The Legend of Fire Mountain by Sarah Lark

Author:Sarah Lark [Lark, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amazon Crossing
Published: 2021-10-19T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 35

“Where is he?”

Aroha was inspecting the repaired water pipes at her hotel when the front door flew open and two women came bursting in. With astonishment, Aroha realized it was her mother and her grandmother. Linda and Cat were wearing riding clothes, and looked as though they’d ridden nonstop for days.

“What are you doing here?” Aroha said, taken by surprise. “How did you find me?”

Linda pulled her daughter into her arms. “Oh, Aroha, my dear, we heard about Koro. I’m so sorry,” she said gently.

Tears filled Aroha’s eyes, but she was still confused. “How could you have heard already?” she asked. “How did you get here so fast?”

“We asked about you at Rotorua Lodge,” Cat told her. “We heard about Koro’s death there. And we heard about the eruption back in Hamilton when we were already on our way here. But you could feel the earthquakes all the way over in Wellington. It was obvious something terrible was happening on the North Island, but it wasn’t possible to know exactly where it was, then. I’m so, so sorry, Aroha. You must have been through horrors. But please, tell me first, where’s Robin? Is he all right?”

Aroha’s eyes widened. Cat was gazing at her with frightening desperation. The only thing she’d said in her letter to her grandmother was that Robin had shown up in Te Wairoa with the Carrigan Company, and that he was fine.

Aroha glanced at the pretty carved clock that sat on her future reception desk. “Well, I last saw him three hours ago. He was in a good mood then, and he was about to finally resign from his job with that horrible woman. He must’ve done so by now. He’s probably back at the hotel.”

“Thank God and all the spirits!” Cat murmured. “I haven’t slept since Linda wrote me.”

As Aroha then learned, her mother had panicked upon receiving her letter with the news about Robin. Aroha’s insinuations that her young half brother might be under Vera Carrigan’s influence had scared Linda witless. She’d immediately sent a telegram to Rata Station: Robin in danger. Come immediately! Linda.

“I left right away, of course,” Cat told them. “Although Chris said I was acting crazy. Quite sensibly, he pointed out that Robin had probably been with the company for two and a half years. So why would Carrigan pose a threat now?”

“Maybe because he’d run into Aroha?” Linda suggested, nervously brushing some hair out of her eyes. She didn’t seem as reassured as her mother. “Or because she learned that Robin’s related to me? She—she was ready to kill Aroha back then.” Instinctively, she wrapped an arm around her daughter.

“That was twenty years ago,” Cat said, comforting her. “Chris thought we should keep things in perspective, and he hired a private investigation agency to collect information about the Carrigan Company. The investigators in Christchurch said their branch in Auckland or Wellington would be able to send us a dossier in a few days’ time. They said the head of a theater company shouldn’t be hard to trace.

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