Chapter Eighteen

The Turf Bar in The Wanderer’s Tavern was so dim after the brightness of the crisp, winter day that it took Victoria’s eyes a few moments to adjust. The bar was definitely down at heel, with scarred woodwork and walls yellowed from years of cigarette smoke. A couple of men in scuffed boots, dirty jeans and tweed jackets sat at the bar talking and drinking beer.

A garish cuckoo clock on the wall sang the hour, its tone decidedly off-key.

Wearing an ancient tweed coat, a muffler wound around her neck that covered the lower part of her face, baggy, paint-stained pants and a tweed cap with the bill pulled down over her eyes, she merged with the other patrons.

She’d purloined the clothes from the gardener’s storeroom and had slipped away from Dunstan with Albee Gates. The gardener had agreed, but insisted he would only do so if she agreed to him parking and waiting outside the tavern for her. When Albee drove his battered ute through the gates the media pack paid no attention to the scruffy pair.

Inside the tavern, Victoria recognised Dan Smales instantly although it had been more than a decade since they’d last met. Still on a euphoric high after an incredible night, she slid into the booth opposite him.

‘Well missy, this is an unexpected pleasure. Long time, no see,’ he said as he picked up a tankard of beer. ‘What can I do for you?’

‘I’ve come to ask you to return a favour,’ she said, suddenly wary and more than a little nervous.

‘I guessed as much.’ He watched her with rheumy grey eyes. ‘You want the dirt to shut down the Strathmore machine?’

The rough words made her squirm. His summation made her feel decidedly grubby. ‘I need to stop the harassment.’

‘You shoulda thought of that before you let the Strathmore gal find you in his bed.’

Victoria cursed the heat surging up her neck and clenched her hands in her lap. ‘Hindsight is a wonderful thing.’

Dan picked a straw off his jacket and chewed on it, grinning at her discomfort. ‘Was it worth it?’

Victoria shrugged and looked away, not prepared to answer, but to her chagrin she found it wasn’t easy to dismiss the intrusive question.

Was it worth it?

Connor’s face swam before her eyes. ‘I’d deal with the devil himself to protect my son.’

A gleam lightened Dan’s rheumy eyes. ‘Tell me, did yer dad know Donovan was yer kid’s pa?’

The seemingly innocuous question made her suspicious. ‘It seems he did. Why?’

‘Just curious.’

In a pig’s eye!

Every instinct shrieked in warning, but she thought it prudent to let his comment slide. ‘I need to shut this scandal down before it costs Keir his position at Donovans.’

‘Did he put you up to this?’

‘Can you imagine him whining to anyone?’

Dan chuckled and the jeering sound was enough to make her squirm.

‘So you’re looking for something to shut down the scandal? How dirty do you need to get?’

‘Whatever it takes. I want my life back.’ Her mouth tightened on the words. She didn’t like stooping to underhand tactics, but as her father often said, sometimes, girlie, the only way to fight fire is with fire.

‘That’s not possible. You’ll always be news. Get used to it.’

The blunt words were an echo of Keir’s warning, and Victoria was suddenly hyperaware of her vulnerability. ‘I need to go.’

‘Meet me here same time next week? How are you getting back?’

‘Same way I came.’ She slid from the seat, the memory of Logan’s words making her uneasy. Take care, he’s shady. ‘My ride is waiting.’

She slipped from the booth, glad to escape the bar and Dan Smales, and to her relief, Albee Gates, Keir’s gardener, was parked outside the bar in his dusty ute, just as he’d promised.

When she’d arranged this assignation, Albee had insisted that he would wait for her and unless she agreed, he point-blank refused to take her with him. Not until they were safely back inside the gates of Dunstan with a load of stable straw and garden fertiliser in the back of the ute did Victoria breathe easily.

When she went indoors Mrs Teague met her, scolding, ‘Mr Keir would have both our heads on a platter if he knew we’d let you sneak out of here.’

‘What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him,’ Victoria quipped as she hung the borrowed gear in the mudroom.

‘It’s too risky, child.’ The kindly woman fluttered around her, clearly agitated.

Her motherly fussing warmed a cold place in Victoria’s heart. Until this woman had come into her life, she hadn’t realised how much she still missed her mother. Impulsively she leaned up and kissed Mrs Teague on the cheek. ‘Thank you for caring.’

‘Get along with you, child,’ she chided, blushing. ‘I hear young Connor calling.’

As Victoria went off to find her son, her heart was light.

She’d taken steps to stop Davina and her father.

And last night Keir had chosen to bridge the awful yawning chasm between them. It was a start, and if she was careful, the intimacy she craved would grow from here. Soon, she hoped with fervent wistfulness, everything would be right with her world.

Victoria’s jubilation at the wealth of information Dan Smales amassed on Davina Strathmore was short-lived. She stared at the photos, sick to her stomach.

Talk about holding the proverbial hot potato.

She wanted to shut down the Strathmore scandal machine—but never like this. How could she have imagined Dan would uncover something so horrifying?

That marriage is seriously on the rocks. Keir’s observation was far more accurate than even he could imagine.

Victoria glanced at Dan, but his weather-beaten face and deep-set eyes were expressionless. His skill in worming out other people’s deep, dark secrets left her ice-cold.

That Davina was a lesbian didn’t really surprise Victoria.

She could clearly recall the blonde’s expression when confronted by Keir’s blatant masculinity. It was the identity of her long-time partner that floored Victoria, and yet it made a sickening kind of sense.

‘You’re certain about this?’

‘Photos don’t lie, unless you want them to, but these are gospel truth.’

Gospel truth. Victoria smothered a hysterical laugh. If Dan Smales knew anything about the Gospel, she was a Chinaman. ‘How long has this—this affair for want of a better word—been going on?’

‘Several years.’

‘And no-one suspects?’

Dan shrugged and something in his expression made her unease escalate. It was too late to regret approaching him. ‘These women are wealthy and money makes it easier to conceal secrets.’

Victoria shook her head as her stomach roiled and twisted in knots. ‘But Muriel—’

She broke off, unable to continue.

If this information leaked out it would destroy so many people.

Logan. Piper. Caine. Connor. Keir and, God help her, even herself. No-one in their inner family circle would escape.

Davina’s role in all this made sense. She was using Victoria and Keir to create a smokescreen and divert attention from her own secrets.

‘What do you intend to do with them?’

‘God knows.’ Victoria looked at Dan, torn. ‘Can I have these?’

Dan’s stillness suddenly took on an aura of menace. ‘Not quite so fast, Victoria. There’s a little matter of payment.’

‘Payment?’ Dear God, what was he suggesting? Her hands curled into fists in her lap.

Without haste, Dan gathered the photos and slid them back into a folder before he looked at her. A shiver inched down her spine as she met Dan’s eyes and glimpsed pure evil.

‘I don’t do this sort of dangerous work for love.’

She stared at him, mesmerised as he tapped the folder significantly.

‘When I have ten thousand dollars in cash, you can have these, and,’ he paused as he looked directly at her, ‘unless I’m paid within a week, these go to Strathmore’s competition.’

‘That’s blackmail. I don’t have that kind of money.’

‘No? Ten thou is chump change to your man.’

Victoria’s mouth went dry. ‘I can’t ask Keir.’

‘Your choice. But for you, it’s a concession, in appreciation of your help all those years ago.’ He slid out of the booth and gave her a sly grin. ‘And now I can admit to being guilty then, too.’

Victoria’s mouth gaped as she stared after Dan Smales.

Guilty … and I testified on his behalf?

Years ago as a teenager she’d earned extra money working as a strapper for her father’s racehorses at race meetings. After one of her dad’s horses won at Pukekohe, Dan was accused of doping when the winning colt returned a positive drug test.

As the stable attendant, Victoria swore on oath that Dan had never been near the horses while she was attending them. But at the time, she’d neglected to point out to the stewards that there was no relief strapper while she took a toilet break, and her father had relieved her.

She’d trusted her father’s word. Now, unless she’d misunderstood, Dan had indicated that her father had colluded with him over that incident.

God, how could I be such a naive little fool?

When a strange man slid into the booth opposite, Victoria was jerked out of her stasis. She hurriedly left the bar and walked back to Albee and the ute, sick with guilt and apprehension.

Where can I get ten thousand dollars?

‘Are you okay, missus?’ Albee asked with gruff kindness after they were on the way home.

She looked at him, her lips trembling. ‘I should have listened to you and Mrs Teague. What am I going to do?’

Albee laid a work-roughened hand on her thigh. ‘Talk to Keir, missus. He might huff and puff, but he dotes on you and young Connor. He’ll help put right whatever you’ve discovered. He’s a good man.’

How could she tell this kindly man that he was mistaken, that far from doting on her, Keir remained suspicious of her and her motives? Just as she was gaining his trust, she either had to ask him for money, or see his family plunged even deeper into scandal.

How can I ask him for ten thousand dollars?

She couldn’t do it, but unless she found that money, Dan Smales threatened to destroy the entire Donovan family.

Victoria discovered what it meant to be between a rock and a very hard place.