A Change for Clancy

by Amanda Doyle

  Clancy, bedraggled and dusty, could only gaze at him. In the depths of her confused mind niggled a tiny pang of sheer envy that he always appeared so much in command of the situation, while she herself seemed destined to be at a disadvantage. Why, he’d hauled her over that ledge just now almost as though he’d expected her, and he certainly wasn’t numb with surprise as she was at this moment. Even his fury was of the icily controlled, domineering variety. Clancy would have given much to-detect the merest shade of uncertainty in his voice as he addressed her, but, typically, there was none.

  “Well, Clancy, we meet in the oddest places, don’t we?” he declared levelly. “Are you out for another of your walks, or were you looking for someone, perhaps?”

  His eyes seemed to bore right through her. Clancy wet her lips.

  “I—no, I mean—yes,” she heard herself mumbling, inanely.

  Heavens, this was dreadful! Pull yourself together, Clancy Minnow. Don’t let him flummox you. Remember you’re the mistress of Bunda Downs—cool, dignified, and independent—and you’ve a perfect right to go anywhere you please on your own station.

  Jed’s eyes narrowed speculatively.

  “You mean, yes, you were looking for someone?” His firm mouth quirked unamusedly. “Well, by the look of surprise on your face when I pulled you to your feet just now, I’m not the person you were expecting to find. Who’s the lucky man, Clancy?”

  Clancy flushed dully at the scarcely veiled jibe in Jed’s lazily gentle voice. It wasn’t like him to be intentionally hurtful, but that’s what he was being now. Without a doubt, he was baiting her, standing there before her, so tall and bronzed, his hat pushed back rakishly, his blue eyes glinting with frosty derision.

  She couldn’t bear it. Goaded beyond caution, she strove all the same to appear as calm and uncaring as Jed himself as she informed him firmly,

  “I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting to see you out here, Jed. I was looking for Johnny, actually.”

  “Ah-h!” Jed’s breath was expelled on a slow sigh of satisfaction. “That’s just what I thought. Another tryst with Johnny. Now, what made you think you’d find him in this particular place, at this particular hour, Clancy?”

  Clancy prodded the ground with the toe of her boot, miserably conscious of the sarcasm that weighted Jed’s question.

  What could she say? How could she possibly tell Jed why she was here, when she was so vague herself as to the reason? She was now supposed to be dealing in facts. She hadn’t even had time to ascertain if there were, in fact, sheep concealed here at all. If she told Jed she had come to see a mob of sheep that simply were not there, what might he not believe of her then? He’d just think that this particular Minnow was lying again, wouldn’t he? Or experiencing another figment of her imagination, like that awful time with the cake. Clancy wished she had never mentioned Johnny, now she came to think of it. She should have made sure of her ground before introducing his name at all, only she hadn’t had time to think. Jed had taken her completely by surprise.

  And what of Johnny? Where was he now? Supposing he was about out here somewhere, as she felt sure he indeed was, and that he was witnessing this scene at this very moment?

  Clancy looked anxiously beyond Jed, then furtively to either side. No one. Nobody anywhere. Just herself and Jed.

  “Clancy.”

  The abruptness of his tone brought Clancy’s eyes back to his with a start. They regarded her sternly, blue, candid, uncompromising.

  “It’s no use looking around for Raustmann, Clancy. He’s not here now.”

  “You mean, he—was?” Clancy whispered in some agitation.

  “He was,” Jed agreed quietly. “But he’s not here now, and he won’t be again. You understand, Clancy? You will not be seeing Johnny Raustmann again. He’s leaving Bunda Downs.”

  “Leaving? Are you sure? Leaving?”

  “That’s what I said, Clancy. He may even be off the property by now.”

  “And—won’t he be coming back, then? Not at all? Not ever?”

  Jed shook his head, watching her gravely.

  “You can take it from me, Clancy, he won’t be coming back.”

  Clancy could only stare, incredulous. Jed spoke the truth. He must. She’d never known him do otherwise. What reasons he could have for that authoritative statement, Clancy didn’t pause to fathom. If Jed said it, it must be right. Johnny had gone, and wouldn’t be coming back again.

  With every clop of her horse’s hooves across the plain, she had felt her heart give an answering lurch of sheer fright at the idea of a showdown with Johnny. With every foothold as she climbed carefully up out of the ravine, her mind had churned anxiously over what she would say when she confronted him with her suspicions. Her nerves had tautened almost to snapping point, her limbs had only obeyed because they were driven by the leaden purpose in Clancy’s brain.

  And now here was Jed Seaforth telling her she need never see Johnny again.

  A sudden upsurge of reaction threatened to overcome Clancy.

  Her eyes began to prick. Hot tears brimmed. Her face crumpled, and the cool, dignified, independent mistress of Bunda Downs turned blindly away, searching unavailingly for a handkerchief in the pockets of her pallid jeans.

  The next moment she was drawn firmly against a khaki chest, enfolded strongly by two muscular aims.

  “Don’t, Clancy.” Jed’s voice was gruff, deep with pleading. “Don’t cry for him, Clancy. He’s not worth it, darling. A girl like you, some day you’ll find a man more worthy of you. You’re young, you’ve lots of time. You’ll see if I’m not right. Perhaps I should have played my hand differently, given you a hint of what I intended to do. It’s been a shock for you—too much of a shock. But he had to go, Clancy. I had to do it.”

  Jed’s hand was stroking the back of her head. Clancy savoured it for a moment, then pushed herself away a little. She mopped at her face with the handkerchief he passed her, and corrected him indignantly.

  “I’m not c-crying because I’m sorry he’s g-going. I’m crying because I’m g-glad—glad. Oh, Jed, it’s such a r-relief!”

  “Relief?” Jed was silent for a moment, then he took hold of both her arms again in one of his iron grips, and turned her towards him.

  “Clancy, what are you talking about? I think you’d better tell me,” he commanded sternly.

  “Of c-course it’s a relief,” she stuttered, struggling to banish the little sobs which still kept coming. “I h-hate Johnny! I’ve never l-liked him, not much, anyway, and l-lately I just couldn’t stand him. Only I had to, because of you, Jed. So it’s all your f-fault. If you hadn’t come, he’d never have g-got like that, but he w-wanted you to go away, and I was t-terribly scared something m-might happen to you, after that b-beastly windmill. I thought you might get h-hurt again. That’s what I thought, the whole time. It’s been ghastly. And then I f-found out about the sh-sheep and—do you know about the sheep, Jed? Are they still here? Is that why you’re here? B-because of the sheep?”

  Jed was looking at her strangely.

  “To hell with the sheep,” he said, softly and clearly, as he drew her back into his arms. “Clancy, do you realise what you’ve just been telling me?”

  “Yes, about the sheep. You see—”

  Jed groaned.

  “Darling, don’t play with me. Not now. I can’t stand much more of it.” He put a finger up to tilt her chin. “Clancy, look at me.”

  Clancy looked.

  “Oh, Jed,” she breathed, for the message in his eyes was unmistakable, even to the inexperienced Clancy. “Did you call me ‘darling’?”

  “Twice, I think,” he murmured indistinctly, before his lips came down masterfully upon her own. Clancy found herself responding with all the passion she had subdued and hidden for so long.

  Presently, when they drew apart, Jed quirked an expressive brow at her.

  “Clancy, you’ve been holding out on me,” he said, taking her small brown hand firmly, and leading her towards the s
hade of a large rock. “I think it’s time you and I had a long talk.”

  Clancy followed in dazed obedience.

  Some time later they were still sitting there. Jed laced her fingers through his while he was speaking.

  “So you won’t even have to set eyes on Johnny again, Clancy. We expected him to make a move today. There was no one at the homestead save for you two girls. He’d got rid of the aboriginal settlement down at the creek, probably threatened them with talk of debil-debils, Rex thinks. And he had a mate lined up over at Thompsons’ place ready to help him. Anyway, Rex and I were here to meet him. He’s actually gone, and his gear can be sent after him—not that he deserves so much consideration, trying to defraud young girls of their birthright like that, not to mention torturing me with pangs of jealousy over you, my darling.”

  “Jed, I can’t understand you thinking that! He was so uncouth, so rough, so—so boorish.”

  “He was all those things,” agreed Jed, “but what else could I think? At first you seemed to have a genuine aversion to the fellow, but latterly you were never out of his arms, or so it seemed to me. I just couldn’t stop myself being brutal to you about it. God! When I think what you’ve put me through!” He pulled her against him, and kissed her with lingering gentleness.

  “You’re going to have to spend the rest of your life making up for all that deception,” he told her sternly. “We’ll get married soon, Clancy. There’s no reason to wait, after, the time we’ve wasted already.”

  Clancy hesitated. For the first time, uncertainty dimmed her eyes.

  “Well? What now?” asked Jed, amused. “Do you need longer to adjust to the idea of becoming Mrs. Jed Seaforth?”

  “No! No, it’s not that! Only, Jed, what will your—your girl-friend down in Adelaide be thinking, when she hears our news? I mean, will she be terribly hurt? I’d hate for her to be too hurt, but she can’t help being, can she?”

  Jed looked blank. Utterly blank.

  “Clancy,” he implored, patiently, “could you be just a little more explicit, do you think? I wasn’t aware that I had a girl-friend in Adelaide.”

  “Oh, but you have, Jed,” she reminded him, duty warring with reluctance to acknowledge the fact. “The—the girl who sent the dresses for Tammy. That girl.”

  Jed gave a shout of laughter that echoed and reechoed in the hollows of the ravine below them. He stood up, walked away, bent to pick up a pebble and hurl it with unerring aim at a rock on the other side of the declevity. His body had the tough flexibility and resilient grace of a rawhide whip, thought Clancy, watching and waiting in bewilderment for his reply.

  When he came back he was still smiling, and his eyes were dancing with merriment.

  “So, sweetheart!” he teased, as he put out a hand to pull her to her feet beside him. “Dare I hope you’ve been tormented—just a little—by the green-eyed monster yourself?”

  Clancy blushed.

  “Well,” she defended herself in confusion, “I couldn’t help sort of wondering, Jed. You talked to Tammy one time about love, and—and how it should be constant and unchanging, and then, when the dresses came, you told me—”

  “When the dresses came, I told you they’d been chosen by a woman friend in Adelaide. And that’s the simple truth, Clancy. She is my friend, and yours too, come to that. It was your, or I should say, Tammy’s own godmother—Elizabeth—who chose them.”

  “Elizabeth? Aunt Elizabeth? Do you know her, too, then, Jed?” Clancy was wide-eyed with amazed wonder. Jed probably knew almost everyone in that big wide world away from Bunda Downs.

  Jed smiled.

  “Yes, I know her, Clancy,” he confessed somewhat wryly. “I haven’t been in a position to tell you before, but Elizabeth is now my own stepmother. She married my father a short while ago, and it’s through her that I came here in the first place. As you know, she’s one of the trustees of your mother’s estate, and she was worried stiff about you two girls out here on your own. Things didn’t appear to be running as prosperously as they should, so the executors—your mother’s bank manager, the solicitor, and Elizabeth—asked me to come out and investigate the present set-up. I’ve done this sort of thing before, for the bank, where mortgages and valuations are concerned, so it wasn’t an unusual assignment.”

  Clancy was still puzzled.

  “Why didn’t you tell us about your connection with Aunt Elizabeth?”

  Jed shrugged expressively.

  “Elizabeth was convinced that, if you knew, you’d think she had sent me to interfere and pry into your affairs, and send her reports and so on. That wasn’t the case, though I know the mere fact of my presence here caused her some relief from worry about you both. Now, Clancy, are you satisfied with that explanation, or will this convince you better?”

  Clancy gave herself up to the rapture of Jed’s embrace.

  He was still murmuring endearments into her hair, when there was a scuffling sound at the brink of the cliff, and Tamara’s head and shoulders appeared. She was breathless from her exertions. One rubber band had loosened on her plaits, so that long strands of sandy hair had escaped, and now clung damply across her neck as she scrambled gawkily upright. Her freckles merged with the redness of her glistening face. In her eyes shone patent relief as she spotted Clancy and Jed.

  “There you are, Clan!” she exclaimed. “Are you all in one piece? I began to get caterpillars over my skin sitting there thinking of you coming out here all alone, so I left my jolly old lessons and came out. They were nearly finished anyway, and I’ll do the rest when I go back, cross my heart I will.”

  Clancy was warmed anew. She stooped to give Tamara an emotional hug, and felt an answering pressure of skinny arms about her neck.

  Tammy blushed, redder than ever, if possible. “Well, I mean, you are my sister, after all,” she stated offhandedly. “I just thought I’d come and see that you were O.K.”

  She looked a little bit anxiously at Jed.

  “You—you don’t mind, Jed? About the lessons, I mean? I’m so nearly finished, but I just had to see that Clancy was all right first. You know how it is?”

  Jed met her appealing eyes with gentle understanding,

  “I know just how it is, Tammy,” his deep voice assured her kindly, as he drew her thin arm through his. Tamara raised her face excitedly.

  “Oh, and Jed—you’ll never guess! I met Rex down near the huts at the creek when I came past, and they’re coming back! Nellie an’ Jimmie an’ Tadpole and Sam an’ everyone! They’re all coming back, Jed. Rex is bringing them. He said he is.”

  She flung wiry arms about Jed’s neck.

  “Oh, Jed,” she sighed, “isn’t it super? I was so afraid, when they went away, that things would change too much, you know, but now they’re coming back, I like the change exactly as it is now, don’t you, Jed?”

  “Yes, Tammy, I do,” he agreed. “Just exactly as it is now.”

  And his smiling eyes met Clancy’s over the top of a pair of gingery pigtails.