Relieving her perspiring skull of the hat, she put it on to a chair, tossed her hair and stripped off her gloves. ‘Father, I put the card in the window but Melinda’s already available for work so I thought she might as well start now.’ The look in her eye dared Nat to complain.
However, Nat was neither intimidated nor embarrassed to speak out in front of the girl. He was vexed at Oriel’s presumptuousness in taking over the role that he as head of the house should be doing. ‘Look at the size of her. How’s she going to be able to work in that condition?’
Afraid that she was about to be thrown out the girl forestalled Oriel’s objection by piping up, ‘I’m as fit as a mallee bull, sir. Please gimme a chance. I’ve got nowhere else to go.’
‘Where’ve you been living till now then?’ Nat went to turn off the gramophone.
‘A house in Fitzroy but she can’t afford the rent,’ provided a businesslike Oriel. ‘So I told—’
‘I thought there were places that’ll help girls in your predicament?’ Ignoring his daughter Nat continued to direct his questions at Melinda.
‘Father!’ Then Oriel frowned, a sudden thought coming to her. ‘Hang on, what was the address of the place you’ve just left, Melinda?’ Upon being told, she noticed the look of recognition on her father’s face and at once she seized the advantage. ‘That’s one of your new places, isn’t it?’ she demanded of him.
There was not the slightest hint of guilt on Nat’s face. ‘I think you owe me a fortnight’s rent.’ At his daughter’s gasp of disgust he retorted, ‘I could’ve thrown all them tenants out when I took over the place, still could do, but I didn’t. If folk are fair with me I’m fair with them, but I’m not running a charity.’
‘I’ll throw her out then, will I?’ came Oriel’s icy enquiry.
Even Nat was not so callous as to throw the girl back out on to the streets in this predicament, but his reply came on a gasp of exasperation. ‘Oh… go on then! I suppose you can stay till we get another maid. There’s a room right at back of t’house. Go stick your belongings in that.’ He had forgotten it was full of army tents.
Taking a dislike to the man but too afraid to show open hostility Melinda spread one empty hand and another bearing the brown paper bag, trying to display pathos. ‘I haven’t got any belongings, only this.’
‘Well, just go and have a look at the room and see if it’s to your satisfaction.’ It was a command rather than an invitation. The girl left father and daughter to argue in private.
When Melinda had gone, Nat confronted Oriel. ‘How long did it take you to find her?’
She guessed his meaning immediately and although it had been mere accident that had brought the girl to her she was annoyed at Nat for thinking her action was deliberate and so let him continue to think this. ‘Not long. It seems there’s as much abandonment over here as there is in England.’
‘Is this the only reason you came to Australia with us?’ Nat sounded hurt.
‘To help the unfortunate? How could I have known before I came here that I’d find the same problems as in England?’
‘You know what I mean, Oriel. Your mother and me are here to start a new life and I won’t have you spoiling it.’
‘I’m not the one who ruined my mother’s life!’
‘I don’t need to have a constant reminder from you what harm I did. You think I can’t see through this little act of charity of yours?’
‘You’re saying I’d use Melinda just to get back at you?’ exclaimed Oriel. ‘It seems to me she’s been used enough already. And if I were just using her then we know who to thank for that family trait, don’t we?’
‘Oh, I can see there’s no point in talking to you!’ blurted Nat. ‘But think on.’ He wagged a finger, his eyes turning dark. ‘You’re not filling my house with more like Melinda—’
‘Who’s Melinda?’ Bright put down her shopping and stood framed in the doorway.
‘You may well ask!’
‘I am asking.’ She smiled from one to the other, noting the air of tension.
‘Go on, tell her!’ Nat ordered Oriel.
‘I’ve hired a maid,’ she announced.
Bright removed her wide-brimmed hat. ‘So what’s—’
‘A maid who’s a fortnight off having a bairn!’ cut in Nat. ‘What the hell use is she going to be?’
A sound in the hall caused Bright to turn. She could see Melinda hanging back but her husband could not. As Nat continued ranting Bright held up her hand to stop him and called cheerily to their new employee, ‘Hello! I’m Mrs Prince. You must be Melinda.’ At the girl’s awkward pose she added, ‘Could you go make a pot of tea? I’m parched. The kitchen’s through there.’ She pointed and waited for Melinda to close the door after her before turning back to the two intransigent faces in the drawing room.
‘My father doesn’t like the idea of having an illegitimate child in his house.’
‘Oriel!’ Bright was angry. Nat turned away in despair. ‘You can stop that right now!’ She glared at them both. ‘Melinda is well aware of your feelings. She’s just overheard you shouting.’
Her husband groaned. ‘I didn’t mean – I’ve got nowt against the girl nor helping her through her predicament, it’s just this one who got me mad!’ He gestured at his daughter. ‘You realize she only brought Melinda here to spite me. Go on, tell your mother!’ he urged a tight-lipped Oriel. ‘Tell her how you didn’t really come with us to make her happy but to make me miserable! She’s using that lass to prick my conscience – as if I don’t feel guilty enough already.’
Bright put a hand to her sweating brow and wandered further into the room, dropping her hat on a chair. ‘Oriel.’
‘Oh yes, believe him rather than me!’ Her daughter’s cheeks were pink, not just from the heat but with anger and betrayal.
‘It’s not a case of—’
‘I couldn’t just be doing Melinda a good turn because her family threw her out. I thought you of all people—’
‘You have nothing to teach me on that score,’ came her mother’s brisk issue.
‘And I know how much you suffered and I want to prevent it happening to other girls!’ objected Oriel. ‘That’s my only purpose. And what he isn’t telling you is that he owns the building she can no longer afford to live in, that’s why I think he has a responsibility. For heaven’s sake, you’d think it was a sin to help people. I couldn’t be a nurse because his name wasn’t on my birth certificate and now when I’m trying to do my bit in other ways he wants to ruin that too!’
Nat walked out. The front door slammed. Afraid that she was going to lose him again Bright rushed to the window, but her husband went no further than the perimeter fence where he lit a cigarette and proceeded to take several drags. After watching him for a moment Bright turned back to Oriel.
‘Look, I know your intentions were genuine.’ She probed deep into her daughter’s eyes. Both women knew that Nat had been correct in his accusation; it was not just out of charity that Oriel had brought the girl here, though neither would admit it. ‘But you have to think how it would look to your father, how Melinda and her bulge would present him with his guilt day after day. I mean, what’s she going to do after she’s had the baby?’
Oriel did not foresee a problem. ‘She’ll continue to work here. That’s what I hired her for, to help us.’
The lines on Bright’s face deepened and she looked at the carpet. ‘Yes, well, we may need more help than you imagine with two babies in the house.’ She peered from under her eyelashes at Oriel’s face.
At first there was disbelief. ‘You mean – you?’
Her mother nodded and was pained to see a look of disgust appear around her daughter’s mouth. It lasted only two seconds, but Bright felt as though she had been stabbed. Tears welled in her eyes.
Oriel, not knowing how she had presented herself, misevaluated the sorrow. ‘You haven’t told him because you think he’ll leave you.’
Her mother was indignant and b
linked away the tears. ‘I haven’t told Nat because I’ve just this minute found out. I went to see a doctor while you were at the shop.’ There was, however, an element of truth in what her daughter had said: she was afraid of Nat’s reaction.
Oriel appeared deeply thoughtful.
Bright waited, wanting to ask, ‘Aren’t you the least bit pleased for me?’ but not daring to risk an unsatisfactory response. She glanced out of the window. Nat was still there, puffing less feverishly now, bending over something in the garden. How she loved him.
‘It’s going to be difficult at your age,’ pronounced Oriel.
Bright took offence. ‘I’m not that old!’
‘I wasn’t being rude.’
‘Well, that’s what it sounded like. It’ll be no more difficult at this age than at fifteen. I coped then and I’ll cope now – and at least this time I’ll have some support. At least I hope I will.’
Oriel knew that her mother was not referring to Nat, but to her daughter. ‘I’ll do anything I can to help. It must have been a shock.’
Bright gave an inward sigh at her daughter’s lack of intuition. ‘A nice one, though.’
Oriel nodded, still stunned and embarrassed. So embarrassed that she felt unable to remain in the same room as her mother.
‘Well, I’d better go and fix things up with Melinda. If she overheard our argument I wouldn’t want her to think she’s unwelcome. She is welcome, isn’t she?’
Bright nodded. ‘Didn’t I say so?’
‘I meant with my father. I don’t want there to be an atmosphere.’
‘He doesn’t bear Melinda any grudge. Tell her it’s nothing personal. She’s bound to feel awkward not knowing the reason behind all the hostility.’
‘She does know actually,’ replied Oriel. ‘On the way here I told her you’d understand what she’s going through.’
‘You’ve told a stranger our family business?’
‘Not in detail! I just said that you’d been in a similar situation when you had me.’
Bright gasped. ‘Well, thank you for nothing!’ Red of face, she looked around her, headed for the sideboard, dragged out a writing pad and scrawled something on it. ‘There! I’m just going to stick this on the front gate.’ She held the paper out for Oriel to read: ‘Scarlet Woman – Apply Within.’ ‘Well, I might as well! It’ll save you advertising it to everyone. Be as charitable as you like but don’t lay the blame at my door!’
Oriel was horrified that her motives had been misunderstood. ‘I’m not blaming you! I’m just giving a reason.’
‘It’s enough that you brought her here, you don’t need to dangle all the family skeletons before her. I warned you about that when you told Dorothy. We’ve come to start a new life. I’d hoped to leave all that prejudice behind. Anyway, I’m not going to stand here arguing, I want to speak to your father.’ Bright hurried to the door. ‘He should have been the first to know.’ She was annoyed at Oriel for making her mad enough to blurt it out.
‘I hope he’s pleased,’ called Oriel.
Bright stopped in her tracks, and revolved to gauge if the sentiment was genuine. From the expression in the blue eyes it appeared to be.
When she had gone Oriel let out a sigh and pressed her hands to her stomach, feeling nauseated. All kinds of thoughts and emotions whirled around her head. The child, this sister or brother, would be twenty-three years her junior, what would they have in common except their parents? She was gripped by childish jealousy. For over two decades she had had her mother to herself and now not only did the man who deserted them insinuate himself back into Bright’s heart, but he had inflicted upon Oriel yet another rival for her mother’s affection. The hate she felt at this moment was so overwhelming that it almost made her faint. How could Mother bring a child into the world at her age? It was disgusting.
‘Tea’s made.’
She turned to find Melinda with a tray balanced on her protuberance. ‘You’d better just leave it there,’ she muttered. ‘Mother’ll be back in a moment.’
‘He didn’t mean it about wanting the two weeks’ rent, did he?’
When Melinda’s benefactor murmured a negative reply, she looked relieved and added, ‘Sorry if I’ve caused any trouble.’
‘You haven’t!’ Not wishing to talk, Oriel made for the door.
Alone in the big room Melinda put down the tray, shrugged and lumbered over to the window, at a loss as to what to do.
Nat had finished his cigarette and now ground the tab under his heel into the path. Bright wandered along the dusty driveway to stand beside him as he crouched over an inch-long ant, which reared up at his intrusion into its territory. She picked up the cigarette stub and threw it under a wattle bush, out of sight. ‘I swept a dozen of these up last night.’ Tobacco was a lot easier to come by than in England.
His blue eyes squinted up at her, ready to issue apology but she was smiling. He thought how lovely she looked today in the sunshine. Bright, ever bright.
‘Stop tormenting it, you’ll get bitten!’ she scolded as he relentlessly poked his toe at the bull ant. ‘Come away to the house, we’re going to get sunstroke.’
He refused to go back inside for another altercation.
‘Well, at least come to the verandah. This sun’s blinding me and I want to talk to you.’
He straightened and followed her along the drive to the shade of the verandah where they fell upon wicker chairs, both dripping copious amounts of perspiration. ‘What did she have to say for herself then?’
Bright in turn was reproachful, ineffectively wafting her face with a handkerchief. Flies had begun to gather round them. ‘You’re being a bit unfair on Oriel. She has a genuine desire to help the girl.’
He dealt her a glance that said I knew you’d side with her.
‘I’m not,’ said Bright quietly.
‘Not what?’
‘You think I’m just saying it because she’s my daughter. She does care greatly for people’s welfare.’
‘Well, happen she does, she’s got a lot of her mother in her. But she’s also got a side of me in her, a side I can read very well, and however much you defend her and say she wants to help I still say there was another reason she brought that girl here and that was to spite me – and she’ll do it again. Whatsername, Belinda, won’t be the last. Our Oriel’s found her vocation in life and it pays the dividend of enabling her to get even with her rat of a father.’
Bright stopped wafting the handkerchief, face creased in pain. ‘Why do you do that? Say that she gets all her good points from me and her bad points from you? It’s not true. You’ve got good traits.’
‘Name one.’
Bright was stuck for words.
Nat gave a sardonic laugh and reached over to pat her hand. ‘The list is endless.’
‘Behave!’ She stuffed the piece of damp linen back into her pocket. ‘I don’t need a list of pros and cons, I just love you and I wouldn’t love anybody who’s as black as you like to paint yourself.’
‘It’s not me who’s the Van Dyck. Ask any of that lot who tried to make me into an upright citizen. They can’t all be wrong.’ He flicked a bush fly off his cheek.
‘Probably not. You probably did let a lot of good people down. I don’t know why you did it – I have an idea, but I’m not inside your brain and I don’t know what makes you hate yourself.’
‘Eh, I’m not that bad!’ quipped Nat, trying to swat the persistent insect.
Bright remained serious, knocking the fly from her own face. ‘I don’t think it’s your fault at all. I think your mother’s to blame.’ She felt the sudden change in atmosphere but proceeded on her theme. ‘What woman would abandon a child she’d looked after for ten years?’
Frowning, Nat reached into his pocket for another cigarette. ‘Apparently men do it all the time.’
‘It wasn’t a dig at you. I’ve told you I’ll never ever use that against you. Anyway, you weren’t a man when you fathered Oriel, you were little more tha
n a boy.’ She sighed and rubbed the back of her hand, the one he had let drop a moment ago under the guise of lighting his cigarette but, out of anger, had continued to neglect. ‘I came out here to tell you something and I got sidetracked.’
Nat was relieved to escape from the subject of his mother. ‘Oh aye, Belinda.’
‘Melinda,’ she corrected.
‘I’ll put it right – though I can’t say I’ll enjoy having a stranger living with us.’ It was bad enough having Oriel here. ‘I’d hoped it would be just you and me… and Oriel, of course.’ Noting that his wife looked rather worried, he added, ‘I promise I won’t be rotten to her.’
‘I’m having a baby.’
He was in the act of inhaling and almost choked. ‘Christ!’ A conflict of emotions erupted. He detested the idea of sharing her with anyone else but was simultaneously overjoyed at the concept of this new bond between them.
Bright waited anxiously for him to recover. He could think of nothing to say, just threw his cigarette down and enveloped her in a fiercely enthusiastic hug.
She chuckled over his shoulder as he embraced her. Flies settled, but were ignored. ‘I wasn’t sure how you’d take it.’
‘Aw!’ He squeezed her even more tightly. ‘It’s… champion!’ Here, now, was the chance to make up for all his wrongs. ‘I don’t know what to say. I never gave it a thought.’ No, you never did last time either, taunted his conscience. But Bright did not participate in the condemnation, just laughed her delight, looking radiant. ‘How d’you feel then?’
‘I’ve felt a bit sick now and then but nothing like the last time.’ The responding look in his eye made her gloss over this quickly – would he never stop feeling guilt? ‘I didn’t say anything before I’d had a chance to ask a doctor. That’s where I’ve been just now. I thought it might be… but, well, at my age you can’t be sure.’
‘Eh, it’s gonna be murder with two bairns in t’house!’ But Nat was laughing as he pulled away, setting the flies buzzing again. ‘I’ll bet Melinda didn’t realize what she was starting.’
A Complicated Woman Page 14