The Great Plains (37 page)

August, 1935 – The Australia Hotel, Sydney

Abelena lifted the lid on the white cardboard box and turned back the tissue paper. Although she'd grown used to Tobias's gifts, she'd worn very few of them. She knew he tried to buy her trust and her affection but his presents were fruitless, especially as Tobias remained wary of Abelena escaping and accordingly her outdoor excursions were limited. Education was to be the stuff of Abelena's days. A widowed governess, Mrs Goward, remained her constant companion while in Sydney.

‘Do show me, my dear,' the governess entreated as she tidied the books on the desk.

Reading, writing and etiquette appeared to be Abelena's major failings from Mrs Goward's perspective. It was all they'd concentrated on this past week.

‘Come now, Abelena, most women would give their eye-teeth to have such a charming relation.'

‘Charming?' Abelena muttered, but she lifted the dress from the box, a white card falling to the floor. The governess picked the handwritten note up from the carpet.

‘You read it,' Abelena directed the woman as she fingered the dress material. Although she hated to admit it, the gown was very beautiful.

‘There now,' Mrs Goward enthused, ‘and here you've been complaining about being locked indoors, my girl. Don't give me that look. If you want to be treated like an adult, then act like one.'

‘Mr Wade didn't employ you to boss me around.' It wasn't the first time she'd exchanged words with her tutor. Mrs Goward treated Tobias as if he were a saint. Holding the full-length sleeveless dress in front of her, Abelena studied her reflection in the long, oval mirror in the corner of the hotel room.

‘Look at that. Silk chiffon, if you don't mind, and the very latest style,' the governess cooed. ‘It suits you.'

Abelena had to agree that it did. The chiffon was printed with stylised flowers and leaves in the shades of midnight blue, mauve and white. Full-skirted with diamond-shaped godets, it was certainly the loveliest gown Tobias had given her.

‘Of course only a young person with your colouring could wear it. It's really quite startling.'

‘Well, I won't be wearing it.'

‘Why ever not, child?'

Abelena dumped the gown back in its box. ‘Because I'm not going out with him. You say I should act like an adult, well, what gives him the right to act as my gaoler?'

Returning to the desk, Mrs Goward piled the school books in one corner and gathered up her handbag. At the door to Abelena's room, she produced a key. ‘You do realise that the more you behave poorly, the less inclined Mr Wade will be to give you what you want most. Oh yes, I've seen you stare out that window. Time and again you're distracted by what lies beyond these panes of glass. It's not the city, I realise that. When you look down at the people and cars in the street below, you wince and shudder as if you've eaten something distasteful, but when you look at the sky, at the clouds, well,' the older woman gave a click of her tongue, ‘you want your freedom, Abelena, the freedom to live your life as you choose. Do you not think that Mr Wade would give you that if he thought you appreciated him, if you were kindly to him, if he thought he could trust you?' The governess stood silently for just a moment and then left the room. There was a soft click as the door was locked.

‘It's easy for you to lecture,' Abelena said crossly. She lay on the bed, silently cursing the woman who made her walk the length of her hotel room ten times every morning with a book on her head. Tobias would never allow Abelena to live the life she wanted, for in her ideal world Tobias Wade wouldn't be a part of it. But there was something in the older woman's words.

Tobias had changed recently. The news of the death of his father in the twister had come as a huge shock to him. What surprised Abelena was his expectation that she would care about Edmund's passing – the man who had turned her mother Serena away when she'd come to him for help. But Tobias was ignorant of Abelena's feelings. He wanted to talk of the past, of his mother, of the good times shared with Wes and Sheriff Cadell and his father. She remained plainly disinterested and, for a number of days, his usual visits to her room after breakfast ceased. Abelena welcomed Tobias's absence. There was little joy to be gained from the snippets Tobias shared of his business dealings or society life in the great city of Sydney. But of course his non-appearance was only fleeting. He'd left Oklahoma on bad terms with his father and had journeyed to the other side of the world with a girl who cared little for him. There was power in the knowledge that, for the moment, Tobias Wade had no-one else close to talk to. He too was alone. Alone and grieving, as she had grieved. As she
still
grieved for her lost family, and Abelena knew all too well that heartbreak could make a person weak.

With a smile, she reached for the crumpled gown.

The Australia Hotel was one of Sydney's finest establishments, providing high quality accommodation, dining and entertainment to some of the city's most distinguished visitors. Tobias was forever imparting the merits of the places they stayed at and tonight was no exception.

‘You've only seen the Castlereagh Street entrance, Abelena, but the extension on the northern side is really quite marvellous.'

He had his hand on her elbow and Abelena allowed herself to be steered through the hotel's streamlined interiors, which were linked by a sweeping oval stairway. The elongated flight of steps was set against an enclosing wall of black glass, incised with fantastic birds and foliage etched in silver.

‘Did I say how lovely you look this evening?'

‘Thank you.' Abelena dragged her palm along the surface of the banister as they descended.

The foyer was a striking Art Deco design. Abelena feigned wonder at the fantasy of black Carrara marble, black glass with silver etchings and numerous mirrors.

‘I've reservations in the dining room,' Tobias told her, ‘but I did want you to see the rest of the establishment first.'

The restaurant was lit by large chandeliers hanging from a twenty-foot ceiling. There were damask-clothed tables, intimate booths and hovering waiters and even though a number of months had passed since Abelena's introduction into the world of the privileged, she immediately felt uncomfortable. It almost made her laugh to think of the hours she'd spent day-dreaming about a rich, white man's life when she was in Oklahoma. Of the times she'd yearned for money and food and new clothes and a life that wasn't lived in the service of another. Now she was living what she'd once wished for and the hollowness of her new life frightened her. She sat stiffly at the table and allowed Tobias to order for them both – cauliflower soup, the roast of the day and trifle for dessert.

‘You have caused a small sensation with your arrival, Abelena,' Tobias said approvingly. ‘Did you not see the admiring looks directed your way?'

‘No.'

A waiter arrived with miniature crisp bread rolls, which he placed on small plates. Freshly baked bread. Abelena would never tire of the smell.

‘This is
the
place to stay in Sydney. All the great pastoral families dine here.' Tobias took a sip of water from the crystal glass. ‘I made the acquaintance of a Mr Angus Gordon this morning. He's aged in his mid-thirties, I would say, and of Scottish heritage. He's one of the biggest landowners in New South Wales. They say his father founded Wangallon Station on stock theft, which I don't doubt, considering the problems we've had to deal with on Condamine Station.'

The soup arrived and Abelena watched as Tobias chose the appropriate spoon from the selection at his place-setting, then she followed suit.

‘Can I stay here while you visit the property?' Abelena asked politely. ‘I quite like Mrs Goward.'

‘Well then, she must come with us.'

Abelena drummed her fingers in her lap. ‘That wouldn't be fair. She has family here.'

‘I couldn't leave you here, Abelena.'

‘Of course not,' she agreed. It was worth a try. ‘How long will we be in Australia?'

Tobias slurped his soup noisily. ‘I know you don't like it here, Abelena, but we've only just arrived.'

‘I just thought you would have to go back to Oklahoma, you know, with your father having died.'

Tobias pushed the soup bowl aside. ‘What need is there for me to go back? The funeral's over. Anyway, why are you interested in talking about him now?'

‘Well, you are the only son. Isn't there business over there for you to attend to?'

They waited as Tobias's wine was poured. The dark fluid splashed into the long-stemmed glass and the waiter cleared their soup bowls.

Tobias blew his nose. ‘Well, everything will be left to me so it's more a matter of deciding what I want to keep and what I'll sell.' He took a sip of the wine. ‘There's little point holding on to the house block in Oklahoma City so I'm putting it on the market. But our property interests here have always been very lucrative and I'm more interested in farming than newspapers.'

‘And what of Great-Grandmother Philomena? Is she included in the sale?' Abelena could have bitten her tongue. She had been determined to be pleasant company from now on in the hope that eventually Tobias's guard would drop. A white plate with gold edging was placed before her. Filled with slices of lamb with roasted vegetables and string beans, she couldn't help but think of Mark and Mathew, of what they were eating.

‘I'm sorry, I hadn't –'

‘Considered her? I know that.'

‘Do you want her encased in that mausoleum my father erected in my grandfather's memory?' Tobias offered. He took a large gulp of wine and beckoned the waiter for more. ‘It's a monstrosity. Even I don't want to be buried there. Did you know that it has a golden eagle atop it?'

Abelena knocked her water glass over. ‘S-sorry,' she stammered.

‘No harm done.' He lay his napkin over the damp spot.

‘Why an eagle?'

‘Oh, there was some story my father told me about Grandfather Aloysius having drawn pictures of an eagle in his diary. I guess he thought he'd like an eagle on the crypt.'

‘Oh.'

‘You look surprised.'

Did Tobias's family not know the importance of the golden eagle to the Apache? ‘Uncle George told me that Geronimo was buried under a stone eagle.'

Tobias stopped chewing.

‘It's true. It's a strange coincidence, don't you think?'

Her dining companion nodded. ‘What of –'

‘Philomena? She stays where she was laid.'

Tobias ate the remains of his meal in silence and cancelled their dessert order. ‘You're very hard for one so young,' he said as he escorted her from the dining room.

Abelena knit her eyebrows together. ‘And what do you think made me so?'