The Rouseabout Girl

by Gloria Bevan

  ‘Finest dairy land in the island coming up,’ Sandy told her as they looked out on lush green paddocks studded with grazing cattle. Lanie roused herself to say laughingly, ‘I never thought the T.V. commercials for cheese factories down this way were real, the sky so blue, grass so green—not until now.’

  Presently they were passing high sandhills, the dark sand glittering in the sunshine. Lanie caught brief glimpses of sun-sparkle on water, distant views of rocky headlands and the white surf rolling in from the Tasman.

  Dusk was falling when at last Jard swung the vehicle off the main highway and into a metalled side road. They sped down into a punga-Alled gully then climbed a road winding over vast, sheep-threaded hills. Long shadows of overhanging bush lay across the road as they moved deeper into the hills and a purple haze filled the gullies. Lanie caught swift impressions of roadside notices, Wandering Stock, Beware Falling Debris. Then Jard was swinging the truck around a sharp bend, slowing speed to guide the vehicle past a drover on horseback, with his dogs. As they followed the lonely highway she caught an occasional glimpse of the sea, a darkening blue triangle between the hills. Through the gathering gloom she made out the outlines of sheep-drafting pens at the gates of long, poplar-lined drives leading up to lighted farmhouses high on dark slopes.

  As they swept on the headlamps of the truck illuminated a fragment of the winding road ahead, pinpointing the body of a possum trapped by the deadly attraction of lights in the darkness. Had it not been for Jard’s disturbing presence Lane would have been lulled into a half doze, but his close proximity kept her all too conscious of him, every single minute.

  It was a long time since they had passed any lighted farmhouses and she could discern no sign of civilisation, only the dark outlines of bush-clad hills closing in around them. A-t that moment a battered signpost loomed up out of the gloom and in the glare of the headlamps she made out the faded lettering, Rangimarie. They swung into a rough track and Lane peered into the darkness, but still she could see no sign of lights.

  ‘Nice-sounding Maori name,’ she said brightly, and turned towards Jard. She would make him say something to her, she vowed. ‘What does it mean?’

  ‘Rangi, the sky-father,’ ice dripped in his tone, ‘marie, peace.’

  ‘Peace!’ she echoed incredulously, and tried to subdue the bubble of laughter that rose to her lips. ‘Oh no! It’s hardly appropriate right new, do you think?’ She couldn’t resist the jibe, and after all, Jard could scarcely send her back to town, not at this point of the journey. ‘Is that really the translation?’

  He refused to be drawn. A flat, ‘So the local Maoris tell me,’ tossed in her direction and that was all. He didn’t even spare her a sideways glance. Oh, she might have known! Better to ignore the man and concentrate on Sandy, who clearly was only too eager to welcome her to his home. She smiled up at him. ‘Rangimarie. Is that the name of your district?’

  Sandy’s chuckle exploded in the darkness. ‘You could put it that way, eh, Jard? Name of our place, actually.’

  ‘Oh!’ Still under the spell of the novelty of her surroundings, she said in her warm husky voice, ‘We’ll soon be reaching your cottage, then?’ A belated sense of politeness impelled her to add, ‘Yours and Jard’s, I mean.’

  Unthinkingly her gaze moved to Jard and to her surprise she saw that he was looking amused. Only it wasn’t a real grin that touched his mouth, it was more in the nature of a sardonic lift of the lips at some thought of his own. What had she said wrong, for heaven’s sake? All at once she wasn't sure of her ground. Panic touched her with a chill finger. This dark lonely road at the edge of nowhere with no sign of civilisation in sight. And she was here with two strangers. Just what, she wondered, had she let herself in for? She said uncertainly, ‘You do both live just around here somewhere?’

  ‘Sure, sure we do.’ Sandy’s chuckle was reassuring to her taut nerves. ‘The old place will be coming up pretty soon now, right at the end of the drive.’

  They rumbled over a cattlestop and she strained her eyes into the darkness, dimly making out the road ahead. At that moment she caught in her nostrils the salt tang of the sea. So the cottage was situated somewhere near the coast. Goody, goody, things were looking up!

  What a long distance the dwelling must be from the main road, she mused, for as yet she could discern no sign of any dwellings. Stones thudded against the undercarriage of the truck as they moved on, and the next minute she realised they were passing the dim outlines of outbuildings, stockyards and stables. And surely those faint lights were shining from the windows of two cottages? The next moment they swung around a curve in the track and the headlamps of the truck picked out the long low lines of a rambling timber homestead with its sweep of lawns and backdrop of lofty trees.

  Lanie breathed a sigh of relief. So they were approaching civilisation at last! Her apprehensions fell away and her spirits lifted on a wave of anticipation. Remote, lonely, the place might be, but all the same the new job sounded definitely exciting! She was glad now that she had taken this position as cook in the outback, even if it entailed having Jard as her boss. One thing was for sure, her soft lips quirked at the thought, he wouldn’t be likely to seek her company any more than was strictly necessary.

  ‘Look like there’s a power failure again!’ Jard’s laconic tones cut across her musing.

  ‘Breakdown somewhere,’ Sandy agreed. Neither man appeared to be particularly concerned at the power failure. Maybe, Lanie thought, they were used to such inconveniences.

  They were sweeping into a wide concrete driveway and Jard was braking to a stop at the flight of steps approaching the verandah that appeared to run around three sides of the big old house. Certainly, the big rambling house was no cottage, Lanie thought, puzzled, but maybe they were calling in here for some reason. She was still trying to fathom the mystery as Jard got out and moving around the vehicle, flung open the door, Sandy and Lanie dropped to the ground. The next minute Jard had reached into the truck for her travel bag and soon she found herself walking up the long flight of steps with the two men.

  The thoughts flew chaotically through her mind. Had Sandy actually mentioned that dream cottage or was that a figment of her imagination? She couldn’t be certain. She would have a small family to cook for, Sandy and his son Jard lived in the outback. That she knew to be the information she had been given. But the cottage ... Well, she would soon find out the truth of the matter. So she went on up the steps, conscious of the intense silence of the country and the brilliance of the stars—a spangled embroidery on the dark blue velvet of the night sky.

  As they reached the creeper-hung porch, a door opened and a girl came hurrying towards them. Or rather, Lanie realised the next moment, she hurried towards Jard. Even in the gleam of a hanging lantern Lanie could see that the girl was quite lovely to look at—dark, sleek, sophisticated.

  ‘Welcome home, darling!’ The girl ran to Jard and raising herself on tiptoe, kissed him on the cheek.

  ‘Gorgeous to see you!’ Her voice came from somewhere in the region of her chest. ‘I thought you were never coming! Then I got the jitters and I got to thinking you’d had a smash on the road!’

  'Oh, come on, honey,’ Jard’s tone was indulgent as gently he disengaged the clinging arms from around his neck. ‘You know me better than that!’

  ‘And you didn’t even find a cook, after all that time?’ She eyed him laughingly.

  It was Sandy who answered. ‘We did, you know.’

  But the stranger, her eyes still fixed on Jard’s face, didn’t seem to be listening. ‘But what took you so long?’

  ‘We had a breakdown, among other things.’ Sandy’s tone was oddly cool and the thought flashed through Lanie’s mind that the dark girl’s beauty and imperious manner (funny how the two attributes so often went together) held no particular attraction for the older man.

  ‘Paula,’ Lanie realised Jard was speaking, his tone expressionless, ‘this is Lanie. We brought her back with us from tow
n.’

  ‘Hi.’ The other girl acknowledged the introduction with the barest inclination of her dark head. She scarcely glanced towards Lanie; hidden in the shadows of the long dimly-lighted hallway.

  ‘Paula happens to be our nearest neighbour,’ Sandy explained as the group moved on down the candlelit passage.

  ‘That’s me!’ Paula had hooked her arm affectionately through Jard’s. ‘I’m always driving the odd twenty miles over here for advice from Jard. When it comes to expert advice about training a show jumper or breeding or buying horses, I just couldn’t get along without him.' Her gaze returned to his face. ‘I waited and waited, hoping you’d turn up, and in the end I decided to stay the night. I guess now,’ she pouted, it’s too late and I’ll have to wait for morning. You see, Jard, I couldn’t wait to tell you, I’ve got this young show jumper on a week's trial and I just had to ask your opinion of it.’

  Lanie was only half aware of the strong tones. For they had reached a comfortable-looking. spacious room with worn rugs lying on a polished floor. Flames crackled and soared in a great stone fireplace and the mellow glow of candles fell softly over walls hung with family portraits and pictures of horses and riders. Lanie took in the hand-crafted furniture, the deep restful leather-covered chairs, crimson velvet curtains pulled across french doors. It was all a far cry from the setting she had envisaged. She brought her mind back to Paula’s assertive tones. ‘I thought you might know this horse by name—’ Her voice trailed away. For the first time she looked directly towards Lanie, her gaze taking in the sweetly curved mouth and blunt, freckled nose, the petite figure and round dimpled face.

  ‘Jard said he brought you from town, but he didn’t elaborate.’ Paula’s eyes held an expression of avid interest. ‘Just a holiday, is it?’ she prompted.

  ‘Not really.’ Lanie flung a glance towards Jard, but of course he was no help to her at all. She could see that the brute was positively enjoying her discomfiture. The knowledge sparked her to say defiantly, ‘Seems they were looking for someone to help out with the cooking here for a while—’

  ‘Cooking?’ Paula broke into peals of laughter. She had a hateful laugh, Lane thought, loud and strident, and the matter wasn’t even funny. ‘You did say that you’d engaged a cook—?’ Her incredulous gaze moved from Jard’s closed face to Lanie.

  ‘That’s right,’ Sandy cut in. ‘Lanie turned out to be just what we were looking for.’ Clearly enchanted with her youth and freshness, he added warmly, ‘And pretty too!’

  Paula was a pretty girl herself, Lanie thought, with her suntanned skin and shiny hair. Or would be, if it weren’t for the angry twist of her small mouth and the resentment that smouldered in the dark eyes. If it were Jard who was on her mind, Lanie could have told her she had no need to worry on her account—on the contrary!

  ‘We’re darned grateful to her,’ Sandy was saying, ‘for coming to help us out in the cooking department while Edna’s off enjoying herself overseas.’

  Paula shrugged her shoulders. ‘I guess Jard had to take whatever the agency for domestic workers had got on their books—and put up with the consequences!’ She turned away as though the matter of Lanie’s arrival here was a matter of no further interest to anyone.

  Lanie felt the blood rising to her cheeks. Of all the nerve! She didn’t have to endure this sort of treatment from a strange girl. She opened her mouth in a sharp retort, and only Sandy’s restraining touch on her arm stopped the indignant words that trembled on her lips.

  ‘Lanie’s a top-notcher with the cookbook,’ Sandy said smoothly. ‘Would you believe, she’s just won a national hour promotion cooking contest!’

  Oh dear. Lanie’s chagrin was replaced by a feeling of frustration. Sandy’s warm championship of her kitcheneering talents had only served to make matters worse, for how could she possibly live up to such glowing recommendations?

  ‘I’m not really all that good,’ she protested in her soft husky tones, but no one appeared to be listening to her. Or maybe, she thought on a sigh, they didn’t believe her. All the time she was uneasily aware of Jard’s gaze fixed on her face and she just knew he’d be wearing that hateful mocking expression. He was. Hastily she averted her glance.

  ‘I’m glad she’s going to come to the rescue.’ Sandy had moved to her side, and she had the ridiculous thought that he seemed in some way to be protecting her.

  ‘Actually,’ Paula’s strong tones rang out, ‘I’ll have you all know that I’m the one who’s helping you cut right now!’ She flashed a brilliant smile in Jard’s direction. ‘I’ve put on a meal for you! I know what you are, Jard, for skipping meals once you get on the road. With you it’s all go! I’ve got it ready,’ she indicated a pottery casserole standing on bricks close to the blazing fire. The power didn’t cut out until I had everything cooked, so I lit the fire to keep the food warm. Better make the most of a good meal, Jard, now that you’ve taken on a new cook—you know something?’ Suddenly she had flung around to face Lanie. ‘I just can’t believe you haven’t been stringing a line to Jard and Sandy to get yourself a job.’ The dark eyes were bright with malice. ‘I saw that flour promotion contest advertised in the newspapers and you didn’t have to cook a thing, all you had to do was to send in a bread recipe. Admit it, now!’

  ‘I know, but—’

  ‘What a joke!’ Once again Paula broke into laughter. Well, if that was the way she wanted it, Lanie thought hotly, she would give the other girl something to laugh about. ‘That’s right. Sandy—’

  ‘Sandy? Already?’ Paula raised her brows in simulated surprise. ‘Did you hear that, Jard?’

  Lanie’s cheeks were pink, but she wasn’t beaten yet. 'Sandy offered to bring my electric range with me.’ She added airily, ‘I thought I might as well use my prize cooker.’ At least, she thought with some satisfaction, she had put a stop to Paula’s peals of laughter. How could such an attractive-looking girl have so harsh a voice? she wondered.

  ‘Your—what?’ Paula was gazing towards Lanie incredulously. The next moment she appeared to pull herself together. ‘That won’t be much use to you when the power goes off, like it did tonight! It was just lucky for everyone that I happened to be here to put on a meal for them on the open fire.’

  Everyone, Lanie queried inwardly, or Jard? Oh well, it was really no concern of hers. It seemed to Lanie that the other girl couldn’t take her gaze from Jard’s face. No wonder he’s so arrogant, she mused, if this is the way girls treat him in his little neck of the woods. Hanging on to his every word with rapt attention. But not this girl!

  He was taking no part in the conversation as he stood at the sideboard, riffling through a pile of envelopes propped up on the shelf. All at once he glanced up from his correspondence to eye Paula enquiringly. ‘Where’s Clara got to tonight?’ His tone sharpened. ‘She’s not ill, is she?’

  Clara? Lanie was fitting the puzzle together. Wasn’t she the housekeeper Sandy had told her about? Her thoughts were in turmoil. So this must indeed be Jard’s home.

  Paula shrugged her shoulders. ‘Don’t ask me! I don’t know what she’s so uptight about. She says she has a headache, but I think she’s just sulking in her room. Wouldn’t you think she’d be grateful to me for helping out here tonight?’ Moving towards the leaping flames, she lifted the lid of a casserole standing on the bricks at the side of the hearth. ‘Instead of getting up on her high horse and taking herself off to her room—Not,’ she flashed Jard a brilliant smile, ‘that it makes much difference whether she’s here or not. What she does around the place is negligible.’ She turned a face flushed with the flames. ‘Ready when you are, Jard!’

  ‘Sorry, girl.’ Lanie became aware of Sandy’s contrite tones. He had picked up her travel bag. ‘Afraid I’m not much of a host. I’ll show you to your rooms and you can have a quick brush-up before dinner.’ He guided her through a door and out into the darkness of a long passage. ‘Your quarters are a bit away from the main part of the house. Edna likes it that way. She’s left al
l her things just as they were, but that shouldn’t worry you too much.’ They moved through a back door and out into the starshine of the moonless night, then they crossed a grassy strip and approached a low timber dwelling. They climbed two steps, then Sandy flung open a door. ‘Wait here a minute.’ He strode ahead of her into the room, then struck a match and put a light to a candle on the dressing table. Even in the dimness Lanie realised it was a room of spartan simplicity, simply furnished, and smelling faintly of furniture polish. Beneath her feet she felt the softness of sheepskin rugs as she moved to the bed with its white cover, where Sandy had tossed down her travel bag.

  ‘Bathroom’s next door,’ he told her cheerfully, ‘with a toilet and shower, so you’ll be quite self-contained. A word of warning, though—’ She caught the teasing note in his voice.

  ‘Goodness, what is it?’

  ‘Part of Edna’s decor arrangements. You’ll find out soon enough. Just don't let it influence you too much while you’re here! Edna’s got a one-track mind when it comes to decorations.’

  Lanie said, puzzled, ‘I don’t see—’

  He chuckled. ‘You will, come daylight. I’ll put a candle in the bathroom and call back for you in ten minutes to see you to the house. How does that suit you?’

  ‘But it’s only a step—’

  ‘It’s flaming dark for a newcomer! Pick you up soon!’ His genial tones drifted back to her as he turned away.

  ‘Sandy!’ She hurried after him. ‘Wait—there’s something I want to ask you about—’

  ‘Not to worry, lass, we’ll sort it out later!’ She heard the closing of the door, then he had vanished into the night.

  Left alone, Lanie stood locking around her. The candlelight threw fitful shadows over the big room with its old-fashioned dressing table and bed and huge wardrobe standing in a corner of the room. When the power came on again she would really be able to take in her surroundings. Meantime she was intrigued by Sandy’s reference to a special feature of the room. It all appeared to be perfectly ordinary to her. Picking up the candlestick, she raised it high, then her lips quirked in amusement. For all around the walls were hung framed photographs of brides and wedding groups in styles and fashions that varied from many years previously up to the present day. Had Edna brought up a large family, she wondered, arid all of the marrying kind? Suddenly she remembered Sandy’s promise to call back for her. Golly, she would need to hurry!