It Was Always You Page 7

  ‘Why not?’ she said. ‘Where shall we go?’

  ‘I thought we’d eat in.’

  ‘Oh? You’re a cook, too – like Tom?’

  ‘No way! Come on.’

  Eating in, she discovered, was done at the restaurant at the top of the tower.

  ‘I don’t do food,’ Don explained. ‘Just coffee. Otherwise, this little café here satisfies me.’

  It was different, Anna thought, amused. Very different. Matthew at least opened tins.

  Afterwards they went to see Fort Calgary, where the city had begun life in 1875. That was a surprise. Anna was amazed by how young this huge city was.

  ‘All this,’ she marvelled, ‘in not much more than a hundred years?’

  ‘All of it,’ Don assured her.

  She did a mental calculation. ‘My great-grandfather could have seen them lay the first brick,’ she said.

  ‘After he’d chased the buffalo and the Indians out of the way. Sorry – First Nation, I should say, not Indians.’

  ‘Is that what they’re called now?’

  ‘Yep. We’re very politically correct these days.’

  She smiled. It was right, though, she thought. The settlers would have had to clear the land first. Buy the previous owners or occupiers out, or whatever they did in those days. Shoot them, probably.

  ‘Didn’t the Vikings have to do that in Northumberland?’ Don asked, sensing where her thoughts were going. ‘Cut off a few heads and sack the place, before they could settle in?’

  ‘I suppose they did,’ she said with a smile. ‘A long time ago. Otherwise we would all be Anglo-Saxons, or Celts even.’

  ‘Can’t stop progress,’ Don said.

  Chapter Seventeen

  In the afternoon it was time to go to a barbecue some friends of Don’s were holding, seemingly in Anna’s honour.

  ‘I’m not dressed for it,’ she said uneasily, glancing down at her summer dress. ‘Will I be all right?’

  ‘You look just fine,’ Don assured her, taking her in his arms and kissing her.

  ‘Really?’ she said, smiling happily.

  ‘Really! You look just perfect for a visitor from England. Nobody expects you to dress Western on your first day here.’

  Visitor from England? Was that what she was? Yes, it seemed.

  They were a good crowd at the barbecue. People in jeans, checked shirts and white Stetsons. All ages. Huge quantities of meat smoked and sizzled on a big barbecue grid suspended over a charcoal drum. Crates of beer and soft drinks were piled high. Don steered her through the crowd, introducing her, letting people welcome her.

  Anna soon stopped trying to remember names but she was overwhelmed by the open, friendly welcomes she received on all sides. Don smiled and encouraged her to relax and enjoy herself.

  The hosts, Earl and Trudy, loaded her with a plate of food and a large glass of something said to be "tropical" – juice, she thought. But there just might have been something with a bit of zip in it as well.

  Then Trudy took her to one side to tell her where the facilities were, and how to reach them. ‘Make yourself at home here,’ she urged. ‘We’re very pleased you could make it. Besides,’ she added, ‘you’re just what Don needs.’

  Anna smiled uneasily. Was she? Was she really? And what, exactly, she wondered, was it that Don needed?

  Earl took her over when Trudy was called away to some domestic emergency – a shortage of ice cubes, Anna gathered. Earl was a few years older than Don, and a true native Calgarian. ‘One of the very few left,’ he assured her. ‘Most of these folks here today came ready-made from someplace else.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘You name it. Pretty much everywhere you ever heard of, and then some. Maybe not from your neck of the woods, though,’ he added with a chuckle. ‘Northumberland, England? I think you’re a first.’

  An Australian woman named Meredith told her it was great she could be here.

  ‘Thank you,’ Anna said politely. ‘Have you been here long?’

  ‘Five glorious years!’ Meredith laughed and added, ‘But I remember stepping off the plane, just like you, as if it was yesterday.’

  A man from Ontario called Buck told her she had come to the right place. ‘You’ll love it here,’ he said warmly. ‘You’ll soon adjust to the lifestyle.’

  ‘I hope so,’ she said, wondering if you really needed to do that for a holiday.

  Earl and Trudy’s house was a beautiful, old, two-storey timber building that Earl said his grandfather had built in the long-gone days before Calgary had become an oil centre. So the garden, and its many trees, had had time to grow and mature into what seemed to Anna more like a botanic garden than one of the domestic variety.

  ‘Before they found oil,’ Earl said, ‘this was cattle country. In many ways it is still. At least, we like to pretend it is. But most of us just dress Western, if I’m being honest. We don’t live the life. But Grandfather was the real thing, a true cattleman. He built this house in the city after he had made his money through ranching.’

  ‘He retired here?’

  ‘Retired? No, he never did do that. Those old timers just never knew when to quit. But eventually Grandma Maisie had had enough. She said she wanted to see something of city life before she died, and she made the old fellow build this fine house here. I guess it became their winter quarters in their old age. Nowadays, farmers spend their winters in Hawaii or Florida. Back then, they stayed closer to home.’

  Don came to move her on. Earl headed for the barbecue pit – to roast another steer, as he put it.

  ‘Legends of the West?’ Don asked her.

  She grinned. ‘Such an interesting story.’

  ‘Yeah. Earl’s a lot of fun. Happy?’ he added, eyeing her shrewdly

  ‘Oh, yes! Everyone’s so friendly.’

  ‘It’s just the way we are,’ Don said. ‘I told you you’d love it here.’

  ‘There’s just one thing, Don. I have the impression people believe I’ve emigrated, not just come for a holiday.’

  ‘Don’t you worry about that. It will all get straightened out.’

  Still, she did wonder what he had told them about her.

  *

  Sally Anne and Tom arrived later, having first taken their older boy to soccer practice.

  ‘Soccer!’ Anna said with a smile.

  ‘You must know it,’ Tom insisted. ‘You guys invented the game.’

  ‘Of course I know it. It’s just that in England we never call it that. We call it football.’

  ‘Oh, well. Trust you Brits to be different.’

  ‘Tom!’ Sally Anne protested. ‘If they invented it, they can call it what they like.’

  Anna laughed. ‘I never watch football anyway.’

  ‘Really?’ Sally Anne looked almost shocked. ‘But you do play?’

  ‘Me? No, of course not.’

  ‘I do,’ Sally Anne said. ‘I play every week, every Wednesday afternoon.’

  It was Anna’s turn to register surprise. Even more so when she heard that soccer was a popular female pursuit, rather than a minority male interest.

  ‘Your introduction to Culture Shock,’ Don murmured as they moved on.

  Chapter Eighteen

  In the days that followed, Anna was surprised by how easily she and Don resumed their relationship. She had thought it might be difficult in a different place, a different country, to pick up with him again, but not a bit of it. They might never have been apart.

  ‘Do you remember that evening we walked on the beach at Alnmouth?’ Don asked.

  ‘And it was so cold?’

  He chuckled. ‘It was, wasn’t it?’

  Memories! Already they had memories of their early times together. She snuggled against him and felt his arms encircle her. She breathed in the scent of him and held her breath. Don gently squeezed and hugged her.

  ‘What about it?’ she asked moments later.

  ‘About what? Oh, nothing, really. I was just thinking here
we are looking out over water again.’

  Reluctantly, she raised her head and looked through the windscreen out over Glenmore Lake.

  ‘It’s different, though,’ she said, gazing at the high-rise buildings in the background. They were not far from the city centre, even though the lake was so huge. ‘It’s warmer,’ she added.

  ‘Only because we’re sitting in a car!’ Don chuckled. ‘Come on. Let’s walk.’

  It was different, she thought as they set off along the lake shore, different in so many ways, but they weren’t. They were just the same. She shivered with pleasure.

  ‘Cold?’

  She shook her head and turned to him, burrowing her face into his chest. ‘Just happy,’ she said shyly.

  They had paused to look out over the water, where gulls swooped and hovered for all the world as if they were out at sea. Don stroked her hair gently with his fingertips. She felt his lips brush the top of her head. She turned her face up to him and waited for his lips to touch hers.

  Everything is still so perfect, she thought dreamily. And we have a whole month together to look forward to.

  *

  ‘So what have you guys been up to?’ Sally Anne asked. ‘Anything exciting?’

  ‘We’ve had a lovely evening,’ Anna assured her.

  ‘Lucky you! Tom and I don’t do exciting any more. By the time the kids are in bed we’re usually dead beat.

  ‘It’s in the tin marked "Coffee"!’ she called to Don, who was hunting for tea bags.

  ‘Of course!’ Don said. ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’

  ‘Because you’re a member of the inferior sub-species. Men don’t have imagination.’

  ‘We just pay the bills, right?’

  ‘Not all of them!’

  Anna let them tease each other. She listened happily. They were a good pair, she thought. Probably always had been. They were just how a brother and a sister ought to be with each other.

  ‘So where did you go?’ Tom asked in a quiet aside.

  ‘The big lake,’ Anna told him.

  ‘Ah! Glenmore. Like it?’

  ‘It was lovely. Beautiful.’

  Tom nodded. ‘We like to skate there in winter. Then, any time about now, we like to get our sailboat out on the water.’

  Anna settled back to enjoy the rest of the evening. She and Don had not done anything Sally Anne might have considered exciting but their walk by the lake shore had been just right for them. And now so was this peaceful end to the day, in this beautiful home with such good people.

  Later, she walked out with Don to his car.

  ‘Thank you for a lovely evening, Don – a lovely day, in fact! Another one, I should say.’

  He smoothed her face with the tips of his fingers and gazed into her eyes. She smiled happily as she reached to kiss him.

  ‘You OK here, with Sally Anne and Tom?’

  ‘Oh, yes. They’re very kind, both of them. And the children are such fun. I love it here. I love this house, too,’ she added with a glance over her shoulder.

  ‘It’s all right, I guess.’

  ‘All right! No, it’s a lot better than that.’

  ‘You’d like to live some place like this?’

  ‘I would. I can’t think of anything nicer.’

  ‘Well,’ Don said. ‘One day we might.’

  She smiled and let him go. She gave one last wave as his car turned the corner and he flashed his lights for her benefit. Then she turned to go back inside. Somewhere like this? she thought with a wry smile. Was that really possible?

  Chapter Nineteen

  ‘I do like your apartment,’ Anna confided. ‘I can’t get over this view you have.’

  Don joined her at the window.

  ‘Look!’ she said, pointing. ‘Canoes on the river.’

  ‘Kayaks.’

  ‘There’s a difference?’

  ‘There sure is. I’ll take you out on the river one day, and show you.’

  ‘I’d like that.’ She let him fold his arms around her, and pressed herself back against him. ‘So much to see and do,’ she whispered. ‘A month may not be enough.’

  ‘Stay longer. Stay forever.’

  ‘With you?’

  ‘With me.’

  She chuckled and turned her head. Don wasn’t laughing, not even smiling.

  ‘Oh, you’d soon get tired of me,’ she said.

  ‘Never.’

  ‘I’d be in your hair.’

  ‘No, you wouldn’t.’

  ‘You’d have to cut down on your nights out with the boys – drinking beer, playing pool, or whatever it is you all do.’

  ‘I’d find that easy.’

  ‘Would you?’ she asked, straining to see his face.

  ‘Think of the money I’d save.’

  ‘Oh, you!’ She gave him a playful push and laughed at his rueful expression. ‘Besides,’ she added, ‘I would want children, and that really would cramp your style.’

  ‘Ah! That’s a good point. I don’t want to end up like poor old Tom.’

  She laughed again and broke free. ‘I knew you didn’t mean it,’ she said. ‘You’re just a typical male. Selfish and no sense of responsibility.’

  ‘You know me so well.’

  But she didn’t think she did.

  And she knew Don wasn’t really like that. He was a wonderful man. She couldn’t bear to think of the coming time when the holiday would be over, and they would no longer be together every single day.

  ‘Shall I make some coffee?’ she asked. ‘Or do you want a beer before we go out?’

  They were to spend time with some more of Don’s friends that evening.

  ‘Coffee would be good. You know where it is, don’t you?’

  ‘Of course.’

  She knew this apartment so well by now, and if she didn’t know absolutely everything about it she certainly knew where the coffee was kept.

  ‘The mountains look good tonight,’ Don said. He was still standing at the window when she returned with two steaming mugs.

  She peered into the far distance, and could just see them. Little bumps on the skyline, some sixty miles away. Perhaps eighty, Don said. Mostly you knew what they were because of the dark clouds gathered over them.

  ‘Is it raining?’ she asked.

  He nodded. ‘Or snowing, perhaps. We’ll have to go out there. Let you see them.’

  ‘That would be nice.’

  Almost automatically, she had moved back close to him. Now he reached for her and she welcomed his arms encircling her. She hugged him back. They kissed, and she no longer felt in foreign territory. They were back somewhere they had both come to know so well.

  ‘I meant it, you know,’ Don said, easing away.

  ‘Meant what?’

  ‘I wouldn’t ever tire of you. You mustn’t think that.’

  She hugged him harder and closed her eyes. ‘I don’t really think that,’ she admitted. ‘Not at all.’

  And it was true. She knew it was true, and she knew she felt the same way about him as he did about her. Perhaps they could start thinking of a future together? Why not? They were so good together.

  ‘And I would never tire of you,’ she whispered with a shiver, knowing she spoke too softly for him to hear, but knowing he would understand anyway.

  ‘The coffee!’ she said, breaking away with a smile. ‘You shouldn’t distract me.’

  ‘You’re easily distracted,’ Don said with a chuckle. ‘It’s easily done.’

  And she knew that was true, too, at least where he was concerned.

  Chapter Twenty

  There was always something new to do, it seemed. Places to see. People to visit. Sunshine and blue skies to experience. Restaurants to try. Don took time off from work to make sure she saw … well, everything, really.

  ‘How are they managing without you?’ Anna asked. ‘All this time away from work just to show me around.’

  ‘Anna, you’re the most important thing around here. While you’re he
re, nothing else counts.’

  ‘Oh, I bet you say that to all the girls!’

  He shook his head and looked very serious. ‘No, never. I’m not a party animal.’

  She smiled and touched his hand lightly with her fingers. Then she turned and concentrated on the road ahead. And what a road it was. They were driving out to Banff, in the Rockies. Already the mountains were pressing in on them.

  ‘Another half-hour,’ Don said. ‘Will you be ready for lunch by then?’

  ‘I could be.’ She glanced at him and laughed. ‘So much eating and drinking! I’ll have to avoid the bathroom scales when I get home.’

  He shook his head and smiled. ‘Not you,’ he said.

  *

  It was lovely. Everything. Yet Anna wasn’t entirely happy. No, she thought, that was wrong. She was happy. Very happy. Into the last week of her month’s holiday now, and she had never had such a good time. Don was wonderful, and still they were so good together.

  She was happy, she repeated to herself. Very happy. It was just... What? Well... Oh, she didn’t know!

  It was all going so fast, too fast. And not only her time here. She had come for a holiday, and it was a brilliant holiday. But it was also something else, and she wasn’t always quite sure about that. There were some big decisions to take.

  Don seemed to assume her mind was made up now about emigrating, and perhaps about something else too. He hadn’t actually asked her to marry him, but the question was there unspoken all the time. And there was an assumption, an assumption that she would say yes when he did get round to asking her. She wasn’t sure she was ready for that, not when she had her thinking cap on. There was such a lot to consider. You had to think about it carefully.

  Unless she was imagining it all, what Don felt? But she didn’t think she was. It was the way he kept on talking, imagining, their future together. She felt sometimes as if she scarcely had any say in the matter.

  So? What was wrong with that? She was very fond of him. Perhaps she loved him even. She wasn’t entirely sure about that. But then, she chided herself, how could you be sure? How could anyone? Love, real love, surely had to grow on you, not arrive suddenly, unexpectedly in a blaze of fireworks from somewhere over the horizon.