“Well, come along in. They are prepared for you.”
“Who?” I asked quickly, and I felt a sudden fear that he was going to introduce us to his wife. I shouldn’t have minded, but I did.
“I have two people working for me with their family,” he explained. “Thomas and his wife, Meg; they have a son, Jacob, and a girl, Minnie. That is my staff. Thomas sold up everything to come out here to find gold. A familiar story.”
“So he didn’t find gold. He found the Golden Hall instead?” said Gervaise.
“That’s right. Many of them come out here with gold fever. They work frantically and perhaps they never have a find … and then they turn against it. They don’t want to hear another word about gold. They want to settle down to the steady life they had before they came. Thomas is like that. And his wife agrees with him. I don’t know about Jacob. He’s young yet. Perhaps he’ll catch gold fever one day and be off.”
“You seem to have found a pleasant niche for yourself here,” said Justin.
“The best of both worlds is the way I see it. I live like a squire but I have my mine and my hopes linger. One day I am going to find that rich vein of gold … and it will be such as was never found before.”
“And if you don’t?” I asked.
“I shall go on trying until I find it or they carry me off in my coffin … whichever comes first.”
“There is determination,” said Gervaise.
“A lesson to you,” I replied.
“Well, come along in. Meg will have a meal cooking and I’ll show you your rooms for the night. Then tomorrow … sharp … we’ll get down to business.”
The house was a replica of an English manor house. There were high ceilings and heavy oak beams.
Ben said to me: “I’ve tried to make it look like home.”
“It does,” I assured him.
We were taken into a drawing room. It had French windows opening onto a garden.
“Jacob tends that,” said Ben. “Thomas helps a little and Meg picks the flowers.”
“You must have thought of home often,” I mused, “to make it so like …”
“Often,” he assured me. “You should see your rooms now. Ah, here is Meg.”
She was a rotund comfortable-looking woman with rosy cheeks and rather wispy brown hair.
“Our visitors, Meg,” he said.
She nodded to us and said she would take us to our rooms. She hoped we’d be comfortable and if there was anything we wanted we should ask.
She took us up the wide staircase and there were our rooms. Gervaise and I gave a little gasp of pleasure as we went into ours. The light filtering through the blinds showed us the blue carpet and the covers to match, the cozy armchair, the writing desk and the alcove in which was a basin and ewer, there was a wardrobe and a dressing table with a swing-mirror on it.
“I’ll bring you hot water,” said Meg. “Dinner will be in about twenty minutes if you can make it.”
We assured her we could.
Gervaise looked at me. “This is more like it,” he said. “I haven’t seen anything like this since leaving home. I will say that Ben knows how to look after himself.”
Very soon we had washed and changed from our traveling clothes. We went down to the pleasant dining room which had windows similar to those in the drawing room but these looked on a well-kept garden to fields beyond.
I stood there looking out and Ben came to stand very close to me.
“That’s Morley country,” he said.
“Morley country?”
“My neighbor, James Morley. He owns a lot of land round here. I bought this patch from him to build my house on.”
“Did he make a fortune out of gold?”
“No. He’s been here for years. He came before the Rush and bought the land for next to nothing. He’s a farmer … a grazier … cattle and sheep. That’s his business and he has never deserted it for gold. He has done very well for himself, I can tell you. You’ll be sure to meet him sometime. Now we mustn’t let the food get cold or you will be in Meg’s bad books right at the start, I can tell you.”
It was a wonderful evening, to sit there listening to Ben. He did most of the talking. We just plied him with questions.
There was hot soup followed by thick steaks.
“People here have big appetites,” Ben told us. “It is the outdoor life.”
We made the acquaintance of Minnie, who came in to help her mother.
Ben talked about what lay ahead of us.
The following day he would take us to see the accommodation he had found for us.
“I don’t know how you ladies are going to like it,” he said. “It is primitive. But it is what they all have.”
“Except you,” I reminded him.
“Well, I decided to put my earnings into this house. That’s reasonable. They thought it was a bit crazy, I don’t doubt. The general idea is to strike it rich and move out.”
“And your intention was to stay?” asked Justin.
“Not I. When I have made the fortune I came out to find I shall go home. But it has to be a fortune. No little pickings for me. But in the meantime I want to make it comfortably. I have been thinking that you ladies ought to stay here.”
“Tell us about these places you have found for us,” said Morwenna.
“They are shacks really. It’s a shanty town. You saw some of them coming in.”
“It is good of you to suggest we stay here,” I said. “Thank you, Ben. But we shall have to be together … and do as the others do.”
He looked at me ruefully.
“So we are to live in two of those shacks …”
“The very same. At one time they were just in tents … and then they put up these shacks. They are in demand. I had to arrange a few details to get even them for you. There are two side by side. I think you would like that. They are furnished with a bed, a few chairs and a table. There is a small rental. There is a division making a bedroom and a living room and there is a little wash house at the back. You have to get your water from the well. Water is rather precious here. The man who owns the places is another retired from the gold hunt. He finds his business of letting more profitable.”
I looked anxiously at Morwenna and thought of her condition.
“I am sure we shall be all right,” she said bravely.
“Well, you ladies are welcome to stay here whenever you like.”
“It is so kind and thoughtful of you,” said Morwenna, “but we should want to be with our husbands.”
“Somehow I thought you might. It is what they would expect of you here.”
“Who?” I asked.
“The rest of the community.” Ben frowned. “You see, you are all living close together. They would want you to be as they are. They’re a mixed lot … all sorts and conditions. Some are quite aristocratic … others … well, definitely not. You have to mix with them. There is a certain code. We don’t want trouble in the township. We have to keep a sharp look out for that sort of thing.”
“What is there?” asked Gervaise. “Some sort of vigilante?”
“You could say that. Well, you will see soon enough how it works. Now tomorrow you will want to see about your claim. What you will buy will be your piece of land. I daresay you will want to work it together. I should think that was the best thing to do. The Mandeville-Cartwright Plot. You’ll need two of you in any case. Well, we shall see.”
“I can’t wait to start digging,” said Gervaise.
Ben gave him a strange look. I knew he was finding it difficult to imagine Gervaise as a miner.
That night I slept peacefully in the luxurious bed and I awoke early. I could not stay in bed so I left Gervaise there and went into the alcove and washed; and then went downstairs.
I found my way to the dining room, opened the French windows and stepped out.
The early morning air was delightfully fresh. I stood there looking out over the garden to what Ben had called Morley country.