Elsa's Stand

by Cathryn Hein

  Funny how life could change. Six months ago Strathroy was a sad, neglected property, unloved and unwanted. Now it was a home where laughter echoed. Laughter, and the sounds of two people in love. If Jack’s vision of the future came true, then one day it’d reverberate with the sound of family too.

  But that was for later. Right now he had a fence to sort out.

  He grabbed the fallen crowbar and stabbed it into the ground to use as a lever to haul himself back up, only for it to slip again and dirt to avalanche over his feet.

  ‘Christ,’ he said, staggering and wondering why the ground was so unstable. It was gravel, yeah, but this was unnaturally loose.

  Jack scanned the bank. Most of the slope was dense clay, but the area around the fence footing was a shade lighter. The texture was different too. Looser, more gravelly, like the creek bed. He peered closer, frowning.

  A current buzzed down his spine.

  He crouched and touched fingers to the earth, the current intensifying with his suspicion. Jack picked up a stone and inspected it, then swept at its cluster of mates.

  Spinel.

  Perhaps more than spinel.

  A smile began to form as he lifted a handful of dirt and let the fine material sieve through his fingers, leaving only the heavies. Jack dug some more, picking up stones, wetting his fingers and inspecting them closely. Again and again and again, unable to credit what he was seeing.

  ‘Oh, Jackie-Jackie. I know you never believed, but it’s true. It’s really true.’

  It was. Perfectly, unbelievably true.

  ‘Elsa!’ Dropping the stones, he scrambled up the slope on hands and knees and ran for the house. ‘Elsa!’

  She appeared at the door, looking gorgeous, if worried, in sexy tight jeans and an old shirt covered with paint splatters, and carrying a paintbrush. ‘What’s happened? Are you all right?’

  Not caring that his hands were filthy, Jack grabbed the points of her shoulders. ‘You won’t believe this.’

  ‘Believe what?’

  ‘Come with me and I’ll show you.’

  ‘Can it wait? I’m about to start on the skirting boards.’

  ‘No.’

  She waggled the brush at him. ‘This had better be good, Jack Hargreaves.’

  ‘Or what?’

  Elsa laughed. Consequences was a game they enjoyed playing, and one Jack would never get sick of. ‘Never you mind.’

  Minutes later he was helping her down the slope. When they were safely at the bottom, Jack gathered up a handful of stones and held it out to her.

  Elsa shook her head, her expression nonplussed. ‘And …?’

  ‘I think I found it.’

  ‘Found what?’

  ‘Mum’s stash.’

  Elsa’s eyes widened. ‘The sapphires?’

  Jack nodded. For some reason his throat had begun to hurt.

  Elsa picked a stone from his hand and inspected it, then looked at him.

  ‘Sapphire,’ he said.

  Her already rounded eyes turned huge, her voice breathless. ‘These are all sapphires?’

  ‘Not all. Most of it’s spinel but the sapphire ratio looks high enough to make me think this is it. The ground’s been dug before too. Mum said in her last message, the one she left the day she died, that I wouldn’t credit where she’d found them, and I don’t. But everything points to this being it.’

  Elsa crouched and contemplated the ground. To the untrained eye it wouldn’t look like much—a scattering of small coarse rocks perhaps. Certainly nothing special, but Jack knew what they were. And there were a lot. A whole lot.

  Jack rubbed his mouth, wondering how Kate must have felt at the moment of discovery. Elated, he guessed. Certainly vindicated. Maybe angry that they’d been practically on her doorstep all that time. God knows, Jack would have been in her shoes. It seemed almost cruel for them to be so close to the house, but there’d been no trace of anger in her message, only breathless excitement and joy.

  There wasn’t anything to be grateful for with Kate’s death, but grace had at least granted her the small mercy of finding the sapphires before she passed.

  The location at least answered the mystery of why she’d reburied them so quickly. It would take time to dig and sieve the whole area. Time in which someone could see what she was up to, work out what she’d found. Yeah, there was a safe in her office, but Kate was a woman on her own and safes could be robbed. Until she’d worked out what to do, the sapphires were more secure left in the ground, just another bit of unglamorous, worthless earth.

  Which begged another question: what had been Kate’s plans?

  ‘Jack?’ asked Elsa, and he realised she must have been watching him for a while. She stood and touched his arm. ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Aren’t you happy?’

  ‘I think so. Maybe. I don’t know.’ He scooped up some stones, trying to figure out why he felt so weird.

  ‘I think she’d be proud it was you who found them.’

  He hoped so. Although it’d been more a case of them finding him. Since his return home, Jack had pretty much forgotten the sapphires. No, not forgotten. They were too much a part of his upbringing and memories of Kate for that. Sidelined was a better description. By Elsa. By his renewed relationship with his brother and dad.

  By things far more precious than gemstones.

  Jack tossed the stones back with the others. He supposed he’d better get started, yet reluctance held him anchored.

  He rubbed the back of his neck, and let his arm fall. ‘I don’t know what to do with them.’

  Elsa smiled gently. ‘You don’t have to do anything with them, if you don’t want to.’

  ‘Yeah, but I can’t leave them here.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘I don’t know. Because they’re worth a packet?’

  ‘Okay.’ She indicated the fallen crowbar and spade. ‘Dig them up and sell them then.’

  Sell Strathroy’s sapphires? Even thinking it made Jack’s stomach contract.

  ‘I can’t. It’d be like …’ He swallowed, hunting for the right analogy. ‘It’d be like you selling your opal.’

  Elsa touched fingers to her throat where her opal normally hung. She didn’t wear it on the farm for fear of losing it, but since Jack had fashioned the raw stone into a pendant she wore it often. Locals, aware of its story thanks to Jack’s and Elsa’s performance in the salon, often commented about her ‘Cupid stone,’ and if he was nearby would skew a knowing look Jack’s way. Elsa called their teases approval. Jack called them embarrassing, although the truth was he didn’t care. He loved Elsa. So what if everyone knew it?

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I guess it would. Why don’t you talk to Jesse about it then, and decide from there?’

  He stared at the ground and turned over the idea. Kate’s obsession had affected both him and his brother, in good ways and bad. It was only fair that Jesse should have a say in the sapphires’ fate.

  ‘All right.’

  Elsa took his hand and squeezed it. ‘She’d be proud of both of you, whatever you decide.’

  ‘And you?’

  ‘I’m always proud of you, Jack. You know that. It’s what love’s about.’ She toyed with his shirt, her smile teasing. ‘Among other things.’

  If Jack’s throat was aching before it had nothing on now, on the way Elsa’s words penetrated his heart, the way her eyes sparkled with love. Aching throat or not, they filled Jack with want.

  And resolve.

  His family were experts at leaving things too late. Kate with revealing where her sapphires lay. Fraser with his regret for not trying hard enough with the woman he’d adored. Jesse not realising the kind of person Merisa was.

  Himself nearly losing the girl he loved because he was too stupid to recognise her strength, and too stuck in the past to uncover his own.

  Not anymore. It was time to change, starting with himself.

  ‘Elsa,’ he said, taking
each of her hands in his and facing her with purpose. ‘I know this isn’t the most romantic moment, but I love you. You’ve changed my world. More than my world. You’ve changed me.’ He smiled crookedly.

  ‘For the better, I hope.’

  A shine appeared in Elsa’s eyes, like the start of tears. She bit her lip, but there was no mistaking the encouragement in her expression.

  ‘I’m never going to be perfect, but I will do everything I can to keep you happy. I promise.’ Jack took another breath and tightened his grip on her fingers. ‘Will you marry me, Elsa?’

  Epilogue

  Wirralong didn’t come more glorious. The sky was cloudless, the air warm and redolent with the scents of a bountiful landscape. After a wet autumn and mild winter, spring had layered the district in a patchwork of green and gold. Vast paddocks of flowering canola jewelled the countryside, while the hills appeared confettied with yellow from golden wattle in bloom.

  Elsa couldn’t have asked for a more perfect wedding day.

  The horse-drawn carriage rocked to a gentle stop at the bottom steps of Wirra Station’s gorgeously renovated chapel. Elsa, her dad and Serenity sat for a few minutes as Tim and Sam ushered inside a group of stragglers who’d been admiring blooms in Maggie’s carefully cultivated garden, then grinned and gave a thumbs-up.

  Bruce alighted first then helped Serenity down and finally held up his hand for Elsa to take. Despite a dose of eyedrops, his eyes still bore traces of the joyful tears he’d shed on seeing Elsa in her wedding gown. His pride and happiness had caused Elsa to cry too, earning the pair much griping from Serenity about snotty noses, bloodshot eyes and ruined make-up.

  ‘How do I look?’ said Elsa, safely out and smoothing the skirt of her ivory dress.

  She’d chosen a simple strapless princess design, with a tulle covered skirt that flared into a train and ended with pretty lace edging, and a plain satin bodice. Other than a pair of large sapphire, diamond and white-gold earrings and Jack’s opal secreted into the pocket she’d asked to be sewn into her dress, Elsa wore no other jewellery, Serenity having advised that Elsa’s golden freckles were more than enough decoration.

  Except around her waist was a narrow ivory leather belt that had been custom fitted at intervals with white-gold claw clasps into which small blue jewels had been lodged.

  Every stone carried the infinite weight of Jack’s patience and love.

  Only Elsa, Jack and Jesse knew the true source of the jewels in Elsa’s belt and earrings. Everyone else had been told they’d been purchased by Jack specially to honour Kate. After several long discussions, the brothers had agreed to keep a selection of Strathroy’s sapphires aside for their own use. Jesse opted to keep his stones raw in the safe at Strathroy until he decided what do to with them, while Jack had taken the two best sapphires and several of the lesser, and spent hours cutting and polishing them to perfection. The larger he’d sent off to be made into earrings. The smaller he fitted into the custom-made belt.

  Of the remainder, Jack and Jesse took one to Kate’s graveside and secretly buried it in a deep hole alongside her headstone. The rest they’d walked up into Strathroy’s hills and hidden. Where, Elsa didn’t want to know. She had Jack and he was more than enough.

  ‘Like the most beautiful daughter in the world,’ answered Bruce, regarding her with pride.

  Serenity finished fussing with Elsa’s train and inspected her veil. ‘You’ll do,’ she said, then sniffed a little. ‘You look lovely. Really lovely.’

  ‘Hey, you,’ said Elsa, hugging her. ‘We had a deal, remember? No more crying. Otherwise you’ll start me off again and then there’ll be no end to it.’ She let her go. ‘And then what would Jesse think?’

  That bucked Serenity up. ‘You’re right.’ She gave another sniff, although this one was pure disdain. ‘Not that I care what that douchebag thinks.’

  Elsa was glad that her veil hid the worst of her amusement from Serenity. Now was not a good time to anger her bridesmaid. After all Serenity’s hankering to meet Jack’s ridiculously handsome brother, their first meeting had been a disaster. By the end of the night, Serenity was calling Jesse an up-himself misogynist, with Jesse returning fire by describing Serenity as a snappy-mouthed shrew too flaky to even work out her own hair colour.

  Despite their outward mutual loathing, Elsa was in no doubt that time would see Serenity and Jesse get it together. Jack thought otherwise, but that was because he took his brother’s sniping at face value and remained oblivious to the hungry glances the couple speared at each other when they thought no one was looking.

  Perhaps today the romance of a wedding would bring them together. Then again, given Serenity’s comment, maybe not.

  ‘No fighting in the chapel now,’ Bruce warned.

  ‘Would I do that?’ asked Serenity.

  ‘Yes,’ said Elsa and her dad in unison, then broke into laughter.

  ‘Very funny. But I think I can control myself until at least the reception.’ Serenity held up a finger. ‘But if that douchebag says one word about my hair all bets are off.’

  Elsa wouldn’t be far behind. It had taken ages to get Serenity’s hair back to her natural shade of ash brown, and she looked beautiful for it. The colour suited her, setting off her velvet brown eyes and giving her a coolly glamorous air. Teamed with her fitted halter-neck cobalt-blue dress, Serenity was the epitome of stunning. If Jesse had any brains at all, he’d tell her so.

  ‘Ready?’ asked Bruce, cocking his arm for Elsa to take.

  She smiled and took it. ‘More than ready.’

  Although she would have loved to have had all her friends as attendants, Elsa had made the decision early to have only one to save Jack the embarrassment of having to scrounge for matching groomsmen. The girls understood, and with Iz acting as celebrant she wouldn’t have been able to have all the Smart Ladies anyway. That hadn’t stopped them acting like bridesmaids and organising her wedding shower and doe’s night, and everything else in between.

  It had been an amazing few months, but the entire twelve months since Jack walked into her salon had been amazing. And now they were getting married.

  Not for the first time, Elsa said a silent thanks to Kate for bringing her son into Elsa’s life.

  They paused at the chapel door for Serenity to give Elsa a quick final once-over. With a nod to Tim who relayed the go-ahead, and a last whispered ‘good luck,’ Serenity squared her shoulders and on her music cue took her first slow steps into the church, leaving Elsa alone with her dad.

  She inhaled deeply. ‘Here we go.’

  Even before Elsa’s eyes had adjusted to the change of light, they were on Jack. He was imposing at the best of times, but in his tailored charcoal suit with matching cobalt silk tie and pocket square he was magnificent. Towering, broad-shouldered, ruggedly handsome.

  And all hers.

  His smile said everything she needed to know. Elsa relaxed into her walk, winking at friends, smiling and nodding at family, while her heart burst with love and pride in the pure-hearted man who was about to become her husband.

  Jesse stood alongside Jack, his dark curls tamed with product as Elsa had taught him. He nudged Jack and muttered something, a naughty grin tilting his mouth, but Jack didn’t move his focus from his bride.

  Fraser and Angus turned to smile at her, their Smart Lady companions sharing the front right pew doing the same. Daisy rested at Fraser’s feet, a cobalt-blue bow around her neck and pink tongue lolling as she grinned a bright-eyed doggy grin at Elsa. Her presence had incurred some grumblings but Jack had insisted on her being allowed in, and Elsa’s nan had agreed. There’d be no wedding without all the best people attending, and that included Daisy.

  Across the aisle, Elsa’s family lined their seats with red-headed glory. Shayna vibrant in burgundy, the twins attractive and grinning in their usher’s suits and matching cobalt ties, and her grandparents openly leaking tears.

  Sunlight beamed through the chapel’s windows, highlighting the d
ust motes dancing to Elsa’s wedding march and the guests’ appreciative whispers. Perfume from the chapel’s elegant floral displays lightly scented the air. The atmosphere hummed with goodwill and celebration, and with each step Elsa’s anticipation intensified.

  The ‘I dos’ couldn’t come quickly enough. From the expression on Jack’s face, he felt the same.

  At the altar, Bruce lifted Elsa’s veil, squeezed her hand in both of his and kissed her cheek. His voice was hoarse with emotion. ‘You’ll always be my girl, Elsa.’

  ‘Thanks, Dad.’

  Bruce released her reluctantly, shook hands with Jack and stepped down to join his wife and sons.

  Jack regarded Elsa with pale blue eyes full of warmth and lightly touched her cheek with curled fingers. ‘You’re beautiful.’

  ‘You don’t look too bad yourself. But I always did like you in a suit.’ She leaned a little closer, secure that the march’s final flourish would hide her voice from guests. ‘I like you out of it too.’

  ‘Save it for the honeymoon, you two,’ said Serenity, who’d moved close to pin Elsa’s veil properly back.

  Elsa grinned. She’d forgotten about her bridesmaid.

  ‘You’re a minx,’ said Jack, when Serenity had taken her place next to Jesse.

  ‘What happened to lioness?’

  ‘You’re that too.’

  ‘Just think, Jack. First wedding you’ve ever attended and it’s your own.’

  ‘Yeah, and I’m marrying you.’ He smiled at her. ‘How lucky am I?’

  Before Elsa could answer, Iz nodded at them. ‘Ready?’

  Jack tangled his fingers in Elsa’s. ‘More than ready.’

  The ceremony was simple, traditional and emotional, and when Jack leaned in to kiss Elsa, the chapel erupted with applause followed by a woof from Daisy that had everybody, including the bride and groom, laughing.