Morgan's Law (11 page)

‘Oh, I don't know.'

‘They're your family. Like it or not, you're just as much a part of Burrapine as they are.'

And that was enough to make her almost groan in desperation. If he'd told the other members of his family that, there was sure to be bloodshed upon her arrival.

Still, maybe it would be best to get it all out in the open with everyone there. Maybe she could put their minds at ease that she wasn't the threat Trent and Ruth seemed to think she was. And it would be nice to take a proper look at the place where her gran grew up. ‘Sure. I can make it to lunch tomorrow.' But now she'd agreed to it, a sick, hollow feeling settled heavily inside her stomach.

The next day as she drew up in front of the homestead at Burrapine she began to seriously wonder if she'd in fact lost her freakin' mind. What was she doing here? She was completely outnumbered, with one old man, and possibly Carmel, as her only allies.

Politely escorted into the house by Carmel, she was taken out the back to where a long table had been set up in the garden. Albert greeted her heartily, and Sarah tried to force a confident smile as the rest of the table regarded her with varying expressions of curiosity.

‘Let's see. I believe you've met Trent, my grandson, and this is Kelly. She arrived home just this morning. Then there's Keith, my son, and his wife Carmel, who you've already met, and of course my wife, Ruth.'

‘Hello,' said Sarah. ‘Thank you for inviting me out, this all looks lovely.'

‘Better count the silver before she leaves, Ma,' Trent drawled from the far end of the table.

‘Don't mind him, he's just having you on,' Albert grumbled, pulling out a chair for her.

Sarah was seated across from Kelly and she hoped she might find another ally in the young woman.

‘It's not often you get summonsed home to meet a long-lost relative—especially one from the closet,' said Kelly.

‘It was a bit of a surprise to me too.'

‘Really?'

‘I didn't come out here expecting to meet any relatives. I thought that Gran must have once lived here before the family moved on.'

‘I guess it's been a bit of a bonus for you then.'

‘I guess,' Sarah murmured. She was usually pretty good at assessing people, in fact it was an important part of her job, but she felt completely out of her element with these people.

‘So it seems we've gained two new members of the family. Your mother—do you think she'd come out for a visit some day?' Albert asked. ‘I've got a niece I don't even know.'

‘Maybe.'
When hell freezes over
. She couldn't imagine her mother willingly suffering through an inquisition like this. ‘She travels a lot.'

‘And I believe you also live overseas? That sounds exciting,' Carmel put in, obviously for the benefit of the family members who hadn't been present at the first meeting. Sarah wondered if they'd been given a briefing before the lunch to be brought up to speed.

‘Yes, I work in an advertising agency in London.'

‘Sounds swanky,' Kelly smiled, but Sarah could have sworn there was an edge of sarcasm in her tone. What was this girl's problem?

‘Someone who actually used a university degree to earn an income—fancy that,' Keith threw in from the far end of the table. ‘What are you doing at university again, Kelly?'

‘Arts, Dad.'

‘Well, you could use that in a lot of fields,' Sarah said helpfully, only to receive a scowl from the younger woman in return.

‘How long you been doing this degree again, Kelly?' Trent asked with a smirk.

The subject was obviously a bone of contention between the three of them and Sarah decided she'd be wise to keep her mouth shut.

‘Waste of time and money if you ask me,' Keith muttered.

‘Well, there's not a lot for me out here, is there? There's more to life than drafting stupid cattle.'

‘It buys your damn wardrobe and pays your bills, missy, so I would be careful if I were you,' said Keith.

Sarah glanced around at the other members of the family and saw that this was obviously an oft-repeated conversation. Trent seemed to be enjoying Sarah's discomfort; his mother, next to him, worried at the cutlery in front of her as she sent furtive glances between her husband and daughter.

‘So you mustn't be short a quid or two, driving a BMW and all,' Trent put in.

‘My mother likes to go a little bit overboard sometimes. It was a birthday gift when I was home a few years ago. I don't drive much in London.'

‘I would have liked to travel to Europe. Would have liked to see Germany and Hitler's Eagle's Nest.' Albert sighed.

‘You and your morbid fascination for World War Two sites,' Ruth said with a roll of her eyes and a long-suffering smile for Sarah.

‘You've never been overseas?'

‘No. Ruth doesn't like to fly, and we could never really take too much time off. Always something to do around this place.' He shrugged. ‘Then we got too old.'

His wife gave a mock gasp and nudged his arm indignantly. ‘Speak for yourself, you old coot!'

Sarah saw a flicker of a smile cross his lips, but it didn't hide the genuine regret she detected beneath. ‘You could still manage,' she suggested. ‘There are lots of guided tours.'

‘Don't encourage him—it's only taken the last sixty years to talk him out of it,' said Ruth.

Sarah was struck by how selfish this sounded. Holding your partner back from something they'd always wanted to do didn't sound like the recipe for a long and happy marriage—although something must have worked, because the couple was still together after all this time, so who was she to say?

‘As much as I love living in London, I realise how good we have it back here in Australia,' she said conciliatorily.

‘We don't need to go overseas to work that out.' Ruth smiled, but the rebuke was loud and clear. ‘So, what are your plans now that you've found us?' she added.

Not exactly backward in coming forward, Sarah thought. ‘To tell you the truth, this has all taken me by surprise. I only came out because Gran left instructions that she wanted her ashes scattered here.'

Silence fell over the table and Sarah looked over to see Albert battling to keep his emotions in check; he was obviously deeply touched that his sister wanted to be returned to the place she grew up.

‘I'm sure there are a lot of lovely places you can choose from around Burrapine. Maybe we can take a walk later and you can have a look,' Carmel offered softly.

‘Nonsense. We'll put up a monument in the family plot. It's obvious she wanted to be brought back here to be among her family,' Albert cut in roughly.

‘Thank you for the offer, but in her will she requested that her ashes be scattered in a special place. It's somewhere on the banks of the Negallan River. Do you know where the wishing tree is?'

‘The wishing tree?'

Kelly's cynical tone irritated Sarah. ‘I know it sounds all very Enid Blyton, and I'm not too clear about why I'm supposed to take her there, but they were the instructions she left. I don't suppose you'd know where she means?' she asked Albert.

The old man thought for a moment and then shook his head.

‘Can't say I've ever heard of it either,' Carmel said. ‘Keith? Have you?'

‘Nope, but I've often wished for a bloody money tree,' he muttered, slathering a thick layer of butter onto a bread roll.

Sarah looked across at Albert searchingly. ‘Do you remember Rose ever talking about a place she liked to go? Maybe it was just the name she used for her favourite place as a little girl?'

Albert shook his head slowly. ‘Rose had a lot more spare time than I did. I was expected to work from a young age. My father was very strict with Rose—she wasn't allowed to work around the property, even though she loved it.' He smiled fondly. ‘She could ride a horse like you wouldn't believe. She used to follow me around like a puppy—eager to learn. She loved everything about the land and she had a gentle way about her with the livestock.'

He stopped talking for a moment, lost in his memories, before remembering where he was. ‘But those were different times. Women didn't work shoulder to shoulder with the men, and even if she had been allowed to, there's no way the men would have taken her seriously . . . at least not as far as Patrick Morgan was concerned. And his word was law.'

Sarah was getting a clearer picture of her gran's upbringing, but still, was having a dominating father a good enough reason to simply leave and never return? She doubted it. No, there had to be more to it than that.

By the time coffee arrived the conversation had moved on to more general conversation and for the most part Sarah was happy to answer questions about her life and her career. Most of the family were still guarded with her, but she tried not to let that faze her. Carmel smoothly steered the conversation back to neutral topics if it appeared things might be becoming awkward. Her diplomatic skills seemed wasted out here when Canberra could do with a few more like her! By contrast, try as she might, Sarah just couldn't warm to Ruth. There was something about the way the old woman watched her so intently that made her feel very uneasy.

Sarah helped carry the dirty dishes into the house but was waved away from the kitchen—Carmel insisted on cleaning up. Trent and Keith said a curt farewell and went back to work, leaving Sarah alone in the cool shade of the verandah with Albert, Ruth and Kelly.

‘Do you like Sydney?' she asked Kelly, attempting conversation.

Kelly slid her blue gaze towards Sarah and arched one professionally sculpted eyebrow. ‘What's not to like?'

Sarah forced a smile. She could see a similarity between Ruth and her granddaughter, both in looks and personality, but as she'd watched the interplay between Kelly and her father earlier, she'd caught a glimpse of something more, a vulnerability perhaps, that made her think the young woman wasn't as tough as she appeared from the outside.

‘How long are you here for?' Ruth enquired, waving a woven cane fan back and forth in front of her face to keep cool.

‘I actually didn't think I'd still be here. I hadn't counted on it being quite this difficult to locate a single tree.'

‘I just wish Rose had let us know where she was,' Albert sighed. ‘All those wasted years.'

‘She obviously had her reasons. Apparently she wasn't as sentimental as you,' Ruth said impatiently. She seemed to have little empathy for her dead sister-in-law and clearly the topic was not open for further discussion.

Sarah felt for Albert; his grief for his sister was palpable, yet his wife seemed to expect him to just deal with it and move on.

Eventually Sarah decided it was time to leave and she made her farewells, stopping to give Albert a big hug and thanking him for welcoming her to his beautiful home.

‘Well, it's part of your heritage too, you know.'

A brittle silence greeted this statement, and Sarah quickly brushed it off, hoping to deflect the tension. ‘I'm just happy I got the chance to see where my gran grew up. Thanks again for lunch. It was lovely to meet you all.'

‘I'll walk you out,' Kelly said, standing up before Sarah could object. Somehow she didn't think the offer was motivated by politeness.

‘This must seem all rather dull to you compared to London,' Kelly said as they walked outside.

‘I wouldn't say dull . . . It's a lot quieter.'

‘So tactful.' Kelly stopped by the BMW and ran her fuchsia-pink nails along the paintwork. ‘I hear you've met Adam Buchanan.' She looked up and caught Sarah's eye. ‘Not too shabby is he—for these parts anyway.' Her tone was casual, but the watchful way she held Sarah's gaze was anything but.

‘He unbogged my car.'

‘And rescued you from my uncouth brother, too, I hear. Must have been a highlight of your outback experience— a handsome hero sweeping in to fight for your honour.'

‘It wasn't quite that dramatic.' Sarah wasn't sure where this was leading.

The silence lengthened between them. Kelly was standing in front of the driver's door, blocking Sarah's way. ‘I'd hate to see you get hurt,' she said suddenly.

‘I don't see how that could happen,' Sarah said, trying not to sound surprised by the unexpected comment.

‘Adam . . . well, just look at him—he's good-looking and he likes a challenge. I'd hate to see you become his latest conquest. I just thought, not being from here, someone should warn you about him,' she shrugged.

Warn her
about
him or
off
him? Sarah wondered dryly. ‘Well thanks, I appreciate that, but like I said earlier, I don't intend to be here very long, so I don't think there's much chance of Adam Buchanan hurting me.' Sarah sacrificed good manners and reached behind Kelly to open the car door. Once inside, she started the engine and wound down the window. ‘It was lovely to meet you all,' she said.