A Secret Vengeance

They’d only been in their mid-fifties. Hardly old. Talk about life being unfair.

Luke shifted in his seat and cleared his throat. What had Harvey been asking him? Oh, yes…about the weekender at Pretty Point.

“I guess Dad didn’t get round to selling the old place after all,” he said. “He could be sentimental at times. So what did he want to do with it?”

“He wanted to gift it over to a lady friend of his.”

Luke was taken aback. “Who?” he demanded to know.

“A Ms Jessica Gilbert.”

Luke frowned. Who on earth was Ms Jessica Gilbert?

“I don’t recognise the name,” he ground out, trying not to think the impossible, but thinking it all the same.

“Don’t jump to conclusions, Luke,” Harvey advised. “You and I both know your father wasn’t that kind of man.”

Luke certainly hadn’t thought so. Till now. He’d hero-worshipped his father, and had always wanted to be just like him, in every way.

“Did Dad tell you anything about this Ms Gilbert?” he asked, his gut tightening.

“Not all that much. He said she was a lovely lady, to whom life hadn’t been very kind, and whom he wanted to help. Apparently, she doesn’t own a home of her own and he’d been letting her live in the place at Pretty Point for the last few years, rent free. He thought it best if he gifted the property over to her and then she’d have a secure roof over her head for life.”

Luke’s inner tension began to ease. His father was well-known for his charitable gestures. But, for a moment there…

“Your father was worried that if he died suddenly and the present rent-free arrangement came to light, your mother might do exactly what you just did: jump to all the wrong conclusions.”

“I feel terrible for thinking the worst,” Luke confessed, “even for a moment.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself. I had a few doubts myself when Lionel first told me, especially when he asked me to be very discreet and not mention it to a soul. But I only had to think of how totally devoted he was to your mother to know I couldn’t be more wrong. So, shall I go ahead then,” Harvey asked, “and gift the property over to this Ms Gilbert?”

“Yes, yes, draw up the necessary papers and I’ll come back and sign them when they’re ready.”

“I thought you’d say that. Your father would be proud of you, Luke. After all, waterfront properties of that size on Lake Macquarie, regardless of how remote, are worth a bundle these days.”

“I’m only doing what Dad wanted. And it’s not as though I haven’t inherited enough property.” As well as the family home in St Ives, Luke now owned several investment units all over Sydney, some right in the CBD. It seemed every time his father had designed a large block of units, part of his fee had been to keep one of them.

“I must go, Harvey,” Luke said. “I’m meeting Isabel downstairs at one.”

“Ah. The lovely Isabel. What a glorious bride she’s going to make. It’s such a tragedy to have this dreadful thing happen so close to your marriage.”

“Yes. I was going to postpone the ceremony, but things are a bit too far along for that. Isabel’s parents have already spent a small fortune, and they’re not wealthy people.”

“Your own parents wouldn’t have wanted you to postpone a single thing, Luke. Your father was especially delighted you were settling down to family life here in Australia. He missed you a lot when you went overseas to work. He was worried you might marry some foreign girl and never come back.”

“He should have known I would never do that,” Luke said swiftly, and stood up. “I’ll see you and your wife at the wedding, then?”

Harvey stood up as well. “Looking forward to it.”

Both men shook hands across the desk and Luke left, grateful to have at least temporarily finished with the legal and practical problems that had followed his parents’ deaths. There’d been so much to do, so many arrangements, so many decisions to be made. Too many, really.

But being an only child, there’d been no one else. The buck stopped with him.

He hoped he’d done everything well, and properly. He hoped his father was proud of him.

Luke’s mind returned to Ms Jessica Gilbert on the ride down in the lift and he wondered who she was and how his father had come to know her. Had she been an ex-employee? A loyal secretary who’d worked for him during his early days as a struggling architect? Maybe the cleaning lady who’d looked after the place at Pretty Point all those years ago? Luke recalled some local woman had come in to clean up after them.

Or was she some poor unfortunate whose hard-luck story had come to his dad’s attention through one of the various charities he’d given money to? Some elderly spinster who’d never had much, and never would.

Luke thought this last scenario a likely one. His father liked to help little old ladies.

Even so, it was only a guess. He wished Harvey had known more. It was irritating, not knowing the full circumstances behind such a substantial bequest. The weekender at Pretty Point, though small and a bit ramshackle, was sitting on a parcel of valuable land.

Maybe, when the time came, he’d take the gifted deed up to the woman personally. That way his curiosity would be well and truly satisfied, and this tiny but nagging doubt that his father might not have been so perfect after all would be safely banished.

Luke still hadn’t made up his mind on the issue when the lift doors opened and there, straight ahead, stood Isabel, looking classy and coolly beautiful, as usual. She was wearing a simple black dress and her long blonde hair was sleekly up, showing off her elegant neck, and the diamond earrings he’d given her recently for her birthday.

She smiled at him, one of those serene smiles that had a soothing effect on Luke, no matter how stressed out he was. He smiled back as he walked towards her, thinking how lucky he was to have found a woman like Isabel to marry. Not only beautiful, but so sensible and level-headed.

He never had to put up with jealous scenes or possessive demands with her as he had with previous girlfriends. On top of that, Isabel could cook like a cordon bleu chef and actually considered being a wife and mother a career in itself. Just like his mum.

She’d already quit her job as receptionist at the large architectural firm Luke was currently contracted to and where they’d met at last year’s Christmas party. She had no plans to go back to work after their marriage. They were going to start trying for a baby straight away.

Of course, Isabel was thirty, with a whole lifetime of experiences behind her, so she was ripe and ready for settling down, as Luke was himself at thirty-two. Like him, she’d travelled extensively, and admitted to several lovers, something that didn’t bother Luke one little bit.

He liked the fact Isabel was experienced in bed. He liked it that she wasn’t insecure with him. He especially liked the fact she wanted the same things he wanted: a marriage that would last, and a family of at least two children.

Okay, so he wasn’t in love with her, and vice versa. But darn it all, he’d fallen in love a few times in the past, and he hadn’t really liked the feel of it. It wasn’t stable for starters. And it never lasted.

By the time Luke had decided it was time to settle down, he’d concluded romantic love was not a sound basis for marriage. Isabel had reached the same conclusion after a few disastrous love affairs of her own.

Which meant they were perfectly in tune with each other. They had the same goals, and they never ever argued, which was something Luke valued very highly.

Arguments and disagreements always upset him. Quite a lot. He wanted none of that in his marriage. He wanted peace, and harmony. He wanted what his father had had with his mother.

“All finished?” Isabel asked, reaching up to kiss him on the cheek.

“For the time being,” he returned, his thoughts sliding once again back to the mysterious Ms Gilbert. Frustrating, really. Why couldn’t he forget about her? He opened his mouth to tell Isabel about the woman, then he closed it again. Why, he wasn’t sure. Perhaps because he didn’t want to see that awful doubt about his father in her eyes as well.

Ms Gilbert was just a charity case, Luke reassured himself, some poor little old lady who didn’t have the wherewithal to help herself. To think anything else was untenable.

But the more Luke tried to picture Ms Jessica Gilbert as some poor little old lady, the less he was convinced. His father wouldn’t have been worried about his mother jumping to the wrong conclusions if the woman was elderly. He would only have worried about jealousy if the woman was young. And attractive.

“Is there something wrong, Luke?”

“Would you mind very much if I took a rain check on lunch, plus the ring-buying expedition?” he said on the spur of the moment. “There’s something I simply must do which can’t wait.”

“What, for heaven’s sake?” She wasn’t angry, just puzzled.