Matilda Next Door - Kelly Hunter Page 0,43

the worst. ‘She’s with Henry. It was her mother’s funeral yesterday. Overnight. We went up Red Hill and watched the sunrise to honour her and then I came home.’ It sounded so normal when she said it like that.

Impromptu funeral notwithstanding.

‘Does baby Rowan have a lot of family back in the UK?’

‘None. Henry’s all she’s got.’

‘And how does Henry feel about that?’

Tilly shrugged. ‘I have no idea. He doesn’t really talk about any of that.’

‘What do you talk about?’

Tilly blushed, hot and hard.

‘Ah,’ her mother said delicately. ‘May I offer some advice?’

Was there a right way to answer that and not offend? She nodded warily.

‘Slow down. You’re moving too fast.’

‘He’s everything I’ve ever wanted.’ More. ‘I’ve loved him forever. I don’t know how to slow down when I’m with him.’

‘You’ll be taking on a baby who’s not your own,’ her mother warned. ‘One who doesn’t look like you or Henry.’

‘My heart’s big enough.’ Shamefaced, she ducked her head. Because her heart hadn’t been big enough this morning. She’d been jealous of a dead woman, both for capturing Henry’s attention when alive, and commanding it all over again in death. Doing everything but stamp her foot and say lookatme lookatme in an effort to secure his attention. ‘It’s only right he should mourn the passing of his daughter’s mother. He’s done nothing to make me think any less of him.’

‘I don’t disagree.’ Her mother’s voice was achingly gentle. ‘And yet here you are. Fretting over something, although I’m not quite sure what.’

‘He has this whole other life I’ve never been part of.’

‘Any one you date is likely to have that.’

‘And he’s clever and worldly, and I’m not, and that bothers me. Have you ever felt dumb around someone you really wanted to impress?’

Her mother sighed. ‘I imagine Henry’s already well aware not everyone can follow him on his intellectual flights. Besides, there are different types of intelligence. You have excellent people skills. I like to think you understand yourself pretty well too. What you feel. What you want. Whereas I suspect Henry has a lot of feelings he’s never unpacked and examined with an eye to understanding them.’

‘Do you think we’re a good fit? Me and Henry?’ She badly wanted her mother to say yes.

It didn’t happen. Instead, her mother headed for the jug and switched it on, buying time. ‘You want a cup of tea?’

Oh, this was bad. ‘Yes. Please.’ Didn’t mean she had to drink it.

Only when the tea had been made and Tilly’s cookie mix had been divvied out onto trays and put in the oven did her mother return to Tilly’s earlier question.

‘I think in many ways, you and Henry make an excellent match. What farming family doesn’t want their only daughter settled somewhere nearby so they can still be in her life? Even better if they can have visions of combining properties to form a farming dynasty. All those decades spent tending the land stays right where they want it—securely held in family hands. Your marriage to Henry Church would give us all of those advantages. I can see Beth and Joe being thrilled to bits too. They already know and love you. Isn’t that convenient?’

Her mother made a convenient marriage sound like the worst thing in the world. ‘If I want to be here, and I do, it is kind of convenient.’

Her mother smiled wryly. ‘And if money’s no issue—and I assume, given Henry’s résumé, that it isn’t—the pair of you can build a beautiful home on either Moore Creek or Red Hill and you’d enjoy that process too.’

‘I would.’ Know thyself. Her mother had said it was a strength.

‘Then there’s that little girl who needs a mother figure, and there you are with your very big heart. That works too.’

No argument there.

‘And if Henry loves, desires and respects you, I have no issue with you marrying him if that’s what you want. It works on many levels.’

‘So, you’re in favour?’

The older woman nodded. ‘The day I married your father I felt like the luckiest woman in the world. We’ve had our ups and downs, life happens. Drought and sickness and death happens. Financial worries, too. I used to stare up at the sky and think this year … this year we’ll find the money and the time to have a holiday at the coast. Married over forty years and we’ve managed it just twice.’ Her mother huffed a laugh. ‘And I still wake up next to that man every morning and think I’m the