a Breed of Women by Fiona Kidman Read Free Book Online Page B

things, and anyway it was a break for Mary seeing a few other faces besides his own. He knew the locals called him ‘a right wallah’ but it was rather flattering; he enjoyed that Sadly for Gerald, it was as close to being a ‘right wallah’ as he’d ever get.
    As they were about to leave, Jim suddenly said, ‘Why doesn’t Harriet stay here? You always take Cinderella away before the ball begins.’
    There was a general clamour of agreement.
    ‘Oh, I don’t think …’ Mary began.
    ‘Harriet’s studying,’ said Gerald, with what might have been a hint of pride.
    ‘Time she had a break, then,’ said Doris. ‘We’ll look after her.’
    Doris Collier had been good to Mary ever since that disastrous miscarriage. She had gone out of her way to be kind, sensing in Mary a frailty that she had never shared. In an odd way Doris understood that only some quite extraordinary sense of endurance kept Mary going from day to day in the cowshed and on the land and these traits had won more than passing respect for her.
    Mary looked at Harriet, obviously hoping that she would come home, for to challenge Doris’s promise to look after her would have seemed ungrateful, to say the least.
    ‘Thank you,’ said Harriet suddenly. ‘I’d love to stay.’
    ‘Good,’ said Doris. ‘Jim’ll walk her home, won’t you Jim?’
    ‘Yeah,’ said her son stolidly, staring ahead and forgetting his talk about his balls. Aced by this suitably convincing demonstration by all concerned, Mary and Gerald could only nod mutely in agreement.
    ‘Well, that’s all right then,’ said Mary. ‘I wouldn’t like her wandering round in the dark.’
    Oh, if you only knew, thought Harriet. The nights by the river had become a part of her life. She had never again had anything but quiet night prowls after the first contact with God, and although she had been disappointed that it hadn’t happened again, she was more thana little relieved that she had not been lumbered with a permanent Bernadette or Lourdes undertaking.
    Probably just as well. Lately she’d begun thinking that ‘it’ had got something to do with the voice from the sky, though she failed to see the connection. Nowadays when she went for her walks at three or four o’clock in the morning, she contemplated the mysteries of ‘it’ more than she thought about God. When she considered the whole subject, Jim entered her thoughts more often than she supposed he really should.
    After her parents had gone home she continued to sit quietly. The party started to liven up and old man Collier, who was getting a bit shaky these days, started up a few rounds of ‘Mockingbird Hill’, after which Jim got them all singing ‘Roll Me Over in Clover’.
    When they were all going strong, Harriet went over to him and said she wanted to go home.
    ‘Bloody hell, kid,’ said Jim, annoyed. ‘Why didn’t you go with your folks if you wanted to leave this soon? We’re just starting to warm up.’
    ‘It doesn’t matter, then,’ replied Harriet. ‘I’ll say goodnight to your mother.’
    ‘Now wait a minute — I said I’d walk you home and walk you home I will. I don’t go back on my word.’
    Outside, the night was soft and fluttering. They walked alone in silence. At last Harriet said, ‘I’ll be leaving here soon.’
    ‘Go on, where you heading then?’
    ‘I don’t know yet,’ said Harriet.
    ‘Your folks’ll miss you.’
    ‘They don’t know yet. You won’t tell them, will you?’
    ‘What’s it worth?’ asked Jim automatically.
    ‘I never told on you,’ said Harriet.
    Jim stopped in his tracks. He was quiet for a minute, then said, ‘You was supposed to forget that ever happened. I was in a bad way right then, what with being left high and dry like then by my missus. You got no right to go reminding a man he done it like that.’
    ‘But I didn’t forget, did I? And I have reminded you.’
    ‘You’re not trying to be smart, are you? Remember I told you, you don’t want