Hazel found it a relief to be living in the tiny flat with Maureen. She had been happy living at Aunt Violet’s until her mother arrived. She had been looking forward to her visit, astonished and pleased that she had actually made the effort to get out to Australia as she had, under her own steam. But she had felt guilty that instead of enjoying her company, she more often than not sizzled with irritation and found herself being curt with her to the point of snappishness. She had, since a very young age, seen her mother wilt under the onslaught of other people’s more commanding personalities. Her father of course was the prime example, her father’s sister another, even her own mother.
There had been the years between her father dying and Giles growing up when her mother had to take charge, especially when Grandma had come out here to visit Violet and her family. When Hazel remembered how her mother had blossomed during the war and the years of the early peace, she felt particularly annoyed when she appeared to revert to type as Giles matured. Maybe she hadn’t entirely, though, or she would never be out here now. This irritation with what she felt was Daisy’s lack of any sense of self-worth flourished when she saw her deferring to others, particularly Violet.
Hazel was still working out in her mind how best to send her mother off to New Zealand when Daisy astounded her by telling her she planned to go and tentatively suggested Hazel join her.
‘Gosh – yes, I’d love to,’ replied Hazel. Her astonishment that her plans were working out without her interference made her exuberantly enthusiastic. She flung her arms round her mother and hugged her.
Daisy, pleased and surprised, couldn’t quite believe it. ‘You would? You really would?’ Her native caution then made her ask, ‘But what about your job, and the flat?’
‘I can get another job and the flat won’t run away.’
‘If you are sure, we had better go and consult a travel agent and work out an itinerary,’ Daisy suggested, wondering whether to admit that it was James rather than New Zealand she was going to see.
‘Tim told me he is planning a visit to his mother. You know he is a New Zealander. Well, actually, that’s not strictly true; his mother is and she went back there to live and remarried. He has grandparents there too. As a matter of fact, he sort of suggested I go over with him when he goes to visit them,’ Hazel rattled on.
Daisy was so often silent while she allowed other people to organize her that Hazel didn’t notice her anxious expression.
‘We could all travel together. That would be great, wouldn’t it?’ asked Hazel.
‘Yes … yes, it would,’ Daisy murmured weakly. ‘When does he plan to go and where does his mother live?’ she asked, hoping that he really didn’t intend to go for months and that he would be heading somewhere not included in her travel plans, forgetting that she had none as yet.
‘I think he said in a couple of weeks, maybe less, and I suppose he would be going to the South Island as his mother and his grandparents both live around Christchurch somewhere.’
‘Christchurch. You did say … Christchurch?’
‘I think we should talk to him before we map out an itinerary.’ Hazel, full of excitement and enthusiasm, missed her mother’s sudden lack of both. ‘He would be able to tell us the interesting places to visit. He might even come with us.’
‘Great,’ Daisy murmured, totally unable to inject enthusiasm into her voice. Hazel, however, had enough of her own and didn’t notice. Daisy’s plans to remove her daughter from Tim’s orbit were achieving the exact opposite.
‘Gee, that’s terrific!’
To his own ears, Tim’s delight when Hazel told him she too was ready to set off for New Zealand with him sounded overdone and insincere. He could imagine his mother putting two and two together and probably making six when he turned up with Hazel and her mother. He resolved to put more work into persuading Maureen to come too.
‘I can’t believe Mum decided to go to New Zealand off her own bat. At her age, I don’t suppose she is likely to ever go again,’ said Hazel.
Tim thought she must be joking; Hazel’s mother had not seemed at all old to him, but Hazel looked perfectly serious. ‘I don’t see why not. Heavens, she isn’t that old.’
‘Well, I’m sure she wouldn’t go again. I’m quite astonished she has gone once. It isn’t that she is so old, but her outlook is. She never dares to take the plunge – in anything. She’s only here now because my selfish brother and his wife wanted her out of the way. If something happens – Susan falls pregnant or something – and they decide she will be useful to them, they will soon whistle for her. Honestly, Tim, she makes me cross at times. She is so damned unselfish, it’s not healthy.’
Tim smiled, but he could see that Hazel really cared about her mother, and he liked her for that. ‘Well, if this really is to be a once in a lifetime trip, we must see it is good. I’ve got a touring map of New Zealand in my car. Let’s start making plans.’ He looked at his watch. ‘It’s time Maureen got back from work. I wish I could persuade her to come as well.’
He went out to get the map and when he came back, Maureen was with him. Both were smiling, happy just to be in each other’s company. Briefly, Hazel felt like a third leg, then Tim spread the map out on the little table which was so small that the map hung over the edges like a tablecloth. He pointed to a green area about halfway down the South Island on what Hazel called the right side.
‘West coast, if you please,’ Tim corrected. ‘See this large green area?’
Hazel thought it would be hard to miss it with his finger firmly down on the centre. ‘Canterbury Plain,’ she read aloud from the map.
‘That’s right. Well, that’s where my mother and stepfather and my grandparents live. It’s a big farming area.’
‘Where Canterbury lamb comes from,’ Hazel supplied, playing the smart student in response to his schoolteacher role. ‘Those mountains down the centre look exactly like a spine, and what odd placenames. Either the names of English towns or totally unpronounceable.’
‘Those are Maori names. I expect the English names were given them by homesick early settlers from those towns.’
‘It must have been hard on the women.’ Hazel thought of her grandmother coming out to Australia as a young bride, full of romantic dreams. She remembered her saying tartly: ‘Well, I soon lost those. There was nothing in the least romantic I discovered about any of it; not the long voyage out, nor the pioneering life when we arrived’.
Tim made her jump by snapping his fingers in front of her. ‘Come back,’ he told her. ‘You are miles away.’
‘Only in time,’ she told him, suppressing her irritation. ‘I was thinking about my grandmother and how it must have been for her when she came out to Australia. You know, I think I might try and write her story.’ She had already confided in them her ambition to be a writer. With the same thought running through both their minds, that digging up the past might not be a good idea, Maureen and Tim both tried to bring her back to the present. Hazel, already plotting her first bestseller, felt irritated when Tim pointed out that at that moment, they were planning a trip to New Zealand.
Daisy smiled ruefully to herself at the look of relief that flitted across her sister’s features when she said that she was thinking of visiting New Zealand. ‘Seems silly not to. After all, I don’t suppose I am likely to make this trip again,’ she said, unknowingly echoing Hazel’s words to Tim. ‘I’ve asked Hazel to come with me and she seems quite keen on the idea.’
‘She would be silly not to be, wouldn’t she? I suppose you are footing the bill.’
Here it is again, Daisy thought; the suggestion – along with a certain amount of resentment – that I have unlimited resources. ‘Well, yes, I suppose so,’ she agreed aloud. She hadn’t actually considered that aspect. ‘I thought it would be nice to have her company. And I have a friend in Christchurch.’
Daisy couldn’t remember if she had explained James’s existence. She should have done as he was connected to Violet by their mother’s marriage as much as he was to her. ‘Would you mind very much if I make a phone call? I’ll pay for it.’
‘Of course,’ said Violet.
Daisy wasn’t sure whether Violet’s ‘of course’ meant that of course she could make a call or of course she would pay for it. Deciding it probably meant both, she thanked her and went to her room to look for James’s number. While she waited for the connection, she mentally rehearsed what she would say and was taken aback when a female voice answered. She left a message for him to call her back and resigned herself to wait.
‘Did you get her?’ Violet asked when she rejoined her in the lounge room.
Flummoxed by the question, Daisy stammered, ‘Yes – I mean no.’ Why should Violet automatically assume that her only friends were female? She was still speculating on this when the phone rang. Violet went quickly out to the hall and answered it. Seconds later, she was back.
‘Your New Zealand … friend. He said he had just received your message.’
Daisy hurried to the telephone. She had not imagined Violet’s emphasis.
‘James, hello.’
‘Hello, Daisy. I have just walked in and got your message. You sound breathless.’
She ignored that. ‘I was just ringing to say that I’m taking your advice.’ It never hurt to let men think you listen to them. ‘I decided I should see New Zealand before I leave this part of the world.’
‘That’s wonderful! You must give me your flight number. I will try and meet you.’
Daisy smiled to herself at his assumption that it would be Christchurch she would fly into. ‘Hazel is coming with me,’ she added. ‘I will give you more details when I have them.’
‘That’s great! I look forward to seeing you both.’
The slightly too lengthy pause and the slightly too hearty a tone told her he viewed the fact that she would not be alone with mixed feelings. The telephone, she thought, could be very revealing and she wondered how much she had unwittingly given away.