Chapter 29
Australia
By mid-afternoon, the harvest was finally in. The last batch of grapes had gone into the press, with a few crates stacked in the yard beside a wooden trough.
I hadn’t been able to relax all day and had been checking my phone regularly.
I’d sent Daisy a text reminding her of her promise to message her father but hadn’t received a reply.
Even more concerning was that Jono hadn’t said a word about Daisy’s antics.
He didn’t seem distracted, or angry, or worried.
I couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps she’d reneged on her promise and he was still in the dark.
If that was the case, he’d be asking questions soon enough. The school bus should have been dropping her back here within the next hour or so, and when she failed to return he’d remember that she’d hinted that she might be late and would want to check up on her.
For the time being, a party atmosphere had taken over at Ruby Creek and Jono seemed to be enjoying himself.
Nora was back from visiting the new baby and had come in to work especially to tend the bar, and the wine was flowing.
I’d contacted as many of the pickers as I could reach to invite them back to celebrate with us, and with them and Jono’s assorted friends and family, the picnic tables outside Ruby’s Bar were the busiest I’d seen them.
Country and western music played from speakers and people were wolfing down platters of cheese, olives and fresh bread as quickly as Jono’s cousin, Tara, and I could ferry them out from the kitchen.
I paused from my catering duties for a breather under the shade of the porch and Jono joined me, a mischievous sparkle in his eye.
‘I have a special job for you.’ He held out a hand to me. ‘Would you like to kick off the foot-stomping?’
‘The what?’ I asked, taking his hand automatically.
‘Foot-stomping time!’ cried one of the pickers, drumming his hands on the table.
A cheer went up and everyone trooped across the yard to the wooden trough, which had been filled to the top with grapes.
‘It’s a Ruby Creek tradition.’ Jono indicated for me to take my shoes off. ‘We stomp the last of the grapes and give everyone some of the juice in a bottle to take home as a memento.’
‘You are honoured,’ said Nora slyly. ‘Andrea got first stomp last time.’
‘Don’t ruin my mood, Nora,’ Jono said lightly. ‘I’d rather not think about last year’s harvest, if it’s all the same to you. Let’s enjoy the moment, shall we?’
He looked over his shoulder briefly towards the drive. ‘Shame Daisy’s not back yet, she loves this. Never mind, she can join in when she arrives.’
‘When are you expecting her?’ I asked, hoping he’d know what train she was coming back on.
‘Late, which was as much as I got out of her this morning,’ he said with a grin. ‘Now, are you ready?’
He helped me into the trough, and everyone cheered again. The grapes were slippy underfoot. I’d expected them to pop in their skins, but instead my feet slid over them, and I lurched sideways. Jono caught hold of me to steady me and I held on tightly to his hands, facing him.
‘What do I have to do?’ I said, giggling.
‘Clue’s in the name, Maggie,’ he teased. ‘What d’you think you do?’
‘Stomp,’ cried Nora, ‘just bloody stomp!’
I did as she said, stamping as hard as I could, marching up and down on the spot, squishing the grapes with my feet.
The juice was sticky and it was trickier than it looked to stay upright, but it was a lot of fun, and the way Jono’s strong hands tightened around mine to stop me from slipping only added to the experience.
‘Feels good, doesn’t it?’ Jono said with a grin.
‘ Very good,’ I responded. ‘But please don’t let go.’
He met my eye. ‘I’m not going anywhere. You’re safe.’
My heart had speeded up; whether from the exertion of the task or from his proximity to me, I couldn’t be sure, but I was very much enjoying the sensation. How long had it been since I’d felt safe, I wondered, and how long could I make this feeling last?
‘Everything okay?’ I asked.
I’d washed my feet, put my shoes back on and taken a couple of fresh beers to where Jono was leaning on the fence, looking out across the valley.
The shrieks of the two Swedish girls who’d jumped into the trough after me made us both smile.
Everything’s great.’ He tapped his beer bottle against mine. ‘It’s been a good day.’
In the distance, a few grey clouds hovered over the horizon. It was the first time I’d seen anything but unbroken blue sky since I’d arrived in Ruby Creek.
‘Does that mean rain, do you think?’ I pointed my beer towards the clouds.
Jono studied the sky and wrinkled his nose. ‘Maybe. Won’t bother us. The grapes are in safe and sound, rain can only be a good thing from now on, for us at least.’
I nodded, selfishly hoping that the wet weather stayed away for another day until I was safely back in Sydney.
‘Last year was a different story,’ Jono said, grimly.
‘Pierre and I had had a disagreement about harvesting. He wanted to pick, I wanted to leave it another couple of days. And because I was the boss, I got my way. The weather forecast had failed to pick up an electric storm which came in overnight and destroyed a good proportion of our Semillon. Those we did salvage were wet and we had to work fast before rot set in. Pierre didn’t let me forget it.
That was probably where the rot set in between him and me too. ’
Jono hadn’t told me much about his relationship with Pierre before now and I was curious to know more. ‘Is that when their affair started?’
He shrugged. ‘I don’t know, and I have no intention of finding out.
She disliked him at the beginning, complaining that I shouldn’t have employed him, that he was a know-all and was rude to everyone.
We even argued about it, can you believe.
Somewhere along the line that changed without me noticing.
I remember hearing her laughter coming from the winery and, when I went inside, he had his arms around her, supposedly helping her pull a cork from a bottle.
When I challenged them, she admitted it straight away and said she couldn’t help herself.
I sacked him on the spot and told him to get off my property.
Twenty-four hours later she’d gone too. Without a word, no explanation, or apology, nothing.
I stumbled through those first few weeks not knowing which way was up.
I was so shocked that I didn’t know how to feel, then came the feelings of hurt and anger about what she’d done to me.
But above all else I was furious about the way she’d disappeared into the sunset without a backward glance at Daisy. ’
‘I’m sorry you had to go through that,’ I said, taking a step closer so that my arm touched his.
‘It makes you think, you never know what’s around the corner, do you? Your life can change in a fraction of a second. One minute you think you have it all figured out. The next you’re right back at the bottom of the ladder.’
I’d said more or less the same thing to Daisy this morning and I felt a twinge of guilt for keeping a secret from him.
‘You don’t have to tell me that,’ I replied. ‘Mine changed when a police officer rang my doorbell and informed me my beautiful girl had gone forever.’
He put his arm around my shoulders and gave my arm a rub. ‘Of course, sorry.’
I allowed myself to relax against him. I could get used to this, I thought, having another adult to lean on, particularly one as kind and attractive as Jono.
‘I blame myself,’ he said, clearly still thinking about Andrea.
‘Looking back, I could have paid her more attention. I was always so busy with the business that I neglected us. I talked about “when” a lot, promising that things would be different “when”, like when Daisy was older, or when bottling was finished, or when we’d got more staff to help. Eventually she got tired of waiting.’
It was hard to listen to him beating himself up without leaping to his defence. I wanted to point out that it takes two to make a marriage work, and that if Andrea hadn’t wanted to put in any effort to keep their love alive, then she deserved as much blame as him.
‘Do you still love her?’ I asked.
He pondered the question for a few seconds and shook his head. ‘I’ll never take her back.’
Which didn’t answer the question. I suspected that he was still conflicted in his feelings towards her. Which meant that he wasn’t ready to start a new relationship. Not that he’d ever suggested he was, I mused, hoping that my thoughts weren’t written on my face.
He looked at his watch. ‘I’m surprised Daisy hasn’t been in touch yet.’
‘You haven’t heard from her today?’
‘Nope.’ He took out his phone and double-checked. ‘Nothing.’
Oh Daisy , I thought, groaning inwardly. Why had she not texted him as she’d promised?
‘I’m sure she’s fine,’ I said. ‘She’s a sensible girl.’
‘I guess,’ he muttered. ‘But do parents ever stop worrying about their kids?’
‘Of course not.’ Even now, I’d probably never stop worrying about Bronte. I could conjure up an event from long ago and worry about that, even though there was nothing I could do to change it. ‘Shall I text her and see where she is?’
I was beginning to get worried about Daisy, and annoyed with myself for agreeing to her plan.
What if something had happened to her? What if Andrea hadn’t been able to meet her after all, or she’d had trouble with the trains?
The thought of her being out of her depth in Sydney and too worried to let her dad know where she was made me feel sick.
‘You have her number?’
I nodded and his face softened.