by Janet Gover
He ran his hands over the timber. These rails had been cut by hand and the yards built by hand. By people who cared for the land; people like Liz’s father and Liz herself. Mitch had done his share of work on them too, back in the day. He looked along the fence line and noticed a place where the wire needed tightening. The gate latch was loose too, and he’d already spotted that a couple of nails had come loose from the corrugated iron around the muck heap, making it bend away from the frame. They were little things that could be fixed by anyone in just a few minutes. But it seemed Liz never had a few minutes, whereas he was here and could get them done before she woke. He even knew where the tools were kept.
CHAPTER
27
When Liz opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Zeke. The horse had settled into the straw next to her and if she reached out her hand, she could stroke him on the nose. How many times in the last few years had she woken like this, when the house had been too full of ghosts for her to stay? The house’s creaking timber and the wind whispering through the eaves seemed to condemn her; to judge her and find her wanting. The memories in the stables were easier to bear.
Rubbing her eyes, Liz sat up and stretched. The drive back last night had been long and tiring, but Willowbrook hadn’t brought the comfort she sought. So here she was in the stables with Zeke. The old gelding was a symbol to her—of pride in her achievements, and of unconditional acceptance and love. The things she was lacking right now.
Liz sat in the straw for another couple of minutes, absently stroking Zeke’s face. For the first time in a very long time, her mind wasn’t full of what needed doing today. A part of her just wanted to sit in the quiet with her old horse and remember the good times together when she had been a child. She didn’t want to face the day ahead and the decision she was about to make.
Shaking her head, she forced herself to her feet. Sitting in the stables moping was not going to change anything. She had work to do.
As she let herself out of Zeke’s box, she ran her eyes around the stalls. The horses had all been fed and watered and the boxes had been mucked out. Mitch had been here while she was sleeping. Of course Mitch had been here. She’d asked him to look after the horses and no matter what else had gone wrong with her life and their relationship, Mitch would never go back on a promise.
He must have seen her sleeping in Zeke’s box.
There had been times when opening her eyes to find Mitch watching her sleep had been a joy. Now, she wasn’t sure how she felt. She had spent so many years building her defences it was disconcerting to be seen at her most vulnerable now.
Still trying to sort out her feelings, Liz walked out of the stables. The first thing she saw was a figure down by the foaling yards. Mitch. He was working on the fence, his shoulders and head bent to the task. She’d forgotten the way he did that, giving everything he did his total focus. Whether it was building a fence, cleaning the stable or patiently teaching a young and frightened horse, Mitch never gave less than his total concentration. Never less than his total effort. Or his total love.
Liz ran her fingers through her sleep-tousled hair, brushing away the last few bits of straw. A few hours at a wedding had turned her all soppy and she had to snap out of it. She didn’t have the luxury of giving in to her feelings.
‘Mitch.’
He straightened and smiled at her. That smile was unguarded and so familiar it made her heart lurch. He held up a hand, asking her to wait as he finished what he was doing. That was something else she remembered about Mitch. He hated to leave something unfinished. And he rarely did. Only when he wasn’t given a choice.
She watched him as he finished up and collected his tools.
‘Thank you for doing that, but you didn’t have to.’
‘It was nothing. I was here and I saw it needed fixing.’
‘Thank you for looking after the horses.’
Mitch held her gaze for a long moment. ‘You know I’m here anytime you need me, don’t you?’
Liz stiffened. He wasn’t talking about feeding horses or fixing fences.
Before she could speak, a rumbling noise disturbed the silence that had settled between them. Mitch’s face broke into a smile.
‘Sorry about that. I haven’t had any breakfast.’
‘Well, then, I won’t keep you any longer.’ She turned to leave, hating herself for the coldness of it but hating the nearness of Mitch even more.
‘Liz … I know about your situation.’
She froze. ‘What do you mean, “my situation”?’
‘Your financial problems. Kayla told me.’
‘She had no right to do that.’
‘I have eyes too, Liz. I know how much you love this place. You wouldn’t let it get like this if you had an option. If you could afford to hire someone to help, you would have.’
She kept her back to him, terribly afraid that if she saw sympathy on his face, she would lose her fragile control on her emotions.
‘And losing Apollo must be a blow. You’ll lose stud fees and agistment for the mares as well.’
‘Some of the mares have already gone,’ she admitted.
‘I’m sorry, Liz.’
‘Does the whole valley know?’
He didn’t answer, which told her everything.
‘Why didn’t you ask me for help?’ he said instead, softly. ‘I would have been happy to pitch in. I still am. If there’s anything I can do …’
‘Anything you can do?’ The words were almost a scream as her pent-up pain exploded into fury. ‘Haven’t you done enough?’
She could face him now. The shocked look on his face was no threat to her.
‘Liz—’
‘No. It’s our fault. If we hadn’t done what we did, they would still be alive. It’s too late for them. And for us. I can’t even look at you without thinking about what happened. The only thing you can do now is just … stay away from me.’
His face was a mask of disbelief and pain. He half lifted a hand as if to touch her, and that was more than Liz could take. She almost ran back to the safety of the homestead.
She was breathing heavily as she slammed the kitchen door and leaned against it, as if to remove any chance that someone—Mitch—might walk in to confront her.
It took a long time for her calm to return. When it did and her hands were no longer shaking, she acknowledged the decision that she had been avoiding for days. She walked through the empty rooms and climbed the stairs to the top floor that was so rarely used. She opened the door and stared into her parents’ old room. Then, with a feeling of grim determination, she went downstairs into the office and picked up the phone.
As she listened to the ringing at the other end, she stared at the framed photograph on her desk and hoped her father would understand.
There was a click at the other end of the line. ‘Hello?’ Kayla sounded a bit fuzzy. She must have just woken up.
Liz wondered just how late her sister had been up last night. She also wondered if the decision she was about to make would give her many late nights—or maybe sleepless nights. But it was too late now to change her mind.
‘All right. I’ll do it.’ Liz put down the phone before she could take the words back.
CHAPTER
28
Kayla arrived at the office early on Monday morning, but Pascale was already there, checking the society and gossip websites.
‘Some nice shots from Saturday up on social media,’ she said. ‘Well done, as always.’
‘Thanks.’ Kayla stopped by the coffee machine and made herself a latte. ‘I got a call from my sister on Sunday morning.’
‘And?’
‘She said yes.’
‘Excellent.’ Pascale’s face broke into a wide smile, the kind she only had when she was excited about a new challenge.
‘I wonder what changed her mind.’
‘Maybe she enjoyed coming to the wedding.’
Kayla gave a derisive snort. ‘It certainly wasn�
��t that. She hated every bit of it. It’s really strange that she’s never been to a wedding before. I thought everyone went to weddings. She must have school friends who are married … someone to invite her.’
‘Maybe she always said no. Too busy working on the property.’
‘Maybe.’ Kayla wasn’t so sure. She was beginning to realise how little she really knew her sister. And how terribly alone Liz seemed to be. If Liz had pushed even Mitch away, she probably had no one left.
‘We need to start making plans.’ Pascale left her desk and took a seat at the table in the middle of their shared office. This was the one place where Pascale’s natural neatness went out the window and its surface was littered with notebooks and sketchpads and drawing tools. There were books of fabric swatches and menus and photo catalogues. She pushed a few things aside and pulled a drawing pad towards her then reached for a box of coloured pencils and highlighters.
‘I’ve been mulling this over,’ she said as she swiftly began to sketch. ‘If we get started now and work pretty fast, we can have the place ready for the last few weeks of the season. I think we have plenty of potential markets—the Japanese wedding tours and anyone who wants a rustic ceremony. There’s an airport at Scone, right?’
Kayla nodded. ‘No scheduled flights—private only, I think.’
‘That’s fine. It makes high-end transport easy. We can promote this as a very private venue too. Maybe do a celebrity wedding or two. Then there’s the horsey set. They’ll love it.’
As she talked, Pascale’s hand moved over the drawing paper. Kayla had seen her do this before. She let Pascale get on with it undisturbed.
‘What do you think?’
Pascale spun the pad and Kayla saw Willowbrook. It was roughly sketched, but was beautiful. The fountain where she and her family had held their birthday picnics looked more elegant than it had ever been in real life, as water cascaded across the stone. Lines around the edges gave the look and feel of flowers, and two wedding rings gleamed at the top of the page, where the words ‘Willowbrook Weddings’ had been written in cursive script.
‘Wow.’
‘I think this is going to work,’ Pascale said. ‘For us and for your sister.’
‘I was thinking,’ Kayla began hesitantly. ‘About this project. I’d like to be involved. Closely. I mean, I do sort of own half the place. And Liz can be awkward. No one knows that better than I do. And—’
‘Of course,’ Pascale interrupted her. ‘Someone needs to spend a lot of time up there. I certainly couldn’t bear being that far from a good nail salon for more than a few days. I want you to manage the renovations. And the venue too, when we get that far.’
Kayla decided not to mention that Scone had several nail salons. ‘Thanks. I won’t let you down.’
‘I know you won’t. Mind you, you’re going to have to work your tail off. There are a couple of good candidates to take some of your load during the week, but I’ll still want you back here on weekends for the weddings themselves, until you start having events at Willowbrook.’
‘Of course …’
‘Okay, first things first. I’ll talk to the lawyers and get them to draw up an agreement. While they’re doing that, you should get started thinking about contractors and such. You know the area, so that’ll help.’
‘You’ll be doing the design?’
‘Who else?’
Two weeks later, Kayla was on her way to Willowbrook. On the seat beside her lay her laptop, a brown envelope and a folder full of sketches. In the boot of her car was a small suitcase. Traffic out of the city was light and the journey took far less time than she’d expected. When she arrived at the homestead it was mid-afternoon, and there was no sign of Liz. Kayla left her suitcase in the car, but carried the rest of her stuff through to the kitchen, fighting back the feeling of being a stranger in the place she had once called home.
Leaving her things on the table, she walked through the house, pausing in each room, trying to see in her mind the place as it would be when Pascale’s design ideas were put in place. She tried to imagine white flower arrangements on an antique table in the entranceway. Or a gold-framed mirror reflecting a beautiful bride in a long white dress. But each time she thought she had captured Pascale’s vision, the image faded, pushed aside by a memory of a vase filled with the wildflowers her mother had picked in their garden. Or a table covered with scraps of fabric as her mother made costumes for Kayla and Liz to wear at the horse festival.
That was how Willowbrook was supposed to be. Their family should have had more time to be together. Kath would weep if she saw the dust on the banisters and the faded curtains. She would weep if she saw her oldest daughter’s loneliness. Would she be proud of Kayla’s success in her job, or would she be disappointed at the estrangement between the sisters?
She would never know.
Kayla was settled at the kitchen table, working on her computer, when she heard footsteps outside.
‘Sorry I wasn’t here,’ Liz said as she washed her hands. ‘There was a bit of a storm last night. A tree branch fell across a fence. I’ve been fixing it.’
‘That’s fine. I was earlier than I expected anyway.’
Liz slid into the seat opposite her. ‘So?’
‘It’s all here.’ Kayla pushed the envelope to her. ‘This is the contract drawn up by Pascale’s lawyers.’
Liz looked at the envelope but made no move to open it. ‘You’ve read it?’
‘Yes. I’m happy with it. I will sign as co-owner.’
‘All right then.’
‘Liz—you are going to read it before you sign it?’
‘I’ll look at it tomorrow. We may have had our differences, but in this I trust you, Kayla. If you think it’s a fair deal for Willowbrook then I’ll sign it.’ Liz waved a hand at the papers spread all over the table. ‘What else?’
Kayla wasn’t sure whether to be flattered that Liz trusted her, or concerned that she was showing so little interest in the legalities. Kayla pushed the folder across the table. ‘I thought you might like to see these.’
Liz opened it and flicked through the pages. Kayla had spent hours looking at those drawings. Something about them reminded her of the Willowbrook of her childhood. Not because they looked similar, but because of the hint of the warmth and joy that her mother had brought to the same rooms. Based on the photos she’d taken, Pascale had sketched the key rooms at Willowbrook. Her innate sense of design and flair had given the old mansion new colours and shapes—new life.
Liz skipped fairly quickly through the interiors, but gave careful scrutiny to the outside of the house and the gardens.
‘I won’t have that,’ she said in a clipped voice as she tapped one of the drawings. ‘That will interfere with the access to the stables for feed trucks and floats.’
‘Fine.’ Kayla wasn’t going to argue any of the details at this point. ‘Remember, these are just initial plans. We can modify them as we go along.’
‘We?’ Liz finally looked at her.
‘I will be handling all the renovations and decorating.’
‘Long distance? From Sydney?’
‘Of course not. I’ll be spending a lot of time up here. I’ll be in Sydney too. Maybe split my time fifty-fifty. For now.’ Kayla tried to read Liz’s face, but it was like trying to read a stone.
After a few moments, her sister got up from the table. ‘I guess you’ll be staying here then. I sleep downstairs, so you can have my old room. It’s a bit dusty—or at least it was before your photo shoot people cleaned it. The bed is still there and should be fine.’
‘But you’ll be needing that room soon—when you move your office upstairs.’
‘Fine. You can sleep on the floor for all I care.’ Liz walked out.
Kayla sat quietly for a few moments, trying not to feel angry. She heard banging and scraping upstairs. What the hell was Liz doing? It sounded like she was dragging heavy furniture about. Kayla’s curiosity got the better of her and she he
aded upstairs to find Liz trying to push a chest of drawers through the doorway to Kayla’s old bedroom.
‘What the hell are you doing?’
With a grunt, Liz pushed the chest through the door and slid it into the centre of the room. The dust cover had been dragged off the bed, and sheets tossed onto the mattress.
‘There you go. I guess you can consider this your room again.’ She stormed off down the stairs, and Kayla heard the back door slam. Liz heading to the stables.
By the time Kayla had fetched her bag from the car and put the room to rights, the sun was well down on the horizon. Liz had obviously finished her chores, because she was in the kitchen, a cold drink in one hand, the unopened brown envelope on the table in front of her. She looked up as Kayla entered.
‘I normally don’t spend too much time cooking,’ she said. ‘I can rustle up some steak. Maybe vegetables.’ It wasn’t exactly effusive, but it was a start.
‘Why don’t we go into Scone for dinner?’ At least in town there was less chance of open warfare at the table.
‘I don’t have the money for eating out. You know that.’
‘But I do. Let me shout you dinner. Maybe a glass of wine to mark the start of this venture.’
‘Well, we could go to the pub,’ Liz said slowly. ‘I’m not getting dressed up to go anywhere better than that. I don’t have the time or energy.’
And probably not the clothes either. Kayla mentally chided herself. She had to stop being so judgemental. This might be her last chance to rebuild her relationship with her sister and she had to at least give it a try.
‘The pub it is,’ she said.
CHAPTER
29
Liz hesitated at the entrance to the pub. How long was it since she had last been here? A year? Maybe more? She usually came by the pub after shows and sales. After the King of the Ranges event and the Scone Horse Festival. The whole town turned up, or at least the horsey part of the town, and that was most of it. But recently she had been too conscious of her financial status to spend time there. People would buy her a drink and she’d have to buy one back, that was the way it worked. One night at the pub could cost a hundred dollars, and Willowbrook didn’t have the money to spare.