Too precocious.”
“She was adorable,” Louise protested, never one to find fault in her even when she deserved it, Nicole knew.
“That man didn’t love me. He didn’t want me around.”
Sigrid snorted, loud as a horse. “That’s not true, even if no one really rated beside Corrinne.”
“I don’t understand how you can defend him, Siggy—when it suits you, that is,” Nicole said.
This time Sigrid inhaled forcefully. “Because I feel sorry for him.”
“Well, I hate him. I mean, I really hate him. I could have had my mother—”
“You can’t get off it, can you? You’ve got some incredible block.”
“Block, be damned!” Nicole saw red.
“My dears, please stop.” Louise held a lavishly be-jeweled hand to her head.
“I’m so sorry, Gran.” Nicole broke off immediately. She and Siggy had always gone at it.
“There has to be hope for us,” Louise said. “If Drake has asked you over to Kooltar, surely we can see that as a thawing, can’t we?”
“Gracious me, who’d want to call on Callista?” Sigrid hooted. “You surely don’t think you’re going to fall into her outstretched arms, Mother. She bloody hates us, the cold bitch. She blames us all for the loss of her brother. She worshiped at his feet. Everyone knows that. If I’d have been her mother, I’d have sent her packing.”
“To where?” Nicole asked. “That’s hardly fair. She was the daughter of the house.”
“They should have sent her to one of her relatives in Sydney or Melbourne,” Siggy said sternly. “Opened up her life. Station living is too isolated. We’re too much in one another’s pockets. Callista was positively fixated on her brother. A byproduct of a lonely life. I tell you, if he hadn’t been her brother, she’d have tried to bag him. She was too close. A bit kinky, I’d say.”
“Like Joel is too close to me?” Nicole shocked her by saying.
Sigrid, on the voluptuous side when young, now bone thin, let out a swearword that made her mother wince. “That’s the most preposterous thing I’ve ever heard. It’s not at all the same. Tell her, Mother.”
Louise sighed deeply, flapping her right hand helplessly. “I’m not sure if Nicole isn’t right.”
A worse swearword escaped Sigrid. “You’ve only just come home, Nicole, and you’re already stirring things up.”
“I’m trying to understand what’s going on in my life, Siggy,” Nicole responded hotly. “I don’t want to upset you, especially when you let fly like a station hand. This may not be the time to ask, either, but why did you get rid of Dot?”
“Why talk about bloody Dot?” Sigrid made a gesture as though she was swatting a fly. “It was time she retired. She wanted to live on the coast.”
“I never, ever heard her express that desire.” Nicole lifted her eyebrows.
“It seems she did, darling,” Louise intervened gently.
“She said that to you, Gran?” Nicole was amazed. “She said nothing to me and I was here in June. Why so sudden?”
“I don’t know, darling, but she seemed quite happy to leave. I was most surprised. I thought Dot was a fixture on Eden.”
“If you give me her address, Siggy, I’d like to contact her.” Nicole turned to her aunt.
Sigrid nodded stiffly. “I’m sure I’ve got it somewhere. If you don’t trust me, Nicole, to make decisions…”
“Of course I trust you, Siggy.” Nicole felt free to lie. “You should have told me, all the same. Dot was devoted to Joel and me when we were children. How much severance did you give her?”
“Certainly not a blank check.” Sigrid pulled a long face. “But enough to keep her comfortably for the rest of her life. That’s if she’s careful.”
“If you don’t want to say it, Siggy. Write it,” Nicole suggested acidly.
“All right, twenty thousand.” Sigrid compulsively smoothed her thick caramel-colored hair, her best feature for all her tendency to hack at it with nail scissors.
Nicole shook her head in dismay. “That was supposed to be generous? She could live for another twenty years unless she meets up with a bus.”
“I don’t think so,” Sigrid replied briskly. “Dot smokes like a chimney. I thought anyone who smoked was a leper these days. No one could stop her, though she didn’t dare smoke in the house. She’ll probably finish up with lung cancer.”
“Dot, poor Dot, what a vulnerable soul!” Nicole moaned. “This isn’t the end of it, Siggy. I have to ensure Dot is secure. That’s the least I can do. I suppose I can even meet Heath Cavanagh if I put my mind to it. If he’s not as ill as you’re saying, I’ll put him on the first plane out of here.”
“What about Zimbabwe?” Sigrid challenged. “Is that far enough?”
“You won’t want to when you see him, my darling,” Louise promised very quietly.
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