at one time. Then of course he couldn’t say anything bad enough. I shall never forget the day…”

Tell me everything, Hannah, just everything. “

“It began like an ordinary sort of day. We took the hot water up to the guests, and one of the maids came down and said, ” Mr. Dereham’s not in his room. His bed’s not been slept in and all his things have gone. ” We said it couldn’t be, but it was, of course. And then Mr. Henniker found his

precious opal was missing, and it seemed only natural that he’d taken it with him. “

“But it wasn’t so, Hannah. You know it wasn’t.”

That’s how your mother used to talk, but he was gone and so was the opal. “

“She knew he hadn’t taken it’ She was in love with him.”

She would never have fallen in love with a thief “Love don’t take account of such dungs.”

“I know it wasn’t true.”

There again . you’re talking just like your mother. I never thought she’d do it. I would have found some way of stopping her. She told me he’d come to her in a dream and said he loved her and he never would have left her in this life.

“Come to me,” he said in this dream.

“Come to me by the stream. Only death could keep me from you.” It was after that she made up her mind, I’m sure. She was certain he was dead. They would be together now. forever. “

“She should have lived to prove his innocence.”

“But she had these strange fancies and she thought he was calling her to come to him.”

“I wish I could find out the truth, Hannah, and discover what really happened to that opal.”

“Bless you. Miss, there has been them that’s tried to find it these many years. I reckon Mr. Henniker has never given up the search. And you think you’re going to be the one! You just don’t know anything about these things. You’ve only just learned how you came into the world!”

“But he’s my father. She’s my mother. Don’t you see that makes all the difference.”

Hannah shook her head sadly.

Although I could not talk to my family about the tragedy, I could do so to Ben, and at our next meeting I blurted out:

“I know about my mother and father and that you think he stole the Green Flash opal.”

We were in the drawing-room, he in his chair with his crutch propped up beside him. He did not speak for a few moments, and I saw that a great sadness had come to him.

There’s no one I can talk to about it but you,” I went on.

Who told you ? ” he asked.

I explained about the papers she had left for me.

He nodded.

“You knew?” I asked.

“I guessed. You’re so like her with your dark eyes and those thick lashes and well-marked brows, with your turned-up nose and your mouth which somehow says you’re going to laugh at life even at its worst. I could believe she was sitting there at this moment. You’re about the same age now as she was then, but she was more innocent of the world than you are, less able to look after herself.”

“Did you know about her and my father?”

“It was as clear as daylight.”

“And you were pleased … at first? You didn’t mind?”

It was the first time I had known him hesitate.

“It wasn’t for me to mind,” he said at length.

“I could see how it was with them from the moment they met. I thought he was a good honest young fellow… then.”

“He didn’t do it, you know, Ben.”

“What do you mean-he didn’t do it? He broke her heart, didn’t he? I’d kill hiri for that… yes, I would. ” You loved her, Ben,” I said.

He was thoughtful.

“I reckon you could say that. She was a pretty, dainty creature … and look at me-a rough old gouger.”

“You would have liked to many her yourself, Ben.”

That wouldn’t have been right. “

“If you had,” I reminded him, “I should have been your daughter.”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

“I’d have been different though. I wouldn’t have been a bit like myself.”

“Then it’s a mercy the tragedy was averted.” He was becoming his old self again, and I was finding comfort in talking to him.

“Yes,” he went on, “I loved her. She was like this house … you know what I mean. A bit remote from me. Something I could covet and want to possess. But it’s different with a woman … she’s not a house. I blame myself for not being here. If I had been, it wouldn’t have happened.”

“What would you have done, Ben ?”

“I would have married her. Perhaps she would have had me then.”

I ran to him and, putting my arms about him, hugged him.

“Oh, Ben, wouldn’t that have been wonderful ? We should all have lived here together and I should have escaped from the Dower House.”

He stroked my hair and said: Tou’d have liked that, eh? “

“It would have been wonderful.”

“Well, it didn’t work out that way, did it? No, here we are and it’s no use looking back and saying ” if”. That’s what fools do. Yesterday has to be forgotten. It’s today that’s important because of tomorrow.

We got acquainted and we’re good friends. I’d say friendship’s a fine thing. “

I went back to my chair and said: Tell me your version of what happened. “

Tour mother came to Oakland. “Yes, I know, there was a party and she wore a cherry red dress.”

“That’s right. She met your father, it was love at first sight, and they were going to be married and go out to opal country. I didn’t think it was any place for such a dainty creature, but she was raring to go. As long as he’d be there, that was the place for her. She was fast catching opal fever; she swore she’d put up with anything as long as they could be together. And she would have too. I used to envy Desmond Dereham his happiness; he was a handsome boy, good family too.

And honest . so I thought. He’d got adventure in his blood and that was what sent him out to Australia. He’d come for gold at first, like we all do, and when he found his first opal he no longer cared for gold. He had a feeling he’d stumbled on one of the richest opal mines in New South Wales. He talked constantly about this place. He had a feeling for it and we joked about it, calling it Desmond’s Fancy. Then we started to think there might be something in it. It was to discuss this that we all gathered together at Oakland. Then he met your mother and they fell in love and planned to marry. That was how it was up to that night. “

“What actually happened on that night?”

Ben appeared to consider carefully. There was Joss, Desmond, Croissant, and myself. Joss was fourteen then, going to school over here. My goodness, he was a sharp one. You’d never take him for so young. He already knew what he was going to do. He was going to be the biggest opal man in Australia . oh no, not just Australia . the whole world! That was his way of looking at everything. He was already telling me what I ought to do. That made me sit up, I can tell you.

But the crunch was that he was sometimes right. He already towered above us all and he hadn’t finished growing Six feet five inches.

That’s Joss now and in his stockinged feet. “

“Yes, yes,” I said a little impatiently, being eager to hear about the

fateful night and tired of hearing of the perfections of his son Joss Madden.

“Well, Joss then, and David Croissant. David had merchanted stones all over Australia, America, England and the Continent of Europe.

Where opals were concerned he was a man who knew what he was talking about. Then there was Desmond Dereham. Very enthusiastic, he was. We sat here in this room and Desmond laid out his plans for the Fancy and we studied them. He’d examined the land, done a bit of prospecting and although so far he’d found only the smallest traces of opal, he had the feeling that this could prove one of the richest fields in New South Wales. Of course we wanted proof and so far there was little to go on. He’d found opal dirt there and he’d found round hard lumps of silica-just fine grains of sand cemented together and in this are veins of opal. Anyway it’s an indication that somewhere in land like this there could be big fine opals. We worked out where the best place to sink the shafts would be. We were going to keep it fairly small just at first, and then if Desmond’s hunch proved correct we’d go all out in a big way. David Croissant was coming to examine the first finds and decide what would be the best way of marketing them. Then we’d need cutters and the latest equipment to get things in motion.

There we were discussing all this, feeling our way, as it were. I remember Desmond’s enthusiasm. He knew we were going to make a big strike, he said. Gougers are superstitious in a way. Some of them believe that there’s a guiding hand that leads them to success, and that’s how we all felt about Desmond’s hunch that night. There was something in him . a sort of sheen of confidence. I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve seen it before. It nearly always means success and I think that every one of us sitting round the table that night believed that Desmond’s Fancy was going to yield the finest, opals yet come to light. We reckoned it would be black opal, and the market was growing for that kind. At one time it was all for the light milky ones, as I’ve told you. Pretty enough, but black was coming into fashion. I said I reckoned we’d never find anything as good as the Green Flash at Sunset. Then we got talking of the Flash and they wanted to look at it.

“I brought them all in here and opened the safe to show them. There it lay in its velvet nest. What a sight! You haven’t seen opal till you’ve seen the Green Flash. Desmond Dereham stretched out his hands to take the Flash. He let her lie in his palm for a moment, and then he called out: ” I saw it. I saw the Green Flash. ” I snatched it from him and

stared at the opal. I turned it round, but I couldn’t catch the flash.

You know I saw the real green flash once when I was coming home from Australia, just as the sun dropped below the horizon I saw it as I had seen it once in the opal.

“You really saw it, Desmond?” I cried then.

“I’m sure of it,” answered Desmond. ]oss swore he saw it too. He always had to be there right in the centre of everything. No one must score over him. The next morning your father had gone. He had packed his bags and taken his belongings with him and quietly slipped away.