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‘I could do,’ he said seriously, ‘with some Banana Flambe myself.’

‘Perhaps Miss Cope——’ began Paddy.

‘Perhaps you would like to keep your conjectures to yourself.’

It did not take long to descend the valley, though it did take a lot of concentration. John pronounced triumphantly that they rounded four entire mountains before they finally reached the plantation.

But once there it was worth every applied minute. The days here came sparklingly fresh, laced with the tang of the sea not very far away, the lovely banana coast, warm with hillsides drowsing in the sun, cool from mountains with battalions of trees rising sheer from the valley bottom.

Then the banana palms! Up they climbed and down they dipped, shining green trees with great hands of fruit ripening under silver, clear and blue bags, the heat and humidity of these bags forming a personal ‘hot house’ for each giant bunch. The silver, Paddy learned, was to prevent the very hot summer burning of fruit, the clear to enable the grower to judge the maturity for harvesting purposes without opening the bag, and the cornflower blue was all purpose and all seasons.

The man who came in to keep an eye on the plantation told Paddy ruefully that banana growers had to have weak heads and strong backs, both very necessary when you made bananas your job. But he said it with a laugh, and Paddy knew he would not have changed for the world. He let the boys operate the flying fox, a means of delivering bunches to the packing sheds by wires. These strong wires were fastened to posts outside the packing shed, and, at the opposite end, to another post or tree stump. The boys had rides up and down, but Richard, descending, got stuck some metres above the ground level, and, waiting to be rescued, spent his time pelting the others with the ripest fruit he could find. When Paddy discovered that banana stain was impossible to remove, she stopped all that.

But it was a wonderful break. All she had felt when Magnus had first brought her here flooded back again. The house was full of friendly ghosts; she almost found herself talking to them.

She had brought Magnus’s mother’s banana cookbook, and soon the boys were as keen on banana meat pie and banana casserole as they were on Mrs Dermott’s more orthodox things. She was making banana curry the morning Magnus came down.

Paddy’s first thought was Anthea, who presumably would be with him; she simply could not see Anthea liking banana curry.

But Magnus was alone, and Magnus evidently did. He stood at the door and he sighed ecstatically: ‘Shades of Steak Diane and Burgundy Veal—give me any hour, any day, any year, banana curry. Paprika, coriander, chilli, and, of course, bananas. Oh, that smell! I could almost love you for it, girl.’

‘Thank you,’ said Paddy. She added cautiously: ‘I suppose I do say thanks?’

‘It all depends, doesn’t it?’ But he said it carelessly, and they didn’t follow it up. ‘How have the boys been?’ he went on.

‘Drinking up every moment. I think you might have lost a book-keeper and a jockey, not to mention several strappers.’

‘But gained some banana growers?’

‘Weak heads and strong backs,’ she laughed.

‘Oh, so you heard that.’

‘Have you come to take us home?’ she asked.

‘Yes, but not till tomorrow. I’ll stay the night here myself.’

‘Anthea ’ She must have gone, Paddy was thinking thankfully.

‘She’s all right. I’ve managed to get a housekeeper. Those club dinners were getting me down. Don’t I look thinner?’

‘It could be the dancing,’ Paddy suggested.

‘It couldn’t be, I didn’t dance. But I think’ ... a cocked ear and a smile ... ‘I could be persuaded to now. Where in Betsy did the boys find the old phonograph?’

The music, shrill and tinny yet oddly sweet, came hopping in from the next room. It was
The Blue Danube,
and apart from a hiccough now and then it still rang true.

‘According to my programme, you promised me this waltz,’ Magnus bowed.

‘Strange,’ frowned Paddy, ‘I distinctly remember giving it to Sir Basil.’

‘The pox to Sir Basil, you promised me.’ He took her in his arms and began moving round the room to the delighted applause of the boys who had come to the door to watch.

They played games after dinner, games people did not play now, Consequences with outrageous happenings to friends and acquaintances being disclosed at the unfolding of closely scribbled sheets, after that finding things and spinning things and doing things that belonged to this old house and belonged to then, not to new houses and now.

‘It’s been wonderful,’ Paddy said when it was all over.

‘For me as well,’ Magnus nodded.

‘A pity ’

‘Yes?’

But Paddy would not finish it. She blurted: ‘I forget what I was going to say.’

‘I don't think you do, but if you want it like that, then forget. Well, forget, anyway, until you remember.’

Remember September! It was not said, but it was as distinct in the old room as though it had been spoken, spoken loud and clear.

They stood silent a moment, then Magnus turned, called ‘Goodnight, all,’ and went to his room. At the other end of the house, the boys between them, Paddy went to hers.

They went back to Yoothamurra the next day, and it all began again. The silence in the master unit, the very occasional glimpses of the occupants, especially now that there was someone cooking for Anthea and Magnus and Paddy no longer glimpsed them leaving at night for the club.

The Plateau Plate was approaching, and an air of excitement was taking over the sleepy top of the hill ... top of four hills, Paddy corrected herself.

Horses never seen here before were being exercised, for interstate entrants were arriving continuously^ to be stabled wherever a niche could be found for them, and then acclimatised. Yoothamurra itself had provided boxes for three. Clusters of cars could be seen every day. Most of the participants stayed on the coast and travelled
up, but
a
few
camped, and some of the smaller studs, glad of a sideline, accommodated the rest.

Cup fever took over, and Richard ... after all, he was nearly a man ... got it badly.

‘The fellers tell me it’s wonderful at the club, of a night,’ he told Paddy once.

‘Yes, it would be extra bright now.’

‘I’d love to go.’

‘Well, Richard, I don’t think Mr David would object.’

‘He wouldn’t—he said so. It isn’t that.’

‘Money?’ asked Paddy.

‘I’ve saved up.’

‘Then?’

‘A bird—I’m sorry, Paddy, a girl.’

‘That’s better,’ she smiled.

A pause. A long one.

‘You
are a girl,’ Richard pointed out.

‘True.’

‘Would you come with me?’

‘Oh, Richard dear, I’m too old for you.’

‘Oh, I know that,’ said Richard cruelly, though no doubt unconscious of any cruelty, ‘but the fellers say a man looks a fool without a bird—I mean without a girl.’

‘I’m sure you could get lots of girls,’ Paddy told him.

‘Maybe, but where?’

‘There’ll be plenty at the club.’

‘Yes, but I have to get there first, haven’t I, without looking that fool the fellers said.’

‘Richard, I do believe you are proposing to take me, then dump me!’ she smiled.

‘Well, Paddy, you’re good-looking enough to get plenty of men yourself.’

‘You really think so?’ Paddy laughed, but she listened with woman-keenness for his reply.

‘You’re all right,’ he said.

'Then, Sir Galahad, my answer to you is Yes.'

‘You’ll come?’

‘I said so.’

‘No kidding?’

‘You watch for me tonight!’

Because he was young and because such things matter to these young, Paddy put on
everything.
When she saw Richard’s face, she knew the effort had been worthwhile.

‘I reckon,’ said Richard, ‘those young girls can look elsewhere.’

‘A pity for you, then, because
I’ll
be looking elsewhere.’

Richard grinned and led the way to the old roadster he had borrowed from another hand.

The club was certainly much more alive than it had been when Magnus had brought her. Richard, after a horrified glance at the menu, thankfully accepted Paddy’s plea that she was not hungry and that a sandwich would be fine, and very soon, in spite of his declaration about young girls, found himself in the middle of them.

Paddy sat back and prepared to enjoy herself watching the floor. She did not watch long. Kip came up to her.

‘Padua, where have you been hiding yourself? I haven’t seen you for days.’

‘We went down to the valley, Kip, but apart from that it’s been awkward. We had the Trust up, and then Anthea Cope decided to stay on. She’s still here.’

‘Is she now?’ he said without any show of interest, and lit a cigarette. ‘I’ve missed you,’ he told her. ‘Shall we dance?’

‘No, I don’t think so. You see, Magnus David saw through your ruse last time.’

‘Is he here now? Surely not. Surely he’s not parted from Miss Cope?’

‘No,’ said Paddy, aware, and angry, at a hurt as she admitted it, ‘Richard brought me. As he’s still only a child I hardly think ’

‘Of course, dear, I understand perfectly.’ Kip was being very nice, but then he was nice. ‘That’s Richard there, isn’t it?’

‘Yes.’

‘He’s having the time of his life. That little peach is a strapper at Lewin’s Stud. Lewin employs girls. Pretty kid, isn’t she?’

‘Very.’ Paddy tried but did not succeed in concealing a sigh.

‘Not jealous, surely?’ Kip asked.

‘No, tired, and by the look of Richard ’

‘You’re not going to budge him, you’re thinking? Well, why budge him? Why not beckon him over and tell him you have another way to get home so he’s on his own? I’m sure he’d appreciate that.’

‘Yes, I believe he would. But Kip, don’t stand around while I do it, you know how Standen is considered by Yoothamurra.’

‘I know,’ Kip laughed, and strolled away.

When Paddy told Richard he was at first very righteous and offering to leave, but quite soon, at Paddy’s insistence, anxious to stay on.

‘I really am tired, Richard. And here, take this.’ Paddy pressed some dollar notes on him. After all, it was his first night out with any girl.

‘Oh, Paddy!’ Richard said.

Kip had his car door open, and they drove slowly back in the perfumed night.

‘Exciting time, isn’t it?’ They were passing a paddock that had been turned over to camping, and already the tents were thick.

‘Very,’ agreed Paddy. ‘And to think one of our visitors ... I’m meaning the four-legged variety now ... may take out the Plateau Plate, and neither your Peerless Prince nor our Into the Light be the victor after all.’

‘Possible, but very unlikely. Our boyos have the advantage of being on their own home ground. Besides, their times are superb.’

‘Yes, you would know that,’ smiled Paddy in the darkness, ‘I saw you one day with your stopwatch timing Into the Light.’

‘Thank you, then, for not telling on me.’ Kip had stopped the car to light a cigarette, but he leaned over first and kissed her. It was funny how it meant nothing, Paddy thought, and evidently, by its lightness, meant little to him as well.

‘You’ve been a great kid,’ Kip went on. ‘Look at the web of deceit you spun for me.’

Paddy stirred uneasily. Kip’s voice was bright, but there was something as well as brightness there. A kind of—warning? Keep doing what you’ve already done, it seemed to say, or

‘Kip ’ she began.

‘Darling?’

‘I ’ But Paddy could not find the words.

Kip could though. He said in that same voice again: ‘Keep being that great kid, Padua. When I think of what you’ve done ’

‘Have I?’

‘Oh, yes,
indeed you have.'

‘But
what. Kip?’

He would not tell her. He took her to the gate of Yoothamurra and let her out.

‘If I don’t manage to see you before the Plate, may the best nag win,’ he grinned.

‘Not nag, Kip.’

‘No, sweetest, may the best of the bunch ... and Prince and Light ... win. I think I know which, don’t you?’ He winked.

She watched him go off, then went into the house, vaguely, inexplicably uneasy. She stood at the window waiting for his car to turn the bend to Standen, but though she stood for ten minutes that never happened.

He could not have turned it before she reached the window, she thought, it took longer than that, it took quite a while. She would not have been any time reaching her room and crossing to the window.

It was then she saw it, a very brief flash of light, then no light at all. It came from the stables. She stood waiting, but it never happened again, so she must have imagined it all.

She started to prepare for bed, but she felt terribly on edge, oddly nervous. Why hadn’t she seen Kip’s car turn the bend?

There was no guard at the stud, it was something that Magnus had stated for anyone to hear that he was reluctant to begin. They had never had anything happen like the things that happened in the city. Also, although the staff accommodation was close, the windows faced the opposite direction—intentionally so, Magnus had said; a man does not want to look on his hours off at what he looks at while he’s at work.

Suddenly, not fully aware of what she was doing, Paddy was taking off the dress she had worn to impress Richard and putting on jeans instead, pulling over a shirt.

She found a torch, and went silently down the stairs and out of the house. Across to the stud. If for one minute she had thought about it, she would not have done anything so illogical, so incautious, so obviously ill-advised. .

But Paddy did not think. She simply went.

Everything was obscure. At this time of the month the moon was a mere sliver, not even, as Mark, standing earlier by the window with her, had remarked, a shred of lemon. The stars, too, were covered with cloud, for up here it usually rained at some time in the dark hours producing later those unbelievably freshly washed mornings. Paddy thought longingly of morning now, she was not at all keen on this black adventure. However, she knew the way and she was knowledgeable about each paddock, so it could have been worse. Quite frankly the worst thing just now was her strengthening idea that she was being an idiot. Since that initial flicker of light there had been nothing else. Paddy hesitated, then went to turn back. But at once she was walking forward again, for the light had flicked briefly a second time, and she suspected ... no, she felt certain ... it would be Kip. Somewhere along the lane in a thicket of trees she knew had she looked she would have found his car waiting while he—while he She moved more quickly now, she was not going to an assassin, a thief, she was going to Kip to ask him why.
Why.