Marion Lennox - Her Outback Rescuer

‘You’ll climb?’

‘Kata Tjuta? Rachel might not be able to,’ Amy said. ‘She’s been ill. But I will. Rachel wants rock samples, and I’ll take photos.’

‘Which is a problem all on its own,’ Rachel volunteered from her shadows. ‘Amy’s photos tend to be smudgy pictures of clouds or of her trainers.’

‘Oi. I’m better than that,’ Amy retorted.

‘Not much,’ Rachel said darkly.

‘My grandson takes wonderful photos,’ Maudie said, and Hugo realised that, for the first time in the entire trip, Maudie sounded happy. And… thoughtful? Uh oh. He knew that tone. Maudie’s Machiavellian matchmaking was about to go into overdrive. ‘And I expect you need rock samples, Rachel, my dear.’

‘I do,’ Rachel said, and she smiled, too. It was a faint echo of her sister’s smile, but she was no longer looking at her book. ‘Uluru and Kata Tjuta are made of a type of sandstone known as arkose, with shiny crystals of pink feldspar mixed in. There’s controversy about ageing. I have permission to take tiny traces to confirm composition.’

‘Hugo could cart you down boulders,’ Maudie said, in her element now and loving it. ‘He’s very strong. He’s a commando, you know.’

‘I thought commandos carted machine guns,’ Rachel said, mystified.

‘I cart steak,’ Hugo said promptly. ‘That’s been my latest mission. Steak-smuggling.’

Amy choked, and then managed to swallow laughter enough to glare at her sister. ‘We’re not here to age rocks,’ she retorted. ‘We’re here on holiday.’

‘So are we, dear,’ Maudie said serenely. ‘Are you staying at the Uluru resort?’

‘We have a room in the budget hostel…’

‘Oh, no, dear, that’ll never do,’ Maudie broke in, and Hugo thought: uh oh. Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh. But there was no way of stopping Maudie once she was on a mission. ‘Hugo and I are staying at Thurston House, a homestead set up for senior management when they need a base out here. It’s a lovely self-contained house complete with pool, staff and staff quarters. But Hugo may need to visit one of our mines and I hate being there alone. But you, dear…’ She fixed her suddenly gimlet eyes on Rachel. ‘Do you play Scrabble?’

‘I… yes,’ Rachel admitted, sounding confused. ‘But…’

‘No,’ Amy said firmly. ‘We don’t.’

‘We do,’ Rachel said, even more confused.

‘Well, yes,’ Amy said, exasperated. ‘Rachel loves words almost as much as she loves rocks. When I walk out of a room, I leave, but Rachel absquatulates. And if you think I’m making that up, she added ab and ulate to my pathetic squat and achieved untold fame in the Great Cotton Scrabble Challenge of 2007. But if you’re offering us alternative accommodation, thank you very much but Rachel and I are self-sufficient.’

‘But if your sister’s been ill, she’ll feel bad that she can’t go off and do things with you,’ Maudie countered. This was like watching a train wreck, Hugo thought. It was about to happen, whether he jumped onto the tracks or not. ‘Like I feel bad when I can’t accompany Hugo. You’ll be doing us a huge favour if you stay with us. There are four bedrooms and they’re massive. Hugo’s organised a car to meet the train. We could travel down there together, the four of us, and have fun.’

‘Maud!’ Train wreck or not, he did step into the line of impending disaster then. ‘We can’t…’

‘Neither can we,’ Amy said faintly. ‘Thank you but…’

‘But we have twenty-four hours to change your mind,’ Maudie said happily. ‘You don’t want to stay in a backpackers’, do you, Rachel?’

‘No, but…’

‘There you are, then. Meanwhile, if you feel like Scrabble in the morning, we’re in Platinum Cabins Car Two, Cabins Four and Five, with a nice little sitting room in the middle. There’s a butler person who guards our privacy but just ask for us and Hugo will okay it. He’ll more than okay it. It’ll be lovely.’

Maudie beamed and her beam almost matched Amy’s, only Amy’s wasn’t on. Amy was now looking trapped—which was pretty much how Hugo was feeling.

‘I need to go to bed,’ Rachel said, still sounding confused. ‘If you’ll excuse me…’

‘If you’ll excuse us both,’ Amy said with alacrity and stood. ‘Thank you for the lovely offer, Dame Maud, but, of course, we can’t accept. Our accommodation’s already paid for, and we’re content. Goodnight.’

She backed to leave the table, but there was something Hugo needed to say. He’d been slicing for a while now. ‘Amy?’

Amy paused. ‘Yes?’

He shouldn’t say anything. He should simply let things finish right now, but this was irresistible.

‘Here’s a little something for midnight,’ he said, and he handed over his second carefully wrapped napkin.

Amy stared down at it. If it was possible for her to look any more hunted, she did.

‘Thank you,’ she said and stuffed it into her purse.

She turned and fled, with Rachel following limply behind.

‘What nice girls,’ Maudie said as they retreated.

‘Yes.’ But needy. He’d kind of like more steak.

‘It’ll be nice to have company at Uluru.’

‘They refused.’ Praise be.

‘They don’t mean it. Amy’s worried about Rachel. You can see it. She’ll like Rachel having a nice quiet time with me while you take her off exploring. You’ll have time. I know you’re thinking of visiting the mine, but there’ll be days to spare. I wonder what’s wrong with Rachel?’

‘It’s none of our business.’

‘Of course it’s our business. Amy’s part of the ballet company your grandfather and I practically founded. I usually keep track of the members of our company and it was a shock to hear she’s retired. Since James fell ill, of course, I haven’t heard a thing. I need to get back in touch. But then, it’s her sister who looks ill. She’s not in the ballet scene. If I wasn’t on this train I could make some phone calls…’

‘It’s not our business!’ he repeated.

‘Of course it is,’ she snapped. ‘They’re two nice girls and anyone can see they’re in trouble. It’s our job to help them. And it was very nice of you to give Amy your steak.’

‘I…’ She’d seen, then. He might have known.

No. Not worth arguing.

‘Though cold steak will be horrid as a late night snack,’ Maudie said, and he could tell she’d already included the girls in her list of responsibilities. Maudie’s principal skill was picking people up and making them feel better. Hugo loved her for it, but every now and then it got her into trouble. And now, like always…

Now he hadn’t a snowball’s chance in a bushfire of stopping her.

‘If Amy wants to bully Rachel into eating later on, she’d be better with sweets,’ she was saying thoughtfully. ‘We have complimentary chocolates in our sitting room. Do you think you should take them some?’

‘No. I don’t know where to find them.’

‘You can find them if you want to.’

‘I don’t want to.’

‘Hugo…’ Her voice was filled with reproach.

‘No.’

‘What a waste,’ she said sadly. But her indomitable spirit had been stirred and it wasn’t about to settle. ‘Still,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘We’ll probably see them at breakfast and if we don’t then I’ll track them down. And the house at Uluru… The more I think of it, the more perfect it seems.’ She smiled again, the smile that Hugo had wanted to return, but the smile that now meant trouble. ‘We might just have some fun, and heaven knows we all need it.’

Fun, Hugo thought.

He’d wanted his grandmother to have fun, but now he wasn’t too sure what fun entailed. Trouble?

Two single women and Maudie? Trouble indeed.