Page 125 of Outback Secrets
She nodded. ‘True, but those clothes? They’re not from a rich man’s wardrobe.’
‘Not everyone takes such pride in their appearance like you do, Mother, and he clearly didn’t want anyone to know. If he’d suddenly been seen in Gucci and Armani hauling rubbish at the tip, people would have been suspicious.’
‘That’s another thing! Why is he even working there? Can’t be for the love of it.’
‘Who knows? Maybe he likes it, or maybe it’s part of his cover, although apparently he didn’t seem very upset about being found out.’
‘Imagine if you won the lottery.’ A wistful look came over their mum’s face.
‘Have you ever bought a lotto ticket in your life?’ Henri asked.
‘No, but now that I know it’s actually possible for regular people to win, maybe I will.’
‘Yeah, maybe I will too. Hey! We should all go in as a family,’ suggested Tilley. ‘Do the same numbers every week? Use the kids’ birthdays or something?’
‘Good idea. Will you be in our syndicate, Henrietta?’
‘Yeah, sure, Mum.’ Henri popped another piece of cake into her mouth, but while her mother and sister started dreaming about what they’d do if they became millionaires overnight, she was still stuck on the whole Sexy Rexy revelation.
Her mother had been right when she said it didn’t make sense. Whoever the mysterious benefactor was, they had to be someone who had their finger on the pulse of whatever was happening in town. As far as she knew, Sexy Rexy pretty much kept to himself. He wasn’t involved in any clubs or committees and the only places he frequented were the tip and The Palace. It would be more believable if Eileen Brady was the culprit.
The Palace!Perhaps it did make sense. Sexy Rexy had been there every day Henri was, always perched on that same stool at the bar. Liam joked about him being part of the furniture, so he’d be in prime position to overhear when people were lamenting their woes to their friends.
Who’d ever have thought? It just showed you truly couldn’t judge a book by its cover.
Had Liam known all along? He must have. How often had he told her he knew all the secrets of Bunyip Bay? And this had to be one of the longest-kept secrets of all!
She thought back to the times she’d heard anyone mention the mysterious benefactor around him. There’d always been something slightly off in his responses. That first night in the pub—Liam had come by when they’d been discussing the mystery and when someone mentioned ‘him’, Liam asked how they knew it was a man? Then someone had asked if Liam had any idea who he/she was, and Liam had replied with something like ‘my patrons are more the hardworking type than millionaires’.
Clearly, he’d been trying to throw everyone off Sexy Rexy’s scent.
And then there was the whispered conversation with Frankie during the Christmas Tree. She’d noticed something a little off in Liam’s tone, like he was trying too hard to sound like he didn’t know anything. It was why later that night when they were alone, she’d asked him directly if he knew who the person was, but he’d brushed her off.
No, he hadn’t brushed her off. He hadn’t answered at all and then he’d distracted her with sex. Not that she’d complained at the time.
Thoughts of Sexy Rexy vanished as a wave of sadness swept through her at the reminder that Liam would never distract her in such a manner ever again. She’d probably never even have sex again because the thought of letting anyone else touch her just wasn’t worth thinking about.
‘Will I see you tonight then, Hens?’
‘What?’ She startled at the sound of Tilley’s voice and her chair scraping on the kitchen floor as she stood.
‘At church?’
‘Oh, right.’ Henri hadn’t been planning on going to the Christmas Eve service, but she looked across the table to see her mum smiling expectantly. After how good she’d been to her since their chat the other night, she couldn’t bring herself to disappoint her. It wouldn’t hurt her to sit through a few carols and a lecture—sorry, sermon—about the gifts Jesus gave to the world and the love and peace we should bring to each other not only this time of year, but always, blah, blah, blah. And she was fairly certain Liam wouldn’t be there—even if he didn’t have the pub, it was the Christmas Eve service, and he didn’t do Christmas. He’d made that blatantly clear!
‘Yep, I’ll be there. With bells on,’ she said with a fake smile.
Henri didn’t wear bells or any kind of festive fashion, but she was in the minority. As she hobbled on her crutches alongside her mum to join the hordes of people heading towards the church—most of whom only graced the old building with their presence twice a year—she noticed almost everyone was wearing either a Christmas T-shirt, headband or earrings. And there were at least fifty Santa hats heading inside, not all of them on children!
Since when were you allowed to wear Santa hats in church? Standards had dropped a lot since she used to come here as a kid.
The dress code wasn’t the only thing that had changed, Henri thought, as she and her mother joined her brothers, their wives and kids, who were waiting for them just outside the church. It sounded like there was a rock band playing inside.
‘Is that the choir? Are they singing “Christmas Where The Gum Trees Grow”?’ She hadn’t heard that song since she was a kid and that was in school, never at church. Whatever happened to ‘Silent Night’ and ‘We Three Kings’?
‘It’s the new pastor,’ her mother explained at Henri’s obvious shock. ‘He’s trying to make religion more fun, more accessible. And it’s working; attendance is going up every week.’
‘I think it might have more to do with him though,’ said Janai.