‘Hey, Mati, what’s up?’ Paige listened. ‘I’m, ah, fishing with Liam’s uncle. Trying to catch dinner. Oh, okay, sweetie, is it that time already? Tell Nana Alice Mummy said you should use her phone to call Daddy, or else wait. I won’t be long.’
‘Family business. You’d best head off back to the house,’ Aiden said, head buried, hand searching indiscriminately in the tackle box. He didn’t stop what he was doing or glance in her direction and Paige could only imagine he was just as embarrassed.
Had she instigated that?
‘Yes. I have to go. Thanks,’ she added awkwardly.
She’d started to walk away when he called out. ‘So about that fish dinner? I’m guessing I’ve got to pull off a small food miracle? If that’s okay with you?’
Her hesitation lasted only a few seconds. She turned around, smiled, turned her palms to the sky and shrugged. ‘Sure, why not?’ Then she sprinted all the way to the house.
22
Alice
‘Considering he was in your bad books only yesterday, Alice, you seem awfully inquisitive about Aiden. By the way, why are you so intent on cleaning the fridge if we are leaving any day?’
‘Do we want the owner of the place thinking badly of us? Sharni’s idea of clean is dubious; so are the refrigerators. Your mother would be appalled at the state of this one.’
‘Okaaay. And Aiden?’
‘Can’t I simply be curious about the man my granddaughter tells me her mother is fishing with? Pass me that bottle of vanilla extract, please.’ Alice kept her back to Paige. The state of Sharni’s refrigerator in the main house was not much better than the mouldy interior of the cottage’s fridge, probably indicative of someone who mostly lived out of the pub’s kitchen. ‘And while we’re on the subject can I say—’
‘The subject being Aiden, fridges or fishing?’
Alice swivelled around to face her daughter, scowling, forcing her point. ‘Two wrongs do not make a right, Paige. You might be angry with Robert, but the reality is, he’s still your husband and you’re still a mother.’
‘Good grief, Alice, I can be a wife, a mother and go fishing at the same time.’
‘I’m glad my concern is so amusing.’
‘I’m confused.’
‘You know what I’m saying. If you’re thinking about this man in any way other than—’
‘Alice, I told you before; we’re friends, nothing more. In fact, I think I need to tell you something about Aiden.’
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, Paige. What now?’ Alice huffed and sighed, her shoulders dropping under the weight of too many possibilities. She was having trouble keeping up. She was having trouble with lots of things right now, including identifying an unlabelled condiment that looked as icky as the mould she was scrubbing off the rubber fridge seal. Nancy would never allow that.
There was something in the way Paige pinched back a smile just now, too, but Alice’s mind was preoccupied with refrigerator mould and the results of her earlier excursion—a drive with Matilda and Liam who, when asked, had enthusiastically pointed out every access road for each property adjoining Nevaeh.
‘Alice, I’m trying to tell you. Quit with the cleaning and listen to me.’
‘I am listening, Paige. I can do two things at once—three if I include wondering what’s going on in my daughter’s head.’ Four, if I include working out my own assumptions about Aiden, this house and the mysterious landlord.
The evidence, while mounting up, was lacking. Alice hoped she was wrong about Aiden, but she needed information to be sure. Here Paige was offering to tell and Alice was suddenly preoccupied with cleaning. Perhaps she was avoiding the truth and didn’t want her assumptions confirmed at all.
‘Alice?’
‘Very well.’ She huffed and downed tools. ‘Now you have my undivided attention, you might like to start with where Aiden lives—exactly? Next door? Down the street? And who is his family? Are they all in town? What do they do?’ Paige looked a little stunned, batting those long black eyelashes quickly, a sign her brain was trying to make sense of Alice’s inquisition. ‘These aren’t unusual questions for a mother to ask her daughter about a gentleman she’s keeping in her company,’ Alice clarified.
‘Seriously, Alice? Keeping in her company? Yesterday you baulked at me quoting a nineteenth century activist. Your questions make it sound like we’re living in the nineteenth century!’
Alice was about to wave a dismissive hand, claim the mould spores were mucking up her sinuses and excuse herself when Paige dragged a chair out from under the table, plonked squarely on the seat and said, ‘If it will ease your mind, I know his dad is quite sick and his younger brother, Eamon, looks after his father and the family farm.’
‘Aiden has a younger brother?’ Alice said a little too eagerly.
‘A half-brother who lives with his dad, although much younger than Aiden. By ten years, I think he said.’
‘Different mothers?’
She could see a sarcastic response dangling on her daughter’s lips, but Paige simply smiled and said, ‘Yes, different mothers. As for where he lives, Aiden’s family property apparently shares a boundary with this one, which is how Rebel managed to wander over one day after Sharni moved into this place and never left. Her connection with those horses is incredible.’
‘Where’s his mother?’
Paige scrunched her face. ‘Rebel’s mother?’
‘That’s not funny. You know very well I am referring to Aiden. And you’re certain; this house definitely doesn’t belong to his family?’
What was the answer Alice was hoping for? That if this was Aiden’s family home Nancy had not lied to Alice about Teresa lighting the light and luring an innocent and naive young neighbour to the loft.
Was that it?
Alice Foster was a Sudoku devotee, the logic-based number puzzle a perfect match for an analytical, no-nonsense brain. And while her concerns over Aiden might seem far from logical to her daughter, something was not adding up. She no longer knew what was the truth and what was a lie in Nancy’s storytelling, and the possibility of Aiden being the other baby Teresa left behind made a bad situation impossible.
‘Did you hear what I said, Alice?’ Paige was staring. ‘I said, I’ve no reason to think Aiden has any connection to this house, other than a history with the landlord; not that I’ve conducted an internal review of property holdings in the Coolabah Tree Gully district for the last century. But you know what they say about small towns. Everyone’s related to someone somewhere along the line.’
Alice slammed the fridge door. ‘Your comments are facetious and insulting to country communities. Casting aspersions and cultural slurs are unnecessary and do not become you, Paige.’
‘Well, that’s rich coming from someone who called country people small minded only days ago.’
Alice was cornered, her fight or flight responses failing her, her normal rational state of mind in disarray, her unease off the scale. Her daughter had pushed her into a corner by suggesting they attempt potentially dangerous back roads to get to Saddleton. When put like that Alice had had only one choice. To put them at risk, simply because Alice had a hunch, was irresponsible and that was exactly what she had accused Paige of being only yesterday.
No! They’d stay put until it was safe and if they were still here when Rory arrived Alice would have to manage the situation by keeping Paige busy and out of the way—somehow. Feigning one of her bad backs would mean keeping her daughter occupied caring for her and watching over Matilda. Yes, that was it. To keep the lid firmly locked on Nancy’s secret Alice could control by stealth. She’d been doing it for years.
‘You know, for someone who doesn’t want me to “get too involved” . . .’ finger air commas helped make Paige’s point, ‘you sure expect me to have all the answers about Aiden. I’m sorry I don’t. So far we’ve talked about little else but food, fish, cows and aliens.’ Paige laughed, no doubt at Alice’s face. ‘You can always ask Aiden yours
elf tonight. He’ll be here soon, so I might hop in the shower now, if that’s okay?’
Helplessness washed over her. Alice had never been this desperate to solve a puzzle so she could know which way to step first. She feared the ramifications if her daughter’s marriage could not be saved, and was terrified that if her hunch about Rory and Aiden was correct the past would soon collide with the present. Like a train crash, Alice would be both repelled and compelled to watch, in equal measure. All she could do now was hope they would all walk away from the wreckage unharmed.
‘Alice, are you feeling okay? Paige had stopped at the door to the kitchen. ‘You’re face is pale. I was going to shower, but why don’t you go first and slip into bed early? Aiden will understand; I can bring your dinner to your room.’
‘I won’t be going to bed early, thanks. I’ll be right here.’
Alice had showered and dressed in long pants and a long-sleeved shirt. She hoped Paige didn’t notice the colours clashed. Her other long-sleeved shirt had torn earlier, when Alice had climbed back up to the loft. She’d returned to the secret rendezvous spot to sit for a spell, to feel Nancy’s closeness again, to try and understand why she’d thought she had to lie about who had lured who with the lamp.
Even more torn than the shirt were Alice’s thoughts on Rory’s imminent arrival. All these years Alice had kept a secret she’d never seen; one she’d only heard about, albeit briefly because remembering had been too painful for Nancy. Now the secret keeper was suddenly desperate to stay, to see the person responsible for Nancy’s neurosis, and at the same time bring herself some sort of closure.
Things could have been different had Paige’s earlier conversation with Robert gone better. Had the man recognised the opportunity they might have been heading home soon so life could return to normal, but she’d clearly credited the man with more perspicacity than he deserved. Why had he not thrown himself at his wife’s feet, pleaded for forgiveness and begged her to come home? Did the idiot not realise what he could lose—was losing?
Was Alice even right to think Robert was the best way out of this mess—Alice’s mess? Surely her unease at being in Coolabah Tree Gully, and the thought of confronting Nancy’s past, didn’t justify forcing her daughter—the closest thing she had to one—back into a relationship with a man quickly losing Alice’s respect. But Robert suddenly seemed a convenient fix, even though he clearly didn’t love Paige enough. He might have once. The blond-haired, blue-eyed surfer boy with a winning smile and a tongue as smooth as an ocean under a good westerly wind had been quite the catch, with their wedding making the Manly Daily social pages. These days, it was Alice’s approval of him as husband material that changed as often as the wind. Always, in the back of her mind, she’d wanted better for Paige.
Wasn’t that what every parent wanted? Even Alice’s, all those years ago?
Alice knew the answer to that now. She knew Colin and Faye Foster’s anger the night she’d blurted her confession had been born of shock and concern. Yes, they were her parents and hurting. They also knew more than Alice gave them credit for about the challenges she’d face by going against society’s norms. They’d been spot on, too. The hurt Alice felt the night her father had disowned her had been only a taste of what was to follow in the years to come as a bigoted society boxed the people and the behaviours they didn’t understand. Sadly, protecting their daughter from heartache by punishing her and threatening her with estrangement had been the only way the Fosters knew at that time. What had saddened Alice to witness in the weeks preceding her moving out of the family home, what she hadn’t expected and couldn’t control, was her parents’ once strong relationship becoming brittle as they disagreed over the tough love strategy. Faye had pleaded with her husband, but Colin remained proud.
Keeping her lifestyle a secret would have saved them all from the hurt and anguish that had followed, but at the time of her coming out Alice was convinced honesty would be the best policy. Naive and overly optimistic, she’d hoped her parents would understand. They didn’t, of course, but if the fallout from her confession taught her anything, it was living a lie from that moment on would be the only way to save herself from further hurt. So, she retracted her confession and promised her father she would never mention the matter again.
Enter the secret keeper.
If Robert had only managed to keep his affair a secret, Alice would not be a witness to Paige’s marriage breakdown, and she would not be here perpetrating Nancy’s lie and keeping the secret that was protecting Paige from more hurt. The truth was bound to hurt some more than others. Alice feared that someone would be her.
The shared desires and ambitions that had once bound Paige and Robert were now their unravelling, although in Alice’s mind Paige’s ambition to make a name for herself in an industry she’d loved was of a different order to Robert’s constant striving for material wealth. Like a bowerbird he’d collected things to impress others. Unnecessary things, like the latest in technology and kitchen gadgets he didn’t need or even use. The man had loved Paige. He probably still did in his selfish, arrogant way. Who wouldn’t love the smart, funny, beautiful woman? Yes, Alice was biased, but she desperately wanted for Paige the same love and mutual devotion she and Nancy had shared. Nancy had loved Paige so much. Too much, clinging too tightly and for the wrong reasons—reasons she could never tell.
No one could have predicted that the unimaginable might happen and Paige would find her way back to the place Nancy had run from. The very reason Alice wanted to leave this place—the place behind Paige’s nightmare—was the reason she now had to stay. The number of times she’d wanted to quiz Nancy, to understand better by delving into the woman’s life before they met, had left Alice living a damned if you do, damned if you don’t existence. Now, as the sole keeper of the secret, there was even more reason to put controls in place. Robert remained the best way out of this situation with Aiden. Alice would find a way to make it happen.
The urgency became more apparent over dinner as Aiden and Paige fought playfully over the barbecue tongs in between playing with Matilda on the impromptu chalk-drawn hopscotch diagram on the veranda. Whoever and whatever Aiden was in all this, Alice didn’t want Paige getting any more mixed up with this town, or sinking her emotions into the wrong things.
If it wasn’t already too late.
That had been her fear earlier in the evening when Paige tried her hair a different way, applied makeup for the first time since leaving Sydney, and sprayed on perfume that she had no hope of smelling herself.
‘You look very nice, dear,’ Alice had said.
‘Thanks.’ She walked straight over to the table where Alice sat over a Sudoku puzzle. She kissed her on the top of her head.
‘What’s all this about?’ Alice patted the hands Paige wrapped across her chest.
‘Sorry, I was a brat before.’ Paige pulled out a chair and plopped down. ‘Lately I’ve been acting more like Matilda than a mother.’
Alice waved a dismissive hand. ‘You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. It’s that husband of yours who should be begging forgiveness. The man’s an imbecile, but he’s still Matilda’s father.’
Paige baulked at Alice’s unusually conventional stance and pushed back into the chair, a meerkat on high alert. ‘I hope you’re not about to tell me every child needs their father. I was raised perfectly well without a man in my life.’
‘Except Matilda does have one. You can get back home and sort this out with your husband, if not for your sake then for Mati’s. It was one time, Paige. One mistake. His. Don’t you exacerbate the situation.’
‘What if it wasn’t? How do I know he hasn’t done that sort of thing before and this was the only time I found out? Or what if it was the first fling he’d had since we married and now he has a taste for something new, something different, something with no responsibilities and no strings attached?’
That was when Alice had seen the crimson blush break out on Paige’s neck. She knew Paige well e
nough to know she was no longer talking about Robert. Was she asking Alice that question because of something that had happened, or that she knew was about to happen, between her and the man now swinging her granddaughter by the arms as he hopped up and down the chalk-drawn hopscotch pattern?
23
Paige
Paige’s hand toyed with the neck of the wine bottle, her thoughts on everything other than the cleanskin Cab Sav they hadn’t opened over dinner, opting for beers on a hot night. Before she knew it, she’d loosened the screw cap, the lid now firmly gripped in one hand.
‘Beer with a Cab Sav chaser, eh?’ Aiden grimaced. ‘You sure about that? I’ve seen the result of you and booze. Stavros’s rocket fuel, remember?’
‘Then save me—again. Share the bottle. You’d be doing me a favour,’ Paige said, provoking a curious tilt of Aiden’s head.
‘How so?’
‘Pour a glass while I put these last dishes away and I’ll tell you.’
After an early dinner, Paige had tucked an exhausted Matilda into her bed and returned to the kitchen, only to find Aiden putting the final touch on pancakes, sprinkling a crushed Violet Crumble bar over a generous drizzle of local honey.
‘I figured food with different textures might compensate for not tasting,’ he’d said to Paige.
‘That’s so sweet.’
‘Not too sweet, I hope,’ he’d replied, clearly misconstruing Paige’s gratitude for a critique.
If pancakes didn’t appease Alice tonight, nothing would.
An hour later one plate remained untouched on the slatted outdoor table.
When all conversation had slowed to moments of awkward silence, intermingled with comments about the weather, Alice apologised for not eating her pancakes and then muttered something about the forbidden being unspeakably desirable.
Season of Shadow and Light Page 28
