by Bowes, K T
“The first thing was that someone started cutting wire fences and mixing stock up,” Nev began haltingly. “It seemed random but definitely deliberate. Then they cut the electricity to the main house and it cost a fortune to repair. That was when Logan and Hana were away and we had to pay to have it all reconnected. The power company said the line was deliberately cut. We’ve had native trees felled across bush tracks and electric fences turned off. The stock’s been shifted round heaps of times and the mares have been let loose into crops that were meant to be for winter feed. Hana had the window smashed on her and now this with the stock being in your garden.”
“Our water tanks were emptied too,” Hana added. She leaned with her backside against the sink while the men ate, not wanting to intrude on their conversation. But she hadn’t realised how bad things had got. Logan opened his mouth and Hana shook her head. “It wasn’t Phoenix, Loge. I know you wanted to believe that, but I never leave her outside alone. I was there the whole time and she wasn’t out of my sight. Besides, she couldn’t turn the handle even if she’d wanted to, not how hard you tighten them. Sometimes I can’t do them.”
“I know it wasn’t her,” Logan admitted, looking contrite. “I didn’t want to worry you. Whoever did it opened the taps at both ends of the house. They intended us to run out of water, but it’s possible they didn’t know we could also draw from the stream. So it can’t be someone who was involved with building the house, or is familiar with the layout of the land.” He laid his soup spoon in his bowl and sat back in his chair. All the men were at a loss.
“There’s the window broken in your old bedroom with a brick and then there’s also the cigarette ends,” Hana said quietly. “Someone’s been watching the house.”
“What?” Logan looked at her aghast. “How do you know? Why didn’t you say something?”
“I wasn’t completely sure,” Hana answered, “it was just a feeling at first. Especially at night. I kept closing the curtains because I thought perhaps it was me imagining things. But then one morning a while ago, I found a cigarette end outside the front door. The only people who’d been here...” Hana paused, suddenly nervous of mentioning that Flick had helped eject Logan from his marital bed. “The only people who’d visited us don’t smoke. I walked around the side of the house and there was a whole patch of them next to the big Norfolk pine. And the ground was all dented.”
“No point checking now,” Nev said as he buttered another piece of bread to dip in his soup. “Stock will have destroyed it all.”
Logan looked crossly at Hana as though she had betrayed him and she held his gaze. Her eyes contained a challenge and he got the message: I couldn’t tell you anything because we weren’t talking! Sadness crossed his face and he looked away, berating himself. He had let his wife down in so many ways.
Tama finally pulled his face out of his bowl and looked hopefully at Logan’s. Hana’s husband had lost his appetite. He pushed the bowl silently over to his nephew and Tama pinched Alfred’s buttered bread as soon as he laid it on his plate.
“Bugger off!” Alfred told him and tried to pull it back. It ripped in half and he groaned and went back to the bread bag to begin again. Tama collected up the pieces and dipped them in Logan’s cooling soup.
“So it’s deliberate, possibly an inside job and there’s a particular interest in what? Me and Logan or the farm?” Hana asked.
The men looked nervous. Nev turned in his seat and answered her. “We thought it was the business alone but we think it’s you and Logan too. Someone wants to destroy everything you have but we aren’t sure why. This latest...development is pretty ingenious and will do us a lot of damage financially and in terms of reputation, so we’re fairly sure they won’t stop until it’s all over.”
“What latest development,” Hana asked, looking around at the men when nobody answered. Logan ran his hand over his face and exhaled.
“The calves, Hana. What did you notice about the calves?”
She shook her head feeling suddenly stupid. “I don’t know. They were quite small, but you’re already calving so I don’t know if that means anything. One was born right in front of us. Is that it? Were they meant to die and freak me and Phoe out? Because they obviously didn’t.”
“One did,” Alfred said blandly. “It got trampled.”
Hana felt instantly sick and looked down at the floor. Hatred bubbled up in her heart for the person who would do this.
“What else?” Logan asked and Hana wanted to scream at him. He treated her as though she were a pupil in his English class, drawing answers out of her so she could pass an exam.
“I don’t know,” she said crossly. “Of the two we saw, one was pure white and the other was black and white. They were newborn calves. I don’t know what you want me to say!”
“You just said it,” Nev smiled with sadness in his glittering eyes. “One was black and white. We breed purebred Charolaise cattle for the meat markets. They’re all white. And every year we hire a prize winning white Charolaise bull, which has been studied and researched and deemed to be compatible with our herds. Even with a recessive gene, we shouldn’t end up with black and white calves that look like...”
“Bloody Friesians,” Tama finished off for him, wiping his hand across the back of his mouth. “Someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to put a bull in a paddock of heifers. And when could they have done it? And how? It’s not like you can take a damn great bull for a walk in the mountains and accidentally let it loose with the cows and then call it back again.”
Hana studied the tiled floor, admiring the tiny diamond-like sparkles in the black surface. It was eye catching and distracting but it didn’t stop fear rampaging through her mind and creating monsters in her world. “Do you think...?” she couldn’t finish the sentence. “Do you think it could be...?” She licked her lips, aware that the men watched her intently, perhaps hoping for some gem of wisdom to pop out of her rosebud lips. Hana touched the scar on her left wrist with her other hand, feeling the instant stab of pain from the shard of glass still lodged in her artery. Her attacker was dead, but he had wanted to hurt Logan so badly. “I wondered if Laval...” Hana gulped and instinctively moved her right hand up to touch the site of the pacemaker. She hardly thought about it these days, except in moments of great stress when she half expected it to go off.
“No, Hana.” Logan’s voice was gentle and he padded across to her in his socks. He wrapped his arms around her firmly and grounded her in his love and the scent of horses and leather tack. “It’s not him, babe. It’s nobody like that. This is why I didn’t tell you. I knew what you’d think.”
The men at the table shuffled uncomfortably in the face of the show of affection, so unusual within their clan. Alfred studied his hands with abject concentration and Nev stared at Logan’s back with an air of interest. Hana linked her fingers behind Logan’s back to stop her shaking and he slipped his fingers up underneath her tee shirt. “You’re still beautiful,” he whispered in her ear, making Hana squirm with the ticklishness of his breath on her skin.
“Hey, old people, can you not?” Tama interjected in a sing-song voice. He turned to Nev. “They’re always at it. It’s disgusting.”
“Says you!” Logan answered him, turning round and pulling Hana in front of him. He leaned back against the sink with his legs splayed and Hana leaned her back against his stomach, slotting her feet neatly between his. Logan put his arms around her, hugging her into him, his long arms stretched across her chest. “Oh yeah,” he smiled mischievously at Tama, “that’s right. You’re not getting any are you?”
Nev and Alfred fixed their slate grey eyes on the young man and he quailed under their scrutiny. “Lucy’s a Christian,” he said proudly. “And we’re waiting.”
Alfred’s jaw dropped in surprise, revealing a set of false teeth at the top which clung precariously to his pink gums. Nev’s head swivelled on his neck so fast it looked painful. Neither of them spoke and in the ensuing silence, Tama lost hi
s nerve. He pointed at Logan and Hana accusingly. “They waited,” he whined, “and it’s turned out ok for them.” Hana felt Logan’s eyes burning holes in the top of her head as they bore into Tama’s body. The tension in the pectoral muscle behind her communicated his anger. She stroked the hand nearest to her heart in warning, feeling Logan’s fingers flex into a fist over her breast. A sigh escaped her as she wished heartily she had let her husband give the big mouth a slap, as it opened again.
“Lucy said God blesses you if you wait and look at them,” Tama’s voice went to a squeak at the end. “They’re pensioners and turning out kids like...like...” he couldn’t think of a suitable analogy.
Hana gulped as Logan’s family as one, turned their grey eyes on her stomach. It was intensely embarrassing for her and she sucked it in as much as she could without being obvious. It didn’t work. When Hana looked down, she still couldn’t see her slippers.
Nev broke the silence. “Congratulations then.” He smiled. “Another little Du Rose to add to the crew.”
Logan exhaled with his nose and mouth on the back of Hana’s head. It was warm and ruffled her hair. “Thanks,” he said and the atmosphere became strained.
“You were a late baby, Logan,” Alfred piped up, his face soft with the memory of the small boy who had captured his heart. “You were a little surprise too.”
Nev looked awkward again and Tama snorted at the reminder of Logan’s illegitimacy. “Er, yeah, I bet.”
Logan blew out a quick breath, the same noise his beautiful Appaloosas made when startled or annoyed. It was heated and sharp on the back of Hana’s head. “Are you done making trouble?” he asked his nephew coldly and Tama shrugged and handled the last crust of bread from the bag. The boy had no shame.
“You lot crack me up,” he said, digging into the butter. “At least you’ve got each other. I don’t got nobody of my own. I used to just tag onto other families and try and find my place for a while. Until I found Ma,” Tama smiled fondly at Hana. “See, blood don’t make family, it’s the other stuff. Poppa Alfred had Logan all them years and Logan called him ‘dad’ and didn’t know no different. Yeah we all lost Poppa Reuben who, for the record, was more of a father to me than anyone and Nev lost his dad. But Nev’s got a brother now.” Tama waved his knife dangerously in the other man’s face. “You got Logan, like the coolest bro’ you could ever imagine and Poppa Alf to ask stuff. I went to a house fire in Mount Eden last week. It was the poorest house I’d ever seen, I mean the thing was hanging together with string. It was this family and the mama was sick with cancer and couldn’t work. It went up like a firework because one of the little kids thought he would make his mama warm and lit a fire in a blocked chimney. He found some dregs of petrol in an old can out back and saved it, he said, for a special occasion. He threw it on the fire and the damn house exploded. We got them all out. The mama and five little kids, even the baby in the cot. They’ve got nothing left and all she could do was shout at the top of her voice how lucky she was because they all got out alive. She kept shouting, ‘Thank God, thank God,’ and I thought, thank him for what? You’ve got nothing. It made me think about things differently. Family is everything, no matter what kind of family you end up with.”
The room was silent, the air molecules banging together in their eternal dance and causing a static fuzz. Nev cleared his throat, “I should get back to my lot,” he said and smiled his crinkly eyed smile. Alfred scraped his chair back too.
“Yeah, me an’ all.”
Tama licked his lips and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.
“Wait!” Logan said and everyone halted. “I’ll radio the bunkhouse and get someone to ride up in the ute. Leave the horses here and get them tomorrow.”
“What about water?” Nev asked.
“The old stream runs past here,” Alfred said knowledgeably. “They’ll be right with that.”
Logan gave Hana a gentle push to make her stand up and padded over to the table to retrieve the radio. It crackled to life and he went outside to get a better reception.
“See you later kōtiro,” Alfred hugged Hana tightly and kissed her on the cheek. He nodded in satisfaction and his eyes strayed to her belly. “Do we know when yet? You weren’t sure.”
Hana rubbed a hand over her protruding bump. “Beginning of December.”
Alfred nodded happily again and patted her on the shoulder.
“Congratulations.” Nev held out his hand to Hana and it seemed formal and awkward for a brother-in-law, even a half one. He laughed hollowly. “If you were anyone else I would give you a hug but I don’t want your old man to kick my head in.”
Hana snorted, wishing that it wasn’t true. An image of Bobby’s dreadful black eye wafted across her inner vision and her smile faded from her lips.
“Someone’s coming up,” Logan announced, coming back into the kitchen. He spun the radio carelessly in his hand and cuffed Tama round the back of the head. “I think we should all take a wee look outside at the damage and to see if those cigarette ends are still visible. Might give us an idea of what’s going on.”
The men nodded eagerly and put their hats on their heads and tramped back to the front door.
“Oh, there’s one of the cigarette ends in the plant pot by the door,” Hana remembered. “I picked it up and then forgot about it.”
Logan returned to the kitchen for a sandwich bag to put it in and found Hana rubbing her eyes. “Go to bed, love,” he said gently. “I won’t be long.” He kissed her on the forehead and then went off to play detective with his new sidekicks. Hana faced the food mess and sighed, clearing the bowls away and wiping the table. A knock on the front door was followed by the sound of it opening and closing. Hana went cautiously out to the hallway and looked at the visitor.
“Hi.” She didn’t know what else to say.
“Logan around?” Flick asked and his fingers writhed around the car key in his hand.
“He’s out there.” Hana pointed back the way he had come and returned to her task, a dreadful sadness winding its stealthy fingers round her heart.
“Hana.”
She jumped as the voice came from right behind her. Flick had kicked off his boots on the mat and followed her. “I wanted to say, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been like that with you the other day.”
Hana looked at his eye, her brow knitting in sympathy. It still looked painfully swollen. Blue and purple had turned to a livid green that looked straight out of a paint palette. The man’s eyeball was more visible and less bloodshot. It wasn’t going to kill him. “That’s ok,” she said sadly. “It’s your business.” She turned away from the table with a cloth filled with crumbs and Flick caught her free hand in his.
“Please don’t be mad at me,” he whispered.
Hana sighed and looked at their joined fingers. “Bobby, if Logan sees you here, he’ll kill you next time,” she said with resignation.
“Logan?” he repeated and then wrinkled his nose in disdain as though the idea was ludicrous.
Hana’s face was disbelieving. “If he gave you that shiner for helping me to the hospital, then imagine what he’ll do when he finds you holding my hand in his own kitchen.” Tiredness made Hana aggressive but Flick stood his ground.
“Not everything’s about Logan bloody Du Rose,” he said through gritted teeth. He pointed an angry finger at his eye. “This won’t keep me away from you, Hana. I’m risking everything to tell you that I’m sorry for the other day. If he sees me come up here, he’ll kill me for sure. He’s done it before, I know that.”
Hana’s vision seemed to cloud. Logan had killed someone. “Logan has?” she whispered, her face ashen. Flick shook his head in irritation.
“Stop talking about Logan,” he raised his voice and Hana was reminded of the power he had once wielded in his awful organisation. He had intended to hurt her and had succeeded once. She yanked at her hand to release it from his grasp and he shifted his fingers, contacting the ugly cut on her wrist by mistake. Han
a cried out in pain and he dropped her hand and then didn’t seem to know what to do. “Sorry, sorry,” he said and ran his hand through his blonde hair. “Hana, I need to shoot through. Please come with me?”
“What? Why?” she felt appalled. “But you haven’t done anything.”
“But he thinks I have and he knows how I feel about you. Please, Hana. Come with me.”
Hana shook her head. “But nothing’s happened,” she repeated gormlessly.
“He thinks it has,” Flick said again. “We need to get away from here.”
Hana’s brain struggled with Flick’s words. So Logan knew how this man felt about her and thought that she’d been unfaithful with him. It didn’t make sense, unless Logan was about to burst through the door and kill the man right there on the kitchen rug. Hana stepped back, understanding nothing. There came the abrupt sound of stamping feet and the front door handle clicked down. Hana turned quickly away and by the time Logan had kicked his boots off and walked down the hallway, she was rinsing the dirty cloth in the sink. Flick leaned against the centre island with his back to her, arms folded and legs crossed over at the ankles.
“Ah, cheers bro’, thanks for coming up here,” Logan said cordially and Hana turned to look at him in surprise. “The others are getting in the truck,” he said and Flick followed him down the hallway with a single wistful look back at Hana. She listened to her husband chatting as they left the house, detailing a security watch over the property and issuing Flick with orders for the other stockmen. He was perfectly calm and unthreatening. Hana was completely confused.
Chapter 24
Hana cleaned the kitchen while Logan dealt with the men outside and when he returned, he whistled a gentle tune under his breath without stress. Hana looked at him curiously from under her lashes and he smiled at her and winked. “You seem happier,” she commented and rinsed the cloth under the tap.
“Yeah,” he said, leaning exactly where his stockman had been only a few minutes earlier. “I am actually.”