LITMIR.BIZ

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I had the money I’d do it tomorrow-you know that.’

      ‘Then for heaven’s sake do something about it. You can’t just sit back and hope it will all come good, Lockie. I know how Mandy feels too, and I can understand it. You’ve dragged her around the countryside in that clapped-out old van barely making ends meet. You must see it can’t go on for ever.’

      ‘But you have to pay your dues in this business and it’s the only business I want to be in. My music is my life.’

      ‘And Mandy knows that, but it doesn’t mean she has to forfeit what she wants from life. There has to be some compromise.’

      ‘I guess. And I suppose I was expecting too much of her. I thought perhaps I wasn’t ready for marriage but when I tried to imagine my life without Mandy I knew I couldn’t give her up. And I don’t want to, Georgia.’ Lockie looked at her directly.

      ‘So what are you going to do?’

      He shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’

      ‘What about that chance of doing the recording you were talking about last week?’

      ‘With D.J. Delaney and Skyrocket Records? That was all talk, sis. We’d need to be seen and heard to even stand a chance. We can’t just front up and say, Here we are. We wouldn’t get past the front desk.’ He stood up again and crossed to the window. ‘We’d have to get an engagement at somewhere like the Country Music Club in Ipswich.’ His thin features brightened. ‘Now, if we could get to work there it would be a stepping stone to anything-recording, television-who knows?’

      ‘Then try for it, Lockie,’ Georgia encouraged, and he gave a short laugh.

      ‘Oh, sure, sis. Just walk in and offer the services of the best popular country band in Oz? They’d say, Country Blues who?’

      ‘Why not?’ Georgia could almost laugh at herself. Who was she to be offering such earth-shattering advice? She could barely help herself when she had to. She hurriedly pushed that thought out of her mind with an ease borne of an old habit. ‘What alternative do you have, Lockie?’

      He shook his head. ‘Right. About none, I’d say.’ He pulled a face but before he could comment further the phone rang and Georgia leant across to lift the receiver.

      ‘Hello?’ she said tiredly.

      ‘Georgia? Thank goodness it’s you. Can you come and get me?’

      ‘Morgan!’ Georgia could hear the agitation in her young sister’s voice. ‘What’s wrong?’

      ‘Do we have to go into that now? I just want to come home.’ Morgan’s voice rose. ‘Is Lockie there? Can you come in his van?’

      ‘Yes, of course. But why? Where’s Steve?’

      ‘He’s gone out and I don’t want to be here when he gets back. We had a fight.’

      ‘What about?’ Georgia raised her hand to massage her tern ple. The headache that had been threatening all day now really made its presence felt, beginning to pound relentlessly.

      ‘For heaven’s sake, Georgia!’ Morgan exclaimed shrilly. ‘It was just a fight. Can’t we leave it at that?’ She sighed loudly. ‘If you must know, Steve hit me and I’m not staying here another day.’

      ‘Steve what?’ Georgia asked in dismay.

      ‘If you don’t come and get me, Georgia, I’ll start walking.’

      ‘You can’t do that at this time of night—’ Georgia began.

      ‘Then come and get me.’

      ‘All right Wait there. We should be down in about thirty minutes. And Morgan—’

      ‘Not now, Georgia,’ Morgan broke in. ‘I’ll explain later. I just want to get away from here, OK? So hurry.’ With that the young girl hung up.

      ‘What was all that about?’ Lockie came to stand beside Georgia as she replaced the receiver.

      ‘Morgan wants us to go and get her. She wants to come home,’ she explained.

      ‘Oh, great. That’s all we need.’ Lockie threw his hands in the air.

      ‘She said she had a fight with Steve and he hit her.’

      ‘Steve? I don’t believe it!’ Lockie exclaimed. ‘Morgan probably hit him first’

      ‘Oh, Lockie, please.’ Georgia ran a hand over her forehead. ‘We’ll have to go and get her. I’ll lock up while you bring the van around.’ She went to pick up her bag.

      ‘The van’s not here.’

      Georgia stopped. ‘Not here?’

      Her brother shook his head. ‘Andy and Ken have got it. Remember I told you Andy’s landlord had complained about his drum-practising? Well, he got another place and they borrowed my van to shift his stuff after I took Mandy out to the airport. I don’t know when they’ll be back.’

      Georgia’s stomach churned, her tiredness forgotten. ‘Then we’ll have to call a taxi.’ She turned back to the phone, mentally tallying up how much money she had left out of her pay.

      Lockie put his hand on her arm. ‘It’s OK, Georgie. We won’t need a taxi.’

      Georgia raised her eyebrows and he coughed nervously. ‘Jarrod’s coming over. He can drive us down to collect Morgan.’

      Georgia froze. She felt as though she’d been transformed into stone. And then she turned her head slowly to face her brother. ‘Why is he…?’ Her voice faltered and died.

      ‘Why wouldn’t he, Georgia?’ Lockie asked quietly, his gaze holding hers. ‘He’s my best friend and he’s just returned from the States.’

      Georgia fought gallantly to pull herself together as she continued to gaze at her brother. And it was taking more than a little effort to still her galloping pulse, to dislodge the breath that had caught somewhere in her chest.

      ‘Jarrod hasn’t seen you yet,’ Lockie continued, ‘and when I told him you’d be home after nine-thirty he said he’d drop by.’

      ‘I see.’ Georgia took a calming breath. ‘And I don’t suppose it occurred to you that I might not want to see him.’

      ‘You can’t live in the past, sis. Four years is a long time, and besides, you’ll have to face him some time.’

      Four years ago she’d told him hell would freeze over before she’d want to set eyes on him again.

      ‘He’s changed a bit,’ Lockie was saying. ‘He looks older.’ He smiled a little awkwardly. ‘I told him he was getting quite long in the tooth.’

      At that moment they both heard the sound of a car pulling up on the gravel verge in front of the house.

      She couldn’t face him! You’ve had four years to recover from his duplicity, a cruel voice reminded her, and she drew a shallow breath.

      ‘Here he is now.’ Lockie stated the obvious and his long fingers gently squeezed her arm. ‘And, as I said, what’s past is past. It is, isn’t it, Georgia?’

      She nodded resignedly. If only that were true. ‘I suppose it is,’ she agreed. ‘And we do have to get Morgan. It’s lucky he…Jarrod…’ the name almost stuck in her throat ‘…was coming over,’ she finished breathily.

      Jarrod. There, she’d said his name. For the first time in four years she’d said his name, the sound of it so foreign…and yet so achingly, so hauntingly well-known.

      Well-known? She almost laughed out loud. Well-known in what sense? In every sense, she told herself ruthlessly. How could she forget his name? Or him? Jarrod. Jarrod Peter Maclean. Uncle Peter Maclean’s only son.

      ‘Georgia?’ Lockie touched her arm again and she blinked,

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