Harmony held Bruce in his arms and looked at him in amazement. ‘My God!’ he gasped angrily. ‘What in hell have they done to you, son?’
Bruce squinted up at the big man, unable to see him clearly after being so long in total blackness.
‘Don’t be afraid, son, ‘ Harmony said. ‘I was friend of your father’s. I’ve come to take you to your mother and sister. He looked from Bruce to Strickland. ‘Do either of you boys know where Jack is?’
‘I told you he’s not here,’ Brother Lucas said before anyone had a chance to speak. ‘He ran away. Strickland knows that. Tell him Strickland.’
With his own escape plan failed, Strickland was unsure what to do or say. Even though Bruce was out of the hole and leaving Hope Farm, his rescuer might well leave him behind to face Brother Lucas’ wrath.
Harmony put a hand on Strickland’s shoulder and said gently, ‘I can see what you were trying to do here and I’ll take you off this place with Bruce if that’s what you want. So don’t be afraid to tell me the truth. Did Jack really run off?’
‘He may have tried,’ Strickland said. ‘But he drowned in the lake. I found his body myself.’
Harmony turned his eyes quickly to Brother Lucas. Brother Lucas turned and fled out the door. In an instant Harmony was in pursuit, axe handle in hand. Outside the well-house door he let it fly. The hardwood missile flew end over end through the air and found its mark with deadly accuracy.
There was a loud crack as it struck Brother Lucas hard in the head, dropping him to the ground as if he were pole-axed. Then, beside himself with anger, and unaware of the terrible blow the axe handle had exacted, Harmony bounded over to Brother Lucas. With one hand he lifted him bodily up off the ground and with the other pounded him relentlessly with a barrage of blows to the face and head. It was only when his fury had abated that Harmony let Brother Lucas’ limp body drop back down to the ground.
*
Harmony pondered his situation as he anxiously drove southward. He never thought that he’d only have one of Captain McKenna’s sons with him when he left Hope Farm, and he hadn’t expected to be taking a complete stranger along. He had no idea what he would do with Strickland. But what troubled Harmony most was that what he had seen and heard at Hope Farm had made him lose all control. He had never beaten a man so badly before in his life. For all he knew, Brother Lucas might be dead.
Harmony geared down part way up a steep grade. When he reached the crest he saw the first streaks of dawn above a far ridge to the east. Soon he would be in New South Wales, but it was still a long drive to Armidale to reunite Bruce with his family. Harmony knew there was no way he could make it that far without sleep and decided to stop at Mike Parry’s farm outside Tenterfield. A wry smile flickered over Harmony’s face when he thought of their aborted attempt to drive up prices at Yallambee the year before.
He glanced at Bruce in the seat beside him. Even after all he’d been through, sleep still eluded him. Eyes wide open, he silently grieved for his brother. Harmony turned his eyes back to the road and wondered if Strickland and the dog were finding any sleep on the horse blankets in the back of the truck with the waler.
It was late morning when Harmony pulled into Mike Parry’s farmyard. The stocky red-faced farmer was carrying hay from a stack in the farmyard to the milking-shed when Harmony climbed out of the cab. When he recognized the visitor Mike dumped the hay off his back and hurried over to the truck. The old friends shook hands, then Harmony took Mike to one side to talk.
After a few minutes they walked back to the truck. Mike led the boys into the house while Harmony took care of the animals When Harmony entered the house, Mike’s wife, a plump woman with a smiling face, was already stacking food in front of the boys at the kitchen table. While the boys ate, Harmony and the Parry drank tea outside on the veranda.
‘You’d all better try and get some rest Harmony,’ Mike said. ‘And tomorrow, why don’t you leave young Strickland here while you go down to Armidale? When you get back we’ll all have had some time to think. Maybe between us, there’s something we can do for the boy.’
‘You’re sure it’s no trouble.’
‘It’s no trouble.’
Harmony turned to the farmer’s wife. ‘You’re sure, Alice?’
Alice shrugged. ‘Since our second girl left home, we’ve got nothing but empty bedrooms.‘
*
Bruce and Harmony arrived in Armidale well rested. Bruce could barely wait to see his mother when the truck pulled up outside Crestview. But his heart sank when he saw the FOR SALE sign at the front gate. Beyond the sign, overgrown grass, deteriorating flower gardens, and broken window panes left no doubt the building was abandoned.
Harmony took a pencil from his pocket and jotted down the name of the agent on the sign. Within minutes they were in his office on the main street of town.
‘I’m afraid Crestview fell into the hands of the liquidators,’ the real estate agent said. ‘It happened so suddenly it took the town completely by surprise. Apparently, many of the Mary Wells Homes throughout the country have ceased to operate and the few that remain open are fighting for their lives.’
‘What happened to all the folk living at Crestview?’ Harmony asked.
‘The next of kin were notified and arrangements made for them prior to the closure,’ the agent replied. ‘Old Miss Potts, the administrator, saw to that before she was recalled to England by the Mary Wells Society. She told me a few residents were taken in by relatives, but most became wards of the State of New South Wales or their state of origin. The lady you are trying to locate. Do you know where she was born?’
‘Queensland,’ Harmony said.
‘Then she was probably sent back there. The New South Wales government refuses to accept responsibility for anybody from interstate. Funny, we had someone in here recently enquiring about a Crestview lady from Queensland. He was hoping to locate her daughter who used to work here in town.’ The agent rubbed his jaw. ‘Can’t recall the name, though’
‘Was it, McKenna?’ Harmony asked.
‘That’s it!’ the agent said quickly. ‘That’s the name. Must have been a legal matter of some sort. The young fellow said he was a lawyer from Sydney.’
*
Emma rented a furnished four-bedroom house in Waterloo, just off Botany Road, as soon as she returned to Sydney. It was close to Redfern and had a small but easily accessible garden which Emma knew Kathleen would enjoy. The largest bedroom in the house was earmarked for Bruce and Jack and Emma wrote to them telling them all the news and saying that she would come and get them soon. Molly agreed to move in to help look after Kathleen, and Emma arranged for a general practitioner recommended by Father O’Brien to call by regularly.
Doctor Longbothom was a kindly, middle-aged family doctor who had trained for several years at Guy’s Hospital in London. He took a special interest in Kathleen because during his years in London he had taken post graduate studies in spinal-chord paralysis.
By working long hours, Sydney Styles managed to make a sizeable weekly shipment to the Bowes-Scott department store. Emma called in personally to deliver invoices and pick up payments to meet wages and ongoing expenses. Usually, she received additional orders on the days she called. It seemed Bowes-Scott customers appreciated the superior quality of Sydney Styles garments and the store was always anxious to buy more. So far, Emma had been able to keep up by hiring more help which Father O’Brien sent over from the Central Mission. But only so many people could work in Iris and Joan’s little cottage. Emma knew, if the business was to grow, larger premises would soon be needed.
Little by little, Emma was returning the money she had taken to start the business from the bank account funded by Leonard Fairchild. She had no intention of ever using the account again for any purpose other than Christopher’s welfare, and only then if she were unable to provide for him herself. Since seeing Stephen at the opening of the harbor bridge, Emma realized that time and circumstances had not diminishe
d her feelings for him. And often, as she worked on the sewing machines or when she lay awake in her bed at night, she wondered if Stephen had seen the beautiful baby in her arms.
As time went by with no mail from the twins Emma and Kathleen became more and more concerned. They had expected the boys to write straight back; but then when they didn't, they thought that perhaps they were just waiting for Emma to come and get them. This posed another problem. It would be difficult to take time from the business to go to Queensland. Emma decided to send them railway tickets to Sydney just as soon as she could put aside enough money of her own. After all the boys were old enough to travel by themselves.
By the time Emma had put money aside, there was still no word from the twins. Unable to telephone because there was no phone at Hope Farm, she wrote again, this time direct to Brother Benjamin. In her letter she expressed her gratitude to the brothers for the time the boys had spent in their care and enclosed a post office money order for railway tickets and travelling expenses for the twins’ journey to Sydney. She also asked Brother Benjamin to notify her of the boys travel arrangements as soon as possible.
After two weeks with no word from Brother Benjamin or the twins, Emma sent a telegram to Hope Farm asking for the travel details to be telegraphed to her. When three more days passed with no reply to her telegram, Emma boarded a train for Queensland.
*
‘Ran away? They both ran away ?’ Emma couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘To where?’
‘We have absolutely no idea.’ Benjamin sat piously behind his big desk. He eyed Emma reproachfully, hands on his chest, his thick fingers interlocked.
‘When did it happen?’
‘Some weeks ago now’
‘But why didn’t you let me know?’
Brother Benjamin opened a drawer in his desk. He took out two envelopes and held one up for Emma to see. ‘We sent this letter to your mother’s address in Armidale and it was returned. Apparently the Mary Wells Home has been closed down.’ He held up the second letter. ‘And this one, sent by yourself to your brothers and postmarked Sydney, arrived just after they absconded.’
‘My God, if they didn’t receive that letter they have no idea where their mother and I are.’ Emma sighed despondently.
Brother Benjamin shrugged his shoulders..
‘Why didn’t you answer my letter to you enclosing the money order for train tickets, Brother Benjamin?’ Emma demanded.
Brother Benjamin took another envelope from the desk drawer, opened it and took out the money order. He passed it to Emma. ‘I didn’t answer because I thought the boys might be with you in Sydney,’ Brother Benjamin said gravely. ‘I thought you might have mailed it just to put us off the scent.’
‘What on earth are you talking about, Emma said incredulously. ‘What do you mean, put you off the scent?’
Brother Benjamin stared at Emma intently across the desk. After a few moments he said. ‘Perhaps our suspicions were unfounded. Miss McKenna. After all if you were harboring the boys in Sydney, it would be unlikely you would journey all the way up to Queensland to perpetuate a lie. So I must assume that your presence here today means you know nothing of the serious trouble your brothers are in.’
‘Harboring the boys? Serious trouble?’ Emma was now totally confused. ‘What do you mean?’
‘The night your brothers ran away they were accompanied by another boy named Strickland.’ Brother Benjamin sighed. ‘I’m afraid he was one of our few failures here at Hope Farm. Anyway, Brother Lucas must have seen the three of them as they were running away and tried to dissuade them. But Strickland and your brothers responded by beating him within an inch of his life. He’s never regained consciousness. At this very moment Brother Lucas is still lying in a coma, clinging to life by the slimmest of threads. I don’t need to tell you of the implications if Brother Lucas doesn’t pull through.’
‘My brothers would never do anything like that,’ Emma said defiantly.
‘In the hands of an incorrigible lout like Strickland, they could be coerced into doing anything,’ Brother Lucas said quickly. ‘Not only is he an habitual troublemaker, but he is also a chronic liar. If he is apprehended by the authorities, there’ll be no telling what wild stories he’ll concoct to try and avoid going to prison.’
‘Prison?’ Emma’s hand went to her mouth.
‘Miss McKenna,’ Brother Benjamin’s tone became a little more conciliatory. ‘You must realize that is where they’ll all end up sooner or later. Strickland has no family to go to, your brothers don’t know where you are. So they’ll just keep running. By now they’ll already have become accomplished thieves, stealing on a daily basis just in order to survive. Eventually they’ll be caught. And when they are, they won’t mention Hope Farm to anyone because of what they did to Brother Lucas. Under the circumstances, I think it’s most likely we’ll never know when and where they are caught.’
‘My brothers are not common thieves,’ Emma said angrily and rose up to leave. ‘I’m sure they’ll have a good explanation for everything that’s happened and I intend to ask them very soon. There is only one place they can possibly be.’
Brother Benjamin’s eyebrows rose. ‘Oh, and where would that be?’
‘At their uncle’s property near Augathella. I shall go there directly and get to the bottom of all this.’
‘I would advise you to save yourself the time and expense,’ Brother Benjamin said as Emma opened his office door. ‘Your brother, Bruce, ran away once before and turned up on his uncle’s doorstep. But Mr Coltrane did the responsible thing and returned him here. No, Miss McKenna, I think Essex Downs would be the last place your brothers would try to hide.’
*
Emma telephoned Essex Downs from Toowoomba. To her relief, Laura answered the phone. To her dismay, Laura said that she had seen nothing of the twins but confirmed that Bruce had run away before and his uncle had sent him back to Hope Farm.
‘After that, I don’t think the twins will come within a hundred miles of here,’ Laura said.
Emma could tell her aunt was on the verge of tears. ‘Oh Emma, Bruce told me such horrible things about Hope Farm. After Patrick sent him back there, I went to see Gordon Braithewaite to get him to help. But I was too late. Gordon was on his deathbed. He died a few hours after I spoke to him.’
PART THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
When the silence of the late afternoon was shattered by gunfire, the large mob of kangaroos bolted. They had paid little attention to the waler, which had gradually edged closer and closer until it was too late. And when the magazine of the .303 Enfield was spent, four of the biggest lay dead in the dust of the Warrego country. Harmony had taught Bruce well. The ways of the bush were becoming second nature to him. He holstered the rifle, slid down from the saddle, unsheathed his knife and started skinning the animals.
It was his third season shooting kangaroo in the Warrego. It was a vast, empty and sometimes inhospitable place, but Bruce had come to enjoy the peace and solitude of its desolate landscape as much as Harmony. During the time together a close bond had been forged between them, built on respect and interdependence. And it was strengthened by a friendship which spanned the difference in their ages as if it didn’t even exist.
Bruce was seventeen now and the outdoor life had seen him grow tall, strong and healthy. Somehow the passage of time had proven to be an effective balm for the inner wounds he had suffered at the loss of Jack and the disappearance of his mother and Emma. With no information available from the defunct Mary Wells Society, all enquiries about his mother had to be made to the authorities.
The waiting had been the worst part. Waiting for the bureaucrats in Queensland to answer Harmony’s numerous enquiries as to whether Kathleen McKenna was listed as a ward of the state, and then, when finally being notified she was not, going vainly through the same process with the authorities in New South Wales. Bruce just hoped and prayed his mother and Emma were somewhere safely together and
that one day he’d find them.
Bruce hurried to skin the last kangaroo and get back to camp. It would be dark soon. By now, he knew Harmony would be sitting waiting for him with a hot meal cooked over an open fire and the wail of his mouth organ scaring away the creatures of night. Soon they would be heading back to Goondiwindi, after months away. Perhaps there would be some news of his family when they got back this time. Perhaps the Parrys at Tenterfield had heard something. As Strickland, who had been working for the Parrys ever since Harmony took him off Hope Farm always said, ‘you never know your luck, mate.’
*
In 1933-34, Australia showed signs of emerging from the worst of the Depression. By 1935 the light at the end of the tunnel began to flicker a little brighter although unemployment was still crippling the nation and the majority of Australians were still living below the poverty line.
But through it all the Redfern clothes-making firm of Sydney Styles managed to go from strength to strength. Emma achieved this by making first class merchandise at affordable prices and selling it direct to aggressive retailers determined to maintain their market share in the face of declining customer numbers.
Emma’s work had became her obsession since the disappearance of her brothers. It was a tragedy for which she held Patrick Coltrane entirely responsible. Turning his back on Bruce when he desperately needed help was an unforgivable act, which Emma tried to push from her mind because she found it so upsetting She vowed her family would never again be helpless victims of circumstance. Building a successful business was all that mattered to her now.
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