‘No,’ she whispered.
‘He hasn’t been in contact with you?’
‘No.’
‘But Max …’
She felt sick. ‘Oh, God, Harry, I haven’t heard from Max for months. I’ve been going out of my mind with worry.’
‘Who’s Max?’ Alistair asked, and she flashed him a buttout glance.
‘He’s mine!’
‘Max is seven,’ Harry explained. ‘He usually lives here with Georgie but Ron took him away six months ago.’
‘Which is why I drank too much at Gina’s engagement party.’ Georgie stood up, then leaned forward and grabbed the veranda rail for support. Alistair was by her side before she reached the rail, holding her steady.
‘I’m fine,’ she muttered. She bit her lip and looked up at Harry, meeting his gaze head on. ‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Nothing,’ Harry told her. ‘I was pretty sure you hadn’t heard but the big boys are telling me to ask you. Maybe they’ll tap your phone.’
‘If anyone phones me, it’ll be Max. Not Ron. And they’re more than welcome to listen to any conversation I have with Max. Where the hell is he?’
Harry shook his head. ‘That’s what I’m asking you.’
‘Ron knows I’ll kill him if any harm comes to Max.’
It was a flat statement of intent. She meant it. She shivered and Alistair was suddenly holding her close, hugging her against him.
‘She’s had enough,’ he said, and Harry nodded.
‘Yeah. I know that. I didn’t want to ask. But you’ll let me know, Georg.’
‘If I hear, I’ll yell it to the rooftops.’
‘Even if it means jail for Ron?’
‘You think I want him outside? Messing with Max? I want sole custody but they won’t give it to me.’
‘So you want him in jail,’ Harry said, with a lopsided grin. ‘You’re putting them all away tonight. I’ll do my best to get him where you want him to be. Can I put out a missing person bulletin for Max?’
‘Ron won’t have deserted him. He wouldn’t dare.’
‘It can’t hurt to broadcast that he’s missing. People are more likely to respond to a plea for a missing kid rather than information wanted about Ron.’
‘OK,’ she said wearily. ‘If it’ll help … Please, Harry.’
‘Leave it with me,’ he told her, and then, with a last curious look from one to the other, he left them, striding down through the garden to the beach path below.
There was a long silence. The wind was rising to storm level now, bending the palms between them and the beach, whistling around the old house, making their sheltered veranda seem even more isolated. Even more of a refuge.
He should go in and leave her to her thoughts, but Alistair didn’t want to. She’d pulled away from him. Now she was leaning on the veranda rail, staring at nothing.
He shouldn’t get involved.
He was involved, like it or not.
‘Your … Max left six months ago?’ he said softly, and she didn’t respond.
‘Georgie?’
‘Yeah,’ she said flatly, at last. ‘The night of Gina and Cal’s engagement party. Ron just arrived and demanded Max go with him. He had the right. He took Max, even though Max was desperate to stay. Max is almost the same age as Gina’s CJ. They’d just started to be friends. It was …’ She broke off. ‘Sorry. It’s boring. Ron has the right and I don’t.’
‘So your behaviour the night of the engagement party….’
She rounded on him then, angry. ‘I was drunk. I was out of my mind with worry. You don’t think I really fancied you, do you?’
‘I …’
‘I was dumb, right?’ she snapped. ‘Get over it.’
‘But you’ll get Max back,’ he said, thinking maybe he ought to leave it, but, regardless, he was compelled to keep going.
‘If Ron’s caught.’
‘How the hell did you get caught up with a man like Ron?’
Silence.
‘Georgie—’
‘Leave it.’
‘No,’ he said, stupidly maybe, but, hell, he couldn’t leave it like this. ‘Georgie, I’m no expert but it seems to me the courts usually give custody to the mother. That’s the way it is in the States at least, and I can’t see why it’s different here. If they granted Ron custody … well, maybe you were wild in the past. But there’s enough people here who’d vouch for you now. You’ve got a great job in a terrific little community. If Ron goes to jail you could apply again …’
There was a deathly silence. He’d messed it up, he thought. He shouldn’t have said it.
‘You think I might have been a bad mother in the past,’ she whispered.
‘Hell, I don’t know …’
‘Just because I wear leathers.’
‘They’re great leathers.’
‘But they put me in the right socio-economic class to be a bad mum.’
‘Georg …’
‘I’d slap you,’ she said wearily, ‘but I’m all slapped out. You stand there with your righteous answer-to-all solution. Prove to the courts that I’m respectable and … Hell, you think I should wear a twinset?’
She was close to hysteria, he thought.
‘I think it’d be a damned shame if you wore a twinset.’
She stared—and then she choked, half with laughter, half with tears. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she whispered.
‘I do know you look fantastic.’
‘In leathers. Every man’s fantasy.’
‘Actually, I was thinking you look fantastic in nightie, scuffs and bandages.’
‘Cut it out.’
‘Right.’
‘You propositioned me last time you were here,’ she whispered. ‘Behind … What’s her name? Eloise or something’s back. Slime-ball.’
‘You’re talking about my fiancée?’
‘Yeah, isn’t that presumptuous of me? Low-life talking of her betters.’
‘Where the hell did you get that chip on your shoulder?’
‘If you give crazy compliments when you’re engaged to another woman …’
‘I’m not engaged.’
She blinked. ‘Not …’
‘There were … repercussions after the last time we met,’ he told her.
‘She found out? Someone told her? We didn’t get past the hall door,’ she said. ‘Was that enough to make her call it off?’
‘I called it off,’ he said gently. Maybe it wasn’t the time or the place to be saying this, but it suddenly seemed important that Georgie know. ‘Eloise and I are solid professional colleagues who enjoy working together. We work long hours and it seemed an extension of that that we ate together and spent spare time together and finally moved in together. We just sort of drifted toward marriage. Only then … I came out here.’
‘And you fell head over heels for me?’ she mocked in incredulous disbelief. He shook his head.
‘I hardly fell in love with you.’
‘Well, you wouldn’t.’
‘Let me finish,’ he said. ‘Georgie, I was attracted to you. It was a crazy aberration and we have Gina to thank that it went no further, especially now I know what state you were in. But it did make me see that what I had with Eloise wasn’t enough.’
‘So I caused you to break off your engagement,’ she whispered. ‘Well, well. But you didn’t say …’
‘It was hardly appropriate to get off a plane shouting that I’d broken off my engagement. I didn’t want to burden you with it.’
She blinked at that. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Yeah, that’s presumptuous, too,’ he agreed. Hell, he wasn’t getting it right here. ‘Look, I just want to tell you that I wasn’t as big a slime-ball as you thought. Or maybe I was, but it was a big deal and what happened made me think through where I was going.’
She stared at him for a long moment. She raked her curls with her fingers and shuddered. The shudder made him move instinctively toward her, b
ut she held up a hand as if to ward him off.
‘No.’
‘I’m not—’
‘I know you’re not,’ she whispered. ‘And I’m not either. But I am really, really tired.’
‘I’ll help you to bed.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Thank you. I’ll go on my own.’
‘Is there anything I can do?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘If you think of any place you want searched,’ he offered, ‘I have a week before Gina’s wedding. I was going to do some sightseeing but if you’d like me to help search for your son …’
‘My son.’
‘Max.’
She bit her lip. Then she whispered. ‘No. Thank you. I don’t know where to start looking and if Ron doesn’t want to be found then he won’t be. Even if I found them … I couldn’t turn Ron in. I just … couldn’t.’
‘You still have feelings …’
‘I don’t have any feelings at all,’ she whispered. ‘Not for Ron. You’re thinking he’s my ex-husband. Well, that fits. Leathers, stilettos, bike, an ex-husband who’s a criminal. Sorry to disappoint you but no.’
‘Then …’
‘Ron’s my stepfather,’ she whispered. ‘He’s the man who taught me to ride a punch. He’s the reason I left home at fourteen and have never been back. And he’s Max’s father. My lovely Max. My kid brother. He calls me Mum because I’m the only mother figure he’s known. He’s the only male I’ve ever loved and ever will. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to bed.’
Out to sea, Hurricane Willie paused. For no good reason. The massive front of bad weather had been inching eastward. It had been expected to blow out to sea but now it seemed indecisive. It stilled, building strength. Building fury.
Even now the force from its epicentre was being felt by the mainland, from Brisbane to Cooktown. The mainlanders checked their weather charts and listened to the forecasts.
No one knew …
CHAPTER FOUR
GEORGIE wasn’t at breakfast.
‘I’m not sure where she is,’ Gina told Alistair. ‘She could even be sleeping in. This is an odd day. Georgie normally does an antenatal clinic out on Wallaby Island on Saturday morning but it’d be curtailed anyway because the wedding’s at four. And now … this weather’s so awful there’s no way anyone’s going out there.’
It certainly was awful. Alistair had been planning to take a diving trip to the Great Barrier Reef. Now he was trapped in Crocodile Creek, surrounded by wedding preparations for a couple he hardly knew.
‘Maybe I should check on her,’ he said, and Gina paused in what she was doing—was she really tying silver-painted chicken wishbones to baskets of sugared almonds?—and looked at him. Thoughtfully.
‘Don’t. She doesn’t want you to. You upset her last night.’
‘I didn’t mean to,’ he said, taken aback.
‘She said you treated her like a tramp.’
‘I didn’t mean to do that either.’
‘You suggested it was no wonder she didn’t get custody of Max.’
‘Hey.’ He sighed and sat down at the kitchen table in front of Gina. And tried to think what to say. And couldn’t. ‘How many of these do you have to tie?’ he said at last, which was pathetic but small talk had never been his forte.
‘A hundred and twenty.’
‘How many have you done?’
‘Thirty.’
‘And they’re for?’
‘Fertility. Mrs Poulos says.’
‘Silly me for asking,’ he said, and picked up a wishbone. ‘Tell me about Georgiana.’
Gina kept on tying. ‘She says you have her summed up.’
‘I did have her summed up,’ he said ruefully. ‘I may have got it wrong.’
‘She doesn’t always wear stilettos,’ Gina conceded.
‘You mean she only did it for my benefit?’
‘I suspect she was horrified about the way she behaved when you were here last.’
‘I was pretty horrified at myself, too.’
‘So have you apologised?’
‘I … No.’
‘She had a reason for behaving appallingly. What was yours?’
‘I thought she was …’
There was a lengthy pause. Four more chicken wishbones got attached to baskets.
‘You thought she was cheap?’ Gina suggested.
‘I thought she was gorgeous,’ Alistair admitted. ‘Cheap, yeah. But still gorgeous. When she threw herself at me, I couldn’t resist.’
‘Men!’
‘She was … gorgeous. Trashy but great. You don’t feel like that when you look at Cal?’
‘Hey, we’re talking about my future husband here,’ Gina said with asperity. ‘My husband in a week. Someone I respect. You’re talking about someone you’re describing as trashy.’
He winced. ‘Are these wishbones for your wedding or for the one this afternoon?’
‘This afternoon. Mike’s mum read it in Vogue about a hundred years ago and she’s had her heart set on them ever since. Every chicken that’s gone through this kitchen has died for the greater good of Mike’s wedding.’ She tied another. ‘So …’ She looked at him dubiously across the table. ‘You saw Georgie and you got the hots for her.’
‘I’m sure there are better ways of framing it.’
‘I don’t have to watch my mouth with my cousin. Do you still have the hots?’
‘No!’
‘But six months ago … you felt so strongly that you went home and broke it off with Eloise’
‘How do you know that?’
‘Just because our mothers are dead, it doesn’t mean I don’t know your intimate secrets, Alistair Carmichael. Not that breaking off an engagement is an intimate secret. Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘It wasn’t important.’ He glowered. ‘We’re still friends and professional colleagues. So how exactly did you find out?’
‘Georgie told me. She said you told her last night.’
She and Georgie had talked about him. That was … interesting.
‘So why didn’t you tell me?’ Gina asked again.
‘I didn’t want you to—’
‘To get the wrong impression,’ she finished for him, suddenly thoughtful. ‘You know, I’m starting to think there might be some other purpose in you agreeing to come here and give me away.’
‘There’s not,’ he said shortly.
‘No?’
‘No.’
‘But if Eloise is out of the picture …’
‘Don’t even go there.’
They went back to tying ribbons. Great intellectual exercise. It left Alistair’s mind free to wander in places he didn’t particularly want to wander. Finally they were interrupted. It was Gina’s fiancé, Dr Cal Jamieson. He saw what they were doing and grinned. ‘Hey, you’ve got another suck—I mean helper,’ he told Gina. ‘Well done, mate. Gina asked me to help but I was really busy. Lawns to watch grow. Imperative stuff like that.’
He got two wishbones thrown at him simultaneously. Followed by two baskets of almonds.
‘Hey, don’t both of you shoot,’ he said, wounded.
‘We’re cousins,’ Gina said briefly. ‘It’s called family support.’
‘Why isn’t CJ doing this?’ Cal asked.
‘He said it was boring.’
‘Which it is—mate,’ Alistair said, and rose. ‘I’ve done twelve. That’s my quota.’
‘Actually, I have a job for you,’ Cal said, turning serious. ‘If you don’t mind.’
‘Anything that doesn’t involve chicken wishbones and painted almonds. And I’m not even going to this wedding …’
‘It’s Georgie,’ Cal said. ‘She’s over in the nursery. She and Charles are fretting about Megan. We want your advice.’
‘I’m a neurosurgeon,’ Alistair said, frowning. ‘Advice?’
‘She’s hoping she doesn’t need it,’ Cal said, suddenly grim. ‘But she’s afraid that she might.’
Hell, this weather was wild. The moment they stepped out the door Alistair reeled back against the strength of the wind. Cal, who’d come out behind him, shoved his hands in the small of his back and pushed.
‘Just a nice, gentle, ocean breeze, kiddo,’ he said, grinning as both men put their heads down and battled the short distance to the hospital.
‘My God … This is cyclone stuff.’
‘Edge of a cyclone,’ Cal agreed. ‘Willie. But the weather guys are still saying it’ll turn out to sea. They’re predicting strong winds for this afternoon’s wedding, but not as strong as this. It’ll settle soon.’
‘Do you often get cyclones?’
‘Not bad ones. Or not often. Tracy took out Darwin on Christmas Day twenty years ago and one came through south of here last year and flattened the nation’s banana crop.’ He was yelling, but as he spoke they reached the hospital and walked inside. Cal’s last couple of words echoed round the silence of the hospital.
‘Why does Georgie want me?’ Alistair asked. He knew this wasn’t a social call. He knew she’d be avoiding him. So what now?
‘She’s worried,’ Cal said. ‘And Charles and I concur, but there’s not a lot we can do about it. If this wind wasn’t grounding all planes, we’d do an evacuation but … well, let’s see what you think.’ And he pushed open the doors to the nursery.
Charles was there, in his wheelchair. It hadn’t taken long for Alistair to discover that Crocodile Creek’s medical director was a really astute doctor. Charles had lost the use of his legs through an accident in his youth, but what he lacked in mobility he more than compensated for with the sheer breadth of his intellect.
Charles was a big man with a commanding presence, but right now Alistair hardly noticed Charles. For Georgie was beside him. The bruise across her cheek had darkened overnight and swelled still more. She’d removed the dressing he’d put over the split, and the cut looked … vicious.
They could throw away Smiley’s key as far as he was concerned, Alistair thought darkly. Hitting a woman …
Hitting Georgia …
But they were standing by a cot, looking worried. He needed to focus on their problem.
‘Cal said I might be able to help,’ he said softly, and Georgie turned.
‘Dr Carmichael,’ she said.
They were obviously on professional ground here. OK, he could do that. He nodded. ‘Dr Turner.’ He nodded to Charles. ‘Dr Wetherby.’
The Australian's Desire (Mills & Boon By Request) Page 6