The House At the End of the Street

by Jennie Jones

  Josh shivered. The thought of putting Gem in the spotlight like that … ‘They’re not letting that happen, though, are they?’

  ‘Certainly not. The twins wouldn’t allow it.’

  ‘Good.’ He didn’t want reporters hanging around the wedding, all ears. Plan C: He’d get Gem to one side after the ceremony tomorrow, talk to her in private, tell her everything and then … Wait and see if he needed a Plan D.

  ‘Mind you, Mrs Tam, you might see a few journalists around town in the future, but they won’t be the bullying kind.’

  ‘Which type will they be and why are they coming to Swallow’s Fall?’

  ‘I think they might want to interview Gemma and ask her about her mural.’

  ‘Well, that would be nice for her. It’s such a lovely piece of art.’ She looked back at the toy shop. ‘Have you spoken to her, then?’

  ‘Not yet, but I intend to.’

  ‘So who told you about Gemma’s journalists?’

  ‘Um, actually now you mention it, I can’t remember. Someone must have told me. How’s the house?’

  ‘My darling Josh, I will live out my days in that beautiful house. I promise to tend the roses …’ She peered up at him, a half-smile on her face and glint in her eye. ‘If you promise to let me know where I can send you the photos.’

  He smiled. ‘I’m staying.’

  She sighed. ‘That’s what I was hoping, since you didn’t leave last Saturday. What changed your mind?’

  ‘I discovered the needle on my compass was dodgy.’

  ‘Such a lot of gossip going around about you and Gemma.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it. I’m going to make a difference, Mrs Tam.’

  ‘You’ve made a difference in all our lives.’

  He hadn’t made a difference in Gem’s life yet. Not the right one. ‘I want to grow old here. Can you believe that?’ He laughed, but Mrs Tam just gave him a knowing smile. ‘I want to make something for myself.’ With Gem. ‘Shame you’re selling up the takeaway to the McWade boys. I could have run that.’

  ‘Nonsense, you need the wind in your hair, Josh, it wouldn’t suit you to be cooped up with a deep-fat fryer.’

  ‘True enough.’

  He looked across the street. Edie was copping a ride on Ted’s plastic horse. Ted must be out or he’d be on the street threatening to tell her father. Their father. A thought hit him so hard it nearly knocked him down. ‘God in heaven,’ he said. ‘Where have I been?’

  ‘Everything alright?’

  ‘Excuse me, Mrs Tam.’ He smiled at her. ‘I have to see a man about a hundred-acre horse property.’

  Josh crossed the street, grinning at Edie. ‘Don’t let Ted catch you up there.’

  Edie smiled back. ‘He’s in the town hall sorting it out for the wedding.’

  The kids’ radar, he remembered it. Not much had changed. Any opportunity to climb that plastic horse and the kids took it. Josh held his arms up and scooped her down to the pavement. ‘And what are you doing in town?’

  ‘Teachers’ day, no school. I’m helping Mum help Ted set up.’

  ‘By taking a horse ride?’

  She laughed. ‘Mum said to get some fresh air. I’ve got one foot bigger than the other.’

  Josh paused a second so that the change in conversation sank in. ‘So have most people.’

  ‘Can you bend your thumb back until it touches your wrist? Look.’

  ‘I can do that.’ Josh showed her. ‘Lots of people can do that. How are the horses?’

  Edie sighed and slipped her hand in his. The gentle touch of her hand almost swept him away. He wanted to grab her, swing her up in the air, catch her and hug her. His sister.

  Ethan and Sammy had told Josh they’d decided to tell their other children—and hadn’t that made Josh swell with love?—after the wedding with a big family celebration. They were going to tell everybody. This skeleton wasn’t to be kept in a cupboard gathering dust.

  ‘We had to turn three rescue horses away yesterday,’ Edie said, her voice tinged with regret. ‘It was sad. I cried. Vivie cried. Lachlan didn’t cry but he was miserable, I could tell.’

  Josh ruffled her hair. ‘Why don’t we try to get them back?’

  ‘How?’

  ‘Let’s go see your dad.’

  Twenty-Four

  Josh woke to the sound of his mobile going crazy, vibrating on the bedside table. He groaned, turned, got his arm stuck in the sheet and groaned again as the mobile landed on the floor with a clunk.

  He leaned over and grabbed it, scrunching his eyes to get the sleep out of them. He didn’t recognise the caller ID. A landline number. He glanced at the clock. Shit! It was already eight am.

  He leaped out of bed. How the hell could he have overslept? This was the biggest day of his life.

  ‘Yeah?’ he said gruffly when he answered.

  ‘Where the hell have you been? I’ve been calling for the last hour.’

  Ethan? ‘I had the phone on silent.’

  ‘You better get over to Kookaburra’s. We’ve got an emergency.’

  ‘Gem?’

  ‘The McWade boys.’

  Josh stood. It was the best day of their lives too—they were getting married in four hours.

  ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘They can’t find their cousin. They think he’s probably either got lost or more likely he’s forgotten and gone fishing.’

  Josh shook his head, and ran a hand over his scalp. ‘So?’

  ‘So he’s the best man,’ Ethan said, sounding frustrated. ‘He’s not here. They need a best man. You’re it.’

  ‘But I haven’t got a tux.’

  ‘Just get here!’

  Gem stood in front of a mirror in a bedroom above the stock feeders’, pushing her breasts forwards to ensure they weren’t going to pop out of her strapless ivory gown if she laughed. Not that she’d be laughing for real, but she’d been practising her best pretend laughs since she’d got up.

  ‘Gem, darling …’ Jess said in a tentative voice.

  Uh-oh. ‘What?’ Gem asked, running a quick glance in the mirror to check her beautiful poufy dress hadn’t ripped, torn at the hem, or scored an iron burn. She’d never worn poufy before, and she liked it; no way did she want to ruin it. She kicked her leg up behind her and checked her stockings: no holes, rips or tears. ‘What?’ she asked again, turning to the twins, who were made-up and dressed in their wedding dresses. Whatever it was, they’d better be quick in telling her. They had less than quarter of an hour until they walked down Main Street to the town hall; thirteen minutes until Mendelssohn’s ‘Wedding March’ boomed around the rafters, courtesy of the nine-man Swallow’s Fall Community Band.

  ‘The best man let us down.’

  ‘Crap! What happened?’

  ‘We think he went fishing and forgot—’

  ‘—The boys have called the police and every hospital between here and Queensland but no reports of accidents.’

  ‘Right,’ Gem said, holding up her hands. ‘Don’t panic.’ She mentally played out a number of scenarios. ‘Ethan, Dan. Ted—no!’ Ted was giving his girls away, he couldn’t also stand up with the men about to receive them.

  ‘Josh,’ Jillian said in a steady tone.

  ‘Josh is taking his place,’ Jess said.

  Gem’s hands fell to her sides as a brick hit her in her chest. ‘Why?’ she asked.

  ‘The boys asked him.’

  ‘He said he’d do it.’

  Gem covered her freshly made-up face with her hands. Get it together! So what? It doesn’t matter. The girls matter. ‘Okay,’ she said, dropping her hands and trying to steady her breath. ‘Sorry about that. It’s fine. No problem at all.’ She smiled; not a smile of brightness, but her make-up should be covering any paling of the skin.

  ‘She’s scared,’ Jillian said. ‘I knew she would be.’

  Of course she was scared! In eleven minutes she’d be walking down the aisle in a make-shift chapel at the town hall a
nd Josh would be waiting at the altar. Except she wasn’t walking towards him and he wasn’t waiting for her. Nobody was going to be giving her away to him because it wasn’t their wedding.

  She turned from the twins. ‘Okay—I admit it’s a shock. I just need a sec.’ This was going to be her last memory of him—walking towards him, carrying a posy of tea-green and shell-pink roses, taking slow, dainty paces down the aisle. The image would remain in her brain forever, not the memory of his kisses, not the memory of their love-making in front of the fire, but the stinging reminder of what might have been if the love of her life hadn’t left her.

  ‘Right.’ She turned back to the twins and beamed her loveliest smile. ‘Just needed that second. I’m fine now. How long have we got?’ She checked the clock on the wall. ‘Eight minutes. So let’s get you checked over. Jillian, your lipstick has smeared ever so slightly. Right-hand side,’ she added as Jillian flew to the mirror. ‘Jess, your hemline isn’t straight. Here, turn.’

  Jess turned. ‘It’s going to be fine, Gem. Promise.’

  ‘No promises needed,’ Gem said. ‘It’s you two that count. Boy, this is going to be so fantastic.’

  ‘I’m getting jittery,’ Jillian said.

  Jess giggled. ‘Nerves?’

  ‘Hell, no—I haven’t seen Derek since five pm yesterday. I miss him!’

  Gem picked up the two bridal bouquets and handed them to the twins, then plucked her own posy from the table, and took a breath.

  ‘Everybody ready?’ Ted called outside the bedroom door. ‘I’ve got the two-way working. I’m to give the orchestra a signal once we move off. There’s a speaker outside the hall so you’ll be marching down Main Street to trumpets.’

  All three girls giggled, holding their hands over their mouths to stem the sound of their laughter.

  ‘I’m not marching,’ Jess said.

  ‘I might run,’ Jillian added.

  ‘Not too fast,’ Gem pleaded. ‘I’m not used to four-inch heels.’ Fortunately, it hadn’t snowed overnight or this morning, but the snow plough had been out twice to clear the road anyway, and one of the town residents was on alert to fire up the engine again if it did snow, so that the bridal party could still make the short walk from stock feeders’ to Town Hall.

  ‘“The Prince of Denmark’s March’’!’ Ted shouted through the door. ‘It’s about to start. Are you ready? I can sense your mother giving me the evil eye from the first pew in the hall already.’

  ‘Ready, Dad!’ The twins turned, side by side, and looked at Gemma.

  A wondrous joy filtered through her. ‘Oh, boy, you two,’ she said, tilting her head and letting the posy in her hands rest lightly on the bell of her ivory skirt. ‘You are the loveliest brides I’ve seen. Better than any of the magazine photos you’ve been collecting for the last six months. Better than any TV or movie wedding, ever. You take my breath away.’

  Ted marched his party down Main Street with regimental precision. Gem could hardly concentrate. The flutters in her stomach wouldn’t go away. They reached the Town Hall and the trumpets stopped. The opening strains of Mendelssohn’s ‘March’ began, and Ted switched the two-way off and slipped it into his tuxedo pocket.

  ‘Right, my two,’ he said softly, stepping between Jess and Jillian in the sheltered portico.

  The door to the hall was open, and Gem, standing to one side of the twins, could see inside. She heard the shuffle of chairs and feet as the congregation stood. She couldn’t look at them though. She could hardly focus.

  Breathe.

  A moment of solemnity settled on the wedding party, and it brought her out of her panic.

  ‘I’ve never been so proud,’ Ted said as he offered an arm to each of his girls.

  ‘Thanks, Dad.’ Jess kissed his cheek.

  ‘For everything,’ Jillian added and kissed his other cheek.

  ‘Let’s make your mother cry, shall we?’ he asked, a catch in his voice.

  ‘Ready, Gem?’ Jess asked.

  Gem nodded, a sincere smile warming her heart. ‘I love you both.’ She lifted a hand and blew a kiss, and stepped in front of them, ready to lead her friends down the aisle.

  ‘Off we go,’ Ted said. ‘Not too fast now. Think tempo.’

  Gem didn’t look anywhere but at the blue carpet runner that had been put in place to mark the aisle. The warmth from a hundred-and-forty-two people kept her walking, as though cocooning her.

  Just keep your eyes down. She lifted her gaze, then lowered it but not in time.

  The McWade boys had turned and were smiling broadly at their girls and Josh was looking straight at Gem. He should be looking at the blushing brides behind her—what was wrong with him?

  She clutched her posy tighter and focussed on the altar in front of her; then couldn’t resist another glance at Josh—and couldn’t take her eyes off him.

  God only knew where he’d got the tuxedo, but he wore it like everything else was out of fashion. Ink-black coat on broad shoulders, a tea-green rosebud on the lapel. A crisp, white collar with a jet-black bow tie at his tanned throat, and a black waistcoat, sitting flush on his chest. He was built to wear a tux.

  Even from halfway down the makeshift aisle, his smile was rich and deep enough to be seen in his eyes, and it was aimed at Gem. She walked in a haze. He looked proud, as though … She blinked as a blush crept over her cheeks.

  This was hell.

  When she reached the altar, she stepped to one side to allow the brides to go before her. Ted handed his daughters over to their men and the celebrant stepped forwards.

  ‘Dearly beloved …’

  Immediately after the ceremony, everyone rushed from their seats to hug and kiss and congratulate the brides and grooms.

  Gem stepped back, smiling bravely, clutching her posy, and dreading the next six hours of merriment.

  She turned and caught sight of her mum. Her heart settled and she sighed. Her mum; her lifebuoy. She could sit with her all afternoon and all evening. Her mum would understand all the feelings and emotions inside her.

  Mary was grinning widely, her smile so big it almost didn’t fit on her face. Gem blinked, looked to her mum’s right and gasped.

  ‘Ryan!’

  She flew down the aisle towards her brother, trying not to push too hard through the throng of well wishers or crush her posy.

  Mary grabbed the posy out of her hands a second before Gem flung her arms around her little brother. Not so little, either, he was as tall as Gem—and she wore four-inch heels. ‘Where?’ she asked, ‘How? When?’

  ‘And what?’ Ryan asked with a quirk of his mouth.

  Boy, he was handsome. ‘You’re so tall now.’ She touched his cheek. ‘Where’d you get the tan?’

  ‘Queensland.’

  She laughed, still holding on to him. ‘Why does everybody go to Queensland?’

  ‘Great place,’ Ryan said, shrugging. ‘You look gorgeous, sis.’

  His voice had dropped to a baritone. Gem couldn’t believe what a year away had done to him.

  ‘He arrived last night, Gemma,’ her mum said. ‘A surprise.’

  ‘It’s a wonderful surprise! Where did you stay? Why didn’t I see you?’

  ‘He stayed with us!’

  Gem swung around to Edie and Sammy. ‘Hey, don’t you look like a grown-up young woman?’ Gem touched the ten-year-old’s cheek.

  Edie grinned. ‘That’s what Ryan said.’ She preened. ‘I like your brother, Gemma. I think I’ll take him as my boyfriend.’

  Sammy coughed and took hold of Edie’s hand. She ran her gaze over Ryan’s nearly-sixteen-year-old already masculine body, then smiled.

  ‘Come see me in fifteen years,’ she told him. ‘Then we’ll talk.’

  Half an hour later and Gem’s system was still stuck somewhere between bewilderment and wonder. There was so much happiness: the newly married couples; Ryan’s return; her mum’s bubbling laughter. The whole town was in the thrall of love and romance. She closed her eyes as unsteadiness
grabbed her again. Don’t think about him. Be happy. You’ve got your family back, your mum, your brothers …

  ‘You look beautiful, Gem.’

  Gem started, even though she’d known he was behind her: she had smelled the ocean. ‘Thanks,’ she said as she turned to Josh. ‘So do you.’

  Just her luck to love him.

  ‘It was kind of a strange moment,’ he said, ‘watching you walk down the aisle.’

  She breathed deeply. ‘It was good of you to step in at the last minute—where’d you get the tux?’

  ‘You can get anything fast if you pay for it. Had it rushed down from a wedding shop in Cooma. Got here in the nick of time. Gem, can I talk to you?’

  ‘Did you see Ryan? My brother.’

  Josh nodded. ‘I know he’s your brother, Gemma. Can I talk to you?’

  ‘There’s so much going on. Oh, look.’ Gem pointed. ‘They’re setting out the food already. Good.’ She rubbed her ribcage—couldn’t reach her tummy for the stiffened bow and the bell skirt. ‘I’m starving.’

  ‘Gemma?’ He said it with a lilt at the end, as though gently warning her he wasn’t going to stand for much more.

  ‘Later,’ Gem said and rushed off to the ladies’ toilets.

  ‘Jack of Diamonds, Ace of Spades, meet you partner and promenade!’

  One great thing about Jess and Jillian was their ability to outdo the norm and surprise everyone with something whacky and wonderful. Even Gem tapped her foot in time to the square dance music, listening to the caller and mentally figuring out the dance moves. She’d had a few dances, couldn’t not, being the bridesmaid and all—and yes, Josh had toasted her during his best man speech, which he’d put together on the spot with remarkable ease, making everyone laugh. ‘Never seen such a lovely bridesmaid. So happy looking,’ he’d added with a rich warm smile. It had to have been a joke; she’d only offered him a frown every time he looked at her, which was often.

  But when Josh had made his way through the happy crowd after helping move the tables to one side after the speeches with a look in his eye that said, I’m heading for you, bridesmaid, Gem had nipped to the toilets again. She’d spent quite a bit of time in there now. She must remember to tell Ted that one of the overhead lights had blown and that the whole space needed a paint job. Something she’d offer to do, free of charge.