Ginger In Australia

Chapter 3

An Invitation to the Races

Ginger idled away the next day on the sofa resting his ankle as penance for the previous day's overexertion. When Vera collected him he was pleased to be able to have something to do and somewhere to go.

Ginger introduced Vera and his hostess but sensed immediate antagonism. Georgia was curt but polite with the older women as they left and Vera remarked on it as they drove away.

"You seem to have upset her," she observed knowingly.

Ginger stared at her in amazement. "I can't think why," he remarked. "It was more the other way round." He blushed. "She has some rather strange ideas about me," he added uncomfortably.

Vera looked at him steadily and laughed. "You really don't understand women all that well, do you?" she told him, amusement colouring her voice.

Ginger shook his head. "You're right," he averred, "I don't understand women at all."

Vera changed the subject and asked him if he would like to come to the races the following week.

"It's the Cup," she explained. "The first Tuesday in November's a holiday. Everybody goes. It will be a good day out. Have you been racing in England?"

"Yes, I've been several times. The last race meeting I visited was at Newmarket, but I was working. We stopped some illegal traffic smuggling criminals in and out of the country from there,1" admitted Ginger. "There are two racecourses; the July course and the Rowley Mile. Wide open spaces and very flat, both of them. The wind whistles across the Rowley Mile as though it comes straight from Siberia. Some of the races start so far away, even the commentator can't see the runners," he added, grinning.

She looked at him to see if he was joking. "Seriously," he assured her. "The courses were designed so that the races could be followed by people on horseback and in carriages. You often get no sort of a view from the grandstand, except at places like Chester, which is only a mile round and where you can watch from the city wall without even having to pay."

"You'll find this very different, then," she informed him as they drew up at the restaurant.

Over the Italian meal, their conversation was wide-ranging. Almost against his will, Ginger found himself telling Vera about Jeanette2 and wondered why he felt compelled to put the record straight. Perhaps it was because talking to a stranger was easier than unburdening himself to people who knew him well; perhaps it was because he felt rather lost and lonely so far away from the comradeship he was used to and Vera was a good listener who, moreover, had shared a similar experience; or perhaps it was because he was still disturbed by what Georgia had implied, he did not know. Vera listened to him sympathetically as he revealed a side of him few people knew, although he divulged nothing about what had happened on the beach, other than that was where he had proposed to Jeanette. Vera was surprised yet secretly pleased that he had decided to confide in her something that was not common knowledge. "Love is a very much overused word," he commented when he had concluded his tale. "When it happens, it really changes your life."

"And you've never felt you wanted to make an emotional commitment to anyone else," she murmured understandingly, as they sipped their coffee.

Ginger nodded. "It was something unique and special." He sighed. "I suppose I felt I'd had my fingers burned and didn't want the same thing to happen again," he rationalised his reaction.

She looked at his hands from the association of ideas, although she realised he had not meant the phrase literally. They were smooth, not overly large and rather square with well-manicured nails. Ginger saw the direction of her gaze and smiled. "Only figuratively," he commented with a rueful grin.

He glanced at his watch. "I mustn't keep you up late," he murmured apologetically. "I know you have to work."

She took her cue and dropped him off outside Georgia's house with the arrangement that she would pick him up early the following Tuesday morning to take him to the races where they could have a picnic lunch. Ginger thanked her for her company and she put the car in gear.

"See you Tuesday," she called as she drew away.

Ginger waved as she disappeared, then turned and went into the house.

1 See Biggles Learns Something in Biggles Flies To Work

2 See Biggles Fails To Return and The Rite Of Passage