It was three when Cecily crawled into bed. She ached as if she had the flu, but she couldn’t sleep. She lay there, staring at the ceiling. She had parents. They hadn’t abandoned her because they didn’t love her. They’d been looking for her. They were glad they had found her. Her parents. The Prime Minister of Australia and his wife.
Too much. Too, too much. She got back up, fired up her computer and spent the time until they had to leave shooting zombies.
Gwendolen
It was still dark when Gwen texted her mum. ‘Leaving at 7. Call me when you can.’
She wasn’t wholly surprised when the phone rang immediately. ‘Morning, Mum.’
‘Morning, darling. Now you drive safely on the road, you hear? There will be lots of trucks around at that time, so you have to be careful.’
It was the same speech every time. ‘I will. Mum, I have a favour to ask. Do you mind if I bring my friend Cecily?’
‘The lesbian?’
Oh, dear God. ‘She’s not a lesbian Mum, and neither am I. But last night she got some really shocking news that has completely changed her world and she isn’t sure how to handle it. She needs to get away somewhere peaceful so she can rest and recover and then think things through. I thought I’d bring her with me and she can just hang around our place for a few days, sleeping and resting and walking and getting the space she needs.’
‘Of course. The poor dear. What happened?’
‘That’s for Cecily to decide to tell you, Mum, not me. But she needs a lot of TLC. This is really full on, what has happened to her.’
‘Absolutely. I’ll make up the couch in your room so you can share. Text me when you’re at Glenrowan so I can have tea and cake ready for you when you arrive. What is her favourite food? I’ll make her something nice for dinner.’
Gwen smiled. Her mother really was a good person. ‘She’ll be happy with anything, Mum. I’ll see you this afternoon. Love you.’
Gwen hung up. The subject of her staying in Canberra still needed to be resolved, but at least for now she and her mother were at peace.
Cecily was waiting by the car when Gwen arrived. The dark rings around Cecily’s eyes and the pallor of her skin made it clear she hadn’t slept at all last night.
Gwen opened the car for her and Cecily poured herself in like she was liquid, her body seemingly close to collapse. Gwen put all their luggage in the car boot, spread her bridesmaid dress on the back seat so it wouldn’t crumple and then they were off.
The traffic in Canberra at that time of the morning was light and they made good time out to the Barton Highway. Cecily stared at the window, not making a sound. Gwen wasn’t sure what to say or do to bring her friend some comfort.
‘So, I normally listen to Richard Armitage reading Georgette Heyer on my drives,’ Gwen said as the road opened up before them, the city disappearing in the distance.
‘Sounds fine,’ Cecily said, her voice dull and flat.
Gwen put it on and after a moment, Cecily murmured, ‘Nice voice,’ and Gwen felt a sense of relief that her friend hadn’t been completely destroyed by what had happened.
Richard Armitage was entertaining, putting on the voices of the characters, but still it was a spoken book and that made it calm and restful. By the time they reached Yass, Cecily had fallen asleep.
She slept all the way until Gwen pulled into Benalla for an early lunch.
Cecily stretched and yawned. ‘Where are we?’
‘Benalla Art Gallery. My favourite place to stop for lunch.’
The gallery was a modern building on Lake Benalla. It showcased local art, had a wonderful little store with lots of fabulous art and literary related items and a wonderful cafe. You could sit on the balcony overlooking the lake (which was more like a wide river at this point) and take a real break from travelling.
‘This is fantastic,’ Cecily said, sipping on her latte. ‘So peaceful and lovely.’
‘I adore it,’ Gwen said. ‘And we’ll peruse the store on the way out. There’s always something fabulous to buy.’
Sure enough, Gwen found a wonderful note book with quotes from Oscar Wilde throughout it, while Cecily bought an apron with Einstein’s face on it.
As they left, Gwen texted her mother to let them know they were an hour away. Then Gwen had to bring Cecily up to speed with the book before they continued listening. Finally they were driving into Tybrim. Tybrim was a town of about 7000 people in the irrigation district bordered by the Murray and Goulburn rivers and large towns like Shepparton.
Gwen felt a growing sense of excitement as she navigated the town and then turned onto the small country road that led to the family home. She did love Tybrim—it was so peaceful and natural out here. Just what Cecily needed.
She turned onto the driveway that snaked its way over an irrigation channel and past the pool and tennis court before turning to the house itself. The house was a mix of stone and brick, sprawled out over quite a large footprint. Gwen pulled the car into a spot under the carport that directly connected to her room.
‘Welcome,’ Gwen smiled.
‘This is fantastic.’ Cecily stepped out and looked around. A couple of hundred metres away was the shed, with a tractor and some cars parked in it. Beyond, green fields. ‘You really grew up here?’
‘I really did,’ Gwen said. ‘Not completely a country girl, but a nice mix of town and country.’
She led Cecily into her room, which could be entered from outside by a sliding door. It had been the playroom, a long expansive space but when she’d become a teenage it had been turned into her own suite, with an ensuite, walk-in wardrobe and a large room that held a double bed, a couch and a desk as well as her own television. She’d been able to have friends over and they could hang out without having to deal with her brothers.
‘I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I’m not sure I could have left this.’ Cecily spun slowly in the middle of the room, looking around. ‘This is every teenage girl’s fantasy.’
‘I’m lucky,’ Gwen said and realised she was. ‘Come on, Mum will be waiting to meeting you.’
She led Cecily into the house, past the bathroom and three bedrooms that had been her brothers’ domain growing up and into the lounge/dining/kitchen.
‘Gwen.’ Her mother came out of the kitchen, arms open wide. Gwen was enfolded in a hug of great love. Then her mother pulled back. ‘Have you put on weight?’
Thanks, Mum. ‘Mum, this is Cecily.’
‘Cecily, lovely to meet you. Gwen told me that you’re having a bit of a hard time at the moment. Consider this your sanctuary. Do whatever you need to do to heal. Now, sit down and I’ll serve tea and bikkies.’
‘Yum.’ Gwen sat at the table that butted against the half-wall that separated the kitchen from the rest of the space.
‘Thank you, Mrs Fairford.’ Cecily also sat.
‘None of that. Call me Virginia. Did you have a good trip?’
‘Fine,’ Gwen said. ‘Trucks were well behaved. Very smooth.’
‘Good, good.’ Virginia Fairford came back out of the kitchen with a tray that not only contained a teapot, cups, milk and sugar but also enough Anzac and chocolate chip biscuits to feed the entire family.
‘Mum makes the best Anzac biscuits,’ Gwen said, reaching for one.
‘Just don’t eat too many, you,’ Virginia said, eyeing Gwen’s waist.
The conversation was general over the tea. Virginia asked Cecily questions about her work and Canberra, and Cecily answered without giving anything away. She said she worked in the public service, which technically she did, but did not mention Parliament House. She talked about her apartment and living in Canberra, without talking about why she’d had to leave Canberra.
Once tea was done, Virginia directed them outside, to take a walk after the long trip in the car. ‘Show Cecily Jupiter,’ Virginia said.
‘Jupiter?’ Cecily looked at Gwen.
‘Gwennie’s horse. Don’t tell me she doesn’t talk ab
out her.’
‘We hadn’t got to the childhood pets conversation,’ Gwen said. ‘Come on.’
She led Cecily out the side door of the house from the lounge area directly onto the patio that surrounded the inground pool. Gwen looked at the pool and shook her head. ‘I’m going to have to clean that if we’re going to swim.’
‘I didn’t bring swimmers,’ Cecily said. Gwen looked at her and Cecily sighed. ‘I can’t swim. My foster families when I was young weren’t interested in spending the money, and then it got embarrassing to admit that I couldn’t.’
‘Well, if you want to learn, let me know. I can teach you. We can use the pool at the Lodge.’ Gwen jogged Cecily with her elbow. Cecily shook her head.
‘Not yet,’ she said.
‘Fair enough. Come, let me introduce you to the love of my life.’
They walked around the back of the house, along a line of trees. A fence reached out before them and at the fence line, Gwen put her fingers in her mouth and whistled. There was a responsive neigh from the far side of the paddock and Jupiter appeared from the trees over there, galloping over.
‘He’s magnificent,’ Cecily breathed.
‘She.’
‘She? Her name is Jupiter.’
‘I didn’t want her to be shut in by binary concepts of gender,’ Gwen said. ‘Besides, the moment I saw her, I knew her name was Jupiter, regardless of her sex. King of the Gods.’
Jupiter drew to a halt just before the fence, let out a loud snort and neigh, then came forward and pushed her nose against Gwen’s shoulder. She put her arms around the horse’s neck and hugged her.
‘I’ve missed you too, my darling.’
‘How you’ve managed to leave her, I do not know.’ Cecily slowly lifted her hand to touch Jupiter’s nose. ‘She is beautiful.’
‘Mum and Dad convinced me to leave her here when I left, saying I didn’t want to move her all that way if it turned out I didn’t like Canberra and wanted to come home.’
‘But you do like Canberra and want to stay. And don’t you want to be able to ride her regularly?’
‘Oh, yes,’ Gwen said. ‘But I might leave moving Jupiter until after the lesbian furore has died down.’
By the time they met the other horses, and went for a walk around the property (which included a visit to the shed to see the ubiquitous litter of kittens), Cecily was smiling and laughing as if nothing had gone wrong.
When they got back to the house, Cecily went to have a lie down and Gwen sat with her mother.
‘Your friend seems happier,’ Virginia said.
‘The magic of the farm. Thank you for letting her come.’
‘I’m always willing to welcome your friends.’ A pause. ‘Are you and she really not …’
Gwen reached forward and put her hands on her mother’s. ‘We are not lesbian lovers, she is just a new but already very dear friend. I don’t have a boyfriend at the moment, but I am happy and intend to stay in Canberra. I know you want me to come back to Tybrim and you’re worried I can’t be happy anywhere else and single, but I am. I swear it.’
Virginia shook her head. ‘I can’t see how you can be happy in Canberra.’
‘I know. You would hate it. I love it. I’m sorry, Mum, but I’m not cut out to be a country town girl. I’m a city chick.’
‘If you tried—’
‘Mum, I came back and lived in Tybrim for three years after finishing uni. I’ve tried. It isn’t for me.’
‘But if you—’
‘Mum, you’re never going to change my mind and I’m never going to change yours. So we can keep fighting, or we can just accept that this is the way it’s going to be.’
‘I’ll think about it,’ Virginia said, then she went into the kitchen to start dinner.
Gwen decided to declare that a victory and went for a lie down.
John
The sound of the phone ringing pulled John from his sleep. In one motion he sat and grabbed his phone from the bedside table and moved his finger to the screen. Then he managed to actually wake up and he saw the name on the screen. Alec Moncrieff.
John declined the call and flopped back onto his pillow. There was no light outside—it was definitely much too early to be awake. So he put the phone back on the bedside table and rolled over to sleep some more.
The phone rang again. John took a moment to look at it and make sure it was Alec before swearing, turning it off and thumping it on the counter top. Then he snuggled down under his doona, muttering about bloody idiots that didn't know what time it was.
He felt his body relaxing into slumber, but was kept from sleep by the commencement of thumping on the door. Oh, lovely. Alec's persistent calling had woken and annoyed one of the neighbours. He got up, finding and pulling on a t-shirt to cover his bare chest while whoever was at the door kept thumping.
John wrenched it open, ready to apologise, but stopped and stared as Alec marched in with a wide smile.
‘I come bearing coffee and muffins.’
John slowly closed the door and turned around. Alec had made his way across to the dining table and was now setting out the steaming cups and paper bags.
‘What? How? Why?’ John rubbed his eyes.
‘I'll start with how,’ Alec said. ‘I was about to ring you again—you really should answer your phone, old boy, you never know what excitement you're missing if you don't—but then someone came out of your building. Can you believe there are people who think six in the morning is an appropriate time to go jogging? Deplorable.’
‘Deplorable is turning up on someone's doorstep at six in the morning.’
‘But I brought coffee. And muffins. And you should be grateful. I did think of waking you after I dropped Cecily home, but figured three-thirty was a little early.’
Cecily's name woke John up completely, and everything that had happened the night before came crashing back. When Alec had dropped John home, he'd said he was going to see Cecily. John had tried to stay awake but hadn't managed it.
‘What happened? How is she? Is she okay?’
‘She will be okay, but not right now. She's shocked and uncertain and I think a bit pissed off that she is feeling like that. She's going away to give herself some time and space to work it all out.’
‘Sit.’ John pointed to the table. ‘Tell me everything. And you better bloody well have a lemon poppy seed muffin in there, or I will kill you.’
Alec did have a lemon poppy seed muffin, which told John how serious this was. Then John listened to the story of Alec providing the proof that Cecily needed that John had been right, Cecily providing her own proof in the shape of the shopping bags, and then the two of them going to see the PM and his wife in order to try to save them from the blackmail attempts of some of Cecily's less savoury foster families.
John was impressed that Cecily had been able to think of the problems it could cause the PM at that time and then realised he had an answer.
‘Hold on.’ He went into his bedroom, got his phone and found his contact at one of the Sydney television stations. Then he texted them 'Call me when you have a chance. I have one hell of an exclusive for you'.
John went back into the main room to find Alec had finished his first chocolate muffin and was now onto his second. ‘So what's happening now?’
‘Like I said, Cecily has escaped. So too has Lois, to the family farm. The media won't get to her there. The PM is going to announce that as a result of last night's brave speech by his wife, they have actually found their missing daughter. He will let people know Cecily's name, and what she does, and then ask for privacy for them all to work things out.’
‘Which they won't get,’ John said. ‘Cecily should have stayed here, where we can protect her.’
‘She'll be safe. I doubt the media will find her until she's ready to be found.’
‘I hope you're right. This is one hell of a thing to work through when you do have peace. She doesn't need the media pressure.’
‘Hopefu
lly, the PM coming out with the truth will stop Cecily's deadbeat families trying to make a further buck out of her.’
John waved his phone. ‘I'm working on some contacts. I think we can stop it, or at least mitigate it.’
‘Good. Good.’ Alec finished the next muffin.
‘Shit.’ John sat and stared at his muffin. ‘Just twelve hours ago, everything was exactly the same. Now, a whole lot of lives are changed forever.’
‘Let's hope they work out a path where the change is for the better.’ Alec licked his fingers and stood. ‘Well, I'm heading into work. Nothing else to do.’
John looked at his phone. Six thirty. ‘Fuck.’
‘It's all right for you. You got some sleep. I haven't slept for nearly twenty-four hours. I can feel my brain capacity diminishing.’
‘Gives everyone else a chance to catch up then.’
Alec smiled. ‘That's the nicest thing you've ever said to me.’
‘You caught me in a weak moment,’ John said. ‘Now, go.’
A shower helped, as did a swing by his favourite café for a bacon and egg roll. Then John went into the office and fired up the computer. Lots of stories there about the speech last night, but nothing yet about Cecily. Good. That was good.
John started scrolling through to find issues that Mrs B needed to be across, but his eyes kept wandering to the side of the screen, where stories were being updated. When would the PM make his announcement?
John's phone buzzed—his Sydney TV contact.
‘Vanessa, thanks for calling back.’
‘I would say a pleasure, but your last tip wasn't that good.’
‘Well, this is going to be brilliant. The PM will be making an announcement shortly related to last night's speech by his wife, and unless there's a major terrorist attack or Sydney is destroyed by an earthquake or the Queen dies, it's gonna be the news story of the day. I can get you an exclusive with one of the players at the centre of it, but I need a favour from you.’
‘Tell me the favour, then I'll tell you if I'm interested.’
The Importance of Ernestine Page 23