Gracie and Paul looked at him wide-eyed and open-mouthed and finally Paul said, ‘I think that you just said more than you have said in the entire rest of your life.’
‘And in all that time you didn’t think to let anyone know you weren’t dead?’ snapped Edie. She could barely look at him. How could he have let her, let his mother, think he was dead all these years?
‘I couldn’t, Edie,’ he said. ‘I didn’t think I had anyone to come back to.’
‘Maybe Gracie and I have something to do inside,’ said Paul.
‘Do we?’ asked Gracie. ‘Because I want to hear what happened to Theo.’
‘Yes, I think we do,’ said Paul and Theo helped Paul up from the step and Paul patted Theo on the shoulder like he would a son who was just leaving after his weekly visit, as if Theo had never been away all these years, as if they hadn’t thought he was dead. As if he’d merely popped down to Melbourne for a spot of business.
Edie sighed crossly. Paul raised his eyebrow at her and handed her the water glass and she gripped it tight as if it might hold her up, or as if she might throw it at Theo or at her father for patting him like the prodigal son returned.
‘I invited him in. He says he won’t come inside,’ said Paul. ‘He says he can’t come inside until he’s spoken with you. So speak with him, will you, because it’s getting dreadfully cold out here.’
‘So, Papa …’ Gracie said when they got to the kitchen, leaving Theo and Edie outside. She knew more was happening than Theo simply appearing from the dead, that was a miracle in itself but she had expected it and wasn’t surprised and didn’t know why Paul and Edie were surprised. Lilly said she had seen him.
She put the kettle on. ‘There’s obviously a story here. Why hasn’t Beth come with him?’
‘It’s a long story, Gracie.’ Paul sat in the kitchen chair. ‘It’s a love story but not one about a man and a woman, though that’s part of it — it’s a love story about two sisters and a father.’
She put her hands on her hips and stared down at him. She wanted more and she would get it.
‘All right, judge,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what he’s doing here without Beth. Yes he married her but it was always Edie he loved, but you were too young to know that.’
‘Did Edie love him?’
‘Immensely, but she didn’t want to marry him and Beth did and that’s what happened.’
‘Why didn’t she want to marry him if she loved him?’
Paul thought for a moment and said, ‘Because Beth loved him too, and you know your sister, she always puts everyone else’s needs first.’
‘Well, we must find out what he is doing here and where he has been. Perhaps something has happened to Beth and he’s come to tell us, did you think of that? We can’t leave Edie out there alone.’ Gracie started towards the door and Paul reached out and stopped her.
‘Alone is exactly what they have never had and need,’ said Paul. ‘So make me that tea you promised.’
Theo stood in front of her, his hat in his hand. The cold wet air settled on his greying hair, the moisture turning it silver. Edie looked hard at him, trying to see if he was the same person. His hair was longer than he used to have it and more wayward, there was no oil in it to hold it down and it looked as though an old aunt had ruffled it. His moustache was gone and his chin was sturdier; the lines on his face were weathered. His eyes and mouth had fine lines around them as though they were always ready to smile. He stood there tall and proud, almost challenging her to reject him, and she realised he was much stronger than he had been when he was young, and he had the face of a man who had worked hard. She looked at the ground, then back up at him, and it was as if she was nineteen again and she began to melt into him. Then she remembered she was nearly twice that age now and there was Virgil.
‘I am old,’ she said. Her voice was barely there.
He didn’t laugh at her.
‘You have never been more beautiful,’ he said, and the quietness was theirs.
They stood in it for some time. His eyes were still the kindest eyes she had ever seen. He was fuller, though, and she laughed.
‘You’ve actually put on some weight.’
He looked down at his belly and smiled at her. It was the same smile she remembered, the smile that knew all about her stubbornness and her desire and her loss and loved her anyway.
‘Edie, I always have and always will love you with every part of me.’
‘I have met someone,’ she said slowly and cautiously, so he could hear all that she meant by it. He seemed completely untroubled by this. A fly landed on his arm and he brushed it away along with her words.
‘We belong with each other,’ he said. ‘It turns out I am a farmer and quite a good one. I am also good at saving money and I have bought a small plot at Scarsdale. I’m thinking raspberries and herbs. I want you to come and live with me in Ligar Street. I’ll give the house a lick of paint.’
‘Yellow?’
‘Yes, if you like.’
She thought about how far she had travelled and who she had become. She wasn’t that nineteen-year-old girl any more.
‘I can’t,’ she said.
‘The girl I know can do anything,’ he said. ‘She can make her dress ridiculously short despite all the busybodies, despite Missus Blackmarsh and Vera Gamble gossiping about it.’ She smiled
