“Why,” she said, ‘anyone would think you had the Hash. “

“It is mine … by right. I share it jointly with my husband. Perhaps it knows that.” I saw the real fear in her eyes.

"Yes" I went on.

“It knows. See how it shines for me. It cc knows it is mine.”

“No, no. I’ve had it all this time. It’s not the one who owns it by law. It was meant to be mine. I’d never had anything very much before but with the Flash I had everything. It’s possession that counts. All this time ifs worked for me.”

“But not against me, Mrs. Laud. You made an accident for Tom Paling. You killed Ezra Bannock. You lured me to the stairs but see how I saved myself.

Then you tried the mine a and I was rescued. “

Her face had turned a pale grey.

You see,” I went on, ‘the Flash won’t hurt me because I’m’s the true owner. It’s mine, Mrs. Laud.”

"I'll never give it up. never,” she screamed.

“Look, Mrs. Laud, it’s only a piece of opal… silica deposited at some time in the rock. How can you attach special powers to that?”

She looked at me as though she did not understand what I was talking about.

“It’s done you a great deal of harm,” I went on.

“Don’t you see?” She stared at me blankly.

Oh, thank you. God, I prayed, I’m fighting off my sleepiness. I’m going to do it. I’m going to live. Keep her talking. Keep remembering that Joss is waiting for you and you are going to start to live as you never have before.

“You’ve become obsessed by a stone … by a legend … you’ve built all this up in your mind, but it doesn’t really exist.”

“How dare you call it just a stone. You haven’t lived with it. You haven’t held it in your hands. Look now …”

“Yes, let me see it. Let me hold it in my hands.”

She shook her head craftily.

“Oh no. You can see it from where you are. Look at it. It’s the sun going down into the sea. If you look closely you might catch a sudden flash of green. That’s what the sun does and that’s what my Green Flash does too.”

I was alert suddenly. I thought I heard sounds from below.

Someone was coming. I looked at her, but she was staring at the opal absorbed in the wonder of it and her own beliefs.

Waves of relief were sweeping over me. I believed I had won.

The door was flung open. Joss was there. Someone else was with him. It was Jimson.

Jimson cried out in a voice of anguish: “Mother.”

She stood up, her eyes on her son.

“You’ve brought him back,” she screamed. "Lilias did it before . and now you. My own children." “She stood up clutching the stone."

Joss’s eyes were on me and I stood up and tottered towards him, for now that the need to hold tightly to consciousness was no longer urgent I felt the waves of drowsiness too much to resist.

Joss caught me in his arms. He said my name twice. It was wonderful how much he could express by just that. He held me against him and I was content to stay there.

I heard Jimson’s voice, anguished, pleading: “Mother, I had to. I knew something was wrong.”

Joss said: “Give me what you’re holding in your hand, Mrs. Laud.”

Her agonized scream broke into my unconsciousness bringing me back into the room. There was silence which seemed to go on and on.

When I awoke from my drugged sleep I remembered it all vividly every intonation of her voice, every expression on her face.

Joss told me how she had cried out that she would never give up the Green Flash, and before they could stop her she had dashed on to the terrace.

When they picked her up from the stones below she was dead, but still clutching the Green Flash in her hands.

It was six months later when Joss and I went back to Oakland a new me, a new Joss. They had been a wonderful six months of discovery and adventure-the greatest adventure of all, being loved and loving.

Lilias had married Jeremy Dickson before we sailed. She son talked to me a great deal and told me how she and Jimson out both realized that their mother was verging on madness, though they had not guessed how far she had gone. They had not been aware of course that she had the Green Flash, I s; but they suspected that something had turned her brain. They had discovered that she played the spinet and this was what had so upset Lilias on that occasion when I had discovered her hysterically crying. Both she and Jimson, while being eager to protect their mother, had wondered what her motive had been. When I had had the accident on the stairs and had been lured to the mine they became very suspicious; and that was why Jimson, when he had heard that I had been left in cc a weak state with his mother, decided to tell Joss of his anxieties for my safety, which resulted in Joss’s speedy return to the house.

Lilias, in great distress, tried to explain to me, but I told her there was no need to. I understood perfectly. They had tried hard to protect their mother who had done everything for them when they had been helpless children. She had come to Peacocks, had worked for Ben, had loved him and hoped a to marry him. But Ben did not want marriage and she had had to content herself with a home for herself and her children. She had been a very conventional woman and the’s situation had worried her a great deal. I could imagine how she grappled with her conscience and how she might have quietened it by telling it she did what she did for her children’s sake. But it would have preyed on her mind, I realized, and she would have been constantly trying to make things right. If Lilias had married Joss she might have felt everything was worthwhile. That was certainly in her mind, Lilias told me, and it was the reason why she had tried to stop a match between her daughter and Jeremy Dickson.

Then she had discovered the Green Hash and the madness had set in. It had led her to maim Tom Paling, to murder Ezra and to attempt to kill me. Still, somewhere at the back of her mind must have been the idea that if I were not there Joss might marry Lilias, but her great fear was that I would find the Green Bash. She had been jealous of my mother and that had meant that she had been against me from the start.

But how well she had concealed her animosity, with her humility and her constant expressions of her desire to help me. It did not seem possible that she could be so devious, but I had come to the conclusion that there were really two Mrs. Lauds-the housekeeper eager to please and help run the house smoothly, and the madwoman whose mind had become deranged When the fascination of the Green Flash had caught her and made her its prisoner.

I was sorry for Jimson and Lilias, but Jeremy was about to comfort Lilias, and Jimson seemed to find a certain solace in his work.

And when Joss and I decided to go Home, it was due to the Green Flash.

I had talked this out with Joss and it was one of the matters over which we were in disagreement. There were, of course, many matters over which we disagreed and somehow that gave a stimulus to our life together.

Joss used to laugh when we argued fiercely.

“Well, I always knew I must expect fireworks from you,” he said.

“Fireworks make such a glorious blaze,” I retorted. "You must admit they’re exciting to watch. “

“I always enjoy them,” he answered.

“And they make the occasions when we do agree extra good.”

Of course everyone in the town was waiting for bad luck to strike us.

There’ll always be legend attached to that stone,” I said.

“Naturally, it’s unique.”

Joss liked to take it out and look at it.

“You’re getting obsessed,” I accused him.

“Nonsense. There’s only one thing in the world I’m obsessed with.”

"And that? “

"You know very well it’s you. “

“Oh Joss,” I cried, ‘you say such marvelous things sometimes.

Obsessions can be momentary, though. They often don’t last. “

There you are. Never satisfied. “

“Well, there was a time when you were obsessed by Isa Bannock.”

That was before you came. Everyone was obsessed by Isa. I fell in love with her when I was sixteen in common with everyone around here. “

“But you continued with the affair.”

“She seemed to expect it.”

“And you gave her the Harlequin Opal.”

“Ah, but only to spite you.1 hap ” Sometimes I hate you, Joss Madden."

“I know. It makes the times when you love just marvelous.” out He was serious suddenly.

“Forget Isa. It’s over. I behaved as I did because you wouldn’t have me. You scorned me … scorned the Peacock. Peacocks don’t like that. They get spiteful. “

"That was the cruel lest thing you did to give her the Harlequin.”

“I’m going to make up for it. I’m giving you something more valuable. The Green Flash.”

No, Joss. “

“Yes, you’ll forget that Harlequin incident then. I’m going to relinquish my share. Ifs yours. Ifs a thousand times more cc valuable than the Harlequin.”

“I’ve been meaning to speak to you about the Green Flash. I’m frightened of it.”

“You  Frightened of a stone?”

“Yes, I am. It ruined my mother’s life. It changed mine. Ezra died for it. Tom Paling nearly died … and so did I."

” You’re not going to let all that talk upset you. “

“I’m not thinking of myself, but my family … I won’t run a risks. There are some things which are too precious to be put in jeopardy.”

"Me? The child? ”

 I nodded.

He was moved, I could see, so he laughed at me, half derisive, half tender.

“So what do you propose to do ?” he asked.

We’re taking the Green Flash to London and we’re presenting it to a geological museum there. People will be able to see it and marvel at it and I’ll cheat the evil in it because it won’t belong to anyone.”

“So you’re resigning all claim of my gift to you?”

Tour gift to me. Joss, is not a stone. It’s much more than that could ever be. “

“Do you know,” he said, ‘you’re getting sentimental as you grow up. “Do you mind that?”

How can I when you’re making me the same? I wanted my baby to be born in Oakland Hall and it was a whim Joss was ready to humour. I knew Ben would have been pleased. Joss was his son and there would be a new line to add to the genealogical tree in the hall which had always intrigued him. Mr. Wilmot and Mrs. Bucket thought this right and proper.

Oakland had not changed. Why should it because I had been to Australia and fallen in love and come near to death, when it had stood for hundreds of years and had no doubt witnessed as many tragedies and comedies?

Miriam had a child now.

“She’ll live to rue the day,” said my grandmother.

My grandfather was a little bolder than he had been, and the whip with which my grandmother had scourged him had lost some of its sting since I had brought Oakland back to the family in a way, and because Xavier had now married Lady Clara and was managing the Donningham land.

My grandmother was quite respectful to me and most interested in the child who was to be born at Oakland-a gesture with which she entirely agreed. She even took to Joss after the first few skirmishes. I think she recognized some power in him which it would be impossible even for her to subdue.

She used to say: “Well, he received a large part of his education in England,” as though that made him acceptable; and the fact that he had brought Oakland back to the family made him almost admirable in her eyes.

My son was born on a mellow September day in the vaulted chamber where my ancestors had made their first appearances.

This was the culmination of my happiness. I sat up hi the big four-poster bed and looked out on those lawns which had mellowed for hundreds of years and I had a feeling that I had come home; and yet I was well aware that nothing was half as important to me as the rich and full life I should live with my husband and son.

Joss came and looked at the baby, marvelling at the tiny creature as though he couldn’t believe he was real. Then he turned to me.

“Ifs good, eh ?” he said.

What? ” I asked.

‘life,” he answered.

“Just life.”

“Ifs good,” I agreed, ‘and going to be better."

“Who can be sure of that ?” he asked.

“I can.” I retorted.

“And I will. ”