Now she understood why he’d reacted the way he had the first time they met. He’d been speaking from experience. Here she was with all the social advantages, embarking on what he and her parents considered a mediocre career. And Philip had fought against insurmountable odds to make something of himself. It was the unfairness of it which had struck a chord in him.
“But you’ve done so well, Philip,” she finally said.
“Have I? I wonder what your father would do if he found out that Mario Palmiri was my step-father. He’s already warned me to stay away from you. Do you suppose he’d ever work out that Philip Palmiri and Philip Pelayo are one and the same until I changed my name back again? Nobody else has - yet.”
“Well, I’m not going to tell him,” Nicole promised softly.
“No, I don’t suppose you would, but... it will always be there. You’ll always know that you got involved with the son of a criminal, a man who himself embarked on activities that could be classed as illegal. How does that sit with your chaste do-gooder attitude, hmm?”
She didn’t care about any of that. None of it had been his fault. She wanted to tell him this, but he never gave her the chance.
“You don’t want to issue words of comfort now, do you? You’re disgusted. Disgusted for getting involved with a lawless rebel from Marrickville! But you wanted to know. You begged me to tell you.”
“No, I—”
“Oh, let’s just end it now. It would have anyway. We’re worlds apart, Nicole. I should never have let it go this far.” He strode across the room. He picked up his travel bag, slinging it over his shoulder.
“What are you doing?” Nicole cried, as he reached for the door handle.
“What does it look like? I’m going to try and get another room, and tomorrow I’ll head back to Hobart.”
“No, you can’t leave me.” Panic rose in her throat. The situation was far graver than she’d imagined. She’d gotten him to talk, but now he resented her knowing. If only they could get past this stage, she knew they would have a future together.
“This is the coward’s way out,” she insisted, grabbing hold of his arm. “If you’re really as big and tough as you like to think you are, you’ll deal with this. We’ll both deal with it.”
“I don’t want to deal with it, Nicole. I want to forget all that ever happened,” he grated out, wrenching his arm free.
“You’ll never forget it. It won’t go away by pushing it under the carpet, because our past affects our future. I can’t stop you from leaving me, but it’s really yourself you’re running away from.”
Philip reacted exactly as expected. He shot her one last scornful glance before yanking open the door.
Nicole decided to play her final card. She had nothing else left to lose. “If you really care about me, you won’t go.”
That made him hesitate.
He stood in the open doorway, still with his back to her, his shoulders stiff with tension.
Nicole held her breath, the pulse thundering in her ears. Please don’t leave me? she prayed silently. Not now, not like this.
But a second later he walked out of the room, and out of her life, letting the door swing shut behind him. Nicole stood there, staring at the wood paneling in disbelief.
He’d really done it! Philip had left her, and this time he wouldn’t be back. He hadn’t cared enough. His unhappy upbringing had destroyed his trust and faith in others.
Shock gave way to misery. Nicole collapsed onto the double bed to let the tears flow. Soon she was sobbing uncontrollably, her entire body shaking with desolation.
He’d sent her emotions into overdrive, and awoken her most secret desires, but that was all it had been to him, all it could be to him. She had been a fool to think it would lead anywhere, a silly immature fool, who thought four years of social work training could help change a life-time of suffering.
Nicole cried until no more tears would come. Even though physically exhausted, her mind was still racing at a hundred miles an hour, wishing she had handled things differently. She should never have confronted him like that, never forced the issue. But it was too late, she finally told herself. There’s nothing you can do about it now. The die has been cast. The deed done.
She had to get on with her future. Tomorrow she would continue the tour as planned. All too soon she would be back in Sydney, where life would go on as normal. She had to find herself a job and forget she’d been foolish enough to fall for a handsome Spanish rebel from the wrong side of town.
Nicole didn’t realize that she’d fallen asleep until she opened her eyes to daylight peeping through the blinds. On glancing at her travel clock, she saw it was already seven-thirty. For a moment she lay there, until the memory of what had transpired during the night hit her like the blow from a sledgehammer.
Philip had left her.
Recalling her resolve to cope no matter what, Nicole scrambled out of bed to continue with her tour. She got dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast. Even though she had no appetite, she managed to swallow a slice of toast and gulp down a cup of coffee. It helped a little to ease her weariness. Luckily the Martinolis didn’t appear while she was there. Nicole doubted she could face Marina and admit she’d failed. She’d gotten him to talk all right but without the desired result. Instead of bringing them closer together it had driven them apart.
The mountain air was crisp, with a bite in the breeze when Nicole stepped outside. Bright, early morning sunshine made the dew covered grass sparkle so intensely she had to squint as she made her way towards the car. As it was still early, there were few people about. It was eerie to be so alone on top of this majestic mountain range. She wondered again where Philip had gone. For a few minutes she stood beside the vehicle trying to decide whether she should wait for him. It could be entirely possible that he’d changed his mind during the night.
Oh stop being so foolish, she chastised herself. If Philip still wanted you he would have come back last night. To prevent the cloak of depression settling around her again, Nicole got into the car and reversed it out of its parking spot. Resolving once again to continue on with the rest of her trip, she started driving in the direction of Strahan and Queenstown, but her heart simply wasn’t in it anymore.
There were very few cars on the highway. As this was not a very populated part of Tasmania she wasn’t surprised. It was too rugged and cold. The only sound was the hum of the engine. Nicole doubted she had ever felt so alone. Thus it came as a bit of a surprise to see a hitch-hiker walking along the road ahead of her. Never having been one to stop for lone men walking along deserted highways, she pushed her foot down harder on the accelerator, and sped past him. It wasn’t until she glanced into the rear vision mirror that she decided this was one hitch-hiker she would stop for. She should have recognized him from the trendy black jacket he was wearing.
Tearing her gaze away from Philip in the mirror, she discovered in horror that not only had she swerved to the wrong side of the road, an enormous logging truck was bearing down on her.
It was more a reflex action than forward thinking, which made her spin the steering wheel to the left and slam her foot on the brake.
With the sound of screeching tires, the car lurched savagely off the road, and the truck roared past, its horn blaring. The car came to an abrupt halt with its bonnet in a grassy embankment, jerking Nicole forward in her seat. She sat there in numbed silence, her stunned brain slowly coming to terms with what had happened. I could be dead now, she thought, my car mangled beyond recognition underneath the front of that truck. The realization made her shudder, and her entire body started to shake violently with shock.
Suddenly the car-door was yanked open, and she felt hands reaching for her. A moment later she was being held against a hard male body, comforted by powerful arms.
“A - are you all right?” Philip asked, his voice trembling with emotion.
In her incredible relief to not only be alive, but that he was here holding her, she slid her arms around his neck, burying her flushed face in the cool folds of his leather jacket. It seemed strange that the rest of her was icy cold and her face burning hot.
“Yes- yes I think so,” she stammered.
“Nothing hurts?” he asked, drawing a little away.
“No, no. Just hold me,” she murmured, drawing him to her again. He let her cling to him, stroking her hai. It took a few minutes, but Nicole finally managed to calm down, and her uncontrollable shaking eased.
“What on earth were you trying to do, Nicole?” he asked finally. “I was standing there, convinced you were on a kamikaze mission determined to get yourself annihilated. Don’t
ever
scare me like that again!”
Those final commanding words compelled her to look up into his face. She realized then he had been equally shaken by the experience, which was understandable, considering he’d lost his entire family in a car accident. But there was something else softening his golden-brown eyes. It was more than concern, a look she had never seen there before. Deep tenderness illuminated the dark depths of his irises. It could only mean one thing. He cared. Philip really did care about her.
“I think I terrified myself more,” Nicole muttered, shifting in her seat. With the sudden urge to get out of the car, she stretched out her cramped legs. He moved away to allow her the space she needed to stand up. She leaned against the inert vehicle, and Philip faced her, resting one of his elbows on the roof.
“What on earth possessed you?” he asked gravely, placing his hand on her arm.
Suddenly she smiled, as she recalled what had caused her to lose her concentration on the first place.
“I was too busy admiring the sexy hitchhiker walking along the side of the road,” she admitted.
“Oh great! Now I’m a traffic hazard,” he scoffed. “May I make a suggestion? Promise not to bite my head off for it?”
She quirked an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to go on.
“Let me do the driving from now on?”
“Does that mean you still want to come with me?”
“If you’ll have me. I’m really sorry for walking out on you like that last night.” From the way he spoke and the way his eyes appealed to her from beneath those long dark lashes of his, she would do more than forgive him. She had already done that when she’d seen him walking along the side of the road.
Nicole stretched up and kissed him on the lips. They were cold, but when he responded, both their mouths and bodies were soon bathed in warm liquid heat. Philip wrapped his arms around her waist, drawing her against him.
“Oh Phil,” she sighed, when the deep kiss finally ended. “I’m sorry too. I should never have forced the issue like that. It wasn’t fair.”
“I think you’re going to make a brilliant social worker-“
Nicole started to protest, but he brought a silencing finger to her lips before continuing. “What you did for me was make me realize I had been carrying around all that guilt and pain around with me. Only I was being too pig-headed to see what you were trying to do. I’ve walked for miles thinking about Michael, my past, you and I... You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I’d be a bloody idiot to give you up.”
It wasn’t a declaration of love, but at that point in time she didn’t care. All she cared about was having him back in her arms. They still had a chance, a damned good one, if what he had just said was true.
“You know I did it because I care about you,” she finally said. Then something else occurred to her. “Why didn’t you come back last night? You were hitching a ride back to Hobart, weren’t you?” What if someone else had stopped for you? I would still be on my way to Strahan.”
“I was waiting for you to come along. I knew this was the way you’d have to come. I didn’t come back last night because I’d walked so damn far, I doubted I’d make it back before you left, so I decided to just keep on walking. Besides Hobart’s in the other direction,” he explained.
“Oh you poor thing. You must be starving too.”
“It serves me right. Now let’s see if we can get this car started.” He climbed into the driver’s seat. It took a few attempts before it finally turned over. Nicole stood and watched while he reversed it out of the long grass. To her surprise, when she went to check for damages, there was barely a scratch on the paint-work. The soft grass must have cushioned the impact when she’d careered off the road.
There were numerous interesting places to visit along the Lyall Highway, including the magnificent Nelson Waterfall, which Nicole photographed from at least ten different angles. Then for a long time she stood with Philip holding her close, gazing at the rapidly gushing water glittering against the midday sunshine. In the company of one of nature’s most beautiful creations it was easy to forgot her uncertainty and fears for a while. He was with her now. That was all that mattered.
Lake St. Claire was also a spectacular sight. The only place Nicole didn’t appreciate was Queenstown. Although it had become a tourist attraction, she found it went completely against nature. How a town could destroy every tree in the surrounding hills for mining purposes and keep it that way, amazed and saddened her.
They were to stay at a hotel in Strahan that night, and then take a cruise up the Gordon and Franklin Rivers the following morning. After they had eaten in one of the restaurants in town, Nicole made her daily call to her mother, using a public phone as she couldn’t get a descent reception on her mobile.
“Peter and Rob should be home some time tomorrow,” Gail informed her.
“That’s good. How are they faring?” Nicole asked.
“They had a few problems with the engine, but it’s been fixed now. What have you seen today?”
“Today we went to Lake St. Claire and Queenstown...” Nicole stopped, realizing the monumental blunder she’d just made.
“We?” Of course her mother would have to pick up on it.