Du rose prophecy, p.21
Du Rose Prophecy, page 21
Leslie sighed and ran her hand over her face. Hana was struck by how her seventy-odd years pressed her down in that moment. “Something happened – and Reuben’s wife went away for a while. Everything was ok when she came back and we were told she went to care for a sick relative. She was gone for the best part of a year. Then one day that blondie turned up, Caroline Marsh. Nobody was sure where she came from. She was a delicate little tot but a cuckoo if ever there was one; real hard to manage. She was a few years younger than Liza but those two were trouble together, like sisters. Reuben’s wife died the year Michael was born and Reuben got real sad. He and Miriam struck out again together not long after that. I don’t think they meant to; it was just one of those things.
“I came to work one morning in the cowshed and the word was that Alfred had gone; took off in the night. He went up north to work with an uncle who ran a beef farm and didn’t come back for months. The old lady followed him up there and tried to talk to him. She never said why he went and Miriam was dead quiet about it, but I guessed about her and Reuben and figured Alfred did too. By the time he came back, Miriam must have already been pregnant with Logan. Ain’t no way that child was born two months early, not the long legs on him. Besides, you only had to look at him to see that he was pure Reuben Du Rose.
“It blew up bad one day. Alfred came in to find Reuben holding Logan and lost it. He took a swing at his brother even though he was cuddling the piripoho and Reuben laid him out flat. But the old lady wouldn’t tolerate it no more. She sent Reuben and his lot packing. She divided the land and fenced them out. She gave her son the money to build that house and then washed her hands of him. They lived in tents while it was built and him with all those small kiddies across the winter. She was a hard woman and punished them all for Reuben’s wrong. That was her utu and those tamariki never forgave her. It was wicked but she wouldn’t let nobody from this side help him out. It broke his heart being banished from his own son and he never got over it.” Leslie’s voice ceased and Hana let the word utu roll around her mouth without speaking it out loud. It was a form of plundering aimed at righting a wrong after battle, but what Phoenix Du Rose took was more than just possessions.
Leslie sighed. “It wouldn’t have worked, not Reuben and Alfred under the same roof trying to raise the boy. The older boys knew about Logan and word always gets out with kids. They hated that poor tamaiti and he had no idea why.”
Leslie pressed her forehead against the cool glass and let out a long breath. “I should never have taken up with Alfred when I moved upstairs. It was an accident, two lonely old people finding a bit of happiness. I know the other staff hated it and I forgot my place, especially with you and Mr Logan. I dealt with things all wrong. I felt such guilt over all the times I covered for Miriam while she met with her lover and I saw what it did to Alfred, how he used to watch her with his heart all cut up inside. He didn’t deserve it and I shouldn’t have helped them. When I realised Logan knew, I thought he would tell Alfred. I’m too old for all the drama so I decided to do the right thing. I went to see him at the bunkhouse and told him myself. He was devastated.”
Hana lay a towel across her shoulder and put the baby over it. She was almost long enough to balance her toes on Hana’s thigh and felt heavy. She put both of her little arms around her mother’s neck and snuggled in. Hana kissed the side of her face and pulled her in closer. Leslie was silent and Hana watched her. “What do you want?” she asked eventually.
The old woman looked at her strangely, as though not understanding the question. “I don’t know. Why does it matter what I want?”
“It always matters,” Hana replied. “Because if you don’t know, how can you expect other people to?”
Leslie looked stunned and Hana felt sad for her, remembering tales of the abusive gambling husband who robbed her blind their whole married life and then dropped dead, leaving her to pay off his loan sharks. If Logan hadn’t intervened, Leslie would still be in that derelict house without any furniture, watching them take her wages week after week for the rest of her life. “Do you want to be with Alfred?” Hana asked and Leslie blanched before nodding, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “Then tell him,” Hana said. “See if he can forgive you and then carry on enjoying each other’s company.”
Leslie’s eyes almost popped out of her face with shock and she gaped like a fish. “That’s the thing,” she stammered. “He asked me to marry him and I knew I had to tell the truth. But part of me knew there’d be a big scandal. He’s meant to wait a year, until after the unveiling otherwise the whānau will believe he never loved her.”
Hana shrugged, regretting getting involved. “It’s your life, Leslie, not theirs. You need to talk to Alfred, but you won’t know anything until you try. I’ve spent far too much of my life avoiding stuff and running away from issues which blow up out of nowhere. What I’m learning with the Du Roses, is to either put up or shut up. I’m sitting in here now because I’ve come across something to ‘shut up’ about, but I’m picking my battles. There’s a ‘put up’ coming, believe me.”
Hana thanked Leslie for the tea, standing up with Phoenix still draped over her shoulder. Giving a little sigh, Phoenix stuffed her hands between her body and Hana’s and turned her face to the other side, closing her eyes and dozing. Hana decided the little girl was auditioning for family sloth. “Good luck,” she said kindly and left the room, hoping she hadn’t set the older woman up for one heck of a fall. “I think I’ve given enough advice today,” Hana whispered to her daughter. “It’s wearing me out!”
The Du Roses didn’t do ‘talking’ or ‘feelings.’ Hana discovered that major problem soon in her marriage, although Logan had softened since the baby. He had become far more adept at explaining the things that bothered him, yielding significantly less run-ins and misunderstandings. He was also better at listening, but it had taken a number of brave moments while Hana blocked his escape route and forced him to explain himself, in order to get this far. Standing in front of an angry, frustrated Logan Du Rose who had all the signs of detonation in his eyes, was no mean feat. What she said to Leslie was true, she was learning to pick her battles. This last generation grew up in a world of secrets and lies and there was no wonder they were scarred by it. Then again, Hana’s sedate upbringing hadn’t been as perfect as she believed. She shook her head and climbed the spiral staircase.
Liza was no longer in their room and Hana couldn’t see any blood on the floorboards. Logan lay on their bed re-reading ‘Lord of the Flies’, ready to teach it to the Year 11’s next term and the corner of the room was piled high with the boxes from next door. Hana eyed them with amusement. She resisted the urge to make any snide comments about the title of the book in Logan’s hand, in which the character names could easily be substituted for those of Du Rose family members. Logan closed the book as Hana turned the heat pump on again, memorising the page so that he didn’t have to splay its cover. “Sorry about before,” he said, holding out his arm towards her and shifting over. “I was being an arse. I shouldn’t take it out on you.”
“No, you shouldn’t!” she replied. Hana plonked herself down on the bed and hearing her father’s voice, Phoenix reached out with both arms towards him, almost tipping herself out of Hana’s grip. He took her and settled her on his chest. “Liza hung around for a bit. We thought you might come up for a group hug.” There was a smirk in his voice and Hana turned away to hide her smile. She looked back and wrinkled her nose and shrugged. Logan looked hard at her. “Don’t you care anymore?”
“It’s not that.” Her voice betrayed her tiredness. “I’ve got too many scorch marks on my backside already. And anyone who tries to get between you lot is always the one who ends up burned. I think you need to sort it all out yourselves. It’s probably the only way I’ll to survive being in this family.”
Logan lay back against the pillows, patting his daughter gently on the back. He looked as though his striking grey eyes were closed but Hana perceived the swish of his long black lashes as he observed her covertly from the side. “Well, you’re no fun anymore,” he said. “I enjoyed that smack in the face you gave Kane a while back. And I know Michael appreciated the matching pair of black eyes a couple of weeks ago. You’re getting a worse reputation than me.”
Hana sighed and put her head on his shoulder. “I didn’t think you saw me whack Michael with that plate. You had your face in the tea towel, bleeding. He actually took a swing at you, even though you couldn’t defend yourself. Violence isn’t the answer anyway. I thumped Kane and then look what happened to that naughty hand.”
Hana looked down at the angry scar on her wrist. Life was peculiar sometimes with its twists and turns. “Then I defended you against Michael and had a heart attack a matter of hours afterwards. Being in this family is lethal.”
Phoenix grinned at her mother from her prime spot on Logan’s chest and Hana smiled back. “Nope, I think God’s trying to tell me something.”
Logan laughed, “What like? Stop hitting whānau members, or stop defending your husband?”
“Both,” Hana replied. “He says you’re big enough and ugly enough to stand up for yourself.”
“Na,” Logan said with a low chuckle, “now I know you’re lying. Cause I’m not ugly.”
Hana drew in a loud breath and slapped him on the thigh, calling him vain and openly laughing at him. The rain hammering against the front of the hotel made her jump. “This weather is crazy!” she exclaimed. “I thought I’d go up to the memorial gardens and see how they’re coming along but the rain made it pointless. I don’t know how your stockmen cope with it.
“They’re all back,” Logan said with a yawn. “They’ll do inside jobs with tack or machinery or go back to the bunkhouse. But it works both ways because the jobs still need doing.”
“Do they have to catch up tomorrow?” Hana asked and Logan nodded.
“Yep, or the weekend. They don’t care. It’s just the way this industry is and they’re mostly glad of a well-paid job they love. If they didn’t like it, they’d move on, wouldn’t they?”
Hana nodded, figuring it helped that Logan spent many long hours fencing in the rain and wind and calving or foaling in the middle of the night with his men. His work ethic was faultless and it left no room for anyone not wanting to do the same.
Feeling chilled to the bone, Hana ran a mid-morning bath. Phoenix heard the water running onto the bubbles and began an entertaining striptease, pulling at her cardigan buttons and when that failed, pulling it over her head and getting stuck. Hana piled her hair onto her head in a scrunchy and sank into the deep bubbles. It felt like heaven; until Logan appeared in the doorway with a naked Phoenix and plonked her on Hana’s stomach. “Oh don’t, Loge!” Hana protested as Logan stripped off and climbed in as well, making the water slop over the edges. “What happened to my five minutes peace?” She laughed as he grimaced, trying to get comfortable at the plug end.
Phoenix came alive, shrieking, squealing and slapping the water in a frenzy of excitement. She was wriggly and slippery and hard to hold onto. Logan spent ages showing her how to make funnels from his mouth with the bathwater. She laughed like a drain, even when he got her in the face by accident. “I’d stop doing that soon, if I were you,” Hana suggested. “We should probably get her out before she pees.”
Logan pulled a face and wiped his wet hand across the back of his mouth, adding, “Or worse.”
Hana laughed but before she could speak, he held his hand up. “Please don’t remind me. It was horrible.”
Logan stepped out of the bath and reached for a towel, looking bashful as Hana ogled him without shame. “Not in front of the children!” he chastised.
Phoenix kicked up a fuss when he lifted her out and Hana heard him telling her they were going to get lunch in a minute, which seemed to stop her high pitched squeal. Hana used the soap and let out the cold water before running hot back in. “Aren’t you coming down?” Logan asked, appearing in the doorway with the baby, both of them dressed.
“I’m not hungry,” Hana admitted. “I feel so tired today. You go down and I’ll stay here for a bit.”
Logan looked unsure, not wanting to leave her alone in the bath. Hana rejected his offer of bringing something up from the kitchen, suddenly craving time alone with her thoughts. Reluctantly he left her there and went to feed his grumpy daughter.
He returned an hour later and he was alone. Hana lay on the bed in a towel, warming herself under the heat pump which was on sauna level. “Leslie asked for Phoe,” he said, climbing onto the bed and slipping his arm around his wife’s shoulders.
“I think she’s going to see Alfred,” Hana commented. “Did she drive or walk? It’s awful out there.”
“She drove. I gave her the Honda keys because it already had the car seat in it.” Hana nodded and sighed. “What’s the matter?” Logan asked and Hana shook her head.
“I honestly don’t know. Maybe I’m stir crazy with the weather and being so tired all the time. I seem to have a lot of worries going round and round my brain and don’t know how to sort them out. Sorry. I’m not good company am I?”
Logan smiled and pulled the scrunchy out of her hair, feeling it drop easily from the silky red tresses. He kissed her neck and Hana squirmed and giggled. “I’ve got very definite ideas about how a rainy, childless afternoon should be spent,” he breathed, running his hand along her thigh and as he tugged Hana’s towel loose, began to show her.
Hana’s fingers trailed down his strong chest, feeling the defined muscle through his skin. She pushed him onto his back and smoothed her palm along the scar tissue on his torso, seeking the mess of ridged flesh down his side. Hana kissed Logan’s pectorals in turn and let her lips slide over his nipple, hearing him inhale. “I love your body,” she whispered, her breath snuffing over his soft skin. “I never want to hear you say it’s mangled again. Do you understand?” She sank her teeth into the bud of his nipple and he let out a groan and flipped her on her back with force.
Hana squealed as her towel disappeared over the side of the bed and Logan’s lips pressed against hers, his tongue questing for entry. He paused, his eyes the colour of stone. “Tutakina ake,” he whispered and covered her mouth again with his.
Chapter Fifteen
Leslie stayed at Jack’s place with Alfred and Phoenix for most of the afternoon. When she finally returned, she discovered Hana and Logan sitting on the floor of their bedroom, going through the boxes and containers from the marae. Phoenix was bright eyed and alert and sat on the rug next to Logan, watching him closely and attempting to grab every object emerging from the boxes.
Leslie sat on the bed and chewed her lip, angst present in her crinkled face. “Agh, youse shouldn’t be doing that!” she said, worrying at the fingers in her ample lap. “Them’s tapu. I can feel how sacred they are from here.”
“The kaumātua seemed to think it was fine for us to go through everything,” Hana reassured her, piling the framed photographs up to one side as Logan handed them over. “Who are all these people?” she asked and Logan shrugged.
“Alfie might know,” Leslie ventured and Logan’s body tensed in irritation at the nickname the housekeeper used.
“Well, sod off and ask Alfie then!” he hissed under his breath.
Hana heard and fumbled the frame in her hands, clanking it roughly against the others. “Sorry,” she said, staring at her husband. Logan kept his face pushed into the box and wouldn’t look at her. Turning to Leslie, Hana raised her eyebrows in question and Leslie smiled and gave her the thumbs up. Hana jerked her head towards Logan, asking with her eyes if she could tell Logan. Her face fell with guilt as she saw Leslie’s complexion pale and found Logan looking straight at her, annoyance in his eyes.
“Would you like me to leave the room?” he asked crossly and Hana shot a look at Leslie. She blanched and Hana shoulders drooped. This wasn’t the way things were meant to happen and now she had ruined it.
“Don’t be silly!” Hana chided him. “We can talk about sore boobies and periods and nipple creams perfectly well with you here.”
Logan looked at her sideways and narrowed his eyes. He knew he was being bluffed but his eyes channelled warning to his wife. He would get it out of her later. “I’ve had enough of this now,” he said, placing large piece of jade back into the box nearest him with extreme care. Phoenix made a capable swipe at it and almost ended up with it on her head.
“What is that?” Hana asked, stroking the smooth surface as it lay on top of another stack of framed photographs and pictures.
“It’s greenstone or pounamu,” Logan answered, pushing himself to his feet and catching up the baby, who squealed with delight. “It’s a mere, a weapon, like a club. Depending on how old it is, it can have great mana, which increases as it’s handed down. We need to find out more about all of this stuff. Maybe the kaumātua will know.”
“Are the cops any nearer to discovering what happened to that poor man who fell down the stairs at your work?” Leslie asked, making herself sound interested in the stranger’s death and trying desperately to take the conversation away from herself and the tapu objects on the bare floor. She shifted with discomfort as Hana hefted a leather bound book back into a box. “Ooh, careful missus,” she groaned as a frame clattered against another. “I’m scared you don’t understood how Māori ways work.” She wrung her hands as though in pain and eyed the opened box with fear in her brown eyes. There was something powerful coming off the objects which made her feel unsettled and nervous. They were so precious, more precious than Hana understood.
“I don’t know,” Logan said with a sigh, his voice sounding sad. “Initially it looked like an accident but Bodie seems to think they’ve revised that and are looking at it differently. He wasn’t real clear about why. I guess we’ll find out in a few days.” He threw his daughter up in the air and fearless, she squealed and wiggled her legs, wanting it again.
