Butterfly Hunter 01 (4 page)

Dave sighed. He liked to be
liked, he knew that about himself. It could be the hardest part of
this job that he sometimes had to insist on being completely
unlikeable.

And perhaps Nicholas could
already read all of that in him, because without any further
prompting he offered, “I
do
take your point, and I agree,
and I promise I’ll behave myself out there. It would break my heart
to lose a chance at the butterflies, but if you decide my heart is
to be broken, then so be it.”

“
I wouldn’t do
anything without reason,” Dave offered in turn.

“
I trust you
entirely.”

They’d both paused in
their wanderings, and now they stared at each other. Dave had
pushed, that was certain, but he hadn’t meant to go this
deep.

Nicholas shrugged lightly.
“I realise I am trusting you entirely, with my life and with more
besides. That doesn’t necessarily come easily for me, but I’ll do
it with a good grace.”

And all Dave could do was
nod in acknowledgement, and then turn to get them moving again.
They paced slowly on, shoulder to shoulder. Soon he observed, “I’ve
known Englishmen before. None of them talked like you
do.”

“
Ah, well. I’m
not just English, am I?”

“
No?”

“
I’m the
youngest son of an earl. And gay. Incorrigible. And a quarter
French.”

“
That would do
it,” Dave agreed. He left a pause, but then sought to get the
conversation back on a firmer footing. “OK. Thank you for agreeing.
Now, the trick to returning home, safe and whole, is to make sure
nothing goes wrong. Nothing at all.”

The man’s eyebrows
climbed. “Is that likely? I was assuming you’d plan for every
contingency.”

“
I do, and I
have backups, redundant supplies, emergency procedures. We should
never be further than a half day’s drive from the nearest bit of
civilisation. We’ll never be more than a two hour helicopter ride
away.”

“
So …
?”

“
We can cope
if one or two things go wrong. It wouldn’t be a problem. But
trouble is like a row of dominoes. Things happen; that precipitates
more things happening; it quickly becomes a horrible mess, and
we’re in the midst of it, dead or injured. And there aren’t many
second chances in the Outback, you know. Not many at
all.”

“
Look, I
assure you that –”

“
Camping in
the Cotswolds or what–have–you, five minutes from the nearest pub,
doesn’t cut it. Not the same thing at all.”

“
All
right!” said Nicholas, rather sharply.
“I get the point.”

“
Did I scare
you a bit?” asked Dave.

“
Well. Maybe a
bit.”

“
Good. Thank
you. And I’m done now. Unless I think you need another dose
sometime to make you see sense.”

“
Consider it
seen,” Nicholas stiffly replied. After a moment, he said, as if
forcing out the words, “Well. I suppose you need to know that I am
on medication.”

“
I do need to
know that, yes. Do you have sufficient supplies? What is the
condition? We should probably consult a doctor before we
leave.”

“
That won’t be
necessary, I assure you. There won’t be any problems. It’s not that
kind of condition.”

And he so obviously didn’t
want to talk about it – and Dave had already pushed so very hard –
that Dave took pity on the man. “All right,” he said gently.
“That’s all right.” They still had days to go before they left,
after all.

When it became clear that
Dave wouldn’t insist, Nicholas nodded slightly in gratitude. And
they finished their walk in silence.

Denise called that
evening, and as usual cut right to the chase. “How’s your
earl?”

“
Not an
earl.”

“
Well, your
baby earl, then … Which makes him an earling!” she declared with a
laugh. “How’s your earling?”

Dave frowned for a moment
over the day’s jumbled impressions, and then ventured,
“Unexpected.”

“
Ah,” Denise
wisely responded, as if this actually meant something to her. “Are
you getting along all right?”

“
Yes, it’s
almost as if … Well, you know how once you’ve known someone for a
while you get past the difficulties, and it’s as if you’ve known
them forever already?”

“
You get
comfortable. Especially when you’re on a long trip.”

“
Yes, and it’s
just the two of you, and –” He sighed, though it was more in
puzzlement than sadness or frustration. “Well, it’s kind of like
we’re there already. Like we just skipped ahead.”

“
Well, that’s
good, isn’t it? I mean, so you don’t drive each other crazy these
next three months … ?”

“
Yeah. Yeah,
um …” He tried to think it through, this sense of unease that
accompanied the ease. “Unless the difficulties just come later. I
guess.”

“
You’ll be
right, mate,” she said stoutly.

“
Will
I?”

“
You’ve been
doing this for ages, yeah?”

“
Yeah. Six
years with Dad; nine on my own.”

“
Well, you’ve
never yet hit a client over the head with a shovel and buried them
under a red gum, have you … ?”

“
Actually, no.
No, I haven’t.”

“
See? You’ll
be fine.”

Five days later Dave drove
out of Brisbane in his Land Cruiser, with every space in the back
and on the roof rack efficiently crammed with supplies, and
Nicholas beside him in the passenger seat. The Englishman sat there
quiet and still with his hands resting placid on his long thighs,
yet he seemed to
tingle
with anticipation; it was infectious, the very
air seemed to sparkle with it. Dave grinned to himself. Despite
having done this for most of his life, he was as susceptible to the
excitement of a new trip as anyone could be.

And, after all, it wasn’t
just the trip – it was the new Cruiser that had Dave himself
tingling. She was a beauty. He’d just upgraded to the 2011 model in
Magnetic Gray with a roo bar, side rails, snorkel, long–range fuel
tank, and the rest. This was her first real trip, and to be honest
he’d been a little disappointed to know he wouldn’t have her to
himself for this first stage of the journey. Nicholas remained
quiet, though, which allowed Dave the chance to revel in all the
joys of his Cruiser. She was solid, of course, but also sleek and
smooth, and she handled with just the right responsiveness – easy
but not skittish. They were only on regular roads for now, but Dave
thrilled to how she held to the planes and curves.

He and Nicholas didn’t
talk. Not that there was much outside to distract or interest. The
Warrego Highway had soon taken them out of the suburbs, and then
through apparently endless farmland and towns. Dave had to assume
the landscape wasn’t very exciting for his English companion, but
Nicholas paid careful attention, apparently genuine in his wish to
get a feel for the countryside and how it slowly oh–so–slowly
changed as they left the coast behind.

They didn’t talk. They’d
spent that entire first day together talking, then they hadn’t seen
each other since. Dave had been busy making the last preparations
for the trip, and closing up his house. Nicholas, meanwhile, had
apparently been happily occupied with the insect collections at the
university, the museum, the Department of Primary Industries, and
God only knew where else. In fact, they’d been going to meet for
dinner on the Tuesday evening, but Nicholas had been so engrossed
in his studies that he’d called to cancel at the last minute,
having let the afternoon slip by unnoticed. He’d been keen to meet
the following day, but Dave hadn’t wanted to cancel his plans to
spend a last few hours with Denise, Vittorio and little Zoe –
especially as it had been made clear that the invitation was issued
on behalf of all three of them. Dave might have worried about not
getting to know his client well enough under other circumstances,
but it seemed to him that they’d connected on that first day; he
was blithely confident that any problems between them would be
small, and that they could handle them as they came.

After about an hour and a half,
the road started winding through what seemed to be real bush.
Nicholas smiled happily, and sank a little in his seat as if
luxuriating in it. Dave had to disillusion him.

“
Make the most
of it,” he advised. “There’s a scrap of bush as we head through the
hills, and then we’re into Toowoomba.”

“
The
city.”

“
Yeah. D’you
wanna stop for a cuppa tea, or something?”

Nicholas dragged his gaze
away from the countryside for a moment. “I’d never say no to tea,
but wouldn’t you rather keep going? We’re not even a quarter of the
way there yet, are we?”

“
No, but we’re
not in any hurry. We might as well make the most of it. Like I said
before, I don’t think we should try doing it all in one
day.”

“
But you would
if you were on your own. Wouldn’t you?”

“
That’s
different.”

“
A cup of tea,
then,” Nicholas concluded. “If you don’t mind stopping.”

And they were into
suburbia again. Dave drove along sedately, barely a kilometre or
two – well, maybe five – over the speed limit. “You’re the client,”
he observed mildly. “You can always say if you want a
cuppa.”

Nicholas smiled at him,
softly – and then he changed the subject. “You were right, we would
have been halfway to Wales by now.”

“
We’d
have been
in
Wales.”

Nicholas laughed, but
couldn’t help quibbling. “Driving in Britain is qualitatively
different, not just quantitatively.”

“
Spoken like a
true scientist.”

“
It takes a
lot longer to get around. It’s much more built–up and crowded, so
there’s more effort involved. There are far fewer empty stretches
of road.”

“
You’ve got
the motorways.”

“
That’s
different. And they create their own problems.”

Dave shrugged, and found
somewhere to park.

A polite request in his
English accent and a winsome smile earned Nicholas a pot of tea
delivered with a wink – in response to which Nicholas beamed up at
their waitress happily. Suzie stood there with a bit of sass in her
posture as she considered the man in turn. “Ah, Davey, you can
bring this one back any time you like.”

“
Developing a
thing for Poms, are you?” Dave asked with mock sourness.

“
With that
smile, who cares what flavour he is?”

“
That smile?”
Dave echoed blankly, having to think for a moment to work out what
was wrong with the sentence. Then he got it. “Those smiles,” he
corrected her. “The man has a whole repertoire.”

“
Does he
indeed … ?” She sounded intrigued.

But Nicholas’s attention
had been caught by Dave. As he gazed across the rickety old cafe
table, his smile turned wistful – though when he spoke, he
addressed Suzie. “I would have thought you’d be encouraging David
to return for his sake, not for mine.”

“
Ah,” she
grieved, taking a metaphorical step back, and snapping her chewing
gum. “That’s how it is, is it? Well, mate, Davey here is no use to
either of us, I’m afraid. He’s strictly a one–woman
man.”

Dave tried not to splutter
in protest. “We broke up
ages
ago! A year or
more!”

“
What’s that
got to do with anything?”

“
She’s
–” Dave was having second thoughts, but said it anyway, glancing at
Nicholas with a plea for rescue. “Denny’s married with a kid
already! She’s
long
gone.”

“
Uh huh.
Whatever you say.”

“
I’m
gonna be, like, the kid’s
godparent
.”

Suzie looked at him
flatly. “I rest my case.” And she belatedly put Dave’s mug of
coffee down, before turning her back and sauntering off.

Dave’s mute plea kept
Nicholas quiet. Well, he was obviously gay enough to be curious,
but at least he was bloke enough to know that some things just
couldn’t be discussed. “Um,” said Dave, scrambling for a different
topic of conversation. Just in case. “Um … Oh. Did you learn
anything new about your butterflies? I mean, from all those
collections?”

Nicholas’s gaze turned
intent and his smile fond for a long slow moment. Then he gently
chided, “I would have told you, if there was anything that would
change our plans.”

“
I know,” Dave
responded easily. “Not why I asked.”

The smile grew as another
moment lengthened. It felt as if Nicholas was happy in their mutual
sense of trust. Eventually, Nicholas said, “No. No, if I find them,
then there’s a chance it will be a new species discovered. There’s
been very few sightings of the Lycaenidae reported in that area. At
least, not of the sort of thing I’m expecting.”