Page 81 of Possession Under the Southern Stars

“What are you doing now?”

“I’m on my way to the museum.”

“Can you come now? And please, don’t tell Fraser.”

That makes me uncomfortable, but I don’t know how to refuse, so I say, “Okay.”

She gives me the address and ends the call. I ask the Uber driver if he’ll take me there, and he turns the car around and heads off to Karori.

I check my appearance in my hand mirror on the way, worried that all my makeup has run. It turns out not to be too bad—I wipe away a smudge or two, apply a little powder and lipstick, and I’m as good as new.

I push the thoughts of my parents to the back of my mind. It’s getting very crowded back there right now. All the things I can’t bring myself to think about—Mum and Dad, telling Dee, Fraser, Ian, my past… At some point I think I need to find myself a new therapist. I had one when I was a teen, but eventually grew tired of going over the same old details and stopped attending. I need to learn ways to process all these conflicting emotions, though. I want to move on, and I don’t know how to do it on my own. I want to be better. I want to heal. I want to be whole again. But how do you do that when you’re like a bath being filled with water, and the past is the plug that’s sitting on the side? I’m never going to be full until I can place it firmly where it belongs and stop the water leaking out.

For now, I need to concentrate on this meeting with Whina. What does she want to talk to me about? It can only be Fraser, otherwise why didn’t she come into the museum and see me? She obviously wants a conversation without him around, especially as she instructed me not to tell him. It makes me uncomfortable to see her without him knowing, but I’ll follow her directions for now, until I find out what it’s about.

For the first time, it occurs to me that if she’s somehow found out that we’ve had a fling, she’s not going to let us work together, and she might ask me to resign so that Fraser doesn’t have to. I frown as the Uber weaves through the traffic, past the shops and houses. Would I give up my position at the museum to save his job? I shift on my seat, feeling a wave of resentmentand frustration. The last thing I want is for Fraser to be fired, but equally I don’t see why I should give up my job. It wasn’t my fault.

Then I feel ashamed. I knew about Ginger, and that he’d been warned that if it happened again, he’d be in trouble. And I still slept with him. First and foremost, the responsibility for his own actions lies with him, but that doesn’t mean I’m not culpable. Twice now, he’s tried to fight his feelings, and been unable to. Ginger was bad enough, being married to someone else and initiating an affair with him. But I’m certainly not innocent.

I ponder on that while the Uber finds its way to Whina’s house. It draws up outside a bungalow on a decent bit of land at one end of the suburb, and I get out and thank the driver, then walk up the garden path. The lawn is well-tended, with flowers hanging in baskets around the house, which is wide and sprawling. I go up to the front door, and it opens before I get there to reveal Whina, dressed in a smart business suit. Conscious of my somewhat scruffy jeans, I resist the urge to straighten my clothing and smile as she welcomes me in.

“Thank you for coming,” she says, closing the door behind me. “Come through to the conservatory. Would you like coffee? Or I’ve just made some iced tea.”

“Iced tea sounds lovely, thank you.”

I follow her directions through an open plan living and dining room to the conservatory out the back. Here a cream outdoor sofa and chairs sit surrounded by green plants in pots, with mobiles made from stained glass hanging on threads from the roof, which cast jeweled lights across the tiled floor.

“What a beautiful room,” I say, and she smiles as we sit opposite each other.

“Thank you.” She pours us both a glass of iced tea from the pitcher on the table. “I’m sorry to have to ask you to come all the way out here.”

“It wasn’t a problem. I was actually in Ngaio, seeing my mum.”

“Oh, well, that’s not too bad, then.” She passes me my glass. “Hallie, I need to talk to you about the events of the past couple of days.”

I pause in the act of drinking the iced tea. Slowly, I force myself to have a sip, then replace the glass on the table. “Okay…”

“My brother-in-law is Wiremu Roberts,” she says.

“Oh…” So it wasn’t Isabel who told her?

“He rang me last night, after he got home from the ball. He just called to chat, but he also revealed a few things that had transpired throughout the evening…”

I look at my hands, my heart sinking.

“I’ve just come from seeing Fraser,” she reveals gently. “And he’s told me everything that happened, so you don’t have to worry about getting him into trouble. He insisted it was all his fault.” She smiles.

“It wasn’t,” I say immediately. I put my face in my hands, the same way my mother did earlier. “I knew he’d gotten into trouble before, with Ginger. And that you’d told him if it happened again, he’d be fired. I should have kept him at a distance, but…” I let out a long, shaky breath.

“He told me he’s in love with you.”

My heart bangs. Slowly, I lower my hands. “What?”

She studies me thoughtfully for a long moment. Then, eventually, she says, “I have an idea for how to save the museum. And I wondered whether you would be interested in helping me.”

“Me? Of course, but I don’t know what I can do.”

“It would mean not telling Fraser for now, because I don’t think he’d agree to you playing a part in it. Would you be able to do that?”

---