Toby, 'acting on information received,' had that morning seen four men set a net on rough pasture outside the plantation fencing.
'What for?' Haidee asked, and was told for hares. They would be raised, driven into the net and taken away in boxes for use by coursing clubs.
She had closed her eyes, sickened, when a new thought occurred. Rory Hart on the side of the hares! It was incredible. She said so and he folded his wide lips. 'Nobody takes my hares without permission.'
It took a second to get through. Then it was plain. The leopard had not changed his spots. 'Are you saying you'd give permission?'
'I'm saying I haven't. I'm not having them on my land dropping cigarette ends and damaging fences.'
'And the hares? They don't come into it? You don't care about the hares?'
'In proportion. The way you should. If you would only think about it, Suzanne, control is a law of nature. If there were no guns and no traps weasels would still prey on rabbits and owls on mice and small birds. Species keep down species. What's the matter?' He had seen the despair in her face.
It was a very private despair. She shook her head.
'What's the matter?' he repeated. 'Say it. And put on your glasses, girl. I told you before you make me nervous without them.'
'It's nothing. Silly really. I thought-saving the hares was a-point of contact.'
He pointed. 'You-me, you mean?'
She nodded.
His face seemed to be buttoned against laughter. 'We can have that,' he assured her. 'Any time you like.'
His face, tanned, long-chinned and suddenly very serious, was magnetic. Hers seemed to go to meet it. They kissed strongly and at length. Amazingly she was neither scared nor affronted.
'You did that to distract me,' she said collectedly. 'Because you don't want to talk about the hares.'
'I'll give you one for that,' he returned. 'I don't want to talk about the hares, I just want to nab the blighters who are after them. Coursing makes me sick.'
'Makes you s...' Haidee's mouth fell open. 'Why couldn't you say that in the beginning?'
'Because I want you to be rational. I'll stamp on coursing and otter hunting. They revolt me. I will not go out waving my Beatrix Potter flag and looking at everything on legs as though it's human. I respect the wild life round here, but I don't sentimentalize over it. And that way-as you of all people should not need telling-I do it service. I control it, yes. When necessary-and humanely. More than that cat of yours does, and I get the impression he's still fairly popular with you. Strange.' The dig was unanswerable and his lips wore a quirk of triumph.
She couldn't but smile at it, thinking in passing that Toby had inherited his father's mobility of feature.
'Suzanne, I am very serious about this.' Rory's funny face had vanished. 'Animals are animals, people are people. Stop trying to know better. Our life together depends on it.'
'We don't exactly have a life together,' Haidee said jerkily. 'Not "for better, for worse, till death us do part" sort of thing.'
'That is exactly what we opted for,' he answered pertinently. 'And you are Toby's mother.'
'What are you trying to say?'
'That I'm tired of being on my own. I know I said I'd never risk it with you again, but the boy needs a woman and so do I.'
'You make it sound so romantic!' She could not justify the plunge her heart had taken. The tenderest and most loving words in the world could win no different reply. But need he be so brutally frank?
'It's meant to sound honest, a thing I haven't had too much of in the past,' he pointed out. 'I don't suppose to start our second try with a lie.'
'Don't worry.' Tension made the words pop from her lips. He looked inquiring.
'Our second try. Don't worry. It won't start.' She moved a strand of hair. 'Sorry, I couldn't. I did say so.'
She thought his face would cloud as it had on Sunday. It remained impassive. 'Your final word?'
'Absolutely.'
'In that case there's something else you'll have to do for me.' The eyes were very still, the voice steady. 'You'll have to let me petition for a divorce.'
The kitchen seemed to rock. She felt her eyes dilate. 'Are you serious?' He was, of course. And justly. For ten years he had lived with uncertainty. Here was an obvious chance to tie the loose ends.
'Perfectly,' he said coolly. 'I must put my house in order. As a matter of fact I've already had legal advice on having you presumed dead.' He halted sharply as Jennie came in, dressing-gowned and looking for a glass of milk.
It was three next morning before Haidee managed to sleep and at six-thirty she was wakened by Toby's excited voice and Rory peremptorily shushing it. The light of a torch swung as they crossed the car apron and made their way into the wood.
At something past seven Jennie in anorak, trousers and boots came to her room, 'In case you're looking for me, Suzanne, I'm. going to see what they're up to.'
It was the spur she needed. 'I won't be looking for you, Jen. I'm coming with you.'
It was an hour to sunrise and all the shadowed brakes seemed alive. Twigs crackled to the right and left and once a fir cone hurtled down from nowhere and bounced on the path ahead. To hide up and watch was tempting, for the night life of the forest was on its way home. But the other need was more pressing. Jennie led and Haidee followed, bewildered at times by the speed with which they dived under slapping branches.
The last dive brought them into vapoury dawnlight and wet grass. Below was a green mist-swirled amphitheatre. Jennie caught her arm and pointed. At the far end a net about sixty feet long and three feet high had been stretched on stakes. Figures moved along the sides of the pasture, figures with sticks and a dog. As they watched a hare chased desperately up field.
The rest was satisfying but undramatic. The Garda sergeant, known to Jennie who mentioned him by name, had obviously been waiting to see an animal trapped. He came forward now from wherever he had secreted himself but with no particular rancour. It might have been a parking offence. One of the accused produced a paper which was scrutinized and returned with a shake of the head. Then names were taken and finally the hare was freed. It was a big one, its coat greying for winter, and it went in one long-bodied streak, long ears flattened, dark-topped scut down.
'Big deal!' Jennie scoffed unkindly as she and Haidee made their way home. 'With the fuss Toby was making I thought at least they were taking pot shots at the deer.' Going home had been an added peeve. She had wanted to scramble down and join Rory, Toby and the sergeant who were now talking together.
'Toby's due a celebration breakfast and I don't want him late for school,' Haidee had skimmed adroitly over the truth that on her own it would take her twice as long to find the way.
It was fuel to the flame. 'Celebration breakfast! What for? Toby didn't do anything.' 'Oh, easy on, Jen. It was he spotted them yesterday and told Sergeant Murphy where to come.'
'How do you know?' The round of Jennie's face in the anorak was plump and pink. She answered her own question. 'Rory, I suppose. I think that's rotten, Suzanne. I asked and he wouldn't tell me.'
'Only because Toby was in the room,' Haidee said quickly.
'I'm not so sure,' Jennie returned sulkily. 'I think there's something fishy about you and Rory. Lots of people think so. Mrs. Ryan and Mrs. Byrne -'
'Jennie, have you been gossiping in the shops?'
Breeding, as she had half hoped it might, came to the fore. 'Oh well, no, not exactly,' Jennie looked shamefaced. 'But they both said he must be glad you were back. "Charmed" was the word, actually.'
'Water under the bridge would be better.' It took an effort to sound light. 'A lot of water. I might say a lot of choppy water. I stuck a knife in him once.'
'He still tells you things,' Jennie muttered.
'Yes,' Haidee acknowledged, to wit that he intended suing for divorce. The morning's events had temporarily ousted this. Now worry came flooding back. Jennie was helping none. This emotive reaction went far beyond the bounds of the situation. As Sunday's reaction to the comment that Rory was fond of her had done. Put two and two together and you got a pretty clear total.
Schoolgirl crush or not, love was there, revving up into jealousy and resentment and the darker areas of suspicion. So far it had contained itself in smouldering looks. There was no telling when they might blaze.
The carefully prepared breakfast was not an unqualified success.
'I've never seen so many hares,' Toby declared extravagantly, ladling cream on to peaches and fruit and nut cereal. 'I don't know how many, Johnny. 'Bout fifty. I'd an awful job getting them out of the net.'
Rory coughed warningly.
Jennie did more. 'You've sloshed the cloth, you stinking little liar!'