Chapter Fifteen
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
‘We don’t have to do this, you know.’
‘I know.’ Beth shoved her hands under her thighs in an effort to stop wringing them. ‘But talking to your parents really helped. I think I’m ready.’
She wasn’t entirely sure that was true, but Christmas was only a few days away, and she didn’t want to leave it until then to first lay eyes on the house her father had lived in.
The last thing she wanted was for sadness to dampen her holiday spirit or to distract her from enjoying her time with the Brennans, so she’d asked Noah to take her to see the Campbell family’s former home.
She wanted to get the sad stuff out of the way so she could fully appreciate her first big Christmas celebration.
Who knew when she might get another opportunity like this?
Noah slowed down when the sign for Brennan’s Organic Beef came into view, then turned onto a gravel drive. They continued along it for a kilometre or so, the tree-lined road rising steadily all the way, and when they finally crested the hill, Beth forgot to breathe.
A valley stretched out before them, while lush, grass-covered hills dotted with cows rose on the other side, their beauty reflecting perfectly off the smooth-as-glass surface of the dam that lay at the centre of the property.
To the left were a number of buildings—a modern farmhouse, a colonial-style cottage, numerous sheds and a sizeable horse-riding arena.
To the right, the land sloped up again and another house sat perched at the top of the hill.
Noah drove towards it, veering right when they came to a fork in the road.
She couldn’t make out many details before the land rose up and stole her view, but then they rounded a bend and Beth got her first proper look at the place.
The house sat on a limestone foundation, its white stone walls and sandy-coloured tin roof making it stand out against the blue sky above and green hills beyond.
The wraparound verandah featured an elegant white wooden balustrade and the stone steps led up to a glass-panelled front door.
She stepped from the car and a chill ran up her arms, despite the heat of the day. The place looked like home.
Noah joined her, but she couldn’t tear her eyes from the house her father had grown up in.
‘Did the exterior change in the renovation?’
‘Not much at the front. Just gave it a lick of paint and put in new railings.’
She imagined how it might’ve looked forty years ago.
Pictured her dad racing along the verandah as a kid and her grandmother stepping through the front door to call him in for dinner.
Would her grandfather have been sitting in a chair with a beer in his hand, watching it all play out, or would he have stood at the railing smoking a cigarette?
Her visions subsided and gave way to an awareness of Noah’s quiet presence.
He stood beside her and waited, putting no pressure on her to share her thoughts or urge her to take a closer look. As always, he seemed to know just what she needed and left the next move up to her.
‘Will you show me inside?’
With a soft smile, he held out his hand and she took it.
He pushed open the front door and she was greeted by glossy floorboards, white walls and high ceilings.
To her left, a collection of framed photographs hung on the wall, the house in one of them immediately grabbing her attention.
She moved in for a closer look. Judging by the fashion worn by the man and woman in the image, the photograph had been taken in the fifties or sixties.
She shot a look at Noah. ‘Is that this house?’
Smiling like he’d anticipated her reaction, he nodded.
‘And who are these people?’ she asked, certain she knew what his answer would be.
‘Their names were Ian and Elizabeth Campbell,’ Noah said, his voice holding a hint of emotion.
Her fingertips fluttered to her lips. ‘My grandparents?’
He nodded again.
She pored over the photograph, wanting to learn every one of their features, but the image was grainy and taken at a distance, so it was impossible to see whether there was a family resemblance. Still, here were two of her relatives, immortalised in black and white.
Before she could fully process just how wonderful it was to see a picture of her grandparents, the next image caught her eye—a close-up of a little boy. He leaned over the verandah railing and looked straight at the camera. Behind him, a man and woman sat on a two-seater cane settee.
She looked closer at the couple. Were they the same people from the previous photo? And if they were …
She glanced at Noah, her eyes wide.
‘Yep.’ He nodded, interpreting her unspoken question. ‘That’s Bryce.’
Apparently, Celia had been right—she might look like her mother in all other ways, but she had her father’s emerald-green eyes.
Seeing the likeness made her want to weep for all that she’d lost, but blinking and brushing her tears away, she moved along to the last photo on the wall in which four people sat around a dining table.
She recognised her grandparents. Her grandfather had been pretty spunky for an older man and her grandmother was elegance personified, and the other two people in the photo were young men.
She’d hazard a guess that they were about nineteen or twenty, and it wasn’t difficult to pick which one of them was her father.
His eyes shone with laughter as he commanded the attention of everyone else at the table.
The other young man had wispy black hair and looked not unlike Mick Brennan.
‘Is this your dad?’
Noah smiled. ‘Yeah, good pick.’
Rather than eliciting more tears, this photo gave Beth nothing but warm, fuzzy feelings.
Her father was clearly adored by his parents—they looked at him with so much love and pride—and Mick seemed to be so at ease, sitting there with the Campbell family.
It was comforting to know that her dad had grown up with a good friend living just a stone’s throw away.
Seeing these photos was a blessing, she realised. She’d been anxious about visiting—because what if she came and felt nothing? But these images bridged the gap between past and present, helping her to forge a connection to the house that had been her father’s home. She was curious, though …
‘Can I ask why you have these hanging in your house?’
Noah shrugged, his gaze going to the photographs.
‘I like the idea of honouring the history of a place, you know? And remembering the people who lived there. They worked hard to make their house a home, so it doesn’t seem right to come in and change everything without acknowledging them in some way. ’
‘So hanging photos is like … your renovation trademark?’
He smiled at that. ‘Yeah, I guess.’
She glanced again at the photographs that immortalised members of her family. ‘Where did you get these?’
‘Actually, Pru gave them to me. When I started renovating, I asked if she had any photos of the house and she gave me a shoebox full of family pics.’
‘You’re kidding!’
‘Nope. I’ll have to dig them out for you. You should have them now.’
‘Noah, that would …’ She stopped, needing to take a breath to calm her racing heart. ‘That would be amazing.’
Noah calmly took her hand as if he hadn’t just promised her the world and they carried on down the hall. He stopped beside a room filled with gym equipment. ‘This room was your dad’s.’
Beth stepped over the threshold, willing her father’s presence to make itself known, but it appeared to be an ordinary room. No sign of the boy who’d once called it his.
Noah pulled her a few steps further into the room, over to an old-fashioned, free-standing wardrobe.
‘Look.’ He pointed at the side panelling, where a series of incremental lines and dates had been gouged into the wood. At the top, in letters a few centimetres tall, were the words ‘Bryce’s Height Chart’.
‘Oh my goodness,’ she breathed, tracing each line until she reached the highest one, recorded when her father was nineteen. ‘He was so tall.’ She glanced at Noah, who was leaning against the wall, watching her with a soft smile. Her lips curved, too. ‘What?’
‘Nothing. It’s just nice to see you finding him.’
She held his gaze for as long as she could, but her heart thumped so violently, she knew it was only a matter of time before her cheeks flooded with colour.
He pushed off the wall and grabbed her hand. ‘Come on, there’s more.’
They headed deeper into the house and emerged in an open-plan living area that took her breath away.
Floor-to-ceiling windows spanning the length of it let in plenty of natural light, and the newly renovated kitchen looked amazing, but Noah didn’t give her a chance to explore further, because he pulled her out onto the verandah.
Beth stepped up to the railing and couldn’t help but sigh.
She’d been mesmerised by the beauty of the property on the drive in, but to see it from this vantage point was something else.
Overhead, the sky stretched on forever, while to the right, tree-covered hills extended around the valley, as if holding the entire property in their embrace.
This was the land her father had roamed as a child.
Noah stepped up beside her and pointed into the valley. ‘Campbell land stretched down to that fence line and extended over the hills behind us. Two hundred acres, all up.’
Beth nodded. She knew that the Brennans had purchased the land after Beth’s grandfather had passed away.
‘And down there—’ Noah pointed out the small stone cottage, ‘—is the original homestead my grandparents lived in—’ then to the modern farmhouse, ‘—and the place my parents built after they were married.’
‘Wow!’ She’d known the Campbells’ property had been adjacent to the Brennans’, but she’d never imagined that their houses would have been in such close proximity. ‘Our families really were close neighbours.’