Page 127 of Outback Secrets

Henri leaned forward and tapped her sister on the shoulder. ‘Do you know how much those tables cost?’

‘What? How would I know how much they cost? We just delivered them.’

‘Wasn’t there an invoice or something with them?’

‘Girls, be quiet,’ their mother hissed as she turned around to glare at Henri yet again.

Ignoring her, Henri tapped Tilley again. ‘Do you know who the tables were from?’

Tilley rolled her eyes. ‘Sexy Rexy, I guess.’

‘No, the actual tables. What company supplied them?’

‘I don’t know.’ She shrugged. ‘Some office supply place in Perth?’

‘Girls! Please!’ Fiona looked like she was about to burst an artery.

Henri flopped back against the pew as the current Sunday School kids marched to the front to perform the nativity.

Maybe she was jumping to conclusions. Liam’s note could have referred to anything. He ran a business—it was probably the name of the company he ordered all his paper and printer ink from or something.

Yet, no matter how much Henri tried to put the idea out of her head, she couldn’t get rid of the feeling in her gut that perhaps Logan had got the wrong person.

Like Sexy Rexy, Liam was always at the pub, and the timing was right. The random gifts had begun a couple of years after he’d arrived. Or at least, that’s when someone had made the connection and the mysterious benefactor had become a local legend. Everyone thought he’d come to town with nothing but a ute and a backpack, but he had to have had some money to have renovated The Palace the way he had. There’d been no expense spared and yes, he’d made the furniture and done a lot of the improvements himself, but it still wouldn’t have come cheap. Then there were his bedsheets, which made her feel like she was lying on silk.

His parents had owned two successful businesses. Who knew what other investments they’d had as well? With Lacey dead too, Liam would have been their only beneficiary.

Beneficiary? Benefactor?

She knew she was onto something. Liam made so much more sense than Sexy Rexy did.

Before Henri could think through her decision, she yanked her crutches up off the floor and pushed to a stand. Maybe she wanted to know if her hunch was right, maybe she just wanted to see him one last time. She wasn’t sure, but either way, she couldn’t sit here thinking about this a moment longer.

‘Where are you going?’ her mother hissed, grabbing hold of Henri’s wrist as she started out of the pew.

‘There’s someone I need to see.’

She raised an eyebrow. ‘Will you be back for supper?’

‘Probably.’ Henri wasn’t stupid enough to think this was going to change anything—it might even make things worse. ‘But if I’m not back by the time you need to go home, I’ll stay at Tilley’s tonight.’

And then she hightailed it out of there as quickly as anyone on crutches possibly could. She almost tossed them aside as she negotiated the church steps, but The Palace was at the opposite end of the main street, and she wasn’t a complete and utter lunatic. It was only when she was halfway there, puffing and panting up the hill, that she realised she could have borrowed her mum’s car. Having not driven since twisting her ankle, the thought hadn’t even crossed her mind. Too late to turn back now, she continued on; every step felt like an effort, and she almost stacked it again a number of times.

But finally, she was there.

The multicoloured fly strips flapped about the entrance in the wind. Taking a deep breath, she swung her crutches towards them and then pushed herself inside.

And there he was. Standing behind the bar as always. Delicious as ever. Chatting to Sexy Rexy as he polished a glass.

Oh God!She shouldn’t have come. One look at Liam and all the hurt she’d been working hard to push deep down shot back up to the surface. She stood in the doorway frozen, feeling like she was lingering between two worlds and she didn’t want to be in either of them.

But before she could make a decision to turn and flee, an excited bark sounded as Sheila bounded towards her.