The Lightkeeper's Wife - By Karen Viggers Page 0,32

the girl’s imperfections. At least he’d been happy, his face beaming with a quiet steady warmth. For a while he’d lost the faraway look that had followed him from childhood: the legacy of the cape. But then, after Antarctica, the distant look had returned and it had never quite left him. Jess filled a few gaps, but a dog, however attentive, could never fill the void created by lack of human company. Tom needed another wife, and soon. While the chance of children was still within reach. He’d be good with children. She shuffled to the couch and eased herself down, tugging the blanket around her stiff legs.

Weather like this made her think of the cape. This time of the year, it was often overcast—all those grey days; heavy southern skies thick with low cloud weeping moisture. Then there had been miraculous days when the sky was polished clean and the clouds were like puffs of vapour on a mirror. The lighthouse reflected so much white it hurt your eyes, and the sea was a vast smooth sheet, achingly blue, with occasional whitecaps nipping its surface.

If you climbed the hill to gaze south to where the sky fell into the deep arch of the horizon, sometimes you’d see the southern sea stacks glimmering—Pedra Branca and Eddystone Rock, the last pillars of land before the sea stretched beyond imagination to the distant land of ice. On days like that, you could feel pleasure so acute it erased pain and transcended troubles. You could stand for suspended lengths of time when you were supposed to be hanging out washing, gazing instead around the yellow arc of Lighthouse Bay, or watching sea eagles lifting high over the cape on the breeze.

A cough rattled somewhere deep in her chest. She should take her medication. There was fluid in her lungs and the doctor would say she must increase her dose of diuretics. She twisted to peer at the clock. Nearly ten. The ranger might come soon. What was his name? She ought to remember. It was important.

Leon—yes, she was sure that was it. It was annoying the way names slipped from her these days. She had little patience for these memory blanks; they caused her to stumble mid-thought.

She limped to the bench and set out two cups, popped tea bags in them and tipped Arrowroot biscuits onto a plate. Everything must be ready when he came. Her offering looked pitiful, but it was the best she could do. She swallowed her tablets and sat down to wait. Finally she heard the car, then footsteps on the deck, and Leon’s knock shook the door.

‘Come in,’ she called.

She stood up as the door opened, almost losing her balance, and grasped the edge of the couch. He frowned from the doorway as a coughing fit struck her, doubling her over. She’d meant to greet him enthusiastically, but now she was breathless. He moved forward and helped her back onto the lounge. From the skew of his mouth, she could see he was irritated.

‘What are you doing, Mrs Mason? Next time, don’t stand.’

‘I didn’t want you to run away again.’

He glanced at her with shuttered eyes, barely concealing his impatience. ‘I have a job to do.’

‘You resent looking in on me?’

He maintained a sullen silence.

‘I have a cup of tea ready for you,’ she said, struggling up once more. ‘Yesterday you said you’d stay. The water’s just boiled.’

He sank onto the couch with a resigned sigh, pushing the rug aside.

‘Do you like your job, Leon?’ she asked as she lit the stove.

He ran his hands through his hair, head bowed. ‘What I like about it is not talking to people.’

This was not good. ‘Well, I need some things today,’ she said, cajoling. ‘And it’s hard for me to ask without talking, isn’t it?’ There was nothing she needed, but it was an excuse to keep him here. ‘How’s life at Adventure Bay?’

He grunted. ‘Same as usual.’

‘Anything changed?’

‘Not much. New café owner, selling the same crap coffee.’

‘You like coffee? I only have tea.’

‘I like working,’ he said. ‘Not sitting around.’ He scuffed his feet, stared at the floor and then out the window. Looked everywhere, except at her.

‘Why do you live in Adventure Bay if you hate it?’

‘I didn’t say I hated it.’

‘Well, it’s not very common, is it? Young men like yourself living on the island?’

‘I live with my folks.’

She raised both eyebrows at him. ‘How old are you?’

‘A quarter your age.’ He was being insolent now, payback