An hour later, Cass was calmly sipping her herbaltea, looking out to sea, wondering when she could get to work on the illustrations, when Austin’s voice cut through to her.
‘What have you got planned for this afternoon, Cass?’
Why did the bloody man always have to catch her out? What would be a good answer? Nothing came to mind. ‘I might just chill out here.’ The moment the words were out of her mouth Cass realised they made her sound as if she was here on holiday, not on a rescue mission.
‘That’s unlike you. You’re usually such a busy little bee.’
Cass smiled to conceal her grinding teeth. He was so patronising! ‘I know,’ she said, annoyed, ‘that’s why I think I need a bit of downtime.’
Bastian, possibly hearing Austin’s voice, appeared on the veranda just then.
‘Do you want to come and meet Errol, Austin? See how long the pick-up will take to repair? Negotiate a price?’
‘Maybe I should,’ Austin replied. ‘You could come with us, Cass. You said you didn’t have anything to do.’
‘Actually, Cass,’ said Bastian. ‘If you’re not busy it would be really handy if you could take an inventory of the stores.’
Cass was a little confused. ‘Which stores?’
‘The ones in my study,’ he said. ‘I’m having to keep the door locked in case of looters, but it would be good to know what we’ve got.’
Cass smiled at Bastian, but then hoped it wasn’t toowarm a smile; he had given her the perfect excuse. ‘I’ll be on to it,’ she said. ‘I’ll just give Ranulph and Becca a hand in the kitchen. With the washing up,’ she added, with a look at Austin that was almost a glare.
With Bastian and Austin off the premises, Cass rushed through the washing up. Ranulph came into the kitchen to dry up while Becca put everything away.
‘I hardly see you these days, Cass,’ he complained. ‘Are you OK?’
Cass usually avoided looking at Ranulph as she was worried she might blush or look awkward but this time she didn’t. ‘I’m getting on with things, Ranulph. I’m absolutely fine.’
Ranulph nodded. ‘Good.’
‘Right!’ said Becca. ‘That’s the kitchen sorted. Let’s go down to the dig, Ran. I won’t be here too much longer.’
‘I’m going to miss you, Becca!’ said Cass, and realised it was true.
Once certain that everyone was out of the house, Cass took out the key that Bastian had given her. She planned to see how many drawings he needed, and to calculate roughly how long it would take her to do them. She just hoped it would be the same time as it took Errol to repair a pick-up.
She had found the file and looked at the pictures that Bastian wanted redrawn, the ones in the early section of the work that his father had done. She had made a start on the first when she heard a noise. She didn’t want to be caught in Bastian’s study as she hadn’t actually done anything about starting an inventory of thesupplies. While she knew it wasn’t an urgent task, it was her cover for her drawing, which meant she’d have to do it.
She looked around carefully before leaving the study and was just relocking the door when Austin came up behind her.
‘Hello!’ he said. ‘Finished already?’
‘Er, no,’ she said, flustered. ‘I haven’t really started. I was just getting a rough idea of how much was there.’
‘Well, why don’t we do it together? That sort of job is much easier if one person says what’s there and the other writes it down.’
Of course he was right. Cass looked at him, holding her breath, mentally trying to remember if she’d put away every sign of Bastian’s work. She couldn’t be sure. ‘That’s OK,’ she said slowly. ‘There’s no rush. How did you get on with Errol’s pick-up truck? You were very quick negotiating. Are you sure you got the best deal you could?’
Austin made a dismissive gesture. ‘He could name his price and knew it. But Bastian told me there was an old ham radio set in one of the outbuildings. I thought I’d fire it up and see if I could get any connection to the outside world.’
‘Now that could be useful!’
‘If I had a connection, I might be able to arrange a plane to come and pick me up.’ He paused. ‘Although I would need help with costs, which is where you’d come in.’
‘Oh – er – I don’t know – I’d have to talk to Ranulph—’ It was an excuse and Austin recognised it as one.
‘Don’t you think it’s time you stopped talking to Ranulph and started organising your own life?’
