Chapter 29
Chapter twenty-nine
Aweek later
Hallie groaned as she got out of the car onto the familiar low city street outside her home. She felt as if she’d been in motion all day and was looking forward to sitting still and not thinking for a good long while.
The transport ship which was taking the prisoners off the island, and also carrying the remains of the helicopter back to the Conclave, had been delayed and although Hallie, along with Girard and Peredur, had been picked up and brought back to Daydawn by helicopter, they hadn’t been able to leave the island until all the prisoners and Commander Rojas and his team were on board the ship.
She had spent those days working from sun up to sun down, and an hour or two most evenings as well, mostly physical labour as she worked alongside the Reunion settlers to complete the set-up of their drains and water system, then expanding the settlement to include foundations for another few houses.
It seemed that with Nicholas and his threats of retaliation gone, more people were interested in Reunion.
Even when Rhodda had managed to convert some old ATVs into mini-diggers, it had still been back-breaking work.
And that was in the smaller settlement. Hallie hadn’t wanted to think how hard it was going to be to do the same work for New Hope.
Until the transport ship had arrived and, to the surprise of everyone apart from Peredur Roth, a set of old but still working construction machinery had been delivered to the island of Paradise.
A couple of diggers, a tipper truck, a whole collection of heavy-duty power tools, along with a skip full of things like scrap metal that the islanders could turn to good use.
She wasn’t sure just when Peredur had managed to arrange all of that, but the shock and joy on the islanders’ faces had made it all worth it, as far as she was concerned.
There was still a lot of hard work ahead, but it was going to be helped along by the sort of machinery that was taken for granted in most places.
The machinery had arrived too late to help Hallie’s aching body, though.
She hurt from her toes to the top of her head and wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to scrub the dirt out from under her fingernails.
Luckily, one of the first priorities had been setting up showers so she wasn’t quite as filthy as she actually felt.
Coming back to the city had been a shock, seeing the sprawling mass of buildings, feeling and hearing the crowds of people. It almost made her wish for a return to Paradise, with its open spaces and the promise of a future the islanders themselves would shape. Almost. But this was her home.
Turning on her phone had brought her a few text messages from Cotovatre.
The lady’s lawyers were still working with Wilona Talbot’s lawyers.
Hallie’s stomach had turned at the fact it wasn’t resolved, even as she took some comfort from the reassurance in the lady’s words that it was just a matter of time.
Hallie could easily imagine that Wilona was making matters as difficult as she possibly could.
“Thank you for the lift,” she said to Girard as he got out of the car.
“My pleasure,” he told her. He’d worked alongside her for the most part, getting just as filthy and doubtless just as sore as she was.
Peredur had even joined them for a couple of days.
Hallie thought that his and Girard’s quiet and uncomplaining participation in heavy manual labour had probably done more to soften attitudes to hochlen among the islanders than anything else they’d achieved during their stay.
“You’re sure you and Rosalia want company?
” Girard asked as he opened the boot of the car.
He’d asked a similar question as they left high city and Hallie had exchanged text messages with Rosalia resulting in an invitation - that had read more like a summons - for them both to get back to the house as soon as possible as Rosalia had food to share.
“Absolutely. Rosalia wants someone apart from me to test her cooking,” Hallie told him with a grin. “She’s been experimenting.”
“That sounds great,” Girard said, lifting Hallie’s bag out of the back of the car.
He’d experienced her roommate’s cooking before, and although they’d been well fed on Paradise, once Sylvie had taken charge of the extra supplies and kitchen duties at Reunion, the meals had been quite similar and Hallie found herself looking forward to something different.
She was getting very spoiled, she realised, and decided not to feel guilty about it.
As she and Girard turned towards the front door, movement on the street nearby caught her eye. A figure standing in the shadows a short distance from her front door.
Girard went tense, hand going to the gun at his hip.
“It’s alright,” Hallie said, as the figure stepped out into the light. Surprise and dismay coiled through her. “It’s Peter.”
She hadn’t seen her half-brother for a month or more.
The last conversation she’d had with him had been after their mother had told him he needed to start earning his keep.
He’d been furious and had wanted Hallie to intervene, blaming her for what he saw as their mother’s cruelty.
Hallie hadn’t had much sympathy for him.
He’d been spoiled and indulged as their mother’s favourite for his entire life to that point.
And a few nights before that last conversation, he’d invaded her home, threatened Rosalia, and stolen the money that Hallie had been so carefully saving.
When she’d told Wilona about the theft, there had been no punishment for Peter.
Hallie couldn’t remember a single time that her half-brother had forced any kind of consequence, in sharp contrast to her own treatment from their mother.
Even though Peter had seen being told to work as punishment, it really hadn’t been, in Hallie’s view.
Everyone in the family vine had to pull their weight one way or the other.
Wilona Talbot didn’t tolerate laziness. Or, rather, she hadn’t tolerated laziness from anyone apart from her youngest son.
Now in the fading light of the day, Hallie saw changes in her brother.
He looked older, somehow. The carefree brat she’d known had faded, replaced with a serious-looking man.
It was about time he grew up, in her view.
And he was hesitant as he looked at her.
Wanting to speak to her, but not wanting to say anything with Girard there.
“Why don’t you go in and say hi to Rosalia?” she suggested, opening the door to let Girard into the house. “I’ll be along in a minute.”
“If you’re sure?” Girard asked, gaze on Peter.
“Yes. I’ll shout if I need anything,” she added. The soundproofing on the house was good, but a loud enough yell would carry. Particularly if he was listening for it.
“Alright,” he said. He still sounded reluctant, but took her bag inside and closed the door behind him, leaving Hallie facing her brother on the street.
It was only after Girard had closed the door that Hallie realised she hadn’t even considered inviting Peter inside.
He’d truly frightened her roommate, and she didn’t want to make Rosalia uncomfortable in her own home.
“What do you want?” she asked, keeping her tone as neutral as possible.
“I didn’t know,” Peter said. He sounded almost ashamed, which was also new. He stepped closer and she saw that he was carrying a large paper bag in his arms. “When I took the money, I didn’t know about the agreement you’d made with our mother.”
“No one did,” Hallie said. It had been her secret. Hers and Wilona’s.
“And I didn’t understand, well, not then, anyway, what this must have meant to you.
” He held out the bag. “It’s almost all there.
I’ll get the rest back when I can. That will take a while.
She’s not paying me much, and there’s the tithe as well.
” That meant that Peter had not been exempted from the percentage that all family vines demanded from their employed members.
In theory it was to go towards supporting the vine.
Hallie didn’t think Wilona spent any of the Talbot vine tithe on anything.
Her mother loved to acquire wealth, not to spend it.
“What is this?” Hallie asked, surprise holding her still.
“It’s the money I took,” he said. He wouldn’t quite meet her eyes, but she knew he was telling the truth.
Hallie stared at the bag as if it was an unexploded bomb.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked, voice harsh.
“Because it’s the right thing to do,” he told her. The bare truth.
“Did Wilona tell you to come here?”
“No. She doesn’t know I’m here. I said I was going out with friends.
Please. Take it. I don’t want it. Not when I know where it came from.
It must have taken years to save it up,” he said.
There was an edge of something that sounded like tears in his voice.
She remembered that night he’d stolen the money, meeting him coming back to the Talbot family house in a new shirt, with expensive restaurant food in a bag.
He’d had no difficulty in spending the money then. Things had changed. A lot.
Hallie took a careful step forward and lifted the bag out of his arms. It was heavier than she’d expected, or maybe that was the weight of Peter’s emotions pressing down on her.
She took a look inside the bag and saw neat bundles of cash.
Money that she’d scraped and saved for over the years as she clawed her way to buying herself out of the family.
She wasn’t sure that Peter truly understood, or would ever truly understand, what the loss of the money had meant to her.
But he was giving it back. And that was something she’d never thought would be possible.
She stepped back and took a good look at him in the last of the daylight.