TWENTY-FIVE
Twenty-five
‘Are you serious?’ Hannah exclaimed, eyes widening.
‘Yep. The ring was given to Emeline by Jack McNally. Stolen from Alexander Compton in the big coach robbery. And there’s more. It was designed by a famous jeweller whose pieces are worth … well, a lot. I’m not sure exactly how much but, yeah … a lot .’
‘That would explain the curse,’ Hannah murmured.
‘Mum,’ Lottie started.
‘I don’t care what you say, I believe what I believe and I’m telling you, crystals and gems are more than expensive jewellery. They have their own frequencies and energy, opals even more so.’
‘Well, anyway,’ Lottie said shaking her head slightly, ‘I just wanted to let you know. Damian’s asked the jeweller to send you out the valuation certificate, and you should probably get that back into the safe as soon as possible,’ she added, nodding down at the ring box.
‘Okay.’ Her mother smiled, but she still seemed a little distracted.
‘Are you going to see Gordon again anytime soon?’ Lottie asked casually.
‘As a matter of fact, I am. Tonight,’ Hannah added, and a smile tugged at her lips, causing Lottie to lift an eyebrow curiously. ‘Yes, I know,’ her mum said. ‘It’s taken me kind of by surprise too.’
‘I think it’s great,’ Lottie said.
‘It’s … fun,’ Hannah said, dropping her gaze to the placemat she was fiddling with. ‘He makes me laugh and he challenges me—in a good way. He thinks I’m intellectual,’ she chuckled with a small note of self-deprecation.
‘Why wouldn’t he?’ Lottie asked, not liking to hear anyone put her mum down—not even herself. ‘You’re a savvy businesswoman and you’ve always been good at financial stuff.’
‘I’m not book smart like he is—as you know I worked as a barmaid and a cleaner for most of my life before taking over Gran’s shop. He’s smart—but he doesn’t use it to make himself sound important—you know? We have these deep discussions about all kinds of things—spirituality, religion, philosophy and he doesn’t belittle my beliefs. He doesn’t exactly share a lot of them, but he respects them, and that’s so refreshing to find. We can talk without arguing or trying to change each other.’
Lottie found herself smiling at the sparkle in her mother’s eyes as she spoke.
‘And he’s one hell of a sexy man—he’s got the whole George Clooney, silver fox thing going on and it’s—’ her mother paused to close her eyes and give a little moan of appreciation.
‘Okay. That’s all I want to hear, thank you very much,’ Lottie said, covering her ears with her hands and standing up.
A meditation class was due to arrive any moment anyway, so she hugged her mum and headed back into town to meet Cher at Madame Dubois.
‘So, tell me. What happened in Sydney?’ Cher asked.
‘It’s the same ring that went missing. It originally belonged to Alexander’s wife, Catherine.’
For a moment Cher just stared at her. ‘You mean, it’s really worth a fortune?’
‘Apparently.’
Cher let out a low whistle, and then another thought appeared to occur to her. ‘Which means, if Emeline ended up with it, the rumours about her and Jack must be true,’ Cher surmised. ‘He must have given it to her for a reason.’
‘I guess. But that means that it doesn’t belong to my family.’
‘It’s been in your family now for more than a hundred and fifty years,’ Cher reasoned. ‘You’ve had it longer than the original owners.’
‘I’m not sure that matters,’ Lottie replied. ‘What does matter is that this puts a whole new spin on the ring’s history.’
‘Awesome content for your book, though.’
This was true. She’d already been writing in the new twist—it had its own chapter.
‘How’s the sexy professor?’
Lottie smiled, still finding it strange to talk about their relationship. ‘He’s great.’
‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a smitten look on your face before. Dare I ask how serious this thing is?’
Lottie tried not to squirm under the watchful gaze of her friend. ‘We’re playing it by ear for now,’ she said, doing her best to look unperturbed by the question.
‘So it is serious,’ Cher said, leaning closer.
‘Maybe,’ Lottie said, giving up her attempt at the whole blasé thing.
‘I’m so excited for you.’
‘We seriously haven’t worked anything out long term yet,’ she hastily added.
‘Details,’ Cher dismissed lightly, ‘The main thing is you’ve finally broken the drought.’
Not a very dignified image , Lottie thought, slightly miffed until she noticed her friend’s attention shift to the man who’d just walked through the door.
‘Ohhh,’ Lottie said quietly. ‘Isn’t that the rude gourmet-pie guy from up the road?’ She watched as he glanced around the bar with that same unimpressed, too-cool-for-school look he’d had last time Lottie had seen him. ‘Maybe he’s here to check out the competition.’
‘Uh, yeah … maybe,’ Cher said, clearing her throat. Lottie’s attention immediately switched to her friend’s face and she noticed a more than slightly cagey expression.
‘Is there something going on?’ Lottie asked slowly.
Cher sent her a brief glance and a frown. ‘He wants to take a look at the freezer I have for sale out the back.’
‘Oh, does he now?’ Cher was acting far too strange for this not to be something .
‘If you’ll excuse me,’ Cher said almost haughtily.
Lottie gave a small chuckle. Well, well, well … how the mighty have fallen. Could this be another budding romance in the air? The two seemed so unlikely that it actually made complete sense. There had been a definite chemistry between them the first time they’d met, and clearly there’d been some kind of further conversation that Cher hadn’t told her about.
Lottie watched them head into the kitchen and disappear from sight. She’d be keeping an eye on this developing situation, for sure.
‘So, I’ve been thinking,’ Damian suddenly said, making her glance up from her keyboard. ‘Now that we know there’s some kind of link between Jack and the ring, I’ve been trying to rethink this whole thing.’
‘As in?’ Lottie prompted. Damian seemed to be even more energised in his search for Catherine since their return from Sydney two days before.
‘Widening the search, so to speak. Before, I was focusing on looking for Catherine in Sydney, but since this new development with the ring, I can’t rule out the possibility that Catherine may have been on that coach. I mean, there’s still no proof, but we’ve run out of options looking at everything else.’
‘I know you need proof,’ Lottie said slowly, ‘but my gut is telling me she was there.’ She closed up her laptop and set it aside.
‘In my line of work, I’ve found that following your gut can go either way. It either leads you to the truth or it sends you on a wild goose chase.’
‘If Alexander didn’t find her in Sydney, I don’t believe he would have returned on that coach.’
‘Alexander had to get back to pay his miners and his builders.’
‘The man crossed the world to build a fortune and a mansion for her. He paid a royal jeweller to design her engagement ring. That’s a devoted man, not someone who would simply return home if his wife wasn’t where he expected her to be.’
Damian listened, nodding slowly. ‘You’re right.’
‘So, working on this theory,’ Lottie asked, ‘what’s your next step?’
‘As I was watching the re-enactment at the festival, I was thinking … what if Catherine was on the coach? The shootout with Alexander and the escorts and then the police … was Catherine killed in the crossfire? It makes no sense that Jack would kill a woman now, when he’d never hurt women in the past. So what would have happened here to change that? What if Catherine had been caught up in the fight and had maybe been injured? Would Jack have left a wounded woman alone?’
Lottie frowned, thinking. ‘You don’t think he would have?’
‘Everything I’ve ever read about the man suggests that, despite the fact he was a criminal and had no hesitation in robbing anyone he came across, he was first and foremost a gentleman towards women,’ he said. ‘He went out of his way to ensure the women were never harmed—to the point of finding one woman a chair in a bank robbery because she looked faint.’
‘So where do we look now?’
‘We have to work from the stagecoach location outwards. Something Cher mentioned at the dinner the other night got me thinking. She was talking about how remote these farms were at the time. There’s a historical marker where the house Jack once lived in was, and we saw the ruins of Frolesworthy Hall. I’d like to track down some of the other places that Jack and his gang might have gone to. They were on the run for two days before the authorities even found the coach and the massacre. None of the stolen cash was ever retrieved, which makes me think they had to have had hideouts for stashing their loot along the way. Maybe that’s where they took Catherine, to one of these places?’
Lottie knew there were various caves around the district that had been lookouts for Jack and his gang. It was possible Catherine could have been taken away from the ambush location, accounting for the fact that no one had found her.
‘That would kind of make sense,’ she agreed. ‘But how do we figure out where these places were? There’s the caves on the tourist routes, but if there was anything to be found in those, it would have been found by now.’
‘But they had to have safe places,’ he said, ‘otherwise the authorities would have turned up the stolen money.’
Neither of them had any answers, so Lottie tried to go back to her writing.
Damian picked up the book he’d been reading again but then put it aside. ‘I, uh, did something today,’ he said, sounding nervous.
Lottie wasn’t sure what to expect the something to be, but his unusual lack of confidence had her on high alert. ‘Oh?’
‘I applied for a casual teaching job at Armidale,’ he said in somewhat of a rush.
‘Really?’
‘Gordon says they’ve been looking for staff.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m not sure if there’s actually a position available, but I thought I’d give it a go.’
‘If there is, how long before you think you’d start the job?’
‘Hopefully within a few weeks.’
Lottie’s eyes widened.
‘I thought I might stick around a bit longer, so I’ve taken some extra time off until I hear about this job.’
A smile broke out over Lottie’s face and relief spread through her chest. She’d been so sure he would be leaving within the next few days, and she really hadn’t been ready to say goodbye. Now, thanks to his leave, they wouldn’t have to just yet. They settled back and he returned to his book.
‘Gordon seems like a nice man,’ she said cautiously.
‘Yeah, he’s a good bloke.’ Damian nodded. ‘Your mum seemed kind of keen on him too,’ he added, clearly seeing where Lottie was going with her comment. ‘You’d have to be blind not to see the sparks that were flying off them.’
‘Mum’s never shown an interest in anyone like that before. I tried calling her earlier and her phone went to message bank. She never doesn’t answer my calls—or, at the very least, she always calls me back. Something very strange is going on with her.’
‘I’ve known Gordon for years. She could do worse.’
‘She won’t let it go that far,’ Lottie said with a sigh. ‘She doesn’t believe in love or relationships.’
‘Maybe she’s just never met the right person.’
‘That’s what worries me,’ Lottie admitted. ‘She’s never allowed herself to fall for anyone, but if she meets someone she has no control over her feelings with … I’m just not sure how she’ll handle it. She might end up hurting him.’
‘They’re both grown-ups. I’m sure they’ll work it out.’
Lottie knew how stubborn her mother could be, especially about men and the cursed ring. But Damian’s optimism was maybe rubbing off on her, as she considered the possibility that her mother might actually finally enjoy a relationship.