John smiled and Gwen hit his arm. ‘That doesn’t let you off the hook from thinking things through more clearly next time you have the opportunity to change someone’s life.’
‘Understood,’ John said. ‘Now, we’ve rented the most gorgeous little cottage, so let’s get your things and take you there so we can pamper you.’
‘We?’ Cecily took a wobbling step backwards. ‘You’re not alone?’
Dammit. Alec hadn’t wanted Cecily to know until they got to the cottage, in case she decided not to come. ‘Figure of speech.’
‘Is not. Alec is here, isn’t he?’ Cecily actually turned her head, looking for him.
So, that was going to work out for Alec after all. ‘He’s at the cottage, getting it ready.’
‘Then let’s go.’ Cecily almost ran ahead of them to the pub’s door.
‘I guess she’s happy to see Alec,’ John said.
‘You idiot.’ Gwen hit his arm again. ‘They’re in love. They just needed time to work things out and for her to forgive him the lies. Like us.’
Gwen linked her arm in his and led him into the pub. As they passed the bar, John mouthed ‘See, boyfriend’ to the barman, who rolled his eyes in response.
Gwen and Cecily packed quickly and then they were on their way to the cottage. Once there, John held Gwen back so Cecily could go in first. ‘Give them a moment.’
Gwen wrapped her arms around his waist. ‘You are the sweetest man.’ They kissed and John felt all his hopes and dreams for the future come true in that kiss.
When they headed inside, John saw that not only had Alec set up some morning tea, with the kettle starting to whistle, but he’d claimed some flowers from the garden and used glasses to put them all over the kitchen/dining area.
‘Gwenny Gwen Gwen.’ Alec held out his arms and Gwen had a hug. ‘So sorry about your idiot father but don’t worry, I will save your family.’
‘Oh, joy,’ Gwen said as the kettle went to full whistle.
‘John, make a pot of tea, there’s a good chap. I will, I swear. I come to Tybrim full of ideas and brimming with determination.’
John made the tea and they sat around the table and laughed at Alec’s absolutely ridiculous plans—as Alec had intended they would—and then Gwen and Cecily talked about what had happened since they left Canberra. It was wonderful, four friends being together and supporting each other. A vision of how their lives would be.
Then Alec took Cecily for a walk in the garden and John looked at Gwen. Should they have a serious conversation now, get everything sorted?
Gwen smiled, stood and held out her hand. ‘Which room is ours?’
With a wide grin, John led the way.
Clothes were half shed, passions were rising when there was a knock on the front door of the cottage. ‘Ignore,’ John said. ‘Alec and Cecily can deal with it.’
‘Wasn’t planning on going anywhere,’ Gwen said, then she bit his ear and John almost reared away with the surge of need running through him.
He scrambled to finish the undressing and they were finally naked when there was another knock—this time on their bedroom door.
‘Sorry, old chap,’ called out Alec, ‘but Gwen is needed in the lounge room immediately.’
‘She is not,’ John called back and then bent his attention again to the spot in the crook of Gwen’s neck that, when kissed, drove her wild.
‘Actually, she is. Be a good sport and let her come. I don’t want to come in there.’
Gwen pushed John’s head away. ‘Why?’
‘You have a visitor.’
‘Oh, God.’ Gwen held John’s head so she could look him in the eye. ‘I bet it’s my mother.’
‘Can’t be,’ John said. ‘How would she know where you are?’
‘One of the neighbours probably told her,’ Gwen said.
They dressed and hurried into the lounge room. A middle-aged woman with Gwen’s blonde hair but without her wonderful eyes was sitting in the arm chair, facing Alec and Cecily on the lounge. She stood as Gwen entered. ‘Gwendolen. What is the meaning of this?’
Right. Small town. Mother arrives on doorstep of daughter’s love shack within the hour. Good stuff.
‘Hello, Mum.’ Gwen was cold. ‘I imagine Cecily has introduced you to Alec. This is John Worthing. My boyfriend.’
Gwen’s mother took a step back. ‘You said you didn’t have a boyfriend?’
‘When you asked, I didn’t. John and I had a fight and broke up. But the events of the past few days have reconciled us and when he heard what Dad did to me last night, he came to Tybrim to save me.’ Gwen wrapped her arm around John’s and smiled up at him.
John kissed her forehead, then nodded at her mother. ‘Nice to meet you, Mrs Fairford. This is one amazing daughter you have here.’
‘Thank you,’ Gwen’s mother said. She took a deep breath and lifted her chin. ‘So, who are you, John Worthing? What do you do? Who is your family?’
‘I think this is where we sneak out,’ Alec said. He took Cecily’s hand and led her out of the room.
‘Nice boy,’ Gwen’s mother said, nodding at Alec. ‘He works for Barry Fisher too?’
‘Worked,’ Gwen said. ‘Like me. Alec was passionate about the party, but lately he’s become disillusioned about the people within it. Like me.’
Gwen’s mother’s lips tightened and John stroked Gwen’s arm. Antagonising her mother wasn’t going to get them anywhere.
‘At the moment, Mrs Fairford, I am between jobs. I had to quit my last job over their treatment of Cecily and I am looking upon this as an opportunity to take a new direction in my life.’
‘Unemployed and unambitious,’ Gwen’s mother said.
‘Principled and not wanting to waste his talents,’ Gwen said.
‘My family are from Brisbane. My father is a mechanic, my mother was a nurse. I have a brother who is a high school teacher. They are all very lovely people.’
‘Was a nurse?’
Gwen squeezed John’s arm as he said, ‘My mother died three months ago of breast cancer.’
‘Oh.’ Mrs Fairford’s features softened with sympathy. ‘Oh, you poor thing. No wonder you are feeling aimless. It took me ages to get over my mother’s death.’
‘It is a terrible thing, to lose your family,’ John said. ‘Which is why Cecily deserves all the support in the world, having finally found hers. And why I want Gwen to be reconciled with her father.’
Mrs Fairford looked at Gwen. ‘You aren’t going to the other side, are you, Gwen? Your father has been beside himself worrying about it all night.’
‘I wish he worried more about my happiness than my politics,’ Gwen said. ‘Other people’s happiness too.’
‘You know he thinks the party’s plan for Australia is the only thing to guarantee happiness. For him, the two are intertwined.’
‘I’m not joining the other side,’ Gwen said. ‘But I’m not sure I’m staying with our side either. The past few days have shown me aspects to people’s personalities in politics that I’m not crazy for. I think I’d rather choose an issue that is meaningful and work on it to make people’s lives better, than be involved in partisan politics.’
An idea exploded in John’s head. ‘Postnatal depression.’
Both Gwen and Mrs Fairford looked at him with expressions that suggested he had lost his mind. ‘What?’ Gwen said.
‘Inspiration,’ John said. ‘I think I know what we should do with our lives when we get back to Canberra. But we’ll discuss that later.’
Gwen smiled. ‘Well done.’ She turned back to her mother. ‘Can you and Dad accept that I’m never going to return to Tybrim, that I’m going to stay in Canberra, that any work I do in politics may not be directly in support of the party and that I am going to put my friends and the people I love ahead of any partisan considerations?’
Tears welled in her mother’s eyes. ‘We just want you to be happy.’
‘This will make me happy. Oh, and when I get back t
o Canberra, I’ll be finding somewhere for Jupiter to live, so I can have her close by.’
‘Jupiter?’ John said.
‘My horse. She’s lovely. You’ll adore her.’
‘You called your female horse Jupiter?’
‘It’s her name,’ Gwen said with the type of logic that can’t be argued with.
‘No.’ A tear escaped Mrs Fairford’s eye and trickled down her cheek. ‘If you take Jupiter, you’ll never come home.’
John felt Gwen tense and stepped in for her. ‘Of course she will, Mrs Fairford. I’ll insist upon it, because you are her family and family is very important. Just because she won’t live here doesn’t meant she loves you any the less.’
‘But she’s supposed to get a house here, and bring up the children here, and I’ll babysit and see them every day …’
‘My mother always used to say “Children are your greatest blessing, and your greatest heartbreak”,’ John said. ‘I guess the secret to it all is focusing on the blessing part and not the heartbreak part.’
Mrs Fairford blinked and smiled. ‘Your mother was very wise. I’m sorry I won’t get to meet her.’
‘I’m sorry you won’t too,’ John said. ‘She came from a country town much like this, although in Central Queensland. She’d love Tybrim.’
‘Mum.’ Gwen released John and stepped forward. ‘Please say you can understand what I want to do with my life, and accept it. I want you to be part of it, not separated by anger and disappointment.’
‘I have to put aside my own dreams, Gwen. That isn’t easy.’
‘I know,’ Gwen said. ‘Can you try?’
Mrs Fairford smiled. ‘Of course I can try.’ She held out her arms and Gwen ran into them for a hug. ‘And don’t you worry about your father. I’ll pull him round. Just don’t bring any more people from that side into the house, okay?’
‘Absolutely,’ Gwen said. ‘I promise, no more people from that side.’
After her mother left, Gwen said, ‘If I am to keep my promise to my mother, you are going to have to swear to never go back.’
‘Not interested in re-entering the machine,’ John said. ‘I’ve got better plans. Such as resuming what we had to abandon when your mother arrived.’
‘Wonderful, wonderful idea,’ Gwen said and led them back to the bedroom.
Alec
Alec and Cecily sat on the seat swing on the patio, holding hands and watching birds feed on the seed bell hanging from the roof.
‘I could stay here forever,’ Alec said.
‘No, you couldn’t,’ Cecily responded. ‘You’d be bored within a week.’
‘You’d just have to keep me occupied then.’ Alec wiggled his eyebrows.
‘Games. Puzzles. Have you ever played Pokemon Go?’
‘Pokie-what?’
Cecily sighed. ‘Do you have no connection to popular culture?’
‘Absolutely. I watched two episodes of Game of Thrones.’
‘Well, let’s just crown you king of popular culture then,’ Cecily said. ‘Have you ever been interested in what was going on around you or have you always been stuck in the 18th century?’
‘The 18th century is a perfectly delightful place to be stuck. And no, I haven’t always been stuck in the past, as you say. When I was a teenager, I was into heavy metal.’
Cecily’s eyes widened. ‘You were not.’
‘True. Long hair, plaid shirt. The works.’
A pause and then she smiled. ‘Name me five heavy metal bands.’
Damn it. ‘Um. AC/DC. Ozzie Osborne …’ Come on, brain, work, work.
‘You liar.’ Cecily crossed her arms over her chest. ‘Not half an hour after you swear to never lie to me again, you’re lying to me.’
‘It’s not a lie. Not like the not caring about the party thing. It’s … playing with the truth to achieve an outcome.’
‘Lying.’
‘Playing games. Having fun.’
‘Lying. Lying.’
Alec sighed. ‘You’re going to expect me to be serious all the time, aren’t you?’
Cecily rolled her eyes. ‘Not all the time. I’m smart enough not to set you up to fail. Just when you are talking about yourself, and about me. Pure honesty.’
‘You’ll have to forgive me if I slip up. Being honest about myself isn’t something I’m particularly good at.’
‘What about when you’re at home? With your parents and sisters.’
‘Oh, I have no choice there. They grew up with me. I couldn’t get away with a lie with them.’
‘Well, now you can’t get away with a lie with me either. So, tell me the truth—have you ever been into popular things?’
‘No,’ Alec said. ‘Why like what everyone else likes? How is that in any way interesting?’
‘You could be missing out on something fabulous.’
‘Possibly, but the little bits I catch now and again tell me that I’m not. I’m satisfied with what I do like.’
‘Collecting first editions of books?’
‘Reading in general. But not what people tell me I should read. Every year, at Secret Santa, I get given either some cheap cologne or a book on sport. I’m not into sport, and I’m not interested in reading about those who are. Or it’s a political biography, but it’s about someone boring, like a prime minister or president. I like to read about the little guys. Why don’t they do biographies about the local mayor? I think that should be a thing—at the end of every mayoral period, someone in the town has to write the biography of the mayor. That would be fascinating.’
‘Actually, that would be interesting,’ Cecily said. ‘What causes an otherwise ordinary person to sacrifice their spare time, energy, moments with the family, to do something that will inevitably make some of the people in the town hate them and doesn’t really give them any monetary reward.’
‘Exactly. And ordinary party members. One of the reasons I did so well with party donations is that I wanted to talk to the very smallest of the small members to find out why they were committed to the party and what they wanted or needed out of it.’
‘That smile would have been part of it too.’
Alec smiled. ‘Glad you noticed. I had worried for a while there you didn’t notice any of my attractive attributes.’
‘Oh, I noticed them, all right,’ Cecily said. ‘I just couldn’t get over the unattractive attributes.’
Alec nodded. ‘The party. Can I point something out? Neither John nor I had any problem with what you ladies believed. You were the ones who decided differing political ideologies were an issue.’
‘Stop right there,’ Cecily said. ‘If the next words out of your mouth are “Therefore, it can be argued that you’re at least partially to blame for what happened”, I am going to kick you in the shins.’
‘Never was going to say that,’ said Alec, who was totally going to say that.
‘Good. Then I shall say that you do have a bit of a point. Maybe Gwen and I were clinging to ideals that were robbing us from being able to see your true value.’
Alec took Cecily’s hand in his. ‘And now?’
‘Now I can see you are the most valuable man alive.’ She leant forward and gave him a kiss. ‘I could not have got through Tuesday night without you. When you aren’t trying to trivialise everything, you are a very strong and sensitive man.’
‘I am,’ Alec said. ‘But if you tell anyone, I shall have to kill you.’
‘I’ll keep it our secret,’ Cecily said and kissed him again. ‘And I don’t want you to lose all your silliness. You do make me laugh, Alec Moncrieff, and I think over the next few weeks I will be needing to laugh a lot.’
‘You do see that if it comes out that you’re dating a former member of the opposition, it’s going to extend the period of time that the media is interested in you.’
Cecily leant against Alec, her head on his shoulder, her arm entwined with his. ‘I do. I believe I am destined to never have a quiet life, where things go smoothly. I should
have realised that when I was abandoned by my parents at six weeks old.’
‘That was a rather complicated start to life.’
‘And it’s never stopped being complicated. Although at least now I can get a proper birth certificate. And maybe it’s worth learning to drive.’
‘If you’re going to add complications to your life, like trying to learn how to drive, I have no sympathy for you.’
Cecily sighed. ‘I’m so used to everything being difficult, to having to fight.’
Alec kissed the top of her head. ‘Well, Boadicea, you can put down your sword. I can fight for you now.’
‘That’s nice.’
They sat, swinging, and Alec felt a peace he hadn’t known for some time.
Lunch rolled along. Gwen and John joined them, happiness and satisfaction all over their faces.
‘Well?’ Cecily said. ‘Are you and your father reconciled?’
‘Mum is going to work on him,’ Gwen said, lying on a sun lounge. ‘This is blissful.’
‘It will work out,’ John said. ‘It might take a while, but it will.’
‘What about the wedding tomorrow?’ Cecily said.
‘You’re not going to that, are you?’ Alec said.
‘She is. In fact, you all are. Angie has seats and wants them filled.’
‘A wedding?’ Alec glanced at John, who looked as horrified as Alec felt. ‘We can’t go to a stranger’s wedding.’
‘It isn’t a stranger, it’s my cousin. And yes you can.’
‘We don’t have suits,’ John blurted out.
‘You look fine.’ Gwen smiled at him. ‘It will all be okay.’
‘I can’t go to a wedding,’ John said.
‘If you don’t come, then I shall ensure that I catch the bouquet,’ Gwen said. ‘Mum will be delighted.’
They exchanged a long look, then John nodded at Alec. ‘We’re going to a wedding.’
‘I can’t think about that now,’ Alec said. ‘It’s lunch and I’m weak with hunger.’
‘How do you eat the way you do and never get fat?’ Gwen said.
‘Lucky metabolism.’ Alec patted his stomach. ‘No one in my family gets fat. I’m looking forward to breeding this into my daughters so they don’t have to worry and can just get on with taking over the world.’
The Importance of Ernestine Page 28
