‘I’ll do it. I’m his mother. If I explain why I want to know, I’m sure they’ll tell me.’
It took some doing but later that day Marina spoke to the Bangkok lawyer whom the embassy official had mentioned after Gregory’s arrest. She told him what she wanted him to do. Two days later he got back to her.
‘These things take time,’ he said. ‘But everything is in hand.’
‘And you are confident of the result?’
‘Very confident.’
‘When are we likely to hear?’ She thought it might be six months, even a year.
‘The offer of the contribution you mentioned will certainly help to expedite things. I would say we should get a reply within two weeks. Possibly less.’
Marina walked out of the house. The sun was shining. The spray from the breaking waves shone in a brilliance of rainbow colours as the ocean waged its eternal battle with the shore.
Within two weeks, she thought. The lawyer was very confident. Her face was wet with spray. Or possibly tears. Tears of joy. Even the nagging pain that was her constant companion was still.
‘Thank you, God.’
She had prayed in times of need. It seemed only right to give thanks now.
She drove into town. Up and down the street the sun was shining. Even Boulders had its sunny days. There had been a time when she had hated the chemical stains on the rocks above the town. Today they gave a festive air to the place and she didn’t mind them at all.
She spoke to the bank manager and then the lawyer. Both counselled caution. Both were expert at finding problems for every solution. Sometimes their negativity maddened her but today all was smiles.
She gave her instructions and left them to do their worrying in peace.
She visited the doctor. Archie Venables was cautious in his diagnoses, as someone in his line of work had to be.
‘How long?’
‘You know I can’t give you an answer to that. It’s a disease that comes and goes. It could be months or years. Or next week. Although I’d say that was unlikely.’
‘It had better be. I’ve things I want to do.’
‘Better get on with them, then. But I’ll tell you one thing.’
‘Which is?’
‘You have spirit and that is the best treatment you can have. Also faith. Do you have faith?’
‘You mean do I pray? Sometimes.’
‘I find belief a great consolation.’
‘Belief in what?’
‘In anything. In everything.’
‘I believe in the rocks and sea and sky. Will that do?’
‘Of course. It means they are a part of you, and you of them. It means you are not alone.’
‘My children want me to move. To be nearer them.’
‘And what do you want?’
‘My anchors are down. I’m going nowhere.’
‘Courage,’ said Andrew Venables. ‘That is a great help also.’
Marina went for a hike. It wasn’t like the old days. After Jory died she’d done it often. Charlotte had been too old but she’d taken Tamsyn and Gregory with her. They had crisscrossed the central plateau, heading for the high ground around Liawenee. They’d stayed out for days at a time and once, in late autumn, they’d been caught by an early blizzard and barely made it back.
Irresponsible, she thought now. Crazy. But what fun it had been. All that was behind her now. Now she was more ladylike. Or maybe just old. She drove up into the high country. She stayed at a pub overnight. The next day she walked through a mist that later cleared to a glorious day. She went back to the pub and stayed overnight, sleeping peacefully with a good hot meal inside her. The next day she did it again. Her memories kept her company.
She felt as she had when she’d first come to Noamunga, full of life and hope. Facing the last big adventure, she thought. She had things to do while she could and that invigorated her. After the second day she returned home. On the way she stopped off in Boulders to collect her mail.
The letter was there. She took it home. The house and sea welcomed her as they always did. She sat in the living room and looked at the contents of the letter.
There were two copies of the agreement. It set out in plain terms everything they had agreed on. She got on the phone.
‘I’ve signed it,’ she said. ‘I’ll put your copy in the post tomorrow morning.’
‘Excellent. As soon as I get it, I’ll get things moving at this end.’
She walked out into the sunlit day. She looked at the country climbing steeply behind the house. She looked at the dark line of the Wombat Ridge. She looked at the pounding seas and smelt the salt-heavy air. Gulls flew. Gannets fished.
Secure.
She fished for prawns with her lethal net. She cooked and ate them with a glass of wine.
One by one she phoned the children. She summoned them to a family meeting.
CHAPTER 63
It was the first time for a long time the family had been all together.
It was a squally day with a strong westerly wind and heavy rain coming in bursts. There was sunlight, too, and when the sun and rain came together there were rainbows over the sea. Marina watched the rainbows and hoped there would be no scenes and that everything would be all right.
For a change Tamsyn had driven over, as she was bringing Gregory and Esmé with her. Marina had made a point of asking Esmé to be present. She thought of her and Gregory as an item. She was pretty sure she was right, but if they weren’t they ought to be.
Charlotte came alone, bringing her husband’s apologies.
It was a tight squeeze for five around the little table but they managed somehow. Marina had gone to town over the lunch. Prawn bisque was followed by a goose she had ordered especially for the occasion and roasted herself in the Aga. There was a harvest of vegetables to go with the goose. To round things off were—of course—two of Mrs Hickmot’s cheesecakes.
‘Lemon or ginger?’ Marina asked.
She did not like mixing business with pleasure and during the meal had said nothing about her reason for calling them all together.
Now, over tea and coffee, she did.
‘There is really nothing to discuss,’ she said. ‘I have made up my mind what I am going to do but thought it only right to get you all together so that each of you knows what will happen. I detest secrets in the family and by telling you what’s going to happen I hope to avoid them. I love you all dearly but I also love Noamunga, which has been home to me for most of my life. So let me say straight away that I do not intend to sell Noamunga. I shall stay here until I die. I know that won’t please all of you. I know you all want what you believe is best for me and I have thought long and hard about it and that is what I am going to do.’
She looked around the table. She looked at her children one by one. She had spelt out what she’d decided. She had given them no room to discuss it. She had placed the facts before them.
Her decision had shocked them all. She had known it would even before she opened her mouth. She had done it deliberately.
She read their thoughts in their unguarded faces. She waited for their reaction. She didn’t have to wait long.
‘I can’t believe you could have done such a thing,’ said Charlotte. ‘Hector’s whole career is on the line. Everything he’s worked for …’
‘Home is the sailor,’ said Tamsyn.
‘If that’s what you want, go for it,’ said Gregory.
‘I think it’s wonderful,’ said Esmé.
‘It’s easy to say that when you’ve nothing at stake,’ Charlotte said. ‘I don’t know why you’re even here. You’re not a member of the family.’
‘She’s here because I asked her to be here,’ Marina said. ‘Because she is deeply involved with this family and has been for years. Because in one way or another she will continue to be involved with the family in the future.’
Charlotte said nothing but her eyes were angry.
Inwardly Marina sighed. She had expect
ed nothing else but had still hoped.
Charlotte stood. ‘If you’re finished, I would like to use your phone.’
‘I haven’t finished,’ Marina said.
Their eyes confronted each other but Marina did not blink. She held her gaze until Charlotte sat down again.
‘When I die,’ Marina said, ‘you will each get a third of everything I own. It will be up to each of you to decide what you want to do with your share. In the meantime I know some of you have problems you would like to see addressed now.’ Again she looked at each of her children in turn. ‘I am therefore going to give each of you an equal sum of money. An advance payment, if you like, on what you’ll inherit eventually.’
‘I don’t want to sound indelicate,’ Gregory said, ‘but what sort of money are we talking about?’
‘Half a million dollars each.’
That really got the galahs screeching.
Gregory said: ‘Half a million? Each?’
Tamsyn said: ‘Ohmygod!’
Charlotte said: ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Where are you going to find that sort of money? If only you’d agreed to do what Hector wanted …’
Esmé said nothing but Marina saw she was clutching Gregory’s hand.
‘I’m getting the money from Noamunga,’ Marina said. ‘And it was you, Gregory, who gave me the idea.’
‘I did?’
‘The island where you were building Nirvana: did you own it?’
‘I told you before. I didn’t own it. I had the development rights. A ten-year lease.’
‘Exactly.’
‘You’ve lost me.’
Tamsyn said: ‘You mean you’ve leased Noamunga?’
‘Part of it. The gulley and the plateau under the Wombat Ridge.’
‘Who have you leased it to?’ Charlotte like a pouter pigeon, bosom pressed hard against the table.
‘To Trident. I phoned Jim Bennett—’
‘You did what?’
Marina was not going to get into a fight. ‘I phoned the CEO of Trident Australia. His name is Jim Bennett. As you know very well. I suggested the lease and he jumped at it.’
‘You can’t be serious! You must stop it at once!’
‘It’s a done deal.’ Marina’s voice was quiet but firm.
‘So Jim Bennett gets the credit. You’ve done this deliberately, haven’t you? Your own son-in-law. You knew how important this was to him. How could you do this to him?’
‘Hector came here with some wretched piece of paper that he demanded—demanded—I sign. When I refused, he threatened me with a compulsory purchase order. Said he’d have me kicked off my own property.’ She stared at her daughter until Charlotte’s eyes dropped. ‘That was why I did it.’
‘But—’
‘You are precious to me. You must never think otherwise. But Hector is a bully. It’s in his blood. You should have warned him I don’t take kindly to blackmail.’
Her eyes moved to Gregory and Esmé squeezed together at the end of the table. Neither of them seemed too troubled by that.
‘We need to talk about Thailand.’
‘What’s the point of talking? I made a mistake and now I have to pay for it.’
‘Talking is always good. I think I may have solved the problem,’ Marina said.
‘What?’
‘We’ll talk later.’ She smiled at them all. At Gregory and Esmé, round-eyed in astonishment, dreamers scared of waking; at Tamsyn, a lottery winner, her expression one of mingled excitement and disbelief; at Charlotte, the hanging judge. ‘I love you all. I really do. I am so glad we were able to get together today. Now: anyone for more coffee?’
Charlotte left soon afterwards. She spun her wheels as she pulled away from the house. She was unhappy but Marina, despite her hopes, had guessed all along that it was inevitable. She was sorry for Charlotte. She had everything yet seemed at times to have nothing. She’d have half a million dollars to console her although it probably wouldn’t. Marina felt no guilt at all. She stood and watched the BMW as it snarled its way up the track. When it had vanished over the summit, she went back indoors.
Gregory and Esmé were waiting.
‘What did you mean, you may have solved the problem?’
‘Sit down and I’ll tell you.’
She told them what she’d done and how confident the lawyer had been.
‘He told me something else. Your mates are in trouble. When it became obvious you’d been falsely accused the authorities started making enquiries. They found a customs officer who’s admitted his involvement in the scam. Apparently, he’s a cousin of one of your friends. Now it seems he’s singing like a bird. The lawyer believes that your former partners will end up in the same place they wanted to send you.’
‘The Big Tiger,’ Gregory said. ‘I hope they enjoy it.’
He was excited, pacing the room. ‘If my name is cleared and Mongkut and Somchai are in jail, there’ll be nothing to stop me going back to Nirvana. With the money you’ve said you’ll be giving us—’
‘No,’ Marina said. ‘The lawyer said your name will be cleared on the condition that you don’t go back to Thailand.’
‘If I’m cleared, I don’t see how they can stop me.’
‘Don’t be stupid,’ Esmé said. ‘You left the country illegally. They’ll get you for that, if they have to. And what about your friends’ mates? You go back, they’ll kill you. Why would you want to, anyway? After the way you were treated?’
‘I don’t like attaching conditions to gifts,’ Marina said. ‘But Esmé’s right. I am giving you that money to help set you up in another line of business, not to go back to Nirvana.’
‘I doubt it would have worked anyway,’ Esmé said. ‘Do-What-You-Like-ville? People who are into that don’t go to resorts. They do their own thing.’
Marina watched them. It was a test. The impractical dreamer? The practical woman?
Gregory sighed. ‘It looks like they won’t let me in anyway.’
Esmé and Marina smiled at one another.
‘Sixty grand down,’ Gregory said.
‘Half a million up,’ Marina said.
Tamsyn got hold of her mother just before they left on the long drive back to Hobart.
‘You are a marvel.’
Marina thought it was okay to preen for once. ‘I know. But don’t tell your sister.’
‘She’ll come around,’ Tamsyn said.
‘I know that too,’ Marina said.
They were gone. Marina was alone. Alone with the sea and wind and sky. She was content. At peace.
Jim Bennett had told her that the money for the down payment on the lease would be paid into her account the next day. Two million dollars. Half a million each to Charlotte and Tamsyn. Charlotte didn’t need the money and Tamsyn did but Marina had been determined not to discriminate between the three children. Gregory’s share would be reduced by the hundred thousand dollars the lawyer had suggested she donate to a Thai children’s charity. The charity was run by the wife of a cabinet minister.
‘To sweeten the pot,’ the lawyer had said.
All up, one and a half million dollars to the children, leaving her with half a million for herself that she did not need or want. To say nothing of the annual royalty that Jim Bennett had told her would certainly be in the six figures.
She felt uncomfortable about having so much money. She’d give most of it away but there would still be a lot left over, weighing down her life by the simple fact of its existence.
No matter. It would do no harm in her bank account and would be a handy present to the kids when she finally fell off her perch. She would not be a slave to her unexpected wealth. It would not change her nature, as it did to so many. She would simply ignore it. It had value in that it could be used constructively. Otherwise, as far as Marina was concerned, it had no value. Her life would not change.
1994
CHAPTER 64
I am still here, Marina thought. The land and ocean are here. The gulls still cry.
The gannets still fish.
I have passed the switch-off date forecast by the hospital doctor. That fool doctor. That expert. I have shown him. I have shown him, right enough. I am still alive.
The pain ebbed and flowed. For the most part it was manageable. Like the money, it could be ignored.
She would continue to walk. She would seek out the hidden wilderness, where it still existed. A place where she could lose herself and, in the losing, find herself again. What a drab and soulless world it would be without wilderness.
It was wilderness that would form the basis of Gregory’s future life. He and Esmé were now officially an item. They had not married but might, Esmé had told her. One of these days. It was unimportant. No one could feel more married than she did now.
In any case they were too busy with the plans for their new business to think about anything else. They intended to conduct tours into the wilderness areas of the mainland. Into the desert places. The Simpson. The Sturt. Lake Eyre. Cooper’s Creek.
Esmé had talked to her a lot about their plans.
There was money to be made. Treks into the desert were all the go. She had talked to experts, to banks, to Tamsyn’s tours agency. They would likely come up with some kind of deal with Hobart Tours.
She was bubbling with ideas. They would employ experts to lead parties. Other experts would lecture on Aboriginal culture. On wildlife. There was the possibility of an agreement with a crowd running a hot-air-balloon outfit.
She wanted Greg to look after that side of things.
‘It will appeal to his romantic nature,’ she said. She was under no illusions about his starry-eyed ways but had faith too. ‘Look how he managed to get out of Thailand,’ she said. ‘That took guts. Very important to have guts in business matters, isn’t it? I shall run the financial side.’
‘That would be best,’ Marina said.
As Marina had expected, Tamsyn had used her money to buy out Harry Sharp. Shortly after that Will Roper had gone. She had replaced him with a woman called Melissa Martin. Melissa had a top reputation in the business—her speciality was Africa—and Tamsyn had poached her from a rival company. Now it was all systems go.
Stars Over the Southern Ocean Page 36
