The Plantation - Di Morrissey [13]
‘You look as though you play very seriously,’ said Margaret.
He gave a slight shrug. ‘My father tells me that if you do something, do it to the best of your ability.’
‘I’ve never played quoits, but I’d love to try,’ said Margaret, thinking that it couldn’t be very hard to throw a rope ring over a spike.
‘Excellent. We assemble up here in the late afternoon when the sun is off this deck. Say around four?’
‘Wonderful. I’ll see you here.’
‘Deck sports? Sounds exhausting,’ said Adelaide. ‘I’ll come and watch.’
‘You don’t have to, if you don’t want to. It’s a nice young crowd, I’ll be fine.’
Adelaide Monkton hesitated. ‘If you’re sure. Tonight might be a late evening. We’re the second sitting. I’d quite like a longish nap.’
Margaret thought about what to wear for the deck quoits. While she was not beautiful, she was attractive and made the most of her patrician looks, having an eye for the clothes that suited her tall figure. She settled on loose, wide-legged trousers, sandshoes, a navy-and-white striped maillot top and the perky white sunshade she used for tennis.
Arriving on deck she found two other girls in shorts and another who wore a long skirt and a halter-neck top. Already their fair skin had turned a blushing pink and, with several more weeks at sea, Margaret imagined they’d be having trouble with sunburn.
‘I’m from Queensland, I’m used to the sun,’ she told one of the girls.
‘You’re so lucky. I’m dreading the Australian sunshine in one way but it will be nice to get away from the rain. We’ve had a dreadful winter.’
‘Do you all know each other, or have you met on board?’ asked Margaret, wondering at the camaraderie of the group.
‘Our families are friends, and those two chaps know each other from school,’ answered one of the English roses.
The game got underway and Margaret was elated at being on Roland Elliott’s team. He was tall, tanned and handsome. He had a pencil-thin moustache, just like Ronald Coleman, and was older and more sophisticated than the chinless wonders she’d met in England. He seemed to be a person who radiated natural authority, which she found quite attractive. Their team won the best of three matches.
He shook her hand. ‘Well done, partner. You had some good throws there.’
‘No, that was luck,’ said Margaret lightly and he laughed.
As they walked to a table on the verandah terrace, where jugs of iced water and cool handcloths were set out, Margaret thought that the two of them made a handsome pair. Both were tall, athletic looking, with similar colouring, and fine fair hair.
‘I say, is everybody coming for sundowner stengahs? We can meet in the bar off the music room,’ said Roland as the group prepared to leave the deck.
‘It sounds delightful. What exactly is a stengah?’ asked Margaret.
‘You Australians! It’s whisky and water. But you could have something else. A G and T, or a BGA, a gimlet, that sort of thing,’ said Roland. ‘Gin and tonic, brandy ginger ale, gin and lime,’ he added.
‘Oh, of course. I’d love to. I believe we’re seated together at dinner.’
‘Good show. See you later then.’ He strode away.
That evening Adelaide watched Margaret pat her hair into place and smooth the bias-cut satin evening gown with its ruched bodice. Diamanté buckles held the straps at her shoulders. Adelaide handed her a finely embroidered shawl, as much for modesty as warmth.
‘You’ll need this. I’m glad you’ve met some nice sociable young people.’
‘Not that young, Adelaide. They’re a very sophisticated group. Mostly English and Scottish. Mr Elliott must be at least thirty-two.’
‘I’ll meet you in the first class dining lounge when the gong goes for dinner,’ said Adelaide as Margaret twirled out of the cabin.
It was the same group in the bar that she’d met at deck quoits as well as some other couples she’d seen at the pool. Everybody was smartly dressed. Margaret felt they all looked as though they had posed for a magazine advertisement for an expensive cigarette or vermouth, where gentlemen in dinner jackets and women in clinging movie-star gowns smoked cigarettes with an ivory holder and