Whitsunday Dawn

by Annie Seaton

  ‘I love you, Liliana.’ Jack’s whisper hung in the humid air.

  CHAPTER

  36

  June 10, 2018

  It was one of those glorious still mornings when the Passage was calm and the water myriad greens and blues like the feathers of a kingfisher. Once they were on board the yacht Fynn had borrowed and he had settled his passengers in comfort—Gran had insisted on travelling up on deck so she could see her beloved island as it came into view—they set off.

  Liv bit her lip as she watched the two elderly women sit side-by-side on the lounge at the stern of the catamaran. Her grandmother sat straight, her shoulders square, her long white braid sitting over one shoulder as her sister held onto her hand as though she would never let her go. Aunty Tat—Livi couldn’t think of her as Great Aunt Tat—had been Aunty Tat to her since the minute her great aunt had called out to her when she had arrived in the islands three months ago. Since the reunion of the Ellis sisters when Gran had flown into the island yesterday, Tatiana and Liliana had been inseparable.

  ‘Fynn’s a good man, Livi.’ Liv jumped when her mother touched her shoulder, pulling her from her thoughts. She turned as Mum settled beside her on the roof of the cabin, and took her hand.

  ‘He’s wonderful with your grandmother and Aunty Tat.’ Rhoda shook her head. ‘I’m still finding it hard to reconcile my thoughts. A whole unknown family up here. It’s hard to imagine what Mum went through when she found out she was having me. To leave all she knew and head off to look for Jack’s family. And to change her name so her parents would never find her. I can’t believe how brave she was … but how sad it is.’

  ‘To be seventeen years old and head off for the unknown, leaving all she knew, and in wartime too.’ Liv shook her head. ‘How did she get away without anyone knowing where she went?’

  ‘She said she didn’t want anyone to follow her, so she planned it carefully. Jack—my father—had left some money and his parents’ address. Apparently, a young man from another island took her to the mainland and she swore him to secrecy. He took her across the Passage and to the rail line. By the time she was missed, she was way down the coast.’

  ‘She must have been a very strong young woman,’ Liv said.

  ‘She’s always been strong. I remember when she fought the mine that eventually resumed our vineyard in the Hunter Valley.’

  ‘Do you think she had a happy life, Mum? Gran always seems so private, and often not happy.’

  ‘I think it was that generation, although from what she’s told me in this last week, her early years with the Rickards weren’t easy. By the time they heard after the war that Jack had been … had died in the prisoner-of-war camp, his parents had already insisted that she marry his brother. At least when they all passed away, she had financial security in her life. And I grew up believing Richard was my father.’

  Liv squeezed her mother’s hand. ‘It’s been a tough week for you too, Mum.’

  Rhoda shrugged. ‘Richard was killed on the farm when I was only a small child. I barely remember him. I’m going to do some war research and see what I can find out about Jack. My father and your grandfather. It’s so much easier these days, and I think it will give Mum closure too.’

  Liv looked over at Liliana. ‘I just can’t understand why she never told her family where she’d gone, and that she was safe.’

  ‘You have to understand that things were very different in those days. Falling pregnant before you were married was one of the worst things that could happen to a young woman. And she told me that her mother was very religious, so the shame would have been compounded.’ Rhoda sighed and lifted her hand from Liv’s shoulder and brushed at her eyes. ‘Poor Mum will never know if they would have accepted her situation.’

  ‘It’s so sad that her family never had closure. Their grief must have been unbearable. I can’t begin to imagine it.’ Liv sniffed and dug for a tissue. ‘They really believed that the Japanese had taken her. I’m sure there would have been no forgiveness needed if she had stayed. From the way she speaks of them, she had loving parents.’

  Rhoda put her arm around Liv’s shoulder and dropped a light kiss on her cheek. ‘I love you, Livi. I don’t tell you enough. And it’s wonderful to see you so happy.’

  ‘I am happy.’ Liv leaned against her mother and looked over at Fynn as he stood at the helm. Most of his blond curls were tied back with the usual leather tie and he stared ahead, hands firm and sure as he steered the boat from Abell Point Marina.

  Fynn caught Liv’s eye and she smiled when he winked at her. ‘He’s taught me patience, and he’s shown me what’s important in life.’

  Her mother looked at her curiously. ‘Will you go back to Sydney? Back to the corporate world?’

  Liv shook her head as she stared at Fynn. With respect for the special guests he was taking to Whitsunday Island, he wore knee-length white shorts and a navy-blue polo shirt with a collar, rather than his usual tattered and faded denim shorts. His tanned, muscular arms gripped the helm as he steered the boat towards the Passage and his blond-tipped curls lifted in the slight wind that had come up as they rounded the Molle group of islands.

  Out on the water. In his element.

  ‘No. I’ve found my home.’ Certainty and a surge of love for this man filled her chest just as the morning sun was caressing her skin with warmth. ‘I won’t be leaving here.’

  ‘What about work?’ Rhoda squeezed her hand.

  ‘I’ll work with Fynn.’

  Rhoda laughed. ‘Byron told me Fynn has quite a few business interests up here.’

  Livi gave a rueful smile. ‘He does. If you’d seen him like I did the first time—smelly, stained fishing clothes and attitude oozing from him—you never would have guessed it. But he owns a couple of charter yachts as well as this one, a fishing charter boat, a restaurant on Hamilton Island and another one on the mainland. But that’s all secondary to the work he does with the university to save the reef. He wants to restore another yacht to replace the one he lost in the explosion.’ Liv stared at her mother. ‘You know, I still can’t accept that Dad had anything to do with that.’ She hadn’t shared the worst of it with her mother, but it was obvious that she knew what he was capable of.

  ‘Trust me, darling. I have no doubt that he would have … and more. Anything to get his way. Nothing has ever mattered more to him than making money. Not even life or love. I did love him, you know. Just remember that.’ Rhoda’s eyes were sad as she stared past Liv. ‘Have you heard from him since you left Sydney?’

  ‘No.’ Liv had no desire to have any connection with her father. He had never treated her with love or respect, so she was not going to mourn the loss of any relationship. ‘You were right, Mum. It was all about the money. He used me for his own ends, but it’s come back to bite him.’ She stared past Fynn to the island that was in the distance. ‘He’s been out of touch since things went pear-shaped for Sheridan Corp. He’s overseas somewhere, but Greg—Fynn’s journalist friend—said he will have to come back to Australia to face the corruption enquiry.’

  ‘Zenith are blaming Sheridan Corp for the corruption that saw the project come so close to approval, and they’re not giving up on it. Since Greg did his latest article for the Courier Mail, the government has taken a lot more notice of the local community, and the environmental concerns about the reef. So we’ll just keep fighting and working at raising the concerns as widely as we can. It’s going to be a long fight. Sheridan might be out, but we’ll win in the end.’

  ‘I read Greg’s article.’ Rhoda closed her eyes and Liv stared as her mother quoted the damning content from memory. ‘“Sheridan’s tentacles stretch into government. Since Zenith severed relationships with Sheridan Corp, there are many nervous politicians watching with interest to see if Andrew Sheridan will face criminal charges.” I hope he does.’

  Liv nodded. And murder charges too, she thought. They had told the police what Rod had done and said.

  They were both silen
t for a while before Rhoda put her arm around Liv’s shoulder.

  ‘And what will you be doing up here with Fynn? What sort of work do you want to do?’

  Liv’s voice was quiet as she shifted her gaze to her grandmother and great aunt. Gran was staring across the water to the island that was ahead of them, her face set but her eyes were shining. ‘I’ll use my knowledge and qualifications to do everything I can to save the reef.’

  ‘It’s wonderful to see you so happy, Livi.’ Her mother reached up and smoothed Liv’s hair back from her face. ‘A permanent smile on your face.’

  ‘I’m happy, Mum. For the first time in a long while.’

  ‘Love will do that to a woman.’ Her mother’s smile was cheeky.

  ‘It will.’ Liv hugged her mother. ‘Look, we’re almost there. Go and sit with Gran, I just want to have a quick word with Fynn.’

  Her mother’s look was indulgent as Liv walked across to Fynn and put her arms around his waist.

  They all waited in silence as they approached the bay and her grandmother called out to her.

  ‘Give me your hand, Livi.’

  With Liv’s help, Liliana stood and made her way to the side of the boat. Aunty Tat wasn’t far behind them. An ache settled in Liv’s throat as she kept her eyes on her grandmother. Her hands gripped the side of the boat and her eyes were fixed on the island as they drew closer. As the two flat-topped hills behind Sawmill Bay came into view, Liliana drew in a quick breath.

  ‘Oh, Tat. It’s just the same. I wonder if the goats are still there.’ Her voice was shaking, and Rhoda stepped across to them and took Liliana’s elbow.

  ‘Are you sure you want to do this, Mum?’

  Liliana nodded. ‘I must,’ she said simply.

  Tatiana shook her head and a tear rolled down her wrinkled cheek. ‘It is just the same, darling. Come on. I’ll take you to see Mama and Daddy, and Goat and Robbie, and Katarina.’

  * * *

  ‘I can walk up a hill. I walked this hill hundreds of times when I was a girl. It might have been seventy years ago, but remember I still play tennis twice a week and look after the horses at home.’ Lily shook her head. Her ninety-third birthday might be approaching, but she took pride in her excellent health and her fitness. ‘I might be a little bit slower than I was back then, but I will do it.’

  ‘More than seventy years, Mum.’ Rhoda frowned at her but Lily ignored her.

  ‘I’m coming too.’ Tat grabbed her arm. ‘But I can’t go fast like you, Lil.’

  Lily couldn’t help the teasing remark that came from her lips. ‘You always did like your food, Tat.’

  Tat poked her tongue out, and Lily felt like a teenager again. A carefree teenager, before the war, before the decisions she’d had to make that changed her life forever.

  ‘But I would do it all again, Jack,’ she whispered.

  ‘What was that, Gran?’ Livi walked along beside her.

  ‘Just the thoughts of an old woman, darling. Come on, my dears. I have a family to say goodbye to,’ Lily said.

  ‘Wait, Lil!’ Tatiana called to her as Lily walked briskly along the wooden jetty. ‘I have to tell you something before you go to the house. You have to know. They’re all gone.’

  Lily turned to Tat and smiled. ‘It’s okay, Tat. I know.’

  ‘But I have to explain.’ Her face crumpled, and she started to cry. ‘Oh, Lil, the house has gone too. They’re all gone.’

  Fynn crossed the jetty and put his arms around Aunty Tat. ‘How about you three girls walk up first, and I’ll follow with Aunty Tat.’

  As they walked along the path to the top of the hill, Lily focused her thoughts on her family and the love she had been cocooned in when she had been growing up on this island. She lifted her eyes to the cloudless blue sky before dropping her gaze to the lush vegetation. In the mossy crevices of fallen hoop pines, small ferns and creepers poked their green leaves out, reminding her of the soft green of the forest when she was a child. The rainbow bee-eaters swooped catching insects on the wing. The light filtered through just as it had in the days she had shown Jack the old sawmill. She closed her eyes and pretended that it was Jack’s hand that was holding hers tightly. A slight breeze stirred the treetops far above them but down here in the bush, it was still, as if the island held its breath waiting for the return of the lost daughter.

  At times, fallen hoop pines blocked the path, and Rhoda and Livi held her hands tightly as they guided her off the path and around the fallen trees. A small waterfall tinkled from a creek that she didn’t remember, and Lily sighed. It was the same, yet it was different. The memories that had kept her going in those early days when she had arrived in the Hunter Valley, and Jack’s parents had welcomed her as Amelia, with reserve, were different. She had held this idyllic paradise in her thoughts to help her through those early years when she had married Richard, and he had agreed to bring Rhoda up as his own daughter. Times had been hard, but she had accepted losing two more children at birth as her punishment.

  The bush thinned and as they stepped out into the light, Rhoda gasped. ‘Oh, Mum, it’s beautiful. Just like the stories you told me about the fairyland when I was a child.’

  Liv nodded. ‘That’s what niggled at me when I first came past here in Fynn’s boat. I recognised the two flat hills with the lacy trees but I couldn’t place it. It wasn’t until I saw that painting at your house that I realised where I knew it from. And I’ve remembered you used to tell me stories about an underwater fairy garden too.’

  But Lily wasn’t listening. She pulled her hands from their gentle grip, and took a hesitant step forward, grateful that Liv and Rhoda stayed where they were as she approached the small white picket fence surrounding the small graveyard.

  The gate creaked as Lily pushed it open. It was the same place where the gate had been to the goat enclosure all those years ago. She pulled a white lace-edged handkerchief from her pocket, although she was determined to stay strong.

  Three white headstones faced the sea.

  She took a tentative step to the first one and walked around to the front. A white urn sat in the shade beneath the headstone and tears blurred her eyes as she smelled the violets—Mama’s favourite flowers. It was a miracle to see them grow here in the tropics. With shaking fingers, Lily traced the letters in the marble.

  Boyd Edward Ellis. Born 21st December, 1897. Left this life to be forever in the ever-loving arms of his beloved Alexandra, 16th February, 1987.

  Liliana smiled. She was past the age that Daddy had been when he died. Still living and fishing on the island, Tat had told her proudly.

  Alexandra Maria Ellis. Born 15th July 1900. Departed this life 23rd October, 1966.

  Finally she couldn’t hold back the emotion as the tears sprang from her eyes. Tatiana had told her of Mama’s grief when Robbie and Goat had both lost their lives in the Battle of Long Tan in the Vietnam War. Her heart had broken, and she had passed later that year.

  She moved to the third headstone and touched it gently.

  Katarina Anne Ellis. Born 30th April 1937. Taken from this life, 4th March 1958. Forever loved by her family.

  Her baby sister had been killed in a car accident in Brisbane not long after Tatiana had married her Charlie and settled at Cannon Valley Beach. Tatiana was the only one who had continued the Ellis line. And she’d insisted on keeping Ellis as part of her surname.

  Oh, Mama and Daddy. You had such sad times.

  Lily sat by the headstones for an hour, telling her family about her life. Telling them how much she loved them, and how much she had missed them.

  ‘Maybe if I’d been brave and stayed, things may have been okay, but Mama, I didn’t want to break your heart. It was better that I left.’

  The sun was hot on the top of her hat, and she closed her eyes, listening to the wind keening in the pines. She smiled as a goat bleated in the distance and for a moment, she was sixteen years old again.

  ‘Gran. It’s time to go.’ Livi touched her gentl
y on the shoulder. ‘Are you ready?’

  Her granddaughter held out her hand and helped Lily to her feet.

  ‘I am. I’ve said my goodbyes.’

  ‘Fynn wants to get across the Passage before the tide changes.’ Livi steered her gently towards the gate where Tatiana, Rhoda and Fynn stood waiting for them.

  Lily held her arms out to Tat.

  ‘Come on, Lil. We have to get back down the hill. Mama wants us to peel the potatoes.’ Tat’s voice quavered as she hugged her sister back.

  Lily knew her eyes were sad as she looked at her daughter and her granddaughter. ‘Yes, Tat. Come on. We’ll go back down the hill and help Mama.’

  As they left the small harbour that she and Tat had swum in as teenagers, they passed the rock where Lily had sat and made the decision that had changed her life all those years ago. Now that she had bid farewell to her family up on the hill, the ache in her chest had eased and the tears had dried. Serenity filled Lily for the first time for many years.

  The choice she had made in 1942 had been difficult, but as her daughter and her granddaughter supported her on either side while Fynn guided the boat towards the Passage, Lily knew she had been right. If she’d stayed on the island, she would probably have been sent to Brisbane and made to give up her baby. She might have achieved the dreams of her youth of seeing the world, of being a journalist but she wouldn’t have these two wonderful women in her life. A smile crossed her face as she remembered how she’d wanted to interview a member of the French Foreign Legion. Life had taken a very different path, but the loss of her family—and the love of her life—had been eased by the love of the two strong women standing each side of her.

  ‘Jack,’ she whispered softly as the boat passed the jetty where she had sat knowing that she had lost her love on that dreadful morning when the Cat hadn’t returned.