Mrs Quentin opened the door and made no effort to invite her in. ‘Rosie has bad flu, Mandy, and your mother won’t want you catching it.’
‘I’ll just stand in the doorway of her bedroom and have a quick chat.’
‘I’m afraid that’d be unwise. Anyway, she’s sleeping at the moment. Thanks for calling.’ She closed the door firmly.
Mandy frowned and walked slowly along the garden path. At the gate she met her friend’s brother and grabbed his arm. ‘Casey, can you give Rosie a message for me?’
He shrugged. ‘I suppose.’
She fumbled in her pocket for the letter and dropped it. The wind caught it and they had to chase it across the garden. Laughing, she pounced on it and handed it to him. ‘Give her this.’
He stared at it. ‘What is it?’
‘Just a letter.’
‘It’s from Australia.’
‘So maybe she’s got a pen friend. Don’t let your mother see it.’
He looked at her then stuffed the letter in his pocket without a word, unsure whether she knew who Rosie was writing to in Australia.
As she went away Mandy began to wonder if she’d done the right thing. No, Casey wouldn’t betray Rosie to her parents. He was all right, for a boy.
* * *
Jane didn’t normally spy on her children but Mandy’s obvious desperation to see Rosie had made her feel suspicious so she went to watch her through the front room window.
‘Ah,’ she said softly as Mandy stopped Casey, pulled out a blue envelope then had to chase it across the garden. ‘So that’s how Rosie got the letters.’
When her son came in, Jane was waiting. ‘I’ll have that letter.’
He took a hasty step backwards. ‘It’s for Rosie.’
‘Do you know who it’s from?’
He hesitated, caught her eye and nodded.
‘So do I. Give it to me.’
He fumbled in his pocket and held back. ‘You’re not going to open it, Mum?’
She snatched it from him before he had realized what she was doing. ‘Just forget you ever saw it.’
‘But she wants to meet him.’
‘And I don’t want her doing something that could tear our family apart.’
‘Only if you make a fuss about it. People do it all the time, meet their biological parents. It wouldn’t worry me, so it’s only you and Dad you’re thinking of.’
‘I’ll decide that, thank you. And I want your promise that you’ll not say a word about this to Rosie.’ She waited.
He looked at her pleadingly.
‘Promise me you won’t say a word to her or you’ll be grounded for the next month.’
‘I promise I won’t say a word.’
The way he was looking at her made her feel guilty, but she had to protect Stu. ‘Just remember your promise. Now, come and get a snack then you can get on with your homework. And you’re not to go near your sister. She’s got flu and I don’t want you coming down with it as well.’
* * *
Casey tried twice to slip into Rosie’s room but both times his mother seemed to materialize from nowhere.
‘I shan’t tell you again to stay away from your sister,’ she said the second time.
In the end he had to wait till after he’d gone up to bed and his parents were watching one of their favourite programmes on TV. But when he slipped into the next bedroom he found Rosie fast asleep, her cheeks flushed, her breathing heavy. He’d already scribbled a note to her, so that he wouldn’t have to break his promise not to say a word. He shoved it into Rosie’s iPod case and went to bed.
She’d be using the iPod tomorrow, he was sure. She always had some music or other playing and their mother didn’t like loud noise, so they had to use headphones.
His mother didn’t usually open their letters. They weren’t little children, so what she’d done sucked big time.
CHAPTER 11
Australia
Lou and Rick asked directions and set off to brave the public transport system of a strange city, but the buses didn’t seem to run very often.
‘I was talking to a guy at the hostel,’ Rick said. ‘He reckons you need a car if you’re going anywhere in Australia except city centres. Even hitching lifts is uncertain, there are such big distances between towns.’
‘Well, we’ve got plane tickets that’ll take us on to Melbourne, so we only have to get around Western Australia.’
He smiled. ‘Bet you didn’t get high marks for geography.’
‘So?’
‘You could fit ten Britains into Western Australia, it’s that big, so even if we only wind up only seeing the southern part, that’s a lot of driving. Up north is wild country, where tourists get killed if they’re not careful. I’m no nature boy, so I don’t intend to risk myself up there.’
‘You must have studied Australia at school.’
He grinned. ‘Not really. But I studied it in the college library before we came here. Better than painting silly blobs and pretending they mean something. If you have to talk up a picture, it’s not communicating as it should, visually.’
When they got off the bus, they had to ask directions again and walk for about twenty minutes before they got to the right street. But when they arrived at the house they found it deserted, and a For Sale sign plastered with a Sold sticker standing in the front garden.
‘Oh, no! He can’t have died!’ Lou wailed softly. ‘Not when we’ve got so close.’
‘He may just have gone into an old folk’s home. We need to ask the neighbours,’ Rick said. ‘Come on.’
They knocked on three house doors but got no answer, then at the fourth one, the door opened and an old lady peered through a mesh security screen at them.
‘We’re looking for Mr Daniel Everett,’ Lou said. ‘I think he’s my great-grandfather.’
‘Oh, dear! Oh, I’m so sorry. You’re too late.’
‘He’s not— dead?’
‘I’m afraid so. He died a month or two ago.’
‘Did he have any relatives?’
‘Yes. A daughter.’
Lou squeezed Rick’s hand in excitement. ‘Do you have her address?’
‘No, I don’t. Sorry.’
‘Is her surname Everett too?’
‘Dear me, no. She’s married. Or she used to be. Her husband was killed by a drunken driver a few years ago. Terrible shame it was. Now, what is her surname? I know her first name is Gina.’ She wrinkled her brow. ‘No, I’m afraid I can’t bring her second name to mind. I’m getting so forgetful lately.’
Lou stood still, hoping against hope that she’d remember, but the old lady shook her head again.
‘I’m sorry I’m not much use to you. And Gina cleared the house out before she sold it, so she won’t be coming back again.’
They went to stand in front of the house.
‘Surely the estate agent will know who she is?’ Lou said.
‘But will he tell us?’
‘We can only try. And I’m going to leave a note in the letter box, too.’ She went to sit on the veranda steps and pulled out her travel diary, frowning in thought as she wrote a message, tore the page out and pushed it into the letter box near the gate.
‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s go and find this estate agent.’
* * *
Gina was feeling restless. Mel was still in hospital, improving slowly, but alarmingly lethargic, so unlike her bustling, energetic self that they were all worried sick about her.
Signing, Gina looked out of the window, feeling like getting out of the house for an hour or two. Just a drive round would cheer her up. She decided to go and have one last look at her father’s house before they knocked it down. She’d take a photo of her old home, too, as she hadn’t been able to find one among his things.
When she got there she stood in front of it, feeling sad. She’d lived here as a child, visited regularly since getting married. It’d be better not to come back once they’d knocked it down, but to reme
mber it as it was today. She almost expected to see her dad come out and start deadheading the roses.
Before she left, she decided to check the mailbox and see if it had brought any more surprises. A wind was getting up and blew her hair into her face as she fished inside the old-fashioned metal box on a pole, pulling out a pile of advertising brochures and flyers. One piece of torn paper blew out of her hands and floated off down the street. No use running after it. Anyway, if it’d been a proper letter it’d have come in an envelope.
She stuffed the junk mail into the wheelie bin and went back towards her car. Just as she was about to get in, old Mrs Besham came out of a nearby house and waved to attract her attention.
‘Gina! Have you a minute?’
‘Yes. How are you?’
‘I’m as well as can be expected. Not getting any younger. I just wanted to tell you that some young people were knocking on doors asking about your father. The lass said he was their great-grandfather. They sounded English to me.’
Gina looked at her in shock.
‘I saw them write a note and push it into the letter box.’
The piece of paper that had blown away! Gina stared at her in horror.
A car drew up further down the road and Mrs Besham turned round. ‘Ah, there’s the lady who takes me shopping. Sorry, dear, can’t keep her waiting.’ She hobbled away.
Gina hurried down the street in the direction the paper had been blown, but though she looked into every single garden, there was no sign of it.
Feeling immensely sad she made her way back to the car.
So near and yet so far!
There was no way she could think of to trace two young people whose names she didn’t know and who might be anywhere in Perth.
Nothing was going right for her lately, nothing!
* * *
Lou rang up the estate agent who’d sold the house and explained her dilemma.
‘The person who sold it is on leave, I’m afraid and I couldn’t possibly give you a client’s phone number,’ a man’s voice said. There was a blur as if he was covering up the phone and answering someone else. ‘Sorry, got to go.’
She glared at the buzzing phone then looked at Rick. ‘Did you hear that? He put the phone down on me.’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m not giving up. I’m going to go and see that man and I won’t stop pestering him till he rings up the daughter of my great-grandfather and asks her if she’ll see me.’
‘In that case, I think it’d be better if we hired one of those cheap rental cars that guy we met last night was telling us about. The bus system here is pitiful.’
‘That’s an added expense.’
‘So I’ll draw a few more pictures and make the money up. This is important to you.’
She had to give him a hug. He was the most easy-going guy she’d ever met, and the most lovable too. It wasn’t that he was weak. He just didn’t approve of violence and he liked to help other people. ‘I love you.’ The words were out before she could stop them.
He put his hands on her shoulders and held her at arm’s length. ‘You’ve never said it in that tone before.’
She felt suddenly shy. ‘What tone?’
‘Serious. Did you mean it seriously?’
She nodded.
He folded her in his arms. ‘Good, because I’ve been waiting for you to realize that this thing between us is important. I love you too, Lou. There aren’t enough words to say how much.’
They stood there for a few moments, pressed closely against one another, then she looked up at him and he kissed her. But after a moment he drew back breathing deeply. ‘Not now. We’ll need the rest of the day to get hold of a set of wheels and then find this office.’
They walked out into sunshine that seemed twice as bright as before and into a world full of smiling people.
‘Actually, I’m going to have to do quite a lot more portraits,’ he said as they walked along the street.
‘Why?’
‘To buy you a ring.’
She stopped dead. ‘A ring?’
He nodded. ‘I’m old-fashioned that way. If my girl loves me as much as I love her, I’m thinking marriage.’
‘But people don’t usually get married straight off. They just – you know – shack up with one another.’
‘Have I ever been like other guys?’
‘No, definitely not. Thank goodness.’
‘And I’m not starting now. So… will you wear my ring? And in a few years will you do the whole thing and get married in style?’
She nodded. Until she met Rick she’d had a scorn of marriage, because her parents were so lukewarm towards one another. But she felt utterly comfortable with Rick, so right… She smiled at him, spun round in a circle and did a few dance steps for good measure, she felt so warm and happy. ‘Yes, of course I will.’
He laughed and bowed to her, sweeping her into a quick waltz to the next corner. When an old man stopped to stare disapprovingly at them, Rick stopped to say, ‘She’s just agreed to marry me.’
The old man’s wrinkles multiplied into a broad, crevassed smile. ‘Good luck to you both of you, mate.’
Rick took hold of her hand. ‘Brill. Now that’s settled, let’s get hold of some wheels.’
CHAPTER 12
England
Jane hesitated over her daughter’s letter, her desire to protect her family warring with her sense of what was right and wrong. In the end family – and her husband’s needs in particular – won and she opened it.
The handwriting was familiar. Hard to forget, because Brad had such a slashing, powerful style and a way with words, too. Written words. He hadn’t been as good at putting his emotions into spoken words. She’d thrown the few letters he’d sent her away before she left Australia, but she hadn’t been able to throw away her memories of him. Stu, bless him, wrote a truncated style of English and couldn’t produce a flowery phrase, written or spoken, to save his life.
She read the letter carefully, then read it again to make sure she’d missed nothing. Brad was coming to England and would ring Rosie on her mobile phone as soon as he’d had a night’s sleep. And then maybe they could arrange to meet if she would give him her address. He was looking forward very much to getting to know her.
However, before they did that, he felt Rosie should tell her mother that she’d been in touch with him.
The letter was so fair and reasonable Jane felt her face flame as she folded it up. But at the same time she was calculating that if he only had Rosie’s mobile number, he wouldn’t be able to trace them. She could stop all this now, stop it once and for all, because he’d believe Rosie had changed her mind.
Guilt clutched at her stomach as she crept up to her daughter’s bedroom, but it didn’t stop her. Stu was in such a fragile state at the moment. She had to protect him, keep the family on an even keel – whatever it cost. Rosie had managed perfectly well for seventeen years without knowing Brad and could continue to manage without him.
In the bedroom the mobile phone lay in its usual place on the charger and Rosie was tossing restlessly in bed.
Jane stood near the door, hesitating, then Rosie woke up and stared at her. She walked across to the bed, forcing a smile to her face. ‘How do you feel, love?’
‘Awful.’ Rosie swung the covers aside. ‘I’m burning up.’
Jane stood back to let her go along to the bathroom. ‘I’ll get you some hot lemon and honey to drink. You need to keep up your fluid intake.’
As the bathroom door closed, she turned back and pulled out the connecting wire. She slipped the mobile into her jeans pocket then ran downstairs and put the little object into her handbag. Rosie would never think of looking for it there.
She’d never think her mother had taken her phone and letter, either.
When Jane went back upstairs, Rosie was lying in bed again and had to be bullied to drink the whole glass of juice.
‘Can I get you anything else?’
‘No.’ Rosie frowned at her. ‘Shouldn’t you be at work?’
‘I was a bit worried about you, so I took the afternoon off.’
‘You didn’t need to. I’ll sleep myself better. You know I always do.’
‘Well, it’s my normal day off tomorrow, and you should have turned the corner by Friday, so I’ll go back to work then.’
Rosie smiled sleepily at her. ‘Good old Mum. Always looking after us.’ She snuggled down and closed her eyes.
The feeling of guilt was even stronger as Jane went downstairs, but not strong enough to make her put the phone back.
Only, what was she to do with it?
Experimentally she switched it on. At that minute it rang and she jumped in shock, staring at it, terrified to answer.
* * *
Brad went up to his hotel room after consuming a hearty breakfast and took out his new international mobile phone. He tapped in Rosie’s number and waited for it to ring. It did, several times, and just as he was going to stop calling, someone answered.
‘Hello?’
‘Rosie? Is that you?’
Silence at the other end, so he said, ‘It’s me. Brad.’
‘This isn’t Rosie. It’s Jane. And she’s changed her mind, Brad, doesn’t want to meet you now. So please, leave us alone.’
The phone cut off abruptly.
He stared at the tiny gadget in his hand, then sank down on the bed, feeling so crushed with disappointment that he couldn’t move or think for a few minutes. Meeting Rosie had become the main object of this trip. He’d almost forgotten his cousins, wasn’t nearly as interested in seeing Europe, but Rosie… he was longing to meet her. He stared at the phone, then looked out of the window at the brown, heaving sea.
Why had she changed her mind about seeing him?
And even if she had, why hadn’t she told him so herself? Why ask her mother to do it for her? It didn’t seem right.
He stiffened. It wasn’t right. Suddenly he was quite sure of that. Jane had answered the phone, not Rosie. And Jane hadn’t even explained, just shut down on him.
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