She’s seeing massage clients.’
‘My friend told me that she’s changed unbelievably.’
‘Your friend?’
‘Harry Rubenstein at Lawry Hospital.’
Her eyes lit. ‘You talked to Harry?’
‘Harry’s a friend from way back. I tracked your mum through the institution records and they said she’d been discharged into Harry’s care.’
‘Harry’s been wonderful,’ she told him. ‘It was Harry who suggested we might come back here. My mother was happy here once, and Harry thought it might help her even more.’
‘Did Harry advise you to give up medicine?’ he asked incredulously, and she shook her head.
‘Of course he didn’t. But I figured it out for myself. Like someone slapping you over the face with a wet fish- finally you get the obvious. Sure, make my mother better by recreating my grandfather. By flaunting what she could have been in her face. I don’t think so.’
‘You’re never your grandfather.’
‘I tried to be.’ She sighed. ‘Anyway, that’s my story. It’s why I’m here. My mother’s being cared for by friends for the first few weeks while I get myself settled.’
‘Until you can offer your mother stability again.’
‘Harry told you that?’ Her anger flashed out. ‘He takes a lot on himself.’
‘He’s no longer your mother’s treating psychiatrist,’ Darcy said gently. ‘But he cares about you both. Deeply. And I don’t blame him.’ He hesitated. ‘Can we go somewhere to talk?’
‘No.’ She swallowed and he saw another flash of fear behind her eyes. What was she afraid of? Him? The thought was almost unbearable. ‘These people need you to stay here,’ she told him.
‘I-’
‘If you have something to say, say it now. Here.’
‘I told you. I’ve found you somewhere to live. I’ve found everyone a place to live.’
Silence. The tap was dripping behind her-a steady plink, plink. It was starting to worry him.
Or maybe…it wasn’t the tap that was worrying him. He didn’t know how the hell to start. He didn’t understand her fear.
He had to say what she needed to know.
‘You knew that Jerry’s father owned much of the land around here?’ he said at last.
She nodded. Still distrustful.
‘I’ve been asking questions of the locals this afternoon,’ he told her. ‘It seems the old man still owns property.’
‘The land on the ridge.’
‘More. There’s a farm on the promontory before you get to the lighthouse. There’s a manager on it and it’s where the Hatfields used to stay when they came to town. It’s run as a dairy farm-it could be really productive, but the word is that it was being kept for Jerry in case he ever wanted a respectable living.’
‘Why didn’t Jerry take his people there?’ Ally asked, puzzled. ‘Instead of up to the ridge.’
‘Jerry’s been hiding. He was even hiding from his father. The old man’s so angry I suspect if he’d known what Jerry was doing he would have turned his son in to the police himself.’
‘How do you know this?’ She was holding herself rigid, Darcy thought. She still looked as if she was about to run.
‘I talked to him,’ Darcy told her. ‘I went out and spoke to the manager who’s about a hundred, and he phoned old man Hatfield who’s about a hundred and ten.’
‘But…why?’
‘I want that farm for these people,’ Darcy told her, and she gasped.
‘You’re kidding.’ And then, as she thought about it: ‘He’d never agree. All old man Hatfield cares about is profit.’
‘He cares about his name. According to the police, he helped Jerry escape overseas and he’s helped him relocate at other times. Now…’
‘Now what?’
‘Now he’s deeply ashamed. The farm’s neglected. The rates haven’t been paid. My suggestion-with the backing of the local councillors-is that the farm be signed over to the joint ownership of the people of Jerry’s community, on the understanding that they don’t press any charges against him.’
She thought about that, and seemed to find it wanting. ‘Are there any charges they can lay against Jerry? Other than the ones that are already outstanding?’
‘Who knows?’ Darcy said. ‘We certainly implied there were.’
‘We? Who’s we?’
‘Me and Sergeant Matheson.’
‘What on earth is this all to do with you?’ she demanded, and he smiled.
‘I’m a family doctor, Ally. I look for cures. Ever since yesterday I’ve been worrying about these people, thinking that their long-term trauma is going to be intense. They’ve been living together for years. They have no support. Split into separate units, I suspect they’d go the way of your mother.’ She winced and his voice gentled. ‘You know that’s right.’
‘I…I guess.’
‘Anyway…’ He still wasn’t sure how she was taking this but he had to continue. ‘While the councillors were talking about this-’
‘The councillors?’
‘Our town council consists of six people,’ he said. ‘Sergeant Matheson, Fred, Elaine, Myrtle, Hilda and me. You know them all. They certainly know you. The sergeant says he’s the only one who hasn’t had a massage yet and he wants the situation rectified.’
Her look of confusion deepened. ‘So what were they talking about? Besides massage.’
‘The farm, of course. And then you.’
‘Me?’
He wanted to hug her. She stood there looking like a waif, a bereft child, but…more. She was all woman, he thought. A complicated mix of baggage, a magnificent masseuse, a doctor, a loving daughter, a spitfire who’d go after Jerry with a gun if she had to. A beautiful, desirable woman.
Ally.
He had to stay focussed. For the moment he had to stay focussed on not loving Ally.
Impossible ask.
‘Ally, there’s a fisherman’s cottage down on the harbour,’ he told her. ‘Two up, two down. It belonged to Elspeth Murdoch who died last year and left it to be used by the council as they see fit. If we ever get funding we might set it up as a tourist information centre, but meanwhile it’s furnished, it’s lovely and it’s vacant. We thought of it when we were trying to figure out where we could relocate Jerry’s lot, but of course it isn’t big enough. But then we thought of you.’
‘I can’t afford to rent anything yet.’
‘That’s just it.’ He smiled, trying desperately to ease the tension in her eyes. ‘The council has decided it needs a caretaker. We’re offering it to your mother and to you.’
She stared, unbelieving. ‘Why?’
‘You feel badly about your mother,’ he told her, his eyes not leaving her face. ‘This town feels badly about you. There’s a lot of guilty consciences round here. There’s people who are whipping themselves that they didn’t guess it was Jerry Hatfield come back to the ridge. And there are people who believe they should have stood up to your grandfather all those years ago-and then to your father when he took you away from where you belong.’
‘But-’
‘Your mother will be welcomed home with all honour, Ally,’ he told her. ‘You know that.’
She looked dumbfounded.
‘What…what should I do?’ she asked, and she sounded so lost that he had to steel himself to stay still. But some things were impossible not to say.
‘You could let me kiss you,’ he told her.
