Page 123 of The Pearl Sister
‘Kitty, that is a story for another time. Suffice it to say that Andrew’s last-minute cowardice saved my life, and out of it, he losthis.If you had opened your telegrams, you would have found one from me warning you I was to meet Andrew here in Broome with his . . . prize, before sailing on to Darwin as I had planned. I wrote that I would be delayed by a few days and you were to wait for me there until I arrived. Now excuse me, but I need a swim to cool off.’
Kitty sat on the beach, her head not so much spinning as swirling. She watched as he dived into the waves in such an un-Andrew-like way, she could hardly believe that she’d been fooled. But fooled she had been, along with the rest of the town.
The implications of what he’d done and the risk he had taken hung over her like a curse. And yet, she could not help but imagine the happiness they could now share – legally – as a married couple.
How can you think like that, Kitty?Her conscience nudged her and she ground her palms onto the sand to bring herself back to reality.
What angered her most was the fact he hadn’t shared his plan with her, taking it for granted that she would want the same.
And she did. God help her, she did . . .
But what was the price?
Kitty knew it was a high one, but after the carnage of the past few weeks, what did it matter? If living in Australia had taught her anything, it was that human life was fragile; nature was in charge and cared not a jot for the havoc it wreaked on those who populated its earth.
Besides, she mused, her family had never even met Andrew; it was entirely possible that she could waltz home to Edinburgh with Drummond on her arm and they would be none the wiser. Australia was still a young country, and those brave enough to inhabit it had the gift of making up the rules themselves – and that was exactly what Drummond had done.
As he walked out of the sea towards her, shaking the drops off him like the dog that he was – a chancer and a charmer who, it seemed, would do anything to get what he wanted – Kitty finally glimpsed the reality of her future:
To be with Drummond, she would live a lie for the rest of her life, betraying two dead men and a grieving wife and mother. Let alone her precious son – an innocent in all this – who would grow up believing his uncle was his father . . .
No! No! This is wrong, it is wrong . . .
As Drummond approached her, Kitty stood up. She walked off along the beach, suddenly unable to contain her fury.
‘How dare you!’ she screamed to the sea and the clouds gently scudding above her head. ‘How dare you implicatemein your disgusting charade! Can’t you see, Drummond, that this isn’t one of your little games? What you’ve done is no less than’ – Kitty searched for the word – ‘obscene! And I shall have no part in it.’
‘Kitty, my darling Kat, I thought that you wanted to have a life with me. I did it for us—’
‘No, you did not! You did it foryourself!’ Kitty paced backwards and forwards on the sand. ‘You did not even have the grace to ask me what I thought beforehand! If anyone discovers the truth, there’s no doubt you would go to jail!’
‘Surely you wouldn’t wish that on me?’
‘It’s no less than you deserve. Dear Lord, what a mess. What a mess! And I cannot see a way out.’
‘Does there have to be one?’ Drummond approached her as though she was a cornered scorpion that might attack at any minute. ‘Does it matter what my name is, or yours? This way, we can be together, always. Forgive me, Kitty, if I acted in haste.’ He took a step closer to her. ‘Please?’
There was a loudthwackas Kitty slapped him hard across his cheek for the second time in her life, only just restraining herself from launching at him and punching him to the ground.
‘Do you not see? If you’d only waited, had some patience, not acted in your usual impetuous manner, then perhaps one day wecouldhave been together. Legally, in the sight of God. Everyone would have thought it natural for a widow to grow close to her brother-in-law. But no, Drummond, you had to take the law into your own hands, and present yourself as Andrew to everyone in town!’
‘Then I will tell them I had a knock on the head, or—’
‘Don’t be ridiculous! No one would give that credence for an instant, and it would only implicate me in your disgusting lie. Are people really to believe that I didn’t know my own husband?’
‘Then perhaps we stick to the original plan,’ Drummond offered, desperate now. ‘You and Charlie come with me to the cattle station. No one would know who you were there . . .’
‘No! My husband is dead and I must honour his memory. Oh Drummond, can’t you see that you’ve made a pact with the Devil, and now nothing can ever be right between us again?’ Kitty sank to her knees on the sand and rested her head in her hands. Silence lay between them for a long time. Eventually, Drummond spoke.
‘You are right, of course, Kitty. I was impetuous. I saw a chance to claim you, and I didn’t stop to think. It is a huge fault of mine, I admit. I am so eager to live in the moment, I do not address the future consequences. So, what would you have me do?’
Kitty closed her eyes and drew in a breath, garnering the courage to say the words she needed to.
‘You must leave. As soon as possible.’
‘To go where?’
‘That cannot be my concern. You didn’t ask my opinion on your rash decision, and I cannot be party to others you make in the future.’
