Rain Music (35 page)

Ned grinned at the friendly curator. ‘My sister helped me hugely.' He gestured to Bella. ‘Ken, this is my sister, Bella, and she's been intrigued by the letters in the box, just as I have been.' Ken smiled broadly and shook Bella's hand.

‘Lovely to meet you,' said Bella. ‘I really enjoyed reading through the material. There was a whole pile of letters written by a Sister Evangelista. They are just wonderful. She describes life as it was in Cooktown more than a hundred years ago. Unfortunately, many of the letters are incomplete, some no more than fragments, but the way she writes is so evocative that it's hard to stop reading them.'

Ken's face lit up. ‘Ah, Sister Evangelista, the “little sister”, as she was known. She was quite tiny but a great character. I can show you some more about her, if you like. Come on upstairs.'

They followed the curator to the upper floor and down the hall to the end room.

‘Ah, the corner room. This is where I saw the box,' said Ned. ‘And what a view there is from here!'

He glanced out of the high, wide window at the township and sparkling water beyond.

‘Yes,' said Ken. ‘It has such a good view that the room was used by the Americans as an observation post when they took over the convent during the Second World War. It is said that you could see the flash of the guns from the battle of the Coral Sea from this very spot.'

‘That is amazing,' said Bella. ‘So what happened to Sister Evangelista while the Americans were here?'

‘She and most of the other nuns were evacuated. Actually, the Americans damaged the building so badly while they were here that the school was never reopened. Such a pity. Now this room is just a storeroom, but I often imagine her sitting there, at the window . . .'

‘This was her room?' asked Bella. She glanced around at the space and tried to imagine it as it would have been when Sister Evangelista had inhabited it.

‘I started to hear music in here,' said Ned quietly.

Bella stared at him. ‘Whoo hoo! Maybe she haunts this room.'

‘More likely one of the tourists was trying out one of the instruments we have on display in another part of the museum,' said Ken with a chuckle. ‘Anyway, Sister Evangelista was a feisty old nun, but everyone loved her, that's according to a few people I've met who knew her. She was the last of the original Irish nuns who came here so long ago. She was in her nineties when she died, sometime in the 1950s. Do you know that she never left north Queensland after she arrived from Ireland all those years ago? Just amazing.'

‘It certainly is. What a lot of history she must have witnessed,' said Ned.

‘There's no doubt about that,' replied Ken. ‘I believe that she stayed on here in Cooktown even when other nuns moved away. She was greatly dedicated to the place.'

In the silence that followed, Bella remembered what she had wanted to ask the curator. ‘Ken, I'm wondering, have you ever heard of a singer, Atlanta . . . Pedersen, I think she must have been called. Attie. She had a super singing voice. An Islander girl,' said Bella.

Ken rubbed his face. ‘That would be Atlanta Cookson. That was her stage name. She came here to the convent school, you know, and called herself after the town. She had been adopted by the Pedersens, who were a somewhat eccentric white family who lived nearby.'

Bella smiled broadly. ‘Sister Evangelista mentioned in one of her letters that she was going to try to get Attie sent to St Mary's as she had quite a talent, so I'm pleased to hear that she did come here in the end. Is there any more information about the Pedersens and Attie?' asked Bella. ‘I met a woman who told me about a South Sea Island child who had been adopted by a white family and her name was changed to Atlanta, Attie for short. It's such an unusual name that it must be the same person. My friend would probably love to know more about this Attie.'

‘There's quite a lot to be told about Atlanta Cookson. She was a most remarkable person.'

‘How exciting. I'll have to do more research,' said Bella.

Ned glanced at his watch and then turned to Ken. ‘Thank you so much for the Bish's box. It's been very enlightening,' said Ned. ‘I've really enjoyed reading the letters. But we must go, as we have to start heading back before it gets dark and we haven't had lunch yet.'

Ken nodded. ‘Then I'll let you go, but thanks again for sorting through the box and leaving your notes.'

‘I don't feel I did all that much,' replied Ned. ‘My sister was the one who became really intrigued with the stories in Sister Evangelista's letters.'

Ken turned to Bella. ‘Then thank you, Bella, as well. I expect you'll be heading south pretty soon, like everyone else.' He ushered them out of the room and closed the door behind him.

‘Yes, I'll have to head home soon, but I have been fascinated by what I've learned in this part of the world,' Bella replied. As they walked down the hall, she looked back at the closed door and thought again of Sister Evangelista.

‘There're many stories, often little known, about the Cape and the far north,' said Ken, gesturing for Bella to go ahead of him down the stairs. ‘I love being here. Maybe we'll see you back again sometime.'

‘Maybe,' said Bella.

As they stepped out into the sunny street, Ned said, ‘It's a bit of a time warp, isn't it?'

‘The museum? Or this town?' asked Bella.

‘Both,' Ned replied. ‘Are you hungry? Shall we get some lunch?' Bella nodded, so Ned pulled out his phone and texted Toni to arrange to pick her up, but she replied she wasn't feeling up to it and the two should go ahead and have lunch without her.

Bella thought about the last lunch they'd shared at the riverside restaurant, not so long before. Since then so much had happened, both good and bad, that it seemed to her as though time had expanded. Ned sat opposite her at the table. He'd been looking dejected ever since he'd received the text from Toni.

‘I wish that Toni could have joined us. It's a shame she's not feeling well,' she said. Ned just grunted in reply.

‘Ned,' Bella continued tentatively, ‘I realise that time is fast running out for us to stay at Carlo's. Have you made a decision about your next move?' She buttered a piece of sourdough bread and popped it into her mouth.

Ned sighed moodily. ‘Well, I think I need to earn some money, but I'd find that difficult to do in Cooktown, especially in the wet season, so I'm going to have to move south. Maybe Cairns, if I can get enough work, or if I can't, I'll have to go back to Melbourne. That's got the best music scene.'

‘I see,' Bella replied. She wanted to press him further, but decided against it. She was not sure if Ned was facing the reality of needing to find work, or using his work as an excuse to avoid making a decision about Toni and the baby. Nonetheless Bella hoped Ned would not leave his decision too long. After her conversation with Toni on the drive into Cooktown, Bella had grasped how strong and independent Toni was, and she knew that if Ned vacillated too long or refused outright to make any real commitment to this baby, Toni would close the door on him. But no matter what her thoughts on the matter, in the end Bella knew it was Ned's choice and his alone, so she wasn't going to say any more about it.

Instead, she turned her thoughts to her own future. Away from the river house and its rather lost-world atmosphere, Bella had begun to think seriously about what she was going to do. Here in Cooktown she had noticed that there were fewer tourists around now that the wet season was almost here. Perhaps tourism up in the north was only really feasible in the dry season, and that this limited time span might not be enough to make Antony's project financially viable. She would have to raise that point with Antony.

After they'd ordered, Ned excused himself to go to the bathroom. Deciding to take the bull by the horns, Bella pulled out her phone and rang Antony, but her call went through to his voicemail. She left a message saying she'd be back in Cairns soon and she'd try to make contact with him again.

Bella had more success when she phoned Josie. Her mother sounded very happy to hear from her and said that she was pleased that Bella and Ned were spending time together. Bella assured Josie that she would be home in plenty of time for the ceremony, but said nothing about Ned's plans, and Josie did not ask any questions. Still, it was nice to chat to her mother, and even in those few minutes, Bella realised that she missed Josie's company and was looking forward to seeing her again. After she hung up, she scanned her emails. A work colleague had sent a message letting her know that the aborted project she had been working on for the Tennyson Council just before she came away had been resurrected and was ready to go. Bella frowned. She wasn't sure how she felt about the news. She was pleased to hear that the project was going ahead, but she was no longer sure that she wanted to be the one to work on it. Of course, if she decided to move up north, she wouldn't have to. She sighed. But if she did make the move, where would that leave things with Brendan? Her thoughts just went round in circles.

Ned and their meals arrived at the table simultaneously and they ate in silence. As she tasted the delicious mud crab, Bella thought about how she had got out of the habit of using her phone. With no coverage, she had put the phone in her bag and ignored it. And the sky hadn't fallen in. She realised that apart from the piece of work news she'd just received, in all the time she'd been away none of her friends appeared to have had any dramatic news that she was sorry to have missed. She resolved that in future she would live life without feeling as though her phone would have to be surgically removed from her hand. Perhaps letters were the way to go; only the significant things went in, and the pointless and the extraneous details were left out. Maybe that was why Sister Evangelista's letters were so entertaining. The nun had recognised what was important.

‘Will you be okay, driving your car back to the roadhouse on your own?' asked Ned as the waiter cleared away their plates.

‘Absolutely. I feel a lot better now that I've been out and about. The police were so nice and I've been on that road a couple of times now, so I feel quite confident that if I follow closely behind you, I'll be just fine. Assuming, of course, that we don't stop at Black Mountain.'

‘Why would we do that?' asked Ned grumpily.

‘I'll tell you later,' said Bella, sensing that Ned was not in the mood for any quaint stories. ‘Let's go home.'

They drove back to Toni's to pick up Bella's car, which had been left there. They both hopped out of the car and Ned started towards Toni's door, but Bella hung back.

‘You go in and see her, Ned. I'll wait here for you. If she's feeling off colour, she won't want both of us annoying her. But please give her my thanks for letting me leave my car with her.'

Ned was gone for only a few minutes, but when he returned, he was clearly angry about something.

Bella was about to ask him what the matter was, but Ned just threw her keys at her and gruffly told her to follow him. A couple of hours later, after dropping Bella's car at the roadhouse, they set off on the final leg of the journey back to the river house in silence.

Finally Bella couldn't stand wondering why Ned was not speaking to her and asked, ‘Ned, stop giving me the silent treatment. What's up?'

Ned's face flushed. ‘Well, Bella, when I went in to see her just now, Toni announced that you told her about Ashleigh and what happened,' he said in a tense voice. ‘And now she says she hasn't got anything to say to me. She won't speak to me because of what
you
told her.'

Bella shrank back, but then straightened up. ‘That's rubbish! You should have told her yourself ages ago! And besides, I really didn't mean to tell her. It just popped out,' Bella replied defensively.

‘When I choose to tell Toni about my business is my decision! It wasn't your place to tell her, Bell!' said Ned, his face red with anger.

‘Oh?' said Bella, her own colour rising. ‘And when were you going to tell her?'

‘When it was the right time. You shouldn't have said anything.'

‘Oh, for heaven's sake!' Bella said impatiently. ‘Honestly, Ned, it's your own fault. Honesty is the best policy, Ned. It's never a good idea to keep a secret, at least not one as important as you and Ash. It would all have had to come out in the end, and avoiding telling Toni what happened only makes things worse, in my opinion. Good grief, Ned, you are such a procrastinator! You wouldn't tell Toni about Ash, and you won't make a decision about what you're going to do next! What's wrong with you?'

‘Oh? And what are your plans?' Ned spat out the words. ‘What are you going to do about Brendan? The guy is obviously in love with you. You can't leave him dangling forever, that isn't fair.'

Bella glared at him. ‘That's different. My problems aren't quite so immediate. I have options. What are yours?'

Ned's mouth tightened. ‘I'm not sure.' He paused. ‘I don't know what I can do. It doesn't seem like there's a lot I can do.'

‘That's a shame,' said Bella quietly. ‘I know I've only met Toni a couple of times, but I think she's a terrific person. Really special. If you don't do something soon –'

‘Dammit, Bella!' Ned banged the steering wheel in frustration as he turned onto the track that led past the dam and down to the river house. ‘I'm not saying that she's not, but let me sort my own life out. Please, Bella.'

‘Okay, Ned,' said Bella. ‘But please don't leave your decision too long, or it might be too late.'

Ned didn't respond. He just gripped the wheel and stared into the distance, frowning. Bella felt her irritation at him subside. In her mind she could hear Ned's mellow voice and his haunting music, which always calmed her. He was a paradox, a musician capable of belting out rock songs or writing music that could both break and heal hearts. It occurred to her that perhaps the time Ned had spent here in this wild and lonely setting had been his own healing time. This was a place where he could confront demons and come to terms with where he was in his life and where he wanted to go with the musical talents he'd been given, but now, before he had found whatever it was that he was seeking, a new chapter of his life had begun: Toni and their baby. And on top of all of this, Bella had still not been able to persuade him to come home for their father's ceremony.