The Black Opal (17 page)

It would be best for me to stay in Australia, he said, for there he could be sure of seeing me more often than if I were anywhere else;

and Elsie and I had become such good friends.

Everything sounded better when Toby spoke of it. What a piece of luck that the Formans were not too far away! Genie and I had been such good friends during the voyage out. Everything was turning out well.

I did go for a short voyage with him to New Guinea from Sydney and then back again. It lasted only three weeks, but there was hope of another; and during those years I only went once more with him, because it had to fit in with my school holidays.

School absorbed me and so the years passed.

And now we were grown up. We felt very mature and excited about that.

Schooldays were over. Gertie and I were adults.

That homecoming was different from all the others. There was a certain amount of ceremony about it. The coach brought us back with several other girls who lived in the Sydney area, and Gertie was dropped at Yomaloo. There were the usual assurances between us that we should be meeting soon. I should be going to stay at the Forman property as I always had done, and she would be coming to Sydney.

Elsie was waiting for my arrival.

“My word!” she cried, looking sentimental.

“You’re quite the young lady now.”

And there, in the porch, were Mabel, Adelaide and Jane, with Agio standing by.

I was taken into the house and Mabel announced that there was schnapper for lunch, which was my special favourite, and she didn’t want it getting cold while a lot of chatter went on. There was time enough for that afterwards.

During the meal, as I had always done, I told them what had been happening during the last term at school, and they recounted how life had gone on there.

Later, when I talked to Elsie alone, she said: “I thought I’d be giving a party … say at Christmas … for you and perhaps Gertie. We’d turn the sitting-room into a sort of ballroom. It would be quite big with the chairs and all the clutter taken out. I’d get some fiddlers in. It would be a sort of coming out party for you and Gertie … rather like that nonsense they do at home though without all that silly business of wearing feathers and curtseying to the Queen. We’d want some young men around. Joe’s not so young, but there’s his nephew and the McGill boys are all right. Then there are the Barnums and the Culvers … and, of course James Forman. I reckon I could pull in quite a number.”

1 was silent for a moment, and she went on: “Well, you’re getting on, you know. It’s time you saw a bit of life. You

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want to “come out” , as they say. That’s what you’d be doing if you were at home. “

My thoughts went fleetingly to Estella and Adeline. Estella would be nineteen now, Adeline much older. Henry would be twenty-one. What were they doing now? It was only occasionally that I thought of them now.

How strange it was that people who had once been so much a part of one’s life could become like shadowy figures in a dream.

Elsie was saying: “I reckon you’ll want a rather special dress.

Something in red or blue or that mauve shade you like so much . something bright. We’ll give ourselves plenty of time . choose the material and get old Sally Cadell to make it. She’s always looking for work. I suppose in a week or so you’ll be wanting to go over to the Formans. When you come back we’ll start setting the party in motion.

It’ll take a bit of planning. “

She paused and lowered her eyes; then, after a few seconds, she raised them and smiled at me.

“I kept the best bit of news till now, because I thought that, if you heard it, you wouldn’t give your mind to anything else. To be’s due in December. Christmas Eve, in fact.”

I stared at her and we were in each other’s arms.

“Wouldn’t you call that good news, eh? It’s going to be a special Christmas for us, I can tell you.”

“It’s wonderful!” I cried.

“Quite wonderful.”

We were speechless after that, eyes shining, contemplating what lay in store for us. How good Elsie was to me! Another fleeting memory of Commonwood came. How different it was here where Elsie and Toby did everything to make life good for me. I was overcome with emotion.

I would be free now. If it were possible to take a trip with him, there would be no school to prevent it. This was perfect bliss.

We could talk of little else after that, but the good for tune which would bring Toby to Sydney at such a time.

But any time, of course, would be wonderful. We chattered excitedly.

The following day I went to the stables and made sure my particular mount. Starlight, was well. He showed his appreciation of my return.

Hal said he had missed me, but he knew I had to go away to school and didn’t hold it against me that I’d deserted him all that time.

Starlight confirmed this by nuzzling against me.

“He’s telling you how pleased he is you’re back,” went on Hal.

“I

reckon he knows schooldays are over and you’re back for good now. “

Elsie and I sat in our favourite spot in the garden and we talked over trifles, although our minds were perpetually on Toby’s return. I told her how Sarah Minster had only just beaten me at the horse-jumping competition, how I’d come top in English and just barely scraped through in maths. She told me how one of the horses had gone lame when she was eight miles from home, and how she’d spent the night at the Jennings property.

Then she said suddenly: “I reckon you’ll settle here, Carmel. You’ll be one of us. Do you ever think of going home?”

Again there came those flashes of memory. Dr. Marline in the schoolroom, Adeline crying in her mother’s bedroom, Miss Carson coming out of the room and fainting.

I said: “Gertie talks of it often. She has an Aunt Beatrice in London.

She says she’s going home one day. “

“It’s always home to some of them,” said Elsie.

“They can’t seem to forget it. Others don’t want to see the place again.”

“I expect it depends on what happened to you there.”

She looked a little perplexed.

“You’ve been happy here, haven’t you?”

“Wonderfully happy. You’re here … and Toby, sometimes.”

She nodded.

“Perhaps you’ll marry and settle here.”

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“Marry? Marry whom?”

“That’s in the lap of the gods, as they say. There are one or two young men round about. Some very nice ones. Joe’s nephew, William.

He’s a bit bashful, but since he’s been out here with Joe, he’s coming out of his shell a bit. Joe says he’s a great help on the property, and he’ll have the money to set up a place of his own when he’s learned a bit more. Well, he’s here on the spot. We shall see a lot of him. He’ll be coming over with Joe. “

“But you don’t marry people just because they are ” on the spot”!”

“I reckon that comes into it. How are you going to meet them if they’re not? And I think James Forman likes you.”

“James Forman! You’re forgetting all that trouble in Suez when he left us there. I don’t think he’s ever got over that.”

“He was only a boy. You’re not going to hold that against him.”

“No. But I think he holds it against himself. He’s always a bit shamefaced with me.”

She smiled.

“Poor lad. He’d like you to see him as a sort of hero … dashing up and getting you to the ship and climbing by that rope-ladder.”

“But that was Dr. Emmerson.”

“He’s a nice boy, James. I like him and what’s more, I think he likes you.”

After that, I began to think more often of James Forman.

We were all stretched out on the grass, our horses tethered nearby. We had come to the stream known as Wanda’s Creek which was on the edge of the Yomaloo property. We had been riding out to the Jensens who were the Formans’ nearest neighbours.

It was an unwritten law that neighbours came to the aid of each other when it was needed; and Jack Jensen had hurt his leg while he was

fixing some fencing and, as soon as the news had reached Yomaloo, James had immediately set out to see if any help was needed.

Gertie and I accompanied him in case we could help in the house, as there was only one daughter, Mildred, her mother and no servant.

James had fixed the fence and we were on our way back, having had a meal with the Jensens. We had ridden some way but there were still a few miles to go, and we decided to rest and take a little refreshment.

So there we were. James had taken from his saddle-bag a bottle of Mrs. Forman’s homemade wine and was pouring it into beakers and handing them round. He always carried the wine with him, for often during his journeys he felt in need of refreshment and places for finding it were few and far between. It was on occasions like this that one realized the vastness of this sparsely populated land.

It was pleasant to rest in the warm October sunshine which would be very hot in a few weeks’ time. We lay there, talking desultorily.

Gertie was saying she was wondering what she would do, now that she had left school.

“There’s plenty for you to do at home,” James pointed out.

“Ma needs you around.”

“If I can get some money together, I’d like to pay a visit to Aunt Beatrice.”

“Go home!” cried James.

“Just that,” replied Gertie.

“Just for a visit,” I said.

Gertie hesitated.

“She hankers,” said James.

“I’ve always known it. You can tell by the way she talks about it. What about you, Carmel? What do you want to do?”

“It would depend on who was there,” I said.

They knew, of course, that 1 was referring to Toby. They had learned that he was my father, and not my uncle, which they had been led to believe when we were on the i39

Lady of the Seas. Neither James nor Gertie interested them selves very much in such matters. They were quite different from me. I always wanted to know details.

“James is enamoured of Australia, aren’t you, James?” said Gertie.

“It’s our home now. That’s how I see it. We came out here and started again.”

“And you want to spend all your life here … looking after a property,” I said.

“No,” said James emphatically.

“I do not! I’ve made up my mind what I’m going to do. I’m going to find … opals … We’re in the right spot for it. There have been some discoveries at a place called Lightning Ridge. Opals are there for the finding.”

There was another of those flashes of memory. I was in the drawing-room, we were having tea, and Lucian Crompton was talking about opals.

“Why do all those people who are hunting for them not get them, then?”

said Gertie.

“Don’t be an idiot, Gertie. You’ve got to find them. And that’s what I intend to do. I’ve made up my mind.”

“Well, according to your reckoning, if everybody found them, there’d be nothing but millionaires all over Australia

“I’m going to find them,” said James.

“What about you then, Carmel?” asked Gertie.

“I want to go to sea with my father.”

“They don’t have women sailors.”

“There are stewardesses,” I said.

“You wouldn’t want to do that. It would be infra dig, with your father a captain. You’ll just have to go on voyages with him. That would be fun.”

“Well, I shall be off just after Christmas,” said James.

“Father says I’ll have to get it out of my system. There was a man who came to the property once. He talked about it. It was while you were

away at school. We stayed up almost all night talking. He told us how they go into the old gullies and work on the creek … how they go fossicking … how careful you have to be, raking round in the dirt … and how some of the finest black opals in the world come from Australia. You all live in shanty towns near where they’re working. Of course, on Saturday night, it’s like one big party. They dance, and sing the old songs they sang at home.

And sometimes they roast a pig and everyone joins in. It’s a grand life, with always the hope . “

He was looking at me as he was speaking, and I said, “That sounds exciting.”

“You’d love it,” said James.

“I know you would, Carmel. It must be the most exciting thing imaginable in the middle of all that potch that’s what they call the rubbish to find one of those gorgeous brilliant stones. There’s a famous one … like a sunset. Fancy finding something like that!”

“Listen to him,” mocked Gertie.

“He’s getting poetical. He does that when he talks about opals. That old sundowner who talked to you about it, was he the one who walked off with Ma’s gold watch?”

“No,” retorted James fiercely.

“He was not.”

“Tell Carmel about the thieving sundowner. He beguiled you all with his tales. Then he took what he could and went off.”

“That only happened once,” said James. He turned to me.

“You know there’s a tradition here. Swagmen walk the bush trails and, when they can, they take shelter, get food and a good night’s rest. If a swagman wants a night’s lodging, he shouldn’t turn up till the sun is almost on the horizon, just before it goes down. Then it would be bad manners not to take him in just as it would be bad manners for him to come before.”

“I didn’t know there was protocol on these matters,” I said.

“Decidedly so. That’s why they are called sun downers

explained Gertie.

“Well, this one arrived. Dad was away for the night.

I wonder if he would have seen through him. “

“No one could have,” said James indignantly.

“He seemed ordinary enough.”

“Except that he’d had such wonderful adventures in the gold fields that he should have become a millionaire. James couldn’t do enough for him.

He had his meal. He was given a bed, and next morning, before the household was awake, he went off with the leg of lamb we were to have for dinner that day when Father returned, plus Ma’s gold watch. “

“I’ve never known it happen before,” said James.

“There’s usually honour among sun downers

Gertie shrugged and turned to me.

She said: “I should like to go home and see Aunt Beatrice.”