‘What are you looking at?’ Adeline snapped, yanking the wheelchair backwards so her grandmother almost tumbled onto the floor.
Megan looked the old woman in the eyes. ‘Hello,’ she said. ‘I believe you knew Eliza Abbott from Rose Hill?’
‘Step away from my grandmother!’
Ignoring Adeline again, Megan looked into the older woman’s eyes and saw a flash of recognition. The spidery veins on her face reddened, and … was that a tear glistening in her eye?
Megan looked up to tell Adeline what she suspected about Penelope, but changed her mind at the last moment. What good would it do? She couldn’t rewrite history and who would believe her anyway? Even if they did, Penelope could never be tried and they wouldn’t throw such a frail old woman in prison after all these years. Perhaps living here—confined to a wheelchair, unable to do anything for herself—was punishment enough for Eliza’s murderer.
And right now Megan had more pressing concerns.
Chapter Thirty-six
‘Dad!’
Halfway through the milking, Ned ran into the dairy and over to Lawson, who was at the tail end of the rotary spraying the cows’ udders as he removed their suction cups.
‘Hey, son.’ Lawson looked down and summoned a smile when the last thing he felt like doing was smiling. With the news of Megan’s real identity following close on the heels of their own personal dairy crisis, today was up there as one of the worst days of his life. ‘How was school? You been helping Tab feed the calves?’
Ned nodded. ‘Yep—we just finished and Aunty Tab told me to come check you were okay. Why wouldn’t you be okay, Dad?’
‘I’m fine,’ he said through gritted teeth as he tightened his grip on the hose and lifted it to spray the next few cows.
Ned kicked at a bit of cow shit with his boots. ‘I thought you were going away with Meg today?’
‘Something came up. Plans changed,’ Lawson told him. He’d have to have a conversation about Meg with Ned but he really didn’t know what to say.
‘Can we go see her tomorrow then?’ Ned asked.
‘No,’ Lawson shouted, and immediately regretted it. This wasn’t Ned’s fault.
‘Look,’ he said, dropping to his knees in front of his son. ‘I’m sorry for yelling. It’s been a long day. Why don’t you run back to the house and see if Aunty Tab needs help getting ready for dinner? I won’t be long.’
As much as he loved Ned, he just wanted to be alone right now. Ethan had been visibly surprised when Lawson showed up for afternoon milking instead of Funky, but he’d been sensible enough not to ask questions and had refrained from trying to make conversation, for which Lawson was grateful.
‘Okay, then.’ Ned turned to go, his head and shoulders drooping as he walked, making Lawson feel like the biggest dick on the planet. He was about to call him back, when Ned shrieked.
‘Meg! What are you doing here?’
Lawson glanced over to the door as Ned rushed forwards to greet their uninvited visitor. For a moment he forgot to breathe. Seeing her standing there—as gorgeous as ever—was like an actual punch to the gut. Water sprayed out of his hose, none going anywhere near the cows, and the rotary continued on without him getting any cattle off. Part of him wondered why it had taken her so long to come looking when he hadn’t shown up and wasn’t answering his phone.
‘Hey, sweetheart,’ he heard Megan say to Ned as they wrapped their arms around each other. The sight jolted Lawson from his frigid state.
‘Ned!’ He shouted. ‘I thought I told you to go home!’ Again he sounded harsh but he didn’t want her anywhere near his precious son.
‘Aw, Dad.’ Ned didn’t let go of Megan.
She patted his back and extracted herself from his arms. ‘Listen to your dad.’ Her voice sounded shaky, but Ned looked up at her and smiled.
‘Okay. Will you come back and have dinner with us?’
No, you most certainly will not!
Megan’s gaze met Lawson’s and although he hadn’t said these words out loud he could tell she understood. ‘I can’t tonight. Go along now.’
With one final pout in Lawson’s direction, Ned headed out of the shed, scuffling his feet as he went. Lawson’s hackles rose at the way she told his boy what do to—she had no bloody right—and he almost called Ned back, but then realised he was being irrational. Hadn’t he just shouted at Ned to leave?
Things were about to get messy and he didn’t want his son to witness it.
As Ned retreated, Megan took a few steps towards him and his insides tightened. They were supposed to be in Margaret River having the best weekend of their lives and instead he could hardly stand to look at her.
‘Why?’ he spat.
At the same time, she said, ‘I’m so sorry.’
He scoffed, switched off the hose and chucked it to the floor. ‘What for? For your drug history? For being involved in a man’s death? For the fact you’ve spent the last few years in prison? For failing to tell me about all that? Or, are you sorry you got found out at all?’ He shook his head at her, trying not to be affected by her bloodshot eyes and red, blotchy cheeks. He refused to feel sorry for her.
‘I never intentionally set out to lie to you,’ she rushed. ‘In fact, I never meant to get involved with you at all.’
Another blow to the gut; he’d been falling in love but it sounded as though she’d never been as serious as he was.
‘So it’s all true then?’ His shoulders slumped—he’d wanted her to tell him there’d been some big misunderstanding, that somehow Adeline and the newspapers had it all wrong. ‘You went to prison!’
Megan squeezed her lips together and her silence spoke volumes.
‘I think it’s time you leave,’ he said, lifting his arm to indicate the door.
‘Please, Lawson,’ she pleaded, wringing her hands in front of her, ‘just let me explain.’
He closed his eyes. ‘Make it quick.’
Megan took a deep breath. ‘It is true that I went to prison for armed robbery, but not for killing anyone, because I didn’t kill anyone. That’s not who I am. I was in a terrible state; I was twenty, and an addict, and desperate. I trusted my boyfriend. He said he knew a store where we could easily get cash and no one would get hurt. He was tried for murder, but I was found not guilty of even being an accessory to that crime. My sentence was for the robbery only.
‘I served my time: four and a half long years. The shock of it all made me get clean, but when I got out and tried to rebuild my life, I realised I never would in Melbourne. I moved to Rose Hill where nobody else lived to put the awful things in my past behind me and to become the person I wanted to be. So yes, when I first met you and Ned, I tried not to get involved, and even when we started to become friends, I was scared if you knew the truth, you’d stop coming around.
‘I decided to tell you after that first kiss, but then you came to Rose Hill the next day and … all my good intentions flew out the window. You can’t know how amazing you made me feel. I tried a couple more times to tell you everything, but things kept getting in our way. Maybe I didn’t try hard enough—I admit that—but do you know how terrifying the prospect of losing you was?’
It sounded like a rhetorical question but before he could contemplate an answer, Ethan stormed around from the other side of the rotary.
‘Lawson, what on earth’s going on—Oh!’ He halted in his tracks, looked between the two of them and then backed away like a domestic animal retreating from a wild beast. A moment later the rotary stopped turning.
‘I’ll admit I was guilty of not telling you everything about my past,’ Megan continued, ‘but if I’d known how Leah died, I promise I would have tried harder to stay away. Or forced myself to tell you.’
That couldn’t be true. They’d spoken about Leah—surely he’d mentioned her tragic death? But even as he thought this, he knew Megan was right. He didn’t like talking about it.
‘I never lied to you,’ he said, still furious.
Her words twisted his heart, thawing some of the anger he’d been feeling, but he couldn’t afford to let down his guard. He had so many questions, but what would be the point in asking them? Talking would only prolong the agony. For both of them.
‘You finished now?’ he asked, picking the hose back off the ground. ‘Because I’ve got work to do.’
Her face fell. It was clear she was close to tears and he felt like a jerk, but he wanted her gone so he could lick his wounds in peace. He wanted that beer. He wanted oblivion.
She nodded. ‘Yes, I’m done, Lawson. Goodbye.’
And then she turned and hurried out of the dairy, out of his life. Less than a week earlier this was exactly the spot where they had shared their first kiss, but now it would always be the place where everything had ended.
Chapter Thirty-seven
Megan opened Archie’s gate to find Buster and Cane waiting for her in the same spot since she left them hours earlier. Cane jumped up all over her but Buster looked past; the expression on his face reminded her of Eeyore.
‘Aw.’ She dropped to her knees beside the dogs and pulled Buster towards her, burying her tear-soaked face in his rough, old-dog fur. ‘You’re gunna have to come home with me tonight, buddy, but Archie will be back soon, I promise.’
Feeling a little like she was violating her friend’s privacy, she went into the house and found the clean underwear and change of clothes she’d promised to take him. After a trip to the bathroom to collect toiletries, she searched for his keys and this time locked up when she left. Then she bundled the dogs into the car and drove back into Walsh. She could have dropped them at her place, but she wanted them with her. As it was after hours by the time she arrived back at the hospital, she had to press a button outside to get the attention of the nurses. The woman who came to the door made no secret of how annoyed she was to be interrupted.
‘Visiting hours are over,’ she said, even before she’d fully opened the door.
Megan lifted the recycling bag that held Archie’s things. ‘I don’t need to stay.’ In fact she would prefer not; Archie would take one look at her and know something was up. ‘I’m just delivering these things for my neighbour, Archie Weaver.’
‘Oh, you’re …’ The nurse all but snatched the bag and then stepped back as if Megan were something to be scared of.
She fought the urge to bare her teeth at the woman. So much for thinking Rose Hill would be a refuge! She could never escape her past, however much she’d changed and wanted to move on. To everyone else she’d always be the criminal junkie. In some ways, this realisation was freeing. She no longer had to walk around on eggshells, terrified everyone would discover her deepest darkest shame, because now they already knew.
Maybe finally everyone would leave her in Rose Hill in peace, which was what she’d wanted in the first place.
‘I’m Megan McCormick, yes.’ She held her chin high as if she were proud of this fact. ‘And I’ll be back tomorrow to visit my friend.’
It didn’t matter what this random person thought of her. Not any more. No cruel words or harsh looks could hurt as bad as Lawson telling her to go. Nothing anyone else could ever do would ever hurt more than when he’d looked at her with such loathing.
She turned away before the nurse could shut the door, and stalked back to the car, where Cane licked her all over her face. ‘At least you guys love me,’ she said, rubbing his neck and then starting the ignition. She told herself that was enough and was still repeating this mantra in her head when she arrived in Rose Hill fifteen minutes later.
But the moment she opened her front door and let the dogs inside, the devastation of the day hit her and the quiet loneliness of her house felt almost claustrophobic.
‘Eliza?’ Megan whispered as the dogs ran ahead, giving the stairs the usual wide berth. Part of her felt stupid craving the company of a ghost, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.
Coolness wafted past her and she let out a satisfied breath; a tear trickled down her cheek as she slid to the floor. She told Eliza everything that had happened that day—from the terror of finding Archie unconscious to the bone-aching heartbreak of confessing all to Lawson.
‘I wonder, would things have been different if I’d got to him before Adeline?’ The thought of that woman left a bitter taste in her mouth and she made sure Eliza knew Adeline’s connection to her own nemesis, telling her also about the confrontation with Penelope.
‘This thing with Adeline and Lawson feels like history repeating itself.’ Adeline might not have physically hurt Megan, but, like her grandmother, she’d gone out of her way to ruin things.
Eliza made no sign of being annoyed by this comment but Megan realised two seconds after she said it that hers and the ghost’s situations weren’t exactly the same. Eliza hadn’t only lost her love—she’d also lost her life; however bad Megan might feel, at least she still had that. She also had Archie and Cane. This might not seem that much right now when she was still so raw from the pain of losing Lawson but she remembered something her grandmother used to say—there’s always someone in the world worse off than you.
After their conversation that evening, she couldn’t see any hope of changing Lawson’s mind about her, but at least she couldn’t imagine him hooking up with Adeline either.
Part of her wished she’d bought herself a bottle of wine (or two) on the way home, but the other part of her thanked the heavens above that the thought hadn’t crossed her mind until she was too far out of Walsh to make it worth going back. She didn’t want to numb this pain; she wanted to use it as a reminder for the future. She’d tried to dip her toes into the realms of normal and a shark had almost bitten them off.
At least now she knew to keep out of the water.
Plan B had failed and it was back to Plan A—making a life for herself, and only herself, in Rose Hill. She’d avoid Walsh altogether and then she’d never have to see any of them. Archie had been happy enough there on his own for years; if it was good enough for him, it was good enough for her.
And at least she’d have him for company as well.
Chapter Thirty-eight
At the sound of Tabitha’s footsteps coming down the hall, Lawson yanked open the desk drawer and shoved the blue and yellow tea-cosy he’d been holding inside. By the time his sister appeared in the doorway, he was sitting upright in his chair, staring at the computer screen, pretending to work.
‘Have you been up all night again?’ Tab asked, with a yawn.
‘I can’t sleep worrying about the dairy,’ he lied without even turning around to look at her. The part about not being able to sleep was true—he’d given up sometime after midnight as he had the two nights preceding—but it wasn’t farming issues keeping him awake. Still, he’d decided he might as well make the most of the time to make a crisis-action plan and, when his mind didn’t keep drifting off to Meg, that’s exactly what he’d been trying to do.
‘I’ve written a list of other milk processors we can approach to sell our excess to and I’ve organised a meeting with all the farmers affected for Wednesday night. What do you think about starting a Facebook page alerting regular people to the cause?’ Before she could answer, he continued, ‘I’ve also written letters to the state and federal governments and to all our suppliers and service providers asking them to do the same, to explain the flow-on effects of losing dairy farmers. I’m feeling positive that we’ll find an alternative processor for our milk by July, but if not, I see us as having two options.’
He turned around to finally look at her. ‘We either talk to a stock agent about selling part of our herd, may
be even part of the land, and running beef on the rest or, and this is my preferred option, we talk to Funky about how much it would cost to build you a proper area for your ice-cream manufacturing and we go hard down that avenue.’
The fact Megan had suggested this idea soured it a little, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him pursuing something that would protect his land, his animals and most of all his family. ‘I’ve been looking into suppliers who might take our ice-cream and there are a number of gourmet stores in WA and the rest of Australia we could target.’
‘Whoa—hold on a moment.’ Tab placed her hand on her hip. ‘You don’t think I want to be involved in all of that? This is my farm, my heritage, my livelihood as well.’
He blinked—surprised by her angry tone. ‘Of course I want you involved, I’m just … researching.’
‘In the middle of the night when you should be sleeping?’ She sighed and shook her head. ‘This can’t go on, Lawson. You look like shit.’
Why did he think she was no longer talking about the farm plans? ‘Geez, thanks, and a very good morning to you too, sister dear.’
She sniffed him, then screwed up her nose. ‘When was the last time you showered, never mind shaved?’
‘Don’t start,’ he said. Who needed a wife when he had a sister who nagged like a pro? And what did he care what he looked like? He wasn’t trying to impress anyone. ‘Just get me a coffee, will ya?’
‘I’ll make you coffee and some eggs for breakfast before you head out to do the milking, but only if you come into the kitchen and eat it with me.’
He sighed, knowing that what she really meant was she’d cook for him if he talked to her. Why did women think talking was the bee-all-and-end-all? As far as he reckoned, talking did jack-shit but make you feel worse. But he was in dire need of caffeine and his stomach rumbled at the thought of Tab’s scrambled eggs.
‘Okay.’ Lawson pushed back the swivel chair and stood, then stretched his hands above his head, needing to loosen up after hours in the one position.
Talk of the Town Page 33