Виктория Холт - The Pride of the Peacock

“Well,” he asked, ‘been feeling the public pulse ?"

 "Yes,” I replied. There’s a lot of talk going on.”

“Naturally. There always is.”

This is about Ezra and the Green Flash. “

“I don’t see the connection.”

“People evidently think there is one.”

What have you discovered? “

“It’s being whispered that Ezra stole the Green Flash because Isa wanted it. It would have been his for a while and because of this the legendary bad luck sent him to Graver’s Gully at the precise moment when the bushranger was there.”

I saw the tightening of his lips and the steely look I dreaded come into his blue eyes.

“Nonsense,” he said.

“Absolute nonsense.”

“At least,” I went on, looking straight at him, that’s one theory. “

He shrugged his shoulders impatiently and I thought: How far is he involved? Was he the one who had taken the Green Flash from its hiding place that he might give it to his mistress ? How far had his infatuation led him ?

I felt sick and afraid.

I sat on the terrace as I often did when I returned from town and Mrs. Laud and Lilias would bring me out a drink. It was usually Lilias’s homemade lemonade.

On this day Mrs. Laud brought it.

‘you look disturbed,” she said.

“Has anything upset you?”

“No, not really. But I wish we could solve this mystery of Ezra Bannock. He was such a genial man.”

“Is there really a mystery? Wasn’t it a bushranger? His purse was stolen after all.”

"Yes, I know. “

‘you don’t seem to think that’s what happened. “

“It appears obvious, of course.”

"You’re worried. You mustn’t let all this upset you, Mrs. Madden. I get quite concerned about you.“

"You’re always so kind and helpful, Mrs. Laud. You have been ever since I came out here. “

“Well, why not? And you the mistress of the house. I think you should put all this out of your mind. That would be the best way.”

“I can’t. Did you know that some people have an idea that the murder has something with Green Flash?"

” Whoever thought that ? “

There’s talk in the town. “But what could Mr. Bannock’s death possibly have to do with the Green Flash? It’s missing, isn’t it? Mr. Henniker put it somewhere and it’s been stolen.”

That’s the point-and perhaps we ought to do something about finding it.”

“How, Mrs. Madden?”

“Make every effort. The Green Flash was stolen from this house. We should find out how and when it was taken. Mr. Madden’s against it. He doesn’t want enquiries about the Green Flash and old legends revived.

He doesn’t want people to think that opals are unlucky, which they always do when the Green Flash is talked of. “

“He’s right. Jimson says that sort of talk is bad for business.”

“We needn’t stress whether it’s lucky or unlucky. What I want is to find out the truth. I must know what’s happened to it.”

“What will you do, Mrs. Madden?”

“I’m not quite sure, but I’m going to start ferreting around.”

“By yourself?"

” If I can get help, I will. You might be able to help, Mrs. Laud. “

You can be sure I’ll do all I can. “

You know who came to the house. “

“Well, you saw at the treasure hunt-there are hundreds of them. People are in and out of Peacocks all the time.”

The fact; remains, Mrs. Laud, that someone came into this house, found the hiding place, and took the Green Flash. “

“You really think it could have been Mr. Bannock!”

“I find it hard to believe that of him. I liked him very much although I had known him such a short time. He seemed such a happy man. It doesn’t seem possible that he could have anything on his conscience.”

“Yes, that’s very hard to believe. So you’re going to start making enquiries."

” Discreetly, not openly-because Mr. Madden doesn’t want it. “

"No, I see he wouldn’t. ” She stopped suddenly as though she had said more than she had intended to.

Why? ” I asked sharply.

“He … er … wouldn’t want enquiries …” She looked a little distressed.

‘It's all about talk about opals being unlucky,” I said firmly.

“Oh yes, of course. That’s the sole reason. That’s what I meant, of course.”

She was protesting too much. I thought I understood what was in her mind. She knew of Joss’s infatuation for Isa. Isa was like one of those princesses in the fairy-tales of my youth. To win my favours you must bring me the . ” and then would follow the seemingly impossible task which the prince always accomplished in the end.

It was becoming obvious. She loved opals.

“I want my collection to be the finest in the world ..” How could it be if it lacked the peer of them all? "You must find it for me, bring it to me and then . my hand in marriage . ” Wasn’t that how it went in the fairy-tales?

But they had not been free for marriage. Isa was free now, though.

Joss wasn’t. not yet “You’re shivering suddenly,” said Mrs. Laud.

“Are you cold?”

“It’s nothing … someone walking over my grave, as they say at Home.”

She smiled at me strangely, enigmatically. I asked myself then: Are we thinking the same thing?

A few days later I made an alarming discovery.

During the last weeks the house had seemed to oppress me. I had the uncanny feeling that there was something there from which I must escape. I thought a great deal about Ben because his personality was stamped on Peacocks. Lately, I suppose because I was in a rather nervous state, I had fancied I sensed his presence there. I believed that if there had been a close bond between people it did not necessarily end with death. He was after all the only person who had really loved me. For a short while I had been happy in that love, and when he died I realized how alone and desolate I was. I suppose everyone longs to be loved, and those who do so most are those who have missed the good fortune of enjoying that which I have come to believe is the most desirable thing in life. My childhood had been loveless. I was an encumbrance from the first. My own mother had found life intolerable and had left me. I could not say that my life in Dower was unhappy because it was not in my nature to be unhappy, and in those days I had not missed what I had never known. In fact, it was having been loved and cherished by Ben that had taught me what I had missed. Perhaps that was why I felt this special bond between us, and I fancied that his spirit was in the house warning me in some way because I was in danger. Everything had certainly not turned out as he had planned it should. He had bound joss and me together, but such interference in the lives of other people could be dangerous. Had he really known how far Joss would go to get what he wanted? Had he ever thought that I might be the wife who was in the way of a ruthless man and because of this I could be in a situation of acute peril?

Who was it who crept up to my room at night and would on the last occasion have come in if the door had been unlocked? Why? For what purpose? Was it Joss? I believed it was. Had he come to plead with me to let us begin a new life together? No, he was too proud for that. He had always said he would not force himself on me. Then why? And what did it mean?

Was I right in thinking that there was some element in the house which was trying to warn me ?

So when I came in and found Peacocks quiet I often had the desire to get out of it. Sometimes I sat in the pond garden but more often I chose the peace of the orchard. There among the lemon and orange trees I could relax and think about my day at the offices and what I had learned. I would then admonish myself for my foolish fancies, and there among the oranges, lemons, and guavas I felt a return to common sense.

I had brought several books from the offices and these were teaching me a great deal of opal lore. I liked to take one of them to the orchard, find a shady spot and sit and read, as I did so memorizing facts with which I loved to startle people, in particular Joss. I could see that he was impressed, though he never said so, but there would be a certain lifting of the corners of his mouth and twinkle in his eyes. I found this very gratifying because I knew that I was arousing his grudging admiration.

It was there in the orchard that I made the discovery.

The grass was coarse and where the earth showed through it was brown and cracked. I suppose that was why the spot which has been aug up recently was noticeable.

Looking up from my book, my eyes went straight to it and I saw at once that the earth had been turned over and that something looked as though it was protruding. I studied it for a few seconds without moving. The sun caught it and it glittered like gold.

I went over. It was gold. As I pulled it out I was limp with horror, for what I had found was a red leather purse with a gold band, and I knew at once that it had belonged to Ezra Bannock, and that he had carried it with him when he was shot at Graver’s Gully.

Who had buried it in the orchard at Peacocks?

I could no longer stay in the orchard. I went to my room in a haze of horror and indecision.

I could not make up my mind what to do. The theory that a bushranger had shot Ezra was false. What bushranger would come to Peacocks, steal into the orchard in order to bury the purse there?

There seemed to be one answer to the mystery. Someone at Peacocks had killed Ezra Bannock and taken his purse to make it look like robbery and then buried the purse in the orchard.