James smiled. This sounded a good start to the O’Sullivan stud. ‘I’d appreciate that very much.’
‘Come on, I’ll show you the rest.’
They walked through a wooden gate and crossed a paddock where a few of Brian’s horses were grazing contentedly.
‘They seem in good condition,’ James said.
‘It’s been a bumper of a spring.’ Brian pointed to a couple of mares over by a dam overhung with weeping willows in the bottom paddock. ‘Those two mares of yours are the ones in foal. Should give you a good drop before too long.’
‘They look close.’
‘Within the next couple of months.’ Brian took his hat off and scratched his head. ‘Did Malone leave his papers in order? In regards to the stud?’
‘Yes. I discovered them the second day I was there. The solicitor told me that although he’d let the house and garden go downhill, he was meticulous about his horses. By the look of his studbooks that would seem the case. In fact,’ James added, ‘I brought them with me. They’re in the car. I thought if you had a moment we could go through them.’
‘Not a problem, mate. Now, why don’t you go grab your bag, or whatever you’ve brought, and I’ll show you where Lorna’s put you up for the few nights you’re here. Then you can join me for a whisky before we light the barbeque.’
‘Thank you,’ James said. ‘I must say again how kind it is of you and your wife, not only to put me up, but to share your knowledge with me.’
‘No worries, mate. I reckon you’d do the same if the boot were on the other foot.’
* * *
Brian’s wife Lorna was a petite redhead with skin freckled and creased by the sun. After the three of them had devoured the steaks Brian had cooked on the makeshift barbeque under an elm tree in the back garden, Lorna brought them coffees and they sat on the back verandah. To James, Lorna seemed a no-nonsense woman who called a spade a spade and didn’t give a hoot what anyone thought of her. Including how much she swore.
‘What the bloody hell got into your friend Finn to do something like that?’ she said, stubbing out a cigarette in the ashtray balanced on the arm of her chair. ‘Silly damn bloke. He should’ve spoken to someone about his problems. Men tend to bottle them up inside. Us women, well … We like to share them around. Maybe that’s why we’re less likely to top ourselves.’
‘He didn’t look like the sort of bloke to give in to desperation,’ Brian said. ‘Mind you, I never saw him tanked. He was always as sober as a judge. Or if he wasn’t, he put on a damn good show.’
‘I thought he had it beat,’ James said. ‘In fact I think he did. Then I believe something happened in London on his way back from Ireland that set him off again.’ As he said it, James felt the usual bitterness towards Jessica, even though he’d told himself a hundred and one times that Finn should have had the strength to resist the temptation. ‘But you’re right,’ he said to Lorna, ‘God knows what got into him to do such a thing.’
‘Well,’ she said, standing up and stretching her arms in the air. ‘Who knows the workings of the mind?’ She stepped to the edge of the verandah and picked a leaf off the rhododendron bush overhanging the railing. ‘He wasn’t in debt, was he?’ she asked, turning around. ‘I mean a hell of a lot of farmers get into debt, mortgage their places to the goddamn hilt and don’t know how to get out of the mess. That’s when they do themselves in. Bloody tragic. I know of at least two blokes who’ve done that over the past decade. You reckon that could’ve been Malone’s problem?’
James shook his head. ‘No, Finn was well off financially as far as I know. In fact he left me quite a bit of money to work the stud with.’
‘Ah … Then it probably was the grog that did him in. Bloody awful hold it gets on some poor bastards. In any case,’ she added, eyeing her husband, ‘I reckon I’ll call it a night. Leave you two to chew the cud on your own.’
‘Thank you again,’ James said, standing up to say goodnight. ‘I’ve had a grand evening.’
‘Our pleasure.’ She smiled. ‘I’d love to meet the family sometime. Particularly your wife. Kathleen, isn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ James said.
‘She must be finding it all a bit of a strain. All that packing up and leaving Ireland, then finding out what happened to Malone and taking over Eureka Park. I’d heard it was in a bloody awful way.’
James nodded. ‘We’re managing to get it back in order.’
‘Well, when you’re settled in a bit more maybe I could drop by and see if there’s anything I can do to help. Or,’ she laughed, ‘I could kidnap Kathleen and take her up to Tamworth to do a spot of shopping. Girlie things.’
‘I’m sure Kathleen would like that very much. I worry she may get lonely out there on her own. Particularly when our daughter Lillie starts school up in Tamworth in the New Year.’
‘I’ll give her a holler and have a chat. I know how lonely it can get on the land. I was cut up when my kids started boarding school down in Sydney.’
‘How many do you have?’
‘A boy and a girl. They’ll be back for the school holidays soon. Then,’ she laughed, ‘I’ll wish they were off again. Gerald’s okay. Maddie’s a different kettle of fish, isn’t she, Brian? A real free spirit. Tests us both.’ She grinned as she leant down to kiss Brian goodnight. ‘I always thought a girl would be a piece of cake. How wrong I was.’
‘How old is she?’ James asked, wondering if she and Lillie might be the same age.
‘Sixteen going on twenty.’
‘Our Lillie’s only fourteen.’
‘Enjoy it while you can. Once they get a bit older they seem to change. Boys and all that. Drives us round the bend, eh, Brian.’
‘Ah, she’s not that bad.’
Lorna chuckled, patting Brian on the shoulder. ‘Tell me that after she’s been home for a week, bored stiff and wanting to head into town to party with all the wrong crowd.’
She left Brian and James to enjoy a port under a sky sprinkled with stars, which to James seemed even brighter than the stars that lit the sky above the Kerry Mountains. In their twinkling midst was the outline of a new moon, which reminded James of the shape of the boomerang Finn had brought Marcus last time he had come to Rathgarven. James wished that Finn was with them now. For surely that’s how it should be: the three men sipping port and discussing the state of the nation and the prospects of their horses.
‘I don’t want to be worrying you,’ Brian said, ‘but I did hear a rumour doing the rounds that Malone owed a bit of money around the place. Fuel, vets, horse feed, farriers. Nothing huge. No doubt it all adds up. Anyone mention that to you?’ He gave a shallow cough. ‘He even owed me a bit. Not that I’m chasing that up now that the poor bloke’s gone.’
‘Oh,’ James said with concern. ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
‘Ah, nothing too much. Mainly vets’ fees while his horses were here. And he’d agreed to pay me for agistment. As I said, I’ve had plenty of feed, so that’s no great drama. Even so, I reckon if he owed me a few quid, he may well have owed others. Maybe, as Lorna suggested, it all got the better of him.’ He raised his bushy eyebrows. ‘Just a thought.’
‘It’s not something that crossed my mind,’ James said, trying to control the alarm bells starting to ring loudly in his brain. ‘You may well be right.’ He took a deep breath to steady his voice. ‘I’d best see the solicitor when I get back.’
‘Not a bad idea, mate. Could put your mind at ease.’
When they had finished their ports, Brian turned to James. ‘Reckon I’ll call it a night as well. We start early round here. Undoubtedly Lorna will have breakfast ready for us after we come in from the track. What’s say I see you round 5.30? I’ve got a couple of two year olds in training. You can see them have a run.’
‘Sounds good,’ James said.
That night James tossed and turned through the long hours. Had his friend left him with debts that would eat into the money he had bequeathed him? And which they d
idn’t yet have. The solicitor had said it would take time to come through. Or were Brian and his wife jumping to conclusions? He hoped that they were; he couldn’t imagine how he would tell Kathleen, who had earmarked that money for so many things, as had James. Apart from their everyday living expenses, there were school fees, school uniforms, and all the costs involved with the stud, which were bound to mount up before they could hope to reap any sort of an income. If Finn hadn’t left them that twenty thousand pounds James felt sure he and Kathleen would have decided to sell Eureka Park and start over again somewhere else with something smaller, which would have given them a bit of spare change. If Brian’s suspicions were right, they might have to do that anyway.
The thought of that made James sit up in bed, and he knew he would be unable to find sleep tonight, no matter how hard he tried. To have lost Rathgarven was one thing. To lose Eureka Park would put more strain on Kathleen than James could imagine — not to mention the rest of the family. He wondered where Finn had got the money to pay Jessica if he owed money. Or was it paying Jessica that had strained his finances? I never should have allowed him to do that, he thought. Was it possible that Jessica had insisted on even more money and Finn hadn’t told him? That was how it had started for James. A little to begin with, but then as Jessica got older and her circumstances changed, her demands put more and more pressure on the finances of Rathgarven. Until that last time, which had pushed James to gamble and lose. When Finn said he would see to it that she never made any more demands on James, had he had to pay her more to do it? James was going to pay him back as soon as he got on his feet here. Sadly he never had that chance.
Giving up on sleep, he stepped out onto the verandah and lit his pipe. When his watch showed 5.15, he was still there. He headed back inside and got dressed, grabbed his coat and tweed cap, and went to meet Brian down at the stables.
* * *
Over the next few days James tried to put his fears from his mind as he learnt how Brian ran Medlow Stud. It was going to be much harder than he had imagined. Although many hunters were thoroughbreds and in fact retired racehorses, running a racehorse stud was a lot different from owning a few hunters. The first thing Brian told him was that he’d need a realistic business plan. How much would he be able to invest in the stud? How much grain and hay would he need in a year? What would the insurance be? What were the workers going to cost? What would he need to put aside for vets and farriers? And the other bits and pieces that would constantly come up.
‘The hands-on work in running a horse stud is unrelenting,’ he said. ‘But it’s also immensely rewarding. You need to hire the sort of bloke that says “Wake me up for the foaling, even if it’s in the middle of the night.” And you’ll need to reward him for hard work. Nothing huge. Enough to make him think he’s appreciated. What you don’t want is to have blokes upping and leaving all the time. Then you’ve got to train a new one. Bloody waste of time.’
Brian was a good teacher and by the time the weekend came round James felt he had picked up enough pointers to be able to welcome Finn’s horses back to Eureka Park.
‘The kid brother of one of my stablehands blew in a while back,’ Brian told James the day before he was to leave. They were down in a room off the stables and Brian was going through the Eureka Park studbooks with James. ‘I promised his mother I’d give him a run. Good young bloke. Has a knack with horses. Seems to have built up a bit of a rapport with your Caesar.’ He paused. ‘To be honest … With my daughter Maddie coming back I’d be glad if you’d give him a go. Last time she was home they seemed a bit close. Made Lorna uncomfortable. Why don’t you give him a go? At least he’ll see you out until your other fellow starts. If he’s any good you can keep him on. It’d do me a favour if you gave him a run. I’ve actually paid him up for a couple of weeks ahead, but that doesn’t matter. He’s not here this week, he’ll be back on Sunday. Jack’s his name.’ He looked out the window at Finn’s Ford truck parked next to the stables. ‘He can drive your ute up. Save you coming back down once you’ve got all the horses up there in the float.’
James was overcome at the kindness of this man. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘I’ll pay you back for his time. And rest assured I’ll pay you what Finn owed you as well.’
‘As I said before … That was a debt Malone owed me. It’s not your debt, mate.’
Early on Saturday morning Brian helped him load the mares into Finn’s horse float, which had been parked out the back of the stables. James could have waited until tomorrow when Jack came back, but he felt confident he could cope on his own on this first trip and Jack could drive Finn’s Ford when they’d load up Caesar and the rest of the horses. Although he’d driven small horseboxes to hunt meets back in Kerry, James hadn’t driven such a large float. Driving slowly and carefully on the dusty road, he went over and over in his mind what he could do if it turned out Finn owed all of the twenty thousand pounds. Or even most of it. Selling some of the horses would be one option. Then again, the horses were going to be their only source of income. As he drove through a cloud of dust left by an overtaking ute, he tried to convince himself that they would work it out one way or another. They had to.
In the meantime I’d best concentrate on getting this lot back to Eureka in one piece, he told himself as he swerved to avoid another pothole, which was met by a chorus of indignant snorting from the back.
CHAPTER
20
After James and the rest of the family had made sure the horses were happy in the front paddock, they sat around the table having the Irish stew that Kathleen had made for dinner in the pressure cooker she had found in the bottom cupboard.
‘I feel I learnt a lot during the week at Medlow Stud,’ James said, lifting the glass of beer Kathleen had poured him. ‘And the Medlows are a lovely couple.’ He looked at Ronan who had come home on the school bus that evening. ‘You can come down with me tomorrow to fetch the rest of the horses. And Caesar, the stallion.’
‘Can I come too?’ Lillie asked.
‘I’m afraid there won’t be enough room.’
James told them how Brian Medlow had insisted on the brother of one of his stablehands coming to help out.
‘He’ll stay on here for the time being. Jack’s his name. I haven’t met him, but I gather he’s worked up a good rapport with Caesar.’
As he looked around the table at the happy faces of his wife and children he hoped his concerns about Finn’s finances were unfounded. He had thought of telling Kathleen what the Medlows had said, but when he saw the optimism in her eyes on seeing the mares arriving, he decided not to say anything until he had been to see Colin Towers. The lawyer would be able to put his mind at rest, and it would only be worrying Kathleen unnecessarily to tell her anything before he’d spoken to him.
Nonetheless, that night he tossed and turned, keeping Kathleen awake. Eventually she asked if he was okay.
‘It must be all that time in the horse float … The jerky movement on that dirt road and trying to avoid all the potholes that’s making me restless,’ he said. ‘I’ll get up and read for a while.’
At three o’clock he crept back to bed and managed to grab a couple of hours’ sleep.
On the trip down to Medlow Stud later that morning Ronan turned to him. ‘Are you nervous about having the horses back at Eureka?’
If Ronan were older James thought he would confide his worries about Finn. As it was, Ronan had enough on his plate settling into a new school. It wouldn’t have been easy for him; he knew teenage boys could be the devils of bullies to a new student. Not that Ronan had said anything.
‘Sure, I’m a bit nervous,’ he said. ‘But … with Jack, the young fellow coming to us from Medlow Stud and the other young bloke starting next week, I’m confident we’ll cope.’
‘Well, I’ll be there on weekends to help.’
‘Unless you’re playing rugby,’ James grinned. ‘I daresay that’s bound to take priority.’
Ronan smiled. ‘I got a game
in the First Fifteen on Wednesday.’
‘Well done.’ James shifted the gears and slowed down to avoid a rabbit scuttling across the road in front of them. ‘You’re settling in, then?’
‘Yeah. It’s okay.’
‘And you’re happy with living at the Thompsons?’
‘It’s fine, Dad. They’re great.’
‘And Dave?’
‘We get on really well.’
‘But you still miss your friends back in Cork?’
Ronan glanced out of the window at the landscape of open paddocks with the odd house scattered here and there. Turning back he smiled, ‘It’s okay, Dad. As I said, Dave’s great and I’ve made another few good friends. So stop worrying.’
James put his hand on Ronan’s knee. ‘Of course I worry about you. But I’m proud of the way you’re handling it all. And well done again on the rugby.’
‘Thanks. I hope I get another game in the First.’
‘I’m sure you will. Which,’ James added with a chuckle, ‘makes me doubly pleased I’ve got these young fellows to help me. For I’d bet you a pound that many of your Saturdays will be tied up on the rugby field.’
When they got closer to Medlow Stud, Ronan cleared his throat. ‘One of the fellows at school said Uncle Finn owed his father money. He runs the menswear shop in the main street. Uncle Finn got a couple of suits from him before he went back to Ireland but he hadn’t paid for them when he died.’
‘And your friend told you that?’
‘Yeah. It sorta came up. He was asking me how we were settling into Eureka Park. He said he’d heard his parents talking about how Uncle Finn was an alcoholic and owed money around. They wondered if that was why he killed himself.’
‘So your friend knew he’d committed suicide.’
‘Yeah. Everyone knows.’ A long pause. ‘So do we have to pay off Uncle Finn’s debts?’
James turned to him. ‘I’m going to see the solicitor on Monday. In the meantime please don’t say anything to your mother. I don’t want her worried unnecessarily.’
The Homestead on the River Page 19