‘To someone who survives on baked beans, probably nothing. But some of us have taste.’
He smiled, a low, lazy smile that had her curiously unsettled as he watched some more. ‘Why are you putting those vegetables to one side?’
‘I’ll feed Karli the basics. Rice and sauce will be easy to feed her when she’s three-quarters asleep. Then I’ll reheat and stir the crunchy vegetables in just before you and I eat. There’s nothing worse than snow peas that don’t crunch.’
‘I thought there was nothing worse than baked beans.’
‘Baked beans don’t even count in the worse stakes,’ Jenna said darkly. ‘Okay. Done. Stir this while I wake Karli.’
Somewhat to her surprise he did stir. Then, as she carried a dopey, half-asleep little girl back into the kitchen he surprised her further by holding out his arms to take her.
She hesitated. She wasn’t accustomed to receiving help and she half expected Karli to shy away. But Karli settled on Riley’s lap without a murmur, gazed at Jenna with eyes that were barely focussing and let herself be fed like a baby.
If she wasn’t really hungry she wouldn’t have been able to eat at all, Jenna thought, but she managed to get a good few mouthfuls into her before the little girl’s eyes sank closed again.
‘Thank you,’ she whispered to Riley as she gathered Karli up again to take her back to bed.
‘Think nothing of it.’ He smiled again, and once again that strange, unsettled feeling swept over her. She glanced at him uncertainly. But now wasn’t the time to examine why he was making her feel as she was undoubtedly feeling. She had to focus on Karli.
It took her a few minutes to settle the little girl back into bed, and when she returned Riley was scooping the stir-fry onto two plates. He’d added the crunchy vegetables all on his own.
‘I thought you’d never come,’ he told her. ‘I decided that your snow peas would definitely go soggy.’
‘I thought you didn’t care.’
‘I care.’ He gazed down to where every vegetable was clearly delineated in its succulent sauce, and the rice underneath was fluffy and fragrant. He closed his eyes and sniffed in appreciation. ‘Believe me, I care.’
‘What-with your baked beans going to waste in their crate?’
‘I guess I could just try this to be nice,’ he said grudgingly. He sat-and then had to make a wild grab for his plate as Jenna hauled it away. He missed. ‘Hey!’
‘There’s no need to be polite on my account.’ Jenna sat herself down with two plates before her. ‘I’ll nobly eat your share. You go bake your beans, Mr Jackson.’
His gorgeous grin swept back. ‘Miss Svenson, can I have my dinner back?’ His grin deepened as Jenna hauled his plate further away. ‘I really would like to try your dinner-and it’s greedy to eat that much by yourself.’
Jenna eyed him with caution. His grin was magnetic. Wonderful.
She wanted more of it.
‘Say please.’
‘Please,’ Riley said promptly and grabbed-and the first mouthful went down before Jenna even managed to smile. He tasted and his eyes widened in astonishment.
‘Wow!’
‘Don’t you want your beans?’
‘No way.’ He devoured another forkful and then another. ‘I’m thinking I might put a lock on the door and keep you here for ever. Silly girl to get off the train. Now you have a job for life.’
A job for life.
She didn’t answer. Suddenly her laughter died. She forced herself to keep on eating, but his words had hit an exposed nerve. The light-hearted banter she’d been indulging in was a camouflage.
She ate on, but she couldn’t stop thinking. A job for life.
What was she going to do now? How could she cope?
Riley had suggested keeping her here-locking the door-and there was nothing stopping him doing just that. Would Brian look for his daughter? Would her own father care?
No one would.
And Nicole was dead.
She looked up and found Riley’s eyes were on her, gently questioning. His grin had disappeared. ‘I won’t, you know,’ he told her.
‘You won’t?’
‘Keep you here.’ He smiled again, but now his smile was one of disarming gentleness. ‘You know, if I could take you to Adelaide I would. But in four days I’ll put you on the train and you’ll be safe. You’ll be safe while you’re here as well. You can trust me, Jenna.’
It was a totally uncalled-for gesture of reassurance and it floored her. She’d landed herself on this man with her own stupidity, and he was being so…so nice.
There was a lump forming in the back of her throat and she fought it back. She’d last cried…when? She couldn’t remember. She never cried and she wasn’t about to now.
‘This Brian,’ he said, seeing her distress, and leading her away from it. ‘Karli’s father. He was on the train?’
‘Yes.’
‘If he looks at a map he’ll see how much danger you’re in.’
‘He won’t look at a map,’ she said dully. ‘He’s achieved his ends. He won’t be thinking of us at all.’
Riley finished his dinner, looked at his empty plate with regret, and pushed back his chair with an air of a man who had all night to listen. ‘Do you want to tell me about it?’
‘Not much.’
‘If I’m to help…’
‘There’s nothing more you can do to help,’ she told him. ‘You’re doing enough.’
He hesitated. ‘Then tell me because I want to know,’ he said softly. ‘You had a reason for getting off that train and I want to know what it was.’
‘We should never have been on it.’
‘So why were you?’
‘Nicole sent us tickets.’ She bit her lip. ‘Or I thought Nicole sent us tickets.’
‘Nicole?’
‘My mother. Karli’s mother.’
His eyes didn’t leave her face. ‘The lady who died yesterday. Are you going to explain?’
She sighed. She hauled his plate towards her and made to get up, but his hand shot across the table and caught her wrist. His hold was strong, yet gentle. Urgent yet patient.
‘Tell me, Jenna.’
There was nothing else to do. She needed this man’s help. She had to tell him.
‘Nicole Razor is…was my mother,’ she said and watched his eyes widen.
‘Nicole Razor. The lead singer for Skyrazor?’
‘That’s the one,’ she said grimly. ‘Ex-singer, ex-model, ex-drug addict, ex-anything else you want to name.’
‘I remember. She used to be married to…’ He hesitated and she saw his eyes widen as he hit memory recall and got the connection. ‘…Charles Svenson.’
‘Racing driver. Yep. That’s my dad.’
‘But he’s not Karli’s dad?’
‘Karli’s father was Nicole’s fourth marriage-Charles was the first. Brian was probably her biggest mistake. She married him while she was high on drugs and he hooked into her for what he could get.’ She hesitated. ‘Though it’s not fair to say he was her only mistake. All her husbands were after Nicole because of the fame thing.’
‘So you’re wealthy,’ he said slowly and she watched as his face changed. ‘You’re the daughter of Charles Svenson and Nicole Razor.’
What was she supposed to say to that? She’d learned early never to say anything. But he was waiting for her to respond.
With what? With sick humour-her only defence.
‘Poor little rich girl,’ she said mockingly, but his face stayed still and watchful.
‘So what happened?’ he asked.
‘Like Karli said-Nicole died yesterday.’
‘I don’t understand any of this.’
‘It’s easy.’ She hesitated. ‘No. It’s hard, but I’ll make it brief. Nicole didn’t want me and she didn’t want Karli. We were mistakes. Brian didn’t want Karli either, but, by the time they split, he and Nicole hated each other. The court gave Nicole custody and Nicole responded by putting Karli straight i
nto an English boarding-school.’
‘Boarding-school.’ Riley’s brows snapped down. ‘What-at five?’
‘There are very few places now that take them that young,’ Jenna said bitterly. ‘You have to pay through the nose. And Nicole did. She was always touring, and the attraction of an English boarding-school was that it was in England. Brian is Australian. He couldn’t get near Karli. Nicole was playing at custody battles to try and hurt him further.’
It was history playing over, she thought bitterly. Her own father was American and Nicole had done exactly the same thing to her.
‘Hell.’
‘It was hell,’ Jenna whispered, but she couldn’t tell him why she knew exactly what a hell it really was. ‘I haven’t been in contact with my mother for years, but when I found out about Karli I realised her school was only an hour’s drive from where I work. I’ve been taking her home with me as much as I could. I just hated leaving her there.’
‘Why didn’t you take her permanently?’
Her eyes flashed up to his then. There was condemnation in his tone. Condemnation!
She wasn’t going to explain why. How dared he even begin to think of judging her?
Their eyes locked for a moment, anger meeting anger, but his eyes softened first. A duel over the dinner plates obviously wasn’t on the agenda. ‘So how did you get here?’ he asked, obviously deciding to let his last question go unanswered.
‘Brian rang me,’ she said, trying to swallow her anger and move on. ‘I’d never met Brian. A lot of the stuff I’ve been telling you about him I’ve only realised in the last few days. I hadn’t seen my mother for years and all I knew of her I read in the tabloids. I knew there’d been a custody battle for Karli and he’d lost, but that was all I knew. Anyway, I’d taken Karli out of school for the half-term holiday. Brian rang the school and they said she was with me. So he rang me. He said Nicole was in Australia. In Perth. I’d read in the paper that she was on tour so it made sense.’
His eyes were non-judgemental again. Watchful. ‘So you decided to come and see her?’
‘No one just pops in to visit Nicole.’ She hesitated, trying to remember the jumble of emotions she’d felt as Brian had rung. ‘But it was strange. Brian sounded really upset. He said Nicole was suffering from depression-which didn’t surprise me. She was always suffering from something, and after the life she’d led and the pills she’d popped a bit of depression would be the least of it. Anyway he said she wanted to see both of us and she was prepared to pay all expenses if we came immediately.’
‘So you came.’
‘I didn’t want to,’ she told him. ‘I mean…why would I want to see Nicole? I haven’t had anything to do with her for years. But Brian wanted Karli over here, and seeing Nicole was ill it was Brian who was making decisions on Karli’s behalf. If I didn’t come then she’d have to fly out on her own. And then Brian added further incentive. The train ride.’
‘Why the train?’
‘The story he gave was that this was too good a chance to miss,’ she told him. ‘Brian’s very plausible. He said he was desperately missing Karli and if we came by plane to Sydney and then had over three days travelling by train to Perth, not only would it be an exciting holiday for both of us, but it’d give him a chance to be with his daughter for a while.’ She hesitated, trying to remember why she’d agreed.
‘It sounded reasonable,’ she told him, thinking it through. ‘I knew Nicole would move heaven and earth to keep Karli and Brian apart. If someone didn’t do what Nicole wanted she could be…spiteful. So if this was a chance for Karli to be in Australia, then it made sense that Brian would be grateful for the opportunity to spend some time with her. Anyway, as I said, I didn’t want to come-but when I told Karli what was about to happen she disintegrated. In the end I couldn’t let her travel by herself. So I agreed. That was the start of my dopiness. It was all a huge, huge mistake, and it was based on an outright lie.’
There was a moment’s pause. Riley’s eyes rested on her face and she sensed that he could almost see the pain. ‘Tell me,’ he said gently. ‘Why was it a mistake?’
She felt sick. Telling him like this…it brought it all back and she felt the emotions of the last couple of days rise to the point where they almost overwhelmed her. But she forced herself to continue.
‘Brian was insistent that we come straight away,’ she told him. ‘He said he only had a few days off work, and Nicole would maybe leave Perth or change her mind and we’d miss the opportunity. So we came. He met us at Sydney airport and whisked us straight to the train. And he was nice. He was really nice. Right up until the moment we got on the train he was nice-and then he let it all drop.’
‘So what happened?’
‘He started drinking,’ she said. ‘And when he’d had a few drinks he was cruel. Not cruel to me. To me he was just plain slimy. He couldn’t keep his hands off me. But he spent the entire train journey putting Karli down. I couldn’t believe it. A grown man belittling a five-year-old, over and over again.’ She looked up at him, willing him to understand. ‘You’ve met Karli. Anyone can see that she’s fragile. She’s the loveliest little girl, but she couldn’t do anything right. It was almost as if Brian wanted to seduce me-as if he could, the slime ball-and he thought Karli was in the way.’
‘But you were stuck with him,’ Riley said, and she nodded.
‘Yep. We were stuck on the train and couldn’t get away. I thought of getting off the train when we went through Adelaide but…’ She hesitated. How to say she had no money to fly them to Perth? Their flight home was paid from Perth. Their train fare was paid for. She’d decided they’d just have to stick with it.
But she wasn’t going to tell Riley that.
‘But I didn’t,’ she told him, flatly, no longer caring what he thought. ‘So we travelled for another half a day and then the conductor handed Brian a message that had just been radioed through as urgent.’
He knew what she was going to say before she said it. ‘Saying Nicole was dead?’
‘Saying Nicole was dead,’ she said flatly. ‘The depression thing was a lie. And I hadn’t checked.’
‘So, what was it?’
‘She’d taken a drug overdose,’ she said, her voice flat and lifeless. ‘We didn’t know. But Brian knew. She went into a coma five days ago and she’d been on life support ever since.’
He frowned. ‘But-’
‘Nicole has no family,’ Jenna told him. ‘Apart from me and Karli and we…we’ve never counted. But apparently there was some glitch in the divorce proceedings with Brian, which Brian’s kept quiet about and hoped like crazy that Nicole didn’t realize. So he’s still officially her husband. Maybe he guessed with her lifestyle there was a good chance she’d soon end up dead. Anyway, he’s planned this from the time he knew her condition was hopeless. He stopped the hospital leaking her condition to the press. He got us both out here and as soon as he had us safely on the train he gave permission for her life support to be turned off.’
There was a long silence. Then… ‘I still don’t understand.’
He didn’t understand? She barely did herself. She lifted her water glass, twisted it round and round as if by doing so maybe she could see things from a different angle. Suddenly Riley’s hand came across the table to rest on hers, forcing the glass down. She released the glass, but his hand stayed where it was. Warm and strong and compelling.
‘Tell me.’
She had to tell him. She had to say it out loud.
‘It was because of Nicole’s will,’ she whispered.
‘What about Nicole’s will?’
‘I’m only going on what Brian yelled at me,’ she told him. ‘But as far as I understand… When Nicole married Brian she made a will leaving him everything, but then she started hating Brian as much as she hated my father.’ She hesitated, trying to make clear something that had no logic-that only unreasoned malice could explain. ‘All through my childhood-and Karli’s-Nicole worked very hard to
get us both away from our respective fathers, so much so that we’ve been permanently based in England. I know she’s thought of that as a success. Charles is in America. Brian’s in Australia. Karli and I are in England and if there’s ever been a suggestion that we go anywhere else then Nicole’s almost been apoplectic with rage.’
He nodded, trying to take it in. ‘And so?’
‘So the codicil said that as long as Karli and I were still in England when she died and we had no contact with our fathers, then we’d inherit everything she owns. Which, I gather, is a fortune. But it seems that the rough way the change was drafted means that as Karli and I weren’t in England at the exact time of her death, then the original will stays valid, and Brian gets everything.’
His eyes darkened. She could see anger flaring.
‘So he conned you into leaving England.’
‘For myself I don’t care,’ she whispered. ‘But the way it happened was awful. Brian came into the lounge car on the train and everyone was there. An old lady was telling Karli a story about the Koori people who lived out here. Karli was happy. Just for a minute she was happy. Then Brian appeared. He walked straight up to Karli and he put his face into hers and he shouted “Your mother’s dead and you’ll get nothing. I’ve won. You stupid little brat, you won’t get a thing”.’
‘No.’ It was a whispered exclamation of horror that she could only agree with.
‘So I got off the train,’ she said dully. ‘There was nothing else I could do. Karli went limp with shock and I picked her up and took her back to our compartment and started throwing our stuff into our suitcases-fast, because the train was already stopped. Just as it started moving we got off. End of story. Brian’s gone on to Perth to claim Nicole’s fortune, and Karli and I… Karli and I are going home.’
Home.
Home to what? Home to her bleak little bedsitter. Home with Karli. There’d be no money for school fees now. Karli would have to live with her.
Maybe that was for the best anyway.
Maybe she could sue Nicole’s estate for Karli’s maintenance, she thought drearily, and then reality slammed back again. Yeah, right. As if she could afford a lawyer.
And she still had to get them home. She had to get to Perth so she could use their return plane tickets. How much would it cost to get them from here to Perth? Were their train tickets still valid?
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