iii

Mrs Morova had been expecting them and gave them a tour of the house when they arrived. It was modest but well appointed. Kate could tell they were wealthy by their furnishings and the original artworks on the walls. There was an alarm system and Lydia showed Kate how to use it and then gave her a set of keys. Kate felt comfortable with Lydia, she was gentle and motherly and similar in age to her own mother. Kate felt that they would be happy in the Morova household. Kate asked if she would be able to help out with the housework and cooking, she didn’t want to be a guest, “I could even pay board,” she suggested. “Oh, that won’t be necessary, no, I couldn’t take your money. You can help with the housework if you like, though we have a cleaning lady and I don’t think Yuri would accept anyone else’s cooking I’m afraid. He’s only ever had three women cook for him, his grandmother, mother and me!” Mrs Morova smiled, “Peter might though, he’s not so fussy. Perhaps you could even teach him a thing or two. I’m trying to get him housetrained! Maybe he would listen to you…” Lydia finished with a sigh. “I heard that Mum!” Peter entered the kitchen and kissed his mother on the cheek. He’d just returned from Uni for the day. “I won’t be home for dinner tonight, Mum. Gotta go back to Uni for a study group, we have a presentation next week.” Mrs Morova looked concerned, “you will eat though, won’t you?” Peter laughed, “of course, Mum! Can you imagine me not eating?” Lydia laughed too, “no, of course not, Son. Well, if you’re sure.” He kissed her again, “don’t worry ‘bout me, Mum. I’m old enough to look after myself!” Lydia scoffed, “oh, you think so, do you? I’d like to see that. You can’t even use a washing machine!” Peter ducked out of her way and grabbed an apple before disappearing to his room. Mrs Morova laughed, “you see? No girl in her right mind would marry him. He can’t even look after himself!” Kate strongly suspected Lydia spoiled him.

Dinner was always a lavish affair in the Morova household and usually consisted of three courses, a soup, main and dessert. ‘Lydia must spend half her day chained to the stove!’ thought Kate as the Borsch was served. It certainly was delicious and Yuri praised his wife whole-heartedly, “It’s almost as good as my grandmother’s!” Mr Morova obviously enjoyed his food and conversation was kept to a minimum while dinner was underway. Next came Hungarian Goulash, and it had plenty of heat. Kate had to add quite a bit of yoghurt to Jo’s, because he was reluctant to eat something so spicy. Kate apologised to Lydia, “he’s not usually fussy, he’s just not used to spicy food.” Lydia smiled, “my kids were the same when they were his age, don’t worry about it.” After the goulash came trifle, though it wasn’t a Russian dessert, it was Yuri’s favourite. Though of course it was spiked with vodka rather than the traditional sherry. Lydia had prepared a separate one for Jo, minus the vodka, for which Kate was thankful. She shivered at the taste of the vodka; “is something wrong?” inquired Lydia, concerned. “Oh, no, I just don’t touch spirits, my husband was a heavy drinker….” She left it hanging for the Morovas to draw their own conclusions. She smiled inwardly to herself, she was beginning to enjoy colouring Julie’s past. Kate and Jo retired early after dinner. Kate wanted to check her e-mails.

She put Jo to bed and he read to himself. She checked on Benny and satisfied that he was all right, she booted up her computer. She rapidly deleted the junk in her inbox and got to the juicy stuff. There were e-mails from John, her mother and Ben. Ben was e-mailing her almost daily now as he received her letters. Kate saved his message till last. She wanted to savour every word. In fact, she wrote a short message to Steve before she read Ben’s. She felt guilty for neglecting Steve so long and she still hadn’t heard from him. She hoped that they could still be friends. She knew how hurt he had been by her new relationship. At last it was time for Ben’s message. She made herself a cup of herbal tea and settled back on her bed for the read. The message was a decent length and Ben wrote of what he had been up to as well as commenting on Kate’s progress. Kate wished his words were accompanied by his scent, sound and touch, oh, how she yearned for him!

Kate had dreamed of Ben again last night. She missed him so much. She just pined to hear his voice again, feel his touch and catch his scent. His scent had faded from her scarf now and she didn’t need to wear it anymore anyway. They took Benny for a walk along the beach after breakfast. Kate bought the local paper and read it on the sand while Jo played fetch with Benny. It took her only twenty minutes to finish the whole paper. It was a tabloid and most of what it reported was gossip and confabulation. It wasn’t a patch on The Age. She watched Jo and Benny and the other people using the beach. A few brave souls were swimming. Kate shivered, she knew how cold the Southern Ocean was and the air temperature was far too cool for swimming yet. She wondered if Jo could swim, they’d have to go and experiment as a local pool. “Come on Jo, its time for your lesson!” Jo ran to her side and she dusted all the sand off him. They walked back to the Morova’s place and Kate set up a temporary school space in her room for them to do their lessons. She didn’t want Jo to associate his own room with work. He was doing so well and enjoying it that Kate decided they could work in three sessions a day. Reading followed by maths, with more reading or maths on alternating afternoons. Reading would be on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and maths would be on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Lydia looked in our their lessons regularly as she had promised Kate that she would supervise on the days that she was working. Kate had bought some new books on Friday and they were working well for Jo.

The day had warmed up considerably by lunchtime and Kate decided to forgo their afternoon lesson in favour of a trip to the local pool. Jo didn’t yet have bathers so they ambled up Jetty Road browsing through the surf shops. They eventually found a place that stocked children’s sizes and Jo picked out a pair of boardies that he liked. She also bought herself a pair of bathers, plus two pairs of thongs and two beach towels and a sarong. She found herself a cheap pair of sunnies too. Lydia accompanied them to the pool. Kate collected a couple of kick boards and coaxed Jo into the water with difficulty. He was scared so she assumed that he had never been swimming. She fitted him with a couple of floaties and started in the wading pool where he could easily stand up. They just played in the shallow water for about ten minutes so Jo could get used to it, then they got out. Kate didn’t want to overdo it and put him off. They returned home via the gelati shop.

Jo experienced his first nightmare in over two weeks that night. He woke at 2.20am, cold, sweaty and frightened. It took Kate twenty minutes to calm him down and he wouldn’t let her leave him so she carried him to her bed and he eventually fell asleep beside her. She watched him for a time, wondering what had brought on the bad dream. It disturbed her greatly and she had trouble getting back to sleep herself. She woke early, tired, grumpy and stiff. Her sleep for the remainder of the night had been restless and disturbed. Her head ached like she had a hangover, but she couldn’t get back to sleep so she gave up and had a shower. Jo was still sleeping when she returned so she decided to take Benny for a walk along the beach. She let him off the lead and threw him the tennis ball, but he was used to playing fetch with Jo and wouldn’t do it properly for Kate. She gave up and returned to the house via the newsagents. She bought The Age, she’d already given up on the ‘tiser as the locals called it. ‘Tiser’ suited it; it was a sickly appetiser of a paper. The Age was the main meal. She wanted to buy the Financial Review as well, but Julie wouldn’t have read that. The Age was enough of a stretch. She bought a Woman’s Weekly for dessert, because she liked the crossword.

She was doing the crossword while Jo attempted his morning lessons. He couldn’t concentrate today and they gave up after half an hour and went to the beach with Benny. “What’s wrong Jo?” Kate had asked him as they walked. Jo ignored her so she asked again when they reached the sand. This time she knelt down and held his shoulders between her hands so she could look him in the eye. His eyes filled with tears and she clasped him to her chest. He heaved with a sob, “Jo, my Jo, what’s wrong? Don’t cry. No one can hurt you now my little man. I won’t let them,” she soothed and he gradually quietened down. She pulled him into her lap and ran her fingers through his fine, dark hair. It had lightened a bit with all the sun. “Jo, you’re my little man. I won’t ever let anyone hurt you. Do you understand?” She turned his head so he was looking at her, “Do you understand? No one can hurt you, I won’t let them.” He nodded and clung to her tightly. “Oh, Jo,” she said at last, “What did they do to you?”

They returned home and Kate let Jo draw. She didn’t want to push him today. She sat on her bed reading the paper and didn’t put it down till Jo tapped her on her knee. She put down the paper and Jo climbed into her lap and presented his pictures. Kate gasped, she couldn’t believe her eyes and she could feel tears prickling behind them. Jo had drawn his dreams and they were appalling. A small, crudely drawn boy, a woman and a grotesque man were pictured in each of the drawings. In one the man was holding the boy under water! Kate enfolded Jo into a close embrace as she burst into tears. Back and forth they rocked, both weeping. Kate had never imagined anything so horrifying for her precious boy. She didn’t want to believe it, but she couldn’t deny it. She knew that Jo would not make anything like this up and it explained all his little odd behaviours and reactions. When they had calmed down, Kate gathered up the drawings and put them away. She would show the pictures to the police, but no one else must ever see them, and Jo certainly didn’t need to be reminded of them. “Thank you, thank you, Jo. I won’t ever ask you again,” she promised solemnly, and she meant it. Jo was too precious to her to put him through anything like that again and she put off the idea of teaching him to swim, at least for a while. It had obviously precipitated the most recent nightmare. Jo slept in her bed for the rest of the week. He had the dreams again the following two nights but they diminished in intensity and his mood and concentration also improved. When Kate went to work on Monday she was confident that Jo would be fine without her for the day. She was looking forward to working.