"Yes, please don’t tell him that I talked to you like this. He’d be so angry . Heaven knows where it would end. It’s only talk, that’s all, but it upsets me. I told them it was a lot of lies . but that doesn’t stop them. They wouldn’t say anything to you, of course.
You’re the last one they’d talk to. “
“Mrs. Laud, I want to know what this is all about.”
“It’s not exactly what was said. Ifs the looks … the nods … and ” Implications,” I said.
“What was it?”
The words came out in a rush. They said they’d always known how it was between them. Ezra put up with it for a long time because of his position in the Company. Then he wouldn’t have it. and that’s why he died. “
“No!” I cried fiercely, forgetting that it was exactly what I had thought myself.
“It’s impossible.”
They say she has the Green Flash, that he took it from its hiding place and gave it to her. “
“I never heard such nonsense,” I cried firmly.
Ts(o more did I, but it upsets me . and you just caught me at a bad moment. “
I’m glad you told me, Mrs. Laud. But let’s forget it, shall we?”
She hesitated.
“Well, I don’t believe it, of course, but I think . well I just think you ought to be on your guard …"
I stared at her and she bit her lip in embarrassment and went stammering on: ‘… on your guard against gossip.”
“Cuckoo, Cuckoo,” said the clock on the wall, and went on repeating his silly cry to denote the hour.
When I went into the town I imagined people watched me furtively.
They were sorry for me, asking themselves how much I knew. In a place like this everyone knew everyone else’s business. The notices asking for information about Ezra’s murder looked out at me from every post.
It was an uneasy town. The cosy theory was that Ezra had been shot by a bushranger who was now miles away, the only other alternative being that we had a murderer in our midst. Murderers had to have motives. I knew that the murderer was someone who came to Peacocks and was such a frequent visitor that no one would notice when he went into the orchard to bury a purse.
When I went into the offices Jeremy was waiting for me. He wanted to show me the finished product of that opal I had had such a feeling about.
“You can be proud to have your judgement proved correct,” he told me.
“Does it really mean I’m learning or was it just good luck?”
“It was pure hunch and that’s what we all wait for.” He said he would make tea and did so. I felt a great urge to talk to him about my discovery and my fears, for it occurred to me that he was one of the few people I could talk to; but I knew that would be unwise. I brought the subject round to the Green Flash.
“Have you heard the rumour that Ezra stole it and died as a result?” I asked.
“I never take any notice of rumours like that’ ” I suppose there’s just a possibility that it might be true. “
“In the first place Ezra was no thief. He would never have stolen anything.”
“His wife has a fine collection. Suppose he wanted to add the best of all to it.”
Jeremy firmly shook his head.
“If the Green Rash could be found it would be helpful,” he said.
“Ah yes. But where is it? I only wish I knew where to start looking for it. You see, it’s very awkward because Joss doesn’t want to start fussing about it.”
Jeremy wrinkled his brows.
“It’s very strange,” he said.
“Perhaps he’s making secret investigations.”
“Since I am a joint owner I think he would have consulted me. Can you suggest anything that I might do?”
“Well, presumably it was there when Mr. Henniker left. There was obviously no break in, so it must have been taken by someone who was known to the house. That could have been anyone at the works because they could come or go without much notice being taken. You might start questioning the servants. And you can be sure I’ll keep my eyes and ears open and do everything I can.”
Thanks. “
The door opened suddenly and Joss looked in.
“Oh,” he said, ‘cosy chat, I see! ” and was about to go when Jeremy said: ” Did you want me? “
“Later will do,” replied Joss and disappeared.
I left the office soon after that and went back to Peacocks. I lay on my bed with the blinds shutting out the heat. I could not concentrate on reading and kept thinking of Joss’s burying the purse in the orchard and the more I thought of it, the more absurd it seemed. How simple it would, have been to have thrown it away in the Bush which the suspected bushranger might easily have done.
I was startled suddenly by a gentle pat on my door. It was so light I scarcely heard it. I called “Come in’ but there was no answer so I went to the door and looked into the corridor.
“Is anyone there?” I called.
There was still no answer. Then from above I heard the sound of the spinet. It was a Chopin waltz.
I wondered who in the house played the spinet and my curiosity sent me to the stairs leading to the gallery. When I was half way up the stairs the music stopped abruptly. I opened the door of the gallery and went in.
There was no one there.
I looked round in dismay. If someone had been in here playing I must surely have seen whoever it was coming out of the room.
Had I imagined it? No. I had distinctly heard it.
As I came downstairs I heard someone in the hall. It was Mrs. Laud just coming in.
“It’s hot in the town,” she said.
Have you been ordering again? You should have gone this morning. “
“A few things I had forgotten. You look startled, Mrs. Madden.”
“I thought I heard someone playing the spinet in the gallery.”
Oh no, I don’t think so. Nobody’s touched it for years. Mr. Henniker used to play it sometimes. He had funny fancies for a man such as he was. He used to say to me: “Emmeline ! ” he used to call me Emmeline, always my full name Emmeline, when I play this I fancy I’m calling someone from the grave . ” He had this strange feeling, you know.
She died . of a broken heart, he said, and if he had stayed in England he could have saved her. Funny you should have fancied you heard it playing. ”
” It didn’t seem like fancy. “
“I can’t think what else, Mrs. Madden. I can’t really ”
" Oh, well,” I shrugged my shoulders.
“It’s not important. But it was, because I was certain I had heard someone there, and I could not understand how that could possibly be the case.
Later that day, after sundown, I went up to the gallery. It looked ghostly in the candlelight, for only a few of those on the wall sconces were kept lighted. It could be a blaze of light when there was a party. I could almost make myself believe that I sensed a presence there. Did people really return, people who had taken their lives and could not rest? Perhaps my mother would want to take care of me especially because she had left me to the far from tender care of my grandmother. What was the matter with me? Finding the purse had unnerved me, so that I could really believe that it was my mother who had tapped on the door and that in playing the spinet she was letting me know that she was watching over me.
When I came back to Peacocks the next afternoon Jeremy Dickson rode with me.
“I shall be going away for a short time,” he said.
Really? Where? “
Mr. Madden spoke to me yesterday after you had left. He wants someone to go to the Sydney office and he suggests that I go. “
I felt a mingling of disappointment and exhilaration. I should miss Jeremy, and yet what if Joss was sending him off because he knew that I was rather friendly with him? That could mean that he was not indifferent to that friendship.