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Morgan pushed the half empty cup away. ‘I don’t understand. What did he do?’
Grace pursed her lips. ‘I thought Rebecca would have told you.’
‘I know he died when she was small.’ She hadn’t talked much about her family at all. If she did it was usually her mother’s illness. Even that was rare.
‘Doug got Emmy pregnant at their school graduation party. He put off going to university and got a job so he could marry her but he wasn’t cut out for working as a labourer and he couldn’t keep a job. Then he was injured at the sawmill on his first day and they amputated a couple of fingers. It was disastrous. He was a promising musician. He lost his scholarship and eventually killed himself. Rebecca found him hanging in the old meat safe at the back of their place.’
He couldn’t breathe. No wonder his mother had panicked. It must have seemed like history was about to repeat itself. Then the final words hit hard. ‘Becca found him?’
‘She probably doesn’t remember. She must have been only three or four.’
‘And then her mother married that pig. No wonder …’
He couldn’t get the image of Becca as a child, hiding in the barn, out of his head. He had nothing to complain about. His childhood had been idyllic in comparison. He’d been so damned blind to what had been happening around him. Only as an adult was he beginning to see things clearly.
‘Did you tell Becca about me?’
Grace wrinkled her nose. ‘Of course not. Your private affairs are not for public consumption.’
‘Surely she had a right to know why you didn’t want me told?’
‘She quite understood your studies were important.’
‘And you were determined I wouldn’t marry her. Even later, after I was finished studying and healthy again.’
‘It was your choice to not come back. If you’d come back when you were asked, before you went overseas, we would have told you.’
The truth hit him square in the gut. He’d been avoiding coming home and his mother played on it for her own reasons. ‘You didn’t put up much of an argument.’
For the first time, she flushed, showing a mottled colour under her carefully powdered cheeks. ‘That was a mistake.’
‘It came down to keeping Becca and I apart, didn’t it?’
Grace’s brows drew together in memory. ‘It seemed like the right thing to do. Your father didn’t agree.’
‘How did Becca feel about it?’
‘I didn’t ask. I suppose, looking back, she was disappointed. Before then she’d been quite receptive about going away and starting fresh. Once it was clear you weren’t coming back, she settled in. Quite stubborn about it. I was surprised. I didn’t think she had it in her.’
‘Why not?’
‘None of the Walters family came to much. No backbone. Doug was the best of them, and he threw it away.’
‘How do you know all this?’
‘I …’ She glanced across at the kitchen door. ‘I went out with Doug’s uncle, Stephen Walters. Briefly. A sickly family. The boys all had asthma.’
His mother had dated someone in Becca’s family? It didn’t sound like her at all. ‘Gabby hasn’t inherited it, has she?’
‘The girl is healthy as a horse. Edward had a touch of it when he was younger, but he seems to be growing out of it.’
He was getting as anxious as any parent over their children, including Edward. It was a disturbing feeling. Steering the conversation away from Becca and the children, he asked about his father’s health.
‘Better. He enjoys pottering around but he’s not up to looking after the farm.’
‘You’ve leased out most of the land?’
Ned answered from the door.
