Cattle Rancher, Secret Son

by Margaret Way

  “Struth!” Cal exclaimed wryly. “I just hope Mum hasn’t been giving Kym false encouragement. That would be too cruel.”

  “I don’t think Kym needed anyone’s encouragement,” Meredith said. “I think she has just been waiting for you to come to your senses as it were.”

  “Some people are just one-track. I’m sorry if Mum’s going to take it out on you, Merri. It’s too bad the way she does that.”

  “It does tend to fray the nerves,” Meredith admitted, “but I’m here for you, brother.” She tucked her arm through his, as though anchoring him to the moment.

  “And I’m here for you, Merri. Never forget that.”

  Gina didn’t put her apartment on the market. There was no way she could tell if a marriage between herself and Cal would work out. But what real alternative did she have but to try? There was no way she could risk not having her beloved Robbie with her all the time. A custody battle would be costly, time-consuming and in the end she would be the loser, forced into, at best, sharing custody with Robbie’s father and his family, all locked away in their private stronghold. No wonder she had simply folded like a pack of cards.

  She didn’t dare look deep inside her heart. Except sometimes at night.

  “You’re still in love with him. You are and always will be.”

  Always the inner voice to never let her escape.

  Cal McKendrick was and remained her incurable addiction. Maybe they would have a chance if he were an ordinary man, a colleague like Nat Goldman. She had met Nat’s family. They would have been delighted if the friendship between her and Nat had become more serious. She remembered Cal’s beautiful sister, Meredith, on the island. Meredith had always been so friendly yet she had the sense there was a considerable gulf between them. Such wealth as the McKendrick family had, was quite outside her experience. She had never witnessed anything like it. She hadn’t started the affair with Cal. An affair had never occurred to her. She had been too much aware of her position on the island to offer any male guest the slightest encouragement, let alone him. She had been hired as a domestic/waitress, whatever was needed. She certainly needed the money to help her through her final semester. She was the first in her family ever to attend university. That in itself had been a great source of pride to her father. She had scored the highest rating. At university she had once been voted the girl with the three B’s. Brilliance. Beauty. Brains. Just a fun thing. No one had mentioned anything about Luck.

  Her family had had little money to spare, however hard her father had toiled. Theirs had been a small sugar farm not a plantation. There was no way she would have embarked on what in the end turned out to be the most momentous, the most unforgettable, the most painful course of her life.

  Cal McKendrick had been her lost love.

  Until now.

  When she told Rosa about Cal’s reentry into her life, Rosa had barely been able to contain herself.

  “What’s he want this time?” she asked, her voice, as always, fiercely protective.

  Even Rosa had been silenced when Gina told her what Cal McKendrick wanted was marriage.

  “You still love him?”

  “I can’t help it.” No point in covering up from Rosa. Rosa would see through it.

  “Gran Dio!” In response, Rosa balled up a rock melon and pitched it through the open kitchen window into the backyard where it narrowly missed a visiting cat who took off shrieking for safer territory. “Tell him I come with you for a week or so, perhaps a month. We face this family together. You and Roberto are my family. I am Aunt Rosa. You cannot do without my support.”

  When Cal phoned, Gina passed on Rosa’s message, which was more or less an ultimatum. If she had expected some kind of sarcastic comment, even downright opposition, he had only laughed. “That’s nice!” Cal phoned often. Probably checking on her whereabouts, if he didn’t already have someone on the job. She had even started to check if there were any strange cars parked for any length of time in front of her apartment block. No way was she going to be allowed to abscond with his son.

  Then there was Robbie. She had spent a good deal of time pondering what she would tell him, but if she had agonised over what to say: that the man Robbie had met only a short while ago, the man he had taken such a liking to, was in reality, his father, Robbie wonder of wonders took it near effortlessly on board.

  “He’s my daddy?” he asked, his eyes full of amazement and a dawning delight. “Where is he right now?”

  “Are you listening to me, Robbie? Cal’s your father.” She hadn’t expected it to be this easy. She was worried he didn’t fully understand. Bright as he was he was still very young.

  “Yes, Mummy.” Robbie replied blithely, “but where is he?”

  She had swallowed the hard knot in her throat. “He’s back home, Robbie. His family is what is known as cattle barons. That means they own vast properties in the Outback they call stations.”

  “Like train stations?” Robbie nodded knowledgeably.

  “No, darling. A train station is a stopping place where passengers get on and off,” she explained. Robbie had never been, in fact, on a train. He had always travelled by car. “In Australia we call really huge farms with lots and lots of land, stations. There are cattle stations and sheep stations and sometimes sheep and cattle together. The McKendrick holdings—they have a number of what they call outstations—are cattle stations. You must have heard cowboys in the videos you watch call them ranches. That’s the American word. We say stations.”

  “Wow! So Cal’s a cowboy?” Robbie asked in such delight his greatest ambition might have been to be one.

  “Well, a cattleman like he said.”

  “That’s wild!” Robbie breathed. “Cal said he was going to show me some time.” So at the tender age of three, Robbie was taking in his stride what might have shocked an older child or cast him into a state of panic.

  “The time’s almost here, Robbie,” Gina said. “Your father is coming for us at the end of the month. Not long to go now. We have to leave Queensland and live in the Northern Territory. I’ll show you on the map where it is. It borders Queensland, but it’s a long, long way from here.”

  “How do we get there…by train? Gosh, I hope so.” The excitement showed. “The great big long one on the TV. The Ghan, they call it. It travels through all that red desert with no one in it.”

  Gina shook her head. “I’m sure we’ll travel on the Ghan one day but your father will be picking us up in the family plane.”

  Robbie’s eyes went as round as saucers. “My daddy flies a plane?” Seated on a chair facing his mother he suddenly dropped to his knees, staring up at her and squeezing her hands.

  “It’s not a great big plane like you’ve seen at the airport,” Gina hastened to tell him. “It’s much smaller.”

  Robbie dramatically collapsed on the carpet. “He must be very rich!”

  “Sort of.” Gina didn’t want to stress that side of it. “Your father and I are going to get married. How do you feel about that, my darling boy?” She gazed down earnestly into his beautiful little face.

  Now all of a sudden Robbie looked deeply flustered. “I don’t know. Do you have to?”

  She couldn’t begin to imagine what she would do if he suddenly burst into tears. “Your father wants us to be a family, Robbie,” she explained very gently. “I will become Mrs McKendrick. You will become Robert McKendrick. We take your father’s name.”

  Robbie rolled onto his stomach. “It sounds very nice,” he said after a few seconds of consideration. “He likes to call me Robert, doesn’t he?”

  “Yes, he does like I often call you Roberto. I don’t want you to forget your Italian heritage. That’s why Rosa and I speak Italian to you, as well as English.”

  Robbie gave a perky little nod. “My friend Connie speaks Italian just like me. Jonathon speaks Greek and Rani speaks Vietnamese. We think it’s fun being able to speak another language.”

  “And so it is. So the answer’s yes, Ro
bbie?” she asked. “Your father and I will be getting married.”

  Robbie jumped to his feet, and then threw himself into his mother’s arms. “I guess it’s all right. But what is going to happen to Aunt Rosa?”

  Gina silently applauded her son’s caring nature. “Rosa is going to come with us.” Her arms closed around her precious son, while a tear slid down her cheek. “At least for a little while to help us settle in.”

  “Goody, hurray!” Robbie lifted his head from her shoulder to give her a beatific smile. “I’d hate to leave Aunt Rosa behind.”

  “We’ll never lose Aunt Rosa,” Gina said.

  It was a solemn promise.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  TEN minutes before the plane was due in, many of Coronation’s considerable complement of staff began to assemble. They lined the airstrip in front of the giant hangar. This was a day of celebration. Cal was bringing his family home, the young woman soon to be his wife and their three-year-old son. Everyone had been told an aunt of Cal’s fiancée was to accompany them. Whatever the lovers’ star-crossed past, everything was set to be put right. A big bar-b-que had been planned for the staff starting around seven. The latest addition to the McKendrick clan would probably be tucked up in bed fast asleep, but the family was expected to look in on proceedings at some part of the evening.

  Whatever Gina had expected, it wasn’t a welcoming party. As they came in to land she could see all the people assembled on the ground. Even Rosa who had determined on being unimpressed, rolled her eyes and gestured with her hands. “Like something out of a movie!”

  It was true. The aerial view of the great station complex was fantastic. It looked like an isolated settlement set down in the middle of a vast empty landscape that stretched away in every direction as far as the eye could see. Gina remembered reading somewhere the Northern Territory had less than one percent of the population of Texas in the U.S.A although it was twice the size. So there was a long way to go in the Territory’s development. It was still frontier country and perhaps because of it wildly exciting.

  She couldn’t begin to count the number of buildings. The homestead had to be the building that stood apart from the rest, set within an oasis of green. It appeared to be enormous if the roof was any indication. The airstrip was at a fair distance from the homestead. It was easy to pick out from the huge hangar that had a logo painted on the silver glinting roof. It appeared to be a stylised crown. Beside the hangar stood a tall mast with the Australian flag flying from it. Farther away she could see holding yards jam-packed with cattle, three circular dams, probably bores. Beyond the complex lay the vast wilderness.

  Some areas of it resembled jungle, other areas were almost parkland. Dotted all over the landscape were winding streams and smaller tributaries she supposed were the billabongs. They were quite distinct in character from the huge lagoons mostly circular and oval, where palms and pandanus grew in profusion. She could see a huge mob of horses running down there. Wild horses by the look of them, the Outback’s famous brumbies.

  Robbie, who had been alight with excitement at his very first plane trip, had actually slept for most of the flight. Now he was wide-awake and raring to go.

  They were dropping altitude, coming in to land. Her stomach muscles clenched in anticipation, though it had been a remarkably smooth flight with Cal, a seasoned pilot, at the controls. He gave every appearance of a man who thoroughly enjoyed flying. With great distances to be covered, she began to appreciate how private aircraft in the Outback would seem more a necessity than a luxury, although she knew this particular plane cost a good deal more than one million dollars.

  “Steady on, matey!” Robbie cried out in gleeful excitement, clapping his hands together. This was the adventure of a lifetime.

  “Sit still now, little darling.” Gina placed a calming hand on him.

  “Who are all those people down there?” he asked in wonderment.

  “Station staff,” Gina whispered back.

  That thrilled Robbie and made him laugh. More people appeared as if they had been hiding in the hangar.

  “Big, big!” Rosa exclaimed, gesticulating with evident awe.

  It was big all right!

  The tyres gave a couple of gentle thumps on the tarmac, the brakes screeched, then Cal cut back to idle as they taxied towards the hangar. There he cut the engines, making his afterchecks. A few minutes later they were walking down the steps into the brilliant Territory sunlight.

  “These are our people, Robbie,” Cal explained, swooping his son high in his arms.

  “Why? Are you a prince or something, Daddy?” Robbie asked, touching his father’s face and staring into his eyes as though Cal was the font of all wisdom and authority. Robbie had learned all about the Queen and the royal family at nursery school. There was a picture of the Queen in a beautiful yellow dress in his old classroom. The teacher had told them a famous Australian artist called Sir William Dargie had painted it.

  “A prince? No way!” Cal laughed. “I’m just an ordinary person.”

  That had to be the understatement of the year, Gina thought, trying to calm her own jittering nerves. Robbie had taken to calling Cal “Daddy” in the blink of an eye. No working up to it. It was as though her little son had longed to use the word. Both of them, man and boy, appeared to be going on instinct. Cal and his son had reached a place from the outset where the relationship was set. She was proud of the fact Robbie had found enormous security with her, his mother, but there was no denying the very special role of a father. It was as Cal had said. Robbie needed both his parents. Their son was revelling in the family wholeness.

  “Other kids have a mummy and daddy. Now so do I!”

  That observation had been delivered with tremendous satisfaction. Why had she ever thought him too small to notice her single-parent status?

  With Rosa standing excitedly at her shoulder, Gina watched as a tall, very slender young woman—it had to be Meredith—broke ranks and rushed towards them.

  “Welcome, welcome,” Meredith was crying happily.

  Gina was enveloped in a hug. “I’ve thought of you so often, Gina,” Meredith said. “It’s wonderful you’re here.”

  “It’s wonderful you’re here to meet me.” Gina was unable to prevent the emotional tears from springing to her eyes. “Meredith, I’d like you to meet my aunt Rosa. She has always been a great support to me.”

  “Lovely to meet you, Rosa.” Meredith smiled warmly, both women taking to each other on sight. Meredith had been expecting a “motherly type” figure but Aunt Rosa was a striking, very sexy-looking woman with remarkably good skin.

  “Lovely to meet you, my dear.” Rosa well satisfied with what she saw, put her arms around Meredith and hugged her back.

  Meredith turned excitedly to her brother and the little boy in his arms. “Well, I recognise you, young man,” she said, laying a gentle, faintly trembling hand on Robbie’s flushed cheek. “You’re the image of your daddy.” Her brilliant eyes went to her brother’s. “This is truly marvellous, Cal.”

  His triumphant smile flashed back at her. “Isn’t it just? This is your aunty Meredith, Robbie.” He introduced them with pride. “I told you all about her, remember? Meredith is my sister.”

  “Merri,” Robbie said. “You called her Merri, like Merry Christmas.”

  “Merri it is,” Meredith said, shaking the little hand Robbie gave her. “Do you want to come and meet the rest of the welcoming party?” she asked. “They’re longing to meet you.”

  “Oh, yes, please,” Robbie said, wriggling to get down.

  “We’re right behind you.” Cal set his son down, watching him catch hold of Meredith’s hand with the utmost trust and confidence. He was an amazingly friendly little fellow, remarkably self-possessed for his age. It was easy to see from his general behaviour and his advanced social skills Gina had raised him with a tender, loving hand. He also spoke very well and gave every appearance of being highly intelligent. He was a little son to be proud o
f.

  A group of children had materialised—they had been kept in the shade of the hangar—making Robbie even more excited. They were the children of Coronation’s staff, educated until the age of the ten at the small one-teacher schoolhouse on the station. All in all, it took some twenty emotion-packed minutes before the welcoming party broke up with another round of cheers led by the station’s overseer, a very dashing young man called Steve Lockhart, before Cal was able to drive them to the homestead.

  “That was the greatest thing ever!” Robbie exclaimed with satisfaction. “Everybody likes me.”

  “And why wouldn’t they?” Meredith laughed, looking over Robbie’s glossy head into his mother’s eyes. “You’re a great little boy!”

  Time enough to see if Cal’s parents like me, was Gina’s thought. It didn’t strike her as odd that Cal’s parents hadn’t come down to the airstrip to greet them. She supposed they might be people like the aunt Lorinda she well remembered. Cal had carried off the introductions with marvellous aplomb. No one looking at them both would have suspected things weren’t as they seemed. As they had walked down the receiving line he had kept an arm lightly at her back, an expression of pride in her etched on his dynamic face. Steve Lockhart she recalled, had been observing them closely behind the charming welcoming smile. There was some strong connection between Meredith and Steve. She felt it keenly. But she also felt as far as the senior McKendricks were concerned staff would be expected to keep their distance. How then would that affect any friendship between Meredith and the station’s impressive overseer? Gina recognised the quality in him.

  They were received in the library. Good heavens, what a room! Gina thought. She could have fitted her entire apartment into the huge space. And received was the only way to put it. Cal’s mother, a beautiful, well-preserved woman, dressed as though she were going to an important luncheon minus her hat and bag—glorious pearls—was seated in a wing chair. Cal’s father, a very handsome man with piercing blue eyes was standing behind her. Another man, also standing, a few feet away, and bearing a close resemblance to Cal’s father had to be Uncle Edward. Uncle Edward for a mercy looked kind and approachable. He was smiling, a lovely warm smile. Gina returned it with gratitude. This was certainly one good-looking family! But that was okay! The Romanos hadn’t been behind the door when good looks were handed out. Rosa, too, was immensely attractive. Uncle Edward certainly appeared to think so going on his expression as his eyes came to rest on her.