Storms Over Blackpeak (10 page)

She stole a look at Lizzie, who, eyes shining, was still watching the chopper descend. Clasping her package to her chest, Cally rubbed her arms briskly.

‘Come on,’ Lizzie beamed, tearing herself out of her reverie as the helicopter dropped behind the trees, ‘you shouldn’t be standing around out here. It’s freezing.’

In the kitchen, having shed her coat and her bag, Lizzie held her hands to the warmth of the range and surveyed Cally’s dinner preparations.

‘Can I help?’

God, yes please. ‘If you’re sure you want to,’ Cally said carefully.

‘Just tell me what to do.’

‘Could you do that thing with the kale again?’

‘Sure.’ Lizzie pushed up her sleeves.

Cally frowned at the recipe she’d pulled off the internet. ‘How do I caramelise onions? Do I add sugar to them?’

‘No.’ Lizzie peered over her shoulder. ‘That’s not what they mean. Here, I’ll show you.’ She paused, scanning through the recipe, then looked at the pot Cally had out on the stove. ‘We might start with a different pan.’

‘How are Ella and Luke?’ Cally asked a few minutes later, looking up from stirring the onions in the almost impossibly heavy brute of a pan Lizzie had insisted she use.

‘Oh, all right, I think.’ Lizzie stared at the mountain of kale. She looked a little troubled.

Cally bit her lip. She was only trying to be polite — she hadn’t meant to pry.

‘Long-term relationships,’ Lizzie sighed, with a little shake of her head. ‘You know what they’re like.’

‘Not really.’ Oh crap. Had she said that out loud?

‘You’ve never been in one?’

She shook her head. Lizzie looked surprised, though Cally couldn’t imagine why. She had enough trouble getting a guy to go out with her once.

‘So’ — Lizzie raised her eyebrows conspiratorially — ‘what’s the longest relationship you’ve ever had, then?’

‘With a guy?’

‘Yes.’ Lizzie’s smile broadened. ‘With a guy.’

Cally racked her brain. She had plenty of friends who were guys. And she’d had flings, sure, but not many that had lasted more than a month. The chemistry had always been wrong, one way or another. She was never attracted to the guys who were attracted to her, that was her problem. And as for the guys she did like, they had a tendency to run for the hills after two or three dates. Her mother said it was because she intimidated them, but Cally wasn’t so sure. The only boy she’d really liked who she’d actually gotten to know …

‘There was a guy in high school,’ she said, dubiously. ‘Taine Solomon. We hung out for about three years.’

‘What was he like?’

‘He played number ten.’ Cally sighed wistfully.

‘A rugby player?’

‘Captain of the First XV.’

Lizzie looked impressed. ‘You dated the captain of the First XV?’

She blushed. ‘Mostly I did his homework.’

Lizzie pressed the back of her hand to her mouth, looking as if she was trying not to laugh. ‘That was it?’

No, sometimes when she’d gone to watch him play he’d let her hold his coat as well. ‘We talked a lot.’ Watching Lizzie’s face, Cally was starting to laugh herself. ‘We went to the movies once.’

‘That’s a date,’ Lizzie affirmed.

‘Not by ourselves. With other people.’

The kitchen door opened. Carr, still wearing his flight overalls, swept in.

‘Hey,’ he smiled, his eyes locked on Lizzie’s.

‘Hey, you,’ Lizzie replied.

Cally concentrated on stirring the contents of her sauté pan as they kissed. Just as well: her onions were starting to look a bit crispy.

‘Lizzie, I can manage in here,’ she suggested tactfully, still not looking, ‘if you want to go and unpack.’

To her own surprise, it turned out to be true. With Carr and Lizzie gone, she worked her way through the recipe, got the stew into the oven, peeled the potatoes, finished preparing the kale, and had time, at last, to go upstairs and investigate the contents of her parcel.

She was impressed by how quickly it had arrived. Ripping off the plastic, she looked down at a three-pack of checked shirts of her very own. Hopefully these ones wouldn’t come halfway down her thighs. Then, with some sense of occasion, Cally removed the tissue paper from the most expensive item of clothing she’d ever bought, and unfolded her new oilskin.

Chapter
EIGHT

Luke killed the Aston’s motor and sighed. Ahead, through the windscreen, the Glencairn homestead lay bathed in the sun of a flawless winter’s day.

‘I can’t believe you’re making me do this again.’ He shook his head. ‘If you run off and leave me this time, I swear—’

‘I won’t leave you.’ Ella slid her hand over his thigh. ‘I promise. It would be mean to make Mum stay home at the vineyard just for us. And anyway, it’s only one night. Then we’ve got a whole eight days to ourselves.’

‘A whole eight days,’ he repeated, drily. ‘Remind me who I have to thank for that again?’

‘Her name’s Natascha.’ Damian’s last shoot had led — rather abruptly — to a week in Tahiti with its subject. Not
that Ella was complaining. It might not be Tahiti, but a week off at Luke’s place in Christchurch sounded pretty close to heaven to her. She might even get to unpack.

‘Come on.’ With another sigh, Luke opened the door. ‘Let’s get this over with, then.’

‘Just be nice.’

‘Aren’t I always?’

Ella rolled her eyes. Climbing out of the car, she stretched, taking in the perfect view of the snow-covered hills, which, no longer cropped by the Aston’s windscreen, rolled away as far as she could see. Luke strolled around to stand beside her, his hand coming to rest in the small of her back. He paused as a figure rounded the corner of the house.

‘Is that — Cally?’

She followed his gaze. Crikey. Was it? Well, of course it was, who else would it be, but … that was quite a transformation. In gumboots and skinny jeans, a checked shirt rolled up to her elbows and a basket of vegetables over one arm, Cally looked as though she belonged at Glencairn in a way Ella suspected she herself could never achieve if she stayed a hundred years.

‘Is she …’ Luke pushed his sunglasses up. ‘Taller?’

There
was
something different about her … Ella watched as Cally walked towards them, shoulders back, chin up, her loose hair catching the sunlight. ‘She’s put some weight on.’

‘It suits her.’

It did. She practically shone with good health. And those were some very pretty highlights she had going on in her hair — thanks to the sun, presumably, since there was a shortage of top-notch colourists at Glencairn.

‘Hello.’ Cally stopped in front of them. She smiled shyly at Ella, avoiding Luke’s eyes completely, and seeming suddenly much more like the girl they had met a month
before. ‘Lizzie and Carr are inside.’

‘Hi.’ Catching Cally’s eyes at last, Luke gave her the sort of smile guaranteed to boost a girl’s ego. ‘Good to see you.’

Ella gave his arm a small squeeze of approval. She had a feeling Cally’s ego usually stayed pretty low to the ground. Behind her back, out of Cally’s sight, Luke pulled Ella’s ponytail.

‘I’ll get the bags,’ he said. ‘Anything you don’t want me to bring in?’

She raised her eyebrows at him. ‘My camera bag,’ she said, enjoying the look of surprise on his face, ‘can stay in the car.’

In the lull before dinner, Ella studied her laptop screen with a frown.

‘What does LSD stand for?’

Across the kitchen table, Ash glanced up from Luke’s newspaper with a look of surprise.

Ella gave a little shake of her head. ‘In a four-wheel-drive, I mean.’

‘Oh — limited slip diff.’

Ella’s frown deepened. ‘Do I want one of those?’

‘It won’t hurt.’ He paused. ‘Are you buying a car?’

‘Trying to.’

‘What are you looking for?’

She sighed. ‘What I really want is an old Land Cruiser — a classic seventies one, you know?’

Ash nodded.

‘But there don’t seem to be many of them about.’ Not whole and roadworthy, anyway.

‘They can be pretty hard to come by,’ he agreed.

‘There’s a new listing for one in Cromwell.’ Turning the laptop, Ella pushed it across the table to him.

Ash looked at the screen, flicking through the photographs. ‘Body’s not too rough. It’s probably been around the clock a couple of times.’

‘Around the clock?’

‘It’s done more miles than the meter can show.’

Oh, right. ‘You think I should take a look at it?’

He shrugged. ‘Well, the more you look at, the better idea you’ll get of what you’re buying.’

‘It would help,’ she admitted, ‘if I knew what I was looking
at
.’ It would also help if some of the listers weren’t so sleazy.

‘I could always take a look at a few with you,’ he offered tentatively. ‘If you think that would help — I mean, I’m no expert, but—’

‘Would you?’ Ella beamed at him. ‘Really? That would be fantastic!’ If he wasn’t an expert, he was pretty damn close. Besides which, she felt pretty sure that the sight of a guy Ash’s size would wipe the leer off the face of the next creep she met with a pornographic number-plate frame and a sweaty desire to show her the size of his tyres.

‘When does the auction for this one close?’ Ash scrolled down. ‘You want to go see it tomorrow, before you head off?’

‘That would be—’ Just in time, she remembered her promise to Luke. ‘That would be great, but I’d better not. I should really spend some time with … Mum,’ she finished lamely.

He nodded. ‘It’s got a pretty high reserve. I don’t think it’s going anywhere in a hurry. We can check it out when you get back.’

‘Check what out?’ Luke sat down next to Ella.

Ash slid the laptop across the table to him.

‘Wow,’ said Luke. The edge to his voice, though very slight, wasn’t lost on Ella.

‘Ash is going to help me find a car,’ she explained, soothingly.

‘Great.’

Ash’s eyes slid to the window. ‘Looks like Cally could use a hand out there.’ He pushed back his chair.

‘An old Land Cruiser like Rob Caterham drives,’ Luke said, as soon as Ash had closed the door behind him. ‘Seriously.
That’s
what you want to buy?’

Ugh, was that what was bothering him? How childish. ‘It’s got nothing to do with Rob,’ Ella sighed. ‘I like the look of them, that’s all. They’re fun.’ God knew she couldn’t have a lot of that on her budget.

‘Jesus, Ella, can’t you at least go for something with airbags? And power steering? There are a whole lot better things you could—’

‘It’s my car,’ Ella cut in. ‘For me to drive. Okay?’

‘Why didn’t you ask me to help you look?’

‘You?’ She tried not to laugh. ‘What do you know about four-wheel-drives?’

‘I know a bit. I used to drive one, actually.’

‘Let me guess. A Range Rover?’

Luke narrowed his eyes at her. ‘It’s a four-wheel-drive.’

‘It is.’ Turning to face him, she slid her hands over his shoulders. ‘Look, when I’ve got six figures to spend, you’ll be the first person I call, I promise. Until then’ — she grinned — ‘I’m pretty sure Ash is the man I need to talk to.’

The door opened, admitting Cally and a blast of icy air. As she held the door, she was followed in first by the cat, then Ash with what appeared to be an ambitious load of firewood.

‘Gosh, I like your jacket.’ Releasing Luke, Ella eyed the cut of Cally’s oilskin. She wouldn’t mind one of those herself.

‘Thanks.’ Unbuttoning it, Cally ran her hands through her wayward hair. She was slightly out of breath, her cheeks
flushed with the cold and her big eyes shining. Seeing them all staring at her, she dropped her gaze to the floor, shrugging her jacket off and retreating back to the porch to hang it up.

‘Right.’ Lizzie breezed in through the opposite door. ‘Who’d like a drink, then? I think the sitting room’s just about warmed up now if we all want to go through there.’

Ella shivered as the porch door was flung open again. Closing it behind him, Carr nodded at Luke. ‘What time are you leaving tomorrow?’ he demanded.

She was impressed at how little Luke blinked. ‘I thought we’d head off about mid-morning,’ he replied.

‘Put your car in the garage,’ Carr ordered. ‘There’ll be a big frost tonight.’

Sure enough, Ella opened the curtains the next morning to find that the world had turned white. Every leaf, every blade of grass in the lawn was crisp and furred. The sun was just hitting the tops of the gum trees, turning the icy filigree of the leaves to gold. Above them, the frozen hills glittered.

She hurried back to the bed. ‘Hey.’ Ella stroked Luke’s forehead. ‘Come on, wake up.’

His eyes opened slowly, finding hers. God, she loved it when he looked at her like that, his green eyes soft with sleep, all his defences down. ‘What is it?’ Luke reached up to touch her hair. ‘Is something wrong?’

‘Not a bit,’ Ella said. ‘But if you want me to keep my promise, you’re going to have to get up.’

‘Your promise to do what?’ He pushed the covers back, stretched his shoulders, then yawned. ‘Christ, it’s freezing in here. Are you wearing my jersey?’

‘You snooze, you lose.’ Hugging his grey sweater closer
to her body, she raised her eyebrows at him. ‘I promised I wouldn’t run off and leave you here by yourself. So come on — we’re going for a walk.’

With a groan, Luke sat up and pulled on his jeans. Ella handed him back his sweater.

‘Can’t we at least stop for coffee?’ he protested, as she dragged him through the kitchen.

‘I don’t want to miss the light.’

Having retrieved her camera bag from the car, Ella led the way across the white lawn and through the orchard, stopping to shoot a few frames of a single, frost-covered persimmon clinging stubbornly to its leafless tree. Taking Luke’s hand, she climbed the fence at the end of the orchard and headed up through the bitter cold beneath the gum trees in search of the sun. Luke followed her wordlessly.

Pools of gold light were spreading over the hillside above the homestead, the sunlight catching the crystals of ice that clung to every blade of tussock. Away to the west, a small mist hung above the Windscleugh River, and below, far away, the bare willows that marked its lower reaches looked as though they had been wound in white candy floss.

Finding a patch of sun, Luke hugged his arms to his chest and stood gazing out at the view. Ella watched him through the lens. Above his butter-soft polo neck, his face was still rough with sleep, his jaw unshaven and his spiky hair tousled, the light bringing out the extraordinary green of his eyes as he squinted into it, lowering his long, dark, sleepy lashes. Heart swelling, she shot off a few frames, then stopped, uncertain of what she was seeing in his expression.

‘You look very thoughtful,’ she said, lowering the camera.

‘Do I?’ he teased. ‘How unlike me.’

‘Quite,’ she smiled. ‘What are you thinking about?’

‘Oh …’ Luke rubbed the bridge of his nose. ‘I don’t know … Nothing, really.’

‘Hey.’ Smile fading, Ella watched his face. ‘Don’t do that,’ she said gently. ‘Tell me what’s wrong.’

‘I just …’ He sighed. ‘I miss you, that’s all. When you go away. I miss you.’

She nodded. She missed him, too. She missed him a lot, but … ‘It won’t be like this forever,’ she told him.

Luke met her eyes. ‘You mean one day you won’t have your dream job?’

Well, no, but … ‘My dream job,’ she reminded herself, ‘is to
be
Damian Priest. Not his assistant.’

A corner of Luke’s beautiful mouth turned down. ‘That should lighten your schedule,’ he said.

There was a silence.

Oh, God. What was this? Ella felt suddenly ill. ‘What are you saying?’ she asked him.

Luke’s face softened. He shook his head. ‘Nothing.’ Pulling her to him, he wrapped his arms around her, pressing his cheek against her hair. ‘Ella.’ He kissed her neck. ‘Nothing.’

Ella clung to him.

Luke stroked her hair. ‘We’ll work it out.’

She winced. They needed to be ‘worked out’? She’d thought they were fine. In fact, she’d thought they were better than fine. Had she totally misjudged this?

Pulling back, Luke looked into her face. ‘Let’s get the hell out of here and go home. Okay?’ He held her tightly again. ‘These hills are so fucking lonely.’

Funnily enough, Ella reflected, three days later, Luke’s house in Christchurch did feel a lot like home. She looked
around the living room. It was surprisingly modest — for him — but there was something about the place she loved. Was it just the fact that, for once, neither of them was living out of a suitcase?

The kitchen window rattled lightly as Luke’s car pulled into the drive. Oh good, he was home early. She knew he couldn’t clear his diary at three days’ notice, but still, she hated that he had to work on five of her precious eight days off. As the automatic door rolled up and the Aston began to reverberate in the garage, Ella heard another, lesser engine outside. It sounded like a delivery truck.

Luke, looking very pleased with himself, stuck his head around the door. ‘There’s something here for you,’ he told her.

For her? ‘What is it?’

‘Come and see.’

Unravelling herself from the sofa, Ella followed him outside. Oh my God: she clamped her hand to her mouth. There, in the driveway, was a classic Land Cruiser. It looked as though it had just rolled off the production line, its flawless red and white paintwork gleaming in the sun.