by Fleur Beale
‘She wouldn’t!’ Iris said.
‘Oh yes, she bloody would,’ Dad said. ‘Come on, Bess. This mightn’t be what you think.’
A trickle of hope slid into my soul, jostling with sickness. Mum. She couldn’t have made Nick break up with me. ‘Dunedin. Wednesday, I think. Bridge tournament. Ten days.’
‘What sort of tournament?’ Hadleigh picked up his phone.
‘International, she said.’
We watched him flick through site after site. I wavered between hope and despair. Whatever the outcome, I would lose either my mother or the man I loved.
Hadleigh looked at us, his face grim. ‘No bridge tournament anywhere. Rotary, though — there’s a big do on in Auckland next week.’
‘What do you want to do, Bess?’ Su Lin asked.
I made an effort to clear my mind. Didn’t work. ‘I don’t know. He won’t talk to me. His phone’s off.’
‘Go down there then,’ said Dad. His voice was gruff. ‘Find out the truth.’
‘Oh, Dad!’ I fell against him.
He patted my back. ‘Come on, girl. You can do this. You need to get to the bottom of it.’
‘But what if he’s not there? He might have gone somewhere.’ I couldn’t bear it. Couldn’t go down there only to discover he’d gone away.
Dad got tough. ‘You want to stay here moping? This isn’t the girl who rescued her old dad.’
I sniffed, scrubbed at my eyes and sat up.
‘That’s better,’ Iris said. ‘I’ll make us a cuppa. And you, Bess, are going to eat something.’
Hadleigh got up to help her. Su Lin said, ‘You need to think about what happens if our suspicions are right and it’s your mum who’s forced him to do this.’
I just shook my head, feeling another roil of nausea.
Hadleigh set a sandwich in front of me. ‘Eat that, sis. And get the brain functioning. You need a plan.’
‘If Mum has … well, I’ll never trust her again. I’ll leave.’ I turned to Dad. ‘If I can’t live with you two, I’ll move in with Nick. Finish school down there.’
‘Don’t be daft, girl. That room’s yours and you know it.’
Su Lin pulled me around to face her. ‘You have to be sure about this. If you go against your mother, you won’t get a cent more from her, ever. Think carefully. She won’t pay your uni fees. She’ll cut off your allowance.’
I struggled to keep from bawling my eyes out. I was caught again between two horrible possibilities. Either my mother had betrayed me or the boy I loved had dumped me.
‘I am sure,’ I said at last. Giving in was too high a price to pay. I’d lose Nick, and for ever after she’d use her money like a weapon. I didn’t want her money. All I’d wanted was for her to be my mother. ‘I’m sure.’
‘Good,’ said Hadleigh. ‘That’s a start. There’s another flight to Palmy tonight. Expensive, though. You want me to book it?’
They waited, silent. My call. My decision. Nick.
I nodded.
And so it was that, later than planned, I found myself on a flight to Palmerston North. I had no idea whether Nick would even be there. Maybe he really did want to break up and this was nothing to do with Mum. Mum … I couldn’t think about her. How could you possibly hope that your own mother has done something unspeakably mean, something catastrophically underhand?
I took a taxi from the airport to Nick’s flat. There were lights on inside. I got a grip on my jittering thoughts and knocked on the door.
Nobody came.
I knocked again, thumping it this time.
Footsteps did their own thumping inside the house, then someone wrenched the door open.
Nick stood there, looking like hell. We stared at each other, the cold wind chilling us. ‘Bess. Oh, Bess. Why have you come?’
He went to shut the door in my face. I shouldered my way inside, hope flaring. He looked just like I felt.
‘You shouldn’t have come,’ he said, but I could hear the pain in his voice.
I dropped my bag. ‘What did my mother say to you?’
He went utterly still for a second, then his whole body — his whole being — seemed to come to life. He grabbed my hands. Held them hard. ‘How did you know? She said you didn’t know she was coming. I wasn’t allowed to tell you. If I did …’
‘Tell me, Nick. I have to know.’ I was crying.
He pulled me into his arms, holding me tight. ‘I didn’t want to send that email. I couldn’t think what to do. It’s been hell. Utter hell. You’ve no idea.’
I sniffed into his jersey. ‘I do know. I know exactly.’ I lifted my head and we kissed, tears running down our faces.
Something scratched my leg and I jumped. ‘Kitty!’
‘Bloody cat,’ Nick said, his voice wobbly. ‘No sense of timing.’ He scooped up the cat, but kept an arm around me. ‘Come on into the kitchen. It’s the only room we can warm up.’
There was a heater on, but the kitchen was still fridge temperature. Nick lit all the gas burners on the stove. Then he sat down, pulled me on to his lap and held me tight against him as if to anchor me.
‘Tell me everything,’ I said.
‘She turned up on Thursday. I’d just got home from uni. She didn’t beat about the bush. You are to stop seeing my daughter. I have other plans for her. I told her I wasn’t going to break up with you, and she hauled out the big guns. You need to understand this will sever my relationship with my daughter. She said she wouldn’t support you, and did I want to be responsible for making a pauper of you.’
He stopped talking and rubbed his head against the top of mine.
‘Go on,’ I whispered. ‘What did you tell her?’
He sighed. ‘I said I’d discuss it with you. I didn’t want to be the one to cut you off from her. I know what her approval means to you. And there was the money. She’s worth millions. I didn’t know what you wanted there.’
I huddled against him, trying not to howl. She’d planned this. She’d fed me crumbs of approval. For weeks she’d been planning it. ‘Why didn’t you talk to me? Why did you just break up with me?’
He held me away so he could look at me. ‘Bess, she had me over a barrel. She said she was about to buy the land your dad’s finishing shed is on.’
‘What? She’s the mystery buyer?’
‘That’s what she said. If I talked to you about any of this, she said she’d sign the deal. If I broke up with you, then she wouldn’t buy it. I rang Dad. Just to check she wasn’t bullshitting.’
‘And, being Clint, he said the factory would have to shut down.’ I slid off his lap, unable to keep still. My own mother. How could she be so cruel?
Nick pulled me back on his lap, back in his arms. The kitten jumped onto the table and licked my face. ‘I’m sorry, Bess. I’m so sorry.’ It sounded as if he was forcing himself to say the next words. ‘What do you want to do? About us?’
I slid an arm around his neck. ‘I want you. Now and for ever. Mum … how can I ever trust her again?’
‘You’re sure? What about the money?’
‘Do you mind if I’m poor?’ I asked. ‘I’ll be just the same as any other uni student. Broke and with a loan to pay back when I finish.’
He gave a shaky laugh. ‘There’s only one way to deal to a daft question like that.’ And he kissed me.
We were interrupted by my phone. I pulled it from my pocket to silence it, but it was Hadleigh.
‘Hi, Hads. I made it. I’m here.’
‘Well, you sound more cheerful now. In the lover’s arms, are you?’
Nick leaned over. ‘Yes, she is. Any probs with that?’
‘Hell no! Welcome, bro-in-law. So Mum really did a number on you, did she?’
I said, ‘Yes, she did. One of her spies saw us at the airport, apparently. Put me on speaker, Hads. Dad needs to hear this.’
‘Shoot. We’re all ears.’
‘Dad, she’s the one buying the finishing shed. She told Nick if he broke up with me she
wouldn’t sign the deal.’ I held the phone out from my ear, expecting that he’d yell. He did.
‘Calm down, Charlie.’ It was Iris. ‘Bess, are you all right?’
I sighed. ‘Yeah. Kind of. I will be. It’s pretty awful.’
Dad bounced back. ‘Listen here, Bess. You too, Nick. I will not let Clarissa wreck my life, and certainly not yours. She can go to hell. We’ll move out of the shed. Eddy’s applying for a loan to build a finishing shop beside the factory. But even if that doesn’t come through, I won’t renew that lease whatever she does.’
I leaned against Nick, listening to my father and trying not to wish I had a normal mother. ‘Thanks, Dad.’
‘Nothing to thank me for. You look after that girl of mine, Nick.’
‘With my life, Charlie.’
‘Fine words,’ my father said, ‘but you’re not a bad lad. I’ll say that for you.’
That was five-star praise from Dad. It was the full tick of approval.
WE STAYED WHERE WE WERE long after the call ended, not saying much, just letting the hurt of the past few days seep away.
The cat miaowed and tried to butt its way between us.
‘Bloody animal!’ Nick shoved it away, then tilted my head up with a finger. ‘You tired, girl of mine? Need a nice lie-down?’ His dark eyes were so tender, yet so blazing.
I tightened my arms around his neck, but I couldn’t have spoken to save my life. He took that as invitation enough to carry me from the room.
We tumbled onto the bed, but he held me still for a moment. ‘Are you sure about this, Bess? Are you certain about us? Your mum?’
I held his face between my hands. ‘I’m certain. I’m devastated about Mum, but I’m utterly certain about us.’
There were no more questions. The love we’d shared centuries ago in an olive grove was ours again.
For more information about our titles go to
www.randomhouse.co.nz
Other books by Fleur Beale
I am not Esther
A Respectable Girl
The Transformation of Minna Hargreaves
The End of the Alphabet
Juno of Taris
Fierce September
Heart of Danger
Dirt Bomb
Copyright
The assistance of Creative New Zealand
is gratefully acknowledged by the publisher.
A RANDOM HOUSE BOOK published by Random House New Zealand
18 Poland Road, Glenfield, Auckland, New Zealand
For more information about our titles go to www.randomhouse.co.nz
A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand
Random House New Zealand is part of the Random House Group
New York London Sydney Auckland Delhi Johannesburg
First published 2012
© 2012 Fleur Beale
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
ISBN 978 1 86979 986 1
eISBN 978 1 86979 987 8
This book is copyright. Except for the purposes of fair reviewing no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover illustration and design: Keely O’Shannessy
Text design: Carla Sy
Printed in Australia by Griffin Press, an Accredited ISO AS/NZS 14001:2004
Environmental Management System printer.
The paper this book is printed on is certified against the Forest Stewardship Council® Standards. Griffin Press holds FSC chain of custody certification SGS-COC-005088. FSC promotes environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests
Also available as an eBook