Stone Castles (18 page)

Chapter Twenty-seven

B
ack at the house the mood around Tracey and Craig's big dining table was reflective, everybody still shell-shocked, still trying to absorb the news and come to terms with this new paradigm.

Pip cuddled Chloe, wondering why it should feel so different holding her now that she knew she was her aunt – a blood relative – and not just her godmother. ‘All this time I thought my family had never had anything to do with church.'

Luke was leaning against the sink, his hands on the bench at his sides. ‘This might explain why.'

She blinked, because it did make a kind of sense. ‘It might. Gran loved her hymns. She watched
Songs of Praise
every Sunday. She must have missed going to church terribly.'

‘The church closed not long after that,' said Sally, staring blindly at a mug of coffee she was clutching in front of her like a lifeline. ‘Jacob and I were married faster than you can say shotgun wedding and then they shipped Reverend Everett back to Adelaide. They said the congregation was shrinking, which was true, but it all seemed very hasty. Maybe they were worried that something else would wriggle out of the woodwork. Maybe they wanted to cut and run before another scandal hit.'

‘Wow.' Fi drained her tea and put her cup down on the table with a thunk. ‘I don't know how you did it, Sally. How did you ever manage to keep this to yourself all these years?'

Sally shook her head. ‘What could I say? I didn't know, not for sure. Dee always maintained that Gerald was Pip's father.' She sighed glumly. ‘Besides, I was too ashamed. I'd betrayed a friend's trust. I'd tried to steal my best friend's boyfriend away from her and for one selfish, blinkered moment, I thought I'd succeeded.' She gave an ironic laugh. ‘What an awful, bitchy thing to do. What a fool.'

She shifted her gaze from her mug to Pip. ‘My actions nearly ruined our friendship. It wasn't just that first month Dee didn't talk to me, it soured things between us for a long time. I think it was only when she saw how unhappy I was with Jacob, what a jerk he was being, that she extended the olive branch. She didn't have to say anything, but I could see she felt sorry for me. That she forgave me.'

She sighed. ‘And later, after he was gone, we slowly got back to a place like where we'd been before. Not that things were ever the same. How could they be, after what I'd done?'

Pip nodded, the pieces of the puzzle that had mystified her for so long slowly fitting together. Her earliest memories of Tracey were at playgroup, and there'd been no hint of friction between their mothers that a toddler might notice. They'd always been the best of friends. Or so she'd assumed.

‘And my dad? I mean Gerald. How did he get roped into all this?'

‘He was a widower. A friend of the family. I guess it was convenient for all concerned. At the time I was horrified – he seemed so old to me back then – but as time went by, and especially after your brother, Trent, was born, I could see how good he was for her. She deserved a good marriage. She deserved to be happy. And he loved her.'

Around the table there was silence.

‘You shouldn't be so hard on yourself,' said Luke gruffly, though he was looking right at Pip and there was something churning in the depths of his blue eyes.

‘You deserve to be happy too,' agreed Tracey, with a sniff.

‘Yeah,' Luke said. ‘You do.' But he was still staring at Pip, and she didn't like the way his turbulent eyes made her feel. Like
she
was the one who'd done something wrong way back then.

Sally shook her head. ‘Reap what you sow,' she quoted. ‘I think we get what we deserve.'

Ben wandered into the kitchen from the lounge room where the boys were all playing video games. He glanced over the empty stove and opened the oven door. ‘What's for dinner?'

‘Spaghetti bolognese.'

‘Yeah?' said Ben, frowning. ‘When?'

And Tracey looked at the clock on the wall, and said, ‘Oh god, is that the time?' and headed for the fridge.

The party broke up after that, Fi taking the twins and giving a drained-looking Sally a ride home. Tracey and Luke stood by the gate as Pip hugged both women for a long time. ‘Will we see you tomorrow?' asked Fi.

She shook her head. ‘My flight leaves at nine-thirty in the morning. I'm going to be leaving pretty early to get to the airport in time as it is.'

Fi's face pulled tight. ‘So this really is goodbye, then.' And Pip pulled her close and hugged her again. ‘It's been so good having you back with us,' Fi said, ‘I wish you weren't going. I wish you could stay. I wish . . . Oh, I just wish . . .'

‘I know. You take care of yourself.' She looked down in the direction of Fi's still flat tummy, ‘All of you in there, okay!'

‘You will come back? And not stay away so long next time?'

‘Of course I will.'

Fi threw a look over to Luke and said, ‘Luke?' And he nodded but before Pip could ask what that little exchange was all about, Sally reached out and put a hand to her arm. ‘Take care, Pip. I'm really sorry – about everything.'

Pip pulled her close for another hug. ‘Don't be. It's a relief to know the truth at last.' She nodded. ‘I hope you feel better about it now.'

Sally shrugged and gave a weak smile. ‘Right now, I'm just relieved it's finally out in the open. And that you can forgive me.'

‘Please, there is absolutely nothing to forgive.' And the older woman nodded and gave her a final squeeze before climbing into the front seat.

The twins piled rowdily into the back as Tracey gave her mum a hug goodbye with a promise to call later, and then they waved Fi's Subaru off down the driveway.

Pip felt something tug tight inside her, and an all too familiar prick of tears as the car disappeared in a cloud of dust. ‘Do you think Sally will be okay?' she asked over her shoulder, to give herself a chance to get her leaky eyes under control.

‘I don't know,' Tracey said, walking up to her to watch the dust rise behind the car. ‘She's bottled all that up for so many years, it's bound to rock her foundations a bit. I'll give her a call after dinner. Speaking of which, I better get back to my bolognese. What are you and Luke going to do now? You're more than welcome to stay for dinner, but I'm not naive enough to think you might not want to disappear somewhere together.'

‘Up to you, Pip,' Luke said, in a voice that sounded almost like a threat. ‘Eat here or we can catch a bite somewhere else.'

A sliver of premonition skittered down her spine. Something wasn't right. The words sounded normal but there was a quality to his voice that hinted of things unspoken.

He'd been weird in the kitchen too, when he'd been talking to Sally but looking right at her . . .

The hairs on the back of her neck shivered and stood to attention.

‘So, what's it to be, Pip?' Tracey asked, missing the sudden crackle in the atmosphere. ‘Dinner for two or feeding time at the zoo?' She raised her eyebrows. ‘I know what I'd choose, although we'd love for you to stay, being your last night and all.'

It was the easiest decision she'd ever made. She'd just today learned her oldest friend was also her half-sister. Just discovered she had a family, where she'd thought she had none. When every next of kin question on every form for the last fifteen years had been answered with a bold stroke of her pen. Not applicable.

Besides, it wasn't dinner she wanted from Luke. It was the after dinner she'd been imagining. The replay of last night's passion. Not conversation. Not when he looked like he wanted to talk . . .

‘I'd like to have dinner with my family on my last night here, if that's all right? Maybe I could help feed the animals.'

‘Yay!' Tracey said, answering with her own wide grin and an arm around her waist to pull her in tight. ‘That is more than all right. And then, I suppose, Luke will be wanting to give you a hand over in the B&B. To pack, I mean.'

Pip cast a sideways look at Luke. ‘Well there is –'
just one tiny case
‘– so much to pack.'

He shrugged, with his hands in his jean pockets and the slightest curl to his lips ‘Sure.'

‘Big surprise,' Tracey said with a grin, hooking her arm in Pip's and leading her towards the house.

But Pip knew she hadn't misread him. Something was wrong. Where was the man who'd taken her to heaven in the spa last night, and then cradled her in his arms as they'd lain down on the lawn and watched the stars parade across the sky? Where was the man who'd stood next to her at lunch today to support her when her world was teetering off balance?

He almost seemed like a stranger.

Offhand and brusque.

Like he'd been when she'd first arrived.

At that moment, Craig's car turned in to the driveway and Luke peeled off to wait for his mate. Pip put thoughts of him aside for a moment and took a deep breath, steeling herself for something that right now was much more pressing, something that had been hovering at the back of her mind ever since lunch at the beach and the big revelation. ‘Before dinner, Trace, there's something I need to do.'

‘What is it,' she asked, as they entered the kitchen filled with the hum of the exhaust fan and the scent of tomatoes and basil and garlic, and Tracey picked up a wooden spoon to stir the simmering sauce.

‘I want to call my father.'

Chapter Twenty-eight

T
racey stopped dead, wooden spoon in her hand. ‘You want to call Jacob? You have got to be kidding.' Her voice was cold, her words smoking like they'd been squeezed through dry ice. ‘Why would you want to talk to that bastard? You know what he was like. I hadn't even been born and he was sleeping with every woman he could.'

‘I know. But now that I know who my father actually is, I can't just leave it there. I have to follow through. I have to finish this thing.'

‘Do you? Really?' Tracey's blue eyes appealed, beseeching her to put an end to this madness. ‘Why?'

Pip held up her hands. ‘I don't really know why. I guess I just want to talk to him. To let him know that
I
know he's my father. Maybe just to let him know that his sordid little secret is out and he didn't get away with it. Does that make any sense?'

‘No. It makes no sense at all. But you go right ahead and call. I'm over him. The scumbag couldn't be bothered coming over for my wedding to walk me down the aisle, even though I'd gone to the trouble of tracking him down. I gave Mum a nervous breakdown and nearly got myself disinherited in the process. I thought he might care that his daughter was getting married, but he burst that little bubble, I can tell you. But why should I be the only one disappointed?'

‘Oh, Trace . . .'

‘No.' Tracey shook her head emphatically as she held up a hand, the wooden spoon in the other stirring the simmering sauce purposefully. ‘Don't take my word for it. You do what you need to do and I'll fix dinner. And because I really don't want you wasting too much time on this, I've actually got his number written down in the address book on the hall table. If he's still got the same one, that is.'

‘Why would you keep his number if you hate him so much?'

She sniffed, screwing up her nose. ‘It's like you were saying the first night you were here; like it or not, he is my father. Just in case there was some medical emergency with the kids and I needed to find out some medical history in a hurry. Kind of an insurance policy. I'm hoping that because I've got it, I'll never need to use it.'

But then she threw Pip an apologetic smile. ‘I'm sorry, Pip, I should never have discounted you wanting the same thing. And I should have figured you'd want to try to contact him yourself. He is your biological father. Our father.' She gave an apologetic smile. ‘You know, this sister thing might take me a little getting used to.'

Pip came over and hugged the woman who was now her sister but who would always, first and foremost, be her friend. ‘I know. And thanks for understanding.'

‘If you want some privacy, use my bedroom. I think the boys are still in the lounge.'

Pip gave her a final squeeze and was heading for the hall when Tracey called behind her, ‘Oh, but don't look for him under E. His number's filed under A.'

‘A?'

‘For arsehole.' She gave a wan smile. ‘What else?'

The afternoon sun lit Tracey's bedroom through lace curtains that wafted on the light breeze. The room was more a blend of the masculine and feminine than the B&B's bedroom, the walls painted in a moss green, the furniture a deep mahogany and the coverlet on the bed snowy white, a lace-trimmed cushion resting between the pillows the only real feminine touch.

The effect was restful. Should have been restful. But somewhere on the end of the line a phone was ringing and Pip clung on tight to her mobile, her heart tripping, feeling more nervous than she'd been on her seventh round interview with the investment bank all those years ago, when she'd been so desperate to prove herself and win her first job. She'd been so determined to distance herself from the past that she would have taken a job on Mars if it had been offered.

And no wonder her palms were damp. She was about to talk to her biological father for the first time. The man who'd lain with her mother and made love – and Pip – with her. For all his faults, maybe he had once loved Deirdre. Maybe he still remembered her with some degree of fondness?

Suddenly the phone was picked up. She heard the sound of people talking and the clink of glass and laughter, like he was in a bar somewhere. She held her breath.

‘Hello?' said a deep voice. A good voice, rich and deep and smooth. In spite of her doubts, she liked it.

‘Is this, um, Jacob Everett?'

‘Yes. Who is this?'

For a second she froze. ‘My name is Pip,' she said, her heart pumping. ‘I hope you don't mind me calling out of the blue like this –'

‘Now why on earth would I mind you calling?'

She blinked. He sounded charming. He sounded like nothing she said would be too much trouble. More than that. His voice had gone down an octave and he sounded like he was interested.

‘Who is it, Jake?' said a woman in the background, and he shooshed her and said, ‘Tell me, honey, what can I do for you?'

Honey?

‘I'm sorry, but you've got the wrong idea.'

‘Who is it?' the woman insisted.

She heard a muffled ‘Shut up!' like he'd turned his phone away, but nowhere near enough to miss the snarl in his voice. ‘Sorry sweetie,' he said, all velvet over chocolate again. ‘You were saying?'

And suddenly she wasn't nervous anymore.

‘I heard you were a charmer,' she said.

She could swear she could hear him smile down the phone line. ‘Did you now?'

‘I also heard you're an arsehole. I didn't want to believe it, but I can see it's true.'

‘Hey, who the hell is this?'

‘Remember Paskeville, Jacob? Remember Sally Buxton and Trace? Deirdre Cooper? Well, I'm your other daughter.'

The line went dead and Pip felt a part of her die with it.

And she sat there on the bed a while, waiting for a frantic heart-rate to slow and for warmth to return to her flesh, and remembered how Tracey had said it was better not to know your father was a scumbag, and thought that maybe she was right.

Because Gerald had been a great dad. She'd never needed to know about her real father, her scumbag father, the one who had left two women pregnant in short order and disgraced a church and who still hadn't managed to keep his dick in his pants, even when he was married to one of those women.

Who was still out whoring by the sounds of it.

Arsehole.

When she returned to the kitchen, Tracey turned from juggling pots of simmering sauce and bubbling pasta on the stove, took one look at Pip's crestfallen face and said, ‘Oh, Pip.'

‘I thought he'd be different,' she said. ‘I really thought that if he ever loved Mum, he might have been happy to hear from me, just a little bit.' She shook her head. ‘I was hoping . . .' She looked up at her friend. ‘I'm an idiot aren't I?'

‘Oh, come here, you.' Tracey pulled her into her arms, squeezing her tight. ‘He was never good enough for any of us. But bugger him, because I love you, you crazy woman. I wish you didn't have to go and live so damned far away.'

And Pip smiled against her sister's shoulder, even as she felt that thing happening inside her, like she had when Fi had driven off, like something inside her was crumbling a little.

‘You know, for what it's worth, Trace,' she said, touched by her display of affection, ‘I think you've got this sister thing all worked out.'

‘You reckon?'

She pulled back and looked at her beautiful blue-eyed, blonde-haired sister. ‘And discovering I have you for a sister is just about the coolest thing that could have happened to me.' They hugged again and Pip laughed because what she'd said was true and a million times more important than some dropkick father who'd walked away from them both. And then she sniffed and swiped at her eyes and said, ‘Now, how about I do something really useful and fix us a salad to go with that bolognese?'

It was only when she turned that she noticed Craig and Luke standing just inside the kitchen door. Craig was smiling and said, ‘Well, some people sure are happy with themselves.'

Pip looked at Luke, at the grim set of his mouth and the damnation in his eyes, and knew for a fact that Craig wasn't talking about him.