‘I understand nothing! All I know is that you have fooled us all! You have masqueraded as my dead husband, allowed my child to believe his father is back from the grave, shown yourself to the townsfolk and presented yourself as Andrew at his office!’
‘And they believe me, Kitty. They believed I was Andrew, as you did. The idea came to me when I thought of the last time I’d come to visit, and the townsfolk – and you initially – believed I was Andrew. Yes.’ His arms dropped away from her shoulders. ‘I have lied – a terrible lie – but I had to take this opportunity. So, when I heard what had happened and made my way overland, I formulated my plan.’
‘So you knew before Port Hedland?’
‘Of course I knew! Good God, even the kookaburras hundreds of miles from here were shouting the news from the trees. It is the biggest tragedy to hit the region in decades.’
‘So, you decided to impersonate your brother?’
‘There has to be some advantage to having an identical twin. I’ve certainly never seen one before, but then I realised that perhaps it had all been for a reason. I consulted the heavens for advice as I sat alone by my campfire in the desert. They told me that life is very short on this earth. And although I may have been able to marry you one day when it was seemly to do so, the thought of wasting perhaps years being apart from you seemed pointless when I could come back and claim you as mine now. We could be together as man and wife, and everyone would rejoice that I was saved and—’
‘Drummond.’ Kitty used his name for the first time. ‘I think you must be mad. Do you not understand the implications of what you have done?’
‘Perhaps not all, but most of them, yes. I just wished to be with you. Is that so wrong?’
‘So you are prepared to change your identity and lie to every single person other than me about who you really are?’
‘If that’s what this takes, then yes. To be honest, I’m still stunned that my impression of Andrew was so excellent that no one questioned it!’
‘You have been far too fierce with me. In fact, you have been perfectly horrible.’
‘Then I shall tone down my behaviour towards you from now on.’
‘Drummond . . .’ Kitty was lost for words at his grotesque disregard for the gravity of his charade.
‘From now on you must call me Andrew,’ he replied.
‘I will call you what I choose to. Good God! This is not a game, Drummond. What you have done is completely immoral, even illegal! How can you wear your deception so lightly?’
‘I don’t know, but I look out there and picture my father and brother dead at the bottom of the ocean, already picked to nothing by sharks. And I think of you, Kitty, who almost left me too when you were so sick. I simply understand now how precious life is. So yes,’ he agreed, ‘I wear it lightly.’ Kitty turned away from him, trying to process the ramifications of what he had done.
To be with her . . .
‘I must admit that I am surprised you didn’t guess, even though I did my best to remain distanced from you physically.’ Drummond had removed his shoes and socks and was stepping out of his trousers. ‘For a start, surely you knew Andrew well enough to realise that he would never travel overland by horse and cart? In fact, I travelled to Broome by camel as usual, but I decided a cart sounded more realistic.’
‘Yes, I did think it strange, but at the time I had no reason to believe my husband would lie,’ she replied coldly. ‘Perhaps now you can tell me how you came to be saved.’
‘It was Andrew who asked me to leave the Koombana at Geraldton. He gave me a briefcase of money and told me where I must meet his contact and he showed me a photograph of what I was to collect in return. In short, he confessed himself too frightened to make the journey himself, and knew I had far more experience navigating Australia’s hinterland. Given that I was about to elope with his wife and son on my return, I felt it was the least I could do. A last good deed, if you will.’
‘And what was it you had to collect?’
‘Kitty, that is a story for another time. Suffice it to say that Andrew’s last-minute cowardice saved my life, and out of it, he lost his. If you had opened your telegrams, you would have found one from me warning you I was to meet Andrew here in Broome with his . . . prize, before sailing on to Darwin as I had planned. I wrote that I would be delayed by a few days and you were to wait for me there until I arrived. Now excuse me, but I need a swim to cool off.’
Kitty sat on the beach, her head not so much spinning as swirling. She watched as he dived into the waves in such an un-Andrew-like way, she could hardly believe that she’d been fooled. But fooled she had been, along with the rest of the town.
The implications of what he’d done and the risk he had taken hung over her like a curse. And yet, she could not help but imagine the happiness they could now share – legally – as a married couple.
How can you think like that, Kitty? Her conscience nudged her and she ground her palms onto the sand to bring herself back to reality.
What angered her most was the fact he hadn’t shared his plan with her, taking it for granted that she would want the same.
And she did. God help her, she did . . .
But what was the price?
Kitty knew it was a high one, but after the carnage of the past few weeks, what did it matter? If living in Australia had taught her anything, it was that human life was fragile; nature was in charge and cared not a jot for the havoc it wreaked on those who populated its earth.
Besides, she mused, her family had never even met Andrew; it was entirely possible that she could waltz home to Edinburgh with Drummond on her arm and they would be none the wiser. Australia was still a young country, and those brave enough to inhabit it had the gift of making up the rules themselves – and that was exactly what Drummond had done.
As he walked out of the sea towards her, shaking the drops off him like the dog that he was – a chancer and a charmer who, it seemed, would do anything to get what he wanted – Kitty finally glimpsed the reality of her future:
To be with Drummond, she would live a lie for the rest of her life, betraying two dead men and a grieving wife and mother. Let alone her precious son – an innocent in all this – who would grow up believing his uncle was his father . . .
No! No! This is wrong, it is wrong . . .
As Drummond approached her, Kitty stood up. She walked off along the beach, suddenly unable to contain her fury.
‘How dare you!’ she screamed to the sea and the clouds gently scudding above her head. ‘How dare you implicate me in your disgusting charade! Can’t you see, Drummond, that this isn’t one of your little games? What you’ve done is no less than’ – Kitty searched for the word – ‘obscene! And I shall have no part in it.’
‘Kitty, my darling Kat, I thought that you wanted to have a life with me. I did it for us—’
‘No, you did not! You did it for yourself!’ Kitty paced backwards and forwards on the sand. ‘You did not even have the grace to ask me what I thought beforehand! If anyone discovers the truth, there’s no doubt you would go to jail!’