Storms Over Blackpeak

by Holly Ford

  ‘Yeah,’ he said. He raked his hand through his hair. ‘Yeah, we are.’

  The phone rang and Ash grabbed it quickly. ‘Hello?’

  Lizzie watched curiously as he turned his back on them.

  ‘Oh.’ He sounded relieved. ‘Hi. Yeah, good thanks. You? Yeah, she’s right here. I’ll get her for you.’

  Ash held out the phone to Lizzie. ‘It’s Luke.’

  She took the handset from him. ‘Luke! Hello.’ She watched Ash and Cally head out into the porch.

  ‘Hey, Lizzie. Look, I’m sorry. I don’t want to interrupt …’

  ‘You’re not interrupting.’ Lizzie dragged her attention away from the ever-fascinating question of what — if anything — was going on between Cally and Ash, and back to the phone in her hand.

  ‘I hope you don’t mind me calling you there,’ Luke’s voice went on.

  ‘Of course I don’t.’ God, he sounded utterly miserable. ‘Is everything okay?’

  There was a long silence on the end of the line.

  ‘Yeah …’ Luke said at last. ‘Yeah, no, everything’s fine … it’s just … I just …’

  ‘Is Ella with you?’

  ‘No. She’s in Santiago.’ He paused. ‘I think.’

  ‘Oh,’ Lizzie managed.

  ‘Look, I just thought … Well, I have to head down to Wanaka for some meetings next week. I thought maybe if you were going to be home on Tuesday night …’

  ‘You’d drop in? That would be lovely.’

  ‘Are you sure you don’t mind?’

  ‘When did I ever mind?’ she teased him. ‘Come for dinner — stay the night, if you can. It’ll be just like old times.’ Back in the days when the vineyard had been a regular port of call for Luke on his business trips south, the two of them had put together some pretty good deals over her kitchen bench and a bottle of pinot noir.

  ‘Thank you,’ he sighed. ‘I’d love that.’

  She was a little shocked at how very grateful he sounded. ‘So would I,’ she said firmly. ‘Just text me when you’re on your way.’

  ‘Will do. Lizzie …?’

  ‘What?’ she prompted gently.

  ‘Nothing. Just … thanks. Really.’

  ‘You know,’ she suggested, ‘you’re welcome at the vineyard anytime. Just come down whenever you want. Okay? You’re family. You don’t need an invitation.’

  ‘Okay.’ Luke’s voice sounded a little strange. ‘I’ll see you Tuesday.’

  She put down the phone with a sigh. Ever since Ella had fallen for Luke — and vice versa, it certainly seemed — Lizzie had been half expecting to have to pick up the pieces. She’d just never imagined they might be pieces of Luke.

  The phone rang again. Lizzie waited. Maybe Carr would answer it upstairs. On the other hand, it might be Luke calling back. On the sixth ring, she picked up.

  ‘Hello?’

  Her own voice echoed back at her. Recognising the hum of an international line, Lizzie waited. Maybe it was Ella calling to tell her where — exactly — she was. And why Luke sounded so unhappy.

  ‘Hello,’ said a woman’s voice at last. ‘May I speak with Ash, please?’

  Chapter TEN

  Cally reined back, pausing to watch as Ash galloped Windy up the snowy track, the horse’s long mane and tail streaming out and his dappled coat shining, showers of fresh white powder flying up from his feet to glisten in the brilliant afternoon sun. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen anything lovelier.

  Down on the flats behind her, the snow that had blanketed the homestead the previous weekend had gone from all but the deepest shadows. But what had fallen as heavy rain on the homestead’s roof overnight had returned the hills to a pristine white before departing to reveal a sapphire-blue sky and a glorious winter’s day.

  Sarge whickered in protest at the delay, and Cally let him have his head, feeling a wave of pure joy as he surged forward through the snow in pursuit of Windy.

  She reached the top of the ridge to find Ash already off his horse and standing on the edge of the bluff, his binoculars scanning the hillside across the narrow hanging valley to the south. Sliding down from Sarge, Cally followed Ash’s gaze. It was a massive view. She tried to imagine what it must feel like to look out at it knowing you were responsible for everything you saw.

  Shivering a little at the enormity of what Ash and Carr did every day, she turned around to face the sun. The snow glinted crisp and smooth, broken only by their own tracks. Unable to resist, Cally scooped up a handful of powder and tossed it high in the air, admiring its shimmer as it fell.

  There was a soft thud as a snowball hit her between the shoulder blades.

  ‘What are you?’ she laughed, turning. ‘Twelve?’ She picked up another handful of snow and threw it, without much thought, in Ash’s general direction. She pressed her hand to her mouth as it hit Ash between the eyes. Oh! She couldn’t have done that if she’d tried …

  ‘Right,’ Ash grinned. Grabbing his own handful of snow and compacting it, he advanced towards her.

  Cally’s sidestep almost succeeded, but Ash was too quick. Caught, she twisted in his arms, arching her neck to evade his snow-filled hand as he seized the collar of her jacket. Cally put her hands on his chest to push him away. But once there, her hands seemed to develop a mind of their own. As if in slow motion, they rose to touch the warm, bare skin of his neck. Looking up into his face, she brushed her fingers over the scar above his cheekbone. Ash looked back at her, the laughter fading from his eyes as he bent his head and kissed her.

  His hand — free of snow — moved through her hair, raising her face to his. Ash’s arms might well be the only thing holding her up, but they seemed more than equal to the task. A wave of warmth flowed through her body. Cally drifted with it as Ash began to kiss her harder. God, the whole world was starting to throb …

  Oh— As Ash stepped quickly away from her, Cally looked up. Above, the rotors of the helicopter beat a path across the blue sky as Carr headed home from his heli-skiing charter.

  When she looked back down, Ash was standing five metres away, Windy’s reins in his hand. ‘We’d better get back,’ he said, swinging up into the saddle.

  Cally felt like rubbing her eyes. Had she just dreamed that?

  Turning the horse, Ash started down the track. What the fuck? Mounting Sarge as quickly as she could, Cally followed him back down. The nature of the track didn’t lend itself to talking, even if she had been able to think what she could say.

  As they dismounted in front of the stables, Carr pulled up beside them on his way back from the hangar. Climbing out of the Hilux, he leaned his elbows on the rail, looking Windy over.

  ‘He’s working well.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Ash didn’t return the warmth in his father’s voice. Without looking at Carr, or at Cally, he swept the saddle off Windy’s back.

  ‘I thought I might have spooked him up there.’

  ‘No,’ Ash said flatly.

  Cally felt herself blush.

  ‘Right.’ With one last look at the horse, Carr straightened. ‘I’m off up to the house. Lizzie’s on her way.’

  There was an awkward pause.

  ‘Why don’t you head up with Dad,’ Ash nodded to Cally, still not meeting her eyes. ‘I’ve got a few things I need to do in the yards when I finish up here. I might be a while.’

  In the bathroom that night, Cally got ready for bed with a growing sense of frustration. Ash hadn’t come in from the yards until dinner was virtually on the table. Then afterwards, he’d gone straight to his room. Was he really going to let the day end without saying a word? Was she supposed to pretend he hadn’t kissed her? He had. Hadn’t he? Or actually, had she kissed him? Had he just been being — what? She considered her face in the mirror. Polite? Had he not wanted to hurt her feelings?

  Cally tapped a tube of cleanser against her palm, grappling with the urge to bang on Ash’s bedroom door and demand an explanation. Dammit. She’d forgotten she’d used the last of the tube th
at morning. Having checked that the coast was clear, she ducked quickly across the hall and grabbed the new box from her room. She was just straightening up from rinsing her face when the bathroom door flew open and Ash, already pulling his singlet over his head, stopped just short of colliding with her.

  ‘Sorry.’ He looked mortified. ‘I thought I heard— I thought you’d finished in here.’

  Cally put down her towel. In the mirror, she held Ash’s eyes.

  Ash blew out his breath. ‘Okay, look.’ With a quick glance out at the hall, he shut the door behind them. ‘About today …’

  Yes. Cally watched his face. About that.

  ‘The thing is,’ he said slowly, ‘I …’ His gaze fell. ‘Is that my shirt?’

  She blushed. It had lost a few more buttons since he’d last seen it. In fact, when you came to consider it as carefully as Ash was doing now, there wasn’t a lot of it left. ‘I didn’t think you wanted it,’ she said.

  He tilted his head, considering the long rip across the shoulder. ‘Neither did I.’

  Cally’s breath caught at his touch on her skin. Fascinated, she watched his hand travel over the point of her shoulder and down her arm, slipping through the torn fabric to brush her stomach and rise over her ribs. As his palm grazed her naked breast, her lips parted. Gently, Ash turned her to face him.

  Cally sank her fingers into the mass of his neck as his mouth came down on hers, his hands mounting her thighs as he lifted her onto the marble countertop. God, everything about him was hard. She clutched at the braced muscles of his shoulders, feeling the lines of their scar as her fingers slid over his back. Gasping as his thumb began to move over her nipple, Cally found the top button of his jeans and worked it free. Jesus.

  Ash groaned against her ear. The back of her head hit the mirror as he thrust forward, and he caught her to him, cradling her head with one hand while the other braced them both away from the wall. Cally pressed her open lips to his skin. She’d never wanted anything as much in her—

  ‘Shit.’ On the wall beside her, Ash’s hand opened and closed. ‘I can’t.’ He pulled back. ‘I can’t do this.’

  He had to be fucking kidding. He was stopping? Now? And as for can’t, she had some pretty strong evidence to the contrary …

  He banged his hand on the wall. ‘I can’t.’

  Cally stared at him. But before she could gather her thoughts — let alone her shirt — Ash had turned his back on her and, pausing only to button his jeans, walked out of the bathroom.

  With a groan, she beat her head on the mirror again. What the hell … Following him out a few minutes later, Cally paused, looking back at Ash’s closed door across the hall. God, she wished she had the guts to go in there and — and —

  She hung her head. There was only so much rejection a girl could take in one day. Sighing, she went into her own bedroom and shut the door.

  When Cally got up the next morning, Ash’s bedroom door was open, and the room was empty. Her eyes flitted over his neatly made bed. Unkindly, she hoped he’d slept as uncomfortably as she had.

  She was already starting on lunch when Ash pulled up in Carr’s Hilux. Hearing the slam of the door outside, both she and Carr looked up.

  Carr frowned as Ash walked around the truck to open the passenger door. ‘I thought I’d fixed that.’

  They watched the figure of a girl emerge, handbag first, and pause, raising her dark glasses to look up at the house. Then, slipping her arm through Ash’s, she began to pick her way across the gravel. She was almost as tall as he was — most of it legs, as far as Cally could see.

  She heard the clip of high heels on the floor of the porch, and then the kitchen door opened.

  ‘Hello!’ Seeing Carr, the girl’s cat-like face broke into a perfect smile. Cally watched in awe as she ran a hand through her mane of hair. She looked like she had the same hairdresser as Windy. And, for that matter, as whatever that dead thing had been before it became a collar.

  ‘Maria Valentina Consuela de Sosa Mendes.’ She held out her hand to Carr, palm down.

  Turning her hand, he shook it. ‘I’m Carr. Fergusson,’ he added, with an irony you’d have to know him well to notice.

  ‘Carr.’ Her almond eyes flashed up at him. ‘I am Valentina.’

  Chapter ELEVEN

  The day Ash’s mysterious visitor was due to arrive, Lizzie lay in Carr’s arms, the soft light of Saturday morning growing around the edges of the bedroom curtains.

  ‘Stay,’ Carr’s voice growled in her ear. His lips brushed hers. ‘Stay this week.’

  Nestling her cheek closer to Carr’s shoulder, Lizzie stroked the long-muscled forearm resting between her breasts. There was no place she’d rather be.

  ‘I can’t,’ she remembered, reluctantly. ‘I told Luke to drop in again on his way back up to Christchurch.’ In fact, it was worse than that. It didn’t seem like nearly such a good idea right now, but, ‘Actually, I want to try to get him to stay next weekend. Ella’s only back for a couple of days before she heads off to Europe, and he’s been working crazy hours while she’s been away. He needs to slow down. And I think …’ Lizzie paused, remembering Luke’s voice on the phone again. ‘I think he’s really lonely.’

  She felt Carr’s chest move as he sighed. ‘Doesn’t he have any friends? Family of his own?’

  ‘His parents are away in Umbria.’ And having met quite a few of Luke’s ‘friends’ in the past, Lizzie thought they were the last people she wanted him hanging out with while Ella was gone. ‘Anyway,’ she went on, ‘I’m Luke’s family, too.’ She’d like it to stay that way.

  ‘Ask him here.’

  ‘Here?’ Lizzie twisted to look at Carr. ‘On his own?’

  Carr’s mouth twitched. ‘Well, I was hoping you’d come with him.’

  ‘You want to invite Luke to stay?’

  ‘No.’ His dark eyes watched her carefully. ‘I want you to know you can bring anyone you want here.’

  Lizzie felt her own eyes soften a little. ‘Thank you,’ she said. Tiring of craning her neck, she settled her head back into his shoulder.

  ‘Does that mean you’ll stay?’

  ‘I …’ Well, she could, couldn’t she? Why not? ‘I didn’t bring enough clothes.’

  ‘I’ll fly you over on Monday. You can pack a suitcase.’ Carr’s voice was firm. ‘In fact, while you’re at it, pack two.’

  Lizzie laughed. ‘You really want me to stay that much?’

  ‘I really want you’ — arms tightening around her, Carr rolled her onto her back — ‘to stay that much.’

  She touched his cheek.

  Carr looked down at her. ‘I—’

  ‘You just don’t want to be left on your own,’ Lizzie teased him, ‘with Ash and his girlfriend when she arrives.’

  With a shake of his head, Carr lay back against the pillows. Lizzie thought she heard another sigh.

  She propped herself up on one elbow to look at him. ‘Is she his girlfriend, do you think?’

  ‘It’s a pretty long way to come from Argentina,’ Carr shrugged, ‘to see a friend.’

  ‘Maybe she wants to see New Zealand.’

  ‘Maybe she does.’

  ‘Ash didn’t say?’

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘And you didn’t ask.’

  Carr raised his eyebrows at her.

  ‘I know, I know.’ Lizzie rolled her eyes. ‘If he wanted to tell you, he would.’ A thought occurred to her. ‘If you want to leave them alone to sort it out,’ she suggested, ‘why don’t you just come over and stay at the vineyard this week?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Carr frowned. ‘Except that they wouldn’t be alone.’

  Oh God, of course not — there was Cally. If Ash’s mystery guest was indeed his girlfriend, that would answer the question of whether anything had been going on between him and Cally. At least, Lizzie hoped it would. Otherwise, things were about to get very awkward. No wonder Carr wanted some support.

  ‘Okay,’ she decided.

&nbs
p; ‘Okay?’

  ‘I’ll call Luke and tell him I’m staying here this week.’

  ‘All week?’

  ‘All week,’ she smiled. Carr’s arms closed around her again. Suddenly, everyone else’s problems aside, Lizzie found herself feeling ridiculously happy.

  By the time she got up, Ash had already left for the airport to pick up his friend. Cally, Lizzie couldn’t help noticing, when she came down, was more than usually quiet.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Lizzie asked her gently, when they were alone in the kitchen.

  ‘Yeah.’ Cally managed a smile. ‘I just didn’t sleep very well last night, that’s all.’

  ‘Can I help you with something?’ Lizzie glanced around at the bench.

  ‘It’s okay, I’ve got it.’

  Dismissed, Lizzie left Cally sizing up a forequarter roast and retreated back upstairs. In the bedroom, she picked up the landline and tapped in Luke’s number.

  ‘Lizzie!’ He sounded exhausted. ‘Hi. How are things?’

  ‘Good. How are things with you?’

  ‘They’ll be better by the end of this week. Are we still on for dinner Thursday night?’

  ‘I hope so,’ she said brightly. ‘There’s just one thing — could it be at Glencairn instead of the vineyard? I’m staying with Carr all week.’

  There was a long silence.

  ‘Lizzie,’ Luke said carefully, ‘that’s really kind, but I don’t want to intrude. We’ll catch up another time.’

  ‘No,’ she insisted. ‘Really, please come. I’m looking forward to seeing you.’

  ‘Yeah …’ he hedged.

  ‘So is Carr,’ Lizzie added desperately.

  ‘Carr is looking forward to seeing me?’ There was more than a hint of laughter in Luke’s voice.

  ‘Actually, he suggested I ask you to stay next weekend.’

  ‘He suggested that,’ Luke said. ‘Right.’

  ‘I swear.’

  ‘Look, thanks, I appreciate the offer. I do. But I should really get back to Christchurch.’

  ‘You can go back on Sunday,’ she told him firmly.