Red Dust Dreaming (9 page)

He opened his eyes at the sound of them approaching, their boots making a racket on the uneven path. “What did you think?” He sat up, pushing his hat back as he did so. “Impressive isn't it?”

Elizabeth nodded, lost for words. The artwork had been astonishing yet something more had moved her, something impossible to explain. He studied her face for a long moment before nodding slowly. “It can get you like that,” he said.

Luke rushed past her and threw himself at Caden. “Anything more to eat? I'm starving.”

Caden laughed, catching the boy in mid-flight. “I'm sure Thelma's put something in for dessert. She wouldn't let us down.” He hugged Luke tight before releasing him. “Let's take a look.”

As they explored the contents of the picnic basket Elizabeth perched on a ledge which offered a modicum of comfort. She rested her elbows on her knees and laced her fingers together. Had Angela experienced this kind of peace, as if a large space had opened up in her chest pushing back the tangle of inadequacies which had passed for her heart? Elizabeth could imagine simply sitting here in silence forever. Of course that was impossible with a lively five-year old boy around.

“Aunty E thought the painting was amazing,” he told Caden. “I knew she'd love it. Is that cake in there? I don't want fruit, that's boring.” His chatter filled the silence in happy measure. Elizabeth smiled as she watched him. There could be no denying Caden had done a fine job providing stability for Luke after Angela's death. It couldn't have been easy watching breast cancer claim her and then offer comfort and understanding to an orphaned child. The gratitude she'd felt earlier returned double-fold. Would her parents have offered Luke the love and safe haven for his grief Caden so clearly had? She suspected not.

“Would you like some of Thelma's famous caramel slice, Aunty E?” Luke stood before her, the gooey sweet treat balanced precariously on a paper napkin.

“I couldn't think of anything better,” she said. And right at that very moment she couldn't. Being here with Caden and Luke in this magical place with a super sugar hit in her hands was sheer heaven.

They devoured Thelma's treat in silence. The chocolate and caramel combining in exactly the right quantities to melt in the mouth. Elizabeth licked her fingers and sighed. “What do we do now?”

Caden wiped his hands on a paper napkin before passing her one. “Now we take a leisurely ride home before the sun goes down.”

The smile he gave her made her insides flip in the most curious way. The sensation of falling disorientated her for a moment before she remembered to respond. “Sounds great,” she said offering him her warmest smile in return.

He stood and offered her his hand. She slipped her fingers into his roughen palm, surprised at the heat radiating from his touch. Caden tugged her gently to her feet so she stood inches from his chest, close enough for the male scent of him to invade her senses, sparking a throbbing need deep within her. She closed her eyes, hoping he wouldn't see the desire reflected in them.

“Are you okay?” The concern in his voice sounded genuine.

“Aunty E got dizzy when we were looking at the painting,” said Luke.

“Tattletale.” Elizabeth opened her eyes and poked her tongue out at Luke.

“Well, you did! I told her it was because she hadn't drunk enough water, Caden.”

“Mmm…” Caden let go of her hand setting her adrift once more on a sea of her own imaginings. He rummaged in the picnic basket coming up with a cool bottle of water. “Drink this.”

She dutifully obeyed happy for the distraction. Caden's appeal was growing dangerously. Perhaps she should consider taking Luke and leaving before it was too late.

Three days had passed since the picnic and Elizabeth had seen little of Caden. He'd disappeared into his everyday routine, up early and out until dusk. She saw him at meal times if she was lucky. In the evening, after dinner, he retreated to his office to do paperwork leaving her to spend her time reading or chatting with Thelma. The housekeeper proved to be an entertaining companion with many stories of her long career at Kirrkalan. Elizabeth got a sense of each of the characters who played a role on the property – Caden's mother and father, the various stockmen including Thelma's husband. And her own sister who, it would seem, had found her place and her family here in the centre of this vast country, a fact which Elizabeth never grew tired of examining.

Her days filled with Luke, helping him with his schoolwork or undertaking art projects. Her creative side woke from its slumber to rediscover the simple joy of making things with paint and paper. Afternoons, as the warm winter sun dipped towards the earth, were spent with horses. Riding them, grooming them or simply hanging out with them. Sometimes they'd take cooking lessons from Thelma, Elizabeth needing them as much as Luke. She couldn't remember another time in her life when she'd been so happy.

She was literally and figuratively a million miles from her life in New York. The anxious world of corporate law receded to a speck on the horizon, like a story someone once told her now partially forgotten. None of the things she had once deemed important mattered here in the Outback. How could a place affect her so profoundly in such a short time? It was a sweet mystery she had no intention of unravelling, content to let it be.

This particular afternoon Luke had been granted some precious time on his computer to play games, a reward for good behaviour, leaving Elizabeth free to contemplate the way the quality of light changed as the day dipped into afternoon. Luke had left his pencils and crayons scattered across the table on the veranda where they had passed a pleasant hour colouring in and chatting about the different qualities of super heroes. Superman versus Spiderman versus Batman. Fair to say Elizabeth spent more time listening than offering her opinion which she quickly came to realise was woefully inadequate on the subject.

She picked up a pencil and began to sketch absently, her eye dictating the outline of the landscape to her hand. Without thinking a picture formed and time flew. Totally absorbed she didn't hear Thelma approach with afternoon tea until the tray landed on the table next to her. Elizabeth dropped the pencil she'd been using with a clatter to the floor.

“Lead will be broken now,” Thelma said matter-of-factly as she placed the tea tray down on the table. As Elizabeth bent to retrieve the wayward pencil Thelma picked up the drawing and studied it. “Pretty good Miss Elizabeth, pretty damn good.”

Elizabeth blushed. “It's nothing. I haven't drawn anything in years so I'm a bit rusty.” She took the picture back and folded it in half, sliding it beneath the tea tray.

“Rusty?” Thelma grunted. She placed Elizabeth's tea and a plate of freshly baked cookies on the table. Elizabeth hadn't been much of a tea drinker when she arrived. It was one of the remarkable changes which had taken place in the last week; one she could not account for. “You should do something with that talent. Can't be much call for an artistic streak in law.”

“You're right on both counts.” She smiled and took a sip of tea. “I used to study art but unfortunately art doesn't pay the bills.” She shrugged hoping the subject would get dropped.

“More to life sometimes than just paying the bills. You could always practice art and law you know.”

“Novel idea. I will take it on board.” Thelma was right of course. There was nothing stopping her from painting in her spare time, except she didn't get much spare time these days. Being here at Kirrkalan offered her the first break she'd had in years. It was the closest thing she'd had to a proper holiday since she'd joined her father's firm. She wondered what Thelma would say to that if she knew.

“Good. How long are you gonna live if you deny your heart?”

What a good question!

A bellow sounded inside the house and angry footsteps pounded along the hallway, echoing off the thin tongue-and-groove walls. Both women stood facing the doorway shoulder to shoulder in an instinctive stance.

“What game are you playing at?” Caden loomed out of the shadows of the house, his fury clearly etched on his face. Thelma and Elizabeth looked at each other in blank confusion.

“Which one of us are you yelling at?” Thelma inquired.

“Her.” Caden pointed at Elizabeth. “You.”

The blood drained from Elizabeth's face and she clutched at the table's edge to steady herself. “I have no idea what you're talking about.”

“Don't you? Well, let me fill you in,” he said menacingly. “I just received an email from your father's lawyer virtually accusing me of holding you hostage and preventing you from communicating with your family. Now where on earth did they get that impression?”

She shuffled from foot to foot. “Not from me.”

“Then who? Thelma here?”

“Don't drag me into your squabbles.” Thelma held her hands up in the air. “Nothing to do with me.”

“He also goes on to suggest I have a personal interest in Luke's inheritance. Of all the grubby accusations!” Caden spoke through clenched teeth, his anger palpable and present like a fourth party standing on the veranda with them.

“Luke has an inheritance?” Elizabeth spoke in a small voice. For some reason she'd assumed Luke had been left nothing by his mother or his father for that matter.

“It would appear both your sister and her late husband had rather healthy insurance policies. Strangely your father seems to be aware of the fact even though he remains in the dark on where exactly your sister lodged her will.” He cocked an eyebrow, his tone sardonic. “Funny that, hey?”

“If you're suggesting…” Elizabeth's own anger rose to the occasion. All of this was news to her. Why hadn't her father told her? Not that it would have made a difference to anything but at least she'd have been prepared for this particular argument.

“That you knew about it? I'm more than suggesting it. I'm outright accusing you.”

“How dare you!” She drew herself up to her full height, feathers ruffled. “I had no idea about Luke's so-called inheritance and I certainly don't know where Angela put her will if indeed she ever had one. My father kept me in the dark as much as you.”

“So explain the whole hostage scenario to me? Where the hell has that come from?”

Elizabeth took courage in the fact Caden seemed mollified on the inheritance issue. “It may have something to do with me not answering any of my father's emails,” she said sheepishly.

“Are you telling me you haven't bothered to communicate with him since you got here?” Caden looked incredulous.

She nodded. “I just… well…” she stammered unable to find adequate words to explain that speaking to her parents would break the spell Kirrkalan had cast on her.

Caden stared at her, waiting, but nothing would come. She cast her eyes downwards feeling every inch the recalcitrant child awaiting punishment. It came swiftly.

“As much as I want Luke to stay here, in his home, I think it's best for everyone if you pack your bags and go.” His voice trickled like ice down her spine and she shivered. Caden's cold indifference was worse than his towering rage. The thought of leaving so soon caused tears to swell unbidden and she blinked quickly, praying he hadn't noticed them. Surely he wouldn't let Luke leave so easily. Surely he'd change his mind. He had to!

“Steady on!” Thelma interjected.

Caden swung his attention to his housekeeper and Elizabeth cringed on her behalf. “What?” he bit out.

“There's no point taking this out on Elizabeth. You can't blame her for not wanting to talk to her parents. Angela didn't.”

This stunning piece of logic made Elizabeth's head swirl.

“Nevertheless she is an emissary of her parents and it is reasonable for them to expect her to contact them and keep them updated, not disappear never to be heard from again.” His voice was thick with frost. He wasn't anywhere close to forgiving her yet.

“Now you're being dramatic,” Thelma dismissed him. “Her parents bullied her into coming here, isn't that right?” She turned to Elizabeth looking for confirmation.

“Yes,” she said in a small voice. It was true after all, no point in pretending otherwise. Clearly Angela had given them a thorough and accurate impression of their parents.

“See! You can't blame the girl for taking a couple of days out from under the thumb, now can you?” Thelma crossed her arms over her ample chest, as if concluding a particularly clever argument sure she had won.

“I resent being cast in this drama as some sort of evil money-hungry bogey man.” He turned to Elizabeth. “I want you to sort this out and pack your bags. But don't think this means I'll stop fighting for Luke.”

“You can't send her packing just yet.” Thelma spoke again.

“Why not?” Caden's patience was wearing thin. Elizabeth could see it in the tension of his jaw. Thelma was skating on thin ice.

“Richard's fortieth birthday party.”

“What on earth are you talking about?” He's ready to explode, thought Elizabeth as she braced herself for the fallout.

“You promised Luke he could sleep over at his friend's house the night of Richard's party.” She turned to Elizabeth. “Richard is the director of the arts community in Yuendumu . We don't get much by way of parties out here so everyone is going. One of the parents has volunteered to have all the kids at their place for the night.”

“One giant slumber party,” Elizabeth murmured silently thanking Thelma for her ingenuity. Sure it was a slender proposition but it concerned Luke so it just might work and Caden would let her stay just a little bit longer.

“That's right!” Thelma turned back to Caden. “A promise is a promise and you can't send that little boy off into the big bad world without a proper goodbye to his mates.” She picked up her tray and, without waiting for a response, pushed past Caden and disappeared inside the house.