Inheritance (25 page)

‘Thank you so much for the loan of the buggy,’ she said gratefully.

‘Thank you for having Gemma. And for a bit of fun today.’ His eyes twinkled as he leant and kissed her cheek. She laughed up at him, enjoying the casual, easy-going side of him she had seen today.

‘See you tomorrow,’ she said happily.

Over the next few days, Gary moved a large group of workers on to the building site. It excited Cassie to see how quickly the cabins were becoming a reality. She went over each day to watch their progress, and Mark fell into the habit of calling in regularly as the building progressed, to see how they were proceeding.

They fell into an easy, relaxed association, often returning to the house to sit on the verandah after leaving the building site. There they drank coffee or a cool drink and talked.

Their discussions ranged over a wide field as they discovered each other’s likes and dislikes. They found that Mark liked to eat a hamburger for a quick snack, while Cassie preferred a ham sandwich. She liked white wine or a gin and tonic; his taste was for Scotch and soda, or red wine. They found they both enjoyed listening to jazz, and both liked dogs, but had little time for cats. On the television, he liked watching sport or crime shows, and she preferred lifestyle shows or movies.

They discovered they both had a passion for old movies, and when Cassie discovered there was to be a re-run of
Casablanca
showing during the late show one evening, they made plans to watch it together.

Mark arrived a few minutes before the show was due to start, bearing a box of chocolates, and they settled themselves on the settee to watch as the credits started to roll on the old black and white movie.

As the wartime drama unfolded on screen, they watched Humphrey Bogart in his character as Rick, the nightclub owner, and Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa with her husband Victor Laszlo the freedom fighter, play out their drama, and it seemed the most natural thing in the world for Mark to slip his arm around Cassie’s shoulders, and she leant back against him, feeling comfortable and relaxed.

Once again, she fell under the spell woven by the superb actors as they brought their characters to life, and when Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman played out their final scene, in which Rick sacrifices their chance of love together and sends Ilsa off with her husband, she felt a lump in her throat. Then Rick left to take his part in the war effort, and the movie ended.

Cassie couldn’t help the tears spilling over from her eyes then, and as she wiped at them with her fingers, Mark pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, turned her towards him and dried her cheeks.

‘What a tender little thing you are,’ he murmured, pulling her against his chest and stroking her hair.

Cassie stayed there for a moment, enjoying the comfort of being pressed against him, inhaling his masculine scent while his hand caressed her hair, before she drew a shuddering breath and gradually pulled away with a shaky laugh. ‘Sorry,’ she sniffed, ‘what a weakling you must think I am.’ She looked up at him as they drew apart, expecting him to be laughing at her, but instead his face was relaxed and his eyes understanding.

‘Not at all,’ he said gently. ‘It’s a very emotional ending. I felt it myself.’

Warmth spread through Cassie at his response. Smiling, she touched his hand, then stretched and rose from the settee. ‘We haven’t eaten all the chocolates,’ she told him. ‘I’ll make us some coffee to go with them.’

‘I’ll come and help you.’

He eased his tall frame up until he stood looking down at her, then he took her hand, and together they went into the kitchen, where they made the coffee and sat at the kitchen table, drinking it and eating chocolate as they discussed the film.

When they had finished their coffee and eaten all the chocolate they wanted, Cassie accompanied him to the front door, where he kissed her on the cheek and bounded down the steps to his car, and was gone with a wave.

***

It was a few days later that they climbed into the buggy after inspecting the current progress of the building and Mark suggested they drive a bit further along the track.

‘I’d like to see some more of the rainforest, if you don’t mind,’ he told Cassie.

‘Of course, but the buggy can only go on the track, don’t forget,’ she reminded him.

‘Well, we’ll see how far we can go, shall we?’

With that, he started up and they headed down the track towards the creek. Reaching its bank, Mark stopped. ‘Well, this looks like the end of the trail for transport,’ he said, ‘but it looks as if someone, or something, goes further.’ He indicated where a faintly defined path branched off and snaked in among the trees.

Cassie nodded. ‘Yes, that’s a track made by the wildlife. ’Roos, probably. They tend to push their way through, and the smaller stuff follows. You find them all over the forest, leading from one spot to another, often down to the water.’

Mark nodded. ‘Feel like walking for a bit?’

‘Sure.’

Leaving the buggy behind, they made their way through the trees until they came to a small clearing under two large milkwood trees that stood side by side next to the creek.

‘This looks like a good spot to rest awhile. Pity we didn’t bring chairs with us,’ he joked.

‘Not much wrong with sitting on the ground, as far as I’m concerned,’ Cassie smiled, lowering herself to the ground and resting her back against one of the trees.

Mark was struck by her natural ease with her surroundings, as if she belonged here. Following her lead, he rested his back against the other tree, breathing in the forest aroma and enjoying the coolness under the canopy of tall trees. He looked around at the untouched woodland. The tallest trees provided shelter for the lower ones beneath, with a scattering of vines dangling and twining amongst them, and brave palms and ferns, defying the drought, poking through the leaf litter or flaunting their greenery along the banks of the creek.

He could almost feel the stillness in the air. But as his ears became attuned to the silence, he heard the faint sounds of the forest. The rustle of some tiny creature in the undergrowth. A faint whisper of air stirring the leaves. The occasional chirp of a bird.

As he leant there, he found himself relaxing, thoughts of the outside world retreating. He drew in a deep breath. There was something here – something intangible – something different from the outside world. He realised it made him feel peaceful, something he rarely experienced.

While he had always recognised the rainforest as one of Nature’s wonders, he always regarded it as something apart, to be admired and preserved, yes, but never as more than an asset to be taken advantage of, not something to affect him personally. But now he wondered if there was more to it than that. It had been here for thousands, maybe millions of years. Untouched, giving shelter to humans and wildlife, surviving droughts and violent storms. Eternal. In here, he could almost understand why Cassie accepted the aboriginal beliefs as a normal part of the world.

He looked across at her. Her head rested back against the tree, her face tilted upwards and her eyes half closed. She looked at peace with the world. Turning her head and catching him looking at her, she smiled, and his heart lurched.

‘So, what do you think of it here?’ she asked him. ‘It’s tame compared to your busy world.’

‘No,’ he said slowly, ‘I wouldn’t say that.’ He picked up a twig and tossed it into the creek, watching as the water carried it downstream. ‘Serene is the word that comes to mind.’ He paused, collecting his thoughts. ‘I told you once that I envy you spending so much time here when you were a child, and I do. I grew up in a very different environment in the city, and never looked for anything else. I was a city boy, through and through, and thought the country was only good for farming, for producing food. And more recently, as a place city people come to stay for a while when they want a change. Not somewhere you’d ever want to live. But now I can see that living here would give you a different perspective on life, a different set of values.’

‘Can you understand that?’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s why I’ll never open up more than a very small part of the forest for tourism. I’ll never allow all this to be spoilt. It’s too special.’

‘Yes, I can see that.’

She smiled again. ‘I’m glad.’

Looking at her, he thought she had never looked more beautiful, or more desirable, and he was tempted to take her in his arms and try to push their relationship to the next level, but he was feeling a connection with her and her world that had never been there before and he didn’t want to risk breaking it.

He stood and reached out his hand to her. ‘Ready to go?’

‘Yes.’ She took his hand and sprang to her feet.

As they walked back in companionable silence, he was remembering that one of the reasons he and Laurence had wanted to buy Yallandoo was to put walking and riding trails through the rainforest for the resort guests. Well, perhaps that wasn’t such a smart idea.

***

Some afternoons, Mark brought Gemma with him and it was obvious that she and Larry had formed a strong friendship. They spent most of their time with the joey, which was growing fast. No longer needing to be bottle-fed, Cassie had a larger yard built for him.

Whenever Gemma was in the yard with him, he followed her around, more like a dog than a kangaroo. Eventually he was allowed out of the yard to follow Gemma around onto the lawn, where he cropped the grass while Gemma and Larry sat nearby.

The two children had long discussions during these times. Gemma was fascinated by Larry’s tales of the Dreamtime and now that she knew her father no longer disapproved of her
hearing about it, she urged him to tell her more of his Dreamtime legends. The fact that every person had their own totem particularly fascinated her.

‘I wonder what my totem is?’ she asked Larry one day.

‘Silly,’ he remonstrated with her, ‘you don’t have a totem ’cos you’re not aboriginal. Only aborigines have totems.’

Gemma sighed with regret. ‘Tell me again the story about your totem, the snake, and how he’s so important.’

Larry happily related his story to her again. He also told her that Tony, his father, had the emu for his totem and his mother Patty had the lizard, while old Sam had the crocodile.

‘The crocodile!’ Gemma’s eyes grew round. ‘It might eat him!’

‘No. It doesn’t mean a real, live crocodile now. All the animals played their part way back when the earth was made. Sam knows lots and lots of Dreamtime stories. He’s told me heaps. I bet he’d tell you, too, if I ask him.’

‘Will you ask him? I love the stories.’

‘Okay.’

And before long, it was not unusual to see the two children sitting with Sam while he recounted the stories to this new generation of listeners.

And wherever Gemma went, the joey followed her.

The next few weeks passed pleasantly for Cassie, the only worry being the continuing lack of rain. In spite of heavy clouds rolling in, the overcast skies invariably cleared without fulfilling their promise. The heat and humidity were extreme.

Apart from that, Cassie felt happier than she had for some time. The building was coming along well and there had been no more holdups. Things seemed to be going smoothly for her at last.

Cassie checked-off the plants she chose from the list of rainforest plants as she studied it one night. Although the building project had caused minimal impact to the forest, she planned to replace most of the trees and plants that had been removed.

Tapping her pencil on the table she pondered, taking into account height and size as well as appearance. Some of the brilliantly flowered exotics were beautiful too, and she decided to include some of these that were suitable for the area. Yes, I really want this to be a place of beauty and serenity. A place people will enjoy visiting. When she went to bed, thoughts of plants were still in her mind.

A few hours later, Cassie woke from a deep sleep to hear pounding on the door.

‘Cassie! Cassie! Fire!’

She recognised Daniel’s voice and the panic in it had her wide awake instantly. Jumping from her bed, she raced to open the door.

‘There’s a fire at the cabins,’ Daniel shouted. ‘Call the fire service. I’ll get the ute with the water tank and the backpacks. Dad’s waking the others.’ With that, he raced away.

Her heart racing, Cassie rushed to the phone and dialled the emergency number. ‘Fire at Yallandoo Station,’ she yelled into the phone. ‘No water connected to the area of the fire yet. We’ll have to make do with the water tank.’

‘Do you have a dam?’

‘Yes, but not right by the fire.’ Her heart thumped.

‘How’s the water level?’

‘Good. We pump from the river.’

‘Okay. We’ll get going straight away.’

Cassie banged down the phone and ran to her room. She threw on jeans and a shirt and shoved her feet into boots. As she raced outside, she could see the sky above the rainforest glowing red.

As she ran to her car, Rosie joined her. ‘What happened?’

‘I don’t know,’ Cassie yelled. ‘Let’s go.’ They jumped in and headed at breakneck speed across the paddocks.

The heat at the scene of the fire was intense. Flames crackled and roared as they leapt high into the air from one of the partly completed cabins, which was burning fiercely. Cassie took in the scene at a glance. Daniel had arrived just before them and jumped up onto the tray
of the ute. He wrenched at the pump’s starter cord. As a jet of water spewed from the nozzle, he sprayed it onto the flames. They died instantly at the spot where the water hit but already the flames licked at the dry undergrowth nearby, threatening to spread to the rest of the cabins.

Tony and Chris were shouldering the heavy backpacks. They stood at the other side of the cabin spraying, trying to subdue the blaze there. Jessie was flailing at the burning undergrowth with a wet sack.

‘We’d better try to stop it getting away,’ Cassie yelled to Rosie. ‘Grab a sack!’

Snatching a sack each from a pile on the ute, they dunked them into an open can of water, then raced over next to Jessie. They both flailed wildly, but the flames were spreading away from them through the tinder-dry leaf litter. Cassie heard Tom shouting above the roar of the flames in the background. Reinforcements had arrived. Thank God. Soon other figures joined them trying to beat out the flames.