She descended the stairs, smiling bashfully, accepting well-wishes, seeking out Billy over their heads. Here he came toward her, the bodies parting, people slapping his back and shaking his hand. He was giddy in a way he hadn’t been for many years. She didn’t trust it. Something was very wrong.
“Do you like it?” he asked her. “It’s not too much?”
“It’s way too much, Billy. What the hell’s going on?”
“What? It’s your birthday—we’re allowed to celebrate.”
“All this. That speech. Why are you acting so strange?”
They were talking in whispers, smiling and nodding at the people nearby. Billy led her aside, to the wall, pausing to fetchthem each a drink from a passing tray. He pressed the champagne upon her and Katherine caught a glimpse of that interloperagain, watching them keenly across the room.
“That man, who is he? Over there, in the corner.”
Carelessly Billy glanced over. “Don’t worry about him. Listen—”
“Do you know him? Did you know he was here?”
“Yes, it’s not important. Look, there’s something I need to say.”
She steadied herself and stared at him, at his earnest bloodshot eyes; he was, she realized, even more drunk than she’d supposed.
“We’re fine now,” Billy told her. “The station, there’s no chance it could ever fail. We’ve ridden out the depression andwe’re drought-proof just about, there’s enough good land to spread the load. Nobody out there can touch us. Kidman’s not comingthis far east. Everything’s set for the future, Kat. For you, the children—”
Oh shit, he’s dying, Katherine thought. Or he’s fallen for somebody else.
“—us McBrides are made for life. Well, the rest of them are, it’s you and me aren’t doing so good. All the money in the world but you still can’t hardly stand to look at me, and I know which I’d rather have. But it’s all right, see, I’ve a plan to fix that too. I’m going to make things right between us, I can’t tell you how yet, but I need to go away for a while. When I’m back and everything’s in place you can say I’m an idiot but by then it’ll be too late. Least, I hope it will be anyway. I’ll explain then, and maybe you’ll see I’m not that boy anymore—I love you, I just told you in front of everyone, what more’s it going to take?”
“You’re drunk. Have you heard yourself, Billy McBride?”
“Aye, maybe. But I mean it.”
“Just like that? After all these years?”
“I’ve always loved you, Katie.”
“I don’t doubt it, in your own way. That’s not what I’m talking about: How do you intend fixing everything in one fell swoop?”
Billy glanced in the direction of the stranger, but he was gone. “You’re just going to have to trust me, like you once did.”He raised his champagne flute and grinned at her. “Now come on, enjoy the party. It’s your birthday, for Christ’s sake!”
* * *
“Sir, there’s a Mr. Wainwright here to see you.”
Billy had been in the yard, talking to the staff about the night’s arrangements, Katherine’s birthday party, another grandgesture of atonement, another attempt at making things right. Not everything, maybe, but at the very least he could put ona good show for her, and for all their guests. He had quite a crowd coming. Squatters, lawmen, councilors, the great and thegood from far and wide. Some had traveled days to get here. The house would be full to the brim. Now he turned at the soundof Hardy’s voice, and that name he’d used: Wainwright, after all this time. Billy had presumed him the latest in a long lineof frauds. A whole year had passed nearly, and not a single bloody word.
“Where is he?”
“Waiting in the atrium. Shall I show him the door?”
“No, I’ll speak with him. Put him in the office. Stay till I get there. Make sure he doesn’t touch anything.”
Hardy nodded, went back inside. Billy finished his instructions and followed, found Hardy standing stiffly in the office doorway while Wainwright paced the room. He stopped when Billy entered. Hardy pulled the door closed. Billy walked around the desk and dropped into the leather chair with an irritated sigh. He pointed to the wingbacks and Wainwright took a seat.
“If it’s more money you’re after, forget it. Wasting my bloody time, the lot of you. There isn’t a man out there capable ofdoing the job he claims.”
Wainwright didn’t answer. He sat with the hunched and brooding posture of most in his trade, his heavy hands together, pickingthe filthy nails. Light brown hair and mustache, a face that had taken a few blows. When he spoke, his voice was low and husky,like he’d breathed in too much dust.
“I’m only after what’s owed. Nothing more than that.”
“Owed? You thieving bastard. I’ve paid you too much as it is.”
“The other half, I mean.”
A stillness came over Billy. His anger immediately drained; he looked suddenly ill. Neither man moving. Staring each otherdown. Billy’s mouth opened, reaching for words that wouldn’t come. Finally, he managed: “You found him?”
“I did.”
“He’s alive?”
“He is.”
“Where?”
“Gippsland, Victoria. Going by the name of Robert Thompson: Bobby’s what he gets. Has a small selection on a hillside outof town. It’s good land. Grazing country. He seems to be getting by.”
“Alone?”
Wainwright shrugged. “He’s got a darkie with him, old fella, must be some kind of boy. I never saw no woman. Seems quite fondof his dog.”
Billy flopped back in his chair, his gaze sliding from Wainwright and across a thousand miles to where his brother now livedon a hillside, with a blackboy and a dog, tending his cattle and mostly alone. He could see him. He could see Tommy so clearlyin his mind. He’d be mid-thirties now and healthy, Billy reckoned, handsome with that dusty fair hair.
“You saw him? Speak to him?”
“I never spoke to him, no. Didn’t want to cause alarm. But I saw him plenty, from a distance, he wouldn’t have known I
