Motherly Love
“What youse gonna do with her?” Mari’s voice rasped as she tried to whisper outside Leilah’s door. “The muster won’t wait for you.”
Hector sighed. “I know, Mari! A couple of decent horses would go a long way towards paying some bills, but I can’t leave Deleilah when she’s sick.”
“I’m fine!” Leilah pushed her face beneath her pillow and pulled the sheets tighter around her body. “I’ll sleep it off and be okay tomorrow.” Her voice reached the ears of the adults huddled outside her bedroom door and Mari waggled her eyebrows.
Hector pushed his face through the gap and peered at Leilah. “I’m gone until the weekend, girl. You can’t stay here alone and sick.”
Leilah groaned. “You said I could.”
“That’s before you got sick.” Hector advanced into the bedroom, his dusty boots stepping around the fluffy rug which occupied most of the wooden floorboards. He resembled a lanky ballerina messing up a cabriole movement and Leilah watched him with a sigh. She rose onto her elbows and pushed herself into a sitting position.
“It’s just the shock of Malcolm lying dead in a river.” She shivered and hugged her knees. Mari scuttled into the room, her bare feet scuffing against the rug. She sank onto the bed by Leilah’s legs and reached out a hand to stroke her shin through the covers.
“It’s terrible.” Her dark eyebrows creased into a line and she darted a glance at Hector. “I’ll stay here with Leilah, so you can go.” She sounded sincere, but Leilah watched a heady longing flash through her brown eyes. A loyal friend, it seemed obvious to everyone except Hector that Mari wanted more than a housekeeping role in his life. “If there’s a killer running around, it’s best she’s not alone.”
Leilah buried her head in her knees and sighed. Mari’s sharp wits threatened to thwart the nightly visits to the riverbank which Hector’s hibernating bear impression facilitated. Her father’s promised absence led to dreams of spending the whole night together in a pretence at playing a proper married couple. Mari patted the bedspread with a wrinkled hand. “I’ll sleep in here with Leilah. We’ll be just fine without ya.”
Hector licked his lips, unable to read the emotions of either woman. He shifted from foot to foot. “Whatever you think is best,” he replied. Reaching out, he ruffled Leilah’s hair with a giant hand. “You’re all I’ve got left,” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “I need to know you’re safe.”
“I will be.” Leilah’s sigh shook the bed. “Go grab us some decent Kaimanawas.”
Hector smiled. “You still want stallions?”
“Yes.” Her interest roused with thoughts of the horses he might muster and bring north. “No mares this time.”
“Okay.” His slow nod offered comfort and Leilah wished he’d reach out and wrap his arms around her. Undemonstrative as ever, Hector Dereham slapped his cowboy hat on his head and saluted his only daughter. “I’ll see what I can get for you, Missy.”
His work boots clumped along the bare hallway and Leilah listened to the sound of the ranch slider closing. Mari stroked a curl away from her face and Leilah winced, resenting the woman’s touch as jealousy reared its ugly head. “I’m fine!” she snapped and Mari cuffed her around the ear.
“Think I don’t know you’re faking?” she said, her tone soft. “I think you been knowing boys, my girl. We need to have a talk.”
Mari brought fresh bread and soup into Leilah’s room, but still she didn’t crack. The woman tried everything in her power to encourage the teenager to talk. “Do you think you could have a child in there?” She pointed at Leilah’s stomach and received an eye roll in reply.
“No! Mari stop!”
“No taitamaiti? No child? You promise?”
“I promise!” Leilah blushed red to the roots of her hair. “I’m not discussing this with you.”
“Who then?” Mari persisted. She sat on the end of Leilah’s bed and wrung her hands. “You don’t have a mother, kōtiro. We need to talk wahine to wahine.”
“No, we don’t.” Leilah slammed the soup bowl on the cabinet next to her bed and watched the tomato orange splashes flick the wall behind. “I don’t need a replacement mother!” Her hands balled into fists at her sides, betraying her lie. She needed a mother but wanted her own. “You told me all about sex and how rubbish it is. You told me about contraception. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
Mari narrowed her eyes. “Fine. But I’m no fool, girly. I know one of those boys that hang around you is more than just a friend and I’ll find out which one.” She cocked her head. “The Italian looking one brought your school bag round earlier. Is it him?”
Leilah sighed in exasperation and allowed a smirk to play upon her rosebud lips. “You are so wrong,” she replied.
Leilah spent the day in her room, sitting in bed with her homework scattered around her like flotsam. Rain pattered against the tin roof overhead and a sense of safety enveloped her. Mari poked her head around the door late afternoon. “I’ve shut the cafe,” she announced as though Leilah should show gratitude.
Instead, she shrugged. “Not on my account, I hope. I said I’m fine and I am.” She pulled a science book into her lap. “Did you hear from Hector?”
“You should call him Pa or Dad,” Mari chided. She rested a hand against the doorframe. “Yes. He reached Waiouru. He called from a phone box.” Leilah nodded and Mari ventured further into the room. “I’m glad they decided not to shoot the herd. It’s not the Māori way. Mustering offers them a chance of a different life.”
Leilah nodded and lay her pen between the folds of the text book. It nestled there and she sighed. “I’m glad too. Last year’s mares trained well and Hector sold them for a good profit. I hope we can do the same again.”
“Me too.” Mari swallowed and licked her lips and Leilah tensed.
“I don’t want to talk about sex,” she said without looking up. “I know what I need to.”
Mari observed her stiff body with narrowed eyes. “If you say so,” she replied. “I guess you don’t need a mother after all.”
Leilah groaned and threw her head back. “That’s a low blow, Mari. I’m sorry I said that. I do wish my mother lived to raise me, but you’ve done a great job.” Tears pricked behind her eyes and she blinked them away. “I’m not pregnant, just sad.”
“About the boy who died?” Mari perched on the end of her bed with a drying cloth clutched in her hands. “They talked about it down at the cafe. The sergeant’s strutting around like a peacock.” She sniggered and then covered her mouth with her hand. “Sorry. It’s not funny.”
Leilah gave a coy smile. “It kinda is. He doesn’t need those sirens on his police car. His self-importance alerts everyone when he’s nearby.”
Mari lowered her voice and dipped toward Leilah. “The boy didn’t sleep in his bed last night. The sergeant started interviewing everyone this morning. They shipped in some suits from Hamilton because the sergeant couldn’t interrogate his own son.”
“Tane?” Leilah’s back straightened and horror lit her expression of curiosity. “Why should he need to interview him?”
Mari squeezed her eyes shut and then opened them again. “He went missing for part of the night. His mother sent word to the sergeant yesterday evening and he went out looking.”
Leilah swallowed. “We saw him.”
“Tane?”
“No, his father. The stallion got out and crossed the stream onto Horse’s property. I woke Hector and we brought him back. Red floored me behind the gate and Horse and Vaughan arrived.”
Mari’s eyes widened, red veins showing on the whites. “Did they fight?” She jerked her fist in an air punch and Leilah frowned and shook her head.
“No. It seemed quite civilised actually. Red covered some of Horse’s mares and he said he hoped they took. He’d like one of Red’s foals for free.”
“You think he opened the gate?” Mari lowered her head and looked through the tops of her eyes. “It’s something he’d do.”
Leilah’s head shake conveyed certainty. “No. He didn’t do it.” She swallowed and pursed her lips. “I saw Red go past. I think I left the gates open by accident.” The lie burned her tongue and she reddened with the effort of not blurting the truth. Mari’s eyes narrowed.
“If you saw the horse go past and then left the gates open, how did he get through in the first place?”
Leilah swallowed. “Jumped the fences.” She hurried to move the subject past the obvious lie. “I banged my head and didn’t feel so good this morning. The news about Malcolm made me sick.” She breathed out through pursed lips and earlier soup rose into her gullet.
Mari reached across and placed a hand on Leilah’s forehead. “You don’t look right, kōtiro. Malcolm’s mama is breaking her heart. He was a little shite, but she loved his sorry ass.”
Leilah pinched the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger. She kept her eyes closed against Mari’s barrage of affectionate insults. But the next sentence knocked her for six. “He told his mama he asked you out. She thinks he’s your boyfriend.”
“What?” Horror showed in Leilah’s face and the puzzle pieces dropped into place. “No!” She threw herself back against her pillows. “He never asked me out. All he ever did was hurl insults. Tane knocked him to the ground yesterday for the mean things he said.” She clapped a hand over her mouth as Mari’s eyes widened.
“Tane fought him? And then went missing last night?”
“No, Mari! Don’t jump to wrong conclusions. Tane couldn’t kill anyone. He’s a gentle giant.”
Mari pursed her lips and didn’t look convinced. “You need to tell the sergeant,” she said.
Leilah squirmed in her nest of pillows and sheets, agony in her screwed up face. “Please let me speak to Tane first, Mari? Don’t talk to anyone about this.”
Mari pushed herself off the bed and stood. Tiny of stature, the force of her personality occupied the bedroom. “As you wish, Deleilah Dereham.” She strutted from the room on unsteady feet.
“Is that it?” Leilah yelled from the bed. “Mari, what will you do? Mari, come back!”