The Round Yard

by Alissa Callen

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  When USA Today bestselling author ALISSA CALLEN isn’t writing, she plays traffic controller to four children, three dogs, two horses and one renegade cow who believes the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. After a childhood spent chasing sheep on the family farm, Alissa has always been drawn to remote areas and small towns, even when residing overseas. She is partial to autumn colour, snowy peaks and historic homesteads and will drive hours to see an open garden. Once a teacher and a counsellor, she remains interested in the life journeys that people take. She draws inspiration from the countryside around her, whether it be the brown snake at her back door or the resilience of bush communities in times of drought or flood. Her books are characteristically heartwarming, authentic and character driven. Alissa lives on a small slice of rural Australia in central western NSW.

  Also by Alissa Callen

  The Long Paddock

  The Red Dirt Road

  The Round Yard

  Alissa Callen

  www.harlequinbooks.com.au

  To Luke

  Contents

  About the Author

  Also by Alissa Callen

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgements

  CHAPTER

  1

  Neve Fitzpatrick walked out the front door and into a scene of mass garden destruction. Dismay anchored her boots onto the dusty veranda floorboards. No wonder the two willie wagtails perched on the nearby wooden fence had been scolding.

  The three-year-old girl she carried on her hip stopped wriggling. The five-year-old sister standing close beside her stilled. They all stared at what had been ordered rows of vegetables filling the raised beds in the right corner of the garden. Now, carrots and strawberry plants littered the red dirt path and the rows of staked tomatoes slumped as though they suffered from heatstroke. The scent of crushed rosemary tinged the breeze.

  ‘Uh-oh.’ Maya slipped her small, sticky hand into Neve’s. Her chatterbox voice lacked its usual volume.

  ‘Uh-oh,’ Kait repeated in her high-pitched tone, shaking her head so her red curls glinted.

  ‘Uh-oh, all right.’

  ‘We need Mr McGregor who chased Peter Rabbit,’ Maya said with a frown.

  ‘Or a better fence.’ Neve sighed. ‘We have a bigger problem than rabbits. Make that two big problems.’

  Loud crunching sounded. The grey-and-white donkey feasting on a carrot turned to look at them with large amber eyes. The taffy pony beside her snatched at a head of lettuce before peering at them through his long blond forelock.

  Neve shook her head. To think she’d been worried about locusts, when the threat had been far closer to home. She’d watered and nurtured the rows of vegetables through the summer heat and now, just when the cooler autumn weather had arrived, she’d have to start over again.

  ‘Don’t give me that innocent look, Sebastian,’ she said to the pony as a lettuce leaf hung from his mouth. ‘I know it was you who busted you and Delilah out.’

  The pony took a second bite of lettuce.

  ‘Bassie’s going to get a tummy ache.’ Worry pinched Maya’s heart-shaped face and her hold on Neve’s hand tightened.

  A brain tumour had robbed the sweet sisters of their mother last spring. On the days they spent with Neve, while their father worked in Woodlea as a livestock agent, she made sure she provided stability and fun. She pressed her lips closed against the emptiness that didn’t seem to fill despite the calendar pages she turned. She knew firsthand how losing a mother could strip the warmth from the sunshine and dull even the brightest of blue skies.

  Neve released Maya’s hand to place an arm around her delicate shoulders. ‘He’ll be fine and if he’s not we’ll call Ella.’

  The concern straining Maya’s expression eased. Both girls knew and liked the local vet, as she’d looked after their kelpie when he’d fallen off the farm ute. Ella was also the reason why Neve had a shaggy donkey and a sassy pony in the paddock of her rented farmhouse. Both animals had been neglected and in need of a loving home.

  As a child Neve had been horse mad and she hadn’t outgrown the dream to one day have a horse of her own. She just wished Ella had sent out a how-to manual along with the bales of hay. Growing up in the city hadn’t exactly equipped her with the skills to outsmart her two escapees.

  Kait wriggled on her hip and Neve bent to set her on the veranda beside Maya. With their burnished curls, big brown eyes and pale, round cheeks, the sisters were a mirror image of each other. When she took them to town they’d often been mistaken by tourists for her daughters, except her auburn hair was a lighter, more strawberry blonde and her eyes were green.

  Footsteps sounded in the hallway behind them before the screen door opened.

  ‘Sorry, the hospital calle—’ Fliss stopped, her mouth rounding. ‘Not again.’

  Neve moved to take hold of the tray of iced cupcakes that tilted in the local doctor’s hands.

  ‘Yes. Again.’ She set the tray on the nearby outdoor table. They’d have afternoon tea before she attempted mission impossible to return the donkey and pony to their paddock. ‘This time they didn’t just eat the hedge. I was sure the extra row of electrical tape would work.’

  ‘I was too.’ Fliss ran a hand through her glossy, dark hair. ‘It’s time your free-spirited duo met their match. If Denham and Tanner can sort out that chestnut bully of Old Clarry’s, they can handle a big-eared donkey and pretty-boy pony.’

  ‘Thanks, but Denham’s busy with his wedding and I’ve not met Tanner.’ She poured water into a plastic cup. ‘I’ll work it out.’

  It didn’t feel right relying on others. Usually, she was the one offering to problem-solve and to help. Life had taught her to be self-sufficient. After her father had died when he’d fallen from a ladder, it had only ever been her mother and her, and for a too-brief while, her grandmother.

  Fliss helped Kait into a chair before passing her a cupcake on a blue plate. ‘Tanner’s home from droving and Denham would welcome any distraction from working out table-seating arrangements.’

  ‘I couldn’t ask Denham. It isn’t just the wedding keeping Cressy and him busy, they’re also getting ready to go away for their honeymoon.’

  ‘Which leaves Tanner. He’d be able to keep Bassie and Dell in their paddock and work with them to make them easier to handle.’ Fliss smiled at Maya and Kait. ‘Bassie’s also supposed to be broken in. You’d like to ride him, wouldn’t you?’

  Both bright heads bobbed.

  Neve didn’t realise she was chewing her bottom lip until Fliss glanced at her. She turned away to sit beside Maya. ‘I’m sure Tanner knows what he’s doing. But it’s fine. Really.’

  To her relief, Fliss also sat and the conversation lapsed. Wings whooshed as a flock of cockatoos landed in the old gum tree that threw shade across the trampoline. Dell and Bassie weren’t the only ones who’d been eyeing off the ripening strawberries.

  Silence settled over the veranda as everyone enjoyed the cupcakes iced in white and sprinkled in edible pink glitter. The girls liked baking and Neve made sure they cooked recipes that reminded them of their mother. A mouthful of cake lodged in her throat. One day she’d cook her own mother’s favourite vanilla cake recipe.

  Avo
iding Fliss’s gaze, she stifled a cough and reached for her water. Her new neighbour was far too perceptive and had already done enough to help her keep busy. Three months ago, she’d organised for Neve to look after the girls five days a week until Graham found a more permanent arrangement in the spring and before Maya started school.

  Kait giggled as Dell plucked a fresh carrot from the garden bed and Bassie tried to steal it from her.

  Fliss laughed softly. ‘I know those two are incorrigible, but they really are cute.’

  Neve joined in with the laughter. ‘I’ll remind myself of how adorable they are when it takes me at least an hour to get them into their paddock.’

  ‘I can help.’ Fliss selected another cupcake. ‘I’m not on night duty, so I’m not in a rush to get home.’

  Fliss and pickup rider Hewitt lived at nearby Bundara, and the house Neve rented was on their second farm. It was no coincidence she’d chosen the small town of Woodlea to move to. Bundara had been her mother’s family home and she lay buried alongside her parents in the historic local cemetery.

  Thanks to kind and generous Fliss, Neve had since been a frequent visitor to the bluestone homestead she’d visited as a child. Sometimes the memory of her mother’s laughter would echo as she walked through the high-ceilinged rooms. The summer scent of white gardenias took her back to eating Anzac biscuits on the cool veranda with her grandmother.

  Neve took hold of the empty water jug. ‘Which means you can spend a quiet night in with Hewitt.’

  ‘Wouldn’t that be wonderful. He’s been working late on the new adventure playground so I’ve barely seen him.’ Fliss’s hazel eyes searched her face. ‘Are you sure?’

  She nodded, ignoring the way Bassie threw her a sly sideways look. There’d be a battle of wills as soon as her boots hit the lawn.

  Fliss dug in her jeans pocket for her phone. Neve stood and headed inside before Fliss could again mention Tanner and offer to text him. If she was honest there was more to her refusal to enlist his help than her ingrained independence. If Denham wasn’t so busy she’d possibly ask him, but Tanner was a definite no.

  Tanner was Woodlea’s man of mystery. His name was usually mentioned in wistful tones or with a dreamy expression if it was a young cowgirl speaking. When he wasn’t away droving, it sounded as though the horse trainer only hung out with a few select mates and rarely attended social events. From the variation in the stories murmured about him, it was obvious the majority of the district hadn’t personally met him.

  She’d only seen him once, but it was enough. Edna Galloway was justified in having the broad-shouldered cowboy at the top of her future-husband list for her daughter. Even from across Main Street, his easy grin as he’d greeted Denham had caused Neve to forget what she’d been heading to the grocery shop for.

  It wasn’t only Dell and Bassie she was ill-equipped to handle. Good-looking, single men also ticked such a box. It wasn’t so much the combination of his dark-blond hair and tanned, sculptured features that triggered her need for self-preservation, but how he carried himself. Confident and in control, he wore his self-assurance as well as he did his faded denim jeans.

  Water jug full, she turned to retrace her steps. Sure she’d had boyfriends, but between university and her mother’s multiple sclerosis, and then starting up her Sydney occupational therapy practice, relationships had been put into the too-hard box. Being an introvert hadn’t helped either when she’d sold her business to become her mother’s full-time carer. She hadn’t wanted to waste a moment of their final two years together by going out on yet another awkward date.

  Her shoulders squared. She had enough to deal with without feeling tongue-tied around an eligible bachelor who’d think her useless for not coping with her new charges.

  Before she reached the front door, Fliss entered holding Maya and Kait’s hands. Pink shimmered on the girls’ cheeks and chins. Fliss held up the sisters’ hands; they too were covered in glitter. ‘Turns out Bassie and Dell like being fed cupcakes as much as they like carrots.’

  ‘Why doesn’t that surprise me?’ Neve said with a laugh as Fliss disappeared into the main bathroom with the two grinning little redheads.

  Neve went to clear off the outside table and to check she didn’t have a donkey and a pony making themselves at home on her front veranda. When she returned, a clean Maya and Kait played in the toy corner, while Fliss stood at the sink.

  The tall brunette turned with a grin. ‘I know … I’m not supposed to do the washing up.’

  Neve opened a drawer to take out a folded tea towel. ‘I didn’t say a word.’

  Fliss’s laughter filled the small kitchen and the lonely crevices of Neve’s heart. The farmhouse hadn’t felt like a home until she’d started babysitting the girls, and Fliss, her sister Cressy, and Ella had befriended her. Now the house was busy, noisy and a riot of colour. Just how she liked things. Light caught in the pink specks scattered across the kitchen bench. And today it sparkled.

  She smiled and took hold of a plate to dry. Fliss glanced at her. ‘All this glitter reminds me of the hoof polish the ponies wore in the trail ride parade. I’m sure the girls would love some for Bassie and Dell.’

  ‘I’m sure they would too.’

  ‘I’ll ask Kellie where she got her pink polish from when we see her at the small-hall festival. You’re still right to go?’

  ‘I won’t have the girls and Ella’s determined I come along.’

  ‘Trust me, if Ella’s set on you going, you’ll have no hope of backing out. She’s dragged Cressy and me halfway around the countryside to make sure we had some fun.’ Fliss placed a bowl in the dish rack. ‘I can’t wait to see the Reedy Creek Hall decorations. It always looks so different to when it’s used as an emergency control centre. Touch wood, there’re no more floods and that Drew Macgregor’s header is the only thing to go up in flames.’

  Neve nodded. She was still to meet many of the locals, but she’d heard about the flooding spring rains as well as the Christmas harvest fire.

  Gravel crunched and a diesel car engine chugged. She glanced at the clock. Graham was here early to pick up the girls. Usually, she’d give them dinner and a bath before he took them home.

  She didn’t need to call out to Maya and Kait. Toy horses in their hands, they raced out the door and down the veranda steps to hug the man walking along the garden path. Bassie and Dell stood in the shade of the garden shed and barely flicked an ear as Graham passed by. If only they’d stay so placid. Who knew such short, stubby legs could move so fast.

  Graham picked up Kait, and then, holding Maya’s hand, joined Neve and Fliss on the veranda. He assessed the destroyed vegetable garden beds. ‘Someone’s been busy?’

  Neve grimaced. ‘Yes, but don’t worry, the girls and I will still make the carrot cake we promised you. You’re here early.’

  ‘I thought I’d take the afternoon … off.’

  As he looked down at his daughters, Neve swapped a concerned look with Fliss. The anguish of losing his wife was imprinted on Graham’s weary face. Fresh silver glistened in the cropped brown hair at his temples.

  He dipped his head at Fliss. ‘That Hewitt of yours has been hammering up a storm in the adventure playground.’

  ‘He says another two weeks, and a final working bee, and it’ll be done.’

  Maya’s smile beamed as she tugged at her father’s hand. ‘Neve’s taking us. We’re going to be the first ones to play on it.’

  ‘That sounds like fun.’ Graham’s voice deepened and he paused to clear his throat before glancing at Neve. ‘Thank you for all that you do for the girls. I don’t know how we’d cope without you.’

  She didn’t immediately answer. She was the one who didn’t know what she’d do without Maya and Kait. Their tight cuddles and cute chatter never failed to keep her loneliness at bay. The brutal ten months after her mother’s funeral and before they’d come into her life had proved she wasn’t used to being on her own or not having anyone to care for.
/>
  Even with packing up and selling her Sydney family home, she’d felt purposeless. She’d never made a decision that only involved herself. She’d never had spare time that required filling. Since she’d been at high school, she’d done the washing, cooking or shopping whenever her mother’s joints had ached or she’d been unable to stand due to her poor balance.

  Fliss slipped an arm around her shoulders. ‘It was Woodlea’s lucky day when Neve called to rent this place.’ She paused to glance at the nearby pony and donkey. ‘Especially for those two.’

  Fliss’s amusement dispersed the heavy emotion. Neve went inside to collect the girls’ backpacks. Through the screen door she heard their excited voices filling their father in on what they’d done today. The knowledge that she’d kept them busy and made their day happy eased the ache in her throat.

  After she and Fliss had waved Maya and Kait goodbye, Fliss turned to hug her. ‘Thanks for afternoon tea. See you and Ella on Saturday night and … good luck with the destructive duo.’

  ‘Thanks.’ She crossed her fingers and held them behind her back. ‘I’ll have them out of the garden in no time.’

  Even an hour had been an optimistic estimate of how long it would take to get Dell and Bassie back into their paddock. The usual bribery of hay failed to work, so Neve used their need to evade her to eventually direct them through the gate.

  If either animal had been wearing a headcollar she would at least have been able to catch them. But the day after they arrived both headcollars had been removed. She hadn’t been close enough since then to put them on again. She still didn’t know who the clever culprit was who’d taken them off.

  Once Dell and Bassie were where they belonged, Neve made sure the electric fence was intact and the red light of the charger blinked. As purple shadows dappled the lawn and the first blush of sunset brushed the sky, she went inside.

  A coffee in one hand and her phone in the other, she settled onto the end of the living-room sofa. From such a position she had an uninhibited view of the electric fence through the large front window. She’d kept watch before, and if she had any hope of outwitting the terrible twosome, she needed to stay one step ahead. The only way to do this would be to discover how they escaped.