Page 173 of The Pearl Sister
‘Yes?’
‘I have to ask this.’ Drummond ran a hand through his hair, uncharacteristically nervous. ‘I . . . heard rumours that you were with child after I left.’
‘I . . . How did you know?’
‘You know how news travels in the Outback. Kitty, was the baby mine?’
‘Yes.’ The word came out in an enormous bubble of released tension, as Kitty finally voiced the secret she’d kept for all these years.
‘There is no doubt?’
‘None. I had . . . bled after Andrew left.’ A faint blush rose to Kitty’s cheeks. ‘Before you and I were—’
‘Yes. So.’ Drummond swallowed hard. ‘What happened to our baby?’
‘I lost him. For seven months, I felt him inside me, a part of you, a part of us, but I went into labour early and he was stillborn.’
‘It was a boy?’
‘Yes. I called him Stefan, after your father. I felt that was right under the circumstances. He’s buried in Broome cemetery.’
Kitty sobbed then. Huge, gulping, ugly tears as her body expressed all that she’d held inside her for so long. To the only other person on the earth who could possibly understand. ‘Our baby son and Charlie, both gone to ashes. Good grief! Sometimes the days have seemed so dark I’ve wondered what the point of it all is.’ Kitty used the bed sheet to wipe her eyes. ‘There now, I’m being self-indulgent and I have no right to be living when my two sons are dead.’
‘My God, Kitty . . .’ Drummond put his arm around her trembling shoulder. ‘What havoc love can wreak on us sad humans.’
‘A little love,’ Kitty murmured, her head lying against his chest, ‘and it destroyed us both.’
‘You must take comfort from the fact that nothing in life is quite that simple. If Andrew had not sent me to collect the Roseate Pearl, it would be him that had returned to you alive, and me lying at the bottom of the ocean. We must try to be responsible for our own actions, but we cannot be responsible for the actions of others. They have an insidious way of wrapping like bindweed around our own destinies. Nothing on earth is separate from the other.’
‘That’s awfully profound,’ whispered Kitty with the ghost of a smile.
‘And thankfully, I believe it to be true. It is all that has kept me from throwing myself off the top of Ayers Rock.’
‘But where has it left us? Neither of us have family to pass any of our wisdom on to. For the Mercers, it is the end of the line.’
There was a long pause before he replied. ‘Kitty, I beg you to trust me one last time. There is somewhere I should take you before you leave. You must come with me tomorrow.’
‘No, Drummond, I have spent the last forty years of my life wishing to go to Ayers Rock and I will do so in a few hours’ time. Nothing can dissuade me.’
‘What if I swear I’ll take you there the day after? Besides, it will mean you don’t have to rise until eight, given it is already past one in the morning. I beseech you, Kitty. You must come.’
‘Please, Drummond, swear to me it is not simply a wild goose chase?’
‘It is not, but equally, we must go as soon as we can. Before it’s too late.’
Kitty looked at his grave expression. ‘Where are we going?’
‘To Hermannsburg. There is someone you need to see.’
32
‘Missus M! It’s past eight o’clock! Wasn’t we meant to get up at four? You said you’d come and wake me.’
Kitty stirred, seeing Sarah’s anxious face hovering above her.
‘There’s been a change of plan,’ she said hoarsely as she came to. ‘Mr D is driving us out to Hermannsburg today.’
‘That’s good then, is it?’ Sarah waited for confirmation.
