The Sentinels of Eden, Books 1-4

Chapter 22

Chapter 20

On advice from the police, we decided to put some ‘Private Property’ signs up along the boundary to the state park. It was a huge undertaking, but if Kolsom came nosing around again it would be difficult to prosecute them for trespassing without them. So we enlisted the help of Noah and his family. Thankfully, his two older brothers Liam and Caleb were home from uni for the Christmas holidays. The twins had always been like big brothers to me. They had taught me to fish, to shoot and to drive. I had missed them terribly.

‘Hey, Lainie. You get prettier each time we see you. Has that little brother of ours netted you yet?’ Caleb teased automatically. Noah pretended to ignore him as he threw a box of tools into the back of his ute with a loud clatter. Caleb winced as a couple of ratchet heads bounced out and rolled across the tray. Above us a Currawong warbled out its early morning greeting and our rooster answered. We had decided to try to beat the heat by starting as early as possible.

I yawned again. ‘Nah, his ute’s the wrong colour. I only go for the black ones.’

Caleb clutched at his heart dramatically, looking mightily offended, and I could see Noah’s lips twitch in amusement. The twins had made no secret of their distaste for shiny black cars. They were for townies. Real utes had rust.

‘What colour car does the new farmhand have, then?’ Liam asked slyly, putting his arm around my shoulder as if inviting me to confide in him. Luckily Bane was out of earshot. I thought about his faded blue sedan that still carried the scars from the altercation with Jake’s dog and the bin.

‘I’m not sure, it’s too beaten up.’

‘And where is he anyway? He is coming to help, isn’t he?’ Caleb asked, looking around the yard eagerly. He had taken the cue from his brother and wanted to see the newcomer for himself, with the expectation that Bane would provide him with endless opportunities to tease me with.

‘Splitting wood. And yes of course he’s coming to help,’ I defended, trying subtly to remind them that just because he wasn’t farm bred didn’t mean he was useless.

The twins glanced at each other disdainfully. ‘Splitting wood in the middle of summer?’ Caleb asked.

Liam’s eyes lit up with an evil gleam. ‘Maybe he’s trying to impress someone.’

I made a rude noise. ‘Resounding no. He kind of went off in a huff, actually. We collected the tools from the shed but as soon as I got off the ladder he just sort of stormed off and—’

‘He held the bottom of the ladder for you?’

I nodded warily.

‘And then had a sudden urge to go and split firewood in forty degree heat in the middle of summer?’

‘Well, yeah, but—’

‘Perhaps he needed to let off some excess energy,’ Liam suggested, giving his brother a wink.

I rolled my eyes. Trust the twins to see it that way. Bane was always grouchy when I climbed things but I could hardly explain the reason for that.

‘It’s not forty yet,’ I grumbled, ‘but it soon will be and I’d rather not waste the coolest part of the day standing around here yapping. Are we ready to go or what? It’s going to take us ages to get this done.’ I felt myself blush and hoped like crazy they would leave Bane alone.

‘Yep, we’ll be doing this today, tomorrow, and a few after that I expect, especially if the new guy gets distracted so easily!’ Caleb spluttered, not even bothering to pretend to suppress his laugh.

In fact, the job took the rest of the week. There was an old fire access track that marked the boundary line but it hadn’t been graded for years so the rain had gouged out deep crevasses along it, and much of the encroaching ti-tree was so big that we needed the chainsaw to get the cars past. It was heavy work. We worked in two teams, one car leading and clearing the track, while the people in the other car nailed signs to trees. It was hard to keep up with hour after hour of hammering without my fingers taking a pounding every now and then. Bane was suffering for each missed stroke more than I was, so I tried to do the driving as often as I could instead. I only needed to be winched out once. Caleb, whose ute it was, just laughed and shook his head.

By the end of the second day my bodyguard and I had worked out a nice little system where he would cough loudly if I was about to injure myself, so I would freeze when I heard him and concentrate extra hard on what I was doing. It mostly worked. Except once I froze so long I got bitten by a bull-ant. Typical case of a causality loop. Hopping around like a frog on a rock, I yelped as I tore off my boot and sock and Bane, Liam and Noah all came bounding across to me. Bane got there first and laid one hand on my ankle while he squished the monster with his heel, before I even had a chance to show everyone how freaking huge it was. Of course, then I had to pretend that it still stung while Liam tried to find the bite. Noah peered curiously at Bane. Bane smiled right back at him kind of smugly, but at least he didn’t faint.

Finally we made it to the north end of the track where it turned on to the main road leading to the next town. The Ashbrees’s farm ran east of there so we put some signs along that road as well, just to make sure.

That evening Aunt Lily invited the Ashbrees over for dinner to thank them for all their help. I felt bad for Liam and Caleb having to spend an entire week of their summer break on such heavy work.

‘Don’t worry about it, Lois Lainie, farm work is farm work and that track needed clearing. They’re predicting a bad bushfire season this year. If anything, apologise to Dad because now we won’t have time to clear the back paddock for him.’

‘I can do it!’ Nicole piped in.

Caleb gave her a serious look. ‘You might break a nail though, Nic. Better leave it to the big boys,’ he provoked. She stomped on his foot. Hard. As they chased each other around the back yard I noticed Noah watching Bane irritably. Bane was looking at me. Our eyes met for a split second before I looked away self-consciously. Noah probably assumed there was something going on between us, and I was so annoyed by the idea that I went to help Aunt Lily with the roast.

After dinner Noah excused himself and went for a walk on his own outside and Liam and Caleb exchanged knowing glances. They were waiting to see if I would follow. Then when I didn’t, Caleb glared at me and drummed his fingers on the table. This was getting ridiculous. Nothing was going on, with either of them! Irritated at all of the boys of the world in general, I poked my tongue out at Caleb, dumped my plate in the sink and went out to find my friend.

He was waiting for me at our usual spot by the river, tearing leaves from a dead gum tree branch and tossing them one by one into the water. All the lovely spring rain we’d had was now just a memory and the river was a pathetic shadow of its former glory. Slimy broken logs and clumps of muddy leaves clogged up the edges where the water had receded. It could change so quickly. Tonight the music sounded calmer, as if the river was too tired and hot to cry anymore and just wanted to sulk for a while. Noah looked a bit sulky too. He had dark circles under his eyes; the week had been a tough one working out in the bush every day in such scorching weather, and the nights were so hot it was difficult for anyone to sleep. Sadly I was growing accustomed to that.

‘How are you doing, Noah?’ I asked, sitting down and leaning comfortably against him. ‘You got better results than you were expecting. Have you made up your mind about what you want to study next year?’

‘Not really. I think I might study by correspondence.’

That was a shock. I knew how much he’d been looking forward to going to the city. He’d spent years talking about his plans to share a house with a bunch of mates and get a part-time job in a local pub.

Picking up the end of my messy braid, he twirled a loose curl around his finger. It was a familiar gesture. ‘I’m a bit reluctant to leave Nicole here with just Mum and Dad. She needs someone around who she can talk to, and the three of them can’t run the farm without help.’

Lame excuse. Harry, Aunt Lily and I had always done okay and our place was bigger. Much bigger, in fact. I knew that overdeveloped sense of responsibility would get him into trouble one day. Still, he was a big boy now and didn’t need me to talk him into leaving. Especially given that the thought of him going off without me was so depressing. In fact I felt so selfishly relieved that he might stay another year that I couldn’t think of what to say. As a supportive friend, was I supposed to sound pleased or disappointed for him? So we sat quietly for a while. Until Noah found the courage to ask what had clearly been bugging him all week.

‘So, um … was I right? About Bane?’

I nodded as vaguely as I could. How much was I allowed to tell him? Luckily he seemed to be more annoyed than curious.

‘It’s brave of you to take him in after everything he’s put you through over the years. He healed your bite the other day, didn’t he?’

I slipped off my shoes and perched cross-legged on the rock. ‘Yeah. I don’t pretend to understand how it all works but apparently he gets sick if we’re too far apart, and he has to heal me when I get injured.’ I showed him my hands. My nails were still as raggedly broken any rural kid’s, but my skin was totally unblemished. Even my old burn scar from the wood heater was gone. ‘Sadly for him I never was very good with a hammer; he gets really dizzy each time he has to repair my thumb.’ That made Noah grin a little.

‘I suppose that explains why he watches you all the time. He can’t seem to take his eyes off you.’ He was glaring at the end of my braid as if he was furious with it. ‘Has he tried to kiss you yet?’

‘What? No! Of course not. He hates me, remember? I literally make him sick after all.’

Noah looked up at me hopefully. ‘Then you and he are not …’

I glared at him in exasperation. ‘Noah. Nothing’s happened. As if he would be interested in a lanky farm girl like me. Be serious.’

He pinned me with his bright green gaze. ‘You’re not just some farm girl, Lainie. You should have heard what some of the guys at school used to say about you when they thought I couldn’t hear them.’ Flinching his eyes away, he cut me off just as I opened my mouth to ask. ‘Actually, no, you should never ever hear that. Forget I said anything.’ Wavy blond hair masked his face as he turned away to stare at the river. With incredible self-control, I chose not to pursue the topic.

‘How are things going with Tessa by the way? Made any, um, progress?’

‘Nothing I want to tell you about,’ he snapped primly, as if he hadn’t just been prying into my own personal life.

‘Fine. Just let me know if you need me to cover for you with your mum.’

‘Actually, Mum’s been great. She adores Tess.’

That was a surprise, remembering the wobbly she’d chucked at school over Claudia. We watched the river slip past for a long time while I wondered what Tessa had done to win her over.

Lainie, there is always a choice.

Standing stupidly in my rubber gloves, I fretted at the note scrawled on Harry’s fridge. He’d been gone for a few weeks and the cottage was starting to get a bit funky. Aunt Lily was giving the bathroom a bit of a scrub while I took kitchen duty, but all I’d done so far was stare at the fridge. What was that supposed to mean? Did I have a choice whether or not to take up the role of a Cherub? Surely not. The sorts of compulsive behaviours that Bane and I had experienced were not the sort of things you could just choose not to participate in.

If he knew he was just going to leave me here and go off to Eden, then why couldn’t he leave me a more useful message? His one line phrase was about as helpful as a Chihuahua rounding up cattle. Irritably I disinfected the sink and threw out the few items of food that he’d left behind. There had to be a way to get into the Garden, somehow.

A couple of hours later Bane found me in the shopping centre trying to push my sweaty hair from my eyes while carrying an arm load of bags and a red icy-pole. He’d spent the day visiting his mum and Aunt Lily had dropped me in town for some last minute Christmas shopping. We hadn’t even needed to arrange where to meet, which was handy. He reached out as if to tuck my hair behind my ears but then thought better of it and relieved me of some of the bags instead. I bought him his own icy-pole as a reward for his gallantry. We dumped the shopping in his car and then headed towards the park. It was always a bit cooler by the river.

‘How’s your mum?’ I asked, kicking off my thongs and walking with tiny careful steps along a massive tree that had fallen across the river. Icy bliss numbed my feet and ankles as I dangled them into the lazy current. Unsure as to how much information he might have shared with his mother about his link to me, I was fishing for information.

‘Great. She’s very happy with me, actually. I just bought her a new portable air-conditioner. I’ve never earned much money before so it felt nice to buy something for her.’

I wouldn’t have considered that what we paid him was ‘much money’ either, but I suppose it helped that we were feeding and housing him as well.

‘How does she feel about you working on the farm?’

He peered at me sideways through his long lashes. ‘You mean, did I tell her that I live with a heavenly creature who is a sentinel of the Garden of Eden?’

I blushed a little. He was learning to read me way too easily. And ‘heavenly creature’? Good grief.

‘I haven’t said anything,’ he assured me, as he took his own shoes off and joined me on the tree. ‘And given that I dropped out of school and had to sit my exams in the back corner of the library at Horsham Secondary College with all the other students wondering who I was and why I always looked so green, I think she’s just happy that I’m working at all.’

I felt miserable as I looked out across the shallow river. I really had messed up his life and no free icy-poles were going to make up for that.

‘Perhaps when Harry gets back we can try spending some time together in the city,’ I suggested. ‘I could just take a few water drums with me. If it works out we could try renting flats that are close together and still … study.’ Awkwardly I realised I had never asked him what his plans for next year would have been.

He stared pensively across the glimmering water, taking his time to decide what to say. ‘Actually, I was planning on joining the army. That’s not possible now.’

‘Oh! Did you really do that badly? I thought you could still be a regular army guy without VCE at all. Just not an officer. Or you could sit your exams again next year,’ I encouraged. ‘I mean, it isn’t that you aren’t smart enough or anything.’

He looked me in the eye. ‘My results were fine. That isn’t the problem.’

Oh yeah. I think the army officials would notice if I had to stay within an hour of his location at all times. What a mess.

‘I’m so sorry, Ben. About everything. I treated you so badly when we were at school and now I’ve ruined all your career plans as well.’

‘You treated me badly? You weren’t the one setting lockers on fire and stealing homework,’ he pointed out, his graceful fingers plucking at a piece of bark.

‘That’s what happened to my geography assignment? I knew I hadn’t just lost it somewhere!’ I started poking him accusingly with my icy-pole stick.

‘It was my divinely appointed task to be the Bane of your life, don’t blame me!’ He laughed as he pinned my elbows to my sides with one arm and relieved me of my weapon with the other. I slumped in his arms.

‘You caught that, did you? I’m so sorry,’ I said again, losing the precious moment of frivolity.

‘Everyone caught that, Lainie. Even the teachers picked up on it. They didn’t even notice they were calling me that too. I don’t mind, you know.’ He glanced away. ‘It does fit.’ His arm was still holding me loosely and when he looked back at me, his astonishing blue-grey eyes trapped me like a leaf in a cobweb. ‘At least I know the reason why I did those things now,’ he continued. ‘You have no idea how much of a relief that is.’ Beneath his confident demeanour, I could still sense his nervousness, but he didn’t back away. ‘You and Lily have been unbelievably generous, letting me stay with you.’ This time he did move the hair back from my face. ‘I have a better understanding of who I am because of you. I’m happier now than I can ever remember … aside from maybe the Huntsman spider incident,’ he qualified. ‘You … you aren’t the person I thought you were.’

Sparkly little shivers ran down my spine at his touch. ‘Well that’s hardly surprising,’ I said. ‘I’m not the person I thought I was either. In fact, I’m not even the species I thought I was.’

His chuckle held the same subtle playfulness I’d glimpsed on those rare occasions when he forgot to be him. I liked it, and realised that he wasn’t the person I thought I knew either. He was so different when he was happy. I was getting lost in his closeness, and I found myself wanting to get closer so I pulled away determinedly. I wouldn’t do this to him too. Happy or not, he should still be left with some free will, not just hook up with me because it was supposedly ‘pre-destined’. As Harry had said, there was always a choice.

He let me go, and the usual broodiness clouded his eyes once again.