by Ariel Tachna
Sam hadn’t planned on that exactly, but he didn’t figure he could avoid it. “Yes, I’ll come by after dinner, and we can talk. You told Macklin you wouldn’t start anything, so don’t, okay?”
Neil opened his mouth to say something, probably something biting, but Molly tugged his arm sharply, and he closed his mouth, letting her lead him away.
“Bloody hell,” Sam muttered. “He’s my brother and I love him, but it’s a good thing he’s got Molly to keep him in check, or someone would have killed him a long time ago. I’m sorry, Jeremy.”
“No worries, mate,” Jeremy said with a smile that even felt genuine. “I’m asking people not to judge me for my brother’s actions. I owe you the same consideration.”
“I suppose that’s true. I’ll have to pass on the beer tonight, though. I have a feeling my conversation with Neil isn’t going to be short, especially once he realizes I’ve moved out,” Sam said.
“Oh, you haven’t told him?” Jesse asked gleefully. “Can I come listen to him explode?”
“Jesse,” Chris said. “Be nice.”
“I have a lot of respect for Neil as a stockman,” Jesse said. “And I have a lot of respect for him for standing up for Caine. I really do. But he can be a little overbearing. Maybe he doesn’t mean anything by it, but I can’t help but want to see him taken down a peg.”
“It’s still private,” Chris said. “I don’t want anyone outside our family to hear when I have to talk to Seth about stuff. Sam shouldn’t have to have an audience for his family disputes either.”
“Fine,” Jesse said, “but I want to know how it goes.”
“It’s going to go like this,” Sam said. “I’m going to remind him that I’m his older brother and that I’m perfectly capable of making decisions for myself. I’m going to tell him that I appreciate him letting me stay with him and Molly when I first got here, but that I need space of my own and so do they. And then I’m going to ask them about their wedding plans. Neil will probably bluster and protest, but I’m almost thirty-six. He can’t order me around. It doesn’t work that way.”
“We can have our beer in the bunkhouse tonight,” Jeremy broke in. “That way you can make sure Sam comes home okay.”
“You make it sound like I’m Seth’s age,” Sam protested.
“It’s not about how old you are,” Jeremy said. “It’s about how hard it is to argue with your brother, no matter your age. Believe me, I know.”
Sam couldn’t dispute that. He’d been there the last time Jeremy argued with his brother, and it hadn’t been pretty. “Fine, but I’m telling you, it won’t be like that.”
Chris changed the subject then, asking Jesse about the repairs they’d be doing on the station equipment over the winter. Sam knew nothing about engines, but Jesse obviously did as he chatted happily about tractors and more.
Sam lingered as long as he could over the meal, but eventually he couldn’t put it off any longer. “I’ll talk to you later, mates,” he said as he rose to deposit his plate with the dirty dishes.
Neil lay in wait for him just inside the door to his house. “You know what I think of Taylor,” he said the minute Sam stepped inside.
“I do,” Sam said. “I also know what Caine and Macklin think of him, and at the moment, I’m more inclined to trust their judgment than yours.”
“I’m your brother!”
“You are,” Sam agreed, “but they’re the bosses around here, and they’re the ones who made the decision to hire their rival’s younger brother. They’re the ones with the most to lose, but they don’t seem concerned about having him here. I don’t see why I should give your opinion more weight than theirs, especially when Jeremy has gone out of his way to be friendly and helpful to me.”
“He’s using you,” Neil warned.
“Why would you even think something like that?” Sam demanded. “Seriously, Neil, are you even listening to yourself? If Jeremy were here with some ulterior motive or secret plan—and I think that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard since I got here—I’m the last person he’d want to get close to because I’m even newer here than he is. Besides, when we were coming back from getting supplies in Boorowa, we ran into Devlin Taylor, and he and Jeremy argued again. Taylor doesn’t want Jeremy around, for whatever reason. Jeremy didn’t make that up. I saw it for myself.”
Neil didn’t look convinced, but Sam didn’t let that stop him. “Look, Neil,” he said a little more calmly. “I’m not asking you to like Jeremy. I’m not asking you to work with him. But I like him, and I’d like to keep learning from him, so I am asking you to accept that. Besides, he’s the only other person living in the bunkhouse at the moment, so it’s not like I can avoid him.”
“Wait, other person living in the bunkhouse? Why would you move into the bunkhouse?”
“Because I can only impose on you and Molly for so long,” Sam said. “I get room and board as part of my contract with the station, so I might as well take advantage of that.”
“Living here counts as room on the station,” Neil said.
“Maybe, but it also means depending on you for something when I don’t need to. I know it seems like I’m splitting hairs, but I spent the last nine months completely dependent on Alison’s generosity, if you can call it that. I finally have the means and the opportunity to not be dependent on anyone for anything, and that feels good. Please don’t ask me to give that up.”
“I….”
“Just say yes,” Molly said from the doorway behind them. “It isn’t your choice to make for him, Neil.”
“Fine,” Neil said. “I need a beer. You want one?”
“Sure,” Sam said, taking the peace offering for what it was.
Neil disappeared into the kitchen, and Molly came over to Sam. “Have a seat. I don’t have to tell you how stubborn your brother is.”
“No, you don’t,” Sam said. “He’s always been that way.”
“It has its benefits,” she said, “but I know it doesn’t seem that way today. He’ll come around, though. He loves you, and he worries about you. You’re gaunt and you look tired, even after almost four weeks here. He wouldn’t argue with you this way if he didn’t care about you.”
“I just hate it that the person who’s been the friendliest to me is the person he can’t see the worth of,” Sam said.
“There are years of bad blood to overcome,” Molly reminded him. “I know most of it was Devlin, not Jeremy, but Neil doesn’t see it that way, and you know why he doesn’t?”
“Why not?”
“Because he can’t imagine a world in which he would side with someone else over you,” Molly said. “He can’t wrap his head around Jeremy and Devlin having such a complete falling out that Jeremy would actually come here intending to stay. He can imagine them arguing, but not permanently. And if it’s not permanent, then Jeremy is, in Neil’s mind, just seeing things, learning things, to take back to Taylor Peak with him when he leaves, things that could perhaps be used to hurt this station.”
“His loyalty has always been his best quality,” Sam agreed.
“It is,” Molly said. “It saved his job here after Caine saved his life. It helped save the station this summer when so many of the new jackaroos didn’t know what they were doing. Nobody worked harder than Neil to make sure everything was done, not even Macklin. Of course that could be because Neil worked hard so Macklin wouldn’t have to, but the end result was the same. He thinks Alison must be an idiot because she left you. The list goes on. And so he can’t begin to understand how Jeremy could put anything above his brother.”
“I think it was more a case of Devlin putting something above Jeremy,” Sam said. “From what I could see, anyway.”
“Loyalty has to go both ways,” Molly said, “but the fact remains that Jeremy is here instead of on Taylor Peak with his brother, and for Neil, that can’t bode well for us. He’ll come around. He’s loyal, not blind. He’ll see that Jeremy means no harm. It’ll just take time.”
“I guess I just ignore him in the meantime?”
“I didn’t say that,” Molly said. “You should do exactly what you did tonight and call him on his shit. He trusts you. Once he gets over the shock, he’ll realize that if you like and trust Jeremy, maybe he can too.”
Twelve
“YOU SURE you want a tour of the sheds?” Jeremy asked as they walked down the station road later in the week. Sam had spent most of the day in the office, going over the insurance policy with Caine and helping him search for Macklin’s mother. When Caine had called it a day a little early, Sam had jumped at the chance to spend an hour outdoors before dinner.
“Yes, I’m sure. I need to understand how things work, remember?”
“Don’t complain about the stench, then,” Jeremy said.
Sam just smiled.
The sheds did stink, but Sam found he didn’t care. Jeremy explained the purpose of the different pens inside the sheds, showing him where the lambs would be kept when they were born, explaining what all the equipment was for. They’d almost reached the far end when Sam heard a pitiful mewling.
“I thought all the sheep were outside,” Sam said, looking around to see where the noise was coming from.
“They are,” Jeremy said, “or they’re supposed to be.”
“Something’s in here and it’s crying,” Sam said. “Didn’t you hear that?”
They searched in the direction of the sound until they found a tiny calico kitten trapped between the gate and the fencepost of one of the lambing pens. “Easy there, baby,” Sam said, stroking the kitten’s head as Jeremy released the latch on the gate. The kitten fell forward into Sam’s hands, the mewling cries turning into a rumbling purr far too loud for the tiny body.
“He likes you,” Jeremy said.
“He’s just glad to be free of the trap he found himself in,” Sam said, setting the kitten down on the ground. It immediately started crying again.
“No, he likes you,” Jeremy insisted.
Sam took a step back to see what happened and the kitten followed him with a pronounced limp. “He’s hurt,” Sam said, scooping the kitten back up.
“Let me see him,” Jeremy said.
Sam handed the kitten over gently. He watched nervously while Jeremy prodded at the tiny body. When Jeremy’s fingers ran over the kitten’s side, it hissed in protest. “Looks like she might have hurt her ribs while she was stuck in there.”
“She?”
“Definitely a she,” Jeremy said, tipping her body so Sam could see her stomach. Sam had no idea what he was supposed to be looking at. He didn’t know anything about cat anatomy, but he accepted Jeremy’s assertion.
“So what do we do?”
“She’s a barn cat,” Jeremy said. “She’ll be fine in a day or two.”
He started to set the kitten down, but Sam grabbed her. “You can’t just leave her to fend for herself. She needs someone to take care of her. She’s just a baby.”
“Her mum’s around here somewhere,” Jeremy said. “She really will be fine. But if you want to spoil her for a few days, that’s your business. Just don’t come running to me when she makes a mess on your clothes or decides to use your boots as a scratching post.”
“People keep cats all the time,” Sam said. “How hard can it be?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Jeremy said. “I’ve always had dogs.”
“A kitten can’t be that different from a puppy in terms of what she needs,” Sam insisted. “Food, water, somewhere to do her business, something to scratch on, maybe something to chew on….”
“If you spoil her, she’s never going to learn to hunt for herself,” Jeremy said. “You’ll be stuck with her.”
“It’s just until she’s not hurt anymore.”
Jeremy rolled his eyes, but Sam wasn’t deterred. He cradled her against his chest as they left the sheds and headed back toward the bunkhouse. “What are you going to eat?” he asked her.
“Meat,” Jeremy said. “She’s a hunter, or she will be if you let her learn how.”
“Maybe Kami would give me the scraps from whatever he’s making for dinner,” Sam said. “I’d probably have to cut them up into pieces for her.”
“She has claws and teeth. She can tear into the scraps just like she would a mouse or anything else she caught,” Jeremy reminded him.
“Yes, but she’s hurt. She’s not going to feel like doing that right now,” Sam insisted.
Jeremy rolled his eyes again. “Just give in right now and admit that you’ve got yourself a cat. You’re never going to send her back to the sheds. I can tell already.”
“Is that really such a terrible thing?” Sam asked.
“No,” Jeremy replied, his voice softening. “It’s not a terrible thing. Just watch her around Arrow until we see how they’re going to get along. He’s a lot bigger than she is, and he’s not hurt.”
“I guess she needs a name, then,” Sam said.
“Eventually,” Jeremy agreed, “but you can wait a day or two to see if something strikes you.”
“Where did Arrow’s name come from?” Sam asked.
“It was a joke, actually,” Jeremy said. “He was one of a litter of seven. The other six were typical puppies, tumbling over each other, zigzagging around, but Arrow was always different. He’d pick a target and go straight to it, no zigzagging, no tumbling and playing around, just straight as an arrow to his goal.”
“That’s a great story,” Sam said.
“Yeah, the name just stuck after that. I’m sure his brothers and sisters grew out of that puppy phase and are now fantastic sheep dogs too, but Arrow was definitely a step ahead of them back then.”
“Do you think he’ll mind having a cat around?” Sam asked.
“Most of the time when I’ve seen cats and dogs have trouble living together, it’s because the cat was already afraid of dogs when the dog arrived,” Jeremy said. “Dogs usually adapt better since the cat isn’t really a threat. He’ll probably just see her as something else to herd around and take care of. And she’s young enough to get past being scared of him.”
“Sam, Jeremy, what you got there?” Jason asked, running over to them.
“Sam found a kitten stuck in the sheds,” Jeremy said. “He thinks she can’t take care of herself and needs to come home with him.”
“Can I see her?” Jason asked.
Sam handed the kitten over to Jason carefully, but the teen clearly knew how to hold her. He stroked her head gently as he examined her. “It doesn’t look like anything’s broken,” he said. “She’s probably just bruised. And hungry, from the looks of it. I wonder where her mum is.”
“I don’t know,” Jeremy replied. “We didn’t see any other cats in the sheds.”
“They have free run of the station,” Jason said. “They usually only go in the sheds when the weather’s bad or to have their kittens. She doesn’t look very old. I should see if I can find the rest of her litter. If she’s in this kind of shape, the others might not be any better off.”
“We found her caught in the next to the last gate on the right side of the sheds,” Jeremy said. “That gives you a place to start at least.”
“Thanks,” Jason said. “I’ll go find Seth, and we’ll go hunting for them. Polly might be able to help too. She’s always good at sniffing things out.”
Jason ran off, whistling for his dog as he headed toward the machine shed where Sam had already learned Seth spent all of his spare time unless Patrick kicked him out or Jason dragged him off on one adventure or another.
“Should we go help?” Sam asked.
“No, let them have their fun,” Jeremy said. “We’ll introduce Little Bit to Arrow and get her settled, and then see what Kami has that we can give her. If you’re going to keep her, you might want to think about getting some supplies from town. Cat food, a litter box, that sort of things. Even if she spends a lot of her time outside once she heals up, you want to have what you need instead of just improvising until
she’s well.”
“Who has the next supply run?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know, but we can find out,” Jeremy said. “Do you have enough to cover it? If not, I can spot you a bit until payday.”
“I think I can afford a bag of cat food and a litter box,” Sam replied stiffly.
Jeremy sighed. “I wasn’t trying to insult you or whatever. I just know you had to spend a lot of your last check on stuff for yourself. It’s a friendly loan, nothing else.”
“I know,” Sam said. “I’m sorry. Money’s a sensitive topic. When Alison and I agreed on a trial separation, I didn’t have a job, so she said she’d pay for an apartment, but the amount she agreed to pay was barely enough to cover the rent in the cheapest place I could find, and I hardly had anything left over for food. I had some savings, but that only lasted a few months. I always felt like she was trying to use money as leverage to force me to come crawling back to her.”
“It sounds like you’re better off without her,” Jeremy declared. “I don’t blame you for getting rid of her.”
Sam laughed, but the sound was bitter to his ears. “I’m pretty sure it was the other way around. There wasn’t a lot I could do right as far as she was concerned.”
“Then she was an idiot,” Jeremy said, “because I have yet to see you do something wrong.”
“Yeah, well, you don’t have to live with me,” Sam replied.
“I don’t have to live with you,” Jeremy agreed, “but I am living with you. Not in the same room, but we’re under the same roof. We’re spending most of our nonworking time together. Did you really spend that much more time with her when you were married?”
“Just sleeping in the same bed,” Sam said. “With her schedule, we didn’t even get to have dinner together half the time.”
“Her loss,” Jeremy said. “But I’m not going to complain since that means you’re here now.”
As they neared the bunkhouse, Arrow came bounding up to them and bumped Jeremy’s leg with his head. Jeremy scratched the dog’s ears affectionately. “Let’s introduce them out here,” Jeremy suggested. “That way if they don’t get along, we can separate them more easily.”