Morgan's Law (14 page)

She held her breath as he drew closer, hoping she wasn't going to be the recipient of yet another tirade from her surly cousin, but he continued past the pub and down the street. Where was he off to in such a huff? She should have been relieved it wasn't to confront her and left it at that, but faced with the choice of making a major life decision or procrastinating a little more, she took the procrastination.

Poking her head over the railing, she caught sight of him crossing into the next street, and with only the slightest hesitation she turned and hurried down the stairs and out through the rear of the pub.

She crossed the road and walked through the little park. She just managed to catch a glimpse of his blue work shirt before he disappeared down the side of a church just up ahead.

The Uniting church was a beautiful stone chapel, with tall white doors framed by stained-glass windows. The church looked closed and there didn't seem to be anyone else around, but a prickling sensation ran up her spine at the thought of going any further. Whatever he was doing there, somehow she didn't think it had anything to do with the church ladies guild.

She went back to the park and found a seat shaded by a cluster of huge gum trees and decided to wait and see what happened. Feeling a little foolish, she shook her head at how melodramatic her life had suddenly become, searching for wishing trees, unravelling her gran's past and now tailing her cousin. Maybe this was some kind of lead-up to a nervous breakdown?

After twenty minutes Sarah was about to give up and head back to the pub when she saw Trent reappear, making his way from the rear of the churchyard and across the street. As he reached the kerb, a vehicle with the railway logo on its side came around the corner. As it slowed down, a man's arm waved out the window, but Trent seemed to ignore it, and she could see that his expression remained as forbidding as before.

Interesting. She thought Trent got on well with the railway boys. Had they had a disagreement? Or perhaps he'd met with someone else behind the church? But who, and why?

From where she was sitting she was hidden from Trent's line of sight, but she still held her breath as he walked across to the other side of the park. She didn't particularly want to be on the other end of that scowl again. She waited a good ten minutes before leaving the park, making sure she couldn't be sprung for spying, then headed back to the pub to talk to Tash.

Sticking her head through the office doorway, she found Tash doing the pub's bookwork.

‘Oh, there you are. I was just about to come up and find you,' Tash said when she glanced up at Sarah's greeting. ‘You had a message.'

‘Who from?'

‘They didn't leave a name. Edith took the call, so I can't help you out there. But,' she reached across the desk and searched beneath the avalanche of paperwork to retrieve a scrap of paper with something scribbled across it, ‘it must be from Adam. Whoever called wanted you to go out to Gwandalan this afternoon, and it was important.' She screwed her nose up in apology. ‘Sorry, I only found it under here a little while ago, and I was about to pass it on but I got caught up with a phone call.'

‘Oh. That's okay. Only, I don't have any way to get out there. Any idea where I can find a rental car around here?'

Tash chuckled in a manner that made Sarah's hopes crash to the floor. As she stood there, stumped, Tash opened a drawer in the desk and took out a set of keys. The key ring had on it an image of a naked man, whose towel dropped as the key ring was inverted. Tash showed it to Sarah with a lewd smile. ‘Take my car. I hardly drive it any more. Use it for as long as you need.'

‘Seriously?'

‘Sure. It's not like you're going to leave town with your fancy BMW sitting in Bruce's garage, is it?'

‘The car was a gift,' Sarah muttered, embarrassed by the expensive vehicle, especially in a place like this where it was obvious people made do with a lot less than she'd ever had to. ‘It's a few years old now. I'm sure it's lost a lot of its value,' she added awkwardly.

‘I was only teasing, Sarah,' Tash chuckled.

‘Thank you for the loan of your car.'

‘No worries. It's in the shed out the back.'

Sarah looked up the number for Adam's place, just to make sure everything was okay, but the phone rang out. Collecting her bag, she headed out the back door of the pub towards the old timber shed.

The paint was beginning to flake off the old building, and it wasn't standing as straight as it should be. Inside she found a white Datsun. She smiled at the hot-pink seat covers and fluffy steering-wheel cover. This was a side of Tash she hadn't seen before.

Starting the engine, she carefully backed out of the shed and drove off in the direction of Adam's farm. She hoped it wasn't something urgent, since the message had been sitting on Tash's desk for who knew how long since Edith took the call. Then again, she should just be grateful Edith had even written it down. Sarah hadn't actually got around to giving Adam her mobile number. Maybe she should have, because then the whole pub wouldn't know she was being summoned to Gwandalan and be speculating on what for!

The house was far too quiet when she pulled up out the front. She knocked on the door and waited for a response. Eventually she heard the shuffle of footsteps inside and Adam's grandfather opened the front door.

‘Hello, Mr Buchanan. I tried to call earlier but no one answered. I took a gamble you'd be home and came out anyway.'

He pushed open the screen door and ushered her inside. ‘Pretty safe bet—I'm always here somewhere. Must have been out the back when you called. Adam's out—probably won't be back for a while.'

‘Oh.'
Damn.
‘Is everything all right? I got a message asking me to come out.'

‘Far as I know everything's okay. I don't know anything about a message, though. And call me William. Mr Buchanan makes me feel old.'

Sarah grinned before adding, ‘Do you think it would be okay if I wait?'

‘Be a crazier man than me who turned away a beautiful woman coming all the way out here.'

Sarah took the seat he pulled out for her at the kitchen table and smiled slightly. ‘I don't imagine anyone could mistake you for being the least bit crazy.' He seemed far too sharp for his own good.

‘I'll put the kettle on.' He moved slowly but methodically around the kitchen; it was soothing to watch him . . . comforting somehow. ‘I hear you went out to visit the Morgans.'

She glanced at him warily, remembering his dislike of the family. ‘It was all quite civil.'

He gave a raspy chuckle. ‘Guess you can't choose your relatives.'

‘I went out there hoping to find out more about Gran's life here. I know everyone else is sick of me talking about it, but I just . . . I thought I knew her. She practically raised me and now I'm discovering she had a whole other life nobody knew about. I guess I'm hoping that if I find out what happened, then maybe it'll make sense somehow.'

‘Good luck if you manage to make sense out of anything in this crazy old world. I've been alive for eighty-nine years and I'll be blowed if I can work it out.' He sat down at the table while he waited for the jug to boil. ‘You think by finding out all this, you'll somehow learn who your gran was? Well, you're wrong. You know who she was.'

‘But I know nothing about this part of her life.'

‘You're not supposed to. She was your gran—by the time you were around, she wasn't the same young girl she was out here. That's just how it goes. But just because you didn't know her back then doesn't mean you don't know her. She was still your gran inside.'

‘But . . .' Sarah felt unexpected tears prickle her eyelids and she had to swallow before she could continue. ‘That's just the problem . . . I should have come home more often and just . . . talked with her. Maybe then she would have told me all about this place herself.'
But you didn't. You
were too busy focusing on your own future to think about
anyone else's past.
‘I miss her.'

‘Yeah. I reckon I can relate to that,' he said softly and Sarah caught him glancing over at the cluster of framed pictures on the sideboard, where she'd noticed photos of various family members, including Adam's parents and an old wedding photo of William and his wife. It was hard to imagine being married to a person for so long and suddenly not having them around any more.

The jug had finished boiling but neither of them moved, both lost in their own thoughts.

The back door shut with a bang and Sarah glanced up as Adam walked into the kitchen, tossing his hat on the table as he took in the situation before him. ‘Hey.'

‘Hi.' Why did this man always manage to make her feel like a tongue-tied idiot?

‘Want a brew, son?' William asked casually. He didn't appear to be in any hurry to elaborate on Sarah's presence in the kitchen, acting as though it were an everyday occurrence.

‘Sure. That'd be great, Pop.' Adam looked curiously from his grandfather to Sarah. ‘Everything okay here?'

‘Yep,' William answered, busying himself with the coffee.

‘Is there a reason you called me out here and then weren't even home when I arrived?' Sarah said, more rudely than she'd intended.

‘What are you talking about?'

‘There was a message left at the pub for me to come out here.' From the baffled expression on his face, it was obvious he knew nothing about the message and now she felt like a moron. ‘I guess it was someone's idea of a practical joke,' she muttered, getting to her feet.

‘I thought your car was out of action?'

‘I borrowed Tash's car.'

Washing his hands in the sink, he glanced up and grinned. ‘Bit of a downgrade. How are you coping?'

‘Just fine,' she answered through gritted teeth.

‘You know,' Adam told her, wiping his hands on a tea towel by the sink, ‘you didn't need an excuse to come out and visit.'

Sarah felt humiliation wash over her in a wave. Surely he couldn't possibly believe she had made up the message just to come out and see him? He flashed her that cocky grin of his and her mortification instantly turned to outrage.
The
smug bastard! Who the hell did he think he was?

‘How long are you staying in town?' William asked, cutting in on her silent fury.

‘I can't go anywhere until the part for my car gets here. Apparently I'm stuck here for the next couple of weeks.'

‘I wouldn't have thought a smart woman like you would let a little inconvenience like that stop you from leaving?' Adam said.

‘I'm sure if I needed to be anywhere urgently, I'd find a way. But the fact is, I don't intend on leaving until I'm ready. So if you have a problem with that, then you and everyone else around here had better deal with it.'

A self-satisfied grin hovered on Adam's lips and too late she realised that she'd just been the victim of reverse psychology. After telling him how desperate she'd been to get out of the place the day before, here she was suddenly declaring she'd go when she was good and ready.
Doh!

‘Thank you for the chat, Mr Buchanan,' she said, getting to her feet and intending to escape with what scraps of dignity she had left.

‘Sit back down and drink your cuppa. Ignore this fella, he's just rattling your cage,' William chided, placing a mug of coffee on the table in front of her.

Sarah lowered herself back into the seat, pointedly ignoring the grin Adam wasn't bothering to hide.

A silence settled over the kitchen and Sarah searched frantically for something to fill the gap. ‘So, did you ever get to London during your time in the war, Mr Buchanan?'

She saw Adam pause, his gaze fixed on his grandfather's face, but the older man just gave a nod and a small flicker of a smile. ‘Spent a few days there, but I can't say I recall too much about it.'

For a moment Sarah thought he meant because of his age, but then his smile broadened and he sent a wink across the table to his grandson. ‘But I do remember meeting some very hospitable English women in between drinking sessions.'

Sarah watched wryly as the two men shared a testosterone-tinged chuckle. Obviously there were some things that transcended the generation gap.

Sarah and William chatted about London while Adam sat back and observed the two of them. At first this made Sarah feel self-conscious, but gradually she became absorbed by the old man's conversation and his memories of London, which didn't seem at all blurred with memory loss or alcohol.

‘Thank you for the coffee, Mr Buchanan,' she said after they'd emptied their cups and the older man seemed to be tiring.

‘You make sure you come back again,' William said. ‘Nice to have visitors. Doesn't happen very often nowadays.'

Despite her protests, Adam insisted on walking her to the car, and with each step she could hear the nervous rush of blood in her ears. This was ridiculous! What was it about the man that unsettled her so much? One minute she wanted to hit him and the next . . . Well, she wasn't going to even
go
there. She needed to make it clear where they stood, so that there would be no more misunderstandings. Taking a deep breath, she turned and found herself staring at his broad chest.