She had been frightened, on the edge of panic but, as they smiled at each other, it was as though they had never been apart and she felt nothing but joy. Because she knew, with astonishment and something close to reverence, that she had come home.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
That night Bella lay in her hotel bedroom and contemplated the challenges, so joyous yet perplexing, that had emerged that day to complicate her life.
Was she mad, to consider sharing what remained of her future with Charles Hardy? Was Charles mad, for sharing the same dream?
What would the children say? Bella had always marched to the beat of her own drum, but their views should be considered, too.
Peace would think, and say, that she had lost her marbles, but Peace believed in nothing she could not touch. That was her strength and weakness. Richard would be more philosophical, more inclined than his sister to let Bella live her own life.
Her own instincts shouted yes, but in this situation could they be trusted? After so many years, was it really possible to recreate the fire that had consumed them in those long-lost days?
What about the business? Should one of the children take over? And, if so, which one? She had thought about that during the journey from Australia and believed she had come up with the answer, but she would ponder some more before making a final decision.
What about her other plans: the universities and medical schools, research into alternative energy, bringing water to a parched land? What about Branksome Hall?
Could the impracticability of a love, so long denied, overcome the practical challenges of life?
Bella remembered Miranda Downs, the cinnamon dust incandescent in the sunlight as she, Garth and the boys fought to subdue the wild cattle amid the placidly circling coaches. She remembered the Carlisle Mine and the detonation of the charges used to bring the precious ore into the light. Dust again, in grey clouds this time.
The vastness of space and sky, sunlight, droughts and floods, the billowing dust that for her had come to represent the land itself. The dust of the land, like the cattle and freight wagons transporting the precious ore to the coast.
She thought: I cannot turn my back on it. No more can Charles walk away from the hundreds of years of his own history. Two aging lovers chained to the opposite ends of the earth: how could a life together be achieved? It was hopeless. Impossible.
Yet perhaps not. I have always enjoyed life’s challenges, Bella told herself. To venture. To win. Mostly to win. Sometimes, of course, we lose. Because Judas is always with us.
But that is love, is it not? A challenge. Taking a step into the unknown. To venture. Hopefully to win.
I have to believe, or all these years I have been nourishing a delusion. I must have faith that the promises we made to each other, half a lifetime ago, will be fulfilled.
What else is life?
AUTHOR’S NOTES
Because of the imagined shortage of iron ore in Australia, prospecting or pegging claims was prohibited in Western Australia until the change of legislation in 1960.
Previous aerial surveys carried out by the authorities failed to identify the huge deposits of iron ore that in fact exist in that state.
Marra mamba ore was at one time regarded as of little value, an assessment that is now discredited.
On-going sales of ore to China continue to be of major importance to the Australian economy.
A dispute between two major mining companies resulted in the duplication of railways connecting the mining areas with the coast, where loading terminals have been developed for the shipment of ore.
Ore prices were significantly depressed by the 1973 Arab oil embargo.
Cyclone Joan struck the Pilbara coast on the date and in the manner described in the narrative.
The Tucker family and its adventures are entirely fictitious and have no connection with anyone actually involved in the industry or elsewhere.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J.H. Fletcher is the prize-winning author of fifteen novels, published to both critical and popular acclaim in Australia, Germany and the UK, as well as numerous short stories and plays for radio and television. He was educated in England and France and travelled and worked in Europe, Asia and Africa before emigrating to Australia in 1991. Home is now a house on the edge of the Western Tier Mountains in northern Tasmania.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Every book bears the name of its author but in reality its production is very much a team effort. I should therefore like to acknowledge with heartfelt thanks the contribution of all those who have been involved in creating Dust of the Land. I should like to make especial mention of Drew Keys and his extremely valuable suggestions and of Sue Brockhoff and her marvellous team at Harlequin.
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ISBN: 9781488710339
TITLE: Dust of the Land
First Australian Publication 2014
Copyright © 2014 by John Fletcher
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilisation of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the permission of the publisher:
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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