‘I. I.’ Ellie stammered. She fell silent. It was obvious she didn’t want to answer the question.
Claire looked at Aurelia who was grey with weariness and sorrow. Then to her sister. Leanne was white faced, her green eyes haunted as she sat on the edge of the chair and stared at their mother. Claire regarded Ellie for a long moment. It was as if she was seeing her for the first time, and she was unsure how she felt about that in the light of her revelations.
‘I realise you all have many questions, but please, let me finish this before you ask them. It will all become clear very soon – and although I know how hard this must be for you, Claire, try and understand how difficult it is for me.’
Claire was trembling. ‘Difficult?’ she breathed. ‘You’ve lied to me for years and yet you expect me to understand how difficult it all is for you?’ She sank back into the chair. ‘So what else have you lied about?’ she said coldly. ‘There’s obviously more.’
*
It was evening and Ellie and Alicia were arguing as she finished her nightly chores. ‘You don’t have to do this,’ pleaded Alicia. ‘Please, Ellie, think about what you’re letting yourself in for. Charlie’s not the man for you.’
Ellie finished her chores. There was no way out of her predicament. A single girl with a baby would bring disgrace, but Aurelia would feel it the most and she couldn’t betray her like that. ‘I’m marrying Charlie, and that’s an end to it,’ she said firmly as she clanged the water buckets and filled them from the standpipe. ‘The sooner we do it, the better for the baby.’
‘You’re marrying him for all the wrong reasons,’ Alicia persisted as she followed her around the stable yard..
‘He’s the father of my child,’ she replied.
‘Charlie’s only marrying you because he wants to get his hands on Warratah,’ Alicia snapped. ‘He’s been poking and prying into Aurelia’s safe, reading documents and wills and goodness knows what. If you don’t believe me then ask Aurelia. Ask Wang Lee. He was the one who caught him at it.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Ellie replied. News of Charlie’s snooping had come as a shock and she felt a lurch of uneasiness.
‘Then I’ll enlighten you,’ rasped Alicia. ‘We were all out the day Charlie decided to snoop, but Wang Lee knew he was up to something and followed him. He looked through the door and saw Charlie on his knees in Aurelia’s room. The floorboards were up, the safe open. He was reading the papers we stored there. The deeds to Warratah and Jarrah, the wills, the trusts. He was almost sweating with excitement.’
Ellie knew she had to maintain a veneer of calm despite what her mother was telling her. ‘Charlie loves me,’ she insisted. ‘And even if...’
Alicia had had enough. ‘You don’t sound terribly convinced,’ she snapped. ‘Charlie’s greedy. He’s seen Warratah, seen you and the way you’ve hankered after Joe. Now Joe’s gone there’s nothing standing in his way. Marry you and he’s got it all. This baby was a deliberate act, Ellie. I wouldn’t mind betting he’s been planning it since the first time he set eyes on Warratah.’
Ellie’s eyes filled with tears. ‘That’s a cruel thing to say,’ she retorted. ‘He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.’ She fell silent as the suspicions crowded in and the truth began to dawn. She felt cold, used and dirty – not just by what had happened that day – but by how easily she’d been taken in. How naïve she’d been. Charlie’s resentment of his twin went far deeper than she could ever have imagined. His professed love for her merely a means to an end. He would see the consequences of that day as a final victory over his twin – one that could never be challenged. She looked back at her mother, the words she’d wanted to say were ashes in her mouth. ‘It’s too late,’ she said flatly. ‘The wedding’s arranged, the baby’s a fact of life. I have no choice.’
‘I wish to goodness Jack would come home,’ said Alicia crossly. ‘There’s far more to this than meets the eye.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Jack would soon get to the bottom of this if he had a chance to talk to Charlie man to man. I don’t know what he’s doing in Darwin, but he’s way overdue and when he phones he tells Aurelia nothing.’
‘This has nothing to do with you or Jack, or even Aurelia,’ Ellie said firmly. ‘Leave things alone, Mum,’ she warned.
Alicia eyed her sharply and Ellie kept her expression bland. ‘If you won’t talk to me, then talk to Aurelia,’ Alicia said with exasperation. ‘You cannot go through with this.’ She rammed her hands in to the pockets of her moleskins and strode away, the frustration apparent in every stride.
*
‘I watched her leave, wishing I had the guts to confide in her. I knew the marriage would be a sham.’ Ellie looked down at her hands clasped in her lap. ‘But the way things were back then meant my child’s future was at stake. He or she would be victimised all through life, and I had no right to deny the child a name and with it a veneer of respectability.’ She lifted her gaze to Claire’s. ‘I had to pay for breaking the rules.’
‘But you said Charlie loved you,’ said Claire. ‘Surely, even...?’
‘You heard me tell you what he was like. Acquisitive, jealous, possessive,’ she snapped without thinking. She bit her lip and made a tremendous effort to remain calm. ‘We had once been close,’ she said evenly. ‘But I couldn’t love him the way he wanted. Not after what he’d done.’
‘So I was just a pawn in a game?’ said Claire into the silence.
‘No one really knew what was going on in Charlie’s mind,’ Aurelia said carefully. ‘But you were never a pawn in your mother’s eyes. She always wanted you – always loved you.’
‘She’s lied to me all my bloody life,’ snarled Claire. ‘My dad’s not my dad. My sister’s not my real sister, and my mother...’ She glared at Ellie. ‘My mother’s a liar.’
‘That’s enough,’ snapped Aurelia. ‘You will not talk about your mother like that, regardless of how hurt you are. Listen to what we’re telling you, Claire.
‘Why should I?’ she retorted as she stood up. ‘I’m surprised you’ve given me house room all these years. You obviously hated my father – but what did he do that was so wrong?’ She looked from Aurelia to Ellie and back again. ‘He and mum got carried away after a wedding reception. She regretted it. But at least he was doing the honourable thing and sticking by her. Why should he take all the blame?’
Aurelia was about to reply when Ellie broke into a fit of sobbing. ‘Because he was a bastard,’ she gasped. ‘I hated him for what he did. Hated him more than I’ve ever hated anyone.’
Claire slumped back into the chair. Her eyes were shadowed with pain, her face white with shock. ‘Why?’ It was a demand.
*
It was a troubling time for them all. Mickey Maughan had had a very bad attack of malaria and his weakened heart just couldn’t take it. They buried him in his beloved Jarrah soil beside his sons and mourned his passing. He would be missed.
Two days after the funeral Aurelia was sitting at the table in the kitchen with her rifle to hand and Jacky Jack on the back porch with the stock boys in case she needed help. She had discussed this meeting with Alicia and had chosen a time when Ellie was out collecting firewood. Neither of them wanted her coming home in the middle of things.
She watched as Charlie opened the screen door and strolled down the hall into the kitchen. There was a cock-sureness about him she didn’t like, and his almost insolent expression made her want to spit in his eye. ‘Sit down,’ she ordered.
Charlie took his time to sit in the hard wooden chair on the other side of the table. He began to roll a cigarette. ‘I know what this is about,’ he muttered. ‘But you’re wasting your breath. Neither of us will change our minds.’
Ignoring him, Aurelia spread papers across the table. ‘You’ve already seen most of these,’ she said coldly. ‘But certain things have been changed since the last time you sneaked into my safe.’ She saw the glint of apprehension in his blue eyes and noticed how his hands stilled for an instant
before he cupped them to light his cigarette. Despite his nonchalance, she knew she had his full attention. ‘I have no rights over Ellie’s decision to marry you,’ she said. ‘But I do have the power to protect her inheritance.’
‘What do you mean?’ His voice was icy, his arctic gaze fixed on her through the cigarette smoke.
Aurelia glared back at him. She had no intention of enlightening him just yet. He didn’t frighten her, and she had the upper hand. ‘I have a proposal for you,’ she said coldly.
He took the cigarette out of his mouth. ‘Let me guess,’ he said with heavy sarcasm. ‘You wanna buy me off.’
‘Exactly. I knew you’d understand.’ Aurelia showed him a cheque she’d made out earlier. ‘I give you this once the wedding ceremony is over. In return I expect you to leave Warratah and never come back.’ She saw his eyes widen as he read the figures on the cheque. Two thousand pounds was a great deal of money – enough to set him up for life. Yet there was something secretive in his eyes and she felt the first tremor of doubt.
‘Give me a cheque every year for that amount and I might consider it,’ he drawled.
Aurelia had known something like this would happen. ‘This is a one-off payment – not a license to blackmail,’ she snapped. ‘I’ve drawn up a legal document with the help of my solicitor. It’s a binding contract whereby you receive the money and have no further claim on my estate or Ellie’s inheritance. It’s to be signed by you before you receive this cheque.’
He read the document slowly as the cigarette burned low between his fingers and ash fell on the floor. Then he shoved the paper back over the table. ‘And if I refuse to sign? What makes you think I’d give up all this for a few lousy quid?’
Aurelia pursed her lips. She had known this would be difficult, but she was determined to see it through. ‘Two thousand pounds might not seem much after your high hopes of getting your hands on “all this” as you put it. But it’s better than the alternative.’
Charlie shifted in his chair, his expression grim, eyes uneasy. ‘What are you talking about? What alternative?’
‘I’ve changed my will,’ she said calmly.
His laugh was harsh, setting her teeth on edge. ‘You silly old woman,’ he sneered finally. ‘Think I don’t know you wouldn’t see Ellie right? What you gunna do – leave Warratah to a charity – see Ellie on the tramp again?’ He shook his head and leaned towards her. ‘You don’t fool me,’ he said quietly. ‘Ellie and I will get married and we’ll live here with our kid, and there’s nothing you can do about it.’
Aurelia found the appropriate page in her will. ‘I leave Warratah to my husband, Jack Withers,’ she read. ‘On his death it is to be passed to my sister Alicia.’ She looked up from the document. She didn’t need to read it, she knew the words by heart. ‘On Alicia’s death Warratah is to be held in trust by my solicitors for Ellie’s children.’
There was a long silence between them. Charlie smoked his way through another cigarette and Aurelia lit her pipe. They’d reached stalemate, but Aurelia had no intentions of losing this particular game of chess and was willing to wait it out. There was nothing like silence to focus the mind.
‘I’ll tell Ellie what you’ve just told me,’ he said eventually. ‘She won’t admire you for it.’
‘Please yourself,’ she replied stoutly. ‘Ellie is a sensible girl, she’ll know I have only her best interests at heart.’ She leaned across the table, her gaze steady and cold as she looked into his eyes. ‘I know she doesn’t want to go through with this marriage despite her denials to the contrary. She’s doing it to protect the child she’s carrying. And don’t insult my intelligence by telling me you love her. I know better – and your pathetic attempts to black-mail me has only underlined that fact.’
Charlie’s gaze followed her hand as she picked up the cheque and Aurelia saw he was trapped between greed and the disbelief she would disinherit her darling niece. Yet she was prepared to make any sacrifice to protect Ellie, and if things went the way she’d planned, then the new will could be torn up. ‘Do we have a deal? she murmured.
The drone of a light plane interrupted the moment and Aurelia took a sharp breath of annoyance. She’d been so close to getting what she wanted. Now the moment was gone and she would have to go through all this again – time was precious – the wedding only days away.
Charlie stood up. ‘I’ll think about it,’ he said as he grabbed his hat. He looked down at her. ‘You’ve got me all wrong, you know,’ he said forcefully. ‘I do love Ellie. Warratah was just a bonus.’
‘One you’ll never have,’ she replied. ‘I don’t trust you, Charlie. Never have and never will.’
He laughed then, the secret glint coming once more into his eyes as he smoothed his hair and put on his hat. ‘You’ll regret that,’ he said with the soft sibilance of a snake. ‘One day very soon you’ll find out just how much I hate you, and you won’t be able to do a thing about it.’ He chuckled as he turned away, his boot heels rapping on the wooden floor as he slammed out of the house and made his way across the verandah and down the steps.
Aurelia was trembling. There had been a coldness in Charlie that had frightened her. An almost evil glint of malice in his threats. She gathered up the papers and wondered what secrets he was keeping. Then she squared her shoulders and decided it had been an empty threat – for what could Charlie do that could harm her more than marrying her beloved niece? She fixed her monocle and with a grunt of frustration stomped out to meet Jack.
Aurelia waited for him to climb down from the plane. ‘Where the hell have you been?’ she demanded.
He gathered her into his arms and kissed her. When they came up for breath he held her at arm’s length and grinned. ‘Nice to know I’ve been missed,’ he drawled. ‘But bloody hell, Aurelia, you should hear the news I’ve got.’
‘Can’t be half as bad as the news I’ve got for you,’ Aurelia said stonily. She gave him a short, sharp version of events on Warratah. ‘Now you’ve decided to come home at last, perhaps you can get to the bottom of it all. I’ve tried, and got nowhere.’
‘Can I catch me breath first?’ he asked with a twinkle of humour in his eyes. ‘I just got back from one of the most hectic visits to Darwin I’ve ever had, and what I’ve discovered will make all this nonsense of Charlie and Ellie seem like a storm in a teacup.’
Aurelia snorted. ‘Have to be pretty important to do that,’ she rasped. ‘What exactly are you talking about?’
He gathered up his bags. ‘I’ll tell you once I’ve had a cuppa and bit of tucker. I’ve been traipsing over half Australia the past couple of weeks and I could do with a few home comforts.’
Aurelia frowned. ‘Half Australia?’ she said. ‘Why? I thought you were going to Darwin to see if you could get your old job back?’
‘Decided I’d had enough of doing the mail run,’ he said excitedly as they headed for the homestead. ‘Got in touch with a few mates from the air force and we’re starting up our own airline. Qantas have had it their own way for too long. People are always gunna want to get around in a hurry, and the distances here make it almost impossible. We’ve been thrashing out ideas and are planning to meet up again in about a month’s time to sort out the finances. We’ve all earned a packet during the war and an airline will make good use of the money.’
‘So that’s the big mystery,’ she murmured as she linked her arm through his. ‘Thought it was something earth-shattering.’
He looked down at her and smiled. ‘Sounds like you’re not surprised by my news, darlin’.’
Aurelia laughed. ‘I knew you wouldn’t be satisfied with running the mail – not after the excitement of war. I’ve had a suspicion you’d do something like this.’ She kissed his cheek. ‘Good on you, Jack Withers.’
He looked thoughtful as he glanced across the homestead yard at Charlie and Ellie who were deep in conversation. ‘That’s not the real news, Aurelia,’ he said softly. ‘The real news is so astonishing that it will blow you
outta the water.’ He pulled her close as she looked up and frowned. ‘I learned something in Darwin that I’m gunna need you to help sort out,’ he said grimly. ‘It ain’t something I can deal with alone, and we have to move fast.’
‘Sounds serious,’ she said quietly as Jack made a fuss of a fawning, subservient Kelly. ‘How come that blasted bird never bites you?’ she said sharply. ‘He’s been a positive terror lately.’
‘Knows who’s boss,’ Jack drawled as he tickled Kelly under the chin. ‘Don’t you, mate?’
‘Urrgh,’ purred Kelly as he offered his neck for more attention.
‘Enough with the bird,’ Aurelia snapped. ‘You can’t come home with mysterious news and leave me on tenterhooks. What exactly did you find out in Darwin? And how could it possibly affect us?’
‘Patience,’ he drawled. ‘I need a cuppa to get the dust out of me throat, then I’ll tell you everything.’
Aurelia crashed through the screen door. ‘Wang Lee,’ she yelled. ‘Get the tucker on, and bring Jack a cuppa.’
The little Chinaman came shuffling out of the kitchen, the dog at his feet as usual. ‘Good see boss home,’ he said softly as he bowed a welcome. ‘Miss Ellie have bad trouble.’
Jack threw his hat on the table and sat down with a sigh. ‘Am I ever gunna get this bloody tea?’
The tea was duly brought along with a pile of sandwiches and a slab of cake. Aurelia sat watching him, her impatience growing until she thought she’d burst. ‘Will you please tell me what this is all about?’ she demanded as Jack drained his cup and reached for yet another sandwich.
He grinned and took his time to chew through the bread and mutton. ‘Wondered how long it would take for that temper to boil over,’ he said finally.
‘You seem horribly pleased with yourself,’ she said through gritted teeth. ‘This better be good Jack Withers or I’ll personally take my bull-whip to your backside.’
He raised an eyebrow, his cheerful grin almost daring her to carry out the threat. Then his expression grew serious. ‘Good enough,’ he said quietly. ‘Or bad enough,’ he added mysteriously as he pulled a sheaf of papers from an inside pocket. ‘Depends on how you see it – and who it will affect the most.’
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