He squeezed Alexis's hand as he led her toward Jody, who looked as if she were trying to think of a way to unlock the lighthouse door and climb the stairs. They explored the base of the lighthouse and then the path leading to the cliffs overlooking the ocean. Alexis found each step interesting. The ground was smooth gray granite, yet wildflowers, succulents and grasses of every form and hue decorated crevices and pockets in the rock. The ocean itself was a brilliant blue, and at the edge of the Cliffside they descended slippery steps to view the Admiral's Arch, a gaping cavern where the sea surged and receded with each crashing breaker.
By the time they drove to nearby Weirs Cove to see the limestone ruins where the lighthouse keepers had kept supplies, their clothes were damp, but not their spirits. Nearby they viewed the remains of a gully that had been gouged from the Cliffside and rigged with a "flying fox" to haul supplies from a small jetty built at the base of the cliff. A series of crude, crumbling steps led far down the precipice to the teeming surf below. Neither the steps nor the gully itself had been used since the lighthouse keepers had joined the ranks of the unemployed. But they still stood, a monument to a different time.
"Imagine living here," Alexis mused out loud. "Imagine standing here four times a year and waiting, just waiting for the ship to come."
Matthew laughed. "Sometimes it would come and the weather would be so rough it couldn't berth for weeks."
"Then imagine standing here, knowing that your food stores, the clothes you'd ordered, the few luxuries you'd saved for, were all out there, almost at your fingertips, and you couldn't do a thing about it."
"I feel a story coming on."
"Mine? Or yours?"
He smiled, something he did more frequently, but each time Alexis still felt it deep inside her. "Back in the twenties, one of the keepers had a wife with a bad leg," he began. "She landed down there at the jetty, but she couldn't climb the steps."
Alexis looked down and shuddered. "Smart woman."
"So they settled her in a basket on the flying fox and began to haul it up."
"And?"
"The motor broke down. I guess they all wished they'd stuck to horse power about then, but it couldn't be helped. The poor woman was up in the basket for about two hours. And they say she turned the air blue when they finally got her down."
"I should hope so."
Jody came back to the edge of the gully after exploring the ruins. "There's a sign over there that says 'Beware. High Cliffs and Strong Winds.' Are you being careful?"
Matthew lifted her easily and set her on his shoulders. "Let's use you as a weather vane and see if we need to worry."
Jody squealed in delight, and they walked back to the wagon that way.
The road continued, hugging the cliff's edge until they reached the most important reason for coming to this section of the park for their picnic.
"Remarkable Rocks," Matthew said, switching off the ignition.
"Truly remarkable," Alexis agreed, while Jody oohed her admiration from the back seat. The rocks were massive granite, with lighter-colored quartz and feldspar bands, and they sat on a rock promontory overlooking the ocean like sculptures created by a master hand. Each rock—and there were over a dozen—had been weathered by erosion into graceful contours and designs. Some looked like fanciful blocks of Swiss cheese, others like elaborate climbing equipment for the lucky child of a giant.
They played in the rocks for an hour, hiding, laughing, sliding, until Jody declared she would die if they didn't eat. And when they finally set up their picnic in a nearby shelter, Alexis and Matthew ate as much as she did.
It was almost dark as they finished driving the winding road back to the rangers' homestead. There had been more to see, paths leading to quiet streams and an impressive waterfall, favorite spots for bird watching and wildflower identification. The day had been particularly special because there had been no tension. They had all set out to enjoy it, and it had been just that simple.
The park had been almost deserted, too. With the campgrounds closed for renovation and springtime grading, and repair work blocking parts of the main road leading into the park, few visitors had ventured into the Chase that day. "I feel like a pioneer," Alexis told Matthew, reaching across the gear shift to lay a seemingly innocent hand on his leg.
He wished simultaneously for a shorter distance to his house and a flying carpet ride for Jody to another sleepover. "A pioneer?"
Alexis smiled, turning her face to the window so he wouldn't see. His voice had been notes lower than usual. "Mmm.... I pretended...." She stopped, appalled at what she'd been about to reveal.
He ventured a glance into the back seat and saw that Jody's pioneer blood had given out. She was fast asleep. He covered Alexis's hand and moved it farther up his thigh. "Pretended what?"
She had pretended that the three of them were a family who had just come to homestead the land. There was something so untamed about the Chase, so vital yet desolate, that the fantasy had been hard to resist. Seventy-four thousand hectares, which meant over twice as many acres, and many of them had hardly known the tread of a human foot. The fantasy had been understandable but too intimate to share, because she knew it might scare Matthew away. He'd had a family, and he still grieved for them.
She rubbed her hand slowly back and forth. "I pretended I was a lighthouse keeper," she said, because that had been true, too. "I was out there, cut off from civilization...."
"I'm surprised that thought didn't send you screaming and fleeing back to the city."
"On the contrary, nature boy, it was a wonderful thought. You see, I also envisioned crates of good books and a warm man beside me." She gave a low laugh at his sudden change of expression, and her hand slipped farther up his thigh.
"The isolation would make you a crazy woman."
"If isolation could do that to me, I'd be crazy now." She laughed again. "Matthew, are you speeding up?"
"Be more precise with your questions. Do you want to know if I'm speeding up or if the car is?"
"Oh, I know what you 're doing."
"There's a child in the back seat."
"A sleeping child, who, once asleep, will continue sleeping unless someone drops her on her head."
His eyes flicked to hers. "I hate to think of you having to take her all the way back to your house alone."
She lowered her eyelids, flirting unashamedly. "Then why don't you come and help?"
"I can't leave the Chase tonight. I'm on watch. Harry's going out."
She tried to hide her disappointment. "That's too bad, but really, I can manage Jody fine."
He sent her a smile that lodged her heart in the pit of her stomach before he turned his gaze back to the road. "I'm sure you can, but why should you, when my house is so near, and she could have the pleasure of waking up at the park tomorrow morning?"
Alexis hesitated. She wanted to spend the night with Matthew, and she was immensely pleased that he had asked. She hadn't expected him to want to share his bed with her. But Jody had to be considered.
Matthew understood what she was thinking. "I have three bedrooms, Alexis. Or, better yet, the room where we'll put Jody has a double bed. You can sleep with her tonight. Late tonight."
"Do you think I'm being silly?"
"I think you're being a good mother."
"Let's see if she wakes up when we put her to bed."
"You'll pardon me if I spend the rest of the trip muttering wishes."
"I won't hear them over mine."
Alexis had such a strong sense of their relationship taking a new turn that she was oblivious to anything else for the rest of the drive.
Matthew wasn't so lucky. He slowed the wagon well before he reached the homestead and flicked off the lights. Then, quietly, carefully, he pulled the car off the road into a grove of trees and turned off the engine.
"Isn't this a strange place to park?" she asked.
"Shh. . ." He gestured for silence.
She was alert now. Te
nsing, she listened closely, wondering what the problem could be. For a moment she had worried that he didn't want her wagon to be spotted if she and Jody stayed overnight. But now she realized that something different was at stake.
She heard noise in the distance, too. It was men's laughter. She didn't speak, but she turned her face to Matthew's profile, watching him. All traces of good humor had been wiped from his face. He was stone still, his expression ominous, with all his concentration focused on listening. Then one hand was on the door, opening it slowly, while his other hand threw the switch on the overhead light so it wouldn't come on. "Lock the doors after I get out," he whispered. "It's probably nothing, but I intend to find out."
She would have asked to come with him, but Jody still slept in the back seat.
"You'll be careful?" she pleaded.
He was already gone.
She locked the doors as he'd ordered, then forced herself to begin the wait. The night was clear, and a half moon shone in a sky bright with stars. But inside the shelter of the trees there was little light. She could see nothing, and the laughter subsided so that she could hear nothing, either. Jody's quiet breathing and the occasional cry of a morepork owl were the only noises in a world gone suspiciously still.
She wasn't sure what Matthew feared. Although the campgrounds with toilets, showers and running water weren't in use, he had told her there were still campers using the bush camping areas, primitive campsites that were scattered throughout remote reaches of the park. And although he and Harry were the only staff who lived on the grounds, there were other park employees. The noise could be coming from any one of several possible sources, none of them threatening.
She felt threatened anyway. She wondered if she had lived with evil for so long that she had developed a sixth sense to detect it. Certainly the day she had shot at the poachers, she had sensed them somehow before hearing them or spotting their lights. Perhaps Matthew had developed his senses from the constant vigilance required of a park ranger.
The night was so still that when she finally heard a noise, it sounded like a cannon going off. The noise was nothing more than a pop, but it vibrated through the air for long moments afterward, accompanying the accelerated beat of her heart.
With unsteady hands Alexis grabbed the keys hanging in the ignition and slid them into her pocket. Then, with a glance to be sure Jody was still sleeping, she unlocked her door, opened it and slipped outside, locking the door behind her.
The air had turned cool, and she shivered, although she wasn't sure if it were from cold or fear. After creeping silently through the trees, she stopped at the edge of the grove. She could go no farther without jeopardizing Jody's safety. Her eyes adjusted slowly to the stronger light, and at first she couldn't detect anything out of the ordinary. Then she saw the figure of a man, bent low, darting from shadow to shadow in the yard of the rangers' homestead.
Her breath hissed softly in a warning the man couldn't hear. The man was Matthew, and she could see that he carried a rifle. The rifle confirmed her suspicion. Someone had fired a shot, and Matthew was going to be prepared for the next one.
The scene was a nightmare. She couldn't help; she couldn't even call out a warning. She could only watch and pray that he'd be all right. He disappeared around the side of the house, and she strained to see where he was going.
She wanted to keep her eyes on him, to somehow infuse him with caution just by staring at him, but he was out of sight for good. All she could do was listen.
She listened for minutes. She heard laughter again, one short raucous burst of it, then nothing. Just as she was about to go back to the car to check on Jody, she heard a gunshot and a shout. Even the distance couldn't shroud the words.
"Drop your bloody guns and raise your hands, or I'll pick you off like you've been picking off the bears!"
The poachers! Waiting in the dark, she had weighed the possibility, then dismissed it. No one, no one, could be stupid enough to venture right into the Chase and shoot koalas. But then she, of all people, should know that men could be capable of any act.
Her hands went to her mouth as she waited for an answer, another gunshot, sounds of a scuffle. There was silence for a full minute, then another shout.
"Alexis! Call the police."
She cupped her hands and shouted through them. "I'm coming."
"Bring the car."
She was turning to run back to get it when she saw a movement in the trees beside her. She caught a glimpse of a plaid jacket and long dark hair beating against it as a young woman ran past her. "Stop!" she yelled, taking after the woman herself. "Stop!"
The woman swung around just long enough to see how close Alexis was, then zigzagged through the trees, deeper into the forest. Alexis knew she didn't have a prayer of catching her. When she reached the car, she halted, out of breath and angry that she hadn't seen the woman in time. She had succeeded in one thing, however. She had gotten a good look at her face, and with the skill of someone who must catch and remember every detail so that she can someday use it in a book, she had recorded what she'd seen. Now she would know the woman anywhere. But, just as surely, the woman would know her.
Jody stirred on the back seat as Alexis turned the key and the wagon purred to life. "Mommy?"
"It's all right, sweetheart."
"Where are we?"
"At Matthew's. I think he just caught the poachers."
"Good," Jody mumbled. She snuggled against the seat cushions and promptly fell back to sleep.
Alexis pulled carefully onto the road and guided the wagon toward the homestead. She parked in front of Matthew's house and got out, following the sound of men's voices.
By the time she had followed the path to his back yard, Harry had already joined Matthew. Alexis caught a glimpse of the two poachers as Harry ushered them at gunpoint into a toolshed behind Matthew's house.
They were children—or almost. Even with just the pale light from Matthew's back porch illuminating them, she could see how young the two men were. One had the patchy complexion of an adolescent, the other the soft, thin wisps of a first mustache. Neither of them was as old as twenty.
"Why?" she demanded before she could stop herself. She was too angry to care whether she got between Harry's gun and the men. She stalked to the shed door, blocking their entrance.
"Alexis, stay back," Matthew warned.
She ignored him. "Why? Just tell me why!"
The first man swayed on his feet. He smiled benignly and opened his mouth as if he intended to answer. Then he frowned as he swayed again.
"They're both so drunk they can hardly stand," Matthew said, coming up to lead her away. "Even if they knew why they were doing it, they couldn't tell you now."
"Drunk?" She couldn't believe it. She shook off Matthew's arm. "Drunk? They killed those beautiful animals because they're drunk?"
Harry closed in, nodding at Alexis sympathetically. "They didn't kill anything tonight. They couldn't have hit the moon if it was sitting on the roof of my house. Now you've got to let me get them in the shed, darling. And Matthew's got to call the law."
She let Matthew lead her safely away. From yards distant, she watched the poachers stumble into the shed. Harry twisted a padlock into place. "Why?" she repeated, trying to understand.
Matthew didn't even want to tell Alexis what he suspected. The two young men who had maimed and murdered were probably not even selling the furs. He imagined the cops would find the pelts at their homes, nothing more than souvenirs. Their acts had been a rural version of a joy ride, something to do on boring spring nights on an island with few additional diversions. The acts of violence had been senseless and unusually cruel, but the men, who were hardly old enough to deserve that title, had probably thought of their poaching as nothing more than daring target practice.
"We may never know," he warned gently. "But at least the worst is over."
"How could they have come here? Into the park?"
Matthew put his arm aro
und her to walk back to the car to get Jody. Harry stayed behind to guard the shed.
"I was away, and Harry was over at the office," he theorized. "With most of the campers gone, the place looked deserted. Who knows what they thought? Apparently the challenge appealed to them, and they were too drunk to consider the consequences if they were caught."
She suddenly thought of the young woman. "Or they were trying to impress someone." Briefly she told Matthew the story, adding a description as he opened the rear door of the car to lift a sleeping Jody into his arms.
She gave the same description to the police forty-five minutes later when they came to pick up the two young men. With Matthew's help they conducted a search of the nearby grounds, but, in the darkness, nothing was gained by it. The dark-haired young woman had disappeared.
"What's going to happen to them?" Alexis asked after the police had taken the men into custody and left. She and Matthew were settled on the couch in his parlor, and Jody was sound asleep upstairs.
"They'll be taken to Adelaide to stand trial."
"What will happen then?"
"The Australian people don't take kindly to anyone caught shooting koalas. I doubt they'll get off easily."
Alexis sighed, and Matthew pulled her closer. "Does that bother you?"
"It does. That probably sounds silly, after everything. But they're just kids."
"And you think there's good in them?"
She didn't know how to answer that. At one time she had thought there was good in everyone. Then she'd met Charles. "Is there?" she asked, turning the question back to him. "I don't know what I think."
"I think we have to assume there is until it's proved otherwise."
"But there can be an otherwise?"
Out of the Ashes Page 14
