The mountain that went to the sea (5 page)

'I'm sorry. I suppose I'm too impetuous. Well, my mother says that of me anyway. But please will you explain? Is it all right for me to call Aunt Isobel Aunt Isobel? Not Great-Aunt, or even Miss Isobel?'

`Oh, I think I'd leave out the "Great". Of course we — that is, the staff — all call her "Miss Isobel" because she doesn't ever use her original surname. In fact, I don't think anyone even remembers what it is. You see . . . she likes to be thought of as an Ashenden. When you get to know her you will understand why. She loves anything to do with the family and Mallibee. So you see — well, she is in direct descent, as your mother is, but through the daughters of Andrew the First — so the surnames were different. Some people in the district — not so well known — always address her as "Miss Ashenden".'

'I see,' Jeckie said, slowly digesting that 'Andrew the First' all over again. 'So Aunt Isobel is called "Ashenden". Just as Andrew and Barton are real Ashendens?'

'Yes. And Miss . . . er . . . Jeckie — if you don't mind my saying so— don't smile at her ways. Please.' Jane was a little fussed now. 'I know they're a little bit old-fashioned to strangers, but nobody here ever laughs. We treat her just the way she expects, and it all works out very well.'

'Thank you for telling me. I feel cross with myself already. In fact, Miss J

'Just plain Jane, please — '

Jeckie smiled all .over again. 'Never "plain",' she said. 'Just Jane.'

Her startling blue eyes lit her face in a lovely early morning way. Jane, as she watched, drew in a little

breath. She really is a lovely girl. And so natural! she thought.

`You will guide me in this worrying land of Mallibee, won't you?' Jeckie persisted. 'The more distant members of Andrew the First's descendants always seem to talk about one another so scathingly. I'm scared now that something silly will slip off my tongue — '

`Yes, I know all about the distant relatives. We all do. If you find yourself treading on prickles, Jeckie, just send me an S.O.S. across the room. I'll run in to the rescue. Now drink up your tea like a good girl. And stop being frightened.'

`Frightened?' Jeckie said surprised. 'I'm not really frightened.'

Jane Baker smiled as she shook her head.

'Oh yes, you are, my dear. It's mostly Mr Andrew who alarms the new relatives when they first come to Mallibee. He doesn't mean to, of course. He is just very reticent. He has all the worries, you know. Then — I've always thought secretly — he's so lonely up there on top of the family — the responsible Manager. He's grown just a little shy of people. Well, some people anyway.'

`With new relatives? You mean relatives who've never been to Mallibee before? Have they all started coming to see the ancestral acres?'

`Well, not all, of course. The family is so widespread, isn't it? Some weeks ago when Sheila Bowen came — '

`Sheila! I know Sheila quite well,' Jeckie exclaimea. `Did she come? I wonder why!'

`Well . . . Mallibee is the root home of you all, isn't it?' Jane said gently. 'Miss Isobel appears to be delighted that some of you in the younger generation are taking an interest.' She went to the door. 'I simply must not waste time gossiping,' she added. 'That is, I didn't mean it as gossip, of course. It's all family news, isn't it? Because my father and my grandfather belonged to Mallibee, I feel a special sort of belonging interest ..

`Thank you for bringing me tea.' Jeckie smiled a little shyly. 'I should have been up long since. I won't have the courage to face Aunt Isobel if I don't get a move on now.'

`You need never be afraid of Miss Isobel, Jeckie.

Andrew is very particular, of course. He has to be as Manager. So solitary. Sometimes he can even be a little stern. You must be like your cousin Sheila and win him over. She really worked at it and was quite successful. It made her visit a real joy to all of us. Andrew seemed to come out of his shell. He liked her very much, I'm glad to say.'

'Sheila?' Jeckie was puzzled. Did she really enjoy being up here in the great Australian wilderness? She's so very gay, and very social down south. Always at parties. I can't quite imagine her - '

'But that was exactly it, my dear. She's so lively and gay. She had a wonderful effect on us all. Specially Andrew. On Barton too, of course. Oh dear - I really must stop chattering. Please do forgive me, Jeckie. I love to see the family coming together again. It's quite wonderful - after all these years. Now I really must fly.'

She was half-way through the door. She turned and gave a half-wave of her hand.

'And you being here, Jeckie, will also help to pull the family together again. Of course, Andrew is not likely to be reconciled to that other cousin of his. The one he calls "Joe Blow". That one was the son of the second daughter, Anne. He's really Miss Isobel's first cousin, but much younger, of course. She doesn't acknowledge him. Oh no! That would never do!' Her voice dropped almost to a whisper. 'He put his share of Mallibee into helping that mining company, Westerly-Ann- the one that's moving Mallibee Mountain over to the sea. Such a dreadful thing to do.'

`Moving a mountain? To the sea?' Jeckie asked, incredulous.

But Jane Baker had already left the room and was hurrying off along the passage.

Outside Jeckie's window two men were crossing the gravel square to the veranda. One was Barton, and he had just brought the Land-Rover up nearer the homestead. The other was Andrew. He must have been one of the horsemen Jeckie had heard galloping down the slope to the creek earlier. She could not help overhearing the conversation.

'Did you see any of the Westerly-Ann mining people when you were in at the airport last night?' Andrew was asking Barton.

'Yes. The usual pair. That tall, skinny geologist fellow, and the management engineer. Forget their names - '

'That's all?'

'Yes. That's all.'

But what about Jason, the nice one? Jeckie wanted to demand indignantly. The one who's Shire President and Justice of the Peace, store owner and all sorts of other things?

She couldn't imagine why Barton had told such a large-sized fib - though for some reason he had warned her not to mention who she met at the airport.

`Joe Blow around?' Andrew asked through tight lips.

'Well, you kinda stumble over Joe Blow wherever you go once you come off the tableland,' Barton said casually. 'A nod of the head is the best I'd ever give him. I don't waste any words.'

'He wouldn't get a nod of the head from me,' Andrew said bluntly. 'He wouldn't expect it.'

'Or return it,' Barton said with a laugh.

The two men stepped on to the veranda then disappeared through a side door.

Jeckie gulped her tea down quickly. She didn't feel mad with herself for coming to Mallibee
anymore
.

Well, not for the time being anyway. She assured

herself of this as she quickly dressed in a light-coloured cotton dress, and equally quickly clapped on some make-up. Only with the lipstick did she take special care. She was fond of saying: 'A mouth is a mouth, is the one you've got ! So make the very best of it.'

Mallibee Downs was suddenly interesting, not because it was what she had derisively called to herself - the family seat-but because it was peopled with persons ever so much more intriguing than she had dreamed they would be. Barton was fun - though it was just possible that he had an embarrassment-making streak in him. Andrew was . . .

Well, what was Andrew? Jeckie was too honest with herself not to admit that he was very attractive in a

remote, controlled kind of way. For the time he had sat drinking his tea last night, and she had sat surreptitiously glancing at him, she had for the first time clean forgotten the pain and indignation she had lately been suffering. Even this morning she no longer felt downhearted.

Not a suitable marriage indeed! That was what Edgerton's Commanding Officer probably meant by giving all that advice! Jeckie, damping down her hair, was careful not to let her indignation boil up again.

The Commanding Officer's advice didn't forbid. It merely undermined.

She, Jeckie, came from a reasonably sound family. She'd been educated at a good school. She could dance well, and dress well when she had the time. She knew all about good manners.

Jeckie realized she was working herself up into a `state of mind' again. She dusted a little powder on her nose, stood back from the mirror and looked at herself. She could read in her own reflection the challenging light in her eyes.

`Calm down,' she chided herself. `Its all over, remember? Bury it!'

She guessed she had looked like this when she'd said in her own home: 'All right, Mother. You are always wanting me to go to Mallibee Downs. Well, surprise! Surprise! I'll go.'

J
eckie!' her mother had exclaimed. 'Are you sure you want to go just now?'

`Well, once I've been and come back, everyone will stop talking about it, won't they?'

`You will be at your best, won't you, dear? I mean, lately you've been just a little out of sorts ..

Out of sorts! Jeckie had thought forlornly. What a way to define being in a state of despair!

Jeckie had known what was in her mother's mind about

her, Jeckie, being at her best. Barton, on that long drive

over the tableland to the homestead, had put it bang into

words — Which of us are you going to marry? Coming

from Barton, she had felt absolutely outraged. They

hadn't even the tact to cover up their machinations about

marrying Mallibee shares to Mallibee management!

Now this morning she was inch by inch coming to believe that things were different. All because they were going to be interesting. Even the fact that her cousin Sheila had been here before was tantalizing — therefore interesting too. It was something to think about.

So Sheila had made an impression on Andrew! Well, maybe Jeckie could do that as well. Not necessarily on Andrew, of course. Maybe she could prove to herself she wasn't an entire flop because she'd had a lost 'love affair'.

Jane Baker was nice and friendly and chatty. Aunt Isobel wasn't as alarming as she had feared.

If they could just like her a little bit!

If Sheila could go out and charm the birds off the trees well, she, Jeckie, could try. Not with Andrew, of course. But with Jane . . . And Aunt Isobel . . . even Barton maybe...

`Here's for it!' she said wryly as she went to the door. 'Here I come! Well— trying my best anyway!'

Meantime, Aunt Isobel had finished watering her pot-plants. She put her watering can down by the step, stripped off her gardening gloves and moved along the veranda to where the breakfast table was set behind a screen of glorious crimson bougainvillea.

She sat down at the table. Almost as if she had pressed a button to summon a genie, Jane Baker appeared through the side door carrying a loaded tray.

Over the top of the tray her fair, round, pleasing face smiled cheerfully. Miss Isobel was now sitting straight-backed and formal.

`Here I am — just at the right moment, Miss Isobel,' Jane said lightly. 'I think our little guest is about ready too. Oh, Miss Isobel . . .' She set the large tray down and moved the teapot and the hot water just a fraction this

way and that, as if they weren't already set out correctly. `Our guest is really rather a lamb, don't you think? Pretty, but full of character too?'

'It all depends, Jane dear, what you mean by character. I had a feeling Andrew thought she might be just a little self-willed.'

'Oh now! Andrew is always cautious, isn't he? Still, that is why he has such sound judgment — ' Jane took herself to the other side of the table and sat down. 'He was very sceptical about Sheila, wasn't he? Then after a while I thought I saw him smiling much more than usual. I even thought — '

`Never mind what you "even thought", Jane dear. Sheila has returned to Pepper Tree Bay — by that beautiful Swan River — where no doubt she graces a very gay and lively social set. We have Juliet with us now.'

Jeckie had arrived in the doorway, and she had heard some of this conversation. It took all her self-control not to say: 'Jeckie, please! I'm never called Juliet.'

So Andrew had formed an opinion already, had he?

'Oh, there you are, child,' Aunt Isobel said. 'Come and sit down. Over there, next to Jane, please. That's right. We leave the top place for Andrew even though he has had his breakfast long since. He might have a second cup of tea presently.'

'Good morning, Aunt Isobel; I slept very well, thank you, so I'm not tired any more. Oh, isn't that bougainvillea gorgeous!'

Aunt Isobel looked at the girl. 'I had not yet asked how you slept, Juliet,' she said, lifting the teapot. 'Will you have your tea with the cereal, or do you prefer to wait?'

Jeckie suddenly felt dashed. Why do I always start oft on the wrong foot? I always say the wrong thing.

Aunt Isobel saw her catch her bottom lip, then shake her head as if to shake away some unhappy shadowy thought.