away to think. So have I.”
“But you believed Heath was responsible somehow?” she protested. “Your whole family did. No one more than your aunt Callista. She was the loudest in her condemnation.”
“That isn’t surprising. She adored her younger brother.”
“So did your father, but he was never cruel. He and your mother simply withdrew into a shell. I heard your mother remarried?”
“Hardy Ingram, the M.P. We’ve known him for years and years. He’s a good man. He’ll look after my mother well, but he’s no substitute for Dad. He was a one-off. He died too young. These past couple of years without him have been sad. My mother couldn’t stay on Kooltar.”
“I can understand that.” She didn’t say that having her difficult sister-in-law around all the time would make things hard, but instead asked, “Is your aunt still living with you?”
“Kooltar is her home.” Clipped, ready to defend.
“She should have married. Gone away.” Nicole sat in sober judgment.
“None of your business, Nicole. We couldn’t all run.”
That stung. “Now, that was cruel.”
His hands on the controls clenched, knuckles whitening. “Yes, it was. Bloody cruel. I apologize. You suffered more than any of us.”
“I found them. How many hundreds of times have I been back over that horrible day? It’s like a video you don’t know how to stop.”
“I can understand that. The shock and the grief killed your grandfather. My own father was never the same after. The way the investigation ended! It as good as left everything up in the air.”
She looked down at her locked hands. Didn’t she live her own life on the brink, just waiting for someone to shove her off? “I’m sorry, too, Drake. But it was never my fault.”
“Of course it wasn’t!” He gave a grimace of dismay. “At the end of the day we were all betrayed. I’ve thought hard about this. As I said, I believe your father had nothing to do with what happened.”
“Then you’re the only one.” She sighed. “If you’re right, that leaves the glaring question of who did. What about Heath’s alibi? What if the stockman was lying? He left the station not long after and conveniently got killed when his ute ran off an Outback track. That’s like having a two-car crash in the middle of the Simpson Desert.”
“It was reported, as well, he’d been drinking heavily for days.”
“Probably had one hell of a guilty conscience. Does your aunt still hate me?”
Drake’s features tightened. “She doesn’t hate you, Nicole.”
“Don’t be daft. Of course she does! When it comes to intuition, men aren’t half as smart as women.”
“I’m not about to disagree,” he answered.
“Good. Around you, Callista was always very careful. Brothers and nephews are sacred. To hell with the rest of us. She never shared your liking for me, even as a child.”
He glanced at Nicole through narrowed eyes. “Can you imagine how difficult it was for her with you the living image of your mother?”
“There are differences,” she declared. “I’m me. I’ll never be unfaithful to my husband. I’ll never abandon my child. Oh, God, Nicole, shut up,” she bid herself, shocked at coming so close to condemning her mother.
“Let it out.”
“I’ve had years of letting it out.”
“Maybe the struggle has been too much. Maybe you have your own secrets you don’t want to be known. At least you have a source of release through your paintings.”
“Yes, maybe. Certainly mine aren’t happy paintings, Drake, although critics seem to find them powerful.”
“I hope I can see them.”
“Sure, I’ll bring some over to the house,” she suggested with heavy irony. “I just know I’d be welcome. Dear Callista hated my mother long before she hated me. Even as a kid I saw glimpses of it.”
“The devil you did! Cally was all set to be your mother’s maid of honor.”
“A piece of diplomacy.”
“You know nothing about it. You weren’t around.”
“Well, you were only a toddler and I could have been already in the womb.” Her voice was perfectly calm, accepting. “I was a premature baby. You’d almost believe it, except I was robust from day one. My mother and I talked a lot, you know. We were very close.”
The gaze he turned briefly to her was piercing. “Are you trying to tell me your mother confessed to you that Heath Cavanagh wasn’t your father?”
She stared back, hot color coming into her cheeks. “No need to look so intimidating. You don’t scare me. She never said anything of the sort.”
“I never believed for a minute she did,” he retorted with complete conviction. “But you must have felt tormented. Did you ever ask?”
“Lord, no!” Nicole gave a violent shake of her head. “I wanted to believe it.”
“What?” A single word delivered like a shot.
“That Heath was my father.”
He gave a short laugh. “He is your father. Your mother would never have lied to you about that.”
“She didn’t lie, either, when she told me Callista hated her. Callista believed her brother’s love for my mother threatened her own relationship with him. You’ve heard of envy, haven’t you? It’s one of the deadly sins. Even Siggy envied my mother, her own sister.”
He shook his head wearily. “What else did you expect? It must have been very difficult for Sigrid to have a sister as beautiful and as fascinating as Corrinne. Poor Sigrid lacked those qualities.”
“And Heath Cavanagh never let her forget it.”
Hadn’t he always thought there was something there? Drake pondered. Sigrid’s unrequited desire for her brother-in-law? “Corrinne besotted them all,” he said finally. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but your relationship with Joel might have similarities.”
She shot him a horrified glance. “You’re insane!”
“I wish.” His sidelong glance was deadly serious. “I think your mother had a few concerns Joel was too much around you.”
Nicole couldn’t restrain herself. She threw out a hand, clasping his strong wrist as hard as she could.
“Don’t do that, Nicole.” He shook her off, suddenly seeing a vision of his uncle behind the wheel, the beautiful woman beside him, striking out in anger, perhaps making a dangerous grab for—
