Homecoming Girls (9 page)

Ted shook his head. ‘I’ve always found that so difficult to comprehend,’ he murmured. ‘Your father working in a bar, I mean, knowing him as he once was. But in this country anything can and does happen. Even a leopard might change his spots.’

Jewel gazed at him. Ted, having been in her father’s employ, would have seen him in a different light from his friends and family. She had been told by Gianna that he was a good and loving father, and from the little memory of him that remained she knew it to be true.

‘But my mother,’ she said, thinking out loud. ‘That’s what I need to know. To find out about her.’

‘But you’ve only just arrived,’ said Caitlin. ‘You can’t go off to California. Not yet!’

‘I don’t intend to. I want to show Clara this part of the country before we leave, and there’s no hurry. We might even come back if my mission is successful.’

Jewel smiled at Clara. Clara had declared when they had first set out on their travels that she wanted to see
everything
.

Caitlin was staring at her with her lips slightly parted. Then she looked at her mother and then her father.

‘Da!’ she said, and licked her lips. ‘Ma! I want to go with them. Can I? Can I go to California?’

‘What! Don’t be ridiculous.’ Ted was completely taken aback. ‘No. No, you can’t.’

‘Why can’t she?’ Kitty asked quietly. ‘If Jewel and Clara can go, why can’t Caitlin?’

‘Go where?’ A boy of about sixteen came into the room. He was tall, taller than Ted, and nearer his father’s colouring than his mother’s, but he was undoubtedly their son.

‘Is this Robert?’Jewel said. ‘You won’t remember me.’

He shook his head. ‘I don’t, but as Caitlin has talked of nuthin’ else but Jewel coming, I guess that’s who you are.’

He raised a hand in greeting, and on being introduced to Clara he blushed to his hair roots. Caitlin grinned roguishly at his embarrassment.

‘So where does Cait want to go?’ he asked. ‘And if she’s going, why can’t I?’

Jewel took a breath. The last thing she wanted was to be responsible for a boy of Robert’s age. Neither, if she was honest, was she totally sure about Caitlin. But fortunately Ted put his foot down very firmly.

‘You can’t and that’s the end of it. Jewel and Clara are off to California and Caitlin wants to go too.’

Robert shrugged. ‘Well, I guess I don’t want to go anyway,’ he muttered, with a look that said quite plainly that the last thing he would want to do was travel anywhere with a bunch of women.

‘So can I, Da? Please,’ Caitlin asked persuasively.

‘You haven’t been invited,’ he said bluntly. ‘It’s manners to wait to be asked. Jewel has her plans and they don’t necessarily include you. Besides, your ma needs you here.’

Caitlin looked chastened and Kitty said apologetically, ‘I’m sorry, Jewel. Of course Ted is right. This is an experience of a lifetime for you and you must continue with the arrangements as you have decided. Now, would you like to look round? The hotel has changed considerably since you were last here.’

When Jewel and Clara returned to Dreumel’s Creek that evening the journey passed mostly in silence. Kitty and Caitlin had shown them the bedrooms and dining saloon in their hotel and the coming journey to California was not mentioned again. They were waved off with bright smiles and promises that they would all meet again the following day.

‘It isn’t that I don’t want Caitlin to come with us.’Jewel came through into Clara’s room. ‘It’s just . . .’

Clara sat on the bed and, swinging up her legs, stretched out and sighed. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘Caitlin’s lovely, but at eighteen still quite immature. Would we have to look after her?’

‘That’s just it.’Jewel sat on the edge of the bed. ‘I don’t know her as well as I thought I did. She’s full of fun and enthusiasm, but would she miss her mother if she came with us? I realize that this is an adventure for you, Clara, but—’

‘I know why we’re here,’ Clara interrupted. ‘I’m aware of your mission, Jewel, and I appreciate how important it is to you. It’s not just a very special expedition for me; it’s going to be a life-changing journey for you.’

Jewel patted Clara’s arm. ‘Thank you,’ she murmured. ‘I knew you’d understand.’ Her smooth pale brow creased into a small frown. ‘But I feel so wretched. I don’t want to hurt Caitlin’s feelings by saying no, but neither do I want to say yes.’

Clara sat up. ‘Then don’t say anything, not yet. Leave it for a few days until you know her better. She might turn out to be the perfect companion for our journey!’

Jewel laughed, her mood lightening. ‘I’ve got one already,’ she said.

During the following month, Jewel and Clara explored the territory and often Caitlin went with them. The two girls had borrowed mild-mannered and sturdy mustangs and Caitlin rode her own spotted Appaloosa, a present from her parents last year, she said, on her eighteenth birthday. She was very knowledgeable about the area and knew the best tracks to take when going up the mountains.

One morning they were standing outside the Marius debating where to go when Caitlin rode up to meet them. She told them she wasn’t free to come with them as they were expecting an influx of guests and she’d promised her mother she’d help in the hotel. But she suggested a route where they would find the best view of Dreumel’s Creek.

‘Go to the end of the valley and cross the water by Lake’s Bridge, then follow the path up the mountainside. The horses are sure-footed, so you needn’t worry about the steep incline.’

‘Lake’s Bridge?’ Jewel said. ‘I didn’t know it had that name.’

Caitlin pressed her lips together and gave a little shrug. ‘It’s what I call it.’

‘Why?’ Clara asked. ‘Why lake? It isn’t a lake.’

‘Oh no. Not that kind of lake. It was someone’s name.’ Caitlin’s cheeks went pink. ‘I used to see him when I was little; except that people said I imagined him.’

‘What do you mean?’Jewel said. ‘Who was he?’

‘He was a ghost.’ Caitlin frowned a little, as if waiting for their cynicism or laughter. When it didn’t come, she added, ‘No one else ever saw him, but Ma said that I did because I was part Irish and probably believed in that kind o’ thing.’

‘So your mother believed you?’ Clara said softly.

Caitlin nodded. ‘I think she did, but Da always made fun and so she didn’t say much.’

‘Who was he?’ Clara asked. ‘Or don’t you know?’

Caitlin bit on her lip, but before she could speak Jewel
interrupted. ‘I know who he was! He was the Indian who told Papa about the valley. He brought him here, otherwise no one would ever have found it!’

Clara smiled. ‘I believe you, Caitlin. I think he comes back to see if the valley is being looked after.’

‘Yes!’ Caitlin gave them an all-embracing smile. ‘That’s what I think too; but the odd thing is that whenever I saw him he was always riding back over the bridge towards the mountain, and he always turned round as he reached the high ridge. I used to wave to him,’ she said sheepishly, ‘and he always lifted his hat and waved back.’

‘What a wonderful story.’ Clara’s voice was soft. ‘I wish I could see him.’

‘He might not come any more,’ Caitlin said seriously, pleased that someone gave credit to her tale. ‘I was only a child and it was when we lived in one of the cabins in Dreumel. It’s a store now, run by a Chinese medicine man.’ She pointed to a row of shops. ‘The one that stands back from the others.’

Jewel and Clara gazed in that direction. ‘We’ll take a look,’ Clara said, and Jewel added that if they were going up the mountain they’d better be moving off as the morning was getting hotter.

‘Watch out for black bears,’ Caitlin called as she turned her mount to head back to Yeller. ‘Keep to the path and you’ll be safe.’

‘Black bears!’ Clara gasped. ‘Is she serious?’

‘Yes,’Jewel said. ‘I’m sure she is.’

They were both wearing large-brimmed hats but even so the sun beat down on their heads as they rode through the pastureland and into the thick scrub, and they were pleased to reach the tree line. The pines here gave green shelter and as they rode higher and the forest grew thicker it became cooler and darker. Presently they reached a rocky clearing and wheeled the horses round so that they could look down.

‘Mama came in this way,’ Jewel murmured. ‘On her very first visit to Dreumel. She told me that she thought it the most beautiful place she had ever seen.’

‘And so it is,’ Clara said softly, almost afraid to break the spell of the moment. Below them the waters of the creek in the valley sparkled in the sunlight, the small wavelets tossing and foaming as they surged. The source was high in the mountains beyond Yeller Valley into which it also ran; down the middle of the township, through a gap in the mountain wall and beneath the Western Bridge into Dreumel’s Creek. They couldn’t see the town of Yeller as it was hidden by the mountain range, although they could see Pike’s Road leading towards it; but Dreumel, with its wooden houses and cabins, its stores and hotels, lay there before them.

‘To think that just a few short years ago there was nothing here,’ Clara said, after a moment. ‘And yet the town seems permanent, as if it’s been here for ever. I don’t mean like English towns, not like Hull with its old buildings, cobbled streets and ancient heritage, but somehow enduring and settled.’

‘Yes,’Jewel said. ‘It does. And yet Yeller doesn’t. Yeller looks as if it has been thrown up in a great hurry.’

‘Why is it called Yeller?’ Clara asked. ‘It’s an odd kind of name.’

Jewel smiled. ‘Because of the gold. One of the men who discovered gold in the creek named it Yeller Valley. Seemingly the creek was glistening with the
yeller stuff
!’

They turned about and continued up the track, but now the going was more difficult. The path seemed to be little used and in places all but disappeared, and they had to make detours to avoid fallen trees or duck their heads to dodge overhanging branches.

‘I think we should go back,’ Clara was beginning, but then as Jewel, who was leading the way, halted and lifted her hand in warning. ‘What?’ Clara whispered.

‘Shh.’Jewel put her finger to her lips and Clara stared about her, her eyes open wide, looking and listening intently.

There was something; but afterwards, when they discussed it, they both agreed that they could say nothing conclusive or significant about the occurrence, or even if there had been
one. But they both felt a presence; a whisper in the trees, a sough or faint breath, like a sigh, which encircled them and compelled them, without either saying a word to the other, to simultaneously turn about and return the way they had come.

The next day they told Caitlin what had happened, but no one else. They knew she would believe that something strange had occurred even though they couldn’t really say what it had been.

‘It was a sense of a presence,’ Clara said.

‘An unexplained
atmosphere
,’ Jewel added, ‘and I’m not in the habit of being fanciful.’

‘Do you think it was Lake?’ Caitlin asked eagerly. ‘Perhaps he’s still living in the forests – or at least his spirit is.’

‘But why would his spirit stay here, when there are thousands of miles of forests? Oh, we’re being silly!’ Jewel said. ‘It was probably a bear that we heard, and when it saw us, it moved off.’

Clara agreed somewhat reluctantly that perhaps it could have been that, but Caitlin, in spite of not having been there, was more inclined to think that it was Lake returning to his old hunting lair.

‘This area once belonged to the Indians,’ she said, ‘so maybe they are watching over us. Don’t tell anyone else,’ she urged them. ‘They’ll laugh, just as they used to with me.’

‘Caitlin,’ Jewel said, changing the subject, ‘Clara and I are leaving at the end of the week. I’m really sorry,’ she began, but Caitlin brushed her apologies aside.

‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘Pa’s just bothered about me going anywhere without him or Ma. He’s forgotten that Ma was
younger than me when she came to America with Aunt Gianna all the way from England. In any case, the hotel is fully booked with visitors for the next few weeks and I probably can’t be spared; people are coming to look at land for building new homes and businesses.’ But she gave a huge sigh and her lips turned down, and they understood how disappointed she was.

Two days before they were due to leave Caitlin took them on a journey to the end of Yeller Valley and up the mountain range. It was a hard climb for Jewel and Clara, unused to riding such a long way or in such heat, and after an hour they begged to stop and get down to ease their aching muscles and take a drink.

‘Sorry,’ Caitlin apologized. She seemed not at all bothered about the heat and quite cool beneath her hat, cotton shirt and skirt. ‘I keep forgetting that you’re not as at home on horseback as I am. I’ve been riding since I was – oh, I dunno, maybe two or three years old. My first horse was called Hetty.’ She turned to Jewel. ‘She was once your ma’s.’

Jewel smiled and nodded. ‘I recall Mama telling me about Hetty.’ Then she fell silent as a faint memory disturbed her: the long sea passage to England when she was very young and Gianna telling her anecdotes and stories to keep up her spirits. She remembered, too, feeling very lost and frightened and knew now that it was because she had lost her father; her real father, Edward, not Wilhelm.