Birthright

by Fiona Lowe

  Sarah’s cup clattered onto her saucer. ‘Why? What’s wrong?’

  ‘Cameron said he heard on the grapevine that the old Guthrie place is going to be demolished for road widening.’

  ‘Ellie hasn’t mentioned anything to me.’ When Anita raised her brows at the comment, Sarah gave a strained laugh. ‘You’re right. When does my little sister ever tell me anything? Hell, she doesn’t even ask me for things.’

  Anita passed Sarah another cupcake. ‘You have every right to feel hurt. She shouldn’t have bypassed you and gone to Alex about those jobs. She’s lucky you didn’t say no.’

  ‘And disadvantage people who’ve already suffered so much? I couldn’t do that just because Ellie’s thoughtless when it comes to her own family. She’s always been self-centred. I’ve often wondered how different things might have been if Dad hadn’t died when he did. It was bad enough for Cam and me but we’d already left home. Ellie was so young and people felt sorry for her. Combine sympathy with those blonde curls, huge baby-blue eyes, and butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-her-mouth smile, and no one was prepared to say no to her. She knew it and she got away with murder.’ Sarah sipped her tea. ‘I find it really odd that someone with so little regard for her own family works so hard helping others.’

  ‘Perhaps she’s appeasing her guilt for what she did to Margaret? For how she treats you now?’

  ‘Who knows. I’ve almost given up trying to work her out.’ Sarah wriggled in her chair as though shaking off uncomfortable thoughts. ‘Anyway, I’ve got more important things to worry about than Ellie.’

  ‘Gus and the football thing?’ Anita refilled Sarah’s cup. She always listened carefully to her sister-in-law when she talked about her children, their antics and how she managed them. Anita’s mothering was instinctive only in as much as she vehemently knew what she didn’t want to do. As for the rest, she read parenting books, attended seminars and closely observed women who appeared to have a good relationship with their kids.

  ‘Actually, it’s more Alex than Gus. He’s taking Gus’s three-week suspension from the firsts as a personal insult. I thought he’d be over it by now, but he’s still grumpy and out of sorts, stomping around at home and in the office. He’s driving the staff mad. The other day he was all bent out of shape about the accounting software. I told Kelly she was a saint to put up with him.’

  ‘That’s not like Alex.’

  ‘Actually, he’s often grumpy about the accounting software.’

  Anita laughed. ‘Men. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.’

  ‘Right now I could live without Alex behaving worse than my teenagers.’ Sarah fiddled with her Russian wedding ring, rolling the bands over each other. ‘You know, I expect drama and tantrums from the kids but not from my husband. I don’t get it. It’s not like he even played footy when he was a kid. Hockey was his sport.’

  ‘Don’t be too hard on him.’ Anita was always a little bit in awe of Alex, not that she’d ever admit that to Sarah or Cameron. She thought about how Cameron had been happier and more excited about each day since they’d moved to Mingunyah. All that new energy flowed into their marriage. ‘Perhaps Alex needs a new project?’

  Sarah groaned. ‘Don’t say that. We’ve just reached a point in the business where we’ve got some time to ourselves. Besides, cycling’s his new project—he doesn’t need another one. He’s riding about fourteen hours a week as it is.’

  Anita changed tack. ‘It sounds like he’s got himself organised. What about you? You keep talking about finding something for yourself.’

  ‘I think my project’s working with Mum to sort through everything in this house. She’s a magpie and there’s still stuff here that belonged to Grandpa. I thought her overflowing wardrobes would be a good place to start.’

  Anita’s heart raced. Somehow, she managed to swallow her squeak of protest before it exploded across her lips and gave away Margaret’s secret. ‘That’s a bit personal, isn’t it? Clothes are more than just material, they’re memories. You know she’s still got the dress she wore to your father’s funeral? How can you expect her to part with that?’

  Sarah’s head fell back and for a moment she silently gazed at the ceiling. ‘I suppose when you put it like that …’

  Anita’s anxiety receded slightly but she needed to cement her argument. ‘And we both know how stubborn Margaret can be. You’ve got a better chance of her cooperating if you start on the easy jobs.’ Anita tapped her head as a thought occurred to her. ‘I know. What about the study? She’s probably got tax returns dating back to the day she and Kevin moved in. I doubt she’s emotionally bonded to those.’

  Sarah shot her a grateful smile. ‘And this is why you’re more of a sister to me than Ellie’s ever been.’

  ‘Ellie’s loss is my gain,’ Anita said, meaning every word and burying her guilt. After all, biological sisters kept secrets from each other and Ellie was keeping far more than one small secret from Sarah.

  CHAPTER

  6

  ‘On behalf of my people, we thank you for opportunity.’ Kin Hoo, Valley View’s Burmese community leader, pressed his hands together and gave a quick nod of his head to the Mingunyah cheese makers and farm workers seated in the break room. ‘Burmese people very happy to work here. Be part of Mingunyah Cheese. Taste very good.’

  A ripple of laughter wove around the room.

  ‘I thought you lot were lactose intolerant,’ Des Winke called out.

  Kin Hoo looked momentarily confused and Ellie said, ‘Does milk upset your stomach?’

  ‘Ah!’ He nodded his understanding and looked straight at Des, his brown eyes shining. ‘But goat milk okay. Better than cow.’

  ‘Blood oath it is, cobber,’ Des said proudly.

  ‘Does anyone else have any more questions?’ Ellie had already spoken to the group prior to introducing Kin Hoo but it was always good to follow up.

  ‘What about the women?’ Susie Faraday asked belligerently. ‘Why aren’t they being offered any jobs?’

  ‘Many Burmese women are working in Valley View,’ Ellie said carefully, wishing to avoid accusations of being sexist. ‘We’re very grateful the Hadfields can offer employment but it was the families’ decision that the men would accept the first four jobs.’

  ‘Women want work too,’ Kin Hoo said. ‘We hope soon be more jobs.’

  ‘In the run-up to Christmas,’ Sarah said, ‘we’re hoping to be able to offer work to three women. If you’d like to be involved in the orientation and training, Susie, that would be fabulous.’

  Ellie glanced at her sister, surprised and impressed at the smooth way she’d handled a possibly explosive situation. Then again, why was she surprised? Sarah was half of a very successful business after all, but Ellie rarely thought of her as anything other than her older and disapproving sister.

  ‘Yeah, I’d like that.’ Susie stuck her hands in the pockets of her white coat, the uniform of the cheese workers. ‘I reckon it doesn’t matter where you’re from, what you look like or what language you speak, us women need to stick together.’

  The men groaned but most of the other women nodded their support. Ellie smiled directly at Susie. ‘That’s very true. Thank you. I’m sure the women will appreciate your support. Valley View Neighbourhood House has a Thursday night women’s dinner once a month. You’re very welcome to come along. On the whole, Valley View’s been very welcoming.’

  ‘Mingunyah’s better,’ one of the men called out.

  ‘Hey, Sarah. What about throwing one of those Friday team lunches at the end of this lot’s first week?’ another said.

  ‘I’m sure that’s possible, Craig.’

  Ellie thanked everyone for their time and released a breath as people drifted back to work. Kin Hoo and the other Burmese men left with Alex for a tour of the farm and the dairies.

  ‘That went better than I’d hoped. You have lovely employees.’

  ‘Most of them are great.’ Sarah walked over to the coffee machine.
‘Do you have time for one?’

  ‘Sure.’ She wanted to plead busy and bolt but that would make her look ungrateful when really she was very appreciative of Alex and Sarah’s support of the Burmese. ‘Any chance of a chai tea?’

  Ellie regretted the question the moment the hint of a grimace touched Sarah’s lips.

  ‘I thought you’d given up meat but wine and coffee were your vices.’

  Ellie gave an overly bright smile. ‘They are indeed my vices. It’s just lately I’ve been lying awake staring at the ceiling, so I thought I’d try cutting back.’

  ‘I’m probably overly dependent on my two o’clock coffee but without it I struggle to stay focused for the rest of the afternoon.’ Sarah pressed the grinder button on the Italian coffee machine before throwing a tea bag into a mug and adding a small amount of boiling water from a tap. ‘This probably falls far short of the wet chai you use.’

  Ellie mostly used tea bags but she didn’t correct Sarah. She rarely bothered to correct anyone unless it was going to impact badly on her. On most occasions, the incorrect idea provided her with an element of safety; one more defence in keeping people at arm’s length. Instead of making small talk while Sarah frothed the milk for their drinks, she wandered over and read the break room’s noticeboard. There were ads for free-range eggs, quilting classes, an audition notice for MADS—the Mingunyah Amateur Drama Society—and someone had pinned a bevy of business cards around the edge of the board to form a colourful border.

  The bright blue and red logo of Mingunyah Plumbing Heating & Cooling Specialists caught her eye. She instantly thought of Luke presenting her with a coffee and his open and teasing smile. A smile that disarmed her. That concerned her; she prided herself on being immune to smiles and the sharp teeth that so often lay behind them.

  ‘What are you looking at?’ Sarah handed her a mug.

  ‘We have the same plumber.’

  ‘I’m surprised you need a plumber if your house is being demolished. By the way, I found out that bit of news from Anita who heard it from Cameron. Did you ever intend to tell me?’

  The words hit with the sting of a reprimand. ‘I didn’t tell Cameron and I wasn’t deliberately keeping it from you, I just didn’t think it was worth mentioning. We tend to communicate by phone and email rather than visiting, and neither of those details will change when I move. You’ll still be able to contact me.’

  ‘What if I was driving past and I wanted to drop in?’

  Ellie laughed, enjoying the amusement of the absurd.

  ‘What’s so funny?’ Sarah sounded genuinely mystified as well as snippy.

  Too late, Ellie realised her sister hadn’t been cracking a joke. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Oh, come on, Sarah. There’s no need to sound so pissed off. I thought you were joking. After all, you’ve never dropped in on me before, so why would you suddenly start now? I mean, how often are you even in Valley View, just driving past?’

  Sarah’s nostrils flared. ‘I don’t think it’s an unreasonable request for your family to know your new address.’

  ‘Okay. Fine.’ Ellie took a big slug of her tea, hoping the spices would magically soothe her.

  ‘Do you have a new address?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  ‘When do you have to be out?’

  ‘The fifteenth.’

  ‘That’s not far away.’

  The statement didn’t seem to require a reply. She continued sipping her tea, all the while planning her exit strategy for the moment she’d drained the mug.

  ‘Ellie, you need to take this seriously.’

  A ripple of tension rode across her shoulders and Ellie straightened just a little. It was a familiar feeling—she always experienced it at some point when she spent time with her mother, Cameron or Sarah. ‘I am taking it seriously.’ A hot and uncomfortable sensation crawled along her skin, mocking her attempt at sounding neutral.

  ‘Are you even looking for a place?’ Sarah was like a dog with a bone.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You do realise if you can’t find somewhere in Valley View, you’ll have to consider Mingunyah. Rental accommodation here is scarce too but I suppose Alex and I could—’

  ‘No!’ The word shot out loud and sharp—protection against the barrage of unwanted advice.

  Sarah startled and the chocolate flecks in her eyes darkened against the hazel. ‘No? I haven’t even said how I could help.’

  You’ve said enough. Ellie carefully placed her mug on the sink. ‘I’ve got this,’ she said, desperately trying to keep the tremble out of her voice.

  ‘Do you really?’ Sarah’s brows disappeared under her fringe. ‘Your track record’s hardly stellar. The Guthrie place was barely ideal. Noah—’

  ‘Is my responsibility. Not yours.’ She slung her handbag over her shoulder. No way was she going to be beholden to Sarah, or to anyone for that matter. Once you owed someone something, they owned you. ‘You don’t need to organise anything for me. I’m not your kid sister any more, Sarah. I grew up a long time ago.’ I grew up far earlier than you’ll ever know.

  Sarah vibrated with offence. ‘Oh, for God’s sake, Ellie. Why are you always so touchy? I was only trying to help. That’s what families do for each other, although you obviously missed the memo.’

  ‘Help’ wasn’t a word Ellie associated with her family. Every part of her screamed to run but somehow she managed to take in a deep breath and steady herself. ‘I appreciate all your help with the jobs for the Burmese community, but that’s all the help I need.’ She reached the door. ‘I’ve taken up enough of your time. I’ll let you get back to work.’ Raising her hand in a quick wave, she stepped through the door and marched across the gravel carpark. In the two minutes it took to get to her car, her heart rate slowed from ribhitting frantic to just plain fast.

  Family be damned. She’d live in her car before she moved to Mingunyah.

  * * *

  What the hell was wrong with her sister? Incensed and baffled, Sarah dumped the two mugs in the break room’s dishwasher. She needed to debrief, give Alex a blow-by-blow of the conversation she’d just had with Ellie. He’d run it through his dispassionate filter—the one he always reserved for her family—and help her make sense of how a genuine offer of help had been so thoroughly rejected. It both riled and hurt her that Ellie happily asked for and accepted help on behalf of the Burmese community, yet she resolutely snubbed her when the help was for Ellie and Noah.

  Picking up her folders, Sarah made her way around the outside of the cheese factory and walked towards the ‘office suite’. She smiled at the jokey name that had stuck all those years ago when they’d made the big leap and bought the first demountable. Originally, the office was the kitchen table in the old cheese factory—paperwork and cheese samples fighting for space with Finn’s rattles and baby food. When they’d moved to Riverbend, they’d used one of the six bedrooms as a dedicated study. It didn’t take long to realise that an ‘at home’ office was too tempting for her and Alex to ‘just quickly check something’ over the weekend and lose an hour. Mobile phones and their social media presence were a big enough time sink so the first demountable was their attempt to separate the business from their home life. It was the right decision. Now, with over seventy employees, it made better business sense to have the office located in the middle of things and accessible to everyone.

  On the inside, the three demountables looked like any other office space with carpet, pot plants, artwork and work stations. With the strategic use of skylights and three glass sliding doors leading onto a long veranda, there was plenty of natural light. If the weather wasn’t too hot or too cold, people took their laptops onto the veranda and worked to a soundtrack of chirping birds and bleating goats, along with a view of the landscaped gardens, the glorious vista of rippling blue mountains and, in winter, snow-capped peaks.

  She opened the sliding door closest to her office and automatically glanced at the ‘Who’s In and
Who’s Out’ whiteboard. As she rubbed out the word ‘meeting’ from next to her name and wrote ‘in office’, she noted that the logistics manager had ducked out for school pickup, the sales manager was on the road, the marketing manager was in Melbourne at a seminar and the production manager was in the factory. The only two people marked as ‘in’ were Kelly and Alex. Dumping her folders on her desk, she walked to his office. Through the glass partition, she saw evidence of Alex: the ever-changing photos of champion cyclists he was currently using as his computer’s wallpaper and the curls of steam rising from his coffee mug. Sarah smiled at the bold, black quote printed on it: Thanks, Dad. I turned out Awesome. Finn had given it to Alex just before he’d left home to start university.

  She was about to text Alex when she heard the low rumble of his voice immediately followed by Kelly’s distinctive laugh. She crossed the open space and stopped short. Kelly sat at her desk but instead of peering at her computer screen in her usual myopic way, she was leaning back in her chair with her head tilted up, gazing straight at Alex and listening to him intently. That in itself wasn’t a crime. But when the glow in her wide-eyed gaze was combined with a smile that made her face light up in a way Sarah had never seen before, the pose came close to workplace misconduct.

  Normally, Sarah would have chalked it up to the ‘Alex Effect’ except for the fact that Alex’s head, with its distinguished salt and pepper hair, was bent close to Kelly’s face and his lips were moving. Sarah couldn’t hear the words but she clearly saw their effect on Kelly—flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes blazing with lust.

  As Alex talked, his hands massaged their office manager’s shoulders.

  The intimate image burned Sarah’s eyes and socked her like a punch to the gut. Air vaporised. Lungs cramped. Blood drained to her feet, leaving her mind reeling. One side of her brain was screaming ‘OMG!’, while the other half tried rationally decoding the situation—perhaps Kelly had a sore neck? Sarah knew how good Alex was at massage.

  ‘What’s going on?’ The words felt thick and ungainly in her mouth and she barely recognised the sound of her own voice.