Storms Over Blackpeak (18 page)

Chapter
SIXTEEN

Cally settled reverently into the Aston’s leather seat. The whole car was like an incredibly expensive cocoon.

Luke glanced over at her. ‘All set?’

She nodded. She was as ready as she was ever going to be.

‘Sorry we couldn’t get away earlier,’ he said, pulling away from the kerb outside her mother’s house. ‘I’ve been stuck in meetings all morning.’

‘That’s okay.’ Quite a few of the neighbours, Cally noticed, had come to their windows to stare at Luke’s car. Did they think he was her boyfriend? She certainly hoped so.

Luke looked at the clock on the dash. ‘We should still have you back at Glencairn by dinner time.’

‘You’re not staying?’

‘No, I’m heading straight through to Queenstown. Ella gets back from London tomorrow night.’

As they joined the crawl of Friday afternoon traffic heading down the main south road, Cally entertained herself with a brief fantasy of being Ella. Model good looks, gorgeous boyfriend, glamorous job …

Luke tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. ‘Maybe I should have let you take the bus,’ he said. ‘You might have got there quicker.’

Sooner, maybe, yes. But as for faster, she doubted it. ‘I’m not complaining,’ she told him. Quite apart from anything else, she suspected Ash would have been sent to pick her up from the bus stop. Remembering the first time he’d done so, two months before, Cally imagined a drive back to Glencairn just as silent, but a lot more awkward. No, the Aston was more comfortable in every respect.

‘Sorry,’ Luke said, as the dashboard started to ring. ‘I’d better take this call.’

Cally looked out the window, trying not to listen any more than she had to as the winter-dreary plains rolled by and the calls kept coming in. God, she thought admiringly, as they left the traffic behind and turned inland, the guy was a human PowerPoint presentation. How did he manage to keep so much information about so many different projects straight?

Outside of Geraldine, Luke’s phone lost signal at last.

‘Sorry about all that,’ he said, turning the stereo on. As the road climbed into the steep, scrubby hills, he put his foot down.

Cally tried not to grin like an idiot. God, she loved this car. She still couldn’t quite believe she was in it. Three months ago, she was taking The Orbiter bus to the Pinehurst Motel. It was funny how life worked out. Enjoy it while it lasts, she told herself — you’ll be back on the bus soon enough.

Heading where? She’d decided to tough it out at Glencairn until Carr could find a replacement, but as for what she was going to do after that, she still had no idea. Outside, a fine drizzle started to fall. Cally watched the droplets race across the side window. Was she crazy to be going back at all? Valentina might have gone for now, but she’d be back, wouldn’t she? Or if not her, another girl just like her. And Ash … Ash wasn’t going anywhere. God, just thinking about him hurt. His eyes in the mirror, holding hers. The brush of his palm across her skin. Did she really think she could get through seeing him every single day and not—

‘You okay?’ Luke asked.

‘Sure.’ Her urge to grin was well and truly gone, but she managed to muster a smile.

‘Want me to slow down?’

Cally shook her head. ‘No, I’m fine.’ It wasn’t Luke’s cornering that was the problem. She had been over this argument so many times in the last six days she’d lost track of which sides of it her head and her heart were on. Which of them had insisted she should go back to Glencairn? Every time she tried to reason it out, she ended up sure of only two things. That it was wrong to leave Carr in the lurch. And that, however bad the thought of going back made her feel, the thought of
not
going back made her feel ten times worse.

By the time they reached Burkes Pass, the drizzle had thickened to sleet. Cally gazed out as the Mackenzie Basin opened up around them, the vast tussock land no less spectacular under a heavy grey sky, scraps of low cloud caught on the flanks of the hills. Maybe she was doing the right thing after all. Weirdly, this felt more like a homecoming than driving back into Christchurch had. The Port Hills were all very lovely, but this was God’s country, surely.

The city had seemed to consist of nothing but concrete
and mud, everyone she had met up with had been pale as a sheet and either just coming down with, or just getting over, some kind of lurgy, and all the vegetables in the supermarket looked as limp as her mood. The view of the fence from her mother’s living room had never been inspiring, but by day three the house Cally had grown up in had started to seem positively claustrophobic.

She had arrived on Saturday night full of intentions to spend the week looking for a proper job. Instead, she’d spent five days drinking coffee and redesigning her CV, which, as of today, was still unsent. Her friends who did have jobs didn’t seem to be enjoying them much, anyway — she’d barely been able to stay awake through their work stories.

Maybe … Cally stared across the lake to the cloud-covered alps. Maybe she could get a job at another station. One with an owner who had no sons. Or maybe she could just … get over Ash, somehow. If she applied a little self-discipline, she could live under the same roof as him, couldn’t she? She could start using the downstairs bathroom, for a start. And no more riding lessons. Or feeding out.

Luke swore under his breath. ‘Did you catch what that sign said? About the pass?’

She shook her head. Not really. It had gone by pretty fast. Something starting with ‘C’? ‘Caution required?’ Cally guessed.

Luke glanced at the clock. ‘We’re not far away now. We should be through there before this weather gets much worse.’

Cally looked out at the fading sky. It was, she realised, really starting to snow now. Judging by the horizontal drift of the flakes and the way the road markers were fluttering, the wind had got up, too. The Aston’s windscreen wipers picked up their pace. The oncoming traffic — of which there
seemed, suddenly, to be quite a lot — all had headlights blazing.

‘Well, those guys are getting through,’ said Luke. ‘The pass can’t be closed.’

‘Yes,’ she agreed, as cheerfully as she could. Unless, of course …

‘Unless they’ve been turned back,’ he added wryly.

Entering Omarama, they slowed. The tiny town was heaving. Luke swore again as a decrepit farm truck meandered out of a side road in front of them.

‘At least he thinks the pass is open,’ Cally said, as they followed the truck out of town and into the hills. As if on cue, they saw flashing lights ahead.

‘Fuck,’ said Luke, more loudly, as a cold-looking guy in a high-vis parka flagged them down. Luke opened the window, letting in a blast of freezing air.

‘Sorry, mate,’ the guy said, leaning in, ‘we’ve just closed the pass for the night. Should reopen about midday tomorrow.’

Up ahead, his colleague stood away from the farm truck. Cally watched its tail lights disappear into the snow as it chugged on towards the pass.

‘Come on.’ Luke’s voice was at its most charming. ‘There’s nobody behind us. You can let one more through, can’t you?’

The guy looked at the Aston dubiously. ‘You carrying chains?’

‘Sure,’ said Luke.

Really? Cally tried not to look disbelieving. The roadworker was no more convinced. ‘I’ll have to see you put them on, mate.’

Luke sighed.

‘Look, why don’t you head back to Omarama, eh?’ the guy suggested, not unkindly. ‘Tuck yourselves up, have a
beer. The road’ll be open in the morning.’

‘That sounds like good advice,’ Luke conceded. ‘Thanks.’

‘Have one for me, mate, while you’re at it.’

Luke turned the car around. Back in town, Cally’s heart sank as he pulled into the most expensive-looking hotel on the highway. A place like that was going to make a huge hole in her savings. She couldn’t help feeling relieved when Luke walked out of the reception area a few minutes later shaking his head.

‘Somebody just took the last room,’ he confirmed, sliding back into the car with a shiver. As they pulled out into the road, Cally could make out the neon
No Vacancy
sign flickering on through the snow behind them.

Twenty minutes of no-vacancy signs later, she was feeling somewhat less relieved.

‘That’s everywhere,’ Luke said. ‘I guess we’ll have to head back up the road a bit. See if we can find something further north.’

As another gust of wind shook the car, Cally followed Luke’s gaze through the windscreen. In the beams of the headlights, the snow was driving towards them thick and fast. Beyond the meagre orange light of the last streetlamp in town, the night was utterly black. It didn’t look inviting.

‘The pub,’ she remembered suddenly, ‘does rooms.’

‘The one we drove past?’ Luke sounded dubious. ‘They didn’t have a sign out.’

‘No, there’s another pub.’ Cally racked her brain for the street address. ‘It’s somewhere off the main road. I read about it in
Lonely Planet
.’

Luckily there weren’t many streets to choose from. Five minutes later, they pulled into the pub’s car park. Rather a lot of other people seemed to have found it as well — the car park was all but full.

‘Come on,’ Luke said. ‘We can get a coffee or something,
anyway.’ He peered out at the pub’s dated signage. ‘Maybe.’

The publican looked over at them as they walked into the bar. ‘What can I get you?’ he asked, busy filling a jug.

‘We were wondering if you had any rooms left for tonight?’ Luke said.

‘It’s your lucky day.’ He passed the jug across the bar to a red-cheeked guy in a well-seasoned bush shirt. ‘I’ve got one double left. Ensuite,’ he added proudly.

Luke and Cally looked at each other. ‘You don’t have anything else?’ Luke asked.

‘That’s it, mate.’

‘Maybe,’ Luke suggested to Cally, ‘we should try Twizel.’

‘It’s up to you, mate,’ the publican said, starting work on another jug, ‘but I don’t know that you’ll do any better there. They’ve got four coachloads in for the winter festival.’

Cally felt a gust of icy air on her back. She glanced over her shoulder as a middle-aged couple closed the door behind them and advanced on the bar.

‘Do you have a room for tonight?’ the woman asked, brushing the snow from her hair and rubbing her hands together.

The publican looked at Luke. ‘Do I?’ he asked.

Luke raised his eyebrows at Cally. ‘No,’ she said quickly. ‘We’ll take it.’

‘Sorry, love,’ the publican told the woman. ‘We’re all booked up.’ Producing a key from under the counter, he gave it to Luke. ‘Here you go, mate. Just let me finish this jug and I’ll show you across.’

‘Jesus.’ A few minutes later, Luke looked around the tiny room with an expression of disbelief. ‘This place is so out it’s back in again.’

Through the glass door, Cally watched the publican disappear back into the snow. The room did look as though it had been decorated by the same designer her grandmother
had used. She eyed the ferociously uncomfortable-looking wooden-armed settee.

‘I’ll take the sofa,’ Luke said firmly.

‘You won’t fit.’ Neither of them would. The thing was barely a two-seater. Cally looked at the bed. ‘Why don’t we just share?’ It was big enough.

‘You sure?’ He looked a bit torn.

‘Yeah,’ she shrugged. What could be the harm?

‘I could sleep on the floor.’ Luke frowned down at the slightly sticky carpet.

‘That’s silly.’ Opening the single wardrobe, Cally checked the top shelf. ‘Besides, we’ve only got one duvet. One of us will freeze to death otherwise.’

Luke was silent.

‘Look,’ she assured him, ‘it’s okay. I don’t have anything contagious, I swear.’

He gave her a dazzling smile in return. ‘Which side would you like?’

‘I don’t mind.’

He shook his head. ‘You can’t make me be a total cad. It’s bad for my self-image.’

‘Left, then,’ Cally admitted, feeling suddenly awkward. Which side of the bed they preferred didn’t seem like something they should know about each other.

‘Are you getting any signal on your phone?’ he asked, looking down at his.

She pulled it out. ‘No.’

‘Perfect,’ Luke sighed.

They both looked around the room. It was phoneless.

‘I’ll go see if there’s a payphone in the bar,’ Luke said. ‘We’d better get hold of Lizzie and Carr before they muster Mountain Rescue.’

As Luke, too, vanished into the night, Cally pulled the
curtains and turned the fan heater up. Was it really that much warmer in there than it was outside?

Yes it was, she decided fifteen minutes later, when Luke shouldered his way back in with their bags. She hurried to close the door behind him.

‘Did you find a phone?’

‘Yeah. The payphone was out of order, but Gordon let me use the one behind the bar.’

‘So you spoke to Carr?’

There was a slight pause. ‘I spoke to Ash, actually.’

‘Oh,’ she managed. Great. She couldn’t even hear his name without getting upset. That certainly boded well for the future. Her mind suddenly full of a vision of Ash standing there in Glencairn’s kitchen, Cally told herself she had no wish to hear what he’d said.