A Mortal Sin Read Free

warrant a mention. Dixon’s Siding, he repeated it over in his head a couple of times, but it didn’t ring any bells. I must have lived there once. He closed his eyes in an endeavor to remember, desperately trying to grapple with facts that eluded him.
     I’m going over there and to hell with the old man. If he doesn’t like it he can disinherit me, but I’m searching for my mother. I want to find out why she abandoned me. Maybe then I can fill in the strange emptiness and feelings of loss that have haunted my dreams for years.
     When Sir Phillip arrived back from his visit to the mill, he went on the attack immediately. “What is the meaning of closing the factory down for the day? I don’t pay workers to loaf around at my expense.”
    “I had to do something,” Paul shot back. “You didn’t invite any of them to your celebratory soiree, and they’re the ones who do all the bloody work and bring in the money. Anyway, to hell with the mill. I want to know more about my mother.”
    “Forget about her.”
    “I’m going out to Australia to find Allison.” He watched the color bleach from his father’s face, leaving his skin grey and sickly.
    “I forbid it.”
    “Too bad, I’m going anyway, and you can’t stop me.”
    “I’m warning you,” Sir Phillip snarled. “Defy me ...”
    “And you’ll what?” Paul cut in furiously. “Disown me? Cut me off without a penny?”
    “For God’s sake, let the past rest. There’s going to be a war. Hitler wants to conquer Europe, and you want to go gallivanting to the other side of the world. You have a responsibility to me, a duty to your country.”
    “And what about your duty, Father? We were asked to billet some of those children being evacuated from London, and you refused.”
    “They’re not staying here,” Sir Phillip snarled.
    “How would it affect you?” he shot back. “You spend most of your time in London.”
    “I won’t have snotty-nosed cockney brats swarming all over the place, whether I’m here or not.”
     
    * * *
     
    The Australian sun scorched down from a sky so blue it hurt Paul’s eyes, but none of the populace seemed to be worrying. No-one seemed particularly bothered by the fact England and France had signed the Munich Accord, either. Peace at any price the newspapers claimed. His father and some of his war-mongering cronies would have a field day lambasting Chamberlain for this perceived treachery. Appeasement had to be better than plunging the world into war with Nazi Germany.
    There had been no pressing urgency, so he’d enjoyed himself on the ship coming out, but now he had arrived in the land of his birth, he felt a quickening of excitement. His feelings towards Allison had softened somewhat, she sounded very young in the letter, and no doubt his father would have brought considerable pressure to bear in prying their son from her.
    Dixon’s Siding was a small town in North Eastern Victoria, according to the map he held in his hand. Smithers, from the Australian office, had met him on arrival, taken him to a hotel and provided a car. Everything had fallen into place effortlessly, the Melbourne office obviously ran on well oiled wheels, but Sir Phillip would expect nothing less from his employees.
    Now, as he prepared to commence his early morning journey of discovery, Paul’s heartbeat quickened. He felt like an Olympic runner, primed and ready, waiting for the starting man’s pistol.
    The Australian girls were pretty, tanned, and as leggy as young colts he noted, running an appreciative eye over the laughing group passing on the sidewalk as he reached his vehicle. Later, he would look up one of his pals from school who now lived in Melbourne, and ask to be introduced around.
    As he drove towards Dixon’s Siding, his initial excitement became tempered by wariness. Was he doing the right thing? He didn’t want to cause any trouble for Allison if she had started up a new life, but he couldn’t live with himself if he