by Margaret Way
Elizabeth laughed, even with tears standing in her eyes. “He’s probably handed them to Dev, anyway, my dear.”
He felt his own mouth twitch in response.
* * *
The mansion was crammed with people. Sombre for as long as it took, it had turned into more of a social catch-up. Most were eating and drinking, partaking of the lavish spread, as though expecting a world famine. There was no sign of her mother, Mel saw. Sarina had disappeared. She was no longer Kooraki’s housekeeper. She wasn’t even the person she had been. Sarina, with the expectation of a legacy, had morphed into someone else, someone independent, free of all the old restraints. Mel cringed inwardly at the thought of what Gregory Langdon had left her mother. She had the certainty it would be a sizeable sum. Above and beyond the usual services rendered. The gossip and the cruel jokes would start up again.
From time to time she felt Dev’s eyes on her. They were tracking one another while remaining apart. She felt his strength reaching for her but she held back. She wasn’t family. Ava, in a perfect black dress that contrasted with her camellia skin and golden hair drawn back in a French knot, moved from group to group, accepting condolences. A few strands had escaped when she had taken off her wide-brimmed hat. Now they glittered like golden filaments around her lovely fine-boned face. Her husband, Luke, moved with her, charming to all and sundry. It dawned on Mel that Luke was sending far too many glances in her direction. Luke, the womanizer even on his wedding day. He had actually tried to kiss her during the reception. She’d been quick to put the distressing incident down to the number of glasses of champagne he had downed. Her thought then, as now, was that Ava should never have married him. Luke Selwyn wasn’t a man of substance. Or integrity. Worse, he had a roving eye.
The house was chock-a-block with flowers, all flown in. Banks of flowers and ornate wreaths had covered the casket. Such a heavy fragrance was in the house Mel found it overpowering. As the crowd had shifted and moved on, she had caught some of the whispers behind hands.
What will she do now? What will happen to her now her protector’s gone?
The whispers would never go away. Her mother was just too beautiful and her stunning appearance today was a further eye-opener. It was given to few women to be able to utterly bewitch a man, a man of the calibre of Gregory Langdon. Not only bewitch him but hold him against all the odds. It was easy to fall in love. It was far more difficult to keep that love alive. Nothing would ever be the same again. Nothing would bring Gregory Langdon back. His glorious/inglorious reign, depending on one’s point of view, was over.
* * *
Across the huge living room, Dev was talking to the O’Hare family. Flame-haired Siobhan O’Hare, the only daughter, was staring up at the strikingly handsome Dev as though there couldn’t be a man alive to match him. Mel didn’t blame her. Dev had always known and liked Siobhan. She was warm and friendly, eminently eligible as a prospective bride for Dev. The O’Hares were big landowners, with a pioneering history to match the Langdons and the Devereaux. Siobhan was very pretty, very bright, Outback born and reared, educated to university level in Sydney. Siobhan O’Hare was an ideal choice for James Devereaux Langdon. Mel knew just about everyone in the room would agree. Even she agreed. Her mother’s long “association” with Gregory Langdon had put a taint on their relationship. Much as she loved Dev and battled with her anguished feelings, she wasn’t the right match for him. Her dubious background had ensured that. Dev didn’t need a wife who brought with her so much tawdry baggage.
Just as she was thinking of making a move upstairs, Dev joined her, after weaving deftly through the crowd. “How’s it going?”
“Why do they do it?” Mel asked, deflecting a direct answer. “This is a wake, isn’t it? Most of them look like they’re at a party. Makes you think.”
“It’s the drink,” Dev said. “Not safe to drink at funerals. Have you any idea where your mother is?”
How strange was that? “Lord, I’d be the last person to ask,” she said wryly.
“Maybe she’s packing as we speak.” Dev gave her a tight smile.
Mel shrugged a shoulder, trying to hide the pain of utter disillusionment. “Could be. Your grandfather has left her provided for.”
Dev nodded agreement. “I’m thinking a couple of million.”
“And that paid for how many sexual encounters, do you suppose?”
“I would say Sarina put a high price on her own worth. Anyway, what’s a couple of million when you’re worth a couple of billion all up?”
“Dear God!” Mel’s voice was constricted with strain.
In his formal dark clothes he looked stunningly handsome. The thick waves of his beautiful blond hair caught and held the light. “Maybe I’d better prepare you,” he said.
She felt a rush of trepidation. “Prepare me for what?”
“Like I need to tell you? My grandfather cared for you, Mel.”
“You mean he cared for Sarina’s daughter.”
“If you want to think of it that way. My grandfather has looked after Sarina. Fine. I don’t have a problem with that. It’s my educated guess he has looked after you, as well. Which means you need to sit in on the will reading.”
Mel had no option but to appear calm. She was aware people were looking their way, unaware the air around them appeared to others to be charged with electric energy. Most people had greeted Mel in friendly fashion, congratulating her on finding a place with the top-notch merchant bank, Greshams. To others she would always be That Woman’s Daughter.
“I’m not coming to any will reading, Dev,” she said flatly.
He took her arm. “I’ll be right there beside you.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Do you have any idea if my mother will attend? She hasn’t confided in me. I don’t know who she is any more.” For a brief moment she considered telling him what her mother had said. But it was neither the time nor the place.
“Did we ever know?” Dev shocked her by saying. “What a difference a death makes! Today, the day of my grandfather’s funeral, your mother has chosen to look absolutely stunning.”
“She was just masquerading as a housekeeper.”
“You mother’s lifelong strategy has been pulling the wool over your eyes, Mel. Keeping us all in the dark, for that matter. She’s been an excellent housekeeper. No one can deny that. She trained the household staff so well they’ve been able to handle things today in her absence. With no warning, she simply quit.”
“Maybe your father was informed?” Mel hoped that was the case.
“No,” Dev confirmed.
Mel stared down at the magnificent antique Ziegler Sultanabad rug, focusing on the beautiful muted colours and the exquisite motifs as though fascinated. “I can’t get my head around what’s happening here. My mother is actually two people. Could it be late-onset schizophrenia?”
Dev stared down at her beautiful face, seeing how very upset she was behind the calm. “It usually strikes young people, Mel. I can’t imagine a crueller condition, the structure of your brain split virtually overnight. Your mother is as sane as they come. She’s exactly who she chooses to be at any given time. I think, with my grandfather gone, she’s finally coming out into the open.”
Mel exhaled an anguished breath. “What a searing assessment.” She was feeling more and more out of place here, among these people with their privileged backgrounds. She should never have come. She should have stuck to her guns. “What will she do now?” she asked bleakly. “It breaks my heart, but she doesn’t want me. She never wanted me. She told me she fell pregnant by mistake.” Mel lifted her dark head to stare into Dev’s jewelled eyes. “That’s me—a mistake.”
“Stupid woman!” Dev swore beneath his breath. “She’s probably jealous of you, Mel.”
“Has it ever struck you, Dev, my mother looks ten years younger than her age? I’ve always put it down to her beautiful Italian skin.”
“Your flawless skin.” Today, beautifully made-up and
dressed so elegantly, Sarina Norton would have passed for a woman in her late thirties.
“I’m going upstairs now.” Determination firmed Mel’s classic features. “I can’t stay here. When news gets out your grandfather left my mother a lot of money it will only confirm the rumours. It’s as well my mother appears set to embark on a new life.”
“Now she’s free of her chains,” Dev said satirically. “But don’t you think of leaving, Mel. I won’t let you.”
“Really?” She rounded on him, her dark eyes flashing fire. “And how do you propose to stop me?”
“You’ll find out if you try to leave before the will is read. We need to know where we are, Mel.”
“I know where I am.” Mel threw up her lustrous head. “I’m the Outsider. Always was. Always will be. I can only take on what I can handle, Dev. You have to forget me.”
His handsome face set into a dark golden mask. “Are you mad?”
“On the contrary, I’m being realistic. It will be all the better for you, Dev. Marry Siobhan O’Hare. You like her. I like her. Everyone likes her. She’s actually ideal.”
Dev gave her a long hard look. “Except, actually, I don’t feel anything remotely like love for her.”
“Love isn’t the total package.” Mel was afraid she would make a spectacle of herself by bursting into tears. “Think about it, Dev. For all we’ve shared, I’m not right for you. Siobhan is. She hasn’t taken her eyes off us. Doesn’t that tell you something? She and her family have high hopes.”
“Then there’s disappointing news in store for them,” he said with diamond-hard intent. “Siobhan might think she fancies me, but she’ll recover as soon as she meets the right guy.” He detained Mel by taking her arm. “Please don’t run away, Mel. Not yet. My mother wants to talk to you. She thought of herself as an Outsider, as well.”
“Your family would have sucked the life out of anybody,” Mel retorted. “Of course I’ll speak to your mother. She was always kind to us.”
“Then let me take you to her. Dad can’t let her out of his sight now she’s here. He still loves her, you know. He never stopped.”
“What price love?” Mel asked in a deeply resigned voice.
* * *
Mel tried to shake all her disturbing thoughts out of her head as they approached Elizabeth Langdon. Dev handed her over, then left the two women to a few valuable minutes alone. Elizabeth, a refined, attractive woman, impeccably dressed with lovely chestnut hair and dark amber eyes, looked at Mel with genuine affection. “You’re staying on for a while, aren’t you, dear?”
“I’m not exactly sure, Mrs Langdon.”
“Elizabeth, please,” the older woman insisted. “A few days, surely?’
“Probably,” Mel answered.
Elizabeth patted her arm supportively. “I’d like to hear all about what you’ve been doing before I go back. You always were a clever girl, Mel. And the way you used to stand up to my mother-in-law!” She gave a low gurgle. “That was truly memorable. I’ve never forgotten it. So young and you had more courage than I did.”
“Maybe it’s because I was so young,” Mel suggested with an answering smile. “It’s so good to see you again, Elizabeth. I wasn’t sure if you were coming.”
“I’m here to support my children, my darling Ava in particular. Dev has always stood on his own two feet. Now I see my husband needs support. We never did get a divorce,” she confided softly.
“I’m certain he’s most grateful for your presence,” Mel said, knowing it was true.
“What’s happened to your mother?” Elizabeth asked with a tiny frown. “I don’t see her anywhere.”
“I think she’s being discreet,” Mel managed.
“Difficult when you’re such an outstandingly beautiful woman,” Elizabeth said rather dryly. “First time I’ve seen Sarina in years, yet she grows amazingly younger.” To Elizabeth, Sarina Norton had always been an enigma. Inititally she had felt sorry for the widowed Sarina, but she could never read her. Never get behind the inscrutable mask. Her little daughter, however, had been blazingly upfront. “She should get well away from here,” Elizabeth advised in a serious but kindly voice.
“I’m pretty sure that’s her intention,” said Mel.
* * *
Mel didn’t know what her mother’s intentions were. Sarina had wanted her here for Gregory Langdon’s sake only. She wasn’t prepared to talk. Even now she would be bitterly regretting what information had been shocked out of her about her early life. Truly, Sarina had gone through her life like a performer in a play. Michael Norton had committed himself to looking after her and her newborn daughter. Michael Norton had given them both love. Sarina’s story wasn’t closed. It was wide open as far as Mel was concerned.
She walked the long gallery to her mother’s room, desperate for finality. She needed to know who her biological father was. Anyone would accept that, but it simply hadn’t occurred to Sarina. She had to be pathologically self-centred, taking little account of the feelings of others.
Outside her mother’s door, she rapped hard, feeling the tight pressure in her chest. Things between her and her mother had changed forever. Sarina would have little difficulty cutting ties.
Sarina took so long to come to the door, Mel thought there was no point in hanging around. For all she knew, her mother, away from the intense scrutiny of others, could be crying her heart out. It was all wrong. She had only one child, and a smart-thinking child. She had no memory of seeing her mother in tears in the long weeks and months following Michael’s tragic death. She had always supposed her mother had hidden her tears, preferring to grieve in private. How wrong could one be?
She was turning away when the door opened. Her mother stood there, still in her expensive black dress, the coldest expression on her beautiful face. It might have been an unwelcome stranger come to her door. This upset Mel immensely. Never in a million years had she anticipated her mother could be like this. She had thought their relationship was loving.
The loving was all on your side.
“What is it, Amelia?” Sarina looked determined to keep it short.
“May I come in, Mum?” Mel heard and didn’t like the pleading note in her voice. “I need to talk more with you. You must understand that.”
“It does no good.” Still Sarina stood back, allowing Mel to enter the large room. It had been redecorated at some expense, Mel saw at once. Her mother had a spacious bedroom with an en suite bathroom and adjoining sitting room. Here, in her private quarters, Sarina had made a bold statement. The décor had a rich, almost opulent, feel with striking colour combinations at great variance with the pastel tones of old. Sarina had used desert colours, burnt orange, sienna, gold, cobalt and a deep coral red. There was a striking painting on the wall, a desert landscape by a famous Outback artist. Gregory Langdon must have given it to her. No way could her mother have afforded it. He must have given her all sorts of things, Mel suddenly realized. But all trace of tears had been wiped from Sarina’s matt cheeks.
“May I sit down?” Mel found herself asking of her own mother.
Her mother gave her an odd look. “Of course. You must know I’m extremely upset with you, Amelia.”
“I’m sorry about that, but I’ve given you no good reason to be.”
“No reason, after the abominable things you said to me?” Sarina reacted as though Mel had committed treason. “You called me—your mother—a liar.”
“But you don’t tell the truth, do you?” Mel countered. “I’m a grown woman holding down a pretty important job, yet you continue to treat me like a child. Everything has been on the ‘need-to-know or no-need-to-know’ basis. Anyone would think you were in a witness-protection program. It’s got to the point where I’m prepared to believe anything. You’ve hidden yourself away on Kooraki all these long years. What are you afraid of? Or was it simply you loved Gregory Langdon? You couldn’t bear to be parted from him. And he, you. That was the big scandal of our lives, but an open secret.
Perhaps you can find it in your heart to tell me your plans for the future? I’m aware they may not include me. If that’s the case, why don’t you come right out and say it?”
Sarina settled herself into a deep-seated armchair upholstered in an exotic print that appeared to match the real Sarina’s personality. There was a particular scent in the room, a mix of perfume and some kind of incense.
“How is your relationship with Dev going?” Sarina asked instead, her tone oddly intrusive. “Don’t ever expect him to marry you, Amelia. I know he has you but he’ll never marry you.”
Mel was genuinely shocked. Was her mother deliberately setting out to hurt her? What was her strategy? “Excuse me, Mum, but you sound like you’d mind a great deal if he did.” She held her mother’s dark gaze with her own.
“It won’t happen,” Sarina stated flatly, as though privy to inside information.
Maybe she was. Maybe Gregory Langdon had given his grandson a shortlist of eligible young women to consider. Megan Kennedy and Siobhan O’Hare were certain to be included on that list.
“We’re not talking about me, Mum,” Mel pointed out as calmly as she could. “We’re talking about you. I can sort out my own life. No way would I ever become anyone’s mistress!” It was out before she could withdraw it, a retaliatory blow that hung heavily in the air. Perhaps her lack of insight into her mother’s unfathomable personality could be attributed to the amount of time she had spent away from her—boarding school at twelve, the years at university, then her job. For the first time in her life Mel felt her mother could abandon her just as easily as she had abandoned her early life.
Sarina’s dark eyes glittered coldly. “You can leave, Amelia. This is my room. I’m stuck in it until I leave.”
“Perhaps that’s because you quit without notice,” Mel pointed out.
Sarina stood up, gesturing hard. “I don’t want you here in this frame of mind.”
