Enchanted Dawn

by Anne Hampson

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ROSALIND wanted to stay at Karunda but Jon, harsh and unforgiving, said she must stay at the hotel in Oaksville until he had made up his mind what he intended doing.

  ‘How long will that be?’ Her face was drawn, her eyes puffed up from crying. ‘I can’t wait too long for your verdict.’

  His mouth went tight.

  ‘You’ve waited ten months to return to me; you’ll now wait my convenience.’

  Teri sat with them at the table, having the tea and sandwiches she had made. Wendy was next to her mother, but she seemed quite determined not to look at her.

  ‘You can’t refuse to take me back,’ Rosalind told him on a sudden spurt of anger. ‘Nor can you keep me from Wendy.’

  ‘If I say you’re not seeing Wendy then you’ll not see her.’

  Rosalind turned to Teri.

  ‘Talk to him, please,’ she begged. ‘You know that he can’t keep me from my own child. If we went to court they’d give me the custody of her.’

  ‘Don’t talk about going to court,’ said Teri, distressed and feeling she must leave the table and let them talk alone. ‘It won’t come to that.’

  Jon looked at her in amazement. ‘If I decide to divorce Rosalind it must come to a court case.’

  Teri gave a helpless little shrug. ‘I’ll leave you, Jon. I’m sure you can discuss this matter better if you’re alone.’

  ‘We’ve been alone, and we’ve discussed all we are going to discuss for the time being.’ He looked at his wife. He could see she hadn’t finished her tea, but he said coldly, ‘If you’re ready I’ll take you into Oaks- ville.’

  Rosalind wanted to take Wendy in her arms and kiss her before she left, but Wendy ran out to the kitchen and Rosalind left without even saying good night to her.

  ‘Can we go over to see Auntie Linda?’ The child looked pleadingly at Teri, who had followed her to the kitchen. ‘Take me, Auntie Teri.’

  ‘I can’t, darling. Tomorrow, perhaps—’

  ‘Why not now?’ Two great tears fell from Wendy’s eyes. ‘I want to see her now.’

  Teri turned away, to hide the tears gathering in her own eyes.

  ‘They’ll be having tea,’ she said gently. ‘And you don’t go visiting when people are having their meals.’

  Wendy’s lips trembled and more tears fell.

  ‘Why did she go away so quickly? She said she was staying to have tea here, with us.’

  ‘It was because Mummy had come. Auntie Linda knows you haven’t seen Mummy for a long while and she thought you’d have a lot to talk to her about.’

  ‘I felt funny - and I didn’t know what to talk about. Mummy isn’t the same.’ Bewilderedly she looked up at her aunt. ‘I don’t want her to come here any more.’

  Teri thought it best not to pursue this subject and she suggested she and Wendy go for a walk along the river.

  ‘We’ll take Buster; he hasn’t had a good run today.’

  ‘All right.’ Wendy seemed to cheer up a little; she called to the dog who was lying in the shade of a baobab tree; he came bounding towards them, then trotted along in front. They came at last to the little grove which Wendy had said she would keep for her secret place, but to which she had taken Linda the very next time she went riding with her. Linda had known about it, of course, and she told Teri so, but she naturally did not mention it to Wendy, who firmly believed that she and her father and Teri had been the first to discover it.

  ‘Let’s go into my secret place, shall we?’

  ‘Of course,’ smiled Teri, relieved that Wendy was brighter now.

  ‘I do like to listen to the sound of the waterfall, don’t you? Oh, look at Buster, getting the spray all over his coat! Buster - come away, you silly boy...’ Wendy’s fading voice brought Teri’s attention from the delicate blue flowers which had caught her eye.

  ‘What’s wrong—?’ she stopped. Wendy was staring through the dense vegetation and, following the direction of her gaze, Teri noticed the girl sitting on a fallen tree-trunk. ‘Linda!’

  ‘Auntie Linda!’ Wendy shot away and Linda got to her feet. She came forward, Wendy clinging to her hand. ‘Why have you been crying?’ Wendy wanted to know, looking up into her face. ‘You said you were having tea with us and you didn’t. Why have you been crying?’ she repeated, her own face puckering.

  ‘It’s nothing, Little Dainty.’ Linda forced a smile; her eyes met Teri’s, faintly accusing. ‘I wish you’d told me,’ she said, half turning away because the tears were close again.

  ‘I hated deceiving you.’ Teri’s voice was deeply apologetic. ‘Jon’s told me how you and he feel about one another,’ she added, and Linda’s head turned sharply.

  ‘He has? He never told me - but we knew, Teri. He knew I cared, and I knew instinctively what his feelings were.’

  ‘He spoke of them to me - before Rosalind showed up—’ Teri broke off as Linda seemed to shudder at the mention of Jon’s wife. ‘He had every intention of telling you the whole truth,’ Teri continued after a while. ‘He said he’d tried often but shirked it. He knows now that he should never have begun the deceit - but he didn’t know he was going to fall in love with you.’

  A long and tense silence followed while Linda digested this. Even Wendy was wordless and still, looking from one to the other, clearly mystified and yet not able to voice a question. Teri glanced down at her, realizing she should not have mentioned the love which Jon felt for Linda. However, bright as Wendy was she seemed unable to assimilate the full content of what was being said.

  ‘I tried not to let him see,’ murmured Linda at last, ‘because I believed him to have been recently widowed. They quarrelled, obviously, and it must have been serious for him to come out here. He thought it was a final break?’

  Teri nodded, glancing again at Wendy. She was between the two girls, each of her hands in one of theirs.

  ‘Go and see what Buster’s doing, pet. Bring him away from that water.’

  ‘All right.’ Wendy was happy now; she skipped away to where Buster was nosing into the wet grass at the foot of the waterfall.

  ‘He did believe it to be a final break,’ Teri said when her niece was well out of earshot. Teri then went on to explain everything, for there was no longer any reason for secrecy. Jon would confide in Linda even if she, Teri, did not.

  ‘She went off with your fiance?’ Linda stared, appalled and disbelieving. ‘How could anyone leave a husband like Jon?’

  Teri shook her head.

  ‘She and Kemp must have been infatuated with one another.’ Linda seemed rather dazed by what she had heard and Teri went on, ‘Kemp wanted to marry Ro-salind, and she asked Jon for a divorce. I can’t think what’s happened.’

  ‘How dreadful it must have been for you!’ Linda forgot her own misery for a moment as she looked with compassion at her friend. ‘You must have been heart-broken?’

  Teri nodded, yet became thoughtfully silent for a while before she said,

  ‘At the time I thought it was the end of the world, and yet I now know I had a narrow escape. Kemp is a thorough rogue and it’s unlikely that he would have remained faithful to me for very long.’

  ‘I agree - because of the way he treated you before marriage, and also because of the way he’s treated Rosalind. He must have been quite callous to cast her off after breaking up her home.’

  ‘If only I hadn’t ever met him!’ Teri spoke to herself; Linda said after thinking about this,

  ‘Then Jon would have been happy with his wife — that’s what you’re saying?’

  ‘Yes, that’s right.’

  ‘And so you and Jon would never have come here.’

  Teri looked at her, distress and regret in her expression.

  ‘It would have been better all round, Linda.’

  Absently Linda nodded, although the shadows in her eyes betrayed her thoughts.

  ‘I expect it would . . . and yet I can’t imagine never having met Jon.’ Tears filled her eyes. ‘I’ve
been a fool to let myself care - but I thought - thought that in time he might have come to thinking of marrying again.’ She paused, expecting some response from Teri. When none came she added hesitantly, ‘Have you had any discussion with Jon - about his intentions, I mean?’

  ‘He’s sent Rosalind to the hotel in Oaksville until he can make up his mind,’ Teri answered gently, her eyes on Wendy who was tugging at Buster’s collar in an endeavour to bring him away from whatever had caught his interest in the boggy ground at the base of the waterfall.

  ‘You think he’ll take her back?’ The words seemed to be dragged out; Linda was as pale as on that moment she had stood in the doorway of the sitting-room and heard Rosalind speaking to her child. ‘He’ll have to think of Wendy.’ Linda swallowed something hard in her throat. ‘How did Wendy go on with her after-wards?’

  ‘Wendy wouldn’t have anything to do with her, but it’s ten months since she saw her mother and naturally she felt strange.’

  ‘She’ll get over that.’ A small silence and then, ‘How could Rosalind leave her? She’s the most delightful child I’ve ever known...’ The sad voice trailed away; it was not difficult for Teri to imagine her friend’s thoughts. Linda was wishing that Wendy were hers. ‘Did you ever guess?’ added Linda, her thoughts switching erratically.

  ‘Guess?’

  ‘That I was beginning to care for Jon?’

  ‘Yes - quite early, as a matter of fact. But I didn’t think Jon was also falling in love - not at first, I mean. I did begin to suspect it afterwards,’ she added, her eyes again moving to Wendy.

  ‘He didn’t seem to notice me at first,’ Linda admitted, her eyes flickering reminiscently. ‘And even when he did, and I knew instinctively that he was beginning to care, he never said anything - neither of us did, as I’ve just told you.’

  Wendy was coming back to them, Buster having at last decided that whatever he was hunting had made its escape. Teri spoke quickly, asking the question that had been in her mind since the conversation began.

  ‘Have you told Brand what’s happened - about Rosalind coming, I mean?’ He had promised to come over to Karunda and talk, she recalled, but he must now be feeling thoroughly disgusted both with Jon and herself for their deceit - now that it had brought such suffering to Linda, and Teri had convinced herself that what-ever his intention had been he had now abandoned it. The idea hurt abominably, for she openly admitted to herself that she was in love with Brand - had been for some weeks, although she had tried her best to fight it. The anticipation of the ‘talk’ had resulted in a mounting excitement within her because she felt she knew exactly what he intended saying - or rather, asking. And she had even gone as far as to rehearse her answer so that she would not feel diffident and shy when the time came for Brand to put his proposal. Her excitement had been mounting, eclipsing all else until that fatal moment of Rosalind’s arrival had driven it com-pletely from her mind.

  ‘I haven’t been home,’ Linda was saying, and Teri’s eyes widened, flitting to the fallen tree-trunk.

  ‘Not been home? You’ve been sitting there all this while?’ And when Linda nodded dumbly, ‘You’ve had nothing to eat.’

  ‘I can’t eat,’ Linda began when Teri interrupted her.

  ‘I know how you feel, but you must at least have a drink. Come back with us and let me make you one.’ She looked persuadingly at her and added, ‘Jon isn’t in, so we’ll be alone.’

  Linda hesitated, then shook her head, saying that Jon must be back shortly and she had no wish to see him at present.

  ‘It will help him to make his decision if he doesn’t see me,’ she added in constricted tones. ‘It’s fairer to all concerned if he isn’t influenced in any way.’

  Teri privately thought that Jon would be influenced quite strongly by his love for Linda, but he would also have to consider what was best for his child.

  ‘Brand knows that Jon lied about his wife,’ she had to say, knowing full well that Linda must soon learn of this. ‘He and I were talking once and it came out. He suspected there was some mystery right at the start and he asked me outright if Jon’s wife was still living.’

  Linda stared, then her expression became tinged with bitterness.

  ‘He didn’t tell me—’

  ‘It was my fault, really,’ Teri confessed, ‘so please don’t blame him. I asked him to keep quiet until Jon should decide to confide in him.’

  After a moment Linda nodded, saying she fully understood, and as Wendy appeared and began speaking the subject was dropped.

  Brand came over the following morning and one glance at his face told Teri that he was angry but, strangely, he put most of the blame on himself.

  ‘I should not have promised to keep quiet,’ he said, his features taut and a trifle grey. ‘But naturally I never contemplated a situation such as this.’

  Jon was working in the plantation, watering the trees and examining them for any sign of disease or pests, and as Wendy was with him Teri and Brand were alone.

  ‘Has Linda told you everything?’

  ‘About Jon’s wife wanting to return to him? Yes, of course she has. Linda was in a bad way and the only thing holding her in check was the presence of the others. She told me in private, so Susan and Alec don’t know anything, as yet.’ He and Teri were in the lounge; she had made coffee and he watched her pouring it. ‘Has anything transpired? Rosalind definitely wants a reunion?’ he asked, and reluctantly Teri nodded.

  ‘Yes, Brand, she wants him to forgive her and take her back.’

  ‘He probably will,’ responded Brand, ‘if only for Wendy’s sake.’ His voice was low, but deadly as the hiss of a snake, and Teri was impelled to ask,

  ‘Would you take your wife back, if she had done that to you?’

  His mouth tightened; he looked like murder, she thought ... and his murderous look was actually directed at her!

  ‘Take her back? I’d strangle her !’

  Swiftly she glanced down at her cup, hoping he had not seen her flush, or the expression in her eyes.

  ‘Jon loves Linda,’ she murmured at length. ‘Did she tell you that?’

  ‘She didn’t have to, it was written all over her face. In any case, I knew, didn’t I? — because you yourself told me.’

  Teri nodded, watching that upthrust jaw and the faint glimmer of that twisted smile, which was now neither humorous nor attractive. In fact, it added an almost savage element to the harshness already masking his customary handsome features. She mentioned Jon’s original intention of divorcing his wife.

  ‘At that time, though,’ she went on to add, ‘he believed she would then marry Kemp.’

  ‘But now she’ll be alone.’ He spoke to himself, seeming to go over the whole situation in his mind. ‘She’ll try to get Wendy - if Jon does decide to divorce her, that is.’

  ‘I’m sure she will.’ Teri’s eyes shadowed; she looked desperate and forlorn and Brand’s face softened miraculously, lifting her spirits to some small degree while at the same time causing her to feel guilty at the idea that she could be considering herself at a time like this which was so fraught with unhappiness for Jon and Linda. ‘Brand, do you think the court would give Wendy to her?’

  He became thoughtful.

  ‘Wendy’s very young— Was Rosalind a good mother?’

  ‘Very; she seemed to adore Wendy,’ at which Brand’s mouth twisted in a sneer of contempt.

  ‘Adore her?’ His brows were raised, his voice vibrant with disdain and anger. ‘She was easily tempted to desert her. How did she know what was to become of her?’

  ‘She knew Jon would care for her, and I expect she knew too that I would go and housekeep for my brother. This course was the only natural one because my life had also been upset. You see, I had given in a month’s notice at the office, and Rosalind knew this.’

  ‘Are you making excuses for her?’ he demanded harshly, and Teri made a swift denial.

  ‘Certainly not. But you suggested that Rosalind didn’t ca
re what was to become of Wendy. I was simply trying to explain that she would know Wendy would be all right.’

  ‘Does that mitigate the offence?’ He seemed hard all at once and the lightness that had come to Teri soon evaporated.

  ‘Brand,’ she pleaded, ‘don’t misunderstand me. I can’t stand much more. I’m just as unhappy about all this as everyone else. I’m very fond of Linda, you must know that, and I love my brother and naturally want him to be happv.’

  ‘I’m sorry—’ His hand went across the table and covered hers. ‘This damnable situation has affected my thinking. I’m not angry with you, dear, nor even with Jon, although I do consider it would have been more sensible of him to have told the truth.’

  ‘You said you yourself would have hesitated to do so,’ she couldn’t help reminding him, and he nodded absently.

  ‘Yes, I feel I would have endeavoured to conceal the truth. It’s not very flattering to a man’s ego when his wife prefers someone else.’ He fell silent, and withdrew his hand. Teri felt its loss, and the comfort and reassurance his touch had given her. ‘I feel sure that a court would give Wendy into the custody of her mother,’ he declared at length. ‘If she was a good mother, as you say she was, then I can’t see her child being taken away from her.’

  ‘Nor can I - and Jon would never be parted from Wendy.’

  ‘No, naturally he wouldn’t,’ Brand agreed, a greyness creeping into his face. ‘He’ll have to take Rosalind back, and Linda must endeavour to get over it. Will Jon leave Karunda, do you think?’

  ‘Rosalind wouldn’t be able to settle here. At home she and Jon had a wide circle of friends and she’s used to a fairly full social life.’

  ‘And you . . .?’

  She looked away; this was not what she would have expected Brand to have said. On the other hand, she would not have expected him to reveal his feelings for her at this time. He was too fully occupied with anxiety over his cousin. In any case, she had already decided that she really had no proof that Brand cared for her; she had merely built her hopes on the fact that he had said they would talk.