Hana Du Rose Mysteries Boxed Set: Books 1 - 4

by Bowes, K T

  Hana washed hair lay in shining, red, wet tresses over the white dressing gown, much longer because of the damp weight of it.

  Relationships in later life carried so much baggage with them and Logan felt the presence of it in the room, pressuring them to fail, to give up. But he would never let her go. She was his soul mate, he had known that forever and wasn’t about to give her up without a fight. If her acceptance had been a knee-jerk reaction, then so be it.

  “Hit me,” he said, his voice crashing into the silence, causing Hana to stare at him in disbelief.

  “What? Why? Are you into that?” She pulled a face, looking horrified.

  “No! I want you to ask me anything. Hit me with whatever you want to know.” He breathed slowly and carefully, in and out, in and out, waiting for the inevitable.

  “O...k,” she responded thoughtfully, “why do you want to marry me?”

  It wasn’t what he expected to be asked, although the answer was far easier to give than some others he might have to face.

  “Because I love you,” he said, certainty in his voice. “I always have. It makes perfect sense to me.”

  Hana watched Logan’s face with a fearsome intensity, her expression unreadable as she reasoned his answer through. He told her numerous times how he felt. The cry of Hana’s heart seemed loud in her brain, overriding good sense and urging her to marry this man; to seize this stolen chance at love. If they had shared this conversation before Caroline Marsh arrived in town, Hana would have had no doubt that it was the right thing to do.

  “When do you want to get married?” Hana worked up to the question she knew she must ask, putting it off while she skirted round the edges.

  Logan wasn’t expecting that either and his brow creased in confusion. “I haven’t thought that far ahead. What the hell...Next weekend?”

  Without flinching, Hana raised the stakes and the mood altered. “Where does Caroline fit with all this? She obviously has a claim on you and from what I can see, she intends to collect.”

  There it was. The problem. Logan’s mother always warned them against games like Truth or Dare and at this moment Logan suddenly saw why. The Bottle Game was a favourite, when the Marsh girl and the many Du Rose cousins got together in the paddock between the properties without their parents’ knowledge. It always led to trouble. The older kids took the power of the spinning bottle way too seriously and Logan as the youngest, always ended up with some hideous forfeit. He subconsciously rubbed his right hand along his side. “Stab him,” Caroline said, her wicked eyes glinting as she pointed at the small boy across from her. So they had.

  “Caroline...” Just saying her name filled Logan with dread. Buried emotions of anger, confusion and betrayal threatened to eclipse the lifeline Hana had become for him, tipping him back into the abyss. “I told you about Caroline, before you even met her!” He replied more defensively than he intended.

  “Yes, but I saw you both,” Hana contested. “She’s not going to give up.” She felt the other woman’s hold on him, like tendrils clawing at his flesh. Hana couldn’t play second fiddle, not again. “I saw you go off in the car together. I saw the text you sent her. I need to know what happened or...are you sleeping with her?”

  Logan took a shuddering breath and leaned back in his chair. Hatred washed over him like nausea, as he tried to deal with the monster in his life, that same monster he was almost tricked into marrying.

  “Firstly, I’m not sleeping with her. I have no intention of going anywhere near her. I don’t know anything about a text.” He resisted saying Caroline’s name again, continuing haltingly, “The night you saw us in the car park, I was reeling from the fact she followed me down here. She was waiting for me when I got out of school. She wanted me to take her home. I didn’t want to make a scene at work so I let her get in the car. I decided it would be safer to go somewhere neutral...” Logan ran his hands through his hair, making it stick up at the front while he chose his words with care. Hana saw a slight tremor in his hands as they came to rest as fists on the table. “We went to the Cock and Bull...” Hana resisted the urge to comment on the irony of the pub’s name, astounded at the physical effect talking was having on Logan. A slight stutter crept into his speech. “We talked, about the wedding, about my parents. She said she was sorry and we were going to get back together. She tried to kiss me. I pushed her away and told her it isn’t what I wanted. I told her to get a taxi, left her some cash to get one and walked away.”

  “That’s it?” asked Hana, feeling surprised.

  “Totally it,” Logan replied, leaning back in his chair, looking relieved at the finality of the telling. “I came up here a few days later, I wanted to see you out of work. I couldn’t understand why you were so odd. It never occurred to me you’d seen us drive away until the other night. I came up here and I saw you and Bodie and well...I thought...it’s stupid really...” Logan looked embarrassed. “I’ve done nothing wrong, Hana. And I won’t. I had a narrow escape with Caroline and I’m actually grateful to her. I almost gave up on finding you and if I married her...” He gulped, the implications obvious. It would have been too late. He would have condemned himself to a life of second best.

  Then Logan smiled to himself and it was as though a light went on in the room, “I went for a razz on the bike after I left here and tracked down that neat pastor you talked about, Allen. I shared a few beers with him. I found him at your church clearing up some stuff and he invited me home with him. He’s an impressive guy. I had a few too many beers actually and Henrietta had to come and get me. Pete was upset with me for a few days because of that.” He winced at the memory. “I did nothing wrong Hana. I promise. I don’t know how to prove it to you.” He leaned forward again. “What’s this text you’re on about? You mentioned it before.”

  Logan’s eyes grew wide as Hana admitted reading the text on Caroline’s phone and he bit his bottom lip in a look of smug satisfaction at the thought of her being not quite as perfect as he previously thought. He shook his head, “I wouldn’t have been thanking her for that particular chat, believe me! It was heated, not to mention public. She doesn’t like not getting her own way.”

  He went quiet again and Hana felt as though she lost him inside himself. She felt sorry for him. “You told me she called the wedding off beforehand, but that’s not the truth is it?”

  Logan started slightly. “Nope.” He paused and collected his thoughts. “She did it on the day. A totally, humiliating altar jilt. Left me with the bill too. Dad sold a massive section of land at a loss to settle it all.” His face darkened with sudden, formidable anger. “It wasn’t his to sell. It was mine.”

  Hana didn’t understand his agitation about the land. She knew she would do the same for Bo or Izzie. A parcel of land in exchange for her child’s peace of mind? It would be a small price to pay.

  “You know what’s worse?” he added, not bothering to hide the bitterness. “Uncle Rueben always wanted that section so he could increase the width of the road and do his crappy sub-division. Now he’s got it! I should never have gone anywhere near Caroline. But I was tired of being on my own and she was just there. It felt familiar because we’d been there before. I asked her to marry me out of some kind of desperation. I don’t think she ever intended to walk down that aisle; it was all about humiliating me and taking away my mana in front of the whanau. I just don’t understand why.”

  It explained Logan’s reaction that weekend when he saw the widened road encroaching on the Du Rose land. No wonder he was so upset, the huge grey scar across the hills bearing testament to his public disgrace.

  “Do you promise me you’re not a cheat?” Hana stared hard at Logan, watching him and praying for discernment.

  “Babe, that’s the easiest promise I’ll ever make,” he said, looking broken and defeated.

  Hana pushed her chair back and walked around the table, her slippers making a little sticking sound on the varnished floor. She squeezed onto Logan’s knee. He pushed his chair
back to accommodate them both and leaned his head against her shoulder. “She didn’t take your mana,” Hana whispered. “If Angus Blair can respect you like he does, then you still have it. You’ve got that X Factor and I don’t think anyone can take that. As for your family, they didn’t seem real bothered about your wedding. Your mum was just concerned for you. If I promise not to jilt you or cause you to lose your land, can we please not mention Caroline Marsh ever again?”

  Logan snorted and nodded against her arm. He turned his huge grey eyes up to look at her and put his fingers under Hana’s chin to make her meet his gaze. “I’m not going away, Hana. I love you. There’s no Plan B for me, this is all I want. Without you, I’m nothing.” His long lashes brushed against his cheeks and Hana felt her heart give a victorious leap as it defeated her head and all the reasons why this was a terrible idea. She leaned down and kissed Logan’s sensuous lips, hurling herself into the unknown and hoping she didn’t regret it.

  They sat holding each other for ages, until Hana began to nod off and Logan’s legs discreetly went to sleep underneath her. “Hana,” his voice was soft. “When you cried on the tube train in your yellow dress, I wanted to take you away and make you feel better.” He looked up into her sleep filled eyes. “I never expected you would make me feel better first.”

  As they parted for the night in the cold hallway, Hana to the big double bedroom and Logan to the room at the end of the corridor, they hugged with an air of nervous excitement. Hana felt settled in her heart. Caroline Marsh could do her worst. And would.

  “Night, Loge,” she yawned at her bedroom door. Logan smiled and released her slender body.

  “Night, babe.”

  Hana pushed the bedroom door closed against him and he stared at the rimu knots, his mind elsewhere. He told Hana the absolute truth about his drink with Caroline, but withheld one vital piece of information.

  “Stay out of my life!” he hissed at the blonde woman, hurling forty dollars cash onto the table for her taxi fare, as though paying a prostitute. Turning away to put his wallet back into his inside pocket in readiness for leaving, he heard her raise her voice, enough to draw even more attention from the other drinkers.

  “It’s not over!” she shouted. “It will never be over for you.”

  Logan hadn’t looked back but walked briskly and confidently from the pub, slamming the door behind him as he went and fervently hoping the thick cloud of doom she conjured up did not follow him out. But it had and it nearly wrecked everything.

  The next day was windy again and the sun made no attempt to show its face, but the occupants of Culver’s Cottage were like giggly children with their new secret. Hana’s dial-up internet was frustratingly slow but after much fiddling around Logan managed to log onto the site for the Registrar of Marriages Births and Deaths, exploring the possibility of a wedding the following Saturday.

  “My father used to call it, Registrar of Hatches, Matches and Dispatches,” Hana giggled but in her nervousness, she dribbled tea down her monkey’s face. “Oh, no!” It looked grumpy and sported what looked like a trail of brown snot down its chin. Hana was suddenly self-conscious about her shabby night attire and made plans to finally put the monkey jamas in the dustbin instead of the washing machine.

  Logan used the ancient computer and printer to download and print the official looking form, BDM 60 Notice of Intended Marriage and they filled it in together. Hana was not required to provide Vik’s death certificate, which was a relief as she didn’t want to have to look at it again. Only the date of his death was required, engraved on her memory for life anyway.

  “The opening hours of the office are nine until four Monday to Friday, which scuppers the Saturday idea.” Logan’s shoulders hunched in disappointment. “We could get a celebrant but that will take longer, judging by the huge list of choices. One of us will also have to physically go into the office three days before the ceremony to sign a statutory declaration and show birth certificates and all this other stuff they want.”

  “I sounds a bit of a tall order, doesn’t it?” Hana looked sad.

  “No, I’ll deal with it all on Monday. Give me your documents and I’ll take them to the office.” Logan pulled Hana into his side. “Shall I just grab the next available date or do I try and ring you first? And what about family and guests?”

  Hana’s eyes widened in fear. “I’m scared they’ll all try and talk me out of it. Bodie definitely would. I don’t know what to do. Would it be terrible to just ask forgiveness instead of permission?” Hana wrinkled her pretty nose and Logan snorted.

  “Geez, woman! You’re braver than me. Is that what you want? Just do it by ourselves and tell them after?”

  Hana nodded her head slowly, increasing to a definite movement as she became surer. “Yes please. That’s exactly what I want to do. Is that terrible?” She chewed at her thumb nail and worry knitted her brow.

  Logan smoothed the lines from her forehead and smiled at her. “I’ll do whatever you want,” he smiled, still waiting for her to back out and devastate him.

  “I’m not changing my mind.” Hana kissed him. “You’re stuck with me.”

  Logan inhaled and grinned, his perfect white teeth grazing his lower lip. “I don’t think I’ll believe that until I’ve put the ring on your finger and kissed the bride. Maybe not even then.”

  After showering and having breakfast, the pair wrapped up warm and went for a walk up the mountain to the boundary of Hana’s property. They found a place to climb over the fence into the thick bush but didn’t go far away from the fence line in case they got lost. Hana enjoyed the scenery and Logan was under strict instructions from Bodie to make sure nobody could gain easy access from the mountain. There was no track through the bush and the whole area was covered in supplejack vine and bush lawyer, making the going almost impossible without a machete. Logan was satisfied and would report back to Bodie as soon as they got to the house. The phone signal from the bush was dreadful, at best only intermittent.

  They skirted the fence line carefully but a branch of the subtle bush lawyer seized Hana’s sleeve and tore at it viciously, snagging her hand and wrist as she struggled to free herself. “Steady, steady,” Logan said gently, holding her fingers and extracting her from the plant’s nasty grasp. “You can’t do it that way, you have to relax and tear it off bit by bit.”

  Even so, his hands were ripped by another branch that leaned in for the kill and they both returned to the house, urgently needing to use antiseptic cream and plasters for some of the more spiteful cuts. “Nice place you’ve got!” Logan complained, as he ran the cuts under hot water to remove any dirt. “Even the wildlife sticks up for you. You should be fine out here.”

  Hana smiled to herself. It was good to feel secure for once. “We,” she replied.

  “Pardon?” Logan patted his hands with a tissue and turned to face her, leaning backwards against the counter to hide the fact he couldn’t stop the blood trickling into the soft cloth. “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing,” she answered coyly, smirking slightly as she chewed over her thoughts. “You said I would be fine out here. But you’ll be here to.”

  “True.” Logan kissed Hana and excused himself to deal with the familiar throbbing headache and the inevitable blood flow.

  Yet again the wind was terrifying and threatened to rip off the new roof as it got under the eaves and whistled round the house. The new wall insulation provided warmth and sound proofing which the poor house previously lacked, but the entry holes still needing filling in the main bedroom and the noise was particularly bad. By eleven in the morning, both Hana and Logan were more than a little stir crazy. Logan completed his marking and Hana touched up the missed bits of paint in the kitchen and went round the old fireplace again with the lighter paint. Then she unwrapped her her hand and tried to take the stitches out with the kitchen scissors. She jumped violently when Logan walked in and caught her doing it. “Idiot!” he said crossly. “You shouldn’t take chances with
stuff like that. You might get an infection.” He took out the last one for her anyway, not seeming at all squeamish.

  Logan suggested they went out for a while. Hana looked terrified at the thought, living in permanent fear of the men finding her by sheer luck or carelessness. “What if they’re searching for me?” she panicked. “There could be more of them looking everywhere.”

  Logan inwardly felt sure Monday would be the most difficult time, when someone would be certain to watch the school for her to arrive or leave. “Instead of Hamilton, let’s go to Auckland, to Sylvia Park shopping centre. It’s busy, sprawling and far enough away to be reasonably safe.”

  Eventually, Hana was persuaded and after a call to Cilla to check it was all right to use the Micra to go that far, they set off down the driveway. There was nobody at the bottom of the drive or at any point along its half a kilometre length. The men hadn’t found Hana yet. They drove companionably north for almost an hour before hitting the city traffic and managing to score a good parking spot in the first car parking area. They walked round Sylvia Park happily, holding hands or with arms wrapped around each other. There was a new spark in their relationship, which was healing and exciting and didn’t feature Caroline Marsh. Hana was happy browsing and bought bits and bobs for the house; a set of black lettering to stick to the walls which read, Live, Love, Laugh in bold italics and a cream tile with a cockerel on it for standing hot pans on the table.

  Logan, however had a specific task. After a cup of not-very-nice coffee in a café in the mall, he took Hana purposefully across to the jewellers. The window display was sparkling and bright. Necklaces and earrings glinted out at them from every angle. Hana found a fascinating watch which she tried to show Logan, with all the workings showing through from the back but he seriously studied the wedding bands with rapt concentration. “These are a fortune!” she complained, gravitating to the cheaper displays. “Can’t we just leave it for now?”