‘I’m surprised there are any antibiotics to give out,’ she said when there was a gap between the miners.
‘I keep the keys of the chest and no one but me can ever open it,’ Reuben said firmly. ‘I suppose it was too big for Mr Lockhart to take away and he couldn’t break the bolt, although I think he tried.’
Caroline sighed.
Her uncle had left a poisonous legacy behind him on what had once been an island paradise.
And, given her name, she was part of the poison.
‘We definitely have to close the mine.’ Keanu’s voice interrupted her dream of happier times, and she realised the parade of miners—a short parade—from the mine to the table had ceased. ‘It would be irresponsible not to do it.’
‘And that will damage the Lockhart name even more,’ Caroline muttered as shame for the trouble her uncle had caused made her cringe.
He touched her quickly on the shoulder. ‘We’ll talk about it later,’ he said, pulling the accident book from in front of her and checking the few notes she’d made.
‘Given the state of the mine, there’ve been remarkably few accidents,’ he said. ‘Unless, of course …’ he looked at Reuben ‘… you haven’t been recording them.’
Reuben’s indignant ‘Of course I have,’ was sincere enough to be believed, especially when he added, ‘But remember, not all the men are working. Only this one team at the moment.’
‘But even if there haven’t been many accidents, that doesn’t mean there won’t be more in future,’ Caroline said, seeing the sense in Keanu’s determination that the mine should close.
So what could she do?
Find out whatever she could?
‘Reuben, would you mind if I looked at the accounts and wages books?’
He looked taken aback—upset even.
‘I’m not checking up on you, but it would help if I could work out how much the miners are owed. I know Dad would want them all paid. Do you have the wages records on computer?’
‘It’s all in books, but I keep a copy on my laptop,’ Reuben told her, disappearing into the back of the office and returning with the little laptop, handing it over to her with a degree of reluctance.
‘We do have to close it down,’ she admitted to Keanu as they climbed back up the steep steps to the top of the plateau. She was clutching the laptop to her chest.
‘You’re right,’ he said, ‘but do you think the men will stop working just because we say so? I’ll phone your father—he’s the one to do it, and if he can’t come over, he can send someone from the Mines Department, someone who might carry some weight with the miners. They could come on Friday’s flight.’
Keanu got no answer to his common-sense suggestion. She’s plotting something, he realised as they climbed back up the steep steps to the top of the plateau.
He knew Caroline in this mood and more often than not whatever she was up to would be either rash or downright dangerous.
But he had worries enough of his own. The elders had placed their faith in him to save the livelihood of the island and the continuation of medical facilities.
‘Do we have to go straight back to the hospital or can we sit down with a coffee and work out what to do? I can try to get in touch with Dad,’ Caroline said as she led the way towards the house, as if assuming he would agree.
Keanu followed, but hesitated on the bottom step of the big house, his mind arguing with itself.
Of course he could go in—it was just a house, the place where he’d spent so much of his childhood.
Yet his feet were glued to the step.
Caro turned back.
‘You’re not coming? Do you think we should go back? Bessie would get us some lunch and we could have a talk.’
Then, as if they’d never been apart, she guessed what he was thinking, headed back down to where he stood, took his hand and gently eased him down onto the step, sitting close beside him, her arm around his shoulders.
‘Tell me,’ she said, and although she spoke softly, it was an order, and suddenly he needed to tell, as if talking about that day would help banish the memories.
He looked out over the island, down towards the sea surrounding it, green-blue and beautiful.
Peaceful …
‘I came home on an earlier flight. One kid had measles just before the holidays so they closed a week early. I didn’t tell Mum, wanting to surprise her.’
And hadn’t he surprised her! The memory of that ugly, desperate scene lived on in his nightmares. He concentrated on the view to block it out of his mind even now …
‘I walked up from the plane and into the house. I knew Mum would be in there—dusting or cleaning—she loved the house so much.’
Had Caro heard the break in his voice that her arm tightened around his shoulders?
‘They were in the living room, on the floor, on one of your grandma’s rugs, like animals.’
He turned to Caroline, needing to see her face, needing to see understanding there.
‘I thought he was raping her. I dragged him off, yelling at him, trying to punch him, and …’
‘Go on.’
The words were little more than a gentle whisper but now he’d gone this far he knew he had to finish.
‘He laughed!’ The words exploded out of him, his voice rising at remembered—and still lingering—anger. ‘He stood there, pulling up his shorts, buttoning his shirt, and laughed at me. “Do you think she didn’t want it?” he said. “Wasn’t begging for it? Go on, Helen, tell him how desperate you were to keep what was nothing more than an occasional kindness shag going.”’
‘Oh, Keanu! I can only imagine how you felt and your poor mother—’
‘I lost it, Caro! I went at him, fists flying, while Mum was covering herself and gathering clothes and telling me to stop, not that I did much good. At fifteen I was a fair size, but nothing like Ian’s weight. He eventually pushed me to the ground and told me to get out, both of us to get out. He’d ask the plane to wait so we could pack then be out of there.’
‘But it was your home, Keanu. It always had been. Grandma had promised that before I was even born!’ Caro hauled him to his feet and hugged him properly. ‘Anyway, after I arrived Helen was employed by Dad, not Ian.’
Keanu put his hands on her shoulders and eased her far enough apart to look into her face.
‘Ian’s words destroyed Mum. She refused to talk about it except to say she’d always known she wasn’t the only one. I realised then it had been going on for some time. But to humiliate her like that, in front of me—it was more than she could take! When we got back to the house in Cairns she phoned your father to say she wouldn’t be there to look after you during the holidays and that she’d retired. No other explanation no matter how often he phoned, even when he visited. With the admiration she had for your father, there was no way she could have told him about it. She just shut herself away from life, then only a few years later she was gone.’
Caro drew him close again, wrapping her arms around him, holding him tightly.
‘Oh, Keanu,’ she whispered, the words soft and warm against his neck. ‘At least now I understand why you deserted me. How could you have had anything to do with any Lockhart after Ian’s behaviour to your mother?’
Was it the release of telling her the story, of her finally knowing why he’d cut her off that made his