by Anne Hampson
‘She’s a bitch!’ he declared wrathfully when Loren had stopped speaking. ‘I suspected she was, right at the start, when she began making eyes at the Boss after only a few hours in his house. She should have kept her deductions to herself, all the same.’
‘I’d rather know what Thane’s idea was. You see,’ Loren faltered, close to tears, ‘I thought he was in love with me. I expected him to ask me to marry him — yes, I knew he would, in his own good time - but I thought it was because he loved me.’
A thoughtful pause followed before Prof said, an odd inflection in his voice,
‘Something funny about the whole affair. Hasn’t it struck you?’
Loren shook her head and waited for Prof to continue, which he did, saying that if Thane had intended marrying Loren in order to put an end to Gran Amelia’s interference then surely he would have proposed to Loren long before now.
‘Why wait?’ Prof went on, frowning in thought. ‘No sense in it, none at all.’
This soon struck Loren as strange, and the more she dwelt on Prof’s statement the more puzzling did Thane’s attitude become. Yet had he loved her he would have told her so, she knew that now. Not once had he mentioned love, not even in those moments of sweetest intimacy when he had held her in his arms, his lips close to hers, his manner ardent but tenderly restrained.
‘It is peculiar, as you say,’ she agreed on noticing her companion’ s air of inquiry, as if he were interested in her
response to his comments. ‘But I expect Thane had some reason for the delay. ’ She looked away, to where one or two bungalows could just be seen over the top of a gentle rise in the plain. ‘Is everyone talking about the break between Thane and me?’
‘I expect so, Loren,’ he replied candidly. ‘In a close community like this any new incident is gossiped about. Besides, we’re all disappointed.’
‘You mean you all wanted Thane to marry me?’
He smiled at her and said yes, they had all wanted Thane to marry her.
‘You’re well liked here,’ he told her with a kindly glance. ‘Also, we’d be happy to see the Boss married. Those of us who know him really well realize that he’s by no means as hard as the old-timer, and that although his heart’s in Moonrock it’s not entirely so. Thane Benedict’s a man who’ll find time for other things besides cattle raising.’
Other things ... but not love. ... A woman perhaps, some day, but not a woman to love and cherish.
Dena also brought up the subject of the change in her cousin’s attitude towards Loren; she was perturbed, knowing full well that Loren had fallen in love with Thane. Loren could not bring herself to confide in Dena, a circumstance that puzzled Loren greatly, as she and Dena had grown close since that day when Dena had met her at Manleyville Station and almost instantly dispelled her fears about the future and her life on the great cattle ranch of Moonrock.
‘There’s something I don’t understand,’ Dena stated when Loren had deliberately evaded a straight answer to her question regarding the icy manner which Thane and Loren adopted towards one another. ‘Thane’s not like that. He doesn’t switch about; once he’s made up his mind about something he doesn’t change it. And he had made up his mind about you, Loren.’ She looked straight at her friend, interrogatingly. All Loren said was that she did not wish to talk about it and Dena had no option than to let the matter drop.
The utility drew up on the front of the Melville Downs homestead and the two girls got out. Trucks and an abundance of tackle lay around and from a long way off Ian separated himself from a gang of workmen and waved his hand.
‘Wonder how it’s going?’ Dena’s voice was edged with anxiety as she and Loren waved back. ‘I’m beginning to feel that Ian’s lost his money. ’
Swiftly Loren shook her head.
‘Don’t say that, Dena. There’s your money as well. Surely it won’t all be wasted?’
Dena sighed and shrugged but made no reply. The two girls had been coming to Melville Downs for the past three days, working on the interior of the place - scraping walls and painting window frames and doors.
‘It’ll never be a home,’ Dena said with another sigh. ‘Perhaps we would have been better not to have spent a penny on the place, but to have gone to Perth to live. Ian had a good position there.’
‘It will be a home,’ Loren argued, looking with pride at the door she had painted yesterday. ‘Once we’ve done all this preliminary work and you get your furniture in it’ ll look lovely.’
Dena’s familiar grin came into evidence.
‘I expect you’re right,’ she agreed, walking over to the wall she had been scraping for the past three days and running a hand over it. ‘I only hope there’ll be some money left for the furniture you mention,’ she added with a touch of humour. ‘Personally, I’m quite resigned to a bench for a table and a couple of boxes for chairs.’
‘And what for a bed, my love?’ Ian stood on the verandah, in the open doorway leading into the room in which the girls were talking. They both turned. Dena pointed downwards.
‘The floor, probably.’
‘How unromantic,’ he laughed, his eyes running over his fiancee’s lovely slender figure before coming to rest on her face. ‘I don’t think it will come to that.’
‘Any sign?’ she asked soberly, and gave a tiny shrug of helplessness when Ian shook his head. ‘How long will the money last out?’
He frowned, his lightness of a moment ago fading somewhat. ‘Not much longer, Dena. We’ve to get resigned to that.’ “You’ll still carry on, with so little water?’
‘Of course. We have the one bore and I shall reduce the number of cattle accordingly. But I shall save and save until I’ve enough to have another try - and I’ll keep on doing so,’ he added determinedly, ‘because I know there’s water under here.’
No more was said because the question of the bores was not a pleasant one, not at present when the money was running so low and still no water had appeared.
‘Shall I make some tea?’ offered Loren, anxious to go into the kitchen and leave them alone for a minute or two.
‘Jolly good suggestion,’ smiled Ian, and he added, glancing at Loren’s clothes, ‘See you’ve come prepared for work. What were you painting yesterday — the door or your pants?’
Loren took a deprecating survey of her slacks.
‘It was a leaky brush,’ she returned with a small laugh.
‘You know the old saying? It’s a poor workman who blames his tools.’
‘Well,’ interposed Dena in a crisp voice, ‘now that you’ve done your fault-finding you might just give your opinion of the door!’
‘An excellent job. Couldn’t have done it better myself.’
‘What a swelled head you are!’ retorted Dena. ‘I don’t expect you can paint at all!’
Loren went out and left them, blinking rapidly to hold back a sudden rush of tears behind her eyes. She did not envy Dena, not in the least, but the ache in her heart always seemed to go deeper when she saw those two together.
They were standing close when Loren brought in the tea tray, but immediately drew apart and Ian brought up two rickety chairs to the table, then went to fetch a third from the verandah, a cane chair, faded and broken and, in consequence, not at all safe. But Ian eased himself gingerly into it and for the next fifteen minutes or so they all three sat drinking tea and chatting. After a while Ian asked about Janet, sending Loren a puzzled glance as he did so.
‘Doesn’t she mind your coming here and leaving her there by herself?’ he added, and Loren shook her head.
‘I thought she would have minded, and I asked her if she would rather I stayed with her, but she said no, she was quite all right on her own. ’
‘She doesn’t sound the type to find this sort of life interesting - not from what Dena has told me about her.’ The two exchanged glances and Loren wondered just how much Dena had told her fiance. She hoped she hadn’t told him that she, Loren, had fallen in love with Thane. The humiliat
ion was great enough without Ian’s knowing about it. No more was said about Janet and in a little while Dena, having taken a frowning look around her, was saying that she must have been quite mad to become engaged to a man who could not provide her with anything better than this.
‘I always swore I’d marry for money,’ she added with a shake of her head.
‘Still time to draw out.’ Ian rose from his chair, a tall and sinewed Australian from the city whose craving for the open spaces had led to his throwing up a comfortable post, and the purchasing of a property which had never flourished owing to its lack of an adequate water supply. His glance was tender in spite of the rather hard voice in which he had spoken to Dena. ‘Want to?’ A twinkle now and a faint quirk of his lips. Dena shook her head. How well these two understood one another, thought Loren, collecting up the cups and saucers and taking them out in order to leave the other two alone again before Ian went off to resume his work.
But when she returned he was still there and he and Dena were discussing the furnishings of the house. What was there already was scrap, abandoned by the original owner and handed down to his successors.
‘Don’t worry,’ Ian was saying. ‘I’ll stop boring before we’re broke. There’ll be money left over for some comforts. We must have a new kitchen; I won’t have you working in
that disgusting place.’
‘Women have worked in it,’ cheerfully from Dena, who had her arm tucked into his. ‘Dirt floors were all the rage around these parts; you were really in the fashion if you had one. And that great black stove — you really were with it if you happened to own one of those!’
Ian laughed, kissed her lightly on the forehead and went out. A moment later the girls were by the window watching him ride away towards the men working on the bores.
‘Know something?’ Dena turned her head and Loren saw that her mouth was tight. ‘They’re not going to find water -and Ian knows they’re not.’
Thane was on the verandah talking to Janet when Loren drew in with the utility. She had been driving it for some time and whenever she was out with Dena the older girl would let her have some practice. She slid from the drive seat, feeling grubby and exceedingly conscious of the paint on her slacks and on the front of her hair, where she had accidentally brushed her forehead against the window-frame she had been painting. Ian had teased her, shaking his head and saying she was going white. But Thane would not tease, she thought, noting his comprehensive glance before she looked to one side of him, at the immaculate girl who was already dressed for dinner, enchantingly feminine in an organza creation of primrose yellow, her hair piled on top of her head with not a strand out of place. Loren swallowed hard, then lowered her head to avoid the rather triumphant expression appearing in her cousin’s eyes. In some vague way Loren was beginning to admit that she had not been very clever in her handling of the situation between Thane and herself. The desire to keep her feelings from him had resulted in a clumsiness she would certainly not have exhibited had she stopped to think a little more carefully, for she seemed only to have caused the sort of breach that left open the way for Janet’s coquetry to be practised on Thane, and Loren suspected that this was balm to him in his disappointment over Loren’s changed attitude towards him.
“You’ve left it a little late, haven’t you?’ He addressed Loren and she bristled. He knew very well that she could not have come home until Dena decided to do so. Dena herself was slanting him a frowning glance as she said,
‘My fault, but we’ve plenty of time to wash and change. They’ve not found any sign of water yet,’ she added, and the dejection in her tone was instantly spotted by Thane who, transferring his attention from Loren to his cousin, then asked if the money was running out. Dena nodded, going on to say that she was sure Ian had reached the conclusion that success was not to be his - at least not yet.
‘Not yet?’ Thane kept his eyes on Dena’s face, but he appeared to be thoughtfully distant from her.
‘He’s determined to persevere. He’ll work and save, then bore again when he has sufficient money. ’ Thane was shaking his head while she spoke, and a deep frown appeared between his eyes.
‘What about the great loss that will be incurred by the sending away of all that equipment and then bringing it back again?’
Dena spread her hands, pointing out that Ian had no alternative, whereupon Thane abruptly changed the subject, telling them both to go and tidy up.
‘And you’d better hurry,’ he advised, glancing at his watch. ‘It’s one of Gran Amelia’s good days; she’s in possession of all her faculties and we’ve had a difficult time with her. She’s irritable enough without our having it increased by the dinner being held up for latecomers.’
He was still rather thoughtful, but as his glance flicked Loren again she was profoundly conscious of the harshness in his eyes ... but also she sensed a deep hurt, which was exceedingly strange, she thought. Anger, yes, she would expect that, and frustration, but certainly not hurt.
During dinner his whole attention was with Janet, and his every smile for her added to the pain Loren suffered. Yes, she had been lacking in wisdom when she decided to take her cousin’s advice and hold back the real reason for her request that Thane should remember his role of guardian, and keep to it. The way was clear for Janet, whereas if she, Loren, had informed Thane that it was through Janet that she had learned of his plan to use his ward as a convenience, his anger would have extended to the girl who had been responsible for the misfiring of his plans. As it was, Janet seemed definitely to be in favour.
Gran Amelia’s glance flickered from Thane to Janet and then to Loren many times during the meal and it was clear that she was pondering over this new situation, pondering in a way that repeatedly brought a frown to her brow.
‘I want to speak to you privately,’ she snapped as they all rose when the meal was over. Thane’s arrogant frame stiffened with even greater hauteur and his dark eyes glinted.
‘I’m afraid it isn’t convenient. I have work to do in my study. ’
Prof and Stew made an unobtrusive exit; Dena and Loren were just doing the same when Gran Amelia spoke again, in a tone which caused both girls to gasp and exchange swift and disbelieving glances.
‘Perhaps that wasn’t quite the right approach, Thane. Will you oblige me by coming to my room for a few moments? I have something I’d like to discuss with you.’
‘Well, what about that, then!’ Dena flopped into a chair on the verandah and spoke to Loren. ‘Never have I heard her actually beg like that. Yes, she’s certainly approaching her dotage - rapidly.’
‘Thane said it was one of her good days,’ Loren reminded her.
‘He did, yes,’ with some preoccupation. ‘ I wonder what she has to say that’s so important?’ Dena remained deep in thought and it was Loren who thanked Prim for the coffee, and then began to pour it out. Stew and Prof did not always stay for coffee and this evening they had gone off, probably of the opinion that their presence was not required at this particular time when it appeared there would be trouble between Thane and his grandmother. ‘Been a trifle peculiar
lately, the old-timer,’ Dena murmured at length. ‘Terribly interested in me and my engagement to Ian and the problem of the water. ’
“You mean she’s sympathetic towards Ian and his difficulties?’
“You might well look surprised,’ grinned Dena. ‘But it is so. She scoffed at first, telling me I was a fool, but I reminded her that I did have a little Benedict blood in me and I also reminded her that had she given up without a struggle Moonrock as we know it today would never have come into existence. Thane would have been a farmer, not a squatter. And after that she seemed to change right over and now she takes an interest in what we’re doing over there at Melville Downs. Asks me every evening when I go in to give her her nightcap. Wants to be put completely in the picture.’
‘Then she isn’t as bad, mentally, as the doctor implied?’
‘It’s a gradual process,
but with days when she’s quite normal.’ She stopped as Janet appeared from the room behind and took possession of a spare chair.
‘Do you want some coffee?’ asked Loren, and her cousin nodded.
‘Thanks,’ she returned a moment later as it was handed to her. ‘What a quiet place this is,’ she sighed, leaning back and crossing her elegant legs one over the other. ‘Don’t you ever do anything to relieve the monotony?’
Dena’s mouth set, but she managed to keep her tones affable, remembering that Janet was a guest at Moonrock.
‘We don’t find it monotonous. It’s the life we’re used to and we prefer it to any other. ’
Janet flashed her a glance which was a mingling of amusement and condescension.
‘You obviously prefer it, yet I can’t imagine anyone marrying a farmer who isn’t established. Here at least one has comforts. From what I can gather you have no comforts whatsoever at Melville Downs?’
Loren bit her lip, sending Dena a glance from under her lashes She had never thought to feel ashamed of her cousin, but she
certainly felt ashamed of her at this moment.
‘It will be very comfortable indeed once Dena and Ian have it all furnished,’ she put in before Dena could speak. ‘The homestead’s prettily situated - with gardens and fruit trees and lots of shade trees. In six months from now we’ll not recognize it. ’
Dena rose to her feet after swallowing the last of her coffee.
‘Will you excuse me - both of you?’ she murmured with a sort of studied politeness. ‘I must go and see if Thane has left Gran Amelia’s room because if so she’ll be wanting her drink.’ Dena went taut all of a sudden, and, following the direction of her gaze Loren gave a little gasp of admiration. Silhouetted against the deep velvet sky was the white brumby, high on a rise, his head thrown back, his mane flowing. And even as she looked he was joined by another horse, smaller -and then a leggy foal appeared, seeking milk.