by Tony Parsons
When Dougal rang one lunchtime Catriona could see the lines of tension on David’s face. Then, almost miraculously, they disappeared. He nodded a couple of times before putting the phone down. Catriona looked at him expectantly.
‘They’re all clear. Not a reactor,’ he said.
‘Darling, how wonderful,’ she said as she went to him. His great arms wrapped her to him and she felt his hard body pressed tightly against hers. ‘Thank you for helping me get through this, I don’t know what I’d do without you. Now I’m going to ring Jim Lawler.’
Catriona listened while David gave Jim Lawler the news. He was clearly delighted to be able to relay the cleared results.
‘Jim, you need any help to get started again, you come to me,’ he said, before putting the phone down.
‘So it’s business as usual?’ Catriona asked, smiling.
He looked at her and then bent and lifted her into his arms. ‘Not for a little while, darling.’
‘David, what if someone should come in?’ she said.
‘I can clearly recall one occasion when you didn’t care about that in the slightest,’ he said. ‘Are your squibbing? That’s not like you, Cat.’
‘I thought you might have had enough of me after the past few days,’ she said.
David put her down on the edge of the big bed and laughed softly.
‘Enough of you? I hope there’ll never be a time when I can say I’ve had enough of you, Cat,’ he said.
Any concern Catriona may have had of someone walking in on them simply melted away. Later, resting on one elbow and looking down at the man who had been the light of her life she teased, ‘I’ll have to find another problem like Ovine Johne’s if it will mean that I’m going to be loved so well.’
‘Don’t even joke about it, sweetheart. And this is my thanks for what you did for me. Now I’ll have to go and do some work.’
She stretched out and sighed. ‘I don’t know how you can think about work after that. On second thoughts, yes, I do. I know you. If you’ll wait while I have a shower, I’ll come with you.’
‘Race you to it, darling.’
She smiled as she watched her very large, very naked husband run for the bathroom. It was almost as if the good news on the testing for Ovine Johne’s had made him a young man again. Thank God, she breathed.
Chapter Nineteen
It wasn’t her coming birthday that excited Anne, because birthdays only reminded her of her age and that was anything but exciting. Age might bring respect and some degree of wisdom but she found her physical limitations irksome to the extreme. What did excite Anne was the birth of her first great-grandchild. And when Sue-Ellen put the wee baby boy into her arms Anne regarded the occasion as one of the most significant moments of her long life. This baby, Andrew James, put a special imprint on her marriage to Andrew MacLeod. She had helped to perpetuate the ancient name of MacLeod through her son, David, and his son, Angus. Now, the lineage would continue through this baby.
‘He is lovely, Sue-Ellen,’ Anne said, as she held Andrew James. ‘What does Angus think of him?’
‘I believe Angus is quite proud of him. He can’t quite believe Andrew is his,’ Sue-Ellen said with a smile. ‘Such a name, and such a man to live up to. It is a lot to put on a little baby.’
‘David did it, so it can be done, Sue-Ellen,’ Anne said gently. She could have said that David had surpassed his father but there was no need to. Sue-Ellen was full of admiration for what David had achieved and had told Anne so.
‘Are you happy with Angus, Sue-Ellen?’ Anne asked. She was the matriarch of the family and could ask such a question. Sue-Ellen, for all her strong views, had often gone to Anne for advice.
As Sue-Ellen considered this question her eyes dwelt on Anne. Anne MacLeod was the most respected, and perhaps most loved, woman in the district. Once, Anne had been quite beautiful – the best-looking young woman in the Merriwa district. She had been wife to the toughest man in the high country and mother of the most successful. Now, the lustrous dark hair was grey verging on white, and the once active body occasionally relied on a stick for support. Yet Anne still cooked most of her meals and still pottered in her garden.
‘Oh yes, Nanna. Angus is the kind of man I hoped he would become. He behaved like a goat in his younger days and I told him if he wanted me as his wife he would have to grow up – fast. Angus is very clever, and very talented with animals. I’m sure he loves me and he’s very thoughtful. That means a lot. And, of course, he has a wonderful, supportive family, which also means so much. David couldn’t have been nicer to me from day one. There aren’t many David MacLeods, are there?’
‘I refuse to answer that because I would be seen to be biased,’ Anne said with a smile.
‘Then there is Moira, who is just a lovely, warm person. We have lots of chinwags,’ Sue-Ellen said.
‘And how are you getting on with Catriona these days?’ Anne asked.
‘Oh, all right, Nanna. But there’s no secret that David seems to be her main interest. I suppose you can’t blame her because David is a very special kind of man. I wouldn’t say Catriona is snooty, but I can’t talk to her like I can to you,’ Sue-Ellen confided.
‘Don’t sell Catriona short, Sue-Ellen. She may have a superior air about her but she would have defied her parents and all they stood for to marry David. He is the light of Catriona’s life. There are some women who regard their husbands as such, and Catriona is one of them,’ Anne said.
‘Dougal is a lot like Catriona. In attitude, I mean,’ Sue-Ellen continued.
‘Yes, you’re right. Dougal resembles Andrew in appearance but he has that aloofness that some people call arrogance. David believes it’s part of being a vet – they get carried away with their own importance. Dougal is very clever and he knows it. I have chipped him about his attitude on more than one occasion, Sue-Ellen. Old ladies, especially old grandmothers, can do that sort of thing. But I have a soft spot for Dougal that I developed when he was quite young, because he was different. Dougal was nothing like his father who put a lot of grey hairs on my head because of his escapades with horses. Angus is more like David, except that David always had a greater sense of responsibility as a teenager. Angus needed a strong woman to take him in hand, and you’ve been the woman, Sue-Ellen. You’ve been the making of Angus. He’ll be fine now.’
‘I think he will, Nanna. Men can be great, or utter bastards. If you manage to catch a good one, you can thank your lucky stars. I’ve got strong views about the place of women in society but I wouldn’t want to go through life on my own. Angus, and now junior here, make life very worthwhile,’ Sue-Ellen said.
‘Very laudable, Sue-Ellen. When all is said and done, it’s one’s family and friends that make life most worthwhile. Now, if you want to get on the right side of Catriona, get her to talk to you about the young David. Catriona will really open up about those early days. What a lovely child she was. She used to ride up here on her grey pony, Princess. I always wanted Catriona for David. Andrew used to say I was silly as she would marry a silvertail, but I disagreed. Funny how things work out, Sue-Ellen. I’ve said that family is important, but it’s especially important on the land. Andrew realised that, and David after him. You need a supportive family to survive on the land. What is so sad now is that properties can’t support the number of people they used to and many young people have to move away. David realised that if he wanted to keep his sons on the land, he would have to acquire more property. His biggest disappointment was Dougal’s decision to be a vet. That really threw David. Of course, David wanted more sons but Catriona didn’t want to have more than three children,’ Anne said.
‘She didn’t? Why ever not, Nana?’ Sue-Ellen asked, intrigued.
‘It’s her secret, Sue-Ellen,’ Anne said. ‘But between you and me I believe her decision was to do with her appearance.’
‘Good heavens. I don’t know what she has to worry about. If I look as well as Catriona does at her age, I’ll be very happy,�
�� Sue-Ellen said.
‘A massive amount of effort has gone into keeping Catriona that way. Most women simply wouldn’t bother. David is Catriona’s soft spot, Sue-Ellen. If you wish to get close to her, get her to talk about him,’ Anne advised.
‘I was going there anyway, Nanna. Angus said he’d get his own lunch if I wanted to have mine here,’ Sue-Ellen said.
‘You’d be very welcome to have lunch here but I’m sure Catriona would like to see you, too. You have a powerful ally in Andrew James,’ Anne said with a laugh.
‘Who I will have to feed very soon.’ Sue-Ellen said. ‘I was determined to breastfeed this fellow just so I know what it’s like and from all that I have read lately it’s the best way to go,’ Sue-Ellen said.
‘Why else would we have been given breasts, Sue-Ellen? I’m sure it was for the perpetuation of the species and not simply for men to admire,’ Anne said.
‘That’s an enjoyable by-product,’ Sue-Ellen said, and they both laughed.
Sue-Ellen found her mother-in-law busy at her correspondence. There were letters to old school friends overseas and to friends she and David had made on their trip with her parents.
‘Sue-Ellen, how nice to see you,’ Catriona said with some enthusiasm. ‘And how is the young man today?’
‘Hungry. I’ll have to feed him, Catriona.’ Catriona had asked Sue-Ellen to call her by her first name in preference to anything else.
‘Feed away. Can you stay for lunch?’ Catriona asked.
Sue-Ellen nodded. ‘That would be lovely. Angus said he’d get his own lunch if I wanted to have mine here or with Nanna Anne.’
‘Anne would have enjoyed seeing you and young Andrew. She is so clucky over babies. Her main regret in life was that she could only have one. I believe she would have had a dozen for Andrew if she had been able. He and David wanted lots of sons with a daughter or two thrown in,’ Catriona said.
‘And you felt differently?’ Sue-Ellen asked rather boldly. She felt that as the conversation had opened so providentially she should strike at the heart of the matter immediately.
‘I did my duty and had three children, Sue-Ellen. Three is more than enough to look after. David wanted more because he wanted sons for his properties and the way things have turned out, perhaps I was selfish not having more children. But David has never reproached me for stopping at three. I did offer to have another child if Angus had turned out to be a girl. Now that I want David to ease up it would be a great advantage to have a couple more boys. Dougal leaving to become a vet was a big disappointment for David; perhaps the biggest disappointment of his life, other than his father’s early death. Of course, he is very proud of what Dougal has achieved for himself but that doesn’t do us much good here.’
‘Yes, but from what I understand Dougal never had his heart in the land, and you need to love it to put up with all the problems ownership of property imposes. But, as Anne says, everyone is an individual and you can’t make people what they aren’t,’ Sue-Ellen added.
‘You’re right, Sue-Ellen, but it’s tough on Moira who has had to be more son than daughter. Maybe she’ll never marry. She had one bad scare over a man and David rescued her from that situation. She’s talked about having a baby or two artificially – to me, not to David – so there’s something for her to love and maybe carry on here. But you can’t count on that, can you?’
This was interesting but not really the road Sue-Ellen wanted to travel. ‘I would very much like to know what David was like as a boy. Apart from Anne, you’re probably the only person who knew him at all well. You went to school with him, didn’t you?’
‘Up to sixth class, and then I went away to boarding school. David went to school in Merriwa. Andrew and Anne didn’t want him to go away and David certainly didn’t want to go. I doubt they could have afforded to send him to boarding school, anyway. And even if they did, as Anne has said, David was such a free spirit he might have run away!’ she said, and laughed. ‘David without his dogs and horses would have been like the proverbial fish out of water. Not having been to boarding school was one of the things my parents seized on when I told them I wanted to marry David. There was never anyone else for me although he kept me dangling for a long time,’ Catriona said with a faraway look in her eye.
‘What was he really like, Catriona? I know he won a sheepdog trial when he was only ten so he must have been a remarkable boy with animals, but what was he really like?’ Sue-Ellen asked.
‘He was something of a loner because he didn’t have any close mates. All he wanted to do was muster sheep and ride horses in the hills. He thought I was a little pest and if he knew I was coming he would clear out up into the hills. That’s how I came to go over the side of Yellow Rock: I wanted to show him that I could ride that mountain on my grey pony. I went to meet him and that was nearly the end of me.’
And so for nearly two hours Catriona talked about the young David. Sue-Ellen could see, as Anne had told her, that it was a subject dear to her heart.
‘Of course, my parents knew they had been wrong about David,’ Catriona said. ‘He put together much more property than Daddy had and surpassed his success with sheep and cattle. Daddy was big enough to acknowledge I had been right and he and Mummy had been wrong. But I would have married him if he hadn’t a penny to his name. The big question was whether or not he would have asked me. David was a man, a real man. He was one of the only men who ever stood up to my father. But when David and I went to Canberra for the National Trials and Daddy heard that David had two dogs in the final, he and Mummy came down to see him win it with Clancy. David and Daddy became very good friends, which pleased me very much. They helped each other in many ways. Daddy got David started with his Hereford stud and David put in a lot of time showing Daddy how to handle a sheepdog. Things worked out very well in the end,’ Catriona said, with misty eyes.
‘But was he a tough little boy?’ Sue-Ellen asked.
‘Tough? I suppose he was tough to the extent that he was very strong for his age, and because Tim Sparkes had taught him how to box. And he adopted a tough exterior to be like his father and some of the other hill fellows who used to work dogs and compete at drafts,’ Catriona said.
‘He did fight for you, didn’t he?’ Sue-Ellen pressed.
‘Twice, Sue-Ellen. The first time was in our last year at primary school. There were two perfectly horrid brothers, Bill and Wade Missen, and they had a mate by the name of Stanley Masters. Stanley and Wade came down to where Susan and I were sitting under a screen and trees. Stanley put his hand down my front and I screamed. David came out of nowhere and belted him. Years later the same three fellows – all heavy drinkers – tried to rape me the night of the Debutantes’ Ball. David took on all three of them,’ Cariona said, and shuddered.
‘What happened to them?’ Sue-Ellen asked.
‘They all went to prison and they’re all dead. Bill and Wade started a big bushfire on Poitrel and the police chased them that same day. The Missen boys hit a tree on the Bunnan Road and they were both killed. Stanley Masters was knifed while still in prison.’
‘Whew, that’s some story. David must have been a tough young man. You couldn’t have had a better protector, Catriona,’ Sue-Ellen said.
Catriona nodded her agreement. ‘If David hadn’t followed those boys the night they tried to rape me, I don’t know what would have transpired. My life might have been very different.’
‘I was just saying to Nanna Anne that if you get a good man, you’re very lucky. The women in this family seem to have married good men,’ Sue-Ellen observed.
‘Andrew’s father, that was Grandfather James, wasn’t crash hot, Sue-Ellen. He had a good war record but socially he was a high flier and he and Andrew didn’t get on well at all. Andrew blamed his father for his mother’s death, which happened on that bridge into High Peaks. After that Andrew hardly spoke to his father and he blamed him for the property being so heavily in debt. By all accounts Andrew’s mother was something special and
Andrew thought the world of her. David was worried for a time there that Angus might have taken after his grandfather. Thankfully, he hasn’t. You can take a lot of credit for that, Sue-Ellen,’ Catriona said with a smile.
‘Oh, Catriona, surely having good parents counts for the most,’ Sue-Ellen protested. ‘Angus was basically decent, just a wee bit wild! Once he focused his attentions on me, he forgot about all that silly business. Men can be so childish at times – they do foolish things to try and impress their mates, and seem to take longer to grow up. If Angus hadn’t had supportive parents and a place to come back to, maybe he would have made a mess of his life,’ Sue-Ellen said.
‘You could well be right, Sue-Ellen,’ Catriona said. ‘There is just that one negative factor in the line and Anne says it could have come in through James and his mother. The rest of it is nearly pure Scot, including my mother’s family. They were all very careful, hardworking people committed to building up property and doing the right thing by the community. Some would say they were a bit dour and lacking in colour. The same thing has been said about me because I don’t mix readily. I’m not that kind of person. I have David and my family and some old friends and I’m happy. I don’t need lots of people around me. But David and I have helped quite a few causes in this district. David isn’t as openly public-spirited as Daddy was, who was head of just about everything, but he’s probably donated more money than Daddy ever did. It’s just that David is a different kind of person and he works in a different kind of way. Oh, dear, how did we get to talk about David?’ Catriona said with a laugh.
‘You still love him, don’t you?’ Sue-Ellen asked. ‘After all these years, you’re still very much in love.’