‘What exactly are you telling me?’ Cath McCalister asked her husband as she got up from the floor where she’d been playing with little Tommy. Both the girls were at school and this was her special time with the baby. He was a solid little guy who was sitting up and sucking on a teething ring. He was becoming a champion crawler, so she daren’t take her attention off him for too long. The shafts of sun streamed into the lounge room through the windows and filled it with light. Tommy was fascinated with the moving shadow on the floor from the rose bush swaying gently in the breeze outside.
Jordy took Cath by the hand and pulled her to her feet before he whirled her around once, and then once more for good measure. ‘I’m saying that everything is going to be all right.’
Cath gave him a dubious look and waited for him to launch into another one of his schemes. She was used to it; he was always getting fired up about the next thing that was going to make then miraculously rich. Jordy had a special way at looking at life. It had been this quality that had drawn her to him in the first place—she loved his enthusiasm. But as each grand idea turned sour it was a little hard to stay totally on board. She loved him, there was no denying that, but sometimes Jordy forgot to live in the here and now. He forgot about the bills that had to be paid and that the children really did need to eat. She loved him—but sometimes it felt as if she were bringing up four children instead of three.
‘What exactly is going to be all right? Jordy, if this is about the llamas—it’s not going to happen, I mean it.’
He grinned at her and pulled her into a hug. ‘It’s not—and it was alpacas, not llamas. And I still think an alpaca farm would be great—just imagine how much the kids would love them,’ he answered.
Cath drew out of his embrace. ‘No. No alpacas.’
‘Okay,’ he answered with a smile as he leaned in and dropped a quick kiss on her lips. ‘No alpacas. But this isn’t about that. This is something bigger, so much bigger.’
‘Please don’t say emus.’
Jordy let out a laugh. ‘No, nothing like that. I think I’ve found it, Cath. I think I’ve found the gold.’
Cath sighed. She should have seen this one coming. He’d been talking about it for the past few months.
‘You mean the gold that the little kid found a hundred years ago?’
Jordy nodded. ‘That’s it,’ he said excitedly.
‘Sweetheart,’ Cath said as she took his hand in hers, ‘it’s just a legend, there never was any gold. It’s just a story. The only reason we still talk about it is to get the odd tourist or prospector into Harlington.’
‘Yeah, but you’re wrong, Cath. Little Neddy found the gold, of that I’m certain. I’ve got proof, I really have.’
‘Proof? Okay, tell me,’ she said as if she were placating a child.
His story of the change in the Dohertys’ circumstances was interesting, but as far as Cath could see it certainly wasn’t proof. ‘It doesn’t exactly prove it, does it?’
Jordy’s shoulders slumped a little as if she’d taken the wind out of his sails. ‘No, I guess it doesn’t. But I’ve been studying all the different facets of this story and I truly believe that’s what happened.’
Cath forced a smile. She felt bad for always bringing Jordy back to earth with a crash. ‘Okay, let’s say it does. How does that change our lives?’
He looked up at and she could see the light had returned to his eyes. ‘Because I reckon I know where the gold is.’
‘Jordy, people have been searching for that for years and no one has ever found it.’
He smiled. ‘That’s because they weren’t looking in the right place,’ he said as he walked over to the table and shuffled through a stack of paper. He found what he was looking for and brought it back to his wife. He flourished an old map in front of her.
‘Wait, where did you get this from?’
He grimaced for a second. ‘The local historical society. I’m just borrowing it.’
Cath pinned him with her eyes. ‘Do they know?’
Choosing to ignore her question, Jordy pointed to the map. ‘It’s here, Cath. I reckon it’s here … on our land. We’re going out later to see if we can find it.’
‘We?’
‘Yeah, Sam said he’d come with me.’
‘Oh, Jordy, why would you bother him with this? You know he’s been going through a rough time. You know, Jackie was over here the other morning for coffee. She’s a mess, she told me that Sam’s been acting weird, almost violent,’ Cath said.
‘Violent? Sam? That’s not like him—he’s always so level-headed, sometimes even a bit distant,’ Jordy said with a frown.
‘I know. But Jackie reckons it’s the stress of the accident. She told me there’s a good chance they’ll lose the place. And it’s not like he’s hurting anyone, it’s just all of a sudden he’ll snap and slam things on tables.’
‘Well, maybe he just needs a bit of time to get his head together. Maybe going on a treasure hunt is just what he needs,’ Jordy said with a reassuring smile. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll look after him. Everything’s going to be fine.’