South of Capricorn (9 page)

Leta went off and Kane said,

‘That poor child’s been ill-treated.’

Her eyes opened very wide.

‘Ill-treated!’ she gasped.

‘There are more ways than one of ill-treating people. Physically she’s been pampered, but mentally she’s been neglected. Being of much higher than average intelligence she’s alert to everything that’s said about her, to the attitudes adopted towards her.’ He paused and set his mouth. ‘Frankly, if people kept on telling me I was wicked, then I’d do my damnedest to prove them correct!’

She stared, half expecting to see a hint of amusement on his face; all she saw was anger.

‘I believe you would,’ she murmured. ‘Yes, I believe you would.’

After making sure that Leta understood exactly what she must and must not do, Kane took her and Gail back to the homestead where he had firmly handed his daughter over to Daisybell, one of the three house girls whose duties were to keep the house clean and see to the cooking and the laundry. He had then taken Gail to a small sitting-room where a log fire was set in the low stone hearth. The fire was unlighted but ready for a match to be put to it should this prove to be necessary. A rather shabby but comfortable couch, at an angle by the window, looked inviting, and Gail found herself moving towards it even before she was invited to sit down. It was then that Kane had finalized his plan, answering any questions which Gail put to him. She was told that messages could be sent quickly over the air, and that it would not be too long before her parents were informed of her decision to accept the post of nanny to Leta. Gail had already mentioned that she would have to tell her parents that she was staying in the capacity of nanny, saying they would consider her quite mad if they knew the truth - that she was posing as his wife.

‘They’re going to think it most odd,’ she had to say, and in her voice Kane detected a note of deep anxiety.’You see, they know full well that caring for Leta is the very last job I would take on.’ Or the last job anyone else would take on, she added, but to herself.

‘You can explain that I believe she can improve with the right treatment - and handling.’

‘You do believe this?’ she had asked him curiously, and without hesitation he had nodded emphatically.

‘I’m sure of it,’ he said. And after a small silence he went on, eyeing her curiously, ‘You are not too perturbed about your parents’ reaction to this rather unorthodox decision of yours - does this mean that they are the kind of parents I admire most, the kind that don’t interfere?’

She smiled spontaneously, and her eyes brightened. Kane, watching her, became intent, and faintly interested. He appeared to be discovering what she looked like. Out in the open the sun had been setting when first she had approached him, and in conse-quence the light had become duller and duller as the moments passed. Now she was under a bright light, with every line and contour of her face revealed.

‘Yes, they are. I’m most fortunate in my parents. And although they’ll be worried at first, which is only natural, they won’t ask me to change my mind. They never have interfered - not since I was old enough to know my own mind and make, my own decisions.’

‘Well, that simplifies matters. Everything appears to be simple.’

‘Simple?’ she echoed, staring at him. ‘You’re far more confident than I. I foresee many difficulties ahead before, my task done, I’m able to return home.’

Faintly he smiled.

‘I rather think,’ he said thoughtfully, ‘that Leta will be of tremendous help.’

She slanted a glance at him; it was almost an admonishment.

‘Don’t you think it’s cheating, to do it this way?’

‘No such thing. I’ve given my stepmother the offer of another home, a very lovely home, but she stubbornly remains here...’He paused and seemed more deep in thought than before. Gail wondered if he had been going to say that he knew just why his stepmother was staying - in order that her daughter might stay too, and therefore continue to have an opportunity of securing Kane as a husband. However, he refrained from mentioning the daughter and merely went into one or two more details, minor details which Gail herself had overlooked. Finally he asked her her age.

‘I shall have to know it,’ he added wryly, ‘also your birthday.’

‘I’m twenty-three, and my birthday’s on the twenty-seventh of next month.’

‘So soon? We shall have to have a party, you see - just for effect.’

She said nothing; she could not imagine a party being given for her. Who would come? There seemed to be no one else living in this lonely terrain of endless spinifex plains. That was, no one other than the small community of stockmen, their wives and children, all of whom lived in the attractive bungalows which Gail had seen clustered on a rise some small distance from the homestead.

‘Well,’ Kane was saying, ‘if you’ve nothing more to clear up we’ll go and see where my stepmother is.’

‘It’s going to be an ordeal,’ she faltered. ‘Is she going to be convinced?’

The slate grey eyes took on a sort of languid expression. He said carelessly,

‘She has no alternative.’

‘But she’s bound to ask a whole lot of questions.’ ‘She can ask away; it doesn’t mean she’ll get them answered.’ Implacable the tone, tight the mouth. Gail decided that Mrs. Farrell would be the first to retire from any battle of words which might take place.

The meeting did not prove to be so much of an ordeal as Gail expected. Blandly and without hesitation or preamble, Kane had said,

‘Rachel, I want you to meet my wife, Gail, and my daughter, Leta.’

‘Your—!’ The woman gaped, staring in astounded silence at her stepson before transferring her dark and venomous gaze to Gail and, finally, to Leta. ‘Your wife!’ She stopped again and shook her head. Gail noted the colour in her face change from pink to crimson and then to a sort of sickly grey. ‘What are you talking about?’ She looked at Kane as if he had taken leave of his senses. ‘You have no wife - no daughter!’

‘Mother, what’s going on? You’re not quarrelling with Kane again? You shouldn’t ...’ The voice came from the girl who had just entered the room. Soft and purring, it had come to a slow and questioning stop as the girl, tall, dark and very beautiful in an exotic kind of way, suddenly noticed Gail and Leta. ‘Who are these?’ She looked up at Kane, and smiled faintly at him. ‘Friends of yours? But how did they get here?’

‘Ertha, meet my wife,’ interrupted Kane calmly in the same bland tone. ‘This little one is my daughter, Leta.’ Fondly he ruffled her hair; she responded by taking his hand in hers and holding tightly on to it.

‘Your wife?’ The dark eyes opened wide in a disbelieving stare. ‘Is this some kind of a joke?’ she queried, far less troubled than her mother, and Gail saw at once that she actually did believe it was a joke. Surely she knew the Boss of Vernay Downs better than that, thought Gail who, even in the short time she had been acquainted with him, had learned that he was a man who had no time for trivialities, a man serious of disposition, firm of resolve,

‘Where have they come from?’ demanded Mrs. Farrell without affording Kane time to reply to her daughter’s query. ‘Dave brought them; he told me he picked them up at the station.’

‘That’s correct.’

 ‘Kane,’ intervened Ertha, taking a step towards him, ‘you didn’t answer my question.’

‘It isn’t a joke, Ertha. Gail’s my wife— No, please don’t interrupt or we’ll be here far longer than suits me. Gail and I were married when I went over to England on holiday, long before you came here. But we were estranged — some silly misunderstanding causing the rift. Recently I heard that I had a daughter and, as you can imagine, I felt I must see her. So I sent for Gail-’

‘You sent for her?’ Ertha looked suspiciously at him. ‘You’ve never given us any intimation that you were expecting these two.’

‘Nor was Dave expecting to pick them up,’ added her mother, her voice still harsh and cracked but a little quieter than before.

‘There’s been a slight misunderstanding. Gail should have arrived next Tuesday, and not this Tuesday.’

Gail looked at him, her feelings mixed. She admired his handling of this situation, admitting that the lies were necessary, and yet, paradoxically, she was more than a little shocked that any man could lie with such suave self-possession, When she herself told a necessary untruth, she invariably gave herself away by colouring up.

‘I still don’t believe you! And I’m not having these two in the house!’

‘You are not having them?’ Dangerous the tone now, and Gail felt a shudder pass through her whole body. How very forbidding he was in this particular mood! ‘As always,’ he went on in tones of ice, ‘you speak without thinking. Gail as my wife has a position here - an important position. She is from now on the mistress of my home!’

Silence; Gail wondered if the woman was going to have some kind of a fit, so deep was the colour of her face. Ertha, on the other hand, was standing like one frozen to the spot. It was a dramatic scene, with the air electrified, and yet Gail was strangely unaffected, and afterwards when she tried to explain this, she could only reach the conclusion that her mind was too dazed for very much to penetrate. She was immune to the glares of the woman, and to the cold malicious stare of her daughter.

‘I still don’t believe she’s your wife!’ Mrs. Farrell was plainly making some attempt to be calm, but her fury was proving too much for her. That she was bewildered was clear; she seemed to be accepting the fact that Gail was Kane’s wife even while declaring her disbelief. ‘You say you were married while on holiday in England? Your father never mentioned this fact to me.’

‘The fact of my being on holiday, or the fact of my marriage?’

‘Neither,’ she returned, her teeth snapping together.

‘He never knew about the marriage. And as for his mentioning the holiday - why should he mention it? I don’t expect he told you everything he and I did in the yeans before he met you. After all, you were married to him for less than a year.’

‘I am not accepting this story! This child - I refuse to believe she’s yours. Why, she hasn’t even the faintest look of you—’

‘I am his daughter!’ flashed Leta who, much to Gail’s amazement, had up till now been most restrained, merely being an interested listener. Still clinging to Kane’s hand, she went on, her eyes as wicked as Gail had ever seen them, ‘He’s my daddy - my own daddy! So you shut up and mind your own business! Gail’s my mummy, and if you say again that my daddy tells lies I’ll kick you!’

‘Bravo!’ said Kane, but softly.

‘Kane!’ gasped Ertha.

‘The insolent, ill-behaved creature!’ Mrs. Farrell, her bosom heaving, threw the child a virulent look. ‘You are going back where you came from!’ and she made the fatal mistake of wagging a forefinger before Leta’s face. Swift as lightning the child had seized it and put it in her mouth. Even Gail winced as she saw the vicious little teeth do their work.

‘Oh!’ screamed Mrs. Farrell. ‘Ertha - oh, I believe I shall faint!’ And in fact her angular figure did sway as the finger was released. Kane took a step forward, but his aid was unnecessary. Ertha was at her mother’s side, and she spoke quietly as she said,

‘Come, Mother, let’s get out of here. We’ll talk in private.’ She looked at Kane. ‘I don’t know what to think,’ she told him. ‘If your story’s true, then it’s a very strange one indeed.’

‘It’s true, all right,’ was his firm rejoinder. ‘I hope Ertha, that you will be able to convince your mother that she is no longer mistress here.’

HER reflections having come to an end, Gail rose from her chair and, going into the bathroom, washed her hair. A few minutes later she was drying it, and then she brushed it until it shone, the copper tints profoundly attractive as they caught the light. She stared for a long moment at her reflection, more happy now with what she saw, and the wide generous mouth curved in a smile. Her skin was clear and pale; she touched her cheeks with colour and smiled again. There was a strange sensation within her, a sensation she had experienced before, when she knew she was looking especially attractive.

The dress she chose was scooped low at the neck, and it was sleeveless. The skirt flared out, short and crisp. On impulse she swung around on her toes, wondering why she should feel so lighthearted when life was,- in the main, rather difficult.

Firstly there was Mrs. Farrell, and her daughter. Antagonists both, as was to be expected of course. Then there was Leta, difficult as ever and with no sign of an improvement. Kane himself, kind but so cool and impersonal when they were alone, though putting on an act when the other two women were present. And, lastly, there was Dave ...

How disappointed he had been in her. She had not known what to say to him, a truthful answer being impossible. She had spoken to Kane about it, explaining that she had told him Leta was not hers. Kane had merely expressed amusement, finally telling her that she need not worry herself about Dave; he was just an employee and would not be interested anyway. But Gail knew differently, owing to Dave having expressed the wish to know her better. However, she could scarcely tell Kane this, so she allowed the matter to drop. But she felt she would like to talk to Dave some time, and apologize for the lies she had told - which of course were not lies at all, but poor Dave believed they were.

‘You look charming, my dear.’ Kane’s voice greeted her the moment she stepped into the elegant diningroom with its oak furniture and silver candelabra. On the sideboard large silver dishes gleamed in the light from above. A cosy atmosphere pervaded the room, which had in part retained its nineteenth-century flavour even though the homestead, like others in the Outback, boasted the modern amenities such as central heating and air-conditioning. Most of the rooms, however, still had their open hearths where log fires burned on cold evenings, their flames shedding warm and gentle lights on to heavy leather couches and broad oak beams. In the massive kitchen with its slatted roof and wooden ceiling supports stood a cast-iron stove which burned wood and on which was prepared the enormous meals with which the stockmen satisfied their hearty appetites. Daisybell, a favourite with them because of her skill as a cook, produced among other things the most delicious scones and biscuits, these for the men to take out with them, to have with their billy tea instead of the more conventional damper which they cooked themselves out there, in the open.