She let out a sigh as she thought of Charlie, her darling son. She had meant to meet him off the boat earlier, but a lugger had arrived unexpectedly with a rich haul of shell and she had become distracted and missed him.
On the one hand, she was extremely proud that all her hard work and her canny nose for business had not only restored but grown the Mercer empire over the past seventeen years. And that Charlie would inherit the fruits of her labour lock, stock and barrel when he turned twenty-one in just two days’ time. On the other hand, she felt guilty that he’d been made a virtual orphan by the business and her dedication to it.
At least her guilt was partially salved by knowing that while she’d been toiling at the office, he’d been nurtured at home under Camira’s protective wing, with Cat always close by as a playmate. The special bond that had continued to flourish between them over the years had not escaped Kitty’s notice. Even when he’d left for boarding school in Adelaide, a wish of Andrew’s that she’d honoured and, under the circumstances, the best solution, the two of them had spent his holidays together.
It was perhaps just as well that Elise Forsythe, an extraordinarily pretty and well-bred young lady, newly arrived in Broome with her family, would be joining the company as Charlie’s secretary when he took over the business fulltime. Kitty had hand-picked Elise for the position. Although she mentally chided herself for her matchmaking, it was vital that Charlie chose a suitable wife who could love and support him as he took on the role of head of the Mercer empire.
As for herself, she’d told no one of her own plans yet, but she had a clear idea of what she would do once she finally handed over the reins to her son. She worried about not having the distraction of work in future, since it had given her mind somewhere else to go whenever it began to wander in the direction of Drummond and all that had happened seventeen years ago . . . The devastation she had felt at his loss, doubled by an equally painful loss five months later, had almost destroyed her.
There had been no one else since, although there had been any number of suitors willing to put their hats in the ring to wed the young, beautiful and very wealthy owner of the most successful pearling business in Broome. When she’d promised herself never to love again after Drummond had left, she had kept to her word. Her lover had been her business; her bedtime companions the accounts ledgers.
‘Good grief! I’ve become a man,’ she said with a grim chuckle. Then, putting her glasses back on, she returned her attention to the ledger.
*
‘Thank you, Alkina.’ Charlie gave her a surreptitious wink as she served both him and his mother breakfast. As usual, Alkina ignored it for fear of his mother noticing, but given that Kitty’s nose was buried as usual in the pages of the Northern Times, it was unlikely she’d notice if the ceiling fell upon her head.
‘My goodness,’ Kitty said with a sigh as she turned the page of her newspaper. ‘There’s been a riot at Port Adelaide. It’s lucky you left in time.’ She shook her head and put the paper down to speak to Charlie. ‘Have you had a chance yet to peruse the guest list for your birthday dinner on Thursday evening? I’ve invited the usual clutch of the great and the good in Broome. I can hardly believe that in a few days you’ll be taking your rightful place amongst them. How time flies,’ Kitty sighed. ‘It seems only yesterday that you were a babe in my arms.’
Charlie wanted to retort that the past twenty-one years felt as if they had gone excruciatingly slowly; he’d waited for this moment for so long. ‘No, not yet, but I’m sure you will have left no one out, Mother.’
‘This afternoon, Mr Soi is coming with your pearling master’s uniforms. I’ve ordered a dozen, although it looks to me as though you have lost weight since I last saw you. What have you been eating in Adelaide, I wonder? And this morning I wish for you to accompany me to the office. I have employed a very efficient young lady called Miss Forsythe to be your secretary. She comes highly recommended and is from one of the best families in Broome.’
‘Yes, Mother,’ Charlie responded, used to her irritating habit of trying to set him up with any female under the age of twenty-five who came to town. Surely, he thought, as his gaze followed Alkina’s lithe body out of the room, his mother knew that he only had eyes for one woman? What a relief it would be when he made his announcement and the whole charade would be over.
‘So, we shall meet by the car in thirty minutes?’
‘Yes, Mother,’ he said as he watched her rise from her chair. He knew the locals wondered if she was happy, commenting on how, after almost seventeen years since her husband’s disappearance, it must be possible to apply for an annulment on the grounds of desertion. After all, she was just into her forties. He had tentatively raised the subject with her a couple of years ago, emphasising that she shouldn’t feel guilty if she wished to officially end her marriage to his father.
‘I really wouldn’t mind. I just want you to be happy, Mother,’ he’d finished lamely.
‘I appreciate your sentiments and thank you for them, but I shall never marry again.’ Seeing the look on his mother’s face as she had swept from the room, Charlie had never taken the subject further.
As his mother went to her study to collect her business ledgers for the day, Charlie went in search of Alkina. He came upon Camira in the kitchen.
‘Cat gone out, Mister Charlie,’ she said before he could even ask. ‘She gottum errands. Dun worry, she back later. You get outta here.’ She shooed him out of the kitchen, and Charlie trudged despondently to his bedroom to get ready for the office.
It was four months since he’d last been home from Adelaide, the longest time he and Alkina had ever been separated, and he was desperate to hold her in his arms. When he’d finished his final university exams at the end of November, he’d already packed to return to Broome. But he was literally stopped at the door by a telegram from his mother telling him that his grandmother Edith had died the night before. Instead of boarding the ship, he’d been ordered to wait for his mother in Adelaide to make the necessary arrangements.