Hayley stared at the ceiling of the old cottage and fought to catch her breath. Beside her she felt Luke’s hard body, missing his weight and warmth despite the fact they were still touching. She knew they had chemistry—that had been obvious from day one—but this had been…beyond anything she’d ever experienced before.
‘I wasn’t expecting the morning to go quite like this,’ she said into the quiet between them.
He gave a half-hearted snort, but turned his head to look at her. ‘Me either, but I wouldn’t mind if there were more like it.’ He reached for her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. ‘Do you have anything planned today?’
‘Other than corrupting my sexy neighbour?’
‘Yeah, besides that.’
Hayley scoffed but couldn’t wipe the smile from her face. ‘No, I don’t.’
‘You wanna come for a drive into town?’
‘Sure. Why?’
‘’Cause I have to pick up some supplies from the feed store but I don’t want to leave.’
‘Aww,’ she crooned, only half joking. His words actually melted her heart a little bit.
As they drove, Luke took her hand in his lightly, driving with one hand on the steering wheel. More than once Hayley had to mentally pinch herself to see if this was real. Were they actually here? Together? It all felt so…right.
When they pulled up in front of the feed store, Hayley stayed in the car while Luke went inside. A familiar car pulled up across the road and she climbed out of the ute and crossed the quiet road to meet Jason as he closed his car door.
‘Hey, boss,’ he greeted her, giving the area a quick scan. ‘I didn’t see your car.’
‘No, I came in with Luke,’ she said. ‘I’ve been meaning to tell you, I found a good deal on an oven and stovetop package in Windsor. I was thinking of going over to have a look at it. Do I need to know anything other than the measurements of the hole its going in?’
He lifted an eyebrow. ‘We need to work on your building terminology a bit, but no, as long as you take the measurements off the kitchen plan, you should be right. I’m heading over there to get some supplies on Wednesday if you wanted me to look it over with you?’
‘Actually, that would be a great idea. That way if I buy the wrong size, I can blame you,’ she smiled sweetly.
‘If I’m there, we won’t be buying the wrong size,’ he assured her blandly.
Just then Luke appeared. ‘Weaver,’ he nodded, slipping his arm around Hayley’s waist.
She saw Jason’s eyes follow the action silently. ‘Mason.’
Hayley felt the undercurrent between the two men. ‘We were just talking about the old scullery kitchen makeover.’
‘Sounds like you’ve been busy,’ Luke said to Jason.
‘We’ve got a big job ahead of us, but it’ll be worth it, I reckon.’
‘Mum showed me the plans you sent her,’ Luke said, looking at Hayley. ‘It’s a big venture.’
She couldn’t quite determine whether Luke’s tone was politely curious or held a note of caution. Maybe it was a bit of both. She flashed him what she hoped was a confident smile. ‘I guess it is a fairly big renovation, but as Jason said, the shed was already there and structurally sound, so it’s not like we’re building from scratch.’
‘Guess that’s true,’ he said, although she suspected he was tossing up whether to say any more. She wasn’t sure why his hesitation bothered her. She didn’t need anyone’s approval for anything she did now—but the fact she sensed a small amount of uncertainty about him irritated her.
‘Did you end up finishing your manuscript, the one about the convict woman?’ Jason asked, successfully diverting the attention from the building but unfortunately opening a whole other can of worms.
‘You wrote about it?’ Luke asked slowly.
‘I wrote a book based on a local event, yes. And yeah, I sent it off to my agent the other day,’ she smiled at Jason.
‘I’m looking forward to reading it.’
He’d asked her about the book and she’d given him a brief summary of the plot and told him the story of Jane and Edward, minus the freaky stuff. Over the past few weeks working with Jason, Hayley had become pleasantly surprised by the change in him. It seemed they’d reached a point where he felt comfortable enough to let his guard down around her and she’d discovered a very different side to the man. He had a great sense of humour for starters—who would have thought? She genuinely liked him and enjoyed their playful banter.
She felt Luke’s hand tighten slightly on her waist. ‘Well, I guess we better get going,’ she said with a bright smile.
‘Yeah, me too. If I don’t catch you back at your place, I’ll call you about Wednesday to see what time you want to leave,’ he said with a wave before he walked away.
‘What’s happening Wednesday?’ Luke asked as they crossed the street.
‘I was planning to look at some stuff for the kitchen and Jason offered to come along and check it out with me.’
‘You didn’t think I’d go with you?’
‘Actually, it didn’t cross my mind,’ she admitted calmly, aware that his tone was becoming a little clipped.
They got into the ute and Hayley pulled on her seatbelt, looking up as she finished to see Luke staring out the front window quietly. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked cautiously.
‘You’re publishing the story about Jane and Edward?’
‘I didn’t plan on it, but the story just flowed out onto the screen. I think it needs to be told.’
‘So he knows about everything?’
‘About the visions, you mean?’ she asked pointedly, somehow irritated by his refusal to acknowledge it.
‘About what you think you saw.’
‘No, I didn’t mention anything about what I saw, or anything else that happened,’ she added, eyeing him defiantly. ‘I just told him what happened to Jane and Edward and that I was writing a book about it.’
‘And you think that’s a good idea?’
‘Why wouldn’t it be?’
‘You’ve just moved to a new town and you’re going to publish a story about how the locals murdered two people and covered it up? You really think you’re going to win friends doing that?’
‘It happened over two hundred years ago. I’m sure local people will be fine with it.’
‘Really?’ he said dryly. ‘You think they’re going to be okay with some stranger writing her own account of what happened involving their ancestors, an account that she can’t even prove, I might add. You’ll be slandering their family names.’
‘The book is fictional and based loosely on actual events. I haven’t used any real names. I am, however, putting up the story of Jane and Edward on my website for anyone who might be interested in reading about what inspired the back story in the book. I have no problems with that. If people don’t like it, then too bad. I know it’s true.’
‘You can’t prove any of it,’ Luke said, turning to face her. ‘Think about it, Hayley, you’re going to write about local families who formed a posse to hunt down and murder a woman and a prominent local family’s son to stop him opening an inquiry into the slaughter of Aborigines. My family,’ he added pointedly. ‘This has the potential to rip apart the family and any others involved. What happens if there’s a backlash? What happens to my family’s business? What happens to your new venture? If the reception centre and the restaurant go broke, you’ve just invested a shitload of money into renovating accommodation for nothing. You need to think about what you’re doing.’
‘Did anyone think about what they were doing when they told lies about an innocent woman or covered up all those deaths? Why the hell shouldn’t someone give those victims a voice now? At least acknowledge the truth? Maybe no one cares about Jane or Edward or the women and children those men killed, but if someone knows the truth, they should tell it, and that’s what I’m doing.’
‘And how are you intending to prove it’s the truth? Are you going to tell them it’s because you saw it happen? You don’t even know for sure what you saw.’
‘That’s why I’m going to talk to someone about it. Your gran gave me the name of a woman who might be able to help.’ Up until this point she hadn’t decided whether or not to contact the woman Pearl had told her about. She wasn’t even sure why she’d said she was going to now, only that she was angry at him for being the cold voice of reason when she’d needed him to be her ally.
He gave a grunt of disgust. ‘Well, I’m sure she’ll help you get to the bottom of it. You’re throwing your money away, but, hey, do what you want.’
‘Thank you for your permission,’ she said sarcastically before opening the door, then stopped abruptly. ‘No. You know what?’ she said without allowing him time to reply. ‘Just so we’re very clear, I don’t need your permission, or your blessing, for any decision I make. Not my business. Not what I write about and sure as hell not who I choose to be around,’ she added, tired of his disapproval where Jason was concerned.
‘Where are you going?’ Luke called out with a tired groan.
‘I’ll get a lift home,’ she said, closing the door and crossing the street to where Jason was returning to his car. Smile and blink. It’ll be okay, just don’t cry. Only an hour or so ago they’d been deliriously happy and everything had felt as though it had fallen into place, and now she couldn’t wait to get away from him. Why did he insist on being so intractable when it came to anything to do with Jane and Edward? What was he scared of?
Thankfully Jason didn’t ask any questions when she requested a lift home. She saw him dart a quick glance across the street at a steely-faced Luke, but he didn’t comment, just opened his door and got behind the wheel.
She spent the rest of the morning moping about the garden, hoping the sun would ward off her despondent mood. Luke’s warning replayed in her head throughout the rest of the day. Could she be doing harm to Lochmanning? What if putting out her version of the truth did start something? What if it did somehow spark a backlash and people’s lives were impacted? She still wasn’t convinced anyone would get too excited by what she wrote on her web page. She had an alternative version of history and she was simply putting her theory forward. Maybe she couldn’t prove it, but then again, there were no living witnesses to disprove it either. Surely Luke was just overreacting because he had his own issues to deal with.
Well, she thought, taking a deep breath as she dialled the number Pearl had given her, it looked like she would be talking it over with someone else after all. She just hoped this woman had some answers for her.