Desert Barbarian

Marie followed her back to the kitchen and helped to get out the cups and saucers while Jess put on the coffee and found some shortbread in a tin.

'How do you feel about country life?' Jess asked her.

'I'm not sure,' Marie confessed. 'Actually, I was think­ing of getting a job. I've never done any work, but I think it's time I started. The trouble is, I've had no train­ing at all. I've a sound education, but in the practical sense I have very little to offer an employer. Perhaps I'll learn shorthand and typing.'

Jess turned to study her thoughtfully, the shortbread tin open in her hand.

'Do you like kids?'

Marie looked blank. 'I suppose so. But I couldn't teach—I wouldn't know how.'

Jess shook her head. 'No, I'm not looking for a' teacher —just someone to look after Jeremy while I work.'

'Jeremy?'

'My little boy. He's four years old, too young to go to school, but too active to be left in the care of anyone like my mother, who's seventy years old and past child care.' Jess grimaced at her. 'You see, I made the mistake of getting pregnant a few months before my husband was killed in a car crash. I'd barely got over the shock of being pregnant when my husband was killed. We'd been married for years and frankly I thought I couldn't have kids. I was too busy to worry about it much, but Dave always wanted a child, and I was glad for him that I was going to have one. Then he was killed and I had to bring up Jeremy on my own. Out here in the country that wasn't too hard. I looked after him myself when he was a baby. It was easy to paint while he slept in his pram.

Once he started getting about under his own steam it got more difficult, then a woman in the village half a mile away offered to have him for a few hours every day. He goes down to her at ten o'clock and I fetch him back at four, so that gives me a clear working run of six hours. She has two kids of her own, so I think he enjoys it more there anyway. He likes company.'

'Children do,' Marie agreed.

Jess sighed. 'Yes, but the trouble is, what happens when I go to India? I can't leave him behind. I would hate to do that, anyway. I thought I might find someone locally to look after him, but if you would consider the job I would be very grateful.'

Marie stared at her incredulously. 'You want me to look after your son while you're in India?'

Jess nodded. 'You could share our house. They're giving me a house of my own, they tell me. I would pay you, of course. I don't know what the market rate is for jobs like that, but we could find out.'

Marie thought about it and felt a sudden excitement at the idea. She had never

been to India. She would love to see it, to live there and be part of the life for a while. Cautiously, she said, 'I've had no experience, you realise.'

Jess shrugged. 'Neither had I had when I had him first. I was a total novice, but I managed. It's common sense, that's all. You just keep him busy and amused all day. Your evenings will be your own, of course—I'll take over whenever I'm not working. There'll be no housework to do because they've promised me someone to do all that.'

'They?' asked Marie curiously.

Jess laughed. 'I'm sorry, I forgot you don't know. I'm going out there at the invitation of the King of Jedhpur. He's just opened a National Wild Life Park on the plain of Massam outside his capital, Lhalli, and he's paying me to paint these pictures. He intends to publish a glossy book on the subject, and also hopes to sell prints of my pictures to the tourists they hope to attract.' She grinned. 'He's a very ambitious young man. His country is poor, but he thinks they can make money through this Nat­ional Park.'

'And you'll live out in the park?' Marie was not sure she liked the sound of that. It sounded rather dang­erous.

Jess shook her head. 'No, I'll have a house in Lhalli, they say. But there's a stilt house out in the marshes by the river which I can use to do sketches in… they have it all worked out.' She smiled at Marie. 'Well? What do you think?'

Marie took a deep breath. 'I'll come,' she said.

Jess gazed at her, amused. 'You make decisions as sud­denly as your mother!'

'Why not?' Marie said lightly. 'I need a job. I need to work, and I believe in fate. You've offered me just what I was looking for.'

'All the same,' Jess warned, 'you'd better discuss it with your parents before you give me a firm answer.'

'I will,' Marie promised. 'I'll talk to them when they're together. Don't mention it just yet. I'd rather tell them my own way.'

Jess eyed her thoughtfully. 'I see. Just as you say…'

Clare came down a few moments later, drank coffee, refused a piece of shortbread and had a short discussion with Jess over the price of the cottage. By the time they left the deal was settled. Tom Tit Cottage had changed hands, bar the shouting.

Next day, as Clare poured out the details to James in his room at the nursing home, Marie listened patiently, awaiting her chance to break her own news to them.

When she did tell them, Clare was visibly shocked. 'But you can't leave home just when…'