As David turned and said, ‘Thank you. I’ll be there in a moment,’ it came to her that Robertson had been their servant, and this man standing in front of her giving orders had been a servant, although in an odd way he was a relation. For some strange reason she felt a desire to cry. Then she looked to where he was halting Robertson’s departure by saying, ‘Henry, I’m expecting two ladies for dinner tonight: a Mrs Dawson Maitland and her daughter. If I’m not back in time, make them comfortable. There will also be a Mr Benedict; but he’ll likely return with me. Ask cook to put on something good.’
‘I’ll do that, sir. Yes, I’ll do that.’
‘Well now—’ He turned towards her, saying, ‘I must be off; I’ve a great deal of business to get through.’
Her voice was merely a whisper as she said, ‘Are you going to live here?’
‘Here?’ He pointed his finger towards the floor, then said, ‘Well yes, partly I suppose, but I’ll still have to spend some time in Kalgoorlie, although my fiancée doesn’t care much for Kalgoorlie, what little she has seen of it.’ He now looked around the room, saying, ‘Yes, yes, we’ll settle here for a time until I find a nice little estate, or a large one.’ He pursed his lips now. ‘It all depends on what takes my fancy. Well, now, I really must be off. Give my regards to your mother. I hope she is well.’
‘Yes, she is very well.’ Then she did not know what made her stress the last words for, looking up at him, her face straight, she added, ‘Very well.’
‘That is good to hear.’
They were in the hall now and Robertson was helping him into his coat. Then they were in the yard and there was the cab with the cabby standing holding the door open. She did not walk with him to the cab but stood in the middle of the yard. And as he was about to step into the vehicle, he turned and looked at her, and smiled. Then the door closed on him, the cabby got on the box and drove away.
She stood where she was, feeling dazed. When she turned round towards the house the front door was closed, and she took it as a sort of symbol and she said to herself, ‘I’ll never go in there again. Never. Never. Never.’
She was running straight along the path towards the house that once had been her home, which now stood like a ghost house, empty, alone, deserted. She dashed into the yard, where the grass was growing up between the stone slabs, then through the archway, and through the overgrown gardens to the gate that led to home. And for the first time she thought of Mr Mercer’s house as home. And it was him she ran into at the top of the lawn as she sped from the trees. And when he caught her and looked down and into her streaming face, he said, ‘What is it, my dear? What is it?’
‘Oh. Oh, Mr Mercer.’ She always gave him his title. She now leant her head against him and he put his arms about her and said, ‘There, there. What has happened? Tell me.’
‘I…I want Mama. Where is she? Where is Mama?’
‘I’ve just left her; she’s in the conservatory. Go along, you’ll likely find her still there.’
She disengaged herself from him and nodded at him, then was running again.
Nancy Ann was watering plants when she found herself almost toppled over as Rebecca threw herself into her arms; causing the small watering can to drop to the ground.
‘What is it? What is it, my dear? What’s happened?’
‘Oh, Mama. Mama.’
‘Come. Come.’ Nancy Ann led her to a white wrought iron seat at the end of the conservatory and, pressing her down, she said, ‘Tell me, what’s upset you? Come along, now, stop that crying.’ And she stroked Rebecca’s hair from her face the while thinking, It’s that boy. They’ve had a tiff. She’s likely found him riding with someone else. Dear, dear.
‘He’s back. He’s come back…David.’
Nancy Ann’s body stiffened and became cold for a moment, but her voice sounded calm as she said, ‘Well, he was bound to come at some time, that’s his home now.’
‘But…but he’s changed, different. He…he’s not nice, Mama.’
‘Not nice? What do you mean, not nice?’
The girl shook her head and she just stopped herself from saying something awful, which would have been, He was like Papa, Mama, instead, she said, ‘He looks different. He was nasty to me.’
‘Nasty? Now, now; explain yourself.’
‘Oh.’ Rebecca pressed her head against her mother’s breast and muttered through her tears, ‘He was just nasty. He’s going to be married, and they are coming to dinner tonight, a lady and her daughter. He gave the order to Robertson before he went off. He…he was going in to Newcastle. I don’t like him any more. I don’t. I don’t. I don’t.’
Nancy Ann’s hand became still on her daughter’s hair. He was going to be married. Well, wasn’t that the best thing? Yes, yes of course. But how would she react when he broke the news to her? Especially if he used the high-handed manner he had obviously taken with Rebecca. He had once said he would come back and marry Rebecca. Well, that was one thing she had to be thankful for. It had remained a secret dread in her that he would do just that. He was capable of it.
The door opened and Graham came in, saying, ‘What is the trouble?’
She pressed Rebecca from her and, her manner taking on a lightness, she said, ‘David is back, and apparently he is a much changed individual, by what Rebecca tells me. And also, he’s going to be married, she says.’
‘Oh. Oh.’ He pulled a long mouth, and gave her a sly smile as if he understood the situation. Then he looked to where Rebecca had turned herself towards the corner of the seat, her head resting on the end of it, and thinking to throw oil onto the troubled waters of a young passion, he said, ‘Well, he is an oldish man, isn’t he, and it’s about time he married. How old is he, my dear?’
Before Nancy Ann could force herself to answer in the same vein as her husband’s playful mood, Rebecca swung round, crying, ‘He is not old. He is no older to me than you are to Mama.’
‘Yes, yes. Well, you’re right there, my dear.’ His voice took on a soothing note. And now addressing Nancy Ann, he said, ‘I was thinking this morning about Harrogate again, and that now the school holiday had begun, I thought it would be nice if you two could go for a jaunt. It’s such a refreshing place, Harrogate, and there’s so much to do. Well, what about it?’
Nancy Ann grabbed eagerly at the suggestion, saying, ‘Oh, I should love that. And I think it’s time Rebecca had some new clothes, more fashionable ones.’
She turned to her daughter now, saying, ‘You’re growing out of your present dresses at such a rate that…that you will soon be showing your knees.’ She laughed a forced laugh, which was cut off by her daughter jumping up from the seat and crying, ‘I don’t want to go to Harrogate. I won’t be able to ride.’
‘Of course you will. Of course you will.’
‘No, I won’t, Mama. And now the holidays are here I want to ride. I want to ride every day. I don’t want to go to Harrogate. I don’t. I don’t.’
‘Now stop that! And stop it immediately. Whether you like it or not, we are going to Harrogate. That’s all that has to be said.’
With that, Nancy Ann turned from her daughter, while giving Graham a silent signal to follow her, and she didn’t speak until they were both in the privacy of the bedroom. And then, turning to him, she said, ‘We’ll…we’ll go tomorrow.’
‘As soon as that?’
‘Oh, I’m sorry. It…it isn’t that I want to leave you, or here, you know that.’
She was within the circle of his arms when he replied quietly, ‘I know that, my dear, I know that. And I know the reason you are going, why you want to get her away. She’s been much too fond of that gentleman for years. He was a nice enough boy when he was a boy, and as a youngster I liked him, but I can’t say that I’m as fond of the man, at least, of the man I saw a couple of years ago. There was an arrogance about him that annoyed me, to say the least. And he was very fond of you, too, you know.’ He moved his head slowly up and down. ‘Rather possessive of you. I n
oticed that too. He acted as if you belonged to him. It was as if the blood tie was between you and him, and not Harpcore.’ Whenever he mentioned Dennison, he always referred to him as Harpcore. And he ended, ‘Somehow, it isn’t as if his wealth has altered his character very much at all. As I see it, he felt he belonged to that house and acted likewise. Anyway’—he tossed his head now—‘I’m due for a holiday too, aren’t I? We’ll all go to Harrogate.’ Then, his voice becoming sober, he added, ‘You know, it’s only since you came into my life, really into my life, that I could think of leaving this place for more than a few days at a time, because it was the only life I had. But now, I have a wonderful, wonderful life, with a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wife.’
When his lips fell on her, she returned his kiss, thinking, Yes, so have I, so have I. And I must cherish it. Yes, I must cherish it and appreciate it. But the quicker they get to Harrogate the better, for when they returned, he would be gone.
The visit to Harrogate turned out to be a success, particularly in Rebecca’s case. She rode in the morning, grumbling at first because it was only for an hour; but accepted this when the afternoons turned out to be exciting with shopping, then tea at the Spa, or in a fashionable restaurant, and then on three evenings a week they attended either the theatre or a concert.
With regard to the shopping, Nancy Ann received a very generous dress allowance from Graham, and so she indulged her daughter, if not herself, in the dress departments. Graham had been with them for the first fortnight, but not relishing hotel life, he returned home, and for the next three weeks visited them at the weekend.
They were due to leave on the Saturday, and he arrived on the Friday night. After their first warm greeting Nancy Ann realised that he was disturbed. They were alone together when tentatively, she said, ‘Is something wrong, dear? Something worrying you?’
‘Yes, you could say something is wrong and is worrying me,’ he answered her, ‘but only with regard to how it will affect you. It…it concerns the house.’
‘Rossburn, you mean?’
‘Yes.’
‘What about it?’
‘Well’—he took her hand and drew her down onto the window seat of the bedroom—‘what I can gather from Brundle, who’s gathered it from Mick who heard it from his brother Shane, Mather had bought the house some time ago. No wonder we couldn’t understand its not being sold.’ There was a slight note of annoyance in his voice now as he went on, ‘Apparently, he was comparatively rich before the gold rush in this Kalgoorlie district, but now, as far as I can understand, he’s a millionaire twice over, and he spends money like water. But it’s always the way with the newly rich, they have no values.’
He was indeed annoyed. Her voice had a soothing note in it as she said, ‘Well, perhaps, he intends to put it to some good use.’
‘Good use? My dear, he is having it pulled down.’
‘What!’
He nodded at her. ‘Just what I said, pulled down. I couldn’t believe it. In fact, I went straight away. Apparently his lordship had departed back to Australia sometime previously, together with his fiancée, I’m told. But he had engaged a contractor to level the whole place. I spoke to the man himself. The tiles were already off. It was a sorry sight. I felt…well, really, my dear, I just don’t know how I felt. If it had been my own place I couldn’t have felt worse at that moment. The man himself said it was a da…shame, and went on to list all the ways in which it could have been used, some of which, of course, because the house is so near to us, would have been unwelcome. Yet, I had to agree with him. But no, it has to be levelled. He may sell, this is what the man said to me, he may sell what he can, such as panelling, doors, and the paintings from the drawing-room ceiling, if he can get them down whole. There’s one thing he was firmly instructed he had to keep and place in the farm barn, likely for shipment to Australia. And do you know what that is?’
She made a small motion with her head, while all the time inside she was saying, Oh, David. Oh, David.
‘A sloping beam from the far end of the roof, a truss, the man called it. He said it’s about twelve feet long. One end rests on the wall and forms part of the eaves; the beam slopes up to a height of about four feet at the apex of the room. The man said it has carvings on it roughly hacked out here and there and drawings in coloured crayons. It’s something, he said, one would see in a nursery, like the scribblings of a child. But this is at the extreme end of a roof, not in the attics proper.’
Oh, David. David.
‘Can you understand it?’
Yes, yes, she could understand it. Oh, she could understand it all right. That corner had been his home for so long. Very likely his harness had been attached to that beam. Oh, she could understand it all right.
‘You are upset. I knew you would be.’
‘No, no. In a way, Graham, I can understand his action.’
‘You can? Well, I certainly can’t.’ He rose from the seat and walked towards the middle of the room. ‘It is sheer wanton destruction. The exterior might have been stylised, but it was a splendid house, beautifully built. And that drawing room was magnificent. I think it’s a sacrilege.’
‘He…he suffered in that house, Graham.’
He turned on her almost roughly now and exclaimed loudly, ‘Suffered? He was damn lucky under the circumstances to be allowed to stay there. No matter what my opinion of Harpcore was, I admired him for taking on the responsibility of that boy.’
She too was on her feet. ‘He took no responsibility, Graham. You…you don’t know anything about it and his life there. He…he was treated like an animal. It wasn’t natural; he hadn’t any liberty at all. That beam he wants is the one he was tied to. He wouldn’t have been treated so in an asylum.’
‘Oh, my dear, my dear.’ He was holding her by the shoulders now, repeating, ‘My dear, my dear, don’t upset yourself so. I…didn’t look at it that way. Forgive me. Forgive me.’
She found she had to take in some deep breaths to stop the tears from starting, but as she stared at her husband’s kindly and concerned countenance, she thought, They are all of a pattern underneath, these men who had been bred to think of themselves as landed gentry. Their opinions on most things might be diverse, but when it came to class and the division between the servant and the master, there they stood firmly together.
He was talking rapidly, soothingly now. ‘I know you have always been concerned for the boy and I wasn’t aware that he had been…’ he seemed to search for a word; he couldn’t say humiliated as his mind suggested, but added, ‘treated so roughly. Anyway, you have got to be prepared, my dear, to see merely a piece of land where once your home stood.’
A slight shudder passed through her. ‘It was never my home, Graham,’ she said. ‘It was as much my prison during the last five years I lived there as it had been David’s from the day he was born. And…and don’t worry’—she gently touched his cheek—‘don’t be so concerned for me, please. But I know one thing: he had to do this to try to expunge his feelings and the memories of his treatment, although I’m sure they will be with him until the day he dies. You know yourself, Graham, that those early years of environment remain with you always. I can’t forget how happy my childhood days were in the vicarage. You, I am sure, have wonderful memories of your early days too.’
She did not probe, nor ever had probed into the years preceding his being jilted; and so she went on, ‘You can see, at least I can, how those years under the roof must have affected that boy, and the man he is now cannot forget them.’
‘You were very fond of him, weren’t you? I…I mean as a boy.’
It was some seconds before she answered, ‘Yes, I was very fond of him.’ Then she forced herself to utter the next words to allay any suspicion that he might be harbouring in his mind. ‘He…he looked upon me, in a way, as his mother. More so, after I was the means of sending him to school. But there’—she smiled—‘one thing I must tell you, and that is, I can’t wait to get home. In fact, I’ve
been very impatient for the past week or more for your coming.’
‘Oh, my dear, dear Nancy Ann. How it does my heart good to hear you say that, because at times I wonder if you are happy.’
‘Oh, never doubt that I am, I am. Life now is like heaven…the vicarage transported.’
At this they both laughed and clung to each other, and as he kissed her, she thought, And that is true. Then, as if she were indeed transported back to those days in the vicarage when she would ask herself funny questions, especially in church, she wondered now if angels in heaven were as happy as they were supposed to be.
Nine
After arriving home she had made up her mind not to go and view the destruction of the House, nor to enter the grounds again.
Life resumed its normal pattern and sometimes she found herself slightly bored, because the household ran on such well-oiled wheels. They had visitors, but not a great many. Pat and George called in at least once a week and often stayed for a meal. But she and Graham rarely made a return visit. Graham did not take to visiting. He preferred their evenings by the fire when she did her embroidery or played the piano and he looked through his collection of stamps or read, or when he tried to instruct her in the intricacies of chess…there was no playing cards in this house.
Each day she walked through the grounds to the Dower House, where Jessica was still in amazingly good health, but the closeness between them seemed to have dwindled of late. Nancy Ann put this down to ageing, for her grandmama must now be nearing eighty, although she would never state her true age.
At times, Nancy Ann was made to wonder what she would have done without the companionship of Mary. And one morning, on her way back to the Manor House, she was startled when she thought that she might lose her, at least be forced to have only her divided attention.
It was an early October day. The air was brisk; there was a light wind blowing; it was a day for walking. So she left the main drive connecting the houses and cut down by a pathway that would take her through the wood and into the Manor gardens, and it was where it left the wood and entered the formal gardens that she saw the man standing by the tall hedge. For a moment she thought he was a gardener taking a breather to have a smoke of his pipe. But when the figure turned towards her, she saw that it was Shane McLoughlin, and there was surprise on her face as she walked towards him. And he, looking a shade embarrassed, greeted her with, ‘I’m sorry, ma’am. I hope I didn’t disturb you. I mean…’
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