Secrets of river cottage, p.1
Secrets of River Cottage, page 1
Secrets of River Cottage
A Bindarra Creek Mystery Romance
Annie Seaton
Dedication
To Ian, my partner in life and love.
Chapter 1
Cathy Kendall stood on the front porch of River Cottage and fought for calm. Her heart was pounding and the beginning of a migraine tugged at her temples. Closing her eyes, she drew a deep breath and focused on the excited chatter of her two children as they explored the side veranda that led off the porch. For once, the gentle burbling of the river across the paddock failed to calm her churning mind. The heavy sky, threatening imminent rain, reflected her dark and turbulent thoughts.
There was no way she could live in this house again.
No way.
The memories, the fear, and the expectation that her past would finally catch up with her turned her blood to ice. She opened her eyes and took another deep breath as a small hand tugged her arm.
‘Mum, this is way cool.’ Billy, her twelve-year-old son’s voice was filled with excitement. ‘Look how close the river is. I can fish all day.’
‘You’ll be at school all day,’ Cathy said, as she put the key in the lock and slowly, reluctantly, pushed open the front door. ‘Anyway, it’s not certain we’ll be living here yet, so don’t get too excited. There’s still a lot to be decided.’
‘Maybe we can go and live at the beach with Nan and Pa, Mummy,’ Josie said as she followed Cathy along the hall that ran through the centre of the old house down to the kitchen. ‘I don’t want them to move away. I’m going to miss them so much.’
‘Aw, come on, Mum. What’s the problem?’ As usual, Billy persisted. ‘If we live here, I can fish after school. We can eat what I catch. It would save us some money.’
Josie’s little hand snuck into hers as they walked into the kitchen. Cathy ignored the mark on the paint outside the kitchen door,
‘It would be a nice house to live in. Look at that stove.’ Her small daughter was intuitive and had picked up Cathy’s mood, as she always did.
Cathy turned reluctantly to the filthy old combustion stove, and her hand tingled from the memory of an accident long ago.
No, it hadn’t been an accident. She pushed the thought away as her hand seemed to burn all over again.
‘We can bake all sorts of cakes. Do you think it would be all right for sponges?’ Her ten-year-old daughter had inherited Cathy’s love of baking. ‘And there might be duck eggs here too. I saw some ducks at the pond when we drove in. If there are, that would be the absolute icing on the cake!’
Cathy’s lips tilted in a smile as Josie parroted one of her nan’s sayings. ‘It would be, wouldn’t it, sweetie? “The icing on the cake”, indeed.’
Cathy looked around the kitchen, telling herself it was only a building. She had sat at that red Laminex table when she was in labour with Josie. Billy had been asleep in his bed as she’d waited for Russ to come home from the pub and take her to the hospital. She’d hung on as long as she could after Russ got home so that he’d sobered up enough to look after Billy while she was gone.
It was only bricks and mortar, or in the case of River Cottage, it was half-rotten weatherboards and a rusty roof.
Cathy knew she must put her children first and leave the past behind. The memories weren’t embedded in the building; they were in her mind and would follow her wherever they lived. It was time to let go of the past; the move away from Russ’s family would be the catalyst for starting afresh, even if they stayed in Bindarra Creek. She still hadn’t quite decided if they would stay, but the thought of moving to the city and starting over made her ill.
Russ wasn’t here, and he wasn’t coming back; that was one of the few certainties in her life. When her in-laws, David and Lea, had announced they were retiring to the coast, Cathy had no inkling that she and the children would have to leave the farm. They’d moved there after Russ had left, and it was the only home Billy and Josie knew. When David told her that they were retiring and Jon, their youngest son, and his wife, Cleo, were moving in to take over the property, Cathy had panicked.
‘Oh, sweetheart.’ Lea’s work-roughened hand had taken Cathy’s as she widened her eyes and stared. She knew the colour had left her face by Lea’s stricken expression. ‘Oh dear, we’ve handled this all wrong. You know you’re like a daughter to us. We’d never abandon you, Cathy,’ her mother-in-law said. The words that always remained unspoken hung in the air.
Like our son abandoned you and your children.
Lea and David had been wonderful to them. Cathy had no family, apart from one elderly aunt in Sydney. Her only contact with Aunty Jean was the annual exchange of Christmas cards.
‘It’s good news and it’s exciting for you all,’ Lea said. ‘We’re going to do up River Cottage for you to live in. So much better for Billy and Josie to be in town. They can go to after-school activities, and they won’t have that bus trip to town every day.’
‘And Mum?’ Billy’s voice pulled Cathy from her thoughts. ‘I can get a kayak and go kayaking across the road with Eddie.’
Cathy frowned. ‘Eddie? Who’s Eddie?’
‘You know, Mum! Eddie Taylor. He’s in year eight.’
Cathy nodded. ‘Oh yes, Abby and Roman’s youngest. I didn’t know he was one of your friends.’
‘He hangs with us at lunchtime because some of the year eight boys were bullying him about his dad not being his real dad. But I stood up for him. At least he’s got a dad to do things with.’
Guilt pierced Cathy’s chest, but before she could answer, Billy kept talking.
‘Anyway, Mum. He’s always telling me how much fun it is, and he’s invited me out there one day to go for a paddle.’
Cathy frowned. ‘Oh, I don’t know about that, Billy. That river can be dangerous. You’ll have to wait until after all this rain stops. The river is flowing very hard at the moment.’
‘Aw, Mum. I can wear a life jacket and anyway, Eddie’s dad’s in the SES. And now it’s getting warmer I can do swimming lessons at the pool. Especially if we’re in town. I could go every afternoon.’
Cathy straightened and folded her arms. ‘There’s a lot to be decided before we start talking swimming lessons and kayaking. This old place needs a lot of work even if we do decide to live here. It’s been empty for a long time.’
‘Why, Mummy? Is it a bad house? Is that why no one wants to live here?’ Josie’s face crumpled in a frown, and Cathy hesitated and then crouched in front of her daughter. Josie was small for her age, and along with her intuition came a lot of worries. She was a sensitive little soul, and, like Billy, always took on the more needy children as friends at school. Cathy had tried to shield her children as best she could—depending on who you listened to over the years, the town gossip had had Russ in jail, running away with a bikie gang, and living the high life in Bali.
‘No sweetie, it’s Nan and Pa’s house in town, and they didn’t ever rent it out. It’s got a bit old, but Pa said they are going to do it up for us if we decide to live here.’
‘Please, please, please, Mum.’ Billy danced around her. ‘You could do canteen at school, and we could go for walks along the river, and heaps and heaps of good things.’
‘We could have a veggie garden and look, Mum’—Josie stood at the back window—‘there’s even a chook pen. I can bring Red into town.’
‘You and your chooks, Josie!’ Cathy forced a smile to her face; she couldn’t put the inspection off any longer. ‘Come on, let’s go and look at the rest of the house and we can think about it. We have plenty of time. Nan and Pa aren’t going to the coast until next year.’
##
Later that afternoon as they turned into the driveway leading to the Kendall farmhouse nestled in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range—not as far out of town as Billy declared—Cathy was surprised to see Jon and Cleo’s ute parked near the shed. As far as she knew, they were up north visiting Cleo’s parents on their cane farm in North Queensland while Cleo could still fly. Their new baby was due at Christmas.
Cleo was sitting in the sun in the front garden as they opened the gate. Cleo was a beautiful young woman, her lustrous brown curls and dark brown eyes always made Cathy feel old and colourless. But she was a lovely person, and Cathy couldn’t ask for a better sister-in-law.
‘Hi Cleo, good to see you having a rest for a change.’ Cathy put her bag on the table and sat in the chair opposite.
‘Lea hunted me out. But it is nice to be sitting out here in the sun.’
‘As long as you don’t get overheated,’ Cathy said.
‘Not this spring. It still feels like winter. I am so sick of all the rain,’ Cleo said, as one-year-old Benjamin came tottering towards them.
‘Oh, Benny’s walking. Mum, look!’ Josie raced over and held her cousin’s hand. ‘Clever Benny!’
‘Is everything okay? You’re back early.’ Cathy frowned. ‘I thought you were staying up in Queensland for a couple more weeks.’
Cleo reached up and ran a hand through her dark curls. ‘Everything’s fine, but there’s been a slight change in plans. I’ll let Lea and David fill you in. What was River Cottage like?’
‘Actually, it was nowhere near as bad as I expected. Lea’s hired Bridie Bentley to clean it once a month apparently.’
‘I thought Bridie left town to live with her daughter after all that stuff out at the Bentley farm a few months ago.’
‘No, she seems to have a lot more confidence these days. You see her arou nd town often now. Not that I’m in there that often.’ Cathy laughed. ‘I’ve run into her a few times, and she told me Lea has her doing the cleaning. The house is old, but it’s liveable.’
‘That’s good.’
Cathy sent a shrewd glance in Cleo’s direction. ‘Why do you say that?’
Cleo waved her hand, but a flush stained her fair cheeks. ‘Come in, and we’ll let David and Lea tell you what’s going on.’
Half an hour later, Cathy put her teacup on the table and forced a bright note into her voice. Billy had gone out with David to feed the poddy calf, and Lea was peeling vegetables for dinner. Cleo had taken Benny to the spare room for them both to have a rest.
‘So, four weeks, Lea?’
‘Yes, and I have so much to do, I don’t know where to start.’
‘I’ll give you a hand. Just tell me anything I can do to help.’
‘I still haven’t got my head around David changing our plans. When the house sitters let us know they had to leave early, he jumped at the chance of moving to the coast. Wants to go fishing!’ Lea shook her head. ‘I’ve got so much on, and it’s not long until Christmas. Now I’ve got to pack up the house and move to the Nambucca Heads house in a month.’ She pulled out the chair opposite Cathy and picked up the teapot. ‘A top-up, love?’
‘Yes, please.’ Cathy was still in shock. Once David had explained what was going on, he had asked if she was okay moving into town with the children a few months earlier than planned.
In a month.
When Billy and Josie looked up at her with gleeful anticipation on their faces, she found herself nodding. As well as helping Lea pack up, Cathy knew she had to get herself organised. Not that they really had that much of their own to pack; it was more getting her head around leaving the farm they’d lived on for almost ten years.
‘David is going to ring Ryan Rossiter to take a look at the cottage,’ Lea said. ‘Also, I heard Dodge and Tessa are just back from a trip out west with a truckload of furniture from garage sales. Apparently, they’re having a sale to make room in their shop. You might pick up some pieces for the house. If you see anything, we’ll pay for it.’
Cathy shook her head. ‘No, Lea. It’s about time I stood on my own two feet. You and David took us in when Russ . . . when Russ left, and you’ve been incredibly good to us. I need to make a home for Billy and Josie. I’ve been thinking of looking for some work in town; there could be a part-time clerical job coming up at the high school. Jaclyn finishes her maternity leave after Christmas, and I know I’d have a pretty good chance of getting the job.’ Cathy smiled. ‘Even though you left big shoes to fill there.’
Lea’s eyes glinted with unshed tears. ‘You don’t have to work, you know that, Cathy. It was our son who let you down so badly, and looking after you and the kids financially is the least we can do to make amends.’
Cathy reached out and touched her mother-in-law’s hand. ‘You and David don’t have to make amends, you know. You’ve looked after us for long enough. I truly appreciate what you’ve done for us, but it’s time I learned to be a bit more independent.’
Lea gripped Cathy’s hand. ‘I just wish we knew what happened to Russ. Is my boy still alive? I guess I have to accept he’s not, because if he was, he wouldn’t have stayed away this long, would he?’ Tears rolled down Lea’s cheeks. ‘I’ll never know.’
Cathy kept her thoughts on that to herself as she always had. She reached up and wiped the tears from Lea’s face. ‘Come on, let’s think about something happy. You don’t want to end up with a migraine.’
Lea smiled through her tears. ‘I certainly don’t have time for that at the moment.’
As Cathy searched for a happier topic, Josie came in from the sunroom where she’d been reading. Josie spent most of her time with her head in a book, and had a vivid imagination.
‘Don’t cry, Nan. Aunty Cleo let me feel her new baby kick in her tummy before. I think she’s going to be a soccer player.’
Lea held her arms out and Josie sat on her lap, her little fingers wiping Lea’s cheeks as Cathy’s had. ‘And Aunty Cleo asked me for some ideas for our new baby’s name too.’
Cathy smiled at her daughter as she looked across at her. In less than a minute, Josie had Lea distracted and smiling. Her heart clenched as she realised that Lea and David would be a few hundred kilometres away soon. Lea could be difficult to live with at times, but she had been wonderful to Cathy and the children. Since Lea had retired, she had been a lot more giving. Lea calmed as Josie spoke to her, but Cathy was at a loss with the Russ issue as she had been for the past ten years.
What could you say to a mother whose child had disappeared of his own accord? Cathy couldn’t imagine what that would be like. She prayed that neither of the children had Russ’s temperament.
There was so much that Lea didn’t know about her son.
And Cathy would never tell her.
Chapter 2
Two weeks later
Grant Cummings stayed in Tamworth overnight so he could get to Bindarra Creek early the next morning. When he chose the most expensive motel in town, he knew he was making a statement—even if only to himself—a statement that these days he could afford the best. Despite being much older and wiser than he’d been when he’d fled from Bindarra Creek eighteen years ago, Grant couldn’t help the nervous tension settling in his gut when he passed the sign telling him the town was only five kilometres ahead. He lifted his foot from the accelerator and the RAM slowed as he took notice of his surroundings. It had been a wet spring; the paddocks were lush and green, and the cattle were fat and shiny.
When he’d been seventeen, Grant hadn’t noticed anything about the town or the landscape; all he’d wanted to do was get out of what he called a hick town. To be fair, his years growing up in Bindarra Creek had been mostly happy. In those days, kids could run free. He’d spent his afternoons and weekends outside, playing cricket in the summer and rugby league in the winter. He’d done okay at school, but his enthusiasm for sport had meant little homework had been done. His parents and Sally, his sister, moved to Melbourne a year after he’d left home.
His year ten teacher, Ian Kendall, had written on his final report: “Grant will never make anything of his life until he learns to focus and improves his handwriting.”
Grant hoped the old bugger was still in town to see what he had made of his life. He would have been better off writing: “Grant will never make anything of his life until he learns to focus and stays away from Russell Kendall.”
But back in those days, no one else had seen Russ for what he was, and Grant had been sucked in like the rest of the kids who looked up to Russ. The others had gradually drifted away, and Grant had spent his time at Bindarra Creek High under Russ’s influence.
As he approached the outskirts of town, Grant looked to the right to see if the garage was still there. He’d hoped to come across a service centre on the highway, but there hadn’t been one. In those characterless centres, you could remain anonymous, although he doubted that anyone would link him to the young thug who’d left town at seventeen.
He pulled in, filled up his tank and paid by credit card to a disinterested teenager who was flicking through her phone. Nothing changes, he thought.
As he drove toward his temporary home, Grant glanced at the swimming pool. It was easy to let his mind go back and remember the summer afternoons he’d spent there in his teens, in awe of Russ and how the girls seemed to find him irresistible. The coconut aroma of Reef Oil, greasy chips and Pluto Pups from the pool shop came to him as though it was only yesterday that he and Russ were showing off to the girls, seeing who could outperform the other with dangerous dives into the deep end of the pool. He turned his gaze back to the road.
The primary and high schools were back down to the right, but he had no desire to revisit the school either. To be honest, Grant had no desire to be in Bindarra Creek, but the information that he’d been given three months ago had started him on a path from which there was no turning back. The only way he could follow that path to his desired conclusion was to settle here and become a respected—if temporary—resident of Bindarra Creek.
