by Di Morrissey
‘Where are the others?’ asked Queenie.
He tilted his head, ‘At the house’.
‘You want to jump in?’ Queenie leaned over and opened the passenger door.
Zero climbed in, glancing at Honey watching from her horsebox. ‘You gonna keep the horse in that all the way?’
‘Maybe. Can you ride?’
He shook his head. ‘No way. No horses in Redfern. Did see a mounted copper once. Is it hard?’
‘To ride? Not really. You’ve got to be gentle but firm, not afraid and show some trust. Bit like dealing with people. Can you drive?’
‘Yeah.’ He grinned at her. ‘Only other people’s cars, but. Never had a go at one of these. Not too many around the suburbs. Not so quick to burn round the back streets either.’
Queenie ignored his reference to his activities with hot cars. ‘Maybe I’ll let you spell me on this drive. I’ll see.’
‘That’d be cool.’
Auntie Maud and the other three were waiting by the house, surrounded by small sacks and bags.
‘Righto, you lot, hop in. You all set, Queenie?’
‘I’ll just refill the water bags and extra water container. Is there water in the tank?’
‘It’s low and a bit tinny. We pass a creek on the way, should be water in it.’
‘I’ll take some now anyway.’
‘Here, Adrian, you and one of the girls help do that,’ said Maud.
Queenie handed them the water container. Maud looked at her. ‘You make contact with the folks at home?’
‘Yes.’
‘You don’t look too happy.’
‘Oh, I’m all right. I guess.’ Queenie busied herself rearranging gear to make room for three in the back and Maud didn’t probe any further. As soon as they were settled Queenie drove out from the property, following Maud’s directions, onto the back track that led to the dirt road.
‘So tell me what you know about this Mitchell character and why you think he’s got my stock.’ Queenie settled into her seat, her hands resting comfortably on the steering wheel, feeling the warmth of Maud’s hip on one side. Lois was leaning against the front passenger door and Queenie checked she had her seat belt on, then glanced over her shoulder at the three in the back seat. ‘You all right back there?’
‘Yeah. Better than walking.’
‘You’ll git plenty of that later,’ said Auntie Maud. ‘Now, Barney Mitchell. I first heard of him when I was workin’ for Mrs Jamieson when I left the girls’ school. She fancied herself something dreadful that woman did, had tickets on herself like you wouldn’t believe. Acted like the Queen Mother and I was the servant who ran bloomin’ Buckingham Palace. Do this, do that, don’t forgit this, have you done that?’
‘Now we know where you get it from Auntie Maud,’ teased Ado from the back.
‘Who else worked for her?’
‘Nobody! I did everything. Oh, there was Horrie an old Koori fella used t’help out, but he was always wanderin’ off. He was supposed to chop wood and look after the vegie garden, fix things, but he was never around when ya needed him. He’d either take off and be gone bush or hidin’ out in the henhouse.’
‘The henhouse?’ laughed Queenie.
‘Yeah, curled up sleeping on a sack near the laying trough. Said he was lookin’ out for the carpet snake that’d been stealing the eggs. Don’t know why she kept him on. S’pose because he was cheap. She paid him baccy money and a bit of tucker. Never met a meaner woman in my life. But when Mr Mitchell come to call nothing was too good. I’d be baking sponge cakes and tarts, cheese pies, getting into the smoked ham, gawd, you name it.’
‘Was there a Mr Jamieson?’
‘I called him the grey ghost. He tiptoed round the place keeping out of her way. He worked in town, in some accountant office I think. But Mitchell used to come to call for afternoon tea when he was at work. All very proper like, but he used to talk and talk to her and I could tell he was spinning her some great story. Had something to do with money. She was the one with money and she held the purse strings. I never got to hear much ’cause it was a rule when visitors come, I had to keep out of sight. I had to wait till they moved onto the verandah or he left and I’d hear her say, “Oh leave that, the girl will fix it”.’
‘I’d have dropped her china cups,’ said Raylene.
‘I felt like it often enough, but that would’ve just come out of my hide, my pocket or no half day off — which was only every six weeks anyway, but I longed for that time on me own. Anyway, next thing we knew, they had to sell up and move away and I heard from Horrie they’d lost all their money and it was Mr Mitchell’s fault. He must have conned the old biddy somehow.
‘Anyway, I moved into town to work for one of her old lady friends. The work wasn’t so hard as she didn’t have a cow and chooks to look after and I got sixpence to spend and every second Sunday off. I met up with another mission girl and we used to buy lollies or get a soft drink and hang around the back of the picture show and listen to the films. Once we sneaked in but had to get out before the end in case we got caught. I’ll never forget that. Seemed like magic seein’ them people up there on the screen.’ She turned to the kids in the back. ‘You fellas don’t know what it was like then. You think you got it tough now, it was a lot harder then.’
‘We still get treated like shit though,’ said Zero.
‘You only git treated the way you deserve. You give a bit of respect, you get it.’
‘Not where we come from,’ muttered Lois.
‘So go on, what about Mitchell?’ said Queenie. Maud’s involved story was passing the time and helping keep her mind off TR and Tingulla.
‘Years later, long after I’d run away from that town, I started looking for work in the city, I saw a write-up ’bout him in the newspaper. He was appearing in some court case and they said he owned some big property out this way and was very rich but it seemed that he’d made his money from deals with other people who’d lost their money and he’d moved in and bought up places cheap, including the stock. The story was that he somehow managed to gather up a lot more stock than he paid for. Hintin’ like that he either stole ’em or hid ’em and they never got counted in the musters for the sale.’
‘A few extra cattle missed in a muster here and there isn’t going to make him rich,’ said Queenie. ‘And why was he in court?’
‘Couple of blokes were found dead on one of his properties up north. They was Asian fellas, and there was talk of smuggling.’
‘Smuggling what?’ The boys were interested. ‘Drugs, hey?’
‘Possibly. But they couldn’t prove that. What they did find out was there was a big racket in birds and snakes and stuff.’
‘Who’d want them?’ asked a surprised Raylene.
‘Collectors overseas. They were smuggled out alive, big market in what do they call it . . . exotic pets,’ explained Maud.
‘What happened to Mitchell?’
‘He got off. Said he knew nothing about it, he didn’t live up there, some manager ran the place and he’d disappeared. So they couldn’t prove anything. But the story is Barney Mitchell is behind a lot of illegal deals.’
‘Nice bloke,’ said Ado with a raised eyebrow.
‘And you’re just gonna bowl up and say, er ’scuse me, can I have me bulls back?’ said Lois.
‘I was kind of wondering the same thing,’ said Queenie. ‘And why do you think he has them? I was half suspecting you might be spinning me a yarn to get me to drive you up this way.’
They all laughed. ‘Have to try that sometime,’ said Maud. ‘No, on our way into Walshie’s, a Mitchell Transport road train went past us and we thought it was odd. We was a bit concerned someone might have moved onto the property. We stay there every trip and we thought it was even stranger ’cause, as you probably noticed, cattle had been held there. I figured Mitchell must’ve bought the place.’
‘That’s a pretty big transport company. I didn’t know who was behind Mitchell Transport
. Maybe he has bought that place.’
‘I doubt it. But he must know it’s abandoned. Strikes me as a good place to do a little shady dealing,’ said Maud thoughtfully.
‘If this Mitchell is responsible, he sounds like he might be a pretty tough customer. I’ll have to think through how I tackle this one.’
‘How we tackle it you mean,’ said Maud.
‘Right on,’ came a chorus from the two boys.
‘Now wait a minute. I’m just going to leave you on the track to your next camping site as you asked. I don’t want to put you and the kids in any danger. This is my problem.’
‘Kids! She called us kids,’ complained Zero.
‘Rounding up cattle duffers isn’t usually on the curriculum of my courses,’ grinned Auntie Maud.
‘You’re always going on about helpin’ people, so here we can put it into action,’ grinned Ado.
‘You’re jist hopin’ for some excitement,’ sniffed Raylene.
‘Be good if we could get her cattle back and give these blokes a serve, but,’ enthused Zero.
‘Ah, lex talionis — an eye for an eye,’ said Maud who had a store of phrases and quotes drilled into her by the mission nuns. ‘In tribal justice it’s the law of pay back.’
‘Law of the streets ain’t much different,’ said Lois.
‘Listen, really, I want to do this on my own. I appreciate your offer, but I don’t want to be responsible for putting any of you in danger. If Mitchell is as bad as you say, it could be dangerous,’ said Queenie, glad of the sudden distraction of disturbing a flock of budgerigars. The sky ahead was patterned by a swirling blanket of thousands of darting bright birds. In solid formation they swooped in a grey-green mass then, at some instant command, changed direction to sweep to the other side of the sky revealing the iridescent flash of their scarlet underfeathers. Their high-pitched shrieks, dazzling colours and rapid flight formation silenced the occupants of the vehicle. Then in seconds, like thunder clouds rolling away, the sky was empty, blue and still once more.
Lois was first to speak. ‘Wow, that was awesome!’
‘I ain’t never gonna keep a budgie in a cage again,’ added Raylene.
‘Magic,’ commented Ado.
‘Free, wild and beautiful, that’s our land. We gotta keep her dis way, eh?’ said Maud. ‘We should come to the creek pretty soon. Good place to camp the night.’
Queenie nodded and they continued the drive in silence, each wrapped in their thoughts.
Tango glanced at TR as he dozed, stretched out in the settler’s chair, his bad leg propped up on a footstool. Tango put aside his book on the history of champion horses and stretched. He was ready for some exercise. The morning was sunny and fresh — he’d take Star out for a ride. He headed around the verandah and ran into Jenni, who had been picking vegetables from the kitchen garden for Millie.
‘Hi there, Jenni. I thought I’d go for a ride. TR’s asleep.’
‘Oh, I’ll leave him be for a while then. I was going to give him a massage. His muscles still aren’t being exercised enough.’
‘Do you feel like some exercise? Come for a ride with me.’
Jenni hesitated. ‘I haven’t been riding since I was a teenager. But I would like to try again. Is there a quiet horse about?’
‘You bet. Put some jeans on and I’ll find you some boots. Meet me at the stables.’
Tango saddled Star who was impatient and uncooperative. Banjo, a small calm grey mare, took no notice as Tango readied her for Jenni.
‘Where do you want to go?’ he asked as Jenni appeared.
‘Those hills look so pretty, they really are blue. Are they very far away?’
‘No. I smuggled some of Millie’s fruitcake out of the pantry, we can have a picnic at the creek. Now, this is Banjo, a very sedate and trustworthy old thing.’
Tango held the reins and as Jenni struggled to swing into the saddle, gave her a boost under her small, neat bottom. ‘Stirrups right length? Okay off we go.’
Star pranced about for a short distance then settled down as they walked comfortably down through the paddocks to the back gate. By the time they’d reached the open ground, Jenni was managing a rising trot.
Tango smiled at her. ‘Be easier if we canter slowly. Lean back and relax into it. Forget the riding lessons. Stick your feet forward if you feel insecure. Ready?’
The wind blew strands of blonde hair across her cheeks, which were flushed with warmth and pleasure. By the time Tango reined in at the creek at the bottom of the hills, Jenni was quite breathless.
She slid from the grey horse, laughing that her knees were shaky.
‘There’s the creek, the water is good to drink,’ said Tango. ‘I’ll boil the billy.’
Conveniently hung on a twig was an old billycan which he filled with water then set over the small fire he’d made. Jenni watched as he took a small cake tin from the bag on his saddle along with a bottle bound in protective leather.
‘Milk,’ he said. ‘I know you don’t have sugar.’
‘You’ve thought of everything. This is gorgeous,’ said Jenni. ‘This is obviously a family spot. Did TR come here too?’
‘We all do. This part of the creek is known as Tea Break.’
Jenni laughed and began to question Tango about TR. ‘I get dollops of a story here and there from Millie and Saskia. Tell me more about him.’
‘What sort of things do you want to know?’ Tango studied her for a moment or two, wondering what lay behind her questions. ‘I didn’t get to know him till I was sixteen and didn’t know he was my father till some time later.’
‘I know, Millie told me. No, tell me about TR the man. What makes him laugh; what sort of things did he like to do to relax; does he lose his temper . . ?’
‘You should know that. I heard you two having a bit of a domestic yesterday. Surprised me really — I’ve never heard TR shout or get angry like that before.’
‘That’s quite common. I see it a lot, it’s frustration and fear as well as pain,’ said Jenni cheerfully.
Tango made the tea and poured it into their mugs. ‘It must be so hard for him. How well is he really doing?’
‘He could be doing better,’ said Jenni gently. ‘I thought things might happen more quickly or there’d be some dramatic change being back here. But if anything, he seems more withdrawn.’
‘I guess the reality hits him here more than at the hospital. Everyone knows him and he knows he had a role here, but it’s all blank to him. Must be hell.’ Tango sighed and tried to smile. ‘We still have to find some way of revving him up a bit.’
Jenni nodded. ‘Motivate him, get him thinking more positively. I don’t know how. I try and try.’ The usually bubbly Jenni looked crestfallen.
‘Come on, Jenni. Let’s ride up the hill a bit. The view’s really something,’ said Tango to cheer her up.
They packed up, hung the billycan back on the tree and this time Tango lifted Jenni into the saddle. They smiled at each other and Tango said, ‘You’re a slip of a thing, I don’t know how you push and pull TR all over the place.’
‘Tricks of the trade,’ she grinned. But as she lifted the reins and settled her feet she was thinking how much Tango was like the handsome man in her charge. With a pang she realised how fond she was of TR and wished she had some miracle cure to make him as fit and happy as his son.
Tango left Tingulla after telling TR how things were progressing at Guneda.
‘Get back into it, and good luck,’ said TR. ‘I’ll be down to see it all when I’m getting along a bit better.’
‘Sure, I understand.’ Tango dropped an arm around his father’s shoulders and gave the ever-vigilant Jenni a warm handshake. ‘No need to tell you to watch out for him, I can see you do.’ He turned to embrace Saskia who walked with him to his car. ‘So, kid, what’re your plans?’
‘Flexible at the moment.’
‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.’ He hugged her again. ‘I’ll be there like a shot whe
never you need me, Sas,’ he said softly.
She stared up at her handsome half-brother, no wonder all her girlfriends sighed and said he was to die for. Tango, like TR, was devastatingly handsome, yet he seemed unaware of his effect on women. ‘I’ll keep you posted. Good luck with everything at Guneda.’
Saskia had a few unformed plans but was unsure quite what to do. Millie had swiftly figured out to stop asking questions — Saskia just clammed up and got cranky, telling everyone to stop cross-examining her.
Jenni had set up a daily timetable of workouts, exercises, rest, massage and what they called tours, where she and TR began exploring the rest of the property as TR familiarised himself with his home. While TR took a nap, Jenni would sit in the kitchen and help Millie by shelling peas, polishing pieces of silver or some other task while sharing a pot of tea, and Millie would fill her in on the history of Tingulla and its family.
‘They certainly are an amazing family, especially Queenie,’ said Jenni, sitting with Millie after Tango had gone. ‘I guess she gets her resilience from those pioneer forebears. It couldn’t have been easy starting out in the early days. It makes you understand the attachment these old families must have to their places when you realise the heritage that’s held here.’
‘We’re all part of Tingulla,’ said Millie.
‘I had no idea how sophisticated a merino stud was either.’ continued Jenni. ‘I thought the sheep just bumbled around in the paddocks then their wool was shorn. The studmaster took us through the prize rams yesterday, it’s all very scientific, isn’t it?’
‘TR and Queenie have modernised this place a lot. I dunno much about wool prices other than they’re never enough. Not like the old days when Queenie’s dad used to say how the country rode on the sheep’s back. They’ve seen some crook times, but Tingulla’s always come through good, so long as Queenie has been here. And TR. Saskia’s dad Warwick got the place into trouble, but that was ’cause he done some stupid things. I reckon Queenie was gettin’ ready to do some new scheme when TR had his accident . . .’ Millie sighed. ‘Guess them things’ll have to wait till TR is back together agin. Like Humpty Dumpty.’