The girls between them `specialed' the foals all that day. Jane thought several times of her own three, and whether they were feeling strange and abandoned, but she put the thought aside. At least they were fit and had each other. These poor small mites ...
If nothing else, the watching of the foals diverted Maureen, but seeing the end in sight Jane wondered whether she would have been better without such diversion, for it would be harder now.
It was. When the foals died late in the afternoon, Maureen broke up in a quite unprofessional manner. There were floods of tears. The girl was near-hysterical. Tim came forward and took the distraught Maureen in his kindly arms. Jane hesitated, wondering if she should offer her comfort, too, but decided to leave it at that.
She went out to the stable.
William Bower was crossing to it, and to spare Maureen, though Jane had a suspicion that Maureen would have got off lighter than she, Jane, would have in the same circumstances, Jane went forward.
`The foals died,' she said.
He nodded. 'I expected it. Bad luck. But better for the poor little atoms to go now if there was something gravely amiss.'
`I believe there was,' said Jane.
`We'll have Tim do a post,' William decided. 'It may have been that two births upset the result for Princess where one would have been a routine affair, or it may be that she just isn't a breeder.'
Still Tim and Maureen did not emerge. 'I was going to see Persian Princess,' Jane said to give Maureen more time to compose herself.
`To break the sad news.' William was lighting his pipe and his smoke-narrowed eyes baited Jane.
She looked at him coldly. 'She may be very uncomfortable; Tim said there was enough milk for two.'
`I'm sorry,' he offered at once. He really did seem
ashamed of himself didn't mean to needle you, not on a thing like that. The Princess does have a lot of milk. But I believe we can fix that. Rodden lost a mare while we were away over at the Fetherfell stud' ... he frowned and was quiet a moment ... 'and is badly in need of a foster for the orphan.' They had turned into Princess's box now.
The mare did look at a loss, and Jane said : think what you suggested would be wise, I believe you should make her a foster.'
`We'll go over tomorrow, then, I'll take the Cessna and we'll bring the orphan back.' He touched the silky nose. He looked worried, Jane considered, and she felt she understood Running a stud, she remembered from Rusty, could bring many worries, though she hardly had believed that this self-sufficient, efficient man ...
Her silence must have started something. lost another one today.' Bower's voice actually shook slightly.
Jane remained silent.
`Cam was an old friend,' he said presently, 'quite ancient. I expect a man is a fool to—' He shrugged.
died?'
had him put down. He was crippled with rheumatism, I couldn't see him suffer another season.'
Jane nodded.
`Well, that's the way it goes.' William Bower broke the small silence. `How are your three?'
really haven't had time to look into that.'
`You should, you know. Anything apart from them is just employment to you, not personal property.'
`One-fifth of,' she reminded him.
He ignored that. 'See to your own interests,' he advised briskly. 'Don't consider anyone else.'
Jane wondered if her sympathy because of his departed mate that had been trembling quite apparently on her lips had caused his sudden brusqueness. Possibly this withdrawn man had resented her intrusion. She stiffened herself. 'Always think of Number One,' she interpreted. 'Your-
self first.'
`Exactly,' he nodded. Then he nodded to Jane and went back to the house.
The next day they flew over to Fetherfell. Scarcely were they up than they were descending again, gradually lowering to the green slopes of the tablelands, that stretched, William Bower called out to Jane, right to the plains, and then, given time, to Australia's red centre. But at Fetherfell it was green and rolling, not red, and, coming after the sudden and dramatic abyss that separated it from Plateau, very peaceful as it looked back and up at them. It was a comfortable-sized hamlet, William also called, a hospital, several streets of shops and a railway station. Jane, womanlike, was a little regretful she would not be seeing the shops, but she had to accept that fact as William flew the Cessna across the town, then put the plane down in a wide paddock strategically marked for take-offs and landings by white upturned plastic buckets. They must be at the satellite stud. Shortly after their arrival a jeep came out. Rodden drove it, and Jane stiffened herself, not because it was Rodden she was about to encounter a second time, but because on this occasion she would have an observer. And of all observers, William Bower.
She pitied herself as the jeep drew up. It was two against one, she thought childishly, for William Bower's sympathies were entirely with Gair. She stood and waited.
Then she was sensing a rather strained atmosphere between the two men. Rodden greeted his employer as an employee would, but there was a challenge there. William was almost terse.
They got into the jeep. They went at once to the stables, and while Jane fussed over the small orphan, the men went out to the yard. It was soon afterwards that she heard William's raised voice.
`Two of them! Good lord, Rodden !'
`It happens.' Rodden's voice was lower, but still clear to Jane's ears.
'Is that all your explanation?' demanded Bower. 'That it happens?'
I'll make my report, of course, but I'm not Mother Nature, or Father, either, sir.' The sir was almost flung at William, thought Jane. 'Also I don't play Fate and pull strings as to who survives and who doesn't.'
'But two in as many days!'
'It happens,' Rodden repeated.
suppose I'll have to accept that, but I'll still study your report.'
'In professional terms or for laymen?'
don't want your impudence, Gair.'
don't want it, either, but it appears to me that you're questioning my skill.'
`No. I know your skill. But I could question your management.'
'And are you questioning it now?'
'Look, we'll leave it this time. Persian Princess lost her twins.'
'Then in a way this misfortune is opportune.'
'Misfortune is never opportune, don't ever try to ration-alize that it is. But because I haven't time, I'll close the subject here. Miss Sidney
Jane, who had moved to the door of the barn for better listening, gave a guilty start, then went out.
'Mr. Gair has just broken the news that we have two foals to succour, not one, that two mares went down. This means that both foals will have to go over to Bowers, and it means also that there'll be no room in the larger Cessna for you. Mr. Gair will return you in the smaller craft.'
'Yes, Mr. Bower,' Jane said.
Rodden led the way to the second orphan, then the two tiny foals were carried to the jeep, after which Rodden drove William Bower and his cargo out to the waiting craft. With minutes the Cessna was taxiing off, then turning into Plateau's direction again. Jane saw Rodden coming back. He was in a bad temper, which at least diverted his atten-
tion from Jane, even though the effect would only be temporary.
`Glenda was too old,' Rodden said angrily. 'What did he expect me to do? Perform a miracle? These laymen!'
Jane had heard that said to Rusty, and it was Rusty she defended when she answered, 'Sometimes experience is a better thing than an instruction in a book.'
`Oh, so we're all for the boss now, are we?'
`No. But I can see his point. What happened?'
`They both died foaling, that's all. As I said, it happens.'
It did happen, knew Jane, but not generally so frequently. She thought of old Cam, who had had to be put down, of the twin foals who had died, and now, on top of these losses, the added losses of two mares. She explained it to Rodden.
`When do I cry?' he said.
`Rodden!'
`Sorry, my beautiful, I do say the wrong thing, don't I? I should have remembered.'
She knew what he meant, he was referring to the Little Down Melinda incident, and she put in quickly : 'That's all over.'
`The ashes are not white yet,' Rodden reminded her. `They are for me.'
don't believe you, Janey.'
`Besides,' said Jane, 'there's Maureen.'
`Yes. There's Maureen,' Rodden said slowly, thoughtfully. Then : 'Thank you, Jane.'
She looked at him in surprise, surprise that he had accepted her reminder so calmly. She felt she had never known Rodden.
`Well,' he shrugged, 'we'd better get going. How do you feel entrusting your life this time to me?'
`Presumably you can fly,' said Jane.
can.'
The smaller craft was garaged in a hangar on the field. It was very light and only needed help from a stablehand to
wheel it on to the path. At Rodden's nod, Jane climbed in, then Rodden climbed after her. The engine whirred, the small machine went forward, and they nosed into the air.
Coming across, it had seemed to Jane that barely had she looked down on the valley beneath Plateau than she had been looking down on the tablelands of Fetherfell, but evidently, perhaps because of its smaller size, this craft must take longer than those few minutes, for already they had been up for a lengthier period, and the stud still was not in sight.
Peering over, a little puzzled, Jane caught the different note in the engine. She glanced at Rodden, but he did not look back. She looked down again, and saw that they were approaching a clearing in a valley.
`Rodden, you're landing,' she called.
`Looks like it, doesn't it?'
`But why?'
`Fuel, lack of, is the usual accepted excuse,' he replied. `I'll be reprimanded, no doubt, about that, but oh, what manna from heaven!'
`Rodden, what on earth are you talking about?'
`Shut up, Jane, there's no buckets to mark the way here.' All the same he landed, and landed perfectly. He was good, she had to admit. When the small plane finally stopped, he sat back and looked at Jane.
`Thank you, Jane darling,' he said.
`For what?'
`For saying that, for reminding me, "There's Maureen."' `What do you mean, Rodden?'
`You may be a good strapper, Janey, but you're not good at catching on. I mean us, of course.'
`How, Rodden? Why?'
`How? By Maureen not caring about this little episode.' He slid ... or tried to slide ... an arm around Jane. 'Why? because it's you, Jane. It was. It is. It will be. Anyway' ... as Jane pulled right away now ... 'it's not Maureen.'
`How will this make a difference?' Jane was looking at
the isolation of the valley strip and feeling more hollow than she would have cared for Rodden to know.
`Darling, you shock me.' Rodden had taken out his cigarettes.
Flippantly ... or she tried for flippancy ... Jane yawned: `All that went out years ago, Rod. You're being very naïve.'
He exhaled lazily. 'I admit that the scheme is a trifle old-fashioned.'
`It's antiquated !'
`But' ... ignoring Jane ... 'it still has its points. Maureen, for all her flaming youth, isn't so flaming after all. I'd even go as far as to say she's slightly Victorian, and that she won't like this.'
Jane stared at him in loathing. However had she felt anything for this man?
`Why can't you tell her outright?' she demanded.
`I could,' he said, 'with your support. If you would come with me and say—'
`I wouldn't.'
Then' ... a shrug ... 'we have to adopt measures.' `Don't include me.'
Janey, the whole procedure is because of you.'
`You're crazed, Rodden, you must be ! You know as well as I do that it's all over, why otherwise would I have sent you the ring?'
`In a fit of pique,' he suggested, 'because I wouldn't dance to your tune. Hushabye, Baby, wasn't it? Belinda's baby?'
`Melinda,' Jane said mechanically.
He ignored her correction. He said what she had expected him to say. 'You followed me out.'
`Rodden, I never followed you out! I came because
`Yes, you've said all that before. But the fact still remains, Janey, for everyone's ... and Maureen's ... consumption that we were once engaged, that we split up, that
I came home.' A deliberate pause. 'That now we're together again.'
We are not !'
'Aren't you forgetting something?' He glanced significantly around him, and she followed his meaning. They were together, as together as two people in a lonely valley, miles away, she expected, from anything had to be.
'It makes no difference,' she said firmly.
'To you, perhaps, but—Maureen?'
'She's young, and the young are outgoing, not—not vulnerable in things like that anymore.'
'Don't you believe it. How would you like your fiancé away all night in the bush with a beautiful girl?'
won't be away all night, Rodden.'
'Then you'll still clinch it, darling, for sure. If you're found scratched and bedraggled by running through the undergrowth from me, everyone will think the worst.'
'Of you, Rodden.'
'That will do nicely, thank you. My little Maureen, who is sweet, I'll admit, but as cloying as sugar, will be handing back your ring in flash.'
'It is not my ring!' she snapped.
agree with you there entirely, Jane, we'll start off anew, start another life with another stone. What will it be?' he smiled.
'Aren't you being rather reckless, jeopardizing, or trying to jeopardize, your career with the Bower stud like this?'
`I'm not just trying, Jane, and no, I don't think so. Bower and I are all washed up, anyway. Those damned mares ' He scowled. can get a job anywhere, Jane,' he went on. 'With your little capital we two should—'
'My little capital is staying with me, Rodden.' She looked at him contemptuously. 'Is that the reason—'
`No. No, Jane. It's just as I said : it's you. You. Maureen has been bothering me for some time. The old, old story' ... a laugh ... 'she wants to proceed from the ring.'
`It's customary,' Jane observed.
`But it wasn't for you. You never pursued, did you? Not until now.'
`Not now, Rodden, please try to realize that.' She actually leaned across to him. 'Know it, Rodden,' she advised.
Something must have penetrated, for Rodden sat quiet a while.
`You'll change,' he said presently, 'and at least it will get Maureen out of my hair.'
`If she learns.'
`Of course she will learn. Even by now Bower is allotting me another black mark for running out of fuel, and as you must know by now, that man never does things by halves. Undoubtedly the mechanic knows, and from the mechanic the next down, or the next across. Right across to the stables? I think you can say, Janey, that when we don't arrive by dusk, everyone will be aware.' A small pause. `Including Maureen.'
`You're hateful!' she burst out.
`Yet efficient?' He had taken out another cigarette.
`I don't know.' Jane was narrowing her eyes to the further end of the clearing. There was no road from the small valley strip, but there must be a track of sorts, for a jeep was labouring up. She heard Rodden give an angry grunt.
`They're coming across,' Jane said unnecessarily, for she knew that Rodden would be equally aware of that.
She wondered who it could be ... some bushman who had seen them put down and suspected they were in trouble? Surely not William Bower himself, there would not have been time.
Then she heard shouting, and began to laugh. For, as opposed to Rodden's two of them, it appeared there were to be six of them. John drove the jeep. Kate sat beside him. Behind them both sat the twins.
`A ring from Bowers,' John called. 'Bill Bower reckoned you'd be putting down here, and he was right. He told me to bring out some gas for you to get back to Fetherfell,
Gair, but for us to fetch Jane.'
John helped Jane down, then, with a big white handkerchief, flagged Rodden out of the valley again. It was not so difficult, the craft was small and the cliffs banking down to the valley were in accommodating positions.
It was only when the plane had gone that Jane noticed that Rodden had not taken on any fuel. She hoped that John did not notice that the supply he had fetched out had not been touched. That if he did, later, he would not be sufficiently interested to tell William Bower. Yet did Bower need to be told?
`Bill reckoned you'd be putting down here,' John had said.
Just as he seemed to know everything, even the biological condition of Dotsy, it appeared that the great Bower had also known this.
But William Bower said nothing at all. All the way up to the stud, Kate driving the mini that had been parked in front of John's when they had emerged from the valley strip
. more Johnny cakes? Jane wondered briefly ... Jane had rehearsed her answers to Bower.
But there had been nothing to answer to. Neither had any of the innuendoes, subtleties and sarcasms she had anticipated been voiced.
`There's been a hitch in the fostering,' was what the stud boss said instead. 'It appears that the Princess isn't as well endowed as I thought, and can only provide for one orphan. However, as you already have a hand-feed job, Miss Sidney, Maureen will take over our second waif.'
Jane nodded ... and still waited. He was not the kind of man to let a thing like this pass.
But he did let it pass, and because the boss did, all the stud did, too. No doubt they had noticed and noted Gair's non-arrival after Bower—working almost on the landing paddock as they did they couldn't help being aware—and no doubt, too, they had noticed and noted Jane's arrival by car instead, but there was no question, no comment. Jane
accepted it thankfully, she had been dreading the construction Maureen might put on the brief episode. As it was, it had been so brief that it became no episode at all. Jane liked Maureen, and she wanted no change in their friendly relations.
The Mutual Look Page 11