by Lyn Denison
Ashley stumbled, and as Kate grabbed her arm to steady her they saw the two bicycles propped against a stunted china apple tree.
“Oh, God! Kate, those are their bikes,” Ashley said agitatedly and began to run toward the fence again.
Kate grabbed a strand of barbed wire with one hand and put her foot on the other, making an opening for Ashley to climb through. Then Ashley turned and did the same for Kate.
“Oh, Kate. Surely they wouldn’t have gone into the mine. What if…?”
At that moment they heard a sound, and they both turned to see a distraught Josh running headlong down the slight hill toward them.
“Aunty Ash! Aunty Ash!” he cried and threw himself into her arms.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Ashley fell to her knees and tried to calm him.
His shirt was torn, and Kate drew a breath as she saw that his exposed shoulder was grazed and dark with dried blood. Tears streaked through the dirt on his face, and he drew gulping sobs. “It’s Jen. She can’t get out. I couldn’t shift the wood.”
Kate unobtrusively examined his arm and satisfied herself the wound had stopped bleeding. “Show us where,” she said as they turned him back toward the mullocky hill where the old, boarded-up mine shaft was.
We just went in a little way to see what it was like,” Josh told them as they hurried through the tinder, dry spear grass, none of them noticing the spiky barbs that clutched at their bare legs and shorts. They followed the overgrown track through spindly trees and clumps of dark green rubber vines.
“We moved some of the wood until we could squeeze inside and it was dark and then some wood fell on us.” Josh gulped again. “I didn’t want to leave her, but Jen said you’d be looking for us now because we said in the note we’d be home at five. When it got later, Jen said I had to come and get you.” He started to cry again as they came up to the timber-covered mine entrance in the side of the hill.
“I know we shouldn’t have gone in,” Josh said and started to lead the way into the mine.
“Just a minute, Josh.” Kate took hold of his arm. “Let us check it out first.” She examined the timber and carefully pulled a couple more pieces aside to make a bigger opening. “One of us had better stay outside. What do you think?” she said, looking meaningfully at Ashley. “Shall I just go and have a look?”
“No, Kate.” Ashley clutched Josh to her side for a moment. “I’ll come in too.”
Kate wanted to argue the point, but she also didn’t want to upset Josh any more.
Ashley turned to the young boy. “You wait here by the opening. We may need you to run for help. Okay?”
Josh nodded miserably and wiped his eyes with his T-shirt, further smearing his face with dirt.
Slowly and cautiously Kate slipped into the dusty dark cavity of the mine, feeling Ashley close behind her. She stopped inside to allow her eyes to adjust to the dark.
“Jen?” Ashley’s voice broke, and Kate heard her take a calming breath. “Kate and I are here,” she said softly.
A beam of a flashlight flicked on, momentarily blinding Kate, and she held up her hand to shield her eyes.
“Mum. Kate. I’m over here,” Jen said, unable to disguise her relief, and Kate’s gaze followed the beam of light about ten feet in front of her and slightly to the right. “I was saving the batteries in case—”
“Shine the light on the ground so we can see to get to you.”
Jen did as Kate told her to, and Kate inched forward to kneel down in the dirt beside the young girl, Ashley right behind her. As soon as Ashley was beside her, Jen grabbed her mother’s hand and held it tightly.
“I’m okay, Mum,” Jen said bravely. “My leg hurts, but I don’t think it’s broken. I just can’t get it out. Did Josh find you?” Her voice trembled slightly at the end.
“Yes, he’s waiting outside.”
Ashley hugged her daughter.
“Let me have the light so I can see what’s got you caught.” Kate took the flashlight from the young girl and shone it all around, running the light over the ceiling and walls to see if there was any danger from more cave-ins. Everything looked stable, and the section that had fallen seemed to have come from the wall rather than the roof of the mine shaft.
Jen was on her side, her legs twisted under a large wooden beam that lay across her ankles. Kate handed the flashlight to Ashley and then gave the beam a shove. It rocked slightly but didn’t budge.
“The wood’s not pushing on my legs very hard,” Jen said helpfully. “I got Josh to try to take my sneakers off, but he couldn’t reach them.”
“No. I can see there’re some smaller pieces of wood under this beam. They’ve got you caught, but having this heavier support beam resting on your legs probably saved you.”
There was no way Kate could see that they could free Jen without moving the weighty strut. Kate evaluated the situation. If they couldn’t lift it, they could try levering it with the tire iron. If that failed, they’d have to go for help.
“If Jen holds the light and shines it over toward the beam, do you think between us we could lift it together?” Ashley asked, her voice strained.
“We’ll have a go,” Kate said, and Ashley handed the light back to her daughter.
Jen turned it until the light shone on the rotting timber, which to Kate was looking heavier by the minute. She couldn’t see Ashley’s face, so she didn’t know how confident she was feeling. “Are you mad at me, Mum?” Jenny asked tremulously, and Ashley wiped her daughter’s hair back from her grimy face.
“I was just worried about you. Now, don’t try moving unless we tell you to. Ready, Kate?”
Kate nodded, and after some trouble got her arms under the timber. Ashley followed suit. They counted down and then heaved at the beam. It rocked but didn’t budge. After two tries they’d barely moved it.
Kate sat back, catching her breath. They’d have to go for help.
“Can we try pushing it with our legs?” Ashley’s voice sounded thin with concern. “If we sit back like this, do you think that would work?”
“It’s worth a try” Kate got herself into position beside Ashley, and they pushed out with their legs.
The timber slid a few inches. Moving it a little at a time they eventually got the wood to slip back. Then Jen gave a wriggle, and her feet came free.
“I’m out,” she cried eagerly, and Ashley clutched her daughter to her.
Kate rescued the flashlight from the floor where Jen had dropped it. The dark cavern was starting to close in on her, and she began to think again of further cave-ins. “Let’s go then,” she said as casually as she could. “Think you can walk, Jen?”
With her mother’s and Kate’s help, Jen struggled to her feet. Kate shone the light toward the opening, and they half carried Jen out into the daylight.
Josh seemed to slump his tensed muscles as they appeared. “Is she okay?” he asked anxiously, and Jen grinned.
“I’m okay, just my right ankle’s pretty sore.” Kate’s gaze met Ashley’s, relief reflected in her eyes, and she tried to smile.
“Perhaps Jen shouldn’t walk too much until we get a doctor to look at her leg,” Kate suggested. Ashley nodded.
“Kate and I will link our arms and make a seat for you to sit on,” Ashley told Jen, and they supported her down to the fence.
Josh helped hold the barbed wire aside, and soon they were back at the car. By the time the doctors and nurses at the casualty department of the local hospital had cleaned and dressed both children’s cuts and scratches and verified with X rays that nothing was broken, it was almost eight o’clock. Kate drove them all home, and while Ashley supervised baths Kate made hamburgers out of leftovers from the party the night before.
She opened the refrigerator to replace the unused salads when she spied a scrap of paper sticking out from under the fridge. She reached down to pick it up and realized she was holding the note Jenny and Josh had insisted they’d left for Ashley. It must have blown onto the floor
while Ashley slept.
“Well, that solves that mystery,” Ashley said when they returned to the kitchen and Kate showed her the note.
“I told you we’d left the note, Mum,” Jen reiterated. “I’d never go anywhere without telling you first.”
Ashley gave her a squeeze. “I know. That’s why I was so worried about you both when I discovered you’d gone.”
“Next time I’ll put a rock on the note,” Jenny said.
“Next time you’d better wake me up, hmm?” Ashley advised her. “Just to be on the safe side.”
Jenny nodded. “Okay,” she said with a sigh. “But you were so tired.”
Kate caught Ashley’s quick glance at her and felt her face flush. She set the hamburgers on plates and passed them around. The four of them ate ravenously.
“You and Mum should have a shower, too,” Jen said after they’d eaten. She was somewhat subdued after the discussion they’d had about the dangerous side of what she referred to as adventures. “You’re all dusty and grimy as well.”
Ashley looked across at Kate. “Why don’t you go in and have a shower while Jenny and Josh help me stack the dishwasher.”
“I can shower when I get home. You get cleaned up, and I’ll do the clearing away,” Kate suggested, loath to leave Ashley but feeling obliged to make an effort not to appear too eager to stay.
Yet that’s exactly what Kate wanted to do. She wanted to help Ashley into bed, tuck her in, kiss her good night. Make love to her again. And again. But she knew she was being selfish. Ashley still looked tired and drawn. She’d been through a stressful afternoon and evening.
“Actually, I’d like to talk to you, Kate,” Ashley said carefully and glanced at the attentive children. “About the author afternoon at the library,” she fabricated a little breathlessly.
Her cheeks flamed, and Kate swallowed, knowing Ashley was thinking about last night. In those few seconds Kate tortured herself with different scenarios.
What would Ashley say about it? Did she still feel the same or would she have changed her mind again? What if she now felt she’d got Kate out of her system as Rosemary suggested Kate should do? And what did Kate herself want?
Silly question, her inner voice jeered. Or no question at all. Kate knew she wanted Ashley as she always had. Only more so.
And then she recalled that moment last night when Jen had been about to go to bed. Kate had known then how much she cared about Ashley. And her daughter.
“The author afternoon,” she repeated, trying to keep her voice even, also aware of the children listening. “Oh. All right. Perhaps I could go home and shower and change and maybe come back for an hour or so.”
Ashley looked as though she would argue and then she nodded. “That would be great.”
She refused Kate’s offer of help with the dinner dishes, so Kate set off home, complete with a borrowed flashlight to light her way.
Had it only been short hours ago that she’d trod this same path with Ashley, walked beside her up the steps and into the house? And ended up making such exhilarating love with her.
And it had been exhilarating, Kate admitted. Her memories of making love with Ashley had been wonderful, but last night had been indescribable. Kate’s body had responded as though, all these years, it had been lying dormant, poised, waiting for Ashley to touch her again.
Kate paused beneath the tamarind tree and looked up at their hideaway. The heat of the day still hovered in the air, a desultory breeze barely shimmering the fine leaves on the old tree, shadowy against the night sky.
Here she and Ashley had laughed and cried, told secrets and made plans, kissed and made love. And here they’d had their one and only full-scale argument. Well, the argument had started here in the tree house, but they’d finished it at the football club dance.
Kate remembered how bad she’d felt afterward, dying a thousand deaths during the week of silence when they didn’t so much as look at each other. And just when Kate could stand it no longer, was preparing to go over to the Macleans’ and talk to Ashley, Ashley had called her. Ashley’s family was out, so Kate slipped through the fence and they’d apologized, held each other, and made love.
She could see them now, sitting in their leafy retreat all those years ago. She remembered so vividly the feeling of dread that had swept over her when Ashley casually stated that Dean had asked her to go to the dance with him.
“You aren’t going, are you?” she asked tremulously, and Ashley shrugged.
“Why not? Maybe it’ll be fun.”
“Oh, Ash, no. Don’t go with him.” The entreaty burst from Kate before she could hold back the words.
“It’ll be all right, Kate. You’ll go too, with Phillip. Dean said Phillip’s going to ask you to.”
“I don’t want to go with Phillip. I won’t be able to stand dancing with him,” Kate said miserably. And she knew what she wanted to say was that she wouldn’t be able to endure seeing Ashley dancing with Dean Andrews.
“You don’t have to dance every dance with Phillip. Besides, Tim says the dances are great. They play mostly modern music so we wouldn’t have to do any cheek to cheek stuff.”
“Oh, sure.”
“Kate, everyone expects us to go with Dean and Phillip,” Ashley said earnestly, and Kate bit her lip.
“Who is this everyone, anyway?” Kate demanded petulantly.
“Well, my parents. Friends. Everyone at school.”
“This is getting far too involved, Ash. Don’t you see that?” Kate appealed. “Surely we don’t have to go with them all the time? Next thing you know this same everyone will be saying were going steady with Dean and Phillip. And I’d hate that.”
Ashley clasped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees. She was silent for a while, and then she sighed.
“Kate, I like it that Mum and Dad think I’m going out with Dean. And it has put an end to Tim’s awful insinuations.”
The sinking feeling in Kate’s stomach grew more insistent, and she swallowed. “I just wish the year was over and we were down in Brisbane together.”
“We will be.” Ashley smiled and ran her fingers slowly along Kate’s cheek, resting her fingertips on Kate’s lips. Then she kissed her. “And, apart from that, I can cope with Mum’s mother-daughter talks about what not to do with boys far better than I could cope if she started on what I should and shouldn’t do with you.”
Kate laughed in spite of the bad feelings she had about the upcoming dance. She slid her hands under Ashley’s shirt and teased her hardening nipples. “Shall we do what we shouldn’t?”
The pleasure of making love forced Kate’s disquiet from her mind, but as the day of the dance drew closer she felt a renewed apprehension. Phillip was borrowing his mother’s car, and Ashley was going in Dean’s car. To Kate this only seemed to force her further away from Ashley.
And for Kate the dance had been as stressful as she predicted it would be.
Quite a few of their classmates were there with partners and, in the beginning, the women had seated themselves at one end of the hall while the men clustered around the beer keg at the opposite end.
This wasn’t so bad, Kate decided, and began to relax a little even though the music was so loud she suspected she’d end up with a king-size headache. At least no one was dancing so she could sit with Ashley and a couple of their friends from school.
The others were telling Ashley who they’d come with to the dance and giggling over who had paired with whom.
“Wow, Ash!” one of the young women exclaimed excitedly. “Dean Andrews is gorgeous. You’re so lucky to be going out with him. We’d all just die if he’d asked us.”
“You probably would die, Joanie,” said Wendy, the class comedian. “Ashley would see to it, wouldn’t you, Ash?”
Ashley laughed, her color high.
Kate’s heart sank. She fought the urge to pull Ashley to her, tell everyone this thing with Dean Andrews was all a sham, that she, Kate Ballantyne, was
the one Ashley really loved.
“Dean’s so cool,” said another girl. “Oh, good grief! He’s coming this way.”
Kate turned and watched as Dean approached. She felt her jaw tense. He joined their group with the easy confidence of someone who knew he was admired.
“Want to dance, Ash?” he asked, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet. He slid his arm around her waist, leading her onto the dance floor without waiting for her acquiescence.
Kate fumed inwardly as the other young women gazed at the couple with envy.
“Don’t they look so romantic together,” someone said, and Kate had to close her eyes as a shaft of jealousy sliced through her like a knife.
Gradually the others joined the dancers on the floor, and Kate wished miserably she hadn’t let Ashley talk her into coming. Then Phillip materialized beside her and asked her to dance. Reluctantly she stood up and followed him. Anything was better than sitting watching Ashley and Dean together.
Phillip began moving self-consciously to the music, and Kate tried to relax. Neither she nor Phillip looked at each other as they danced. Kate couldn’t seem to get with the beat, and she slid a glance at Phillip, deciding he looked as awkward as she felt.
A couple of interminable hours later, Kate could scarcely wait for the evening to end. She’d barely seen or spoken to Ashley, who had danced most of the night with Dean while Kate tried to pretend to Phillip she was enjoying herself. To Kate it felt as though the evening was going to go on forever.
And then the lights dimmed and the band struck up a slow, schmaltzy number. To Kate’s horror, Phillip stepped up to Kate and pulled her into his arms. She tried desperately to hide the distaste she felt when his damp palm clutched at hers.
It took all her concentration to hold herself apart from him, and then she saw Ashley and Dean, their bodies molded together. As Kate watched, Dean bent his head and began kissing Ashley. And Ashley didn’t try to pull away. As far as Kate could see, Ashley was kissing him back.
Kate stumbled in her agitation, and Phillip took advantage of it to propel Kate up against him. She cringed, her face flaming in the semidarkness as she felt the hardness of his erection against her stomach.
