by Annie Seaton
‘I’m looking forward to seeing how you guys work.’ Joel caught up to her and lowered his voice. ‘Do you think I could come and watch you some days?’
‘I can’t see why not.’ A smile tugged at her lips and it felt strange. Unfamiliar. Using facial muscles that had forgotten how to function. ‘We could probably put you to work.’
‘Awesome!’ Joel’s enthusiasm made her smile again and this time it was easier.
‘Looks like I’ve got a new team member.’
It would be helpful to have some local knowledge on hand as they worked their way through the caves.
‘I’ll talk to Dad about it.’ He kept his voice low. ‘But don’t tell him why. I’d love to talk to you about going to uni. I can start applying for university halfway through next year. My principal said she can recommend me for early entry as soon as I know where I want to go. You might be able to help me choose the best university.’
This time it was Emlyn’s turn to look curious. ‘Why not mention it to your father?’ Travis and Jase were a couple of hundred metres ahead of them, so she spoke quietly.
‘I’m pretty sure Dad wants us both here on the station. He really needs all the help he can get. He’s got no idea that I want to study history. I was stoked when he said that people from the university were coming here. For a while, I thought it was to do with the history of the place, but I’d still love to see how you work, and how you write up what you discover. One day I’m going to have to tell Dad that I won’t be staying here, and that’s going to be hard.’
‘I’m sure he’ll want what’s best for you. Whatever makes you happiest.’ She felt like a hypocrite saying the words, but poor Joel looked so unhappy, she needed to say something.
‘No.’ He shook his head vehemently. ‘He’d think I’m as useless as Uncle Gavin, and I don’t want that.’
Emlyn was thoughtful as they caught up to Travis and Jase. She was getting to know too much about this family. It wasn’t what she’d expected—or wanted—here.
* * *
Travis stood with Jase waiting for Emlyn and Joel to reach the top of the hill. She negotiated the last bit of the track quickly, yet despite the last steep pinch she was breathing easily. He’d revised his opinion of her slightly. Although very thin she was obviously fit, and his assumption that she might not be up to the climb was proven wrong. Her pallor had been relieved by the exertion, and for the first time her cheeks held a rosy flush. Huge brown eyes were set in a face with high cheekbones, well-defined lips and a dimple he’d noticed the one time she’d almost smiled yesterday. She was quite pretty—or she would be if she filled out a bit.
‘Did Bluey get that water pressure sorted for you?’ He looked at her thoughtfully. It wasn’t so much the gauntness of her face that defined her demeanour; it was the distance that she kept as she observed those around her. Clinical and detached most of the time, she was a strange mix. Obviously a confident woman—to have no hesitation in coming way out here and being by herself in the middle of the bush—her self-sufficiency struck a sympathetic chord in Travis. There was a story behind it; he recognised the barriers that she put up.
‘No, he hasn’t come yet.’
The wind lifted her hair as they reached the top of the hill and his eyes were drawn again to that fine network of scars on her neck. He shrugged off his curiosity; he had enough problems of his own.
‘Sorry, he told me he was going there this morning. I’ll chase him up.’
‘Thank you.’
‘It’s much cooler up here. Feel the difference?’ he asked as she put her hand on her hair and pulled it down to cover the side of her neck. Her fingers were shaking as she did up the top button of her shirt. He didn’t think it was vanity, but more reluctance for anyone to be prompted to ask about the scarring. He knew the boys wouldn’t ask even if they did notice. Despite the issues he and Alison had, he was proud of the polite and thoughtful young men they’d grown into.
She nodded.
‘Even though we’re seven hundred metres above sea level, we experience less humidity with a drier climate during the day and much cooler evenings than down on the coast.’
‘Had much rain so far this season, Dad?’ Joel asked.
‘Use your eyes, son. What do you see?’
‘Yep, you’ve had a bit,’ Joel said as he stared out over their land to the western horizon. ‘But not enough.’
‘Enough to make it look green from up here, but we still need a lot more for the cattle.’ Travis nodded as he watched Emlyn take in the view from the top of the hill. At this time of the year, the first rains triggered an explosion of colour as the country transformed from its usual brown and dry environment to one of a rippling green sea of colour.
‘You called it the green season yesterday?’ she asked.
‘Yes, from now on we should have enough rain to kick off the growing season. The new growth and the water will bring out the wildlife.’
‘Are you scared of snakes?’ Jase asked with a grin.
‘I’m an entomologist. I spend most of my research time in the bush and in places where snakes are looking for food,’ she replied. ‘So not scared, but always wary.’
‘A good way to be. Especially up here.’ Travis beckoned Emlyn over. She stood beside him and he leaned down so that her line of sight was level with where he was pointing. ‘Have you ever been up to Kalkani Crater?’ he asked.
‘That’s the volcanic crater over at Undara, isn’t it?’ she replied.
‘Yes, the one where they take tourists for a walk up to the top and around the rim.’
‘No, I haven’t been up this way at all before. I came straight across from Townsville.’
‘See the mountains in the distance?’ He pointed to the west where the sun hovered over the low Newcastle Ranges.
She stood beside him and a whiff of lemon shampoo wafted across from her hair. Travis moved away slightly.
‘If you look halfway out there, you can just see a stand of bush. In between there and here, if you look carefully you can see a straight line of vegetation dissecting the paddocks.’
She put her hand to her face and frowned as she looked across the plains. ‘That way?’
‘Yes, the tree line has a silvery hue to it.’
As he stood still and kept pointing, a family of rainbow bee-eaters flitted around in the bushes beside them. The lowering sun caught the reddish gold of their heads above their lime-green chests. A pair of sulphur-crested cockatoos flew ponderously over them, their screeches breaking the quiet of the early evening.
Emlyn stared to where he was pointing and nodded. ‘Ah, I see it.’
‘That straight line is the main tube that crosses our property. It will have started over at Undara.’ Travis turned around and then pointed to the curtain of green vines behind them. ‘This is an entry point and the tube goes for another eighty kilometres to the west.’
‘Does it come from the original eruption over at Undara?’
He shrugged. ‘I’d say so. Until the volcanologists arrived here from Germany a couple of years ago and told us they were part of the Undara system, we just looked at them as our caves. I’d never even been across to the Undara tubes before then. Now I realise that this is part of the same volcanic eruption. This system has never been explored, not since the Carlyles have owned the land anyway. Even Aboriginal people didn’t go far into the caves from what we know.’
‘No one else has ever explored them, or even mapped them. I’ve read the papers the Germans published. It was quite an exciting discovery for us. They’ve examined the geological aspects of one tube, but who knows what new species of insects we’ll find in there.’
For the first time since Travis had met her, her voice was filled with enthusiasm and her face came alive.
‘It’s a whole unknown area, and three months is going to be nowhere near enough,’ she said.
Travis shook his head and ignored the frown that Joel directed at him. ‘I only agreed to three month
s.’
‘If we find anything of significance we’ll need to extend.’
‘I really can’t afford to have the running of my station interfered with for more than the three months.’
‘Let’s leave it open.’ She stood and folded her arms and regarded him coolly. ‘We’ll see when the time comes.’
He nodded. ‘We’ll see what happens.’
* * *
Despite Travis’s reluctance to be open to an extension, Emlyn couldn’t help the flutters of anticipation jumping in her stomach as he led her over to the curtain of vines hanging over what appeared to be a high rock face.
Unexplored. It was like being an explorer in uncharted territory. The fieldwork and the new discoveries were the best part of her job. Surely with his apparent love of history, Travis could understand how they would have to stay as long as they needed to. The potential for discovery of new species in this network of caves was extremely high and Emlyn looked forward to being part of it.
And apart from the possibility of new discoveries, the beauty of this landscape soothed her this evening. The colours of the trees, contrasting with the brown dirt, provided a stunning backdrop for the wildlife that was venturing out as the sun set. Mobs of kangaroos grazed in the paddocks below, and myriad bird life darted in and out of the trees.
The only thing missing was David. If he’d been here, he would have the camera out, taking photos of the birds, the trees, the sunset.
She called him the sunset king. They had thousands of photos of sunsets on their computer.
His computer.
Emlyn ignored the ache that kicked into her chest.
‘Can we go in now?’ she said briskly as she reached into her knapsack and pulled out the headlamp. She’d checked the batteries as she’d unpacked the equipment from the Troop Carrier earlier this afternoon. The small settlement was beginning to take shape as she’d scrubbed and set up an office area and put the equipment she’d brought with her in a secure cupboard. Flying from Brisbane to Townsville had meant that she’d been limited in the amount of gear she could bring with her and she was looking forward to the arrival of the team. It had seemed unnecessary to be in such a large vehicle by herself, but once the others arrived they’d need it to get to and from the site.
‘Just watch where you’re going here,’ Joel said. ‘The snakes’ll be waiting for the bats as soon as the sun sets.’
As they entered the dimly lit space and looked around, Emlyn drew a breath. The light filtered through the lacy foliage above and Travis raised his hand as she went to step forwards.
‘Clever buggers, aren’t they?’
To their right, a high ceiling of honeycombed grey rock rimmed the edge of the clearing. A pile of tumbled rocks rose in what looked to be a man-made cairn where the grey rock met the ground. High above them at least a dozen snakes hung from the intertwined branches. As she watched, the milky, bulbous eyes of a striped green snake looked back at Emlyn and she suppressed a shiver. A soft noise came from in front of them and the boys walked over to the rock cairn and all three of them looked up. A large gap in the green canopy revealed a triangle of midnight-blue clear sky. The noise became louder, and suddenly, with a huge whooshing sound, the space filled with dozens and then hundreds of small black bats as they flapped up to the open space and disappeared into the dusk.
Her eyes were wide as she took in the amazing spectacle, forgetting that she was with anyone else. Soon the space was full of bats and the snakes moved along the branches, their forked tongues flicking in and out as they stretched for the bats in mid-flight.
‘Bingo. Got him,’ Jase yelled with a fist pump.
A snake as thick as a man’s wrist slithered down the tree branch and disappeared into a fissure in the rocks behind. Emlyn shivered; a bat was secured firmly in its jaw.
‘Absolutely beautiful.’ Her hushed voice was almost reverent as she watched the spectacle of nature unfold in front of her.
Jase and Joel looked at each other and both chuckled.
‘By now our mum would have been a quivering heap outside, heading back for the house,’ Joel said. ‘It’s a toss-up whether she hates the bats or the snakes the most.’
‘No need to be worried about them getting tangled in your hair. Their sonar enables them to dodge us,’ Emlyn replied.
‘We know that, but she’ll never believe us,’ Joel said.
‘She hates them.’ Jase shook his head and his voice was respectful. ‘But you do this for a job, Emlyn?’
‘I do it because of moments like this. It’s more than a career. It’s hard to explain.’ Heat rushed into her cheeks as she noticed Travis staring at her. It was difficult to read his expression in the dim light.
‘You right to go in?’ he said. ‘I think most of the bats have headed out for the night now. With a bit of luck, some of the stragglers will still be feeding inside and you can find your first insects.’
Even though she didn’t appreciate his dismissive tone, she nodded and slipped her backpack on. Adjusting the headlamp, she waited for the three of them to lead her into the tube. ‘I’m ready.’
CHAPTER
6
Hidden Valley, July 1879
Missy Carlyle scrambled up the hill. As nimble as a mountain goat, she searched out rocks and tree roots to pull herself quickly to the top. The stand of deep green vegetation along the ridge would be the best-ever hiding spot and she knew if she hid in the thicket Tommy and Stanley would never find her. She pulled herself over the crest just as Tommy called out.
‘Eighteen … nineteen … twenty. Coming, ready or not!’ His voice drifted up from the other side of the fallen eucalyptus tree where he’d been hiding his face in his hands. Stanley had scarpered towards the creek as soon as Tommy had starting counting, but Missy had always had her eye on the thicket at the top of the hill.
As she approached the vegetation, Missy was surprised to see that hanging vines fell from the tree branches like a natural curtain. She carefully pushed aside the matted foliage, keeping an eye out for snakes. It was coming into the dry of winter, and the time of the year when the snakes would be searching out water. Missy shivered; she’d never forget seeing one of their Aboriginal stockmen die right in front of her before Mother had dragged Tommy and her away last summer. The brown snake had struck over and over at Old Billy’s bare foot, and his scream had stayed in her head for weeks.
They didn’t see many snakes around the house and she knew to be careful out in the bush. Father always said if you made enough noise and didn’t try to touch them, they’d get out of your way.
But Missy was still wary, although her immediate problem was not making noise to give away her hiding spot, so she moved very slowly and shuffled her boots on the leaf-littered ground.
Once she was sure the trees and the dirt were clear of creatures, she lifted both hands to separate the greenery and stepped behind the curtain of vines. With a grin, she turned and peered down the hill. They would never find her up here. She could see Stanley as clear as day, his black face peering around the white bark of a tree where the creek split into the two tributaries. Tommy could never find Stanley either when they played; he could be standing right near you, but he was always as quiet as a mouse as he moved from place to place. Tommy always found her first, but this time she knew that he wouldn’t. She giggled as her brother walked right past the tree where Stanley was hiding.
If he found Stanley, she knew that the young Aboriginal boy would be able to find her footprints, but it was satisfying besting Tommy for a change. Tommy—Missy’s twin—was older by three minutes and he never let her forget it. He thought he was the best at everything, and sadly it was only their lessons where she usually surpassed him. Although he was as smart as a whip, all he wanted to do was get out of the schoolroom and help Father with the cattle. He didn’t care about ‘stupid book learning’ as he called it, but Missy loved every minute of reading her books and learning something new. She just wished she could go to a prop
er school; she already knew more than their older sister, Eunice, who was supposed to be teaching them.
Tommy—named for their father—had been like a bear with a sore head since Father had headed off to the gold miners’ settlement with a hundred head of cattle early this morning. He’d pleaded and cajoled and finally resorted to tears.
‘It’s no place for a young boy.’ Mother had stood firm even when Father had wavered.
‘I’m almost thirteen. Old enough to work with the cattle. Why can’t I go?’
Missy hid a smile as she saw him lift his foot and then he obviously thought better of stamping it.
‘It’s too dangerous over there at the moment. I’m not happy with your father going, either.’ Mother had glared at their father as he’d waited while she’d wrapped him some bread and meat in a hessian sack.
‘I’ll only be gone a couple of days. Young Tom could come with me.’
A grin threatened to split Tom’s face, but Missy knew Mother would not budge.
‘No, Thomas. You yourself have told me about the troubles in the mining village. The violence! It’s no place for a child.’ Mother folded her arms and shook her head. ‘And it was only last week that the Native Police stopped in on their way to the Lynd River to warn us to be careful.’
Father shook his head. ‘They’re just a bunch of rabble-rousers, those blokes. Looking for trouble. You know we have no problems with our Aboriginal workers.’
‘That may be all well here, but you heard them tell us about the two men that the blacks murdered up at the Lynd.’
‘Mother, please.’ Tommy stood in front of her as Missy watched the battle of wills.
‘No. You’re not going. Now the pair of you scat to the schoolroom. You have work to do.’
Tommy muttered under his breath as they headed for the small alcove at the back porch that Mother referred to as the schoolroom, but his mood improved when Eunice excused them early. Missy and Tommy then called in at the Aboriginal camp, collected Stanley and went bush. Stanley was the son of one of the Aboriginal stockmen at Hidden Valley, and his father often let him off work when Tommy and Missy escaped the schoolroom.