by Bowes, K T
He relaxed, thoughts turning to his legacy and dispelling disappointment and fear. “Nine weeks, four days, twelve hours, ten minutes and about fifty seconds.” he replied with a sad smile. “And it can’t come soon enough.”
Chapter 68
Another One Down
“Why do you both have tissues in your ears?” Hana stared at Wiri and Phoenix in disbelief. Logan walked into the kitchen behind her and pulled a face.
“Where’s Nonie?” he asked, using Leslie’s self-styled title of ‘Grandma’ with reluctance. The children ignored him, tucking into cheese and crackers without hearing. Every time Phoenix moved her head, the tissues fluttered like ear extensions and Mac pealed with laughter in his high chair.
“What?” Wiri pulled the fluffy end of the tissue and the balled up piece popped out of his ear hole.
“Pardon,” Hana corrected. “What’s with the ear defenders?”
“The what?”
Hana felt herself growing irritated. “Why do you have tissues in your ears?” she repeated.
“Oh.” Wiri squeezed the waxy-looking end of the tissue and wedged it back into his ear. “Nonie’s doing horrible singing. We’re protecting the instruments in our ears.”
“What instruments?” Baffled, Hana turned to see Logan grinning.
“Ear drums.” He squeezed her shoulder and leaned over Wiri for the tissue box. “If she’s singing opera, this is a grand idea.” He balled up the ends of two tissues and shoved them into his ears, leaving the long white tufts sticking out past his hair and joining the white mouse lookalikes at the dining table.
Leslie bustled back into the room, her cracked soprano well past its sell by date as she sang to Hana. “I just nipped to the toiletttttttttt! Would you like a cup of teaaaaaaa?”
Hana winced at the sound and managed a nod. “Yes please. Why are you so happy?”
“Ah.” Leslie’s expression drooped. “Sorry, Hana but I’m going home. My Alfie called while you were out. He misses me. We’ve been talking on the phone a lot this last week.”
“Oh. That’s great.” Hana glanced across at her husband, not doubting his skill at lip reading when he balled his left hand into a fist and pumped the air.
“Yesssss!” he hissed and Hana glared at him in warning.
“I’ll miss you of course, but you should be with your husband.”
“How will you manage?” Leslie seemed to be talking herself out of the idea. “Will you get a housekeeper and a nanny to replace me?”
Hana shook her head. “No. I’m sure I’ll manage.”
“I can stay if you want.”
Logan narrowed his eyes and gave Hana a silent warning which made her smile and feel tempted to defy him just for the sake of it. But the thought of running her own family, taking her own children to school and kindy and imposing her own moral standards over their behaviour felt too good to be true. “No thanks,” she replied. “It’s been amazing having you to stay, but I’ll be fine.”
“That’s good. This life with youse is far too exciting for my poor old heart.” Leslie handed Macky another cracker, a lump of cheese glued to it with butter. She added a burst of rusty soprano to the action. He laughed at her open mouth and Hana winced.
Glancing across at Logan, she watched as he licked the tip of his index finger and drew a line in midair. “Another one down,” he mouthed.
Chapter 69
Whānau or Family
Leslie left the next morning and Hana and the children waved her off. Then they walked to school, enjoying the fresh spring air. Wiri and Phoenix held hands and tried to skip; Phoenix fell more than she skipped and arrived at kindy with holes in her woolly tights. While Mac slept, Hana gutted the house, collecting the abandoned belongings of their interlopers and leaving them in a pile by the front door. Logan arrived home after a staff meeting to find the children in their pyjamas and a hearty casserole in the oven. Hana’s face glowed with the renewed freedom of being queen of her own castle. “I forgot how nice it is to have law and order,” she beamed as Logan kissed her forehead and gave her a sultry wink.
The little family ate their dinner in silence, each consumed by their own thoughts. Phoenix wielded her fork like a shovel, dropping a lump of potato on her leg and Hana watched as Wiri leaned across and scooped it onto his finger. She cringed when he popped it into his mouth.
Logan’s phone rang and he fished it from his pocket, glancing at the caller and then sending them to voicemail. He smiled at Hana and turned it off. “Who was that?” she asked and he winced.
“Alex. I don’t want to be in business with him anymore; he’s not the man I thought he was. He would’ve got my solicitor’s letter this morning.”
“But what about the French restaurant?” Hana’s brows knitted in confusion at Logan’s sudden decision.
“What about it?”
Hana blanched at the challenge in her husband’s eyes. His action sent her a coded message; he wouldn’t cheat and nor would he align with others who chose to.
“Uncle Logan?” The Du Rose grey eyes with flickering dark lashes stared at Logan with serious intensity and Hana braced herself.
“Yup?” Logan pushed vegetables into his mouth and waited.
“Do I get your blood in me?”
“Ooh! Dat’s yukky.” Phoenix opened her mouth in horror and Hana shook her head until the tiny jaw snapped closed, hiding the mouthful of half-chewed food. The child swallowed. “I got bloods. Look.” Phoe clambered onto her chair and lifted her knee for all to see, displaying the graze and the Mr Bump plaster covering most of it. “I got bleeds today. I did crying like this.” She took a deep inhale and Hana cut her off.
“Sit down at the table, Phoe. Daddy can guess how it went.”
Phoenix shrugged and abandoned her fork to use her fingers on a carrot stick, chasing it around the bowl like a paper boat in the gravy.
“Yeah, we share blood.” Logan’s gaze fixed on Wiri and the child considered the answer for a moment.
“How?”
“Poppa Reuben was my dad. You’re my nephew.”
Wiri sighed. “I miss Poppa Reuben. He taught me fings like fishing and riding and climbing.”
Hana saw the flash of hurt cross Logan’s eyes at the things he missed out on through the awful Du Rose secrecy.
“Climbing? Wow! Climbing! I wanna do climbing, Mama.” Phoenix munched on the carrot.
“That’s nice.” Hana smiled at her daughter. “Use your spoon, sweetie.”
“What’s climbing?” Phoenix looked at Wiri and he snorted.
“Monkeys do climbing.”
“You’re a monkey?” Phoenix looked confused and her brow knitted beneath her curly fringe.
“We talked about whānau in school today.” Wiri smiled at Logan. “I said I finked we shared blood but Mr Rōpata said it doesn’t matter. You can be family without blood. You just have to open your eyes and your arms and whānau will find you.”
Hana’s eyes widened in shock and she thought of Bobby, Tama, Ryan, Caleb and the small boy in front of her. She opened her arms and got hurt. Maybe the secret was to keep her eyes open too. She sighed.
“Youse my iwi then, ain’t ya?” Wiri continued and Logan nodded.
“Yep, we’re the same tribe.” He smiled at Wiri and the boy drew himself up with pride.
“Good. I’m pleased about that.” He jabbed his knife in Logan’s direction. “Youse got the tō rangatiratanga then. Youse the leader. I’m gonna call you Rangi.”
Logan laughed and Hana relaxed. Her gaze strayed to his gorgeous face as he smiled at Wiri and ate the dinner she’d prepared, dark locks flopping into his eyes and his strong jaw working through his cheek. She opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again, saving her insight for another time. He’d built a new house on the mountain, not a physical structure as he’d always believed but a new, thriving house of Du Rose. Because the house of Du Rose happened wherever Logan resided and Hana thought about the family members include
d in it. Michael’s sons, Tama and Ryan, both grandchildren of Alfred Du Rose, both sons in her home. Logan and Wiremu represented the other of Kuia Phoenix’s sons, Reuben Du Rose. It wasn’t money which united the mountain but compassion, acceptance and love. Love made a family, not blood.
The old diaries of a tortured woman spoke of the prophesied threat hanging over the future of the house; a threat and not the curse Hana once believed. ‘The sons will be the ruin of this family.’
Hana smiled at her baby son and received his eager response as he fed himself with a plastic spoon. Squashed potato glistened on his cheeks and a pea had found its way into his ginger hair. He squeezed his eyes tight shut in an expression of happiness and Hana sighed with pleasure. It was done. The sons might once have ruined the family but united, they wouldn’t now.
“What are you grinning at, Mrs Du Rose?” Logan asked and Hana started, meeting his steady gaze with confidence.
“Tell you later,” she answered with a smile, not yet sure if she would. She rose and excused herself, taking the rubbish around to the spotless wheelie bin at the side of the house. Dumping the bag in, she turned to meet the sunset with a sense of overwhelming peace.
“It’s done, Kuia Phoenix,” she whispered into the air, the breeze carrying her words north to the urupa where the old lady’s body lay waiting for the resurrection of the saints. “Alfred and Reuben are united, just like you wanted. It’s messy and not at all conventional, but he did it.”
The promise of spring kissed Hana’s lips one last time as the sun plunged behind the boarding house in the distance. She watched as an unseen hand brushed the sky with reds and oranges; it offered her a floor show which nothing but the naked eye could capture in its fullest beauty. She heard her husband and children laughing through the open window and felt grateful for the compassion Logan showed when hers failed.
Kane Du Rose’s little son ate at their table in glorious oblivion and Logan allowed him, banishing the curse and completing the whānau, just as Kuia Phoenix Du Rose always believed he would.
Proverbs 15:17
He pai ake te tina puwha ko te aroha hei kinaki, i te kau whangai e kinakitia ana ki te mauahara.
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.
Here’s a sneak peek at the next Hana novel.
It’s due out early 2019.
Du Rose Feuds
Chapter 1
Other People’s Secrets
“She what?” Logan Du Rose squinted at his wife, an expression of surprise lighting his grey eyes from within. “Say that again.”
Hana sighed, wishing she hadn’t started the conversation. Her friend had shared a secret and already Hana felt nausea rising into her throat at betraying her so soon. Four hours, twenty minutes and about five seconds. “Forget it,” she said, pushing her feet beneath the sheets and snuggling into the comfortable bed.
“No way!” Logan snapped his book closed in a motion which made Hana wince. She closed her eyes and feigned sleep. A click sounded as Logan whipped off his reading glasses and placed them on the nightstand. He slithered beneath the sheets and turned on his side to face her. “Start at the beginning.”
“No!” Hana squirmed with discomfort. “She told me in confidence and I shouldn’t have said anything. I promised not to.” She sighed. “But we tell each other everything and I didn’t want to spoil things by keeping a secret, especially one that wasn’t mine.” Her eyelashes fluttered against the pillow and she pouted. “You’d know, anyway. Then we’d get into a vicious cycle of you trying to find out and me struggling to stop you. Before we knew it, we’d start arguing and then who knows where we’d be.”
Logan smiled, his lips curving upwards in a gentle arc. He reached out his hand and placed it on Hana’s soft cheek. His thumb caressed her lower lip. “And then we’d get divorced and then you’d bury me under the patio and then and then and then. I’m always amazed at how far your surmising goes.” His dark eyelashes flickered and amusement created crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes. “What comes after that?”
Hana wrinkled her nose. “We don’t have a patio. And you’re too tall to go under the deck.”
Logan gasped. “Geez wahine! You’ve thought about it.” He jerked backwards and the voile canopy lining the ostentatious four poster bed rustled.
The laugh bubbled up from Hana’s chest and banished the guilt for a moment. The genuine horror in her husband’s expression sent her into hysterics. She only stopped when he shifted onto his back and stared at the twinkling lights overhead. The tiny bulbs emitted an ethereal glow which bathed his olive face and smoothed out the contours. “Sorry.” She forced his arm up and snuggled beneath it, wrapping her legs around his like a koala. “I’ve no plans to bump you off, I promise.”
Logan grunted and closed his eyes and Hana felt chastened. He shook his head and his hair swished against the pillow. “It’s okay,” he breathed. “I can build a patio.”
Hana snorted and jabbed a finger into his ribs, feeling him curl inward and snatch at her hand. She sighed. “Husbands don’t count, do they?” Her voice held an edge of pleading. “I know you won’t tell anyone.”
“No,” Logan concluded. “I won’t.”
Hana sighed. “Libby told me something today and I still feel shocked.” She paused and blew out the breath. “She’s a mistress.”
Logan’s hair swished against the pillow as he turned his head. “I thought that’s what you said but assumed I heard wrong. A mistress of what?”
“Of a man. Her boyfriend is married.” Hana shifted onto her stomach so she could gauge his reaction, suspecting it would mirror hers earlier. But Logan’s face remained impassive and he displayed his impressive ability to mask his emotions. “She says she their arrangement suits her. They enjoy each other’s company and he goes home to his wife. He doesn’t expect her to take care of his dirty washing or look after him when he’s old and infirm. I looked her in the eye and believe she’s genuinely satisfied.”
Logan twisted his lips and his brow furrowed. “So, it’s just sex. There’s no emotional attachment?”
“She says she loves him very much. They’ve been together five years. They have rules around their relationship. He texts and if it suits Libby, he visits her place. She only texts him in emergencies. They go out for dinner and to the movies like a normal couple. They just make sure they go to Auckland and not Hamilton.”
Logan snorted. “Except they’re not a normal couple. He has a wife.”
“I know.” Hana reached out and fingered the St Christopher around her husband’s neck. The chain slid through her fingers and the fine hairs of his chest tickled her palm. “I was that wife once.”
“You told her that?”
Hana nodded. “Yep. That’s why she came clean. She said she values our friendship and didn’t want to base our relationship on a lie.”
“How did you leave things?” Logan stilled the soft fingers as the chain slithered across his skin. He clasped her hand. “Are you still friends?”
“Yes. Much as I dislike her revelation, I still like her. I feel as though we clicked on a deeper level. It’s lonely up here sometimes and she filled a gap. I’d started to rely on her.”
“It’s lonely because you’re married to me?”
“Yeah.” A wistful smile parted Hana’s lips and she placed a gentle kiss against Logan’s muscular shoulder. “You’re a Du Rose and if the local women don’t already work for you, they spend their time lusting after you. It puts a distance between me and most of the women my age. I craved someone with shared life experiences who I could relate to and Libby seemed to fit. I still like her but I’m not sure how to move forward.”
Logan snorted. “So, she doesn’t work for me and doesn’t lust after me.” He scratched his chin and shot Hana a sideways look filled with mischief. “What’s wrong with her?”
Hana released a sigh of exasperation. He turned on his side and pulled her close. She presse
d her face against his downy chest and relaxed, a barrage of thoughts and emotions shifting around in her brain. “Do you want some advice?” His voice held a tenderness only Hana and his children ever heard. Gentle fingers stroked her hair as she nodded. “Base your opinion on her role as a friend. She’s an adult making adult decisions about her life. That doesn’t need to involve you. If her relationship status bothers you then have that conversation. You can explain you want no part of it, but wish to stay friends. If she’s the person you believe she is, she’ll settle for that.”
The tick of a clock filled the silence as Hana pondered Logan’s words. Then she nodded. “You’re right. We’ve been friends for six months without issue and I knew she had a boyfriend, just not the circumstances. It didn’t bother me that she hadn’t introduced us. I value her friendship and the children adore her.” Hana’s arms snaked around Logan’s trim waist and she placed a kiss against his chest. “You talk sense sometimes, Mr Du Rose.”
“Do I?” He pulled away so he could gaze at her, his lips quirking upward into a knowing smile. “So, the toy-boy knows a thing or two then?”
Hana snorted. “Don’t throw my age in my face, young man.” She jabbed a crooked finger into his ribs and heard the satisfying sound of his grunt. “No night-time privileges for you now.”
“Says who?” Logan threw the sheet over their heads and burrowed them both deeper into the bed. Hana squeaked as strong fingers slid beneath the waistband of her pyjama shorts and coasted across the delicate skin of her hip. His lips found hers in the darkness, tentative and searching. Hana blossomed beneath his attentions and allowed the burden of someone else’s adultery to fade from her list of immediate concerns.
Du Rose Feuds will be out early next year.
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