Outback Heritage

by K'Anne Meinel

  “Curiosity?” Mel asked with a smile, teasing her and pleased when she returned the smile. It was then that Mel saw the real beauty in the half Aborigine, half British woman. She was truly an Australian mix, unique to the Outback.

  “Perhaps,” she agreed, surprised to find herself smiling back at the Yank and wondering about him once again. She could tell something there wasn’t quite right, but she had yet to think it through completely as too many other things were occupying her mind with her cousin’s arrival. Thinking Carmen would be manageable and amenable to their plans; Fabiola had been pleasantly surprised when she wasn’t. The challenge to be agreeable and work out their differences of opinion in how the station should be run was quite pleasurable. Fabiola and Harold owned half the station, and if they didn’t agree, the other half was owned solely by this cousin, who could outvote them. If their plan to have this cousin marry Harold came to fruition that would negate her half vote and then there would be just two votes instead of three. Harold, for the most part, was agreeable to all of Fabiola’s plans, letting her run the station as she saw fit, but it had been his idea to get this unknown cousin of theirs to marry him. After meeting Carmen, he was even more enthused by the idea, but he wondered if her cousin was attracted to this Yank?

  Fabiola, having gotten to know Carmen better on their trek back to the station, wasn’t so sure about the marriage plan anymore. Carmen showed no interest in Harold, despite his making cow eyes at her, which she didn’t even seem to acknowledge.

  * * * * *

  Carmen and Fabiola helped Mel and the men to separate the sheep. They made sure that most of the Merinos she was taking were the three- and four-year-olds they had agreed upon. The men worked quickly and efficiently as they put the new flock into another large corral. The dust swirled up, coating everything and everyone with a fine layer of dirt.

  “Do you have an extra side saddle?” Mel asked Fabiola. “I need one for Alinta,” he explained. Fabiola led them to one of the many storage sheds, and they searched for and found an old side saddle. Fabiola also found tallow that she handed to the Yank for restoring the leather. Later, she sold Mel a bridle that he also rubbed the tallow in, making the leather supple and ready to use for the aboriginal woman.

  Fabiola was surprised at how much time and effort the Yank was making for the Aborigine. She hadn’t seen too many white men try like this. He was treating the woman with far more respect than she had seen in a long time. It was interesting to watch and observe as they prepared to leave Twin Station.

  Mel saddled one of the Brumbies she had used as a pack horse and taught Alinta how to ride it. She seemed steady, sitting sideways on the horse as Mel patiently showed her how to use the reins on the beast.

  Fabiola and Carmen watched as Mel readied her packs on the remaining horses, checking and rechecking the house for their things, whistling to her dogs, and finally, hoisting Alinta onto the waiting horse before gathering up her own reins and stepping into the saddle. Alinta led the remaining pack horses, but fortunately for the unschooled rider, her horse chose to follow Mel’s, which made it easier for her to control the beast. They headed for the holding pens where the four thousand sheep Mel was taking were waiting. Carmen, Fabiola, and several of Carmen’s men were coming along for the ride to the edge of the station to familiarize Carmen with more of the land she had inherited. Mel appreciated their help as her dogs brought the flock out of the pens and they began their trek. It took two days to get to the edge of the property, or rather, to the edge of the grazing areas that Twin Station claimed.

  An odd set of domed hills was at the northernmost line, and Fabiola pointed it out as they pushed the flock to the top of one hill and let the dogs and the sheep slow on the far side. The sheep immediately slowed to graze the long and untouched grasses. “Well, from here you can choose your station,” she said as she viewed the land from their vantage point. “I don’t know of anyone else claiming the land, but you’ll have to fight dingoes, snakes, boars, and the weather. Watch for fires and other things.” She wasn’t telling the Yank anything he didn’t already know, at least nothing they hadn’t discussed, but he looked eager to be off. She glanced at the Aborigine, who followed him on her own horse. She noticed the horse was probably stopping because Mel’s horse had stopped and not due to the woman’s prowess at riding. Alinta looked slightly ill, her protruding stomach making it obvious that she was pregnant. Fabiola wondered if the woman would lose the child with all the traveling Mel planned to do as he scouted the territory he was going to claim.

  “I thank you for your advice,” Mel said and looked eagerly to the other side of the domed hills, glancing at Carmen with a smile of delight. Before them, as far as any of them knew, was uncharted territory. It was still arid, but soon, the autumn rains would be coming on. The sheep had grown coats in the months it took to get out to the station and soon, they would be giving birth. The rams she had chosen were among them now, but she hoped to keep them separate once her station was established. “I guess this is goodbye,” she said to the Hispanic woman, smiling her thanks for the friendship they had shared.

  “No, it is merely goodbye for now. I told you, I’ll be bringing you some of your supplies. Don’t get lost,” Carmen teased, a smile on her beautiful face.

  Mel looked at her friend’s face, wishing for something that had never been there and pleased that the friendship had come about despite her attraction to the woman. She glanced at Fabiola, sensing her admiration for this woman as well. That was a surprise. She had seen Harold looking almost foolishly and hopefully at their cousin, and she knew that Carmen was nothing but polite to the man, not encouraging him in the least. “Well, we will see you then,” she said as she gathered her reins and urged her horse forward with Alinta following.

  Carmen watched her friend as she followed the large flock of sheep, her dogs doing an excellent job of keeping the sheep moving slowly, so they could graze. She was pleased that she had been able to sell Mel a few of the dogs she had purchased back in Sydney since they worked so well together, and her cousins had more than enough. She’d kept the three best for breeding, but the others had gone with her friend to keep the large flock in order.

  “You will see him again,” Fabiola promised, glancing at the vaqueros that had accompanied them.

  “Of course, I will. Mel is a unique individual and will succeed at anything…he takes on.” The hesitation was infinitesimal, but Fabiola noted it. She’d noticed several times when her cousin had hesitated over certain words and wondered if it was the way Hispanics spoke in America, although she didn’t think so.

  They waited until Mel reached the tree line and turned back to wave to them all, then disappeared into the woods, her sheep appearing beyond the tree line again a while later, mere white specks against the greenery. They didn’t see the two women or their horses again, and it was time to turn back.

  Carmen wondered how often it happened in the Outback or in other areas of Australia where some man took a flock or a herd into unchartered wilderness and started anew. Mel certainly wasn’t the first, and she wouldn’t be the last.

  “I’ll take you to our northwest border and show you that,” Fabiola promised her cousin as they began to make their way off the odd, dome-shaped hills.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The ride back didn’t seem as long, and it certainly went faster since they didn’t have the large flock of sheep to slow them down. Fabiola was proud to show off the station, the various hills, and the valleys encompassing many miles of grazing land. They discussed every aspect of raising sheep they could think of.

  “I think we should bring cattle out here too. There are places and land that aren’t suitable for sheep,” she pointed with her whip, encompassing a valley that had no sheep in it. It was certainly dryer here in the northwest area Fabiola was showing her.

  “Someday, we will…” Fabiola began, sounding defensive, as though every hill and valley that showed promise should have sheep on it.

&
nbsp; “No, I just think we should diversify, so if another fire or some other calamity should come along, the loss of sheep won’t destroy our station,” she clarified. “I don’t mean to offend.”

  Fabiola admitted to herself that she resented the interference. She had run the station alone for far too long. Harold was useless. He was just there, overindulged, and merely giving the appearance of running some things. The men indulged this farce, preferring to defer to a man but knowing that Fabiola ran things. Anyone with a brain could see it was Fabiola who controlled the finances, the men, and the running of the station. Now, there was Carmen, and she seemed to have ideas of her own.

  They returned to the home paddock before heading out to the southern paddocks to show Fabiola the devastation caused by the fires that had swept through the area. Although Mother Nature had already started to reclaim the wide swaths of destroyed grazing land, it was obvious another rainy season or two would be necessary before all signs of the fire would be invisible, and they could once again send flocks onto this barren land.

  “We’ve got our work cut out for us, haven’t we?” Carmen asked Fabiola cheerfully, looking at the acres and acres of dry and burnt land with only superficial new grasses and brush growing again. Some of the trees had survived in the various forests but many more lay charred and ruined, glaringly obvious under the hot, Outback sun. Even the signs of the once lengthy fencing along this southern border was down to ashes, some blown away in the never-ending winds.

  Fabiola was learning to like this ‘we’ that Carmen spoke of. She’d never really had a partner in the unending work that encompassed an operation such as this. Some of her resentment over the fact that Carmen was bringing change, had ideas of her own, and had a brain, was slipping as she learned more of what Carmen had in mind.

  “How soon can a letter be dispatched back east?” Carmen asked as they once again returned to the home station. She’d welcomed the chance to spend time with her children, who were growing so dark under the hot sun while playing in the creek with their distant cousins and even some of the aboriginal children. She smiled at their antics, wishing she could join them. She was going over the accounts, something she could tell that neither Fabiola nor Harold enjoyed. They were haphazard at best.

  “We usually send out mail with our supplies,” Harold told her, as though a mere woman couldn’t understand that. His arrogance wasn’t winning him any points with the American.

  “Yes, but what if I wanted to send a letter, if I wanted some things to be brought out with our supplies before they came?” she asked, annoyed at his tone.

  “We could send a special messenger,” Fabiola answered musingly, thinking that there were some things she too would like to order that she hadn’t thought of when the drayage company had sent the last load. Waiting until they sheered the sheep and took the wool away again would be a long time to wait for mail. “I need some things too. If you will get your letter or letters ready, we could arrange for someone to head out.”

  Carmen sat down and wrote using the desk in the main house since her own desk was in storage. She didn’t like this main house at all, and the house she lived in with her children was merely adequate. She had some ideas of her own she wanted to implement but without people here to help or the supplies to do it, it would take years to get it accomplished. She wrote her letters.

  They watched as the man who had volunteered to post their letters headed out a few days later. He had a second horse loaded with supplies that he could also switch saddles with, increasing his speed marginally as he covered the many miles from the station to civilization.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Loading up the long line of pack horses with the help of her vaqueros, Carmen and Fabiola planned to take these supplies up to Mel, wondering how the other grazer was coping. The winter rains were upon them, and as miserable as it was to ride in the cold rain, they set out to find the Yank.

  “Think Mel will succeed?” Fabiola asked as they rode along, making conversation.

  “Oh, yes, she…” she trailed off, realizing her mistake and amended, “he has many admirable traits.”

  “She?” Fabiola pounced, not willing to let Carmen off for her slip of the tongue.

  Carmen sighed. “I don’t think Mel wants people knowing that,” she said, nodding towards the words that had given away her friend’s secret.

  Fabiola thought for a moment. Several things were fitting into place now as she took in those words. She shrugged. Mel Lawrence’s sex was none of her business. The man or woman’s gender was not an issue out here when there was work to be done. If Mel wanted to be referred to as he, she would oblige the Yank. She accepted that being male would garner Mel more respect from the men who worked for her at Twin Station as well as any men who would come to work for her.

  Carmen, Fabiola, and several stockmen, including some of the vaqueros, followed the path the sheep had taken as they cropped their way across the range. Noting the fine, large, sturdy folds that Mel was building, they could see she was building with permanence in mind. It still took them a while to find the two people and their bulging flock. Now curious about this land after Mel’s teasing comments, Fabiola was eager to see this northern range, realizing it might even be better than the Twin Station range.

  “Carmen!” Mel greeted her. The dogs had alerted her to the presence of strangers. She didn’t think it was dingoes at this time of day, but the dogs had been agitated for a while, alerting her to their presence. She smiled greetings to the men accompanying the two women, greeted Fabiola by name, and glanced at the many pack horses they had brought with them.

  “Mel, that is quite a bit of land you’ve laid out for yourself. Intending to take over all of New South Wales?” Carmen teased after she had greeted her friend.

  “I’m still looking for my home paddock,” she admitted. “It’s hard in this weather.” As she said that the rain continued to plunk down on her stockmen’s hat and down over her sheepskins. Everyone was wearing similar attire.

  “Hello, Alinta,” the two women greeted the aboriginal woman, noting how enormously pregnant she now looked as she sat sideways on her horse watching the sheep and wearing a sheepskin coat.

  “Misses Carmen, Misses Fabiola,” she said in reply, having trouble with the second name as it didn’t come easy to her. She’d practiced often since Mel had talked about these two women admiringly.

  “Alinta would you mind showing them where to put our supplies in the hut?” Mel asked her, making it her choice, but the eager, young woman immediately set off on her horse, a couple of the men following behind her pulling the pack horses.

  “She’s gotten so big,” Carmen commented when she was out of earshot.

  Mel nodded. “I estimate she’s due right after the sheep.”

  “That sounds like a lot of work,” Fabiola mentioned, wondering how Mel was going to cope. She knew she wouldn’t want to have a flock this big and a pregnant woman to worry about.

  “And two of my bitches are pregnant too,” she lamented with a laugh at her situation, which was of her own making. She should have held off letting the rams in among her sheep until later, but there was nothing she could have done about Alinta’s due date. They were only guessing anyway, having no real idea when the carter had impregnated the poor woman.

  Carmen laughed with her, and after a moment, Fabiola joined in. “Do you want me to send some of my men to help?” Carmen asked helpfully.

  “You’ll have enough with your own flocks to tend to. I knew what the work entailed before I set off on this adventure,” Mel reminded her well-meaning friend.

  “I’m sure you did,” she consoled. “If you need–” she began, but Mel cut her off.

  “Thank you.”

  “Damned independent cuss. We could send a couple–” Fabiola began exasperatedly.

  “I know,” she returned, sounding just as exasperated.

  Carmen shook her head but laughed, so that Fabiola wouldn’t get angry. She knew Mel
was independent, headstrong, and probably out to prove a point. Still, the land she had chosen was beautiful, and now, with the rains, she appreciated Twin Station even more. It had been brought to life, and the dismal, empty sections south of the station didn’t look so bad with the growing grasses. They’d spread out their Merinos between the various flocks, hoping to interbreed them in the coming years as their flocks increased.

  The women discussed the various sheep. Mel could speak knowledgeably, having gleaned a lot from Foster and his men as well as the station owners and stockmen they had met on the trip out.

  Both women were glad to help bring in the flock of sheep to the nearly finished fold that Mel had been building despite the winter rains. The rope stretched across on two sides, but the sheep were relatively safe. Dinner was a grand affair as they continued talking about stock. Mel further admitted two of her Brumby mares were in foal, probably due to Carmen’s fine stallion covering them on the trip out, but fortunately for her, they weren’t due for a while. Carmen and Fabiola had a good laugh over the burgeoning increases in Mel’s stock, glancing at Alinta as she ponderously walked about, busily washing up after dinner. They would have helped, but the Aborigine had insisted on doing the dishes herself and feeding the dogs as well.

  “Just as independent as a Yank I know,” Carmen whispered, loud enough that Fabiola heard her, and Mel started to laugh at the dig. She’d complained good-naturedly how Alinta was becoming more assertive as she learned English.

  “She has learned to speak her mind when she knows the words,” Mel bragged, proud of the woman and her prowess in the language.

  Carmen smiled for her friend, realizing that she had fallen in love with the pregnant woman. Fabiola was surprised to see it too. She hadn’t thought about it, and now, realizing that Mel was a woman and not the man she had thought her to be, she realized the relationship that might ensue from this unusual woman. It gave her food for thought.