Australian Heist by James Phelps

Author:James Phelps
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-06-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

THE WANTED

Apis Creek, Queensland, 8 February 1863

Gardiner grabbed one end of the freshly cut log, ripped and sawed that morning, now ready to become a beam.

‘Lift,’ said the foreman, a local man Gardiner had hired. ‘Let’s get it up there.’

So Gardiner heaved, all triceps, elbows and shoulders, sweat and strain, and got his end to the top of the post.

‘She is going to be a beauty, Mrs Christie,’ said the foreman, turning to the woman in the white dress, her equally white umbrella shielding her from the blistering tropical sun. ‘It will be the best general store from here to Rockhampton.’

The woman twirled her umbrella. ‘What do you think, Mr Christie?’ asked Kitty, blushing as she looked at Gardiner.

‘Depends how much gold I have left in my pocket,’ said Gardiner, red like Kitty but from exhaustion, not the thrill of a shared secret.

He gave ‘Mrs Christie’ a wink. Now he was blushing just like her.

* * *

Gardiner had convinced Kitty Brown that they could start again in Queensland. His lover came to his Weddin Mountain hideout a few days after he survived his shoot-out with the police.

‘I should be dead,’ Gardiner had said. ‘But I am not. I don’t know why, or how, but I am here. And all I have been able to think about is you. I am here because of you. It is meant to be.’

Gardiner was still shaken up by his last run-in with the law. Pottinger had held a shotgun to his head and fired at point-blank range. His head should have been taken off. He was not a religious man, but the misfire that had saved his life had him thinking of miracles.

Superstitious to the point that he had planned the escort robbery with guidance from his fortune-telling book, Gardiner believed in fate. And fate was telling him it was time to go straight, to leave New South Wales with the love of his life and start again. No guns, caves or bloody traps aiming shotguns at his head.

Kitty had kissed his cheek. ‘Of course it is,’ she said. ‘So what next?’

Gardiner had grimaced. ‘A new life,’ he said.

Kitty nodded. ‘Where?’ she asked. ‘And how?’

Gardiner had winked. ‘Fret not,’ he said. ‘All will be revealed. Make your preparations.’

Kitty Brown had soon received word. One day she answered a knock at the door.

‘Frank is ready,’ said the young man standing on her verandah. ‘Pack your things and I’ll come and collect you tomorrow.’

Kitty had packed her bag: scissors, bleach, a tweed suit, perfume and her Sunday dress, flowing and floral. How she loved that thing. She went to the basin with long hair, raven black, and left with a short blonde bob. She hardly recognised herself.

She woke early the next morning, ready and waiting for her escort. Soon she was would be with Frank.

‘So where to, Frank?’ she had asked as she dismounted her horse. ‘China?’

Gardiner had grinned. ‘And who are you?’ he asked, wolf-whistling. ‘If I wasn’t taken I would . . .’

‘Oh stop it, Frank,’ Kitty interrupted.

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