Outback Secrets by Rachael Johns
Chapter Seventeen
It was still dark when Henri woke to the smell of coffee on Wednesday morning. She rubbed her eyes and stretched to pluck her mobile off Liam’s bedside table. 5.30 am. Even earlier than they usually went surfing.
After two nights at home, she’d been excited to stay over again last night, but to her dismay Liam hadn’t been in a very chatty mood. Downstairs in the pub, he’d been friendly enough but even though she’d hung in the bar until closing time, hoping maybe they’d watch another movie or something, he’d made it clear when they got upstairs that he was tired and wanted an early night.
Well, as early as nights ever were for publicans. Liam kept complete opposite hours to farmers and also to her.
Henri had been tired too after two long days working with her brothers and the shearing team, but she couldn’t help sensing that there was more than fatigue going on. She felt like something had shifted between her and Liam since he’d confided in her about the shooting on Sunday night. She’d come into town for surfing lessons every morning since, but even they felt different. From their very first lesson she’d started to feel like they could be good friends, but the last couple of mornings, she’d once again felt like she was teaching a stranger.
Did he regret telling her?
Or maybe she was the problem?
Remembering what he’d said about not wanting to see pity in other people’s eyes, she’d tried not to change the way she acted around him and resisted the urge to try and get him to talk more about his family—he would if and when he wanted to—but she ached for him whenever she recalled their conversation. Even four years on she still struggled daily with the loss of her dad and the knowledge she’d never get to talk or laugh with him again. How much worse must it be if you knew you could never do that with any of your family?
As much as her mum and Tilley sometimes infuriated her, the thought of them and her brothers all being taken away from her … How did anyone ever recover from that?
A knock sounded on the door that was already partially open so that Sheila could go back and forth between them. Liam’s voice followed.
‘Rise and shine, sleeping beauty.’ He stepped into the bedroom.
‘Isn’t that usually my line?’ she said, trying to ignore the way her stomach turned over at the sight of him. In khaki cargo shorts and a plain black T-shirt, he looked damn delicious.
With a chuckle, he put a mug of coffee down on the bedside table and then sat on the edge of the bed. Every nerve ending in her body stood to attention and, although she was wearing perfectly demure summer PJs, she suddenly felt naked.
Wishful thinking.
Henri shook that thought from her head, sat up and reached for the coffee. ‘What’s going on? You’re not usually a morning person. Have I turned you into a surfing junkie?’
‘Not quite. And we’re not going surfing today.’
‘We’re not?’ Henri frowned. ‘Then why are we up so early?’
‘We’re going on a road trip—and before you ask, I checked with Andrew and Callum that they could do without you in the sheds and they agree, you deserve a proper day off. I thought it was high time you showed me what geocaching is all about.’
‘We don’t need to go on a road trip for that,’ Henri said, unsure how she felt about him going behind her back to arrange things with her brothers—she liked to make her own decisions. ‘I’m happy to induct you into the geocaching family, but wouldn’t it be better if we did so around here? You know … we’re more likely to be seen that way.’
‘Maybe.’ He stood. ‘But we’re not actually looking for a geocache today. We’re planting one, as you put it. And I have the perfect location in mind. Now drink that, and then get dressed. We’ll have breakfast en route.’
‘Where exactly are we going?’
‘That’s a surprise, but bring your swimsuit,’ Liam said and left the room before she could ask any further questions.
Henri’s gut churned—she didn’t like surprises; in her experience they weren’t usually good. But as Liam had gone out of his way to help her, the least she could do was go along with whatever he had planned. And she couldn’t help feeling heartened that he was choosing to spend time with her. Maybe she’d imagined the awkwardness of the last few days after all.
Fifteen minutes later, they were on their way. Weirdly, the confined space of Liam’s Hilux felt even smaller without Sheila between them, but when she asked if the dog was coming, he told her she wasn’t fond of road trips.
Henri spent the first five minutes of the journey trying to get Liam to give her a clue as to where they were going. They were heading north, and he’d told her to pack her bathers, so she guessed they were staying coastal, but surely he wouldn’t take her further than Kalbarri on a day trip. Then again, there were also some gorgeous waterholes a little bit further inland if you knew where to look.
Yet, no matter how hard she tried, he refused to give her any hint and after a while she gave up and they spent the next five minutes arguing over what music to listen to. Liam wanted classic rock and Henri country. Considering he wouldn’t tell her where they were headed, she thought the least he could do was let her pick, but they were both as stubborn as each other. Finally, they decided to compromise and listen to Logan Knight doing the breakfast show from Geraldton instead. He was undeniably good at his job, speaking with warmth and empathy about the day’s news stories and listening intently to every person who called in.
‘Have you and Frankie been friends since you were kids, then?’ Liam asked, when Logan mentioned his fiancée on air.
‘Yeah. Our mums are friends. They love to tell stories of sitting on the breastfeeding couch at playgroup while our older siblings ran amuck outside.’
She told him how, as they grew up, they became more and more inseparable and how heartbroken she’d felt when she had to go to boarding school and Frankie had got to take the bus to high school in Geraldton instead. ‘I was so jealous of her because I would much rather have stayed on the farm. Anyway, we both made new friends after that and haven’t lived in the same place since, but it’s always like we’ve never been apart whenever we catch up. What about you? Any special childhood friends you still keep in touch with?’
‘Yeah, Simon. He lived next door as long as I can remember. Like yours and Frankie’s, our parents were friends as well. We went to school together and rode our skateboards in the afternoons. We spent almost every waking hour together, but we were also hugely competitive. The biggest contest of all was who could get a girlfriend first. Simon won, of course. He was captain of the football team and had cheerleaders fighting over him.’
‘Has Simon ever visited you here?’ Henri recalled Eileen Brady saying Liam never had guests, but surely even that old busybody couldn’t know everything.
He shook his head. ‘He’s married to Holly now and they’ve got a couple of cute kids, but we still Skype a few times a year.’
‘Do you think you’ll ever go back home?’
‘Bunyip Bay’s home now.’ Liam shrugged and proceeded to change the subject.
Henri got the message. He might have spilled his heart the other night, but it was clear he didn’t want to keep talking about it and she didn’t want things to be awkward on their journey to who knows where anyway.
The next little while they stuck to safe conversation—movies, TV and book talk. Time passed quickly and before she knew it, they were slowing at a service station on the outskirts of Geraldton. They grabbed ham and cheese toasties and more coffee, and as they climbed back into the ute, Henri said, ‘How much further are we going?’
‘Patience, Henrietta,’ Liam said.
‘It’s Henri.’ She glared, but he didn’t look remorseful in the slightest.
A few minutes later they turned off the highway and started driving inland. Henri’s heart skipped a beat when she realised where they were heading.
No. He wouldn’t. We can’t be heading for Geraldton Airport.
‘Are we going to Ellendale Pool?’ she exclaimed, trying to ignore the anxiety starting to eat at her insides. ‘I haven’t been there in years, but it’s stunning. Great place to drop a geocache.’
When Liam merely smiled, Henri wasn’t sure whether she’d finally guessed correctly, or was so far off the mark he couldn’t even be bothered to set her straight.
About ten minutes later, he slowed the ute again and a cold sweat erupted as he turned down the road that did indeed lead to the airport.
‘What the hell, Liam? We’re not flying anywhere!’
‘I’ve booked a private flight to the Abrolhos with Geraldton Air Charter,’ he said calmly. ‘They’ll take us up over Hutt Lagoon first and then we’ll head across to the Abrolhos, where we can eat the picnic lunch I packed, have a look around and leave the old biscuit tin that I thought would make a good geocache container. I’ve done my research, you know.’
Henri couldn’t speak as she registered what he’d just said. She jabbed her finger against the button to open the window, unsure whether it was to gasp for air or try to throw herself out of it.
‘No,’ she finally managed after a few quick breaths. ‘Not. Happening.’
Liam just kept on driving.
‘I can’t. We can’t do this. What if …’
‘What if we crash?’ he asked when her voice trailed off. ‘What if we don’t? What if we have a fabulous day instead? The odds of that happening far outweigh the odds of disaster.’
‘You of all people should know that the odds aren’t always in your favour,’ she spat, too panicked to feel guilty about throwing his past in his face.
‘That’s true. Life is risky. And it can be short. I know how much flying means to you and so I thought maybe a step towards regaining your confidence would be to go up with another pilot—someone extremely experienced. Then, in the unlikely event that anything goes wrong, it’ll be their responsibility to save us, not yours. It was just a thought.’
Did that make sense? Was it fear of flying that had stopped her in the Riverina or was it a fear of being in control? Would going up with someone else be the first step?
‘I also really want to see the Abrolhos Islands, so this isn’t an entirely selfless act,’ Liam added. ‘I’ve been meaning to take a day trip ever since I arrived, but you know how it is—you often forget to be a tourist in your backyard. Have you ever been?’
The answer was no—her brothers sometimes went out there on fishing trips, but she never had—but she didn’t reply to his question. ‘I’m not saying I’m going to do this … but who’s going to fly us? I’ll only even consider it if it’s Wendy.’
Wendy Mann was the chief pilot and managing director of Geraldton Air Charter. Henri didn’t know her well, but they’d met a couple of times; she was a doyenne of the industry and Henri had immense respect for her.
‘Wendy’s on holidays at the moment, but I asked Geraldton Air for their most experienced pilot after her and they assure me Glenn Baker is it.’
‘I’ve never heard of him.’
‘Well, he’s been flying for over thirty years and has also won some big awards. Apparently, he started his career in WA, but then moved east for work. He and his wife have recently moved back to Geraldton to be closer to their daughter who just had her first baby.’
Henri took a few more deep breaths. He sounded experienced, and Wendy obviously trusted him, but … ‘I’m really not sure I can do this, Liam.’
‘Okay,’ he said as he turned into the small car park adjacent to Geraldton Air Charter, a tiny terminal not far from the actual airport. ‘That’s fine. Do you want to get out and try or shall we just head back to Bunyip Bay?’
There was no indication of pressure or defeat in his voice, but Henri didn’t want to disappoint him. And deep down she wanted to try for herself. If she couldn’t even get up in an aircraft when someone else was at the controls, then she’d seriously need to seek professional help.
She sighed and blinked as tears threatened. ‘I want to try.’
The smile that erupted on Liam’s face was so damn beautiful and hit her right in the gut.
He parked the Hilux and then came around to the passenger side and opened her door. Not that she usually expected or waited for men to assist her, but she found herself frozen in the seat.
‘It’ll be okay,’ he promised, offering her his hand. ‘We don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with. The flight’s all paid for, whether we take it or not.’
Until that moment, she hadn’t even thought about money, but private chartered flights weren’t cheap. She frowned as she accepted his hand and climbed out of the car. ‘I’ll pay you back either way.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ The door clunked shut behind them. ‘I told you, I want to do this as much for me as for you.’
Henri wasn’t sure she believed him but decided it was an argument they could have later.
While her head told her to get back in the ute and do anything but what they were about to do, her body somehow allowed Liam to lead her to the building, where they were met by a very chirpy young woman called Erika, and Glenn, the pilot. The latter looked to be in his mid-fifties, with a good head of salt and pepper hair, thick black glasses and smiling eyes that reminded Henri of her father.
He greeted them with a warm handshake, and she swallowed the urge to apologise for her sweaty palms. She didn’t know what Liam had told Glenn, whether he knew she too was a pilot, so she decided not to mention it. Yet.
Erika went through some quick paperwork then fitted them with lifejackets. ‘In the unlikely event of an emergency.’
‘Right, let’s go,’ Glenn said, gesturing to a glass door that would lead them out to the waiting aircraft, which looked to be a Gippsland Airvan, GA8. Henri mentally approved the choice—the single-engine aircraft was made in Australia and extremely reliable. ‘Would you both prefer to travel in the back or would one of you like to sit up front with me?’
Liam looked to Henri. ‘What do you want?’
‘Both in the back.’ If she was going to do this, she wanted him right beside her every step of the way, and she also wasn’t sure she could handle being so close to the controls.
Glenn nodded. ‘Righto.’
He and Liam made small talk as they climbed into the Airvan, but Henri didn’t register any of it. Her hands were shaking so bad it took three attempts to fasten her seatbelt and she could feel her heart beating in a way she never had before. Was this what it felt like when you were about to have a heart attack?
As Glenn did his final checks and then started the engine, Henri shook her head and launched for the door. ‘I can’t do this!’
The seatbelt slammed her back into place and Liam reached for her hand. ‘Can we take a moment, Glenn?’
‘Sure,’ he replied, turning his head and giving Henri what she guessed was supposed to be an encouraging smile. ‘These small girls take a little getting used to.’
Henri looked at Liam—he clearly hadn’t warned Geraldton Air Charter about her issue. Weirdly, this took a bit of the pressure off.
‘Okay,’ she said after a few moments. ‘I think I’m ready.’
No, she wasn’t ready, she thought as Glenn picked up speed and then launched the Airvan into the air. The toastie she’d eaten churned in her stomach and she squeezed her eyes shut, not daring to look out the window or into the cockpit just in front of her. Her only comfort was Liam’s fingers wrapped firmly around her own.
Once they were properly airborne and flying at what had to be about 2000 feet above sea level, Glenn began to narrate the sights below. They flew north first, towards Kalbarri, so they could look down over Hutt Lagoon, more commonly known as the Pink Lake. Henri might not have been to the Abrolhos Islands before but of course she’d flown this coast and did not feel the need, or desire, to look down.
‘Wow, I’ve seen the lake from the ground but it’s so much bigger than I thought,’ Liam said.
‘Yep,’ Glenn replied. ‘It’s about fourteen kilometres long and over two wide. Big pink natural beauty that’s for sure.’
‘It’s not as pink as I remember either.’
‘The actual colour of the water changes depending on the levels of algae and also if there’s a high concentration of brine prawn,’ Glenn explained. ‘Hutt Lagoon was named after William Hutt—a British MP who was involved in the colonisation of Western Australia—by explorer George Grey, who camped along the eastern edge in the 1830s. It was during the wet season and Grey thought he’d found a large estuary. When another explorer, George Fletcher Moore, went to investigate the following year, he couldn’t find this estuary because the waters had gone down, and the mouth of the Hutt River was dry.’
After the Pink Lake, they turned and headed south-west towards the 210 islands that made up the Abrolhos archipelago. After listening to Glenn talk about the history of the three main island groups—Easter, Pelsart and Wallabi—and the ‘graveyard of ships’ that surrounded them, including the famous Batavia that ran aground here on its maiden voyage from the Netherlands, Henri finally found the courage to open her eyes.
As Glenn spoke about the mutiny that happened on the island, killing about 125 of the shipwreck survivors, Henri—still clutching Liam’s hand—leaned towards her window and peered down.
‘Spectacular, isn’t it?’ Liam said, and she had to admit it was the perfect word to describe the sight below them.
‘Uh huh.’ Henri had seen plenty of amazing places from the air, but that didn’t mean she ever took their beauty for granted. The vivid deep blues and crisp aqua colours of the ocean, speckled with the dots of yellow and green that made up the islands and the white foam of the waves lapping at the land, finally distracted her from the fact they were actually flying. It was hard to feel fear when overwhelmed by such natural beauty.
Glenn pointed out notable islands as they flew overhead—Big Rat and Little Rat with their colourful fishing camps, boasting lots of shacks and bordered by jetties. She listened properly now as he spoke about the communities below, the small number of people who lived here all year round and the cray fishermen who spent about three months each year calling the islands home.
‘There was even a school there until not so long ago,’ he told them, ‘but it’s closed now. The lobster industry is changing, it’s spread more throughout the year due to quotas that were introduced. Before the quotas, whole families would go across from March to June and the communities were thriving. It’s different now, but you can still experience that kind of spirit if you visit on Anzac Day.’
‘For the two-up competition? I’ve heard of that,’ Liam said.
‘Yeah.’ Glenn nodded. ‘It’s one helluva day, that’s for certain. Right. You guys ready to land?’
Liam looked at Henri but what could she say? No, please keep flying up here where I feel moderately safe? Eventually they’d run out of petrol and …
Banishing that thought, she nodded, then held her breath again and hoped her nails weren’t digging into Liam’s palm as Glenn brought the Airvan in to land on the airstrip on East Wallabi, pointing out beautiful Turtle Bay as he did.
‘Magical place to swim,’ he said. ‘You might even see some sea lions or dolphins if you’re lucky.’
‘I did it!’ Henri shrieked as the Airvan touched down.
Glenn pressed on the brakes, and they slowed quickly. There were no anthills here and it was a textbook landing if ever there was one. Adrenaline buzzed through her, and she couldn’t help bouncing in her seat. She might not have been the pilot, but this definitely felt like a huge step in the right direction.
‘You did.’ Liam grinned, his expression proud. ‘Well done.’
She squeezed his hand, which she hadn’t let go during the whole flight. ‘Thank you.’
‘Don’t mention it.’ He extracted his hand. ‘Now, let’s go plant a geocache.’