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“Oh, Marcus, Marcus!” cried Carolan.
“How clever you are!”
“I am, am I not!” He laughed.
“My experiences have taught me how to be clever. And do you know, my darlings, it has taught me something else the astonishing fact that honesty is the best policy.”
“Oh, Marcus! How glad I am!” cried Esther.
“Everything that happened to you is worth while if it has brought you to that way of thinking.”
Marcus smiled and caressed Esther’s hand.
“Sweet Esther!” he murmured.
“How right you are! From now on… when I get to Tom, that is … I shall be perfectly honest. Why not? There are opportunities in a land like this; do you not sense it? Do you not feel it? Here there is a certain equality among men, which was missing in England. Once I can throw off the convict’s taint I will be an honourable man. This is God’s country… His own country, for it is a country made for men to be free and happy in. Here the sunshine is more beautiful than at home. I see a great country here … not yet, but later. On the other side of the mountains I can feel there is grass for millions of sheep, and not to be stored in barns for winter either, but growing here under the sky all the year round.”
Jin, the gipsy, watched him with wide eyes and parted lips. She would have run away with him there and then, had he asked her. Poll listened, plucking at her apron; she did not understand what he said, but it was pleasant to hear him talk, and when his roving eyes fell on her, there was a tenderness in them that she had not had from anyone else in the whole of her life not from haughty Carolan who had made a doll for her, nor from the man who had so briefly been her lover.
Carolan was aware of the effect he had on them all. Marcus, philanderer and thief, the most charming man in the world! All the time he talked, his fingers were on her arm, pressing lightly, urgently. His eyes told her he loved her, and behind this talk of grass and sheep was the picture of their home together on some station not far from Sydney. He conjured up in her mind complete pictures of their riding together, of their living together.
She wanted Marcus, and she thought that everything that had gone before was worth while when set against that picture of them on the station together.
“You pla
“You were pla
“Tom used to come to see me in Newgate,” he answered.
“We worked it out.”
“He sent the money for the privileges you enjoyed!” said Carolan.
“Who else? And it was my money, darling.”
“It will be your money he brings out.”
He touched her cheek tenderly.
“It will buy us a place in the sun, in the su
“When will you go to Tom?”
“We have to go cautiously.”
“You will manage it, Marcus. You are so clever.”
“I shall certainly manage it. And when I am with Tom we shall need some young women about the house. Tom and I were never ones for the pots and pans!”
“Marcus! Marcus!”
Esther said shyly: “Oh, Marcus!”
“One word in your ear,” put in Margery.
“What about Mr. Masterman?”
“What about him?” said Carolan lightly, reminded of him suddenly, and hating and fearing him scarcely at all.
“He is a power in the city. Do you think you can pull wool over his eyes?”
“I have heard of this Masterman,” said Marcus.
“A beast!” said Carolan vehemently.
“A coldblooded beast!”
“I would rather have you in a house with a coldblooded beast than a hot-blooded one!” He turned to Margery: “You think he will not let these two go?”
“I’m sure he would not. He is all against the sort of thing you think of doing, young man. And let me tell you this he has quite a lot to say as to the way things are run in this town.”
“He would be “All for Justice”!” cried Carolan.
“He would hate it if anyone did not pay the full pound of flesh.”
“Do not forget he is the master!” said Margery.
“Master!” cried Carolan.
“Master!”
Marcus gripped her hands tightly.
“We must wait of course. I talk impetuously. I lose my head because I am so glad to see you again.”
“Marcus,” said Carolan, ‘you have not been too unhappy then since we arrived?”
“My unhappiness has been in not seeing you.”
“I am so glad. Those triangles! I wish I need never see another as long as I live!”
“There shall be none on our station.”
“Our station!”
“Yes,” he said.
“Ours. Yours and mine and Esther’s… and shall we remove the whole of Mr. Masterman’s kitchen staff to work for us?”
From under his lashes he threw glances at them all; he saw, and Carolan saw too, the quivering excitement of them. He had been incautious. This was the way to ensure their secrecy; they would not babble of his affairs if they thought of sharing in his adventure. Whether he meant what he said, she did not know. Could one ever be sure that Marcus meant what he said ? He was clever. Clever, clever Marcus! And she did not care whether he meant what he said or not. She only cared that he was back with her again.
He stood up suddenly.
“There calls my Clementine! It would never do to keep her waiting. Au revoir! Remember I shall see you again soon.”
He kissed Carolan, then Esther. Then with an audacity which completely won her heart, he kissed Margery. He bowed to Jin; he bowed to Poll. Then he leaped through the window. He stood for a half second, smiling through the frame of the window at them. Then he was gone.
There was silence in the kitchen. They heard a voice say: “Where did you get to? I was a long time, I know; I certainly did not intend to stay so long.”
Then they heard his voice, but they did not hear what he said. I They listened to the sound of buggy wheels.
“Well, come on!” said Margery.
“We ain’t got all day. Jin, wake up, girl! Now then Poll! Good gracious me! We can’t waste half the morning entertaining visitors and the other half standing about like great big gabies!”
When it was time to serve the meal, Margery came over to Carolan.
“She sent for me.”
“She?”
“The mistress.”
“Oh?” Carolan was only half attending; her thoughts were with Marcus.
“She says she wants you to wait at table. She likes the look of you better than Jin. You’d better look sharp, lovey. Tidy yer halt a bit, and nip out to the pump.”
Carolan let the cold water trickle over her hands. A strange day. She felt that there was change in the air; anything might happen. Marcus might come riding over and take her away. It was a day when dreams might come true.
Margery called to her.
“Here. What are you doing out there? Does it take all day to wash your hands? Come here … quick!”
In the kitchen they were preparing a tray.
“She’s took suddenly queer,” explained Margery.
“It’ll be a tray took up to her room, she wants. The master ain’t home; he’s riding over to one of his stations. Here Jin! Get on, girl, get on! Unless you’d like the feel of the whip across that smug face of yours. Is that plate hot? Then get it hot, and sharp about it.”
“He’s away!” said Carolan.
“How long will he stay?”
“The questions! How am I to know? D’ye think he shares his little secrets with me? All I know is that when he rides over to the stations it’s often enough he don’t come back for days and nights at a stretch. Got that sauce, Poll? Why, if it was any other man I’d say there might be something more than his stations that was keeping him … but with him … Well, he’s only half a man, if you was to ask me. Come on, Jin, girl… Ain’t that plate hot yet?”
Carolan’s eyes were sparkling. He was away on business. It might be days and nights before he returned, and he had evidently not said a word about her escapade of the night before. It was truly a day when exciting things could not help happening.