by Gloria Bevan
‘Just hold the line and I’ll get him.’
When she opened the-door of the small room off the passage she saw that it was almost filled by a huge old-fashioned desk, littered with papers and account books. The look of concentration in the man’s blue eyes that lingered as Maggie entered the room vanished as he took in her message.
‘Right, I’ll take it.’ He went to the telephone and as Maggie kneeled beside the child in the big bath, she caught the murmur of Danger’s deep tones. A few moments later a dark head appeared around the corner of the door and she glanced up over her shoulder inquiringly.
‘Got to go out. If anyone wants me I’ll be over at Ann’s place. Ian knows the number. Right?’
Maggie nodded, ‘That’s all right.’ As she went on washing Mark she reflected that this Ann girl must be awfully important to Danger to make him forget everything else and dash out the moment she called on the phone. She remembered now that Ann was the girl who, .the children had told her, was in the habit of sending over home-baked goodies for the master of Amberley. Hadn’t she supplied the soup, intended for Danger and consumed by herself? Oh well, if Ann were all that wrapped up in him and he was so obviously in love with the girl, she would no doubt before long be in a position to make him soup every night of the week without fear of some strange girl benefiting by it. Only for some reason the thought gave her small satisfaction. Absently she went on scrubbing Mark’s small slippery back until an outraged ‘You’ve done that!’ brought her abruptly back to the matter in hand.
In spite of a recent bout of concussion, followed by a long day filled with unaccustomed activity, she hadn’t felt a scrap weary—until now. She saw the children to bed, mended a torn frock belonging to Philippa, then decided to call it a day. Even to herself she refused to admit that the house, without Danger, seemed strangely lifeless and curiously empty.
CHAPTER FOUR
‘Reckon you can sort out the gears?’ Danger leaned a bronzed elbow on the window ledge of the car as he bent to glance inquiringly towards Maggie.
‘Oh, yes!’ Perched high on a mound of cushions that lent her height behind the wheel, she nodded with what she hoped was an air of careless confidence. ‘What I don’t know, though, is how to get down to the beach.’
‘We’ll show you!’ the children chorused from the rear seat. But Danger silenced them with a lift of his hand. ‘You’ll be right, Maggie! Just keep me in sight in the beach buggy. The boys have taken off already in their jalopy, but we’ll meet up with them down at the Gap.’ His glance moved towards a battered old vehicle that was lurching along the curving hill track towards the main road.
A few moments later Danger appeared at the wheel of his beach buggy, a decrepit vehicle with heavy-duty tyres, tattered upholstery and paintwork badly corroded by the onslaught of salt water and sea winds.
Maggie put the car in gear and turned to glance towards the children with their gaily coloured beach buckets. ‘You’ve forgotten to bring your spades.’
‘No, we haven’t!’ They all spoke at once. ‘You’re not allowed to have spades. You just have to get them in the sand with your fingers.’
‘Oh!’ At that moment Danger, with a grin in Maggie’s direction, took off and she followed a short distance behind.
‘Faster! Faster!’ shouted Mark, bouncing up and down on the seat, but Maggie was determined to keep a safe distance in the rear of the other car. Golly, she thought, she couldn’t afford to take any chances with the expensive Chrysler, especially in view of Danger’s already low opinion of her driving ability. Galling though it was in her present mood of resentment towards him, she had no choice but to obey his orders.
Above the sun played hide and seek with the clouds and a top-dressing plane, silver against grey cottonwool shapes, skimmed the hills, leaving in its wake a rising cloud of fertilizer dust.
Danger waited at the second gate, closing it after Maggie had driven through, then both cars were out on the main highway. She found that after her first uncertain fumbling with the gears she was rapidly gaming confidence and could even glance around occasionally towards isolated farmhouses, each built on a rise and surrounded by cleared green hills with their grazing sheep. Then they were running through a small clean township, turning into a side road. They sped past a dairy factory, a fish canning industry, and soon the beach buggy was pulling up beside the fast-flowing waters of a wide tidal river. As Maggie drew alongside she could see no sign of ferry, or of any human habitation. There was nothing but arum lilies growing wild among the long grass that rippled in the wind, the high hills rising on the opposite side.
‘Here it comes!’ Mark shouted as a barge swept around a curve of the river and in a few moments both cars were being transported to the bank on the other side.
Then they were running along pleasant country roads bordered by farmlands. Presently the route took them over a series of green hills and at last they were dropping down in sight of the sea.
Maggie, following the beach buggy across a narrow rough track between towering flax-covered cliffs, caught the low murmur of the surf. Then she was swinging the car up on to a grassy headland where picnickers were grouped beneath gaily coloured beach umbrellas.
‘Follow me!’ Danger threw back over his shoulder, and for once she was content to do just that. Skirting the scattered picnic parties and taking care to avoid the children who ran amongst parked vehicles, she backed the Chrysler into a narrow space between the beach buggy and a long stock transporter.
At once the children climbed out, to rush away over the long grass, while Maggie found herself strolling at Danger’s side as they moved towards the crowd ahead.
‘I suppose you know just about everyone here,’ she said, to break the dangerous silence, the odd disturbing feeling that overtook her whenever she found herself alone with him.
‘Just about.’
Indeed, before long it seemed that they were surrounded by farmers and residents of the backblocks area. There was, however, one familiar figure, Maggie thought a little later, as she found herself looking up into a lined tanned face.
‘You feeling all right now?’ Doc Smith inquired, and Maggie smilingly assented.
As they made their way through the groups, she could see smoke rising in the clear air from a barbecue at the cliff edge. A short distance away a beach house was overflowing with a constant stream of picnickers who were coming and going through the open doorway.
‘Danger!’ A tall, well-built fair girl rose from her seat on the grass and came hurrying towards them. ‘I thought you were never coming! I—’ On catching sight of Maggie, she stopped short.
‘Hi, Ann,’ Danger said in his laconic way. ‘This is Miss Sullivan.’
‘Oh—’ Just in time Maggie stopped herself from saying the words that had sprung to her lips. ‘The girl who sent over the soup!’ For of course this was Ann, who according to Mrs. Wahonga, ‘looked after’ the bachelor master of Amberley. She was also the girl at whose summons he had rushed away without a moment’s hesitation. Danger, who never appeared to hurry himself for anyone else!
While the other two chatted, Maggie covertly studied the other girl. Tall and strong-looking, with weathered skin and short-cropped fair hair bleached by the sun, she had a direct manner of speech, Maggie mused, as the. other two strolled along at her side. Their conversation, though, was all of stock and farming problems and as they went on Maggie reflected crossly that for all the notice the other two were taking of her, she might just as well not be here at all.
‘Wait a minute, Ann! Danger!’ Maggie glanced towards a tall, sensitive-looking young man with fair hair and beard who was threading his way through the picnic parties in their direction.
As the thin young figure reached them, Ann seemed suddenly to realize that she and Danger weren’t alone. She turned towards Maggie. ‘My brother Tony, this is Miss Sullivan.’
She met his openly appreciative glance. ‘Maggie.’
‘Nice to meet you, Maggie,’ he
came to stand at her side, ‘Danger didn’t tell me—’
‘None of your business!’
As they dropped down to the lush green grass it seemed to her that the stranger’s gaze was riveted on her face. Strange, the thought ran through her mind, that he and Ann are so alike, yet she seems so exceptionally strong and he so thin, almost delicate.
Tony’s smiling glance seemed to probe her thoughts. ‘Don’t say it! We happen to be twins, Ann and I, but I guess there was a mix-up somewhere along the line in the muscle department. Staying up at Amberley, Maggie?’
She nodded. ‘That’s right.’ In the brief pause she realized that the other girl’s gaze was frankly curious. So Danger had told Ann nothing regarding his having acquired a temporary housekeeper. She wondered why, and then decided that probably she simply didn’t signify in his life. She wasn’t sufficiently important to mention to his girl-friend—if Ann were his girl-friend. Certainly the other girl had been hanging on his words just now. And there was no doubt, the thought came with curious reluctance, that they would be a perfect complement for each other. A girl so tall and well-built would feel herself perfectly matched by John Dangerfield’s lean height. Besides, didn’t they belong to the same free, outdoor world? Not like her. She plucked at the long grass at her feet. ‘Just until tomorrow.’
All at once she flinched from explanations regarding the humiliating circumstances of her enforced stay at Amberley, dependent on Danger’s generosity. He was doing nothing to help her out, she thought vindictively, merely eyeing her with that amused lift to his lips, saying nothing at all.
Suddenly she threw caution to the winds. ‘Danger—well, he didn’t really expect me. It was all a mistake—’
‘A mistake!’ Tony stared across at her incredulously and Maggie found herself wondering why he wasn’t sun-tanned, like everyone else she had met in the district. ‘Some guys sure have all the luck!’
But now, having started, Maggie had a wild impulse to force Danger to be aware of her. She’d make him notice her!
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘I came up to Te Rangi after a housekeeping job—’
Tony’s disbelieving tone was subtly flattering. ‘Not you?’
‘Well, why not?’ Maggie tossed back the long black hair that was blowing around her shoulders in the fresh sea breeze.
‘Nothing, nothing ... but any girl who looks like that—’
‘Like me, like this?’ Ruefully she glanced down at shabby blue jeans and worn sneakers. ‘Wear your oldest clothes,’ Philippa had advised. ‘Anyway,’ she smiled, ‘you don’t look like a farmer to me!’
‘That figures,’ Tony said, ‘because I’m not, actually. Just thought I’d give it a go! But about you—’
‘Unfortunately,’ Danger broke in in his deep tones, ‘we couldn’t come to terms. The job wasn’t suitable.’
Suitable to whom? Maggie thought hotly, but this time she thought better of the frank disclosure. Instead she murmured: ‘So I’m going back to town tomorrow.’
‘Pity.’ The fair man sent her a warmly significant look. ‘Yes, I—’ Looking up, she met Danger’s glance and ensnared in that brilliant blue gaze she couldn’t seem to drag her eyes away. Wildly she clutched at her spinning senses. ‘So I thought I’d have a day out at the Gap,’ she said rapidly, ‘get some toheroas to take back with me, if I’m lucky.’
‘So that’s where you’ve got to!’ Gavin and Mike paused beside Maggie. ‘Hey, what d’you know?’ Mike said. ‘The girls are cooking toheroa fritters up in the beach—swags of them! Be ready in a couple of minutes, they said! Boy, I can hardly wait!’
‘Well, if you’ll excuse me.’ Danger rose to his long length and Maggie, her thoughts in a turmoil, watched him saunter towards the men standing around the smoking barbecue.
‘Come and have a look around.’ She realized Gavin was talking to her. Together the group moved away, threading their way between the parked cars and Land-Rovers. From the hill paddock adjoining the area, black steers crowded the boundary fence, their great dark eyes staring curiously towards the picnic parties on the other side of the barbed wire.
At the cliff edge she paused, glancing down over tall spears of flax in bloom to the misty ocean-blue of the sea far below. Beyond an expanse of sand, white-crested combers rolled in from the Tasman, to splinter on the shore in a shower of spray. A swift glance around assured her that the children had joined a family group seated beneath a gay beach umbrella on the grass. She would need to keep a careful watch on Mark with this sheer unprotected drop so close at hand.
As the party strolled on around the headland Maggie met many members of the small friendly community. Soon she had lost all count of names and faces, but what did it matter? After today she would never meet any of them again. To her surprise Tony too seemed a stranger to many of the groups, and as they made their way towards a white timber cottage overlooking the sea, she turned towards him inquiringly. ‘Don’t tell me that you’re a visitor here too?’
Ann answered for her brother. ‘He is, you know—in a way.’
‘In a way’s right,’ Tony smiled. ‘Oh, I was born here in Te Rangi,’ he explained in his light tones, ‘but that’s about how far I got in the sheep-farming caper. Been away at boarding school in town for years, then on to ’Varsity. Architecture’s my line,’ a shadow crossed the green eyes so resembling his sister’s, ‘or I thought it was!’ He tried to laugh. ‘Failed my final exams, so I guess that means another year of hard slog.’ His expression sobered. ‘That is, unless I give it away and come back to the farm.’
‘You don’t have to,’ Ann put in quickly. ‘It’s not,’ she confided with sisterly candour to Maggie, ‘as if he’d be any use! I can manage fine on my own. Tony knows that.’
‘Do I?‘ he appealed to Maggie. ‘That’s what she says! Oh, it was okay while Dad was around, but since he died Ann seems to have this idea that she can carry on a man’s job, do the whole thing single-handed. Guess it’s time I did something about it!’
‘Phooey!’ Ann turned towards Maggie with a smile that revealed large white teeth.' ‘He’s going all self-sacrificing! He’s always wanted to be an architect and just because he didn’t quite make the exams this year, he’s using it as an excuse to come back home and help me. But it’s only a tryout, just for the summer holidays. If he wants to carry on after that, okay, but it would be a dam shame to drop his studies at this stage, with just another year and he’d be through for good.’
‘Do you think you’d get to like sheep-farming?’ Maggie asked Tony.
He sent her a quizzical grin. ‘Like mucking around in sheep pens and shearing sheds? What do you think? Oh, it’s okay for Ann! She’s never happier than out on a horse rounding up sheep or stray cattle. She just won’t hear of selling up and coming to town.’
‘But it’s not as if I need him. Not really!’ Ann’s voice warmed. ‘Not with Danger just over the hill if I need advice in a hurry, like the other night when one of the pedigree Romneys looked like passing out and he came over like a shot, just in time to do a life-saving act. Besides,’ a small secret smile played around the wide mouth, ‘I mightn’t always be on my own here.’
Maggie’s heart gave a queer little lurch. Danger and Ann? Well, why not? What could be more suitable?
Apparently, however, Tony put a different construction on the words. ‘You mean, get a manager in?’ he grinned cheerfully. ‘That would cost us a packet.’
Ann said, still with an air of suppressed excitement, ‘I didn’t say a manager!’
Grinning, her brother lifted Ann’s work-stained tanned hand, large and capable, the palm roughened and crisscrossed with cuts.
‘He’ll need to be a tough sheep-farming guy himself—’
‘Don’t worry,’ once again the secret smile played around the wide mouth, ‘he is! I might give you a surprise one of these days!’
‘You’re having us on,’ Tony said laughingly. ‘Not that I wouldn’t be the first to wish you luck, Sis! I mean, that woul
d solve everything!’
Oddly, Maggie had a conviction that Ann and Danger’s wedding wouldn’t solve anything at all, at least not so far as she was concerned. She couldn’t understand the feeling of desolation that was flooding her, like a cold hand clutching her heart.
‘Everybody in for lunch!’ a woman’s voice called from the white cottage, and various groups began to converge towards the small building at the cliff edge.
Inside Maggie found that the wide picture windows of the living room looked out over the incredible blue of the ocean. From a small kitchen adjoining came the appetizing aroma of coffee and on a side table two electric fry-pans were piled high with delectable golden-brown fritters. On the great solidly built kauri table were plates of scotch eggs, barbecued steaks, chops and sausages, hams, scones, thick slices of home-made bread mixed with stone-ground flour. Never had Maggie seen such an array of home-prepared goodies. There were cans of beer for the men, soft drinks for the children, a variety of wines distilled from locally grown grapes. All around her she was aware of a spirit of warm friendliness that reached out to include the strange girl whom Danger had brought with him.
All through the picnic meal Tony didn’t leave her side, plying her with food and chiding her on her lack of appetite. At least, she thought resentfully, someone found her sufficiently attractive to seek her out. Danger hadn’t even bothered to stay and escort her to the cottage. It was almost, ridiculous as though it seemed, as if he were avoiding her. The thought made her turn animatedly towards Tony, who appeared only too delighted to listen attentively, as she rattled off the first thoughts that came into her head.
‘Not a bad idea,’ he remarked a little later, ‘filling in time this way while we’re waiting for the tide to go out.’
Maggie nodded, but her gaze was fixed on a man, tall and lean-hipped, who was weaving his way through the crowd around the doorway. Of course he was moving towards Ann. Why not? Weren’t they old friends? Friends, or—With an effort she wrenched her thoughts away and tried to concentrate on Tony’s pleasant tones.