Breaking/Making Up: Something BorrowedVendetta

by Miranda Lee

  When Kate looked totally perplexed James explained to her about how Jake was another form of John and that he and James actually had the same names, only reversed.

  ‘Goodness!’ she exclaimed. ‘Then when the celebrant said John James at the ceremony he really meant it. It wasn’t just a boo-boo?’

  ‘No boo-boo,’ Jake confirmed. ‘I wasn’t about to promise to love, honour and cherish my darling Leigh here in another man’s name.’

  Kate looked very impressed.

  ‘Then after you’ve spread all that around, Kate,’ Ashleigh continued, ‘you’d better also add that James decided he was still in love with some girl he’d been seeing in Brisbane last year and was going off to try and win her back.’

  ‘Goodness, Leigh, how inventive you’ve become over the years,’ Jake said with some amusement in his voice.

  ‘Not at all, Jake,’ Kate denied drily. ‘She’s as disgustingly practical as always. Believe me, this is her idea of forging her own destiny.’

  ‘Sounds good to me,’ he grinned. ‘As long as I’m in there somewhere, she can forge away all she likes.’

  ‘Be quiet, the both of you,’ Ashleigh reprimanded. ‘I’m thinking... Yes, and it might not be a bad idea to also let drop some “hush-hush” news about how Jake was wrongly convicted all those years ago and that was the real reason why the Thai government eventually released him. No one will bother to check, and if you tell everyone it’s supposed to be a secret it’ll get around like wildfire.’

  ‘I’ll tell Mrs Brown. She has her hair done on Monday.’ Kate’s eyes glittered with relish at the task. ‘Oh, and Maisie Harrison. She’s coming in on Tuesday and has just been elected president of the local ladies’ guild. Don’t worry. There won’t be a soul in town who won’t know everything within a day or two.’

  ‘Now, Nancy...’ Ashleigh turned to the woman sitting next to her. Jake’s mother was still very pale, though she had pulled herself together once she’d known Kate was on her way over. ‘You’ll have to ring my father in the morning and get him over here on a house call. Say you feel ill. That way, when you tell him the truth about James and Jake and everything, he won’t be able to tell anyone because of his having to keep your confidence. I’ll write a letter as well that you can give him, explaining my feelings for Jake and that I’ve gone off with him. I think he’ll be understanding.’

  Privately Ashleigh knew her father wouldn’t be too broken up over his daughter’s leaving Glenbrook, other than how he and his partner would be inconvenienced till Stuart joined the practice next year. In her letter she would suggest he hire a woman locum to fill in, warning him that if he didn’t watch out a smart woman doctor would set up practice in Glenbrook and steal half his patients.

  ‘But where will you and Jake go?’ Kate asked.

  Ashleigh looked at Jake. ‘Darling? Where are we going?’ she smiled at him, and when he smiled back an incredible sensation of bonding wrapped tentacles around her heart. He was so right. They did belong together. How could she ever have doubted it? Here in Glenbrook or out the back of Bourke or over in a small village in Thailand in an old grass hut. It didn’t matter, as long as they were together.

  ‘To Brisbane first, I think,’ he said. ‘I’ll ring Rhys—he’s staying at the Glenbrook Hotel. He’ll drive us to Brisbane Airport, where we can see about booking tickets to Thailand. Have you got a current passport?’

  ‘Yes.’ Ashleigh tactfully declined mentioning that part of her honeymoon had been arranged for Hawaii. ‘It’s in my black handbag in the car.’

  ‘Good, then there’s no reason why we can’t fly out to Bangkok straight away. My home is not far from there. Oh, and, by the way, it’s far from a grass hut. It’s quite grand, in fact. You see, Aunt Aggie left me all her money when she died, didn’t you know?’

  Ashleigh was taken aback. ‘No,’ she confessed. ‘I didn’t.’

  ‘Neither did I!’ Kate pronounced, sounding affronted that a piece of interesting gossip had somehow eluded her.

  ‘I wrote to her when I got out of prison, telling her the whole truth. The old dear must have felt sorry for me and what I’d been through, and made me her heir. Six months later she was gone, and suddenly all my financial worries were over. Not only that, but I was also recently paid a packet for the film rights to a book of mine that’s about to go on the stands in America. I’m loaded, my girl. Do you honestly think I’d expect you to rough it out in the wild somewhere? Not that I’m not flattered that you were prepared to.’

  ‘Rhys told me that he was going to make a movie in Thailand,’ Kate said with a frown. ‘But I didn’t make any connection with you, Jake.’

  ‘Just as well,’ Jake returned with feeling. ‘As it is, I told Rhys not to talk about Thailand, but that man can’t stop gabbling on about his damned movies.’

  ‘You know he said if I ever wanted a job with his company as a hairdresser on set he’d be only too happy to oblige. You know what? I think I’ll take him up on it.’

  ‘What kind of book, Jake?’ Ashleigh asked, a well of emotion filling her heart. He’d always said he’d be a great author one day. How proud of him she felt!

  ‘A fictionalised version of my experiences in Thailand. Not all bad, either. It’s a great country, you know, despite everything it put me through. Not that I can really blame the authorities. The man responsible for my imprisonment was damnably clever.’

  ‘Yes, I’d like to know more about that,’ his mother joined in. ‘How could heroin get to be in your luggage without your knowing?’

  If there was still a truculent note in her voice Jake was man enough to ignore it. He gave a nonchalant shrug. ‘It was a simple yet clever ruse,’ he explained. ‘There was this fellow Australian named Doug, staying in the same hotel in Bangkok. He was always reading, great, thick tomes in hardback. He’d been wading through one on the day before our flight home, raving on about how great it was, even to showing me a particular passage he found very moving. I politely read it, not thinking much of it myself, but not saying so.’

  Jake’s laugh was rueful. ‘Little did I know that this was just to reassure me it was a real book with real contents. When he complained the next day that he couldn’t fit it into his luggage, and that he really wanted to read the rest when he got back to Australia, I let him stash it in mine; unbeknown to me the middle section was hollowed out and stuffed with heroin. Just enough, unfortunately, to upgrade my crime from possession to trafficking. Naturally, when I was picked up at the airport he conveniently disappeared, with my not even knowing his full name.’

  ‘But didn’t your lawyers try to trace him?’ Ashleigh asked.

  ‘They said there was little point, since I had no independent witness to any of this. It would just be my word against his.’

  Nancy was beginning to look guilty. ‘That still sounds negligent to me,’ she muttered. ‘They should have tried, the same as your father and I should have tried to find better lawyers for you, Jake. I...I’m sorry, son. We...we let you down...’

  ‘It’s all right, Mother. We all make mistakes in life, and we all have expectations of people that cannot sometimes be met. I was a difficult, selfish, rebellious young man back then. I can see that now. But I have matured and mellowed, I hope, even to trying to understand and forgive James. He only did what he did where Leigh was concerned because he was trying to live up to other people’s expectations of him. Tell him when you see him, Mother, that you will love him, no matter what he is or does. That’s very important. If you don’t there’s no hope for him. No hope at all.’

  Nancy was not about to concede she had failed her favourite son in any way whatsoever. She stiffened, then stood up, proud and straight. ‘I have a very good relationship with James. We love and trust each other. He...he didn’t tell me about his...problem, because he knew it was just a phase he was going through. I’m sure he’ll be fine once I can get him away from that wicked man.’ She turned to face Ashleigh. ‘I will try to explain all this to your fath
er in the morning. Leave your letter here, on the table, and I’ll give it to him. But, for now, I...I must go to bed. I’m very, very tired.’

  Ashleigh also got to her feet. ‘I’ll walk up with you, Nancy. Jake...perhaps you could ring Rhys while I’m gone.’

  ‘Right away.’

  The two women did not speak as they walked side by side up the stairs. They stopped outside Nancy’s bedroom door. ‘Don’t worry about Jake and me, Nancy,’ she said in parting. ‘We’ll be fine...’

  Nancy gave her a rueful look. ‘Oh, I can see that. You and Jake were somehow meant to be, Ashleigh. He was your destiny.’

  ‘Maybe, Nancy. Maybe...’

  Ashleigh turned away with an ironic expression on her face. Destiny had nothing to do with it, she still firmly believed. One made choices in life. Tonight she had chosen to spend the rest of her life with Jake.

  She walked briskly along the corridor and turned into the bedroom at the top of the stairs, where she retrieved the locket from under the bed and the chain from the chest of drawers. Clutching it tightly in her hand, she made her way downstairs, where Jake was just hanging up the telephone in the foyer.

  ‘Rhys is on his way,’ he said, his eyes searching her face as she joined him. ‘Are you sure, Leigh? I’m not rushing you, am I?’

  ‘Of course you’re rushing me,’ she laughed. ‘But no matter.’ She moved into his arms and raised her face for him to kiss her.

  He did so, gently and reverently. ‘I really love you. You must know that. It’s not just sex.’

  ‘I know,’ she admitted at last, and, taking his hand, pressed the locket back in it.

  ‘What’s this?’

  ‘I’m giving you my heart again,’ she said softly. ‘But not on loan this time. This is for keeps.’

  He stared down at the delicate locket and thought of all the long, lonely nights he had held it to his own heart and cried for the girl who’d once given it to him. Well, there would be no more lonely nights, no more despair. He would gather this lovely, loving woman to his heart and treasure her till his dying days.

  ‘I’ll give it to our first daughter,’ he said in a thickened tone. ‘And when she’s old enough I’ll tell her the story behind it.’

  Ashleigh linked arms with him and they started walking slowly back to the kitchen, where Kate was sure to be waiting impatiently for them. ‘How many children would you like, Jake?’ she asked softly.

  ‘Lots.’

  ‘That’s good. Because if I’ve done my sums right expect the first in about nine months’ time.’

  When she looked up at him, expecting a measure of shock, Jake was smiling wryly down at her.

  ‘Jake Hargraves!’ she gasped. ‘You knew I might get pregnant tonight, didn’t you?’

  ‘Aye,’ he agreed with mock contrition. ‘That I did. James let the cat out of the bag when I—er—questioned him about how far things had gone between you two.’

  ‘But why...I mean...why didn’t you say something?’

  ‘I thought I’d best keep an ace up my sleeve, in case you decided we weren’t quite right for each other. I rather thought a wee babe might change your mind.’

  ‘Why, you sneaky, rotten...’

  ‘My God, you two aren’t fighting already, are you?’ Kate groaned from the kitchen doorway.

  ‘Who? Us?’ Jake scooped an arm around Ashleigh’s waist and pulled her close to his side. ‘Never!’

  ‘Certainly not,’ Ashleigh giggled, seeing the funny side of it.

  Kate eyed them both suspiciously. ‘I hope not. People make their own luck in life, isn’t that what you always say, Ashleigh?’

  ‘Oh, definitely.’

  ‘In that case,’ she rushed forward, an anxious look on her face, ‘would you have a spare room for me in Thailand if I came over for a while after I find a buyer for my salon? I think I’ll take Rhys up on his offer.’

  The front doorbell rang, and Jake stepped over to open it.

  Rhys stood there, an equally anxious look on his face. ‘All right, give me the bad news. She sent you packing once she found out, didn’t she? I did tell you, Jake, this wasn’t the way to handle it. Women don’t like to be deceived, you know. They...’

  He gaped into silence when Ashleigh walked forward and slipped a loving arm through Jake’s. ‘Now, Rhys, don’t be so melodramatic. I’m not angry with Jake at all. I adore him and we’re going to Thailand together to live and have babies while Jake writes and I doctor. We have only one further favour to ask of you.’

  His mouth flapped open, but no words came out.

  ‘Of both of you, actually,’ she went on, her glance encompassing Kate as well. ‘Would you two be our witnesses again when we really, truly get married, legally next time?’

  ‘Well, of course,’ Rhys agreed, still rather bemused by the turn of events.

  ‘But only if you uphold all the traditions,’ Kate inserted sternly. ‘White dress and all the trimmings. I don’t believe in any of those register office jobs.’

  Ashleigh grinned. ‘All right, Miss Tradition. But you’ll have to come up with a different “something borrowed” for me. That locket just won’t do any more. It’s been “returned to sender”.’ And she looked lovingly up at Jake.

  ‘Returned to...’ Kate frowned. ‘But I thought Nancy had... I mean... Ashleigh O’Neil!’ she wailed. ‘You’ve been keeping secrets from me!’

  ‘I wonder why,’ she laughed, and, smiling, went up on tiptoe to kiss the man she loved.

  SUSAN NAPIER

  Vendetta

  To my father, Ted Hedges, the Intrepid Traveller

  CHAPTER ONE

  THE time had come.

  Ten years...

  For ten years he had looked forward to this moment with a savage anticipation that had blotted out all lesser ambitions. He had forced himself to watch, to wait, to plan, to carry on with the rest of his life as if revenge had not become the pivot of his existence.

  Of course, outside the waiting, the plotting, he had gone through all the right motions, maintaining the fiction of Christian forgiveness...smiling, talking, moving, interacting with those around him, accepting their praise for his achievements, cultivating their admiration and envy, consolidating his wealth. But none of it had had any meaning, any reality for him.

  The admiration, the envy, the wealth were necessary only as a source of power. The power to see justice done. The power to punish...

  He pressed his right hand on the hard, highly polished surface of his desk, watching the faint mist of heat from his skin bloom across the cool, dark surface between his splayed fingers. A heavy gold ring engraved with an entwined briar and snake on the flat shield flashed in the firelight, the only source of light in the coldly elegant room, as he turned his hand over and stared at the bold tracery of life-lines on his palm. They mocked him with their energy. He had had such grand hopes of life until she had come along and casually crushed them.

  But now the long, bitter years of waiting were over. He finally had her exactly where he wanted her...in the palm of his powerful hand. And the timing was perfect. She thought that she was safe. She thought that she had got away with it, that everyone had forgotten her crime. Soon, very soon, she would learn differently. There was no statute of limitations on murder.

  He curled his fingers inward to form a brutal fist. All he had to do now was close the trap and watch her futile struggles to free herself. She would probably weep and cry innocence, or bluster and threaten, or, better still, cringe and beg for his entertainment. Then he would strip away her pride and her self-respect and stand witness to the death, one by one, of all her hopes and dreams. It was an image that he treasured in the depths of his embittered soul.

  He picked up the squat crystal glass next to his hand and took a long swallow of potent, twelve-year-old Scotch. The raw, smoky bite at the back of his throat was pleasurable, but it was no match for the intoxicating taste of revenge that was flooding his senses. For the first time in a decade, he felt a
lmost whole again.

  The time had come...

  CHAPTER TWO

  VIVIAN took the last two steps in one grateful stride and then paused for breath, forcing herself to look back down the narrow staircase that was chipped out of the rocky face of the cliff.

  In spite of the fact it was a cold and blustery day, typical of New Zealand’s autumn, sweat was trickling down her torso inside her cream blouse and her palm had felt appallingly slippery on the single, stout wooden rail that had been the only barrier between her and the rock-strewn, sea-green oblivion below.

  She shuddered faintly as she watched the two men far below, unloading the cargo from the hold of the squat little ferry-boat.

  Reaction hit and Vivian swallowed, her dry mouth suddenly thick with moisture. Her legs felt like jelly and she swayed, fighting the urge to sink weakly to the ground.

  She pressed a hand to her abdomen, trying to control the unpleasant churning feeling as she turned away and followed the sharply rising, stony path up through the low, scrubby trees. She had to get a grip on herself before she reached her destination. She smoothed down her neat dark green skirt and adjusted the matching blazer as she went, nervously switching the soft-sided leather satchel from one sweaty hand to the other as she tried to calm herself by projecting a mental aura of professionalism.

  She had a reputation to uphold. She was here as a representative of Marvel-Mitchell Realties to close a vital property deal. A lot was depending on her. It wasn’t just the money, but the future happiness of people that she loved that was at stake.