The camp was set up with a bark hut, obviously not a long-term arrangement. Fabiola got down and the other two helped her measure out portions of peas, rice, coffee, salt, and other supplies. As they got back on their horses and headed east, she explained that each of the stockmen got an equal share, and she or one of her men visited them once every few weeks to ensure that nothing untoward had happened to them since there were dangers from flood, fire, and wild animals. Each stockman was supplied with a musket and other tools, but their jobs were simply to keep the sheep in good feed and alive. It required moving them every so often, so they didn’t eat down to the roots and the graze was kept available and healthy in the paddocks.
“Dingoes are the worst problem, and if you are going into an area where there have never been any sheep, they are going to be a big problem,” Fabiola explained, directing her comments to Mel.
Mel nodded. She had expected that and planned for it. She had picked up new guns in Sydney, disappointed that the muskets seemed so old and wishing instead for the repeating rifles she had seen in the Americas. She’d already written to suppliers, but it would take months, maybe years, to get the rifles sent and have them make their way to Australia, if they even made it that far before being stolen.
“I’m planning on shearing my sheep here at Twin Station,” Mel explained to Fabiola when she asked about her plans. “We can arrange supplies from here.”
“I’ve already got my suppliers sending me supplies,” Fabiola told her, frowning at the wording.
“I mean, if we increase our supplies by sending in larger orders, we can take advantage of quantity discounts and use the same drayage companies that you already have set up. I won’t be in a position for a couple of years to have a drayage company haul in supplies and take away my wool clip.”
Fabiola nodded, understanding. It was obvious that this man had thought things out, and the fact that Carmen was nodding meant they had to have discussed it. She was surprised how close the two American friends had become but she supposed it was understandable since they were from the same country. She didn’t realize how vast America was, just as the two Americans hadn’t realized how big Australia was.
They traveled east for hours and came across another stockman. They went through the obligatory introductions again, and Fabiola measured out the supplies. They headed south after that and spent the night with the third stockman, who welcomed the owners and their guests. The variety of visitors provided a welcome respite from the monotony of his existence.
“I heard dingoes last night,” he confided. “If someone could watch my flock, I’d hunt those bastards.”
“I’ll watch them, but I’d rather hunt with you,” Mel offered as they sat around the fire, the dogs panting as they lay about between the hut and the fold where the sheep were waiting to be fed. The fold was made up of split rail fencing, and the sheep had settled down inside it.
“You think you could find your way back to the station?” Fabiola asked, looking at Mel speculatively.
“Yep. Your home ranch…er, station is back that way, and as we haven’t hit the track that we came in on yet, it must be south and west of here,” she said, pointing towards the proper locations.
Fabiola was impressed. The Outback could quickly become disorienting. She was also pleased that Carmen didn’t seem to be put out by the vastness of it. “Then why don’t you stay and help him?” She nodded to the stockmen. “If you want, you can catch up with us or meet us back at the station.”
Mel agreed and found herself watching the stockmen’s sheep the next day as Carmen and Fabiola headed off with the pack horses to supply other stockmen.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Fabiola showed Carmen the northeast corner of what they considered their station. “It really isn’t marked off because we didn’t get the fencing done up here at all. It is more of a feeling,” she stated, wondering if the Hispanic woman understood her.
“I see,” Carmen mused, glancing at the dip in the land, barely more than a depression. It was certainly not a valley or a gully that she was pointing to. North of them, farther to the west, she could see some odd hills shimmering in the heat as Fabiola pointed out some smoke that signified a campfire and headed for it to deliver more supplies.
As they continued south, Fabiola explained how her father and Carmen’s uncle had decided to get as far west as they could from civilization. “I gathered they wanted to see how much land they could take in, then faced with the enormity of it all, they couldn’t do as much as they planned. It was too far from civilization, and few men wanted to go with them, despite the promise of steady jobs as stockmen.”
“I’m sure it takes a special man,” Carmen hesitated a moment, about to add ‘or woman’ as she included herself and thought about Mel, “to cope with all this.”
“The emptiness doesn’t bother you?” Fabiola asked, wondering at this cousin who was related to her or her brother very distantly and also by a partnership forged long ago.
“No, my ranch in the California central valley was also remote, although I did have my family about me.”
“Your husband didn’t come with you?” she questioned, noticing how the Yank had seemed protective of the woman and glancing back at the two vaqueros still following them closely. They helped where they could, but it was obvious they thought their job was to protect the American woman.
“He died several years ago. No loss there,” she confided but didn’t elaborate. “Some men aren’t able to cope with the responsibility of a ranch.” Her delicate hand encompassed the land they were riding through and Fabiola nodded. This woman did understand. “How about you? Have you ever been married?” Her uncle’s letters hadn’t exactly been chatty, and she really knew nothing about her two partners. Uncle Jude had been verbose in his own letters but mostly about Carmen’s family—her father and their grandparents—but had only superficially mentioned the children of his partner since they weren’t his.
“No man ever took my fancy,” she admitted.
“I’m sure there is someone who would give you children?” she asked, feeling that they were exchanging confidences as they got to know one another.
“There hasn’t been any I would drop my drawers for,” she said with a grin and then turned away to glance at something that caught her attention. Fabiola stared for a moment and then looked away to watch from the corner of eye, but she determined it had only been a wild animal. She glanced down at the gun scabbard on her saddle, confirming the gun was in easy reach if she needed it.
Carmen laughed as was expected, the bluntness something she was becoming used to. These Australians told it like it was, and she liked that. She knew many Americans like that. “And your brother? He has a wife?”
“No, Harold has been looking but hasn’t found anyone to his liking.” She turned back to Carmen and after studying her a moment asked, “Would you consider marrying again?”
Surprised, she shrugged and shook her head. “I haven’t met anyone that has taken my fancy.” She thought about the many men she had met on her ranch and on the long journey here. No one had caught her attention in the least. The most fascinating person she’d met that had held her interest had been Mel, and while she knew Mel would have liked if she had shown a romantic interest in the manly woman, she didn’t feel that way. Instead, she had been content with a good friendship.
Fabiola watched her cousin surreptitiously, although they were probably both aware of it as they tentatively got to know one another, hoping for friendship or at least a business partnership they could live with. The situation was not one of either’s choosing, and they would have to make the best of it.
As they continued onward, Fabiola pointed out features of the station. The wind continued to blow, and endless acres of dry grasses waved in the breeze. Fabiola pointed out parrots and cockatoos as well as bellbirds and pigeons. Their noises coming from the trees added to the sound of rushing wind through the leaves. Carmen was delighted, having enjoyed th
e conversations with Mel as the carter had pointed out such things. She loved seeing the odd little koala bears, their jaws grinding up the leaves of the eucalyptus trees. The trees themselves fascinated her with their bark peeling back and exposing the inner tree. Some had very vivid colors. Everything in Australia seemed odd but beautiful to her. Even the snakes, some of which were venomous, had a purpose.
“Avoid boars at all costs,” Fabiola cautioned, assuming the American had no knowledge or experience with the wild animals.
“Yes, they told us that on the way out,” she informed her. “It reminds me of the javelinas they have in Arizona.”
“Javelinas?” she asked, the Spanish word having no meaning to her.
“They too are wild boars.”
“Where is Arizona?” She was fascinated as she learned more about this American cousin.
“It is a territory next to California. I have cousins there. This animal sticks mainly to the desert, and its territory extends into Mexico, which is the country south of the United States.”
Fabiola shook her head. America didn’t make sense to her. “I guess if it doesn’t concern our station or paddocks, I have never heard of these places.” She grinned wryly; it was all very different, she was sure.
Carmen returned the grin, pleased that Fabiola could admit that about herself. Fabiola wasn’t narrow-minded and was willing to hear about the other places, so Carmen shared her own knowledge generously. She could see the beginnings of a friendship forming between them, and it pleased her.
The silence descended upon them, the wind stilled, and the birds stopped speaking. At times like this, the quiet was ominous, and it felt almost as though everyone and everything were waiting for something to happen. It seemed like they were being watched, and yet, there were endless miles of rolling grassland around them with nothing to be seen in the stillness. Both women waited for something to happen, anything. The horses stamped impatiently, sensing the unease of the air around them. The humans exchanged looks, checking if the others were feeling it too and grateful to have the presence of other human beings around them. Then, after this odd moment in time passed, the breeze came back somewhat stronger, the birds started their endless noise, and the leaves on the foliage answered the wind with the sound of their rustling leaves.
“What is it?” Carmen asked quietly after this odd stillness ended.
Fabiola shook her head. “No one knows. It’s just part of what makes the Outback unique. Some go mad from being out here,” her hand encompassed the plains they were riding through with pockets of forest containing some unique animals. The heat waves shimmered on the horizon. “Others are always a little off, and still, they stay.” She glanced at the Hispanic woman, certain she was one of those who would not only stay here but conquer any such matters of the mind and spirit.
They continued their ride eating cheese and biscuits from their saddlebags, so they didn’t have to stop. Their only rest was when they searched for and found another stockman and delivered his supplies while he was guarding a flock of sheep.
Carmen reassessed the size of the station time and time again as they rode, acknowledging that she had underestimated it as well as the number of animals it could support. Until the rains came again, the grasses that the sheep and horses could eat was sparse. She could see that in a good year this area might support hundreds of thousands of sheep, but now, the thousands she had brought and the thousands her cousins already had on the station were plenty.
That night, Carmen turned the vegetables in the pan, shaving dried beef into the broth she was making with water. In another pan, Fabiola had mixed damper to make a biscuit to go with their stew. The men returned from hobbling the horses, laying out their bedrolls and using their saddles as a headrest around the fire. The women’s bedrolls were on the inside of their little circle and closer to the fire. Carmen could see they were very compatible as she and Fabiola worked to create their supper.
“I would have thought your servants would cook for you,” Fabiola commented, ruining the moment.
“Yes, they did, and they do, but I also learned to cook over many a campfire as I took care of my herds of cattle and horses,” she mentioned, feeling defensive about the Australian woman’s assumptions.
Fabiola realized she had offended the Hispanic woman. She wasn’t used to having another woman around. She was usually surrounded only by her own men, her employees, or her brother. Her social skills were badly in need of refining. She changed the subject as they both sat down on logs pulled up near the fire for that purpose. “Do you think Mel will be able to find the home paddock alright?”
“Yes, he should do fine. If anyone was born to fit in out here, it’s Mel Lawrence,” Carmen answered, smiling as she appreciated the other woman fondly.
“You admire him?”
“Yes, he proved himself on the trip out here and even back in Sydney. He dealt fairly with me on the sheep when I bought half of them. He didn’t need to do that. He could have bought them all himself.”
Fabiola wondered why he hadn’t and thought about that for a while. Not many men would share such a valuable find with anyone else, much less a woman. That showed integrity, and it showed something else. She couldn’t put her finger on it now, but she thought perhaps there was more to Mel Lawrence than she knew. She would have to get to know him better.
Their trip was informative and long, and they returned to the home paddock with the supplies well gone. Another one of the men left the next day to finish the rounds on the other side of the station as they had only gone through half of the flocks surrounding their station. The flocks were spread out but not nearly as large as they should be after the losses Twin Station had suffered.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The four of them ate dinner together, Carmen and Fabiola discussing where Mel should head to establish her own station. Alinta looked on, not understanding everything they spoke of and surprised at how much these white people spoke and discussed things with each other. While Fabiola would have liked Mel’s station to the south where there weren’t any of their own flocks since the fire, Mel felt drawn to the north based on conversations with the stockmen they had visited as well as those working at the home paddock.
“I wish to find my own place,” Mel asserted. Carmen understood her desire, but Fabiola and her brother, who joined them late in the meal, both tried to convince her that the southern paddocks were empty of sheep and would be to her benefit. “There’s more people there too,” Fabiola pointed out.
“I appreciate what you are saying,” Mel addressed Fabiola and ignored Harold since he didn’t contribute much of value to the conversation, just sitting there gazing at Carmen, who also ignored him as she joined in the conversation.
“It wouldn’t be like a tenant farmer,” Carmen pointed out. “If you go north, you will be totally on your own if something happens. How are you going to deal with Alinta’s pregnancy?” she asked, gesturing at the aboriginal woman, who glanced between the conversationalists.
“I guess we will be going slower than I had thought,” she admitted. “It will give me a chance to scope out the land and choose where I’ll set up my station.”
“As far as I know, there are no stations north of here,” Fabiola conceded, since the Yank was so determined to go. “East of here there are a few as I’m sure you saw on the tracks, but there is nothing like on the other side of the Cobdogla.”
Mel smiled. She loved the Aborigine word for the renamed Darling River, which she only knew because of the endless conversations on the long trip out here. “I expect it to be that way for my lifetime,” she agreed. She sounded eminently satisfied with that idea, preferring to be off alone.
They discussed what she should look for and what she would need for her station. Carmen had agreed to keep some of Mel’s many supplies here on her station and start up in a couple of months to resupply her and check on their progress. Fabiola raised an eyebrow at this plan, wondering again at the relationship betwee
n the Yank and her cousin. As far as she could ascertain, they were merely friends. She’d been surprised that the vaqueros allowed her cousin out of their sight but saw that they trusted the Yank. The others hadn’t been pleased by his returning without the Hispanic woman accompanying him. Fabiola had been impressed that her cousin was able to handle herself. She had used a whip and a pistol without flinching as they traveled along. Her bodyguards hadn’t been necessary. Their conversations had been about the land. Fabiola explained what they had done in the years since her own father had passed. Her mother had died giving birth to her weak brother. Her father and uncle had both raised the children, teaching them their letters, making sure they spoke and wrote English, and teaching them how to run the station. In due course, the station had grown, but fires and drought had wiped out nearly half of it in a couple seasons. Even now, they were still re-growing their flocks. The death of first, her father, then, her uncle, and last, the fires to the south had been an additional setback to the isolated station.
Now, her cousin was adding this man to their supply route? Fabiola listened as they discussed things that Mel might need or should look for but found herself surprised and appreciative when the Yank and her cousin included her in their conversation. Her advice, since she had lived out here all her life, was invaluable to them.
“But you’ve never gone that far north?” Mel confirmed with Fabiola. She was ignoring Harold, who was gazing raptly at Carmen and not contributing.
Fabiola shook her head. “There’s always been too much work here on the station that needed tending. Why would I go up there when I’m needed here?”
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