‘Could you cop a feel a bit lower and help me with my zip? I really need to pee.’ Her hands flew off him and hung suspended in the air for a long, silent moment. ‘Calm down, I said need to.’
‘Sit up and we’ll get you out of here, then the world’s your toilet. Apart from my roses.’ He slowly sat up, and groaned again. ‘How are you this smashed?’ she asked as she pulled him to his feet.
‘Alcohol.’
‘Just alcohol? It’s only a small pub. Did you use all the alcohol?’ She thought she saw him smile, and glimpsed a dark smear on his face before it disappeared into shadow again.
She reached up and touched it but there was no need, she could smell it over the stink of beer and whiskey. Blood. He put his arm around her shoulders and she climbed them both out of the hole where they stood for a while in the watery yellow light. He appeared to have forgotten his need to pee.
‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘My face hurts.’
‘Do you remember what happened?’
‘I hit some dickhead at the pub.’
‘And?’
‘He hit me back?’
‘No, why’d you hit him?’
He let go of her and wandered over to the scraggly gum near the sheep yards and unzipped. ‘He wanted to drag up ancient history – and I didn’t.’
‘I didn’t know you knew any of the locals.’
‘Not really, but I guess my reputation has preceded me.’
‘You have a reputation? How did Deirdre let you past the front gate?’ He zipped up. ‘What did you do?’
‘I went to prison,’ he said.
‘For what?’
‘Assault.’
‘Really? Who?’
‘A guy.’
‘But . . . what? Why?’ He smiled at her but his face was sad in the light, a light that threw dark and dangerous shadows across his eyes. He stood close to her and looked down and she pulled her jacket closer to her chest.
‘Are you digging up my house, Teddy Broderick?’ he whispered.
She was silent, not the person to knock on his door, much less dig up his house.
‘You don’t have a house,’ she said. He sighed.
‘Everybody’s got a house.’ Will considered her for a long moment while she held her breath. ‘All right,’ he decided, studying the ground. ‘I’ll tell you – if you give me that cup of tea, and if you let me wash my face. It’s getting a bit stiff.’ Teddy reached out and took his hand; if she knew anything, she knew where her home was.
When they made it inside and turned on the kitchen light she could see his eye was coming up in a bruise and there was a small but enthusiastic cut underneath it that was seeping blood.
‘Bathroom’s on the right,’ she said.
‘You’re not going to help me?’
‘Nah, you’ve been to prison, you probably know what you’re doing.’
He shrugged and wandered down the hall while she slowly collapsed against the kitchen cabinets. He’d been in prison for assault and Audrey obviously knew, but she was choosing to ignore it. Had no one told Deirdre? She was going to freak right out. She fiddled with the lid on the teapot and heard Dog arrive on the verandah.
After a few moments Will came back with his hand trailing unself-consciously along the wall back to the light of the kitchen. She opened a drawer and pulled out a fresh tea towel.
‘You missed a spot,’ she said, and dabbed some gluey blood from his chin.
‘Thanks,’ he muttered, and took the mug she offered. ‘You don’t have any painkillers, do you?’ Teddy indicated a packet on the kitchen table, and he pulled out a few and started chewing.
‘So, what happened?’ she asked, ‘With the guy?’
He sank down onto the kitchen chair with a sigh.
‘My parents had broken up a couple of years before it happened.’
Teddy waited.
‘I was acting out at that stage. I didn’t take it too well, I guess, so I started hanging out with some local kids. They were a bit rough and didn’t go home much, so I started to stay out, too.’
‘This guy hurt someone close to me and I beat the crap out of him. I was young, and just filled with testosterone and rage. I kept hitting him until he stayed down, by which time the police had been called.’ He reached for his tea and downed half of it without giving any sign that it was scalding hot. He leaned back in his chair and Teddy took a seat alongside him. His eye was going to be black in the morning.
‘How old were you?’
‘Fifteen when it happened. Sixteen when I went into juvenile detention.’
‘But you didn’t stay there,’ she said quietly. ‘So it’s all worked out —’
‘Yeah, sure,’ he said. ‘It’s all worked out.’
‘So who did you hit tonight?’
‘Dunno, a local guy who called me a criminal.’
‘What happened to him? Is he okay?’
Will shrugged. ‘I suppose so. Though he wasn’t looking too happy when he left, dumb prick.’
‘Geez, what will Audrey say?’
‘Dunno. She’ll say what she’ll say.’ He shrugged again and Teddy thought she caught a glimpse of a fifteen-year-old boy sitting in her kitchen in the gloomy night, but she was wrong. Will was definitely a man, and he was watching her closely, despite the whiskey and beer.
Teddy sipped her tea, and wished she’d turned on a couple more lights.
‘So,’ he said quietly. ‘Byron. What’s his story?’ Teddy glared at him, and he held up his hands innocently. ‘Hey! No judgement, babe, I’ve been to frickin’ juvie, your secret’s safe with me.’
‘Then what does it even matter?’ she grumbled. ‘I assume you just want to humiliate me.’
He slowly and emphatically shook his head. ‘No way. I just —’ He looked down at his mug. ‘I just can’t understand why you’d need to make up some guy, that’s all,’ he said. ‘I mean, look at you. Here you are surrounded by single men, and you’re making up some bullshit about a dead poet. You are obviously out of everyone’s league, anyway.’
‘Just how many have you had?’ she said.
‘Enough to make me wonder about you – in a bad way. Why lie about Byron?’
Teddy sighed. ‘To make my grandmother happy. She wants me to be happy, I think. You know, as long as I’m respectable.’
‘How respectable?’ he asked. ‘Are we talking Delta Goodrem? Or Mandy Stephens?’
‘Who’s Mandy Stephens?’
‘Chick who wouldn’t fuck me in high school.’
‘Then definitely Mandy Stephens,’ she said. ‘I made up Byron by accident during some conversation about my future. Deirdre can be maudlin sometimes and I guess I thought I was heading her off at the pass. I referred to this guy, a friend of a friend in Perth who’s working in London at the moment and she sort of latched on. Before I knew it I was spouting all sorts of crap: hair colour, job, favourite movies, special times we’d shared.’
‘And Deirdre bought it? She’s not stupid. Why would she believe it?’
‘Maybe because she wanted to – and so did I.’
‘Why?’
‘Because, I don’t know, it was easier than actually getting off my arse and putting myself out there, maybe?’ She took her cup to the sink and poured out the remainder of her tea. It was cold. ‘I just didn’t think – that – it’s silly . . .’
‘I’m pretty pissed. You should probably try me, because there is no way I’m remembering this conversation in the morning.’
‘Okay, I just felt that I didn’t want to get involved with anyone but it was getting hard to come up with excuses. It was easier to lie.’
Will considered her with his good eye. ‘Don’t you want a man one day, a partner in life, not some made-up bullshit?’
‘No.’
‘But don’t you ever get lonely?’
‘There are worse things than being lonely, Will.’
‘Hey,’ he murmured. ‘I’m just going to say this because I’m pissed, so
I’m allowed. I think you are the most beautiful chick I’ve ever seen. I see a woman who can deliver a baby, butcher a sheep, milk a cow, whistle a dog and sing a song for a grumpy old lady just to make her happy. I’d love to see what you could do out there in the world –’ he gestured drunkenly towards the window – ‘in the world.’ Then he took her hand in his and kissed it. Not the back. The palm. And her whole body felt it.
‘Don’t be silly,’ she whispered.
He smiled. ‘The only thing I don’t understand is, what sort of cake are you, anyway?’
The next morning was never going to be a great day for Will. He was going to have a raging hangover, a sore eye, and he would maybe need to spend some time regretting his anger management issues. When Teddy woke and found him passed out on her worn leather couch, her first instinct was to leave the house immediately to make sure Deirdre wasn’t about to come bursting through the door.
It could have been worse. At least he was on the couch. He was a little too long for it and his muddy boots were hanging off its end, dropping clods of earth onto the lino.
She sighed quietly so as not to disturb him, then decided he probably deserved to be woken. That hole wasn’t going to dig itself. Teddy let her gaze take in his handsome profile and his long dark lashes for a moment. He was breathing, so that was something, but his eye was swollen and it looked like it had seeped more blood overnight. She went to get a cloth, slamming the linen cupboard door and putting the kettle on to boil on the way past.
‘What the fu—?’ He was slowly moving his neck and dragging open his one good eye. ‘Teddy – what are you —’ He began to sit up. ‘Hey, did we have sex?’
Teddy flipped him the bird on the way past.
‘Does that mean no?’ he croaked. ‘Or just the once?’
She wet the cloth in the bathroom. ‘Did you do this to my face?’ She came back to where he was pulling himself up into a seated position, but it was costing him.
‘Firstly, shut up,’ she commanded. ‘And secondly, you’ve got some crap on your cheek, so you’d better wipe it off before it gets on the couch.’
He looked confused. ‘Got a mirror?’
She pointed at his swollen eye. ‘Try there,’ she said.
‘Where?’
‘Your eye, dummy.’
‘It feels like it’s pretty big,’ he complained. ‘You couldn’t narrow it down a bit, could you?’ Teddy let out a grumble of which even Deirdre would be proud and flapped the flannel to display her displeasure. He sat obediently still, and she leaned forwards from a great distance to poke his face gently. His good eye regarded her with interest and his mouth started smiling, probably to show off to the top half of his face that it was still working. ‘Uhh, I think you may need to come a bit closer,’ he murmured. ‘I promise not to touch your stuff or anything.’ She leapt back.
‘Touch my stuff?! What the hell kind of person are you?’ She flicked the flannel in the air again for good measure.
‘A man?’ His mouth showed off some more and it suited him. He looked pretty good, all things considered, and parts of her body were gracious enough to respond in kind. But not her heart. Her heart was far too sensible. He reached out and she felt her hand place itself in his. He was warm.
‘Come here,’ he whispered. ‘I’ll stay perfectly still. Pretend I’m dead.’ She allowed him to gently pull her closer, and she squeezed the damp cloth a couple more times. Get in. And get out. She was going to go dab dab dab, and get the hell out of there.
‘You’re making this weird,’ he complained, grinning now like weird was his absolute favourite. ‘Want me to close my eyes?’
‘I think that would be worse.’
He closed his eyes just in case and waited. She glared at him in a way Deirdre seemed to find particularly effective, but he didn’t run away or drop dead on the spot, so it was a skill she clearly needed to work on. Even with his eye bulging out of his head he was still handsome. His mouth was strong, his jaw was angular and his cheekbone, the one she could still see, was high and fine. His dark hair was only a fraction too long; he probably gave it a good cut once every six months then left it alone, or so she decided. It suited him. She didn’t like vanity in a man. Teddy glanced at his shoulders which were solid and broad, then down his arms to his hands, which were resting patiently on his knees, taking in the fine, dark hair along them, the rough knuckles, the long, strong fingers.
She moved closer until she was almost standing between his knees and bent in to inspect the eye. He felt her and turned his face more directly to hers. The wound looked painful. There was a split that had bled in the night and dark dried blood was gathering like sand along his cheek. She pressed the flannel onto his face, and he moved.
‘Ouch,’ he whispered.
‘Sorry.’ Teddy moved her cloth gently around his face, collecting blood and finding the extent of the injury. ‘Do you want a bandaid?’
‘Do I need one?’
‘Probably. You might need a stitch or something, really.’
He moved his head away and opened his eye.
‘Nah. I’ll just see how I go,’ he said. ‘A bandaid wouldn’t be bad though.’
She’d left a box on the table last night. She reached around and pulled one out.
‘Okay,’ she murmured. ‘Be brave.’ He smiled at her and she shivered as she gently placed the bandage over the angry cut, staring wide-eyed into his face the whole time. They paused there for a long moment.
‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘I think I need a shower.’ She laughed – at nothing, really – and the moment was broken. ‘I also think I may be a tiny bit hungover,’ he added. She pulled him to his feet.
‘Off you go then,’ she snapped. ‘My services don’t extend even nearly that far.’
‘Geez, my head hurts.’
She handed him some more painkillers and a tube of Berocca. ‘Here,’ she said, ‘go crazy.’
He almost laughed, but appeared to decide against it. He gazed down at her warmly. ‘Thanks again,’ he said.
She nodded, suddenly shy, suddenly regretting that he was leaving. ‘Will?’
He paused at the door. ‘Yeah?’
‘How about I take you to Sewells Rock? I don’t think you’ll be up to much work today.’
‘Up past the Heffernans’?’
She nodded.
‘Sure,’ he said, his face alight for a moment. ‘I’ll change and be back in half an hour.’ He dithered in the doorway. ‘Hey, did we talk about anything last night?’ he asked.
‘Nope,’ she said.
‘Didn’t think so.’
Sewells Rock was a large granite outcrop to the east of Windstorm. It was visible from miles away, although you had to know where to look. If you were local you could read the fall of the land. And if you knew the straight lines of trees that marked driveways or fence lines and the high points of other people’s farms, you could work out exactly where the rock was, and then you’d see it. Not huge and impressive, but large enough to give a decent view from the top. It was a massive rocky hill, really, speckled with low, straggly bushes and tiny spinifex plants, hot and dry in summer, but glistening and wet in winter with large puddles that appeared on two different sides for children to explore. There were also damp mounds of bright green moss to squelch and harvest, and with which kids built fairylands by the water’s edge.
Teddy had grown up going to Sewells Rock for picnics. They used to make damper on sticks and cook it over the fire, waiting until it was golden, then pulling out the stick to reveal the fluffy steaming insides and filling it with honey or golden syrup. It was heaven.
Teddy pulled out the esky from the kitchen cupboard and packed some cake, water, a couple of apples and a thermos of tea. The two-way hissed. ‘Base to base. You on channel?’ It was Deirdre. She crossed the room and picked up the radio handset.
‘Yep. Morning.’
‘That boy home late?’
‘Yeah, I think he’s a bit unwell today.’
‘The drink?’
‘Yeah. I thought I’d take him to Sewells Rock. Wanna come?’
There was a pause.
‘Ready to go in ten minutes,’ Deirdre barked, like this was her operation now.
‘Okay.’ Teddy returned. ‘He may take longer than that though, not sure.’
‘Fine.’
By the time she had put the esky in the ute and dragged her favourite windbreaker off the verandah from where Dog had been using it as a bed, Will was wandering back out of the shearers quarters. He had a large coat and sunglasses on and his hair was still damp from the shower. He walked carefully to the ute and placed a hand on the edge of the tray.
‘Morning,’ Deirdre frowned, throwing a couple of folding chairs into the back. ‘I called Audrey. She’s coming along to the south side in half an hour.’ Will appeared to take a moment to focus on her.
‘Okay,’ he said, and climbed into the back of the ute, where Teddy had thrown a couple of blankets.
‘What happened to your face?’ Deirdre demanded, her eyes bright and inquisitive on him like a startled chook.
‘Fight.’
‘You win?’
‘On points.’
‘You a drinker?’
He appeared to consider as he lay down on his back, his arms shielding him from the deeply blue and disapproving gaze of the winter sky above. ‘Not sure.’
‘Ha!’ Deirdre barked. ‘Not sure, eh? That means yes.’
‘Then, yes.’
She placed both hands on the side of the tray and peered in at him, her short, squat figure bent slightly towards him as she assessed his swollen face. Her head twitched this way and that as if she couldn’t quite make up her mind about him. He groaned loudly to give her a hand. Teddy went to the house for more supplies and threw them into the back near Will’s feet.
‘Watch it,’ he grumbled, and Deirdre, who liked a comeuppance as much as anyone, almost smiled. She climbed into the ute beside Teddy and wound up the window so the bitterly cold wind wouldn’t blast her along the way. ‘You think he’ll be cold in the back?’ Teddy grinned.
‘It’ll do him good,’ she said. ‘Wake him up a bit.’ Teddy gunned the engine and Dog jumped in on top of Will who let out a brief shout, which turned into a yodel as she performed a neat doughnut on the way out of the house yard.
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