The Gift

By Jenni Roussell

The gift of a cottage in rural New Zealand enables Delphine Billings to finally escape her abusive husband.

 The death of a neighbour whom she had never met allows her to meet Dan Carter a worthy man, whose own family has suffered more than their fair share of tragedy.

Just when everything seems to be coming together her world implodes.  Delphine is forced to return home to see her dying mother and in her absence events and well-meaning people conspire against her.

Then she learns things are not what they seem at home. Just when she feels trapped support comes from a most extraordinary source and when family secrets are uncovered  Delphine finds the courage to change her life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jenni Roussell
• Release date: Nov 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223568308

Jenni Roussell

Jenni Roussell is a naughty old tart with a wicked sense of humour. She lives with her husband of fifty-five years and her latest canine side kick, a spoiled miniature foxy called ZsaZsa, because she can wind men around her little paw. They all live in a tiny village in the Wairarapa with less than one hundred and fifty residents who enjoy many secrets and stories. 

Book preview

Prologue

Inheriting a small home thousands of miles from Wooleroo Queensland had allowed Dee to finally escape her abusive husband. A hard man to get away from, Brad Murray had a high profile in the town, and everyone at their church respected him.  For the last three years Dee had prayed for a way out of her situation.

‘You’ll never leave me, don’t even think about it because it’s not gunna happen, I won’t let you.’ he always told her.  But here she is, in the small rural town of Carterton in the Wairarapa district of New Zealand, she had finally made it.

Tonight, is Christmas Eve and the weather is dismal; A tropical low had followed her across the Tasman, and now it hovered over the whole of the North Island delivering a wet and windy Christmas. Dee Billings had at last moved into the isolated old cottage her elderly Aunt Dorothy had bequeathed her. Since her childhood Dee and her aunt had communicated regularly, it took her solicitor little time to locate the woman’s niece and for Dee the gift of her aunt’s cottage had been manna from heaven.

The sound of gun shots alarmed her.  Outside she could hear the wind in the trees and the rain on the roof.  Although the weather looked rough, she had lived through cyclones at this time of the year in far North Queensland, so this didn’t alarm her. But the sound of gun shots alarmed her.

Less than a week ago, she had seen her neighbour shooting rabbits at dusk and then again in the middle of the night from his tractor in the paddock right next to her house.  Using the tractor lights to startle the poor rabbits who froze in the headlights while he took pot shots at them.  The strong lights blazed straight into her bedroom window and the frightening gunshots tormented her. Unsure how to deal with the situation she thought the man’s behaviour inconsiderate at the very least, but being a new neighbour, she didn’t want to complain before they had even been introduced. Tonight, when she heard him at it again, she simply ignored him, made herself a cup of tea and went back to her book in front of the log fire.

A little over a week ago she took up residence at Lemon tree cottage, having escaped on a trip to Townsville she had painstakingly planned without recourse to anyone else.  For three years Dee had been secreting a small amount of money away in another bank account opened before she married.  After they married Brad had insisted, she transfer her funds to their joint account and close it. Thank God, the woman at the bank in Townsville persuaded her not to close the account.

‘keep it dormant if you must but keep it, many women find for whatever reason they need a bit of independence.’ She felt grateful to the woman and literally escaped with what she stood up in and a small grab bag of essentials.

From her Livingroom window the lights from the surrounding farmhouses gave her the comforting feeling of not being alone, imagining Christmas scenes with excited children and happy families. She remembered the Christmas presents she posted to her parents from Brisbane airport.  In the attached note she explained she had filed for a divorce from Brad, and she would be in touch as soon as she settled and sent her love, without telling them she would be in New Zealand. What were they doing this Christmas she wondered?

Watching intently, she noted several sets of traffic lights blurring in the rain and moving around the winding country road below her. Lemon tree cottage appeared quaint with delightful treasures of a time long past. Including a box of old-fashioned handmade Christmas decorations and a small artificial tree complete with fibre optic lights, they changed colour and added warmth and atmosphere to the small living room. A cosy feeling enveloped her enhanced by the atrocious weather and a good book.

Chapter One:

‘P olice open up, Miss Billings open up it’s the police ma’am.’  She heard a sharp banging on the door above the wind and rain and Dee’s heart sank, not so soon please God not so soon, she prayed, her hands shaking as she moved to the front door. 

Opening it into the blackness she could see nothing, but seeing her, the officer apologised. ‘Sorry I shouted miss; the local constable told me the elderly lady who lives here is deaf.’  He stood appraising her, dark hair pulled back loosely in a scruffy ponytail, sloppy old lady style fluffy dressing gown with long ratty tie pulled tightly around her waist. Yet her stunningly beautiful features disturbed him, she looked shaken, and he felt protective. 

‘May I see your ID please?’ She asserted; the man did not wear a uniform. Realising quickly, she was a woman alone, and he a big scary man claiming to be police, he apologised and handed her his ID. 

‘There’s been an incident down the road, we need to talk with all the neighbours, as quickly as we can. May we come in please?’

The tall broad-shouldered man stood under the veranda dripping wet in his huge raincoat, collar pulled up around his neck Southwester rain hat slightly askew on his head. The rainwater rolled off it in torrents.

‘An incident down the road you say?’ she appeared visibly relieved as they stood now in the porch light. ‘And whose ‘we’?’  His huge frame blocked her view he turned; she noticed a couple of uniformed police in high visibility vests getting out of a parked vehicle. ‘Sure, come in hang your wet coat up there’ she pointed to a row of hooks near the door where other coats hung. 

‘Thanks’ he disrobed and shook his coat before hanging it up outside the door. ‘I’m Inspector Dan Parker, we need to do a quick check around your property inside and out?’ he signalled to the other two officers who split up, torches flashing highlighting the rain in the shafts of light.  They went around the exterior of the house calling to each other as they moved about. ‘It’s just to be on the safe side, we don’t expect to find anything but ....’ He trailed off as he followed her inside. 

‘Horrible night to be out,’ she casually commented.  He ignored the remark focussing on checking her house telling her to stay in the tiny kitchen. Minutes later he returned.

‘May I have your name miss?’ 

‘I’m Delphine Billings, I recently inherited this cottage from my aunt Miss Dorothy Billings, so we are both D. Billings, only my friends call me Dee.’ She watched as he considered her hands, he noted a white mark where a wide wedding band had been. Seeing him appraising her she fidgeted.  They heard another sharp knock on her front door.

‘Ah my colleagues have arrived,’ he advised, moving to the front door, she could hear a muffled conversation and he returned with a sports bag, a female officer stood dripping at the open door. ‘Is this bag yours miss?’  She shook her head.

‘No, I’ve never seen it before.’ The female officer said they had found it in one of the outbuildings and it felt warm as though it had recently been used as a pillow. The officer bagged it in plastic and labelled it, then called to the Inspector through the front door.

‘Sir I don’t believe a cat’s been sleeping on it I think we’ve disturbed somebody.’ Dan Parker agreed and said he’d stay and get a statement from Miss Billings. He dispatched the two uniformed Constables to check the surrounding area and then the neighbouring properties.

‘I have to inform you your neighbour was found shot dead in his shed a couple of hours ago. His calm expression belied the gruesome scene he had just come from, ‘Did you hear anything? Any gun shots maybe?’ He stood in the kitchen doorway not wanting to invade her personal space in the tiny kitchen,  he watched from the door frame as she filled the jug.

‘Oh God how awful. I’ve often heard shots even in the middle of the night.’ she related the story. ‘Sure, I heard some tonight, but I just ignored them otherwise I would be a nervous wreck.’ Her beautiful face haunted him as he tried to concentrate on the job in hand.

‘Mmm according to the neighbours on the other side the fellow is ah a bit different shall we say,’ She understood what he meant, being an odd ball had never been a crime, annoying for the neighbours maybe.

‘Tea or coffee?’ she thought Dan Parker seemed a more considered man than her husband who would have described the neighbour as a ‘bloody fruit loop.’

‘Do I detect an accent there?’ he looked like a decent bloke she thought but then so did her ex-Brad Murray, so she felt wary.

‘Yes, English parents I went to University in Australia.’  Not wanting to tell him too much she sounded circumspect.

‘How long have you lived here? he had his notebook out now.

‘Not two weeks, I’d like to do it up,’ she cheerfully added. He nodded commenting on its good bones.

‘I’ve just finished doing my place, normally I work in Wellington and commute from here,’ he related. Dee watched as his eyes lit up at the sight of her yummy looking Christmas cake. Then his face changed, ‘please don’t cut it on my account miss.’ He licked his lips.

‘My aunt made this cake in July and froze it. I simply iced it, so it will be a surprise for both of us.’ She proceeded to cut several slices. Everything set out on a tray she began to pick it up when he insisted, he carry it.

‘I lit the wood burner in the living room more for atmosphere than anything. As he set down the tray on the coffee table, she studied him a handsome man with a gorgeous cleft in his chin. There were smile lines around his eyes those eyes they were piercingly intense, they seemed to burn right through to her very soul, like he knew all her secrets.  A well-covered man nuggety not fat, she wondered if he had a desk job. Her ex-husband looked quite muscular more defined, leaner from physical work. Suddenly she couldn’t help herself.

‘Do you work at Head Office in Wellington?’ she asked curious, he laughed.

‘Is it obvious I’m not at the coal face anymore?’ he said a little embarrassed. Not wanting to comment on his remark, she dismissed it by saying,

‘No, it’s just you mentioned commuting.’  He told her he worked as a police prosecutor in Wellington.

‘At this time of year, it’s all hands-on deck for these serious incidents.’ She handed him a mug of tea and he returned to the job in hand. ‘Did you ever meet your neighbour then? She told him she hadn’t met any of the neighbours yet, then suddenly becoming nervous she asked.

‘Do you think the offender might have been hiding in my shed? maybe sheltering from the rain?’ 

‘Who knows’ he replied then standing up he looked out from her living room window across the paddocks and gentle undulations of the landscape. They were barely visible through the darkness and the dense rain.

‘You must get a great view from here in the daylight, see the light pollution from the township in the distance, you’re quite elevated here on this part of the road, do you plan to stay?’ accepting a slice of Christmas cake he sat down again. ‘I’m sorry to intrude on your Christmas eve, these things are more difficult at this time of the year, for the family I mean.’ He checked his watch and asked, ‘are you expecting visitors for Christmas?’ She gently nibbled her lip looking fragile, she looked up at him her green eyes wide and sad, she shook her head.

‘No,’ she ran her tongue over her lip where she’d nibbled, ‘frankly I’m glad of the company especially under the circumstances.’  They sipped their drinks in silence then he announced he could get a policewoman to stay with her in the short term just till day light.

‘No thanks, I’ll be all right.’  She told him. His mobile phone rang, he excused himself and answered it. His end of the conversation seemed to be a few monosyllabic grunts. Replacing his phone in his pocket he looked at his watch again.  ‘I’m sorry but regrettably we will need a policewoman or someone here till daylight when we hope to have a better handle on things, a vehicle’s been found parked off road not far from here. We have someone watching it in case the offender returns. The vehicle had been reported as stolen this afternoon, from Masterton. I’ve been told everyone is tied up for at least an hour as there’s been a car crash, on State highway two south of Carterton.’ He breathed deeply, ‘the holidays, bad time of year.’  She felt half