The Girl in the Yellow Vest (44 page)

‘I can understand that.’ Charlotte nodded. ‘You want to be here when Will comes back.’

Emily frowned. ‘Or do I? He was pretty clear in his message that what happened between us was a mistake. When he gets back things will be awkward. Perhaps I should just give him the space he obviously wants.’

‘That’s up to you.’

Emily smiled wryly. ‘What about you? How are you holding up?’

‘I’ve been better.’ Charlotte shrugged. ‘It’s a strain hiding all this from Zara.’

‘Tell you what,’ Emily straightened, moving out of Charlotte’s arm, ‘I’ll come to Brisbane, not with Trent, with
you
, for moral support – for the both of us. My R and R is due and it would be good to get away and regroup. What do you reckon?’

‘Perfect.’

Just then there was a knock at the back door. She felt her face heat as she realised who it might be.

‘Oh,’ Emily’s eyes widened, ‘I didn’t know you were expecting company. I should go.’

‘Oh no, that’s all right, I’m not,’ Charlotte quickly denied as Emily stood up.

‘No, it’s okay. We can watch that movie another time.’

There was a knock at the door again and Charlotte quickly hurried over to answer it. Sure enough, her first instinct had been correct: it was Mark standing there, with windswept hair and some sort of document in his hands. Her heart skipped a beat. She barely registered Emily say a quick hello to Mark before stepping around him and leaving.

‘Good evening, Charlotte,’ he said rather formally.

‘Good evening, Mark,’ she responded and wanted to laugh at how stiff they both sounded. The other night, when he’d stayed for dinner, you would have thought they’d get a little closer. But he had been there for her only in the literal sense. Running some of her resort errands, serving her dinner and keeping Zara occupied while she tried to process everything that had happened that day. Like a sentry, he’d mostly just watched her and they’d hardly spoken at all. It was no wonder their conversations remained stilted.

‘I brought you this.’ He held out the paper.

‘What is it?’

‘Flight itinerary,’ he replied shortly.

She took it from his outstretched hand and glanced briefly over the document. ‘You didn’t have to do this; I was going to book it myself tomorrow.’

‘Rest easy, I didn’t. Ann did.’

‘Still, it’s not your responsibility. How much do I owe you?’ she said as her eyes fell to the page.

‘You’ll have to ask Ann.’ He turned to go, but she had spotted something else she didn’t like.

‘It says here she’s booked two seats and two hotel rooms.’

‘Yes,’ he nodded, ‘I’m coming with you.’

She started. ‘Why?’

A muscle worked in his jaw. ‘I need to go on a holiday.’

Her eyes narrowed on him and then she repeated his words slowly and succinctly in case he hadn’t heard how ridiculous he sounded. ‘You-need-to-go-on-a-holiday?’

‘Yes, it’s on my To Do list.’

What’s with this bloody To Do list?
And why couldn’t he just be straight with her? Tell her the real reason he baked cakes, adopted turkeys and went diving. The real reason he wanted to go on a date with her? Until he let her in, how could she have any sort of real rapport with him? She couldn’t have a relationship with a man who continued to speak in riddles. Riddles that insulted both her intelligence and her dignity. ‘
Right
,’ she said crossly. ‘And this hasn’t got anything to do with the fact that I rejected your offer of a date last week.’

He raised his brows. ‘Are you suggesting, Charlotte, that I’m trying to take advantage of you?’

‘If the shoe fits,’ she retorted before she could check herself. ‘I’m surprised you had two rooms booked instead of one.’

He seemed surprised. ‘Why? Is that what you’d prefer?’

‘Of course not,’ she snapped but he ignored her denial.

‘I hate to disappoint you,’ he murmured, with eyes downcast and hands behind his back, ‘but that is not my intention at all.’

She was immediately angry at herself for overreacting. She didn’t want him to know that she often thought about that day he’d asked her on a date, especially in the quiet moments just before sleep, and wondered why he didn’t repeat the offer or at least try again.

‘I’m not disappointed,’ she growled, chest heaving. ‘Just surprised, that’s all.’

‘No need for an apology.’

‘
I wasn’t apologising!
’

‘Well, good,’ he nodded. ‘I’ll see you at work tomorrow.’

And then, to her complete and utter fury, he turned and walked out, leaving her with his travel plans in her hands.

He knew in some mysterious way he’d botched their last conversation, which was probably why she’d given him the silent treatment for the balance of the week and most of the flight over. That or she actually preferred the mindless babble of Emily Woods and the self-serving conversation provided by the lawyer. Honestly, if that man wasn’t as good as he claimed to be Mark was going to make him sorry they’d ever crossed paths. It was funny how his conversation with Chub about Kathryn had only been a couple of weeks ago. It felt like much longer. The truth was, thoughts of his late wife no longer hurt. She seemed so far away now. By contrast Charlotte was too agonisingly close.

They got into Brisbane at about seven-thirty that evening and he invited them all to dine with him at the hotel restaurant. Charlotte excused herself saying that she was too nervous to eat and would probably order a bowl of soup in her room. At her decline, Trent and Emily also said they would have meals in their rooms.

Later that night, though, he heard giggling in the room next door to his. It was clear the girls had got together anyway for a private dinner. The only consolation he had about the snub was that it had probably put Trent’s nose out of joint as well. He could tell the man was trying to do everything in his power to impress Emily but his efforts were going dismally unnoticed. He couldn’t help but wonder what Will’s role was in all this. The Boy Scout had decided to take his R and R rather abruptly on Thursday morning. Not that he had a problem with that. The shiploader was in and the boy’s time off was due.

‘I’m surprised you don’t want to wait and take your week off when Emily has her R and R,’ he had said to Will when the boy had come to ask permission. ‘I was sure the two of you would have run away together to the Whitsundays.’

Will had cleared his throat. ‘What makes you say that, sir?’

He sat back in his chair with reluctant patience. ‘The two of you have been inseparable since she got here. I take it things haven’t gone according to plan?’

‘According to what plan, sir?’

He folded his arms and looked down his nose at the boy. ‘Very well, I see no reason for you to take me into your confidence. But let me give you one piece of advice.’

‘What’s that, sir?’

‘Women never say what they mean.’ He sighed at the melancholic nature of the thought. ‘
Never
.’

As he recalled the conversation, he couldn’t help but reflect mournfully on his final statement and how fundamentally it applied to Charlotte Templeton, who was like a closed book to him. Every time he tried to build a bridge between them he failed. What did she want from him? What did she expect him to say?

He slept fitfully, as fear and regrets troubled him. Fear for Charlotte and Zara and regret for the relationship with Charlotte he could not seem to grasp.

They all awoke early the next morning, had breakfast together in the hotel and then took a taxi to the Harry Gibbs Commonwealth Law Court, which was situated quite centrally in the city. The multistorey gloomy grey structure seemed to reflect his mood exactly. But when he climbed the steps at the entrance, he happened to glance over at Charlotte and catch an unguarded expression as it flitted briefly across her face before she absorbed it back into her mask of calm.

She was terrified.

He knew it and a fist closed around his heart at his own helplessness in this instance.

He and Emily took their seats at the back of the courtroom in the public gallery, where they were allowed to sit to view proceedings. Charlotte went to the front with Trent, who was now fully robed. Trent sat at the left-hand side of the bar table, facing the judge’s bench. He began ordering his papers, placing some on the small lectern in front of him. Charlotte sat directly behind Trent at the end of a long bench.

Dennis Mayer showed up not long after them, entering the courtroom from the right in the wake of a blonde woman in her late forties who was no doubt his lawyer, as she was wearing the same attire as Trent. Mark took in her hard face and ringless hands and was immediately put in mind of a woman who had sacrificed everything else in her life for her career. With considered efficiency, she prepared her side of the bar table, sparing Trent no more than one contemptuous glance. Dennis Mayer looked serene as he took his seat at the other end of the long bench on which Charlotte was seated. Mark had to admit there certainly didn’t look like there was anything untoward about him. Dressed in a grey suit and tie, he radiated ‘respectable businessman with family interests’.

Mark’s focus immediately snapped back to the front of the room as the clerk of the court addressed them. ‘All rise.’

As everyone stood up, the judge and his associate walked in, seating themselves in large black leatherbound chairs to face their small audience. The judge was a rather short, heavy-set man with a generous belly. The lawyers bowed and then the clerk announced, ‘Court is now in session.’

After a few more formalities, where the female lawyer was introduced as Ms Pylforth, they all sat down.

Ms Pylforth remained standing. ‘Your Honour, this interim application brought by my client, Dennis Albert Mayer, seeks parental responsibility and residence for his daughter, the child Zara Jane Templeton. The basis for my client seeking such orders concerns the physical and mental incapacity of the mother, Virginia Templeton, and also the precarious nature of the mother’s financial situation. As your Honour will note, the application is fully particularised in the father’s application and in the father’s supporting affidavit.’

‘Yes, I have seen them, though I admit I have not read them in any great depth,’ the judge confessed. ‘I have also briefly reviewed the respondent’s documents. From what I understand, Ms Charlotte Templeton has been Zara’s informal carer since her mother’s deterioration. Given Mr Mayer has not participated in the care of his child for fifteen years I could not comprehend why he would think it feasible for him to be suddenly granted full custody now.’

Good.

Mark nodded approvingly at this rather promising beginning until Ms Pylforth shifted her client’s position.

‘Your Honour, my client would be the first to acknowledge that the circumstances of this case are unusual. That is why you will note that the father’s application has alternative propositions for your Honour to consider. In the alternative, my client would move the court for a reduced parenting order, such as partial residence or visitation rights and also some legal say in matters concerning the child’s education and medical care. My client currently believes that in relation to these issues his daughter’s requirements are not being adequately met due to the Templetons’ financial situation.’

The judge gave a derisive honk. ‘You are trying my patience, Ms Pylforth. That is a rather broad statement. How can your client be so sure of this when he has not been in his daughter’s company since her birth? From the papers, it appears he has not even met her.’

‘Your Honour, if it pleases the court, I would like to read Annexure 1 from my client’s affidavit, which is a letter from his daughter Zara Templeton dated five weeks ago.’

‘Proceed,’ the judge nodded.

‘
Dear Mr Mayer, you don’t know me. We’ve never met. But I’m writing to you because I’ve just found out that you’re my father. I am so relieved to finally have a name to contact. My name is Zara Templeton and my mother’s name is Virginia. I have always been curious about you and your history. My family has kept this from me, which I think is very unfair otherwise I would have written to you sooner. I would love to get to know you and be part of your life. I want to see if we have anything in common. I know that your hands are tied but I feel that I have missed out on a lot of things because I never had a father. My older sister, Charlotte, mostly raised me. Mum has been very sick for many years and needs to be taken care of herself. Often, my sister is too preoccupied with looking after her and our failing business to pay any attention to me. I feel like I am just a nuisance to her, always in her way and holding her back. I’m sure, in fact, that she would be quite relieved if it was one day possible for me to come and live with you. I was wondering if we could at least make contact so that in the future, when this might be possible, we will already know one another. What do you think? Yours sincerely, Zara Templeton
.’