by Jacobs, Anna
‘But you might have been killed!’
‘I don’t think that was intended. Not for the sake of a piece of land. No, I think someone just wants me to leave. If I don’t have somewhere to live, they make it much harder for me to stay.’
She went to hold his arm for a moment and hug it close. ‘They might not have intended to kill you, but they nearly did. I can’t ignore that, even if you can. Come on, let’s go home.’
For the rest of the afternoon and early evening the small truck groaned backwards and forwards between the shack and Meriel's house. A surprising amount of furniture had proved salvageable and was gradually unloaded into the spare rooms, including a brand-new computer which needed only a new monitor to replace the one that had been smashed. There was some new office furniture that had been in the front part of the house and had come through almost unscathed, except for a few scratches and dents from flying debris.
‘That’s not temporary equipment,’ she commented.
‘I was setting up for a long project. It’s good that we haven’t lost everything. Saves us some money.’
She looked at him sideways. We and us again. Was he including her already? Was it possible to slip so easily into being a pair? He’d done it easily – but then, he’d had more experience of that than she had.
‘Your bed was crushed flat,’ one of the men said cheerfully. ‘Good thing you weren’t lying in it, mate.’
By the end of the following day, all the contents of the shack had been retrieved or discarded, the fallen timbers had been sorted out into usable and rubbish, and thuds from the next block marked the demise of the rest of the house.
Meriel was taking in some washing when the two men brought a pile of the timber round and started dumping the pieces at the side of the house. She rushed across to them. ‘Hey! What do you think you're doing?’
‘Ben told us to bring the timber round here.’
‘Well, you’re not dumping it on my lawn!’
‘Got to put it somewhere, lady,’ one of them said, in the tones of an intelligent person reasoning with a moron.
‘Not there you don't, mate. Just stop what you're doing while I find out what this is all about, then I’ll tell you where to pile the stuff.’
The men shrugged. ‘Better sort it out quickly. There are several more loads to come tomorrow.’
She stormed into the house and erupted into the family room. ‘Just what do you mean by turning my front lawn into a salvage yard, Elless?’
‘Oh, hell, I forgot to tell you. Don't blow a fuse. We can sort this out.’
‘We certainly can – as soon as you get that wood off my lawn.’
He looked at her admiringly. ‘Did anyone ever tell you how magnificently your eyes flash when you're angry.’
‘I'm not angry, I'm furious, and if you don't get that wood moved, I'll make a bonfire of it.’ She folded her arms and glared at him. ‘I believe wood ash is good for the soil.’
He struggled to his feet. ‘I'll have to come out and talk to the men. Look, I'm sorry. I'm so used to steaming ahead and getting the practical things done that I didn't think.’
‘You certainly didn't. And what on earth do you want with a pile of second-hand timber, anyway?’
‘Character.’
She stared at him. ‘What?’
‘The beams and posts in my uncle's shack are jarrah and so are the floors. That wood will still be good in another hundred years and it’ll polish up beautifully once it’s been sanded down. It’s very West Australian, jarrah is. And it’s good to recycle scarce resources, don’t you think?’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘I'm not organising all this well, am I? I get started on design ideas and forget where I am. Dammit, I could do with a site foreman and general factotum. I can't hobble very far and I was in the thick of some calculations and – ’
She looked at him, head on one side. ‘How much would you pay me to do it? As long as it’s only part-time, that is.’
His face lit up. ‘Whatever you think reasonable. Hourly rates, whatever you think right?’
She stuck out her hand and they shook. Smiling, she went to put on some sunscreen lotion and a shady hat. Fine businessman he was! He hadn't even found out how much she wanted to be paid. Then she frowned. He should have asked! Surely he couldn’t be that impractical?
Later she looked out of the window at the piles of timber set neatly to one side of the house beyond the cultivated patch of ground and wondered if she was doing the right thing helping him out. Every step she took seemed to bind them more firmly together.
It scared her.
It pleased her, too.
It felt right.
At ten o’clock she stood up. ‘I’m going to bed now.’
He’d looked at her questioningly.
‘Could you use the bathroom before you go to your own room?’
He gave her a long steady scrutiny, then nodded as if accepting her decision before hauling himself to his feet.
She watched him go, chewing one corner of her lower lip. She wasn’t ready yet to sleep with a fully-conscious Ben, even if he wasn’t in a fit state to do much about their feelings. And she was still a bit worried that he was taking risks, wished he’d called in the police, wished . . . Oh, she didn’t know what she wished.
When he’d finished, she said good night, made sure she was wearing a nightdress that didn’t reveal all and climbed into her bed. But when she looked at the space beside her, she suddenly wished he was there.
How stupid could you get? She hardly knew the man.
* * * *
In the middle of the night, Tina leaped off the bed and started rushing to and fro, barking frenziedly. Meriel woke with a start and went to investigate, heart pounding. When she opened the bedroom door, Tina made straight for the kitchen door, still barking. Meriel put on the outside lights and peered out, hearing Ben come hobbling along the corridor to join her.
‘Can you see anything?’ he whispered, putting his arm round her. ‘Ought we to let her out?’
She leaned against him, glad he was there. ‘No way! If someone’s there they might hurt her. It’s enough that she barks, surely?’
‘Normally I’d go out to investigate.’
‘That’d be stupid. You don’t know how many people are out there.’ She turned back but could see no movement outside.
Tina stopped barking and lay down near the French window, head on paws.
Ben looked at Meriel. ‘Whatever was upsetting her seems to have gone away.’
‘Well, if I find footprints outside in the morning, I’m going into town tomorrow to see the police about intruders.’
‘They won’t be able to do much about it.’
‘I’m still telling them.’
In the morning she got up early, went to investigate and found new tyre marks where someone had parked by the side of the main road near her gate. They must have walked on to the block from there. What had they wanted?
When she went to investigate the piles of lumber she smelled kerosene and one corner of the pile of wood stank of it.
She turned round to see Ben standing on one corner of the veranda watching her, so went across to tell him what she’d found. His expression became grim as he listened and, for all her protests, he moved slowly and painfully across to look at the pile of wood himself.
‘We’d better hose this down,’ he said quietly.
‘I’ll do that after breakfast. I wonder why they didn’t light it?’
‘I must have been right: they just want to frighten us away.’
‘Who are they?’
‘Developers. Must be.’
‘Well, that settles it. I’m definitely going to the police this morning.’
‘Couldn’t you wait?’
‘No.’
* * * *
The police listened to her story and promised to keep an eye on her place.
‘I do have a friend living with me,’ she added, feigning embarrassment, ‘but he’s hurt
his foot. He couldn’t do much to help me if – if anyone tried to break in.’
‘It’s a bit lonely for a woman out there,’ the officer said. ‘You may have taken on more than you can chew.’
‘I’m sure this vandalism is only temporary. When they see you officers turning up a few times every day, they’ll stop doing it.’
She wasn’t so sure about that.
* * * *
The following day the weather changed suddenly and a southerly wind made the temperature plummet, which Ben said happened sometimes in summer. Meriel shivered and went to find something warmer to wear if she was going to work outside.
Once the demolition men had finished dumping reusable material from the old house, she went into the kitchen to start making the evening meal. Ben limped in to join her. ‘Can I help you with anything?’
‘You could peel the potatoes.’
He sat down on a stool near the kitchen bench and set to work. ‘I could get very used to domesticity again.’ He beamed at her.
That touched her deeply. In fact, she was coming to realise she had stereotyped Ben, no doubt because of his startling good looks. He wasn’t a Romeo, he was a homebody and family man. The more she got to know him, the more she liked him as well as being attracted to him. Very dangerous for an independent woman, that combination.
* * * *
When it was time to go to bed, Ben looked across the table at her, his head slightly to one side, a question in his eyes if not on his lips.
‘Will you be all right on your own tonight?’ she asked at last.
He gave her a wry smile. ‘Yes, of course. Will you?’
She nodded.
‘I’m glad you’ve got Tina in the bedroom with you.’
‘Why? Do you think they’ll come back tonight?’
‘I doubt it, but it’s still good to have a dog.’ He levered himself to his feet. ‘I’ll just use the bathroom.’
She watched him limp out, nearly followed to ask him to spend the night in her bedroom, but lost courage at the last minute and cleared the table instead.
It was a good thing his injured ankle was giving them both a breathing space, she told herself firmly as she made her way to her own room. She’d be mad to rush into anything.
But as she put on her nightie, she suddenly realised that if Ben limped back along that corridor, she’d welcome him into her bed without hesitation.
Why hadn’t he even tried it?
She tried to settle to sleep and couldn’t. She kept thinking of him and finally faced the fact that she was the one keeping them apart.
Why?
Because she was afraid, that was why. She wasn’t usually a coward, didn’t like to think of herself that way.
* * * *
Along the corridor Ben was also finding it impossible to get to sleep. Meriel had made it plain she wasn’t ready for intimacy yet and he’d not tried to persuade her because he didn’t want their first time to be a fiasco with his ankle spoiling things. But it was hard on a man.
He punched the pillow into shape and tried once again to sleep, but in vain. Images of Meriel wearing that sexy nightdress continued to taunt him.
When he heard a door open at the other end of the house, he was suddenly alert. As footsteps moved slowly towards his room, hope raced like lava through his veins and he reached for the bedside lamp, switching it on, looking towards the door . . .
She stood there for a moment, her expression a mixture of bravado and nervousness. His breath caught in his throat, she was so lovely and yet so vulnerable.
‘We’re consenting adults,’ she declared, chin going up in that sassy way he loved so much. ‘We want one another and neither of us can get to sleep because of that. So why not . . . ?’ The words tailed away but her eyes said that she wanted him as much as he wanted her, that she’d come to terms with whatever had been stopping her.
She slid in beside him and he drew her gently into his arms but needed to make something clear first, so cradled her face in his hands and said, ‘It’s not just about sex, Meriel. It’s you.’
For a moment her eyes searched his then she smiled. ‘I know. It’s the same with me. I need you, Ben.’
As they lay there afterwards, he pulled her to nestle against him, not wanting them to move apart. His ankle was throbbing in pain and though he tried to hide that, of course she guessed.
She pushed herself up on one elbow and asked, ‘Would a cold compress be any help to that foot, do you think?’
‘If you don’t mind.’
‘We should use my room, so that I can keep the compress cool and wet.’
He swung himself into a sitting position and stared at her, trying to work out how she really felt about that. ‘Am I staying there afterwards?’
‘Do you want to?’
‘Of course I do. But if you’d rather I didn’t . . . ’
‘You’re treading very carefully, aren’t you?’
He nodded. ‘It’s important to me not to mess things up. I’m in this for the long term.’
She stared at him, but didn’t say anything else, just gave a small nod then cuddled closer.
As sleep slid over him, he could feel happiness and hope murmuring through him as gently as a flowing stream. He loved her already, but it wasn’t time yet to say the words because she wasn’t ready for them.
But she would be, he was getting more and more hopeful about that.
Chapter 16
Ria had to drive near the block where they’d lived for several months, so made a short detour to look at it again.
To her surprise, the two men who’d been on the old Elless property were surveying that one now. Never one to hang back, she parked the car and went across to them. ‘Hi. I saw you working and wondered what’s going to happen to this place.’
He scowled. ‘None of your business. This is private property and I’d be grateful if you’d leave.’
She did as they’d asked, because it was no use banging her head against a brick wall. But after that, she couldn’t resist driving past whenever she was in the area. They were surveying one side of it only, working their way along by the fence. Out of curiosity she drove round the twisting backroads to confirm her guess about which property that backed on to. Yes, it was the Elless block.
She discussed it with Pete, who said he’d wander over that way on foot later for a recce.
Some time later she got back to the campsite from another appointment and found Big Jim sitting in the caravan with headphones on, looking depressed.
She signalled to him that she wanted to talk and he took them off. ‘Where are the kids?’
‘Pete’s on late shift at the hotel, so he’s free now. He took them out for a nature walk.’
‘They love it when he does that.’ She hesitated, then said, ‘It’s getting you down here, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah. Too much noise, too many people. Does my head in. How about giving your friend Bill another nudge? Maybe there’s somewhere out of town that we can rent. We’re having to pay for staying here, after all.’
‘I’m still hoping Bill can find us something that’s free, so that we can save our money.’
‘I’m not contributing enough. I’m an old crock, not good for a young woman like you.’
She laid one hand on his arm. ‘You can’t help having that problem.’
‘It makes me damned useless as a man, though. And I’m nearly double your age.’
She smiled and reached across to hug him. ‘I don’t think you’re too old. We’re kindred spirits and that’s what counts most. And actually, I’ve not been this happy for a good long while.’ She judged she’d said enough and changed the subject by telling him about the men surveying their old block.
‘They want to bring more good old suburbia out here, I suppose. But if the owner demolished that house, he can’t be expecting to stay here, can he?’
‘No. Not our business, though.’ She started preparing tea. Pete and the kids were always hungry.
She’d hate to see the trees and vegetation on the Elless block razed. It was such a pretty place. They’d sneaked on it for walks a few times, with Pete making sure they did no damage. He was very careful about that sort of thing.
* * * *
The following morning Meriel got up before Ben woke. For all their intimacy she still felt wary and uncertain about how to manage the everyday details. She’d never lived with a guy before.
He had better skills in that direction and seemed to have an instinctive understanding of when to push her and when not to push, for which she was grateful.
‘I’ll start on the accounts today,’ he said, sighing.
‘Do you need any help?’
‘Not at this stage.’
Mid-morning she made him a cup of coffee and took it down to his office, stopping in shock in the doorway. He was holding the edge of the desk and pulling a piece of paper towards him along the floor with a ruler. She bent to pick it up for him and saw it was an unpaid bill, then turned to stare at the things on the desk. ‘What are you trying to do here, Elless?’
‘I told you. Sort out the accounts. I emptied the files in the office and brought the contents with me. I need to know where I stand before I go back to Brisbane next week.’
‘I can do that for you much more quickly.’
‘I didn’t want to take advantage.’
‘I thought I was going to be your paid factotum?’
‘Well, as long as you let me pay you for your help.’
She nodded. ‘You’re looking tired. You need a rest.’ He nodded and she knew he must be very weary to admit it.
When she’d got him settled on the sofa, Meriel went back to the room he was using as an office and groaned under her breath as she looked at the mess there. How could any reputable business base its finances on chaos like this? Didn’t they have a secretary, for goodness’ sake?
By lunch time she'd sorted through enough of the paper tangles to know that most of the documentation for the current project was missing. These papers were mainly small stuff, office expenses, car servicing costs, the occasional meal receipt. Where were the most recent bank statements, not to mention the taxation information?