Moonlight Plains

by Barbara Hannay

  ‘I don’t suppose it’s worth going all that way just for a party, but maybe you could make it part of a bigger travel plan.’ Amy was warming to her idea now. ‘You have a nice inheritance, after all. Spend a smidgen. Buy a round-the-world ticket and go to Italy like you’ve always wanted to.’

  A vision of Florence’s domes and rooftops flashed before Laura’s eyes, evincing a groan. She’d only ever seen them in photos. ‘Don’t tempt me with Italy.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘My girls –’

  ‘Are living on the west coast and making their own lives.’ Amy’s eyes were intense now. ‘Haven’t you earned this, Laura? You put up with that shit of a –’

  ‘Okay!’ Laura threw up her hands before her friend let forth with her favourite rant: an extensive list of Laura’s ex-husband’s crimes. ‘I’ll give it some thought.’

  ‘Don’t think too long.’

  She knew this was good advice. If she thought too hard about this, her angst would inevitably strangle her courage, and she would focus on the fear that she might discover more about her father than she wanted to know.

  Then again, having read every one of his letters, surely she already knew the worst?

  27

  Townsville, 1942

  Everything changed on the day they went to the island.

  Kitty suspected that Ed had done extra duty in order to have a whole day free with her, and she wanted everything to be perfect.

  Luckily, the weather was magical on this last weekend in April – still sunny and tropical, but without the energy-sapping humidity of summer. The tang of salt spray filled the air as they sat on the rear deck of the ferry boat Malanda and watched the rushing white wake, while Townsville’s shoreline slipped further and further behind them.

  Everything was perfect. The clear, bright blue of the sky above was reflected in the sparkling sea. A brisk breeze blew, and the island lay ahead, green and hilly, with its enticing fringe of pretty bays.

  They’d brought a picnic basket and a thermos, swimsuits and towels, and Kitty’s stomach tightened with mounting excitement as the mooring ropes were thrown ashore and the boat rocked against the shell-encrusted timbers of Nelly Bay’s jetty.

  On land they walked in bright sunlight, surrounded by smooth boulders and soaring hoop pines, while below, through the cracks in the jetty’s boards, they could see the clear water and colourful fish swimming between clumps of coral.

  ‘We should swim at Arcadia,’ Kitty said. ‘It’s the next bay, and it’s like this one only prettier. Just a short walk.’

  ‘Arcadia?’ Ed grinned. ‘How aptly named.’

  When they reached it, he stood for a long moment with a broad, happy smile on his face. He took in a deep breath of pristine air as he surveyed the blue and white curve of the tiny bay, with its fringe of coconut palms and boulder-studded headlands.

  ‘This is paradise,’ he said softly.

  ‘You could almost forget there’s a war on,’ Kitty agreed, even though there were plenty of reminders on the island, with military personnel dashing about in jeeps and heavily armed forts set on the headlands above Florence Bay.

  Ed’s ebony eyes sparkled, however, and as they walked down to the beach, he slipped his arm casually around her shoulders. She could sense a change in him, as if he’d left his cautious, slightly serious self behind. The island was already working its magic.

  Kitty found it rather nerve-racking, though, to emerge from the changing rooms in her swimsuit. She was worried that her costume was too old-fashioned and unflattering, but Ed’s admiring smile quickly melted her fears. And as soon as they’d dumped their gear at the base of a coconut palm, they ran together across the warm sand to the cool, startlingly clear water.

  Bliss.

  I don’t do this often enough, Kitty told herself. She’d almost forgotten how wonderfully sensuous it was to dive into the cool, clear sea and to feel the water all over her skin and to roll onto her back and float, gently rocking, looking up at the pines on the headland.

  She was constantly aware of Ed, of course. Each time she saw his dark head and bare chest emerge from the water and saw the flash of his smile, she felt a rush of happiness.

  He was never far away – and yet it was just when she least expected it that he caught her hand, pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

  Kissed her on the lips, while their semi-naked bodies pressed close.

  Kitty thrilled to feel his mouth seeking hers in a cold, salty kiss, and to feel his hard muscled chest, his strong thighs. Lightning jolted through her as she felt his unmistakable arousal.

  She was bereft when he released her again, but she caught the burning intensity of the smile he gave her before he dived beneath another rolling green wave.

  After their swim, they ate their picnic lunch on the beach. Ed produced a cold roast chicken, an astonishing luxury, and Kitty didn’t like to ask how he’d acquired it. Afterwards they lay on the soft grass looking up through graceful palm fronds, listening to the soft rise and fall of the sea and the trilling of cicadas in the nearby shrubbery.

  Kitty couldn’t stop thinking about Ed’s kiss. It was a new obsession to recall the taste of his lips and the sexy shock of his erection pressing against her.

  Eventually, keeping her gaze on the sky overhead, she said boldly, ‘So now you’ve kissed me on the lips for the first time.’

  When Ed didn’t answer, she turned to look at him. Saw his slow smile.

  ‘You did realise it was the first time, didn’t you, Ed?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘I was beginning to think it might never happen.’ Their goodnights at the front gate in Mitchell Street had been so chaste. ‘Have you been worried that Geoff might be spying on us from the verandah?’

  Ed rolled onto his side, facing her, and lifted his hand to gently stroke her cheek, her neck. His fingers lingered, lightly teasing her collarbone.

  ‘There’s a very good reason why I’ve never kissed you properly,’ he said, now tracing the line of her jaw. ‘I knew that if I started, I’d never want to stop. I’d need to kiss every enchanting inch of you.’

  Kitty shivered. ‘I wouldn’t mind.’

  ‘Kitty.’ His voice held a warning now.

  ‘I’m not a virgin,’ she whispered daringly, thinking this might be what had held him back. ‘I slept with – with a fellow before he joined up. But it was just, you know, a kind of goodbye.’

  ‘And then your grandfather banished you to Moonlight Plains.’

  Kitty gasped. ‘How did you know that?’

  ‘So I’m right?’ Ed asked now, instead of answering her.

  ‘Yes, but how did you guess?’

  ‘Something your great-uncle implied. That you were sent out there to get away from the American invasion. He thought it was ironic. Reading between the lines, I guessed there might have been a problem in Townsville.’

  ‘So you haven’t kissed me because you’ve wanted to protect me from gossip and from my grandfather’s wrath?’

  Ed shrugged. Clearly he wasn’t going to admit this.

  ‘You’re very noble, Ed.’

  Now he laughed. ‘There’s nothing noble about my thoughts.’ And she saw an intense look in his eyes that contradicted his laughter.

  Picking up a strand of her drying hair, he rubbed it between his fingers, loosening the salty stiffness left by the seawater. ‘You know this talk of kissing is playing with fire, Kitty.’

  She looked directly into his dark gaze and smiled. ‘That’s what I was hoping.’

  His throat worked nervously as he swallowed.

  ‘Actually . . . I have a key,’ he said. ‘There’s a hut. I believe it’s close by, but it’s very rustic.’

  ‘How did you get the key?’

  ‘One of the perks of being an officer. Our air force has requisitioned several places on this island.’

  Her heart was racing. ‘Shouldn’t we take a look?’

  The hut was indeed rustic
. Set back behind a screen of palm trees, casuarinas and bright flowering hibiscuses, its windows were made from corrugated iron that pushed out on timber props.

  The floor was bare concrete and the furnishings were simple: a double bed with a faded blue chenille spread, a small cane table and two chairs, a spotted mirror above the table, a cupboard with basic crockery. Another small building at the back housed a shower.

  When Ed propped the windows a little way open, dappled green light filtered into the room.

  ‘It’s lovely,’ Kitty said as she set her picnic basket and beach bag on the floor. ‘You can hear the sea from here.’

  Ed smiled. ‘And the sounds of the parrots and the cicadas.’

  ‘And the geckoes,’ she said as he reached for her and nuzzled her bare neck.

  ‘What are geckoes?’ he asked, trailing warm kisses along her jaw.

  ‘Funny-looking lizards.’ Kitty arched, wanting his lips everywhere.

  ‘Noisy lizards?’ He kissed her throat.

  ‘Uh-huh.’

  He chuckled. ‘I lurve the tropics.’

  His hands framed her face now and there was no more chuckling or talking as his lips found her lips, gently teasing them apart.

  Kitty’s eyes widened as she felt his tongue touch hers, but after her momentary surprise, it felt completely natural and perfect. Winding her arms around his neck, she let him take the kiss deeper.

  Oh, my, she thought as her skin tightened all over.

  Ed was unhurried, almost lazy in the way he kissed her now, but he was most definitely in charge as he slipped his fingers beneath the straps of her swimsuit.

  ‘You must tell me if you want me to stop, Kitty.’

  ‘All right.’ She already knew she wouldn’t want him to stop.

  His dark eyes sought hers. ‘I mean it.’

  Then he peeled the swimmers down and kissed the tops of her breasts, lighting flames of longing.

  ‘I don’t want you to stop,’ she whispered, although she gave a small gasp of surprise when he peeled the fabric lower, following with his lips. But then she was seized by curiosity and a new kind of wildness. This was what she wanted – these lightning bolts of desire, his kisses all over. Everywhere . . . everywhere.

  I’m a changeling, she thought as she quivered and arched. This wanton creature can’t really be me.

  Once or twice, his kisses were so intimate that she knew she was blushing, and she wondered, Am I supposed to ask him to stop now?

  But any possible protests were so hazy and barely formed that they drifted away like smoke on the wind. After all, this was Ed, and he was every kind of wonderful and there was no stopping the blaze that engulfed her.

  Kitty felt rather dazed as she lay beside him.

  ‘Hey,’ he said gently. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Yes, of course. Just a little stunned. I had no idea.’ She smiled at him shyly. ‘I didn’t know it could be like that.’

  ‘Neither did I,’ Ed said softly.

  ‘But . . . ’ Kitty frowned. ‘But you knew what to do.’ He knew so much. Everything.

  He smiled and kissed the tip of her nose. ‘Doesn’t mean it’s ever been like that before.’

  She tried to take this in as she lay there, feeling like a much more grown-up and womanly version of herself, watching the patterns of light on the walls, while Ed idly played with strands of her hair.

  After a bit, she asked, ‘What are you thinking about now?’

  ‘About you. About how wrong it would be to take you away from all this.’

  His words both thrilled and chilled her. Was he already thinking ahead to the end of the war, to a future in Boston that couldn’t include her?

  ‘Perhaps you’ll have to stay here then,’ she said, half-joking.

  ‘Perhaps I will.’ He sounded very pleased with that thought and he was smiling as he began to kiss her again.

  Close to dusk, they walked along the beach, hand in hand, their bare feet leaving prints in the shiny wet sand. The ferry had left long ago, packed with tired and sunburned day-trippers, its decks loaded with cases of pineapples from the island’s farms. Kitty had felt extremely audacious when she hadn’t gone with them.

  She and Ed were staying on the island till morning, stealing one glorious, precious night from the war.

  ‘Do you remember your parents?’ Ed surprised her by asking.

  ‘Yes, of course. I was ten when they died.’

  ‘Do you have happy memories of them?’

  ‘Very happy.’ Kitty smiled, remembering the uncomplicated joy of her childhood. The little red-roofed house in Penshurst, her mother singing in the kitchen, her father whistling as he came home from his work in the city. She remembered his nightly ritual, calling, ‘Where are my two special girls?’ Remembered him swinging her into his arms, holding her on his hip as he kissed her mother, not wanting Kitty to feel left out.

  ‘I knew that my parents loved each other and loved me. There was a lot of laughter in our house,’ she said. ‘At mealtimes, all the time. That was what I missed most when I moved up here to live with my grandparents. They’re not big on laughter.’

  The sea and the sky were pearly-grey now, with splashes of pink and mauve from the sunset.

  ‘What about you?’ she asked Ed.

  ‘Not much gaiety in our house, I’m afraid.’

  ‘But your parents are happy together, aren’t they?’

  He gave a soft, huffing sound that wasn’t quite a laugh. ‘Oh, yes, definitely. In our circles, everyone is happily married. It’s the done thing. They’re far too refined to fight.’

  ‘But there are no displays of passion?’ Kitty asked.

  ‘Absolutely not,’ he said glumly. ‘That would be undignified.’

  ‘They’re not at all like you then.’

  That won her another smile.

  28

  Moonlight Plains, 2013

  ‘I’m afraid this is a begging phone call,’ Luke told Zoe McKinnon. ‘I’m after a little catering advice.’

  ‘Are you catering for another stock camp?’

  ‘Not this time.’ Luke smiled, remembering how he’d met Zoe, a fully qualified chef, when he’d hired her as his camp cook for a muster at Mullinjim, the family’s station. At the time he’d never dreamed she was his half-sister in search of her family.

  ‘I haven’t been within cooee of a stock camp all year,’ he said now. ‘This is for the bash here at Moonlight Plains.’

  ‘The party to celebrate finishing the homestead makeover? Hey, that’s great. We were really excited to get our invitation. So are you nearly finished?’

  Luke looked around at the frames for the kitchen cupboards still waiting for doors and bench tops, the holes where the stove and dishwasher were yet to be fitted, the wires hanging from walls awaiting an electrician. From the bathroom across the hall, he heard the sounds of the tiler at work. ‘Getting there,’ he said.

  ‘I can’t wait to see it, Luke. I know it’ll be gorgeous. You did such a great job on our place.’

  ‘Well, I assumed most of the family would want to see it, so I decided it was a good excuse to get everyone together. Bella and Gabe. All the uncles. Mum and my grandmother.’

  ‘It’ll be fabulous to see everyone. Such a great chance to catch up.’ A moment later, Zoe said in a more subdued tone, ‘But I can’t help thinking how much Peter would have loved this, Luke.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Luke sighed. ‘We’re going to miss him all right.’ Zoe hadn’t known their father for very long before he died and she’d found his passing especially hard. ‘We’ll have to raise a glass to him,’ Luke said gently.

  ‘Yes. Just a quiet one with your mum and Bella.’

  ‘We’ll make sure of it.’ Luke blinked, shocked to realise how the loss could still ambush him. Since he’d moved to Moonlight Plains, he’d felt distanced from his family, but a few words from Zoe had instantly reinforced how strong the ties were.

  ‘By the way . . . speaking of families,’
he said, brightening, ‘I’ve invited the daughter of one of the Yanks who crashed here during the war.’

  ‘Is she coming out for the party?’

  ‘I’m not sure yet, but I hope so.’

  ‘Wow. That’ll put us all on our best behaviour.’

  ‘I guess . . . I s’pose she’ll fit in.’

  Truth to tell, posting the invitation to the American woman had been quite a wake-up call for Luke. The possibility of her arrival made everything real. Until then, he’d only played along with Sally’s brainwave to throw a party, and the actual mechanics of hosting the event had been little more than a vague theory. Now, he had to get cracking with putting it into action.

  ‘Okay.’ Zoe sounded gratifyingly businesslike now. ‘At least you’ve given me enough time to plan.’

  ‘I don’t expect you to do everything.’ Zoe and Mac had an ankle-biter now – young Callum, closing in on the terrible twos. ‘I was thinking of a barbecue, nothing too flash, or we could throw a beast on a spit.’

  ‘Okay. Sounds good. In either case, you’d really just need fresh salads, crusty bread and some scrumptious desserts.’

  ‘That would be perfect.’ Luke laughed. ‘You make it sound easy.’

  ‘It will be. Hey, I’m getting excited already, Luke. Does this mean I can throw my weight around in your lovely new kitchen?’

  ‘Absolutely. Feel free.’

  ‘Great. Oh, hang on a sec. Mac’s here now, and he’s demanding to know what we’re talking about.’

  Luke could hear her explaining to her husband.

  Next, Mac was on the phone. ‘Hey, Luke?’

  ‘G’day.’

  ‘I’ve been meaning to ring you. So you’re throwing a big party?’

  ‘Sure,’ Luke said with more confidence than he felt. He could already tell from his mate’s amused tone that he was in for a ribbing.

  ‘Can’t help wondering who put you up to it.’

  Luke was glad Sally was safely outside, working in the yard. She’d arrived at Moonlight Plains this morning armed with a rake, gloves and other gardening gear, ready to clean up the disused lily pond. She had visions of it revived and beautiful for the party, stocked with reeds, lilies and fish.