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.There's a magnificent painting in the other room.The light wastoo bad to see the name of the artist, but I wouldn't mind betting it's a Dutch master.""It is," he confirmed."One of my mother's family English originally-worked for the Dutch East Indiacompany.He lived in Batavia for many years.He acquired it there.""So it's yours through your mother."His expression was grim."My mother died without a will.Anyone so young and beautiful was meant tolive forever.Her premature death was never foreseen.She often pointed out what things were mine.Thepaintings, the jade collection, the porcelains-all her family stuff.The one time I mentioned it to Dad, hetold me to go to hell.He was drunk and in a brutal mood.It was all his until he died, and he had nointention of dying before he reached ninety.""Then he better start looking after himself," Jessica said."He must have a problem with high bloodfile:///E|/My%20Library/books/ROMANCE/margaret%20wa.tback/2%20the%20cattleman%20TXT/the%20cattleman.txt (81 of 132)11/05/2010 14:37:51file:///E|/My%20Library/books/ROMANCE/margaret%20way/men%20of%20the%20outback/2%20the%20cattleman%20TXT/the%20cattleman.txtpressure.He's like a pressure cooker threatening to blow the lid.""Maybe, but he's never had a sick day in his life.Probably the bad stuff will happen all at once.Hesurvived a plane crash, did you know? Walked away from it with only a few lacerations.The pilot waskilled.Dad thinks he's invincible.He thinks he's going to go on forever.Maybe take another wife.Rupert Murdoch fathered a child in his seventies.Men do.""Lucky old them!" Jessica said tartly, staring toward the back of the room."Listen.""The mice again?" He dropped a kiss on her hair, inhaling its freshness."The whispering has stopped.I swear it was real enough.It was like someone trying to contact me.""Not get rid of you?" he asked, rising and pulling her to her feet."Joke all you like." She shook her head."This place has a strange aura.There's not enough light aroundhere, either.It's dangerous in a way.Any of that stuff up there in the rafters could fall.""Except there's no wind to move it:" He lifted a dust sheet that covered a very pretty writing desk."Mymother's:" The expression on his face had grown more intense."You didn't come across another paintingof our resident ghost?"She shook her head."It would take a month of Sundays to sort through all this.It should have beencatalogued.If there were such a painting, it could be anywhere, even up there." She pointed high up onthe wall to what could have been covered paintings secured by an iron brace."I can't explain it, but Ican't help thinking there is one.There are a lot of shadows around your father.It seems to me that themore strident he was when denying the existence of anything relating to Moira, the more I thought hewasn't telling the truth.""That's a state of affairs that's been going on a long, long time.We'd better go," he said."And don't sayanything about being inside or Livvy giving you the key.""Of course I won't," she said indignantly."I'll try to find another way to get in.Your father's tough, buthe's not that tough.""Not when he's in the middle of creating a fantasy." He picked up the white marble bust of a young girl."Mignon," he read the inscription."My mother's.""It's beautiful." She realized just being in here and seeing his mother's things was upsetting him.She wasabout to turn back when a voice clearly said:Don't go.She almost couldn't breathe, stumbling back against C'yrus."Did you hear that?""What? I didn't heard a thing, but I have to say it's a little weird in here."She caught his hand, holding tightly to it.He laughed, looking down at her."I'm starting to see another side of you, Jessica.""You're not too happy here yourself.""Then let's get out."They were almost at the entrance to the main room when there was a blast of wind that rushed at themwith surprising force.Then a loud crash."What the hell!" Cy swore."It has to be the window I opened."Cy strode into the main room, looking quickly around him."That makes no sense.No wind has blownup." He crossed to the door."It's perfectly still outside.The fronds of the palms aren't moving.""No glass shards on the floor, either." The window Jessica had opened was still on the hook, intact."Sowhat crashed?"file:///E|/My%20Library/books/ROMANCE/margaret%20wa.tback/2%20the%20cattleman%20TXT/the%20cattleman.txt (82 of 132)11/05/2010 14:37:51file:///E|/My%20Library/books/ROMANCE/margaret%20way/men%20of%20the%20outback/2%20the%20cattleman%20TXT/the%20cattleman.txt"Must have been the other room.We must have disturbed something.It could easily have been apedestal or a lamp." He said it matter-of-factly to counteract the strangeness of the occurrence."Time to take our ghost seriously, wouldn't you say?""Big girl like you believing in ghosts." But he, too, felt edgy without knowing why."That's the cause," Cy said when they saw how half a dozen paintings had come down from the wall."The strap must have broken.""The ghost got to it," Jessica said stubbornly."Doubt it." Cy dropped to his knees.Jessica joined him, the two of them pulling the pictures from their coverings one by one.No portraits.Acouple of good still lifes.A flower painting Tim would have loved, a beautiful storm scene by a famousAustralian artistJ essica didn't need to see the signature to recognize the work-a forest scene and anabstract that could have represented a star being born.The canvas had come away from the gilded framein the fall."Something has to be done about these," Jessica, the artist and lover of all beautiful things, said."Leaving them like this is a crime.""Okay, so we will do something about it," Cy said, pierced by her criticisms, which were warranted."Itry to avoid major blowups with my father, but one's long overdue: ""I guess so," Jessica said, rewrapping the flower painting."He's afraid of you, you know.""No way!" Cy was startled."Oh yes he is," Jessica maintained."You're everything he's not.""That deserves another kiss." He put his arm around her neck and kissed the sensitive spot behind herear."You're kiss deprived, that's your trouble," she said."I've had hordes of girls chasing me," he said, then continued his inspection of the paintings."You never married one.I'll leave you to rewrap the abstract, although it really should be reframed.What do you think?""Let's have a look," he suggested."It's getting dark in here." He broke off abruptly, his fingers slippingdown behind the canvas."There are two paintings here," he said, sounding intrigued."What?""Take a look for yourself.There's another canvas here."Cy rested the large painting against himself while she looked."Push the canvas backward.""Right out of the frame?""Yes.It'll be okay."Cyrus obliged while Jessica separated the two paintings.One filled up Jessica's vision.She rocked back on her heels in shock."How is it possible this has been hidden for so long?"Momentarily she looked away from the newly revealed painting to stare into Cyrus's eyes."It's Moira."She started to tremble."Who else!" he said in a hard, considering way."And horror of horrors, a nude!""God, yes," Jessica whispered.Moira was reclining on a couch covered in green silk, her back and shoulders propped by cushionscovered in rich fabrics.Her beautiful long hair fell over her shoulders and her white, pointed breasts.She looked extraordinarily vivid yet fragile.Her skin was luminescent.Her eyes glowed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]