Justin was there, smiling at Morwenna, marveling at the perfection of his new son. Everyone wanted to see and touch the baby, but Mrs. Bowles stood over him like a stern sentinel protecting him from invaders.
There was great rejoicing everywhere.
That was a perfect day.
The first thing I did next morning was to go to Morwenna’s room. Mrs. Bowles was sleeping at the house; she was going to look after Morwenna for as long as she considered it necessary. She was sleeping in a room next to what was now called the nursery.
I said that when Morwenna was well enough we would go to Melbourne and buy a cot and perambulator for the baby. I wanted to buy some toys.
Morwenna laughed at me. “He won’t be playing with many toys yet. He would like a nice furry thing to cuddle perhaps.”
I sat by her bed for most of that morning telling her how frightened we had been … how we had waited all through the night.
“You are all so wonderful to me,” she said.
“Ben Lansdon rode ten miles through the night … and ten more bringing back Dr. Field.”
“I shall never forget what he did.”
“Heaven knows what would have happened without the doctor, Morwenna. You would have all those complications.”
She laughed. “Justin is delighted with the baby,” she said softly.
“He is even more delighted with you,” I told her. “There was a choice, you know … at one stage the doctor said he could save your life or the child’s …”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Justin said, save you. You see, you are loved, Morwenna.”
There were tears in her eyes. “Did he really say that, Angelet?”
“Yes, he did.”
“I … sometimes wondered …”
“What?”
“Whether he truly loved me.”
“Why? Did he ever seem not to?”
“Oh no. He always said he did. But I couldn’t really believe that anyone could care like that for me.”
“You are a silly creature, Morwenna. Well, now you know.”
“I am so happy. Fancy! Here, in this place, I am happier than I have ever been in my life. Isn’t it odd? And isn’t it wonderful?”
I agreed that it was.
The news spread through the town. One-Eye’s and Cassidy’s gold had disappeared, and David Skelling with it. He must have stolen it and gone off during the revelries. No one had noticed him go and neither One-Eye nor Cassidy had missed the gold for twenty-four hours. It had taken them all day to sleep off the effects of the celebrations.
For the next day there was no talk of anything but the robbery; and then when it seemed that One-Eye and Cassidy had lost their fortunes and that David Skelling was obviously the thief, the arrival of the new baby and the difficult birth with its final happy conclusion didn’t turn their minds from the terrible fate of the two miners.
There was a great deal of marveling at the skill of the doctor and Mrs. Bowles. It was the latter’s finest hour. She was staying at Golden Hall where Morwenna was with the baby; and when she came into the town people would gather round her to hear the tale.
“It was touch and go,” she told them. “Dr. Field, he said to me, ‘Mrs. Bowles, what do you think of this?’ And I told him straight. I said, ‘It’s either her or the baby.’ And he said, ‘That’s what I’m afraid, Mrs. Bowles. But we’ll do our best.’ And we did. The Lord alone knows how we did it. We pulled them both through. I never thought we could but we did.”
I guessed the tale would be told for years to come as she weighed out the sugar and sliced the bacon.
We were all in a state of euphoria that week. Morwenna was getting better every day. Happiness was a great restorer. Mrs. Bowles was growing prouder and the baby stronger.
Morwenna had discussed the baby’s name and she decided on Pedrek. It was a good old Cornish name and it had belonged to her great-grandfather. She remembered that when she was a child she had seen it on a tombstone. She had always liked it.
There would be a christening at Walloo, where Dr. Field had his practice. There was a church there and a parson. He had come over once or twice, Mrs. Bowles told us, for funerals.
“We’ll have a christening then when he is a little older,” said Morwenna.
It had been arranged that she should stay at Ben’s house until she was stronger. Mrs. Bowles was to remain for a week or so to look after her and the baby. She darkly hinted to me that although she and the doctor had performed their miracle, there must be no going back.
I thought this wise. As for Mrs. Bowles she was delighted for while still living in a haze of glory—and she knew how quickly that could fade in spite of her efforts to keep it going—she also enjoyed living in what she called the lap of luxury.
Much to Ben’s chagrin I returned to the shack. I said there was no excuse for me to remain longer, in fact I was desperately afraid of the emotion which Ben aroused in me.
This was a time of discovery. I was learning to know people. One received an impression and judged them on that, and later was proved wrong. The fact was that people were complex beings; one could not divide them into categories—the bad and the righteous. One should never make hasty judgments or assess people on what one saw superficially.
In my innocence I had endowed Gervaise with all the knightly qualities and then I had found the feet of clay—that obsession which had changed our lives and would one day, I felt sure, ruin us.
Each day I fell more and more out of love with Gervaise and this was largely because I was falling more and more in love with Ben.
At the moment I was happy because during those moments on the stairs with Justin, I had vowed that I would give everything I had or had hoped for, if Morwenna could live and have her baby. She had her baby and she was getting stronger every day; and I was already forgetting my vow. Not only did I want happiness for her but for myself too.
I was tired of this place, of the perpetual grime, the rough living, the four walls of my dismal shed … trying to clean the place, building the fire which had to be kept going in the excessive heat because we must cook, the ration of water, insects which I had never before known existed, the ubiquitous flies. I wanted to go home … for many reasons. I wanted to see my family; I wanted to live in comfort; and I was afraid of what would happen between Ben and me if I stayed here.
He was always there. He made a point of being where I was. He was always urging me … if not with words with looks. I think he, too, wanted to go home. He seemed to be grappling with himself.
I said to him one day: “You could go home. Why do you not just leave?”
He said he had vowed not to return until he had found gold in such quantities as he knew existed somewhere under this soil.
I replied that it was folly to make such vows. He could return now. He had enough money to go back and engage in some profitable enterprise.
“If you will come with me, I will go,” he said. “Otherwise I stay. Everything is tied up here. What would my grandfather think of me if I went back without what I came for?”
“He would understand.”
“If you came back with me … yes. He would understand then.”
“Ben, I cannot go back with you. I shall always be faithful to Gervaise. I married him. I took my vows.”
“Tell me,” he said, “do you mean it?”
“I mean it absolutely.”
“Will you change your mind?”
“Never, never …”
He looked at me sadly.
“Then,” he said, “it looks as though I shall have to go ahead … here.”
“You are important here, A sort of head man.”
He laughed at that, but his laughter was hollow.
“You actually employ these people in the mine. You have your house with servants. Your life is different from all the others. Only the Motleys can compare with you.”