For the first time ever, Nate struggled to find his mojo. Roberta’s presence rattled him completely. The boat knocked into its mooring before he realised he hadn’t put it in reverse. Bloody hell!
“Everything okay, Nate?” Sophie mouthed, her back to the boatload of guests.
Nate gave himself a mental shake and gripped the wheel tighter. He sent her an apologetic smile, slipped his sunglasses back down and pasted on a sunny smile.
Reversing the boat away from the mooring, he flicked on the speaker system before half twisting in his seat to face the passengers. “Good morning, everyone. I’m Nate. Welcome to Lake Barrine and our iconic boat cruise.”
Pausing for a moment, he straightened the boat’s position and shifted it out of reverse ready to start the cruise. “A little about myself and our family. We’ve been involved with Lake Barrine for nearly one hundred years, operating some form of boat cruise for many decades. So, make yourself comfortable as we set off on one of nature’s most impressive examples of a maar.”
Steering the boat towards the far-left side of the lake, he sidled up close to the rainforest for any sighting of forest wildlife. “And what is a maar, you ask?” Nate continued with his commentary, slowly getting back into the swing of his spiel. It usually took a few minutes before some of the more confident and chatty passengers interacted with him. When no one raised their hand, Nate smiled. “Okay, a maar is a volcanic crater formed by a massive explosion from the superheating of groundwater. Now, I’m sure most of you already knew this, but you’re all acting up and pretending to be shy.”
The mostly retirement-aged group of tourists who were settled in for the pleasant ride rewarded him with some laughter and chuckles.
“Did you know that there are two other examples of maars close by to Lake Barrine? We’re so lucky here on the Tablelands to have such magnificent natural wonders.”
Once Nate had the boat cruising at a nice steady speed, he made for the shallows where reeds poked their thin stalks above the water level in little clumps and water lilies spread their plate-like leaves in amongst the mayhem of the reeds.
“Everyone, this is Sophie, and she’s very important.” Nate pointed to Sophie, who gave a small wave and a chuckle. “She will be serving Devonshire teas in a moment, so please feel free to come up and help yourself. You can move around the cabin freely, go upstairs to the deck for a better view, but we ask that tea facilities remain downstairs.”
Nate continued his spiel regarding safety and what to do in the unlikely event someone fell overboard and needed assistance. He didn’t once glance towards Roberta. Why did he consider her such a threat? If he couldn’t see her, she wasn’t there. Hopefully, she was ignoring him because he had every intention of doing the same.
Passengers milled around the downstairs lounge, their chatter upbeat as they headed for the tea facilities. Nate took this as his cue to concentrate on his driving until he needed to provide his next lot of commentary.
The general hubbub of noise washed over him. Seeing Roberta again only reminded him of the ugly image plastered all over the front page of the local newspaper. His gut clenched into a tight knot. It did every time he was reminded of it. He blamed her for everything that went wrong yesterday, including the hefty fine their band of supporters were slapped with.
In the past, they’d always talked their way out of a fine, able to agree on a sensible outcome. Even the farmer who’d loaned them the bulldozer received a nasty fine. This all added up to an intense dislike of this woman, and he wanted her as far away from Lake Barrine as possible.
Sharing the same small cottage? Not in this lifetime! He would move out if he had to.
He gave Sophie a few more minutes to serve the Devonshire teas before slowing the boat alongside a massive fallen tree partly exposed above the waterline. Cutting the engine, the boat glided a little further before resting on the water’s surface. The wildlife lovers aboard that day would get an opportunity to snap many pics.
Talking into the microphone, he directed everyone’s attention to a massive scrub python curled up in the fork of the fallen tree’s branch. “Okay, folks, time to get your cameras out, this is a great spot for pics.” Without fail, his mate, as he liked to think of him, made himself comfortable on this tree most days, dozing in the sun.
He gave them a few minutes before pointing out that if they looked into the water, they would see plenty of saw-shelled turtles. There weren’t any eastern water dragons sunning themselves on the exposed trunk, but that was usually a hit-and-miss sighting.
“Any bird lovers here today?” Nate asked.
A few hands went up. “Well, you’re in luck today.” Nate pointed to a tree on the edge of the water. “If you look up onto those branches, I can see half a dozen Australian king parrots.”
There was an immediate bustle as the bird lovers moved to the outside rail, craning their necks up for a better look and aiming camera lenses. The contrast of green and their red-orange chests was always a glorious sight and such natural awe always managed to calm him. For a split second, he forgot about Roberta’s presence. Despite taking a quick glance around, he still couldn’t see her. She must’ve gone to the upstairs deck. Out of sight was a good thing.
After another five minutes, Nate started the engine and continued steering towards another spot where a family of eels usually swam just below the water’s surface. If they were lucky, a musky rat-kangaroo might poke its head out along the forest’s edge. They’d see some scrub turkeys for sure. They always did. For now, he continued his commentary, pointing out some of the duck varieties bobbing on the water’s surface. Today, there were black ducks, plumed whistling ducks and a handful of dusky moorhens.
As the boat gently glided along, he told everyone to look back towards the teahouse and pointed out the two one-thousand-year-old kauri pines, clearly visible, protruding from the forest canopy. “If you haven’t already done so, be sure to take a stroll to the viewing platform less than a hundred metres from the teahouse.”
There was a general mumbling from the passengers. This usually meant that some passengers had arrived early and already viewed the trees. “For the more active, there is a pleasant five-kilometre walking track around the lake. Lots of birds and wildlife to feast your eyes on.”
The shock of seeing Roberta again continued to reverberate around his body, but he pushed it aside for now. All he needed to do was remind himself of how lucky he was. There had been many days on his overseas travels where nature wasn’t at its best. Crowded cities, pollution, destruction. It took leaving his childhood home to finally appreciate the gift they had. No way would he let a chit of a woman stand in his way. A quick chat with Natasha, the moment he docked the boat, would sort the issue out.
* * *
Roberta straightened her back at the mention of the kauri pines and looked back towards the teahouse. Once pointed out, it was obvious where they were. She noted how close they were to the teahouse and the small cottage tucked in behind where she would be living.
Nate’s commentary from the upstairs viewing deck was easy to follow. If she forgot who was talking, it was easier to enjoy the cruise. Now, to come to terms with the shock of seeing him again. Damn! Her gut was telling her this was bad news for her plans.
She mulled over options, needing to find any means of locating the damn box her mother had buried twenty-eight years ago. Her issue was that Lake Barrine was a national park, so visitors came at any time of the day or night. Finding a window of opportunity where she could dig around the tree would need to be done in the dead of night. In total darkness. A proposition that scared her to the core.
Now, to curb the churning in her stomach. It wasn’t from the gentle gliding of the boat as Nate put it back in gear and steered away from the bank towards another spot.
It was from an incident that happened years ago. Stupid, really, what a group of teenage girls got up to when looking for fun. On a school camp in the wooded snow-gum forests of Mount Buffalo, the group of five sixteen-year-olds snuck out in the dead of night.
They were giggling so much that no one heard or saw the group of wild brumbies. Roberta couldn’t even remember what their plan was. Was it to prove they could sneak out? She frowned, lost in thought as the breeze whipped across her cheeks, flapping the brim of her hat. Most days, she pushed the incident to the back of her mind, but when confronted with needing to go outside in the dark alone, it reared its ugly memories, causing all her old fears to rise again. She would never unsee the mangled body of one of her best friends. The one that never made it back to camp that night.
Nausea threatened now as she gulped it down. She gave herself a mental shake and stood on shaky legs as the boat picked up speed. She would need to quell this fear, or she may as well drive back to Melbourne and apologise to her mother for not being able to carry through with the plan.
Her knuckles shone brightly as she grabbed hold of the stainless rail surrounding the top deck. There was no choice. It had to be during the night. If it wasn’t tourists viewing the kauri pines, it would be joggers completing a circuit of the lake—in the early mornings or late dusk.
Inwardly groaning, she slapped her palm against the rail, deciding to go back downstairs and confront the monster of seeing Nate. She might even give Sophie a hand to clear up the morning tea mess. Nate wasn’t her employer, Natasha was, and she had to remember this. No cowering allowed. She was strong, and she would do this. This job was a means to an end. Hopefully, her mother’s madness would end once she retrieved whatever it was hiding in the box.
Roberta used the chrome rail on either side of the narrow half-a-dozen steps for support, swaying slightly with the movement of the boat. Cameras and phones were out in full force again as passengers at all vantage points, both upstairs and downstairs, snapped the view of the lake in all its morning glory. The glint of the sun turned the water into a turquoise wonderland, and a feeling of nostalgia claimed her attention for a moment. She straightened her back, pushing the ugly memories away. The idyllic time she’d spent with Antonio and the gorgeous seas surrounding Italy only served to remind her of the rut she was currently in and unlikely to leave until she sorted this mess out.
A splash broke the water’s surface, quickly followed by a piercing scream, then a panicked voice. “Man overboard!”
The boat’s motor instantly cut.