Those in Peril (Unlocked) (39 page)

‘Don’t look to me for guidance.’ He laughed. ‘It sounds like fun, but I have never tried it.’

‘Aren’t you shocked by the idea? I hoped you might be.’

‘I know that’s what you hoped. But it didn’t work. I am getting to know your wicked ways well enough.’

‘Then let’s drop the subject of my sexual orientation, shall we? Did you know that Mummy has promised to take you and me up to the Colorado ranch this coming weekend?’

‘I am looking forward to it.’

‘I know you’re going to love it there. We’ve got horses in the paddocks, moose and bear in the forest and enormous rainbow trout in the lake. Of course, best of all, that’s where Daddy is.’ She spoke of her father as though he were still alive. He wasn’t sure if that was healthy, so he did not follow up on the remark.

‘Tell me about the trout fishing. Is it catch and release?’

‘Good Lordy, no!’ She was shocked. ‘We eat them. Mummy and I are true hunter gatherers.’

‘But you catch them on the fly?’

‘Of course we do, we’re not total barbarians. I’m the family casting champion. How about you? Can you cast a fly?’

‘I don’t have much of a clue,’ Hector admitted. ‘You’ll have to give me lessons.’

O
n the flight into Steam Boat Springs airport they diverted to overfly the Bannock Ranch. All three of them crowded together at one window to peer down at the magnificent wilderness of snow-clad mountains, green forests, sparkling rivers and lakes. Hazel pointed out the boundaries.

‘The spread is four and a half thousand acres. That’s Guitar Lake. You can see how its shape gave it the name. All of it is on our property, and that’s the homestead at the top end of the guitar’s neck.’ It appeared to be a large rambling building with a roof of redwood tiles and many different planes and gables. Numerous stone chimneys rose above it, most of them oozing woodsmoke. There were half a dozen bass boats moored in front of the wide wooden deck and rows of stables and outbuildings along the forest edge.

‘Look there, Heck, on top of Spyglass Mountain.’ Excitedly Cayla pointed out the glistening white marble edifice perched on the brow of the hilltop overlooking the homestead. Its tall double doors were guarded on each side by Corinthian columns that supported the neo-classical pitched roof. ‘That’s Daddy’s mausoleum. Isn’t it magnificent? I hope that one day I’ll be interred there next to him.’

‘Don’t be so morbid, baby,’ Hazel admonished her. ‘It’s much too lovely a day, and you are too young and lovely to think about death and dying.’

When they landed Dickie Munro, the ranch manager, was at the airport to meet them with a Chevy Suburban to carry all the Bannock females’ luggage. It was getting late by the time they reached the ranch. There was just an hour before sunset for the three of them to hurry down to the deck with the fly rods. Dickie had ground-baited the water and wherever they looked big trout were rising.

‘As the guest of honour, you are invited to make the first cast, Heck.’ Cayla gave him a pretty little curtsy. He stepped up to the edge of the deck, stripped thirty yards of fly line off the reel and then shot all of it out over the water in a tight loop that unfolded gently. The fly settled like gossamer on the surface. It lay there for only a few seconds before there was a powerful swirl under it and the split cane rod arched over almost double as a ten-pound trout crashed through the surface.

‘Lordy! Lordy!’ Hector cried. ‘There seems to be something on the end of the line. What should I do to get it off, Cay?’

‘You should tell the truth once in a while. I really believed you when you said you hadn’t got a clue.’ Cayla shook her head sadly.

At half-past five the next morning Cayla banged on their bedroom door and shouted through the keyhole. ‘Come on you two lazy bones. I am taking you for a ride before breakfast. I’ll meet you at the stables in twenty minutes. Don’t be late.’

Hazel groaned as she sat up in the big bed and with a flick of her head tossed her hair out of her face.

‘That horrid child! Won’t you take her down to the lake and drown her?’

Beside her Hector rolled onto his back, yawned and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. ‘That’s too easy a death for any little barbarian who violates the sanctity of the Fatherland.’

Cayla was already mounted up on her golden palomino stallion when, forty minutes later, Hector and Hazel followed the path up to the stables. She was taking the horse around the jumps in the main paddock. Although she appeared very small on the back of the great animal, she melded so perfectly with it that horse and rider seemed to move as a single entity. The expression on her face was enraptured, transported with an almost palpable ecstasy. Her cheeks were high in colour. Her hands on the reins were quick and strong. Her abused body seemed whole again.

‘She is totally transformed,’ Hector whispered. ‘Look at her, Hazel; this is what will be her salvation.’

‘I realize I have been blind. Now I am seeing her through your eyes for the first time,’ Hazel said quietly. ‘I had my vision of what was good for her, and I tried to force her into a mould that she did not fit.’ At that moment Cayla looked across and saw them.

‘Oh, you’ve crawled out of bed at last,’ she called to them. ‘Dickie has your horses saddled up. Let’s go!’ They rode together around the lake and Cayla told Hector, ‘You have quite a good seat on a horse, but it’s not as good as your fly-casting. Where did you learn all these things?’

‘I was raised on a cattle ranch in Kenya. We did all our work from horseback and we had a trout stream in the mountains.’

They galloped back along the forest path, startling a big bull moose from his bed and sending him lumbering in panic up the mountain side.

‘Heck, I am taking you to meet Daddy,’ Cayla called to him. Without waiting for her mother to forbid it she led them at a gallop up the steep winding path. They came out of the forest suddenly. The mausoleum stood above them on the very top of the mountain with the early morning sun glittering on the marble walls. It was smaller than Hector had thought when he had first seen it from the air, but its elegant lines made it seem grand and imposing. There was an elderly black man with shining silver hair waiting for them in front of the tall double doors. He came forward to salute Hazel and Cayla and hold the horses’ heads while they dismounted.

‘This is Tom. He is a family stalwart,’ Hazel told Hector. ‘He was Henry’s chauffeur, but now he is the guardian of his tomb. Look how beautifully he keeps everything.’

Beaming at the compliment, Tom swung the doors open and Cayla took their hands and led them into the interment hall. The floor was composed of chequered black-and-white marble slabs. In the centre of it was a raised marble platform and on this stood an enormous sarcophagus of red granite. Hector saw at once that it had been copied from the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte in Les Invalides in Paris. Hazel went forward and knelt on the blue velvet cushions which Tom had placed at the foot of the sarcophagus. She bowed her head silently. Cayla and Hector waited just inside the door until she raised her head again and stood up. Then Cayla ran forward and scrambled up onto the lid of the sarcophagus. She spread her arms over it and kissed the polished granite.

‘Hello, Daddy. I’ve missed you so much.’ Then she sat up, and perched cross-legged on the top of the sarcophagus. She beckoned Hector to come forward. ‘Daddy, I have brought somebody to visit you,’ she said. ‘This is Heck. He’s the one I told you about that saved my life. I know you are going to like each other. Say hello to my father, Heck!’ Unembarrassed, Hector stepped forward and placed his hand on the casket.

‘Hello, Henry. We met before, as you will recall. You signed on my company Cross Bow. I am going to try to look after your girls for you as well as you did while you were here with them.’

‘That’s so sweet of you, Heck,’ Cayla told him seriously. ‘It’s exactly what Daddy would want to know.’

They stayed at the tomb for nearly an hour. Tom brought bunches of fresh cut flowers and the girls helped him to arrange them in the silver vases at the head and the foot of the sarcophagus. At last Cayla and her mother said goodbye to Henry Bannock and Cayla promised him she would return soon. Then they went out onto the front steps and down onto the lawn. A shadow passed over them and all three of them instinctively looked up. A blue goose flew low over their heads. The wind whistled softly over its great wings as they beat the air. It honked once and Cayla danced and waved up at the bird.

‘It’s Daddy! He likes you. He has come to welcome you into our family.’ When the goose dwindled to a distant speck against the clouds Hazel explained.

‘Henry’s family nickname was Goose. For twenty years he was president of the Texas Goose Hunters Club. So you see, that’s where Cayla gets the notion. I have the sneaky feeling she may be right; that bird may well have been Henry’s shade coming to check up on us.’ They went to the stone bench set on the lawn looking down on the lake and the homestead. They sat quietly, reflectively, moved by all that they had experienced together. Cayla broke the silence at last.

‘Mummy, this is probably not the right time to discuss this with you. I don’t think there could ever be a right time. So I’ll just blurt it out and hope for the best.’ She drew a deep breath. ‘I am not going back to the Beaux-Arts. I tried so hard but I never really liked the study of art and I wasn’t much good at it – was I?’ She did not wait for an answer but went on quickly. ‘And after all that happened to me in that city, I hate Paris.’ Hector sensed Hazel’s deep disappointment and he squeezed her hand.

After a moment Hazel looked up at her daughter and smiled. ‘It’s your life, baby. I know that I interfered, and I’m sorry. Just tell me what you want to do, and I’ll do everything I can to help you.’

‘I have already enrolled at Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine, and later on I will specialize in large animals.’

‘Horses?’ asked Hector.

‘What else is there?’ She laughed. Hazel did not laugh with her.

‘You have already enrolled and been accepted?’ Hazel looked stunned. Hector had never seen her so completely taken aback. He squeezed her hand again as she opened her mouth to protest and she closed it. For a moment she looked forlorn and bereft, then she rallied and smiled shakily.

‘Okay, darling. If they have already accepted you, we’d better fly down to Denver City first thing on Monday.’

‘Mummy, you’re not going to see the Dean, are you?’

‘Of course I am.’

‘But this is me, this is my thing. I’m not a baby any more. It’s probably the first time in my life that I have done what I want. Don’t you understand?’ The two women stared at each other. Hector saw that this was a situation that was about to explode violently. He coughed softly, and they both looked at him.

‘Tell her, Heck. She doesn’t understand,’ said Cayla.

‘Of course she understands, Cay. Your mother is the most perceptive human being, man or woman, I’ve ever known. She knows what it’s like to go out on your own, just as she once did when she was your age. As you want to do now, she left everything to follow her dream. She knows, Cay. Believe me, she knows.’ Both women subsided visibly. He let them think about it for a while.

‘You’re the one who’s made the decision, Cay,’ he went on gently. ‘You’re damned right, you are not a baby any more. Your mother knows that, and now she is offering you her total support. You cannot be so cruel as to shut her out of your life completely, can you?’ Cayla’s expression became one of utter dismay. She jumped and ran to Hazel.

‘My darling mother, that’s not what I wanted at all.’ She began to weep. ‘That was so unkind of me. You will always be at the very centre of my life.’

‘Thank you, my darling daughter.’ Hazel choked off and they hugged each other fiercely, both of them sobbing bitterly.

Well!
Hector told himself, trying to hide his grin.
At least it’s no longer Mummy and her baby. I think we’re off to a brave new start.

They had forgotten his existence. He stood up and left them. He walked down to where the horses were hitched to the post. He leaned on the stallion’s shoulder and patted his neck. He had seldom felt so pleased with himself. The two women followed him down half an hour later and they were walking hand in hand.

‘We’re all going down to Denver on Monday morning to tour my new college and meet the Dean,’ Cayla cried happily. ‘You too, Heck!’ She ran to her horse and sprang into the saddle. She raced away down the forest path, letting out a succession of shrill cowboy yells.