Malcolm pushed over the papers and handed him a pen. He indicated where Brian was to sign and passed Amanda her set of papers. Brian scribbled his signature and pushed the papers back to Malcolm without looking at them and left the table without another word.
The world retreated into the background as she read the stipulations of the financial agreement between the Western Bank and Amanda Jane Greenfield. Excited to be back in the world of what she trained for, she wanted to read every word and understand every piece of information that would affect her ability to make Kyleena a success. Once or twice she asked questions about the stock mortgage and the interest rate, then when she reached the final two pages she used the slim gold pen that her mother had given her before she left for college to sign the papers that would change her life.
Chapter 10
Amanda looked up from sorting the wool as she heard swearing. The shearer, Slay, had a foul expression on his face as he grabbed a ewe’s leg and yanked it into position.
He chipped away at the dags on the ewe’s hind, ripping a piece of skin off and swearing again. Amanda looked away. She couldn’t bear to see her sheep hurt like that. She would have to say something to Natty at lunch. This bloke, Slay, was way too rough.
‘Sheep-o,’ yelled another shearer as he dragged his last ewe on to the board.
‘Are you right by yourself for a minute?’ Amanda asked Kate, the other rousie.
Kate nodded and Amanda put down her paddle and headed out the back to pen up. ‘No need to cut the sheep to pieces is there, mate?’ she said as she walked past Slay.
‘You reckon you can do it better?’ he asked, looking up, his eyes narrowed.
‘No, but I think you can,’ she retorted before walking through the swinging doors to open the gates into the catching pens.
‘Hey up, girls,’ she called, clapping her hands, all the while wishing she had a good working dog. Far from being frightened, the ewes stood and looked at her. Sweating profusely, she had to wade through the bunched-up mob and turn every one of their stubborn heads towards the open gate, then manhandle each of them through the gateway. They were being obstinate today.
After what seemed like an eternity, she managed to fill the pens, then went back onto the board to help Kate. Saving money by working in the shed herself was all well and good, but she had realised she wasn’t able to keep up with that and trying to do the yard work as well. Last night she hadn’t got home until close to eight o’clock. By the time she’d back-lined all the ewes, got them back out to their paddock and filled the shed with sheep for the next day, she’d been relieved to drop into a chair and stay there.
This morning she’d been up before dawn to get the next mob of ewes to the yards to drain out. She was tired, achy and very crotchety! But she couldn’t stop. Driven not only to prove that she could make Kyleena profitable again, but that she could do the physical work, she wouldn’t allow herself to fail.
As soon as she finished penning up she rushed out onto the board and immediately saw that Kate was struggling to keep up with the four shearers, with a pile of wool lying near a wool pack. Grabbing a paddle, Amanda got to work on her end, concentrating on nothing else for the next half hour.
At the end of the run, when the shearers dropped their hand pieces and headed out to have a wash and a bite to eat, Amanda fronted Natty.
‘You need to pull that Slay bloke into line. He’s cutting the sheep around too much,’ she said quietly.
‘Amanda, the sheep are hard – there’s that much shit on them it’s bloody hard to avoid cutting them.’
‘He shouldn’t be cutting the teats off their udders and nicking their twat though. How the hell are the ewes going to feed their lambs if they’ve got buggered udders and the lambs can’t latch on?’
‘I haven’t seen him doing that.’
‘Well I have. And what about the one he hamstrung in the first hour of the day? That’s another sheep buggered. It can’t even walk now so I’ll have to get rid of her. He obviously lives up to his name. Talk to him and if he doesn’t pull his head in he can walk,’ said Amanda before leaving for the yards.
‘You stupid, bloody bitch!’ Thwack! Amanda’s head whipped around, just catching sight of the hand piece coming down onto the ewe’s head.
Anger welled within her as she saw the blood spurt out and, without thinking, she walked over to the power switch, flicked it off and walked over to stand in front of Slay. The shearers who hadn’t seen what had happened, yelled out ‘Oi, the power’s gone off.’ Then, realising something was happening, pushed their ewes back into the catching pens and busied themselves changing the combs and cutters, everyone watching out of the corner of their eye.
Slay put down his hand piece and stood upright.The ewe lay still and Amanda could see it wasn’t breathing.
‘DON’T. YOU. EVER. HIT. MY. SHEEP.’ said Amanda, her voice shaking with suppressed rage. That’s two bloody sheep I’ve lost today because of you.’
‘If they weren’t in such crap shape I wouldn’t have,’ he sneered back at her.
‘They’ve been drenched so the shit has lifted off the skin. It’s not like you have to chip it off. They may be difficult, but I’ve watched you hamstring one and cut teats and twats, because you’re going too fast. I won’t let that happen in this shed. Now pack your gear and piss off.’
Slay took a menacing step towards her. ‘You can’t sack me. You’re just a sheila who thinks she can run Daddy’s farm and let me tell you, you’re not doing a very good job at it. Look at the sheep! They’re in crap shape! If you’d got us in earlier, we wouldn’t have these problems. There’s shit halfway up their backs and it’s dry. They’re weak and riddled with lice. With sheep like this, you need to accept they’re gonna get cut.’
‘Listen mate, I don’t give a flying toss about your opinion! Just leave,’ said Amanda, so angry she could barely speak. The fact that Slay’s words held a hint of truth about them made it worse. She knew the ewes were hard going and it cut her to the core to have a bloke stand in front of her and say she was doing a bad job when she had been trying her best.
‘Amanda, I don’t think . . .’ said Natty, coming forward.
‘I told you to talk to him at lunch or this would happen! I don’t breed sheep to have them brutalised,’ Amanda fumed back at him before turning to Slay and pointed towards the vehicle they had all arrived in that morning. ‘Go and sit in the bus until the rest of them have finished the day.And don’t you ever set foot in my shearing shed again.’
There was complete silence as everyone waited to see what would happen. Amanda saw him fix her with a cold stare. A brave shearer let out a whoop from the other end of the shed.
‘Met ya match have ya, Slay? What? With a cow like that? Where’s ya balls?’ he taunted.
Amanda didn’t take her eyes off Slay and they eye-balled each other until Slay slowly bent down, jerked his hand piece off the down tube and slowly started to pack up his gear. Amanda went and flicked the power switch back on, saying ‘C’mon let’s get going. We’re a shearer down now, so we won’t get as many crutched. We need to keep moving.’
Amidst the noise of everyone returning tensely to work, Slay walked out with his esky and shearing gear. As he passed Amanda, he leaned forward and whispered:‘I won’t forget you, bitch.’
Chapter 11
At the end of a very busy week, Amanda sat on the verandah nursing a beer. She was pleased to see the end of the crutching and most of the sheep work for the time being. The large workload had been harder to manage than she’d expected.
At the beginning of the week while getting the first mob in for preg-scanning, she’d felt sad that her mother was no longer there, yet she couldn’t help but feel a bubble of excitement welling in her chest. This was what she had always wanted. A farm that was hers, that she could run the way she wanted. Turn into a tidy, well-organised, profitable piece of land.
Louise, the vet, had arrived on Monday morning, joking that she’d n
ot been expecting to pull out the preg-testing scanner until next year.
‘What are you up to, Mandy? Did you re-mate your dry ewes?’ Amanda had explained that since her mother’s death they’d been knocked around a bit. ‘Dad and I forgot to take notes of what happened when. I have an awful feeling that we may even have forgotten to put the rams in with one mob! I just need to know what I’m dealing with.’
‘Well, we’ll soon find out,’ Louise had said and proceeded to set up while Amanda moved the mob into the forcing yard and down the race to the scanning crate. The sheep work had just reinforced that she needed a working dog. She wouldn’t be able to handle sheep work without one. Sourcing a good, partly trained pup now topped her to-do list.
The two days of crutching and three days of preg-scanning had made her ache in places she’d forgotten she had. Her thighs were even sore to touch from rousing in the shearing shed and using her knees to force the sheep into the race. Amanda now realised that she wasn’t as fit as she’d thought. In fact, she was coming to understand that running a farm and having to do all the manual work herself was a bigger job than she’d imagined.
The major blemish on the week had been the run in with Slay, and that still played on her mind. His parting words had been laced with menace and his features twisted with hate. His threat had left her uneasy. Amanda was certain he would get over it! He wasn’t the first shearer to be sacked on Kyleena and she was sure he wouldn’t be the last.Overall, she was pleased with how the week had panned out. It had taken nearly a month to get to this point, but she was feeling a sense of satisfaction.The sheep were sorted.They were in the mobs that would be easy for the husbandry practices that she intended to implement. The ones that she’d thought may not have been mated were pregnant! She was so relieved when Louise hadn’t called out ‘Dry’ once in the first twenty sheep, Amanda had almost wept with relief. There would be more lambs than she had budgeted on.
There was a creak of boards and Amanda realised her father had sat down next to her and was looking out over the darkening green pastures of the front paddock. Like her, Brian had a beer in one hand, but he also had a whisky in the other. She watched him out of the corner of her eye.
Since the signing of the papers a month ago, he’d been conspicuous by his absence. Oh, he was around. Amanda would hear the low hum of the radio in his office as he sat with his glasses perched on the end of his nose, pretending to be buried in paperwork, when really all he was doing was staring at the desk, lost in memories, a glass of whisky always within reach.
At night she’d hear him in the bathroom or roaming the house. Sleep didn’t seem to come easily to him, whereas Amanda fell into bed exhausted each night.
This last week, though, he’d appeared more often and Amanda had sensed a subtle change in their relationship. He’d be at the kitchen table when Amanda came in to grab some lunch or sitting in the lounge room watching the news when she finished work for the evening. He’d started to make conversation more too.
Last night’s conversation was still fresh in Amanda’s mind. She’d known that Brian wanted to talk to her about something as he’d come in while she’d been cooking tea. Almost dropping with tiredness, Amanda knew that she had to eat properly, so every night she tried to cook. Last night she couldn’t bring herself to face the stove, so she’d popped her head into the living room and said that baked beans on toast was on the menu. Her father had smiled at her briefly and said that sounded good then turned back to the news.
Unexpectedly, he’d arrived in the kitchen before she called him and sat at the table, facing her. Amanda could see him looking at the once cream-coloured walls. Above the stove, they were now a grimy brown from the grease that had risen over the past months. Amanda knew her father was thinking of all the times he’d come into the kitchen to see Helena scrubbing the wall. She’d wanted a rangehood for so long but it had never eventuated. Amanda didn’t have the time to scrub walls.
Her father cleared his throat and began uncertainly. ‘I’ve been thinking about your mum’s grave. We need to put a headstone up.’
‘We can’t do it for about a year, Dad. I looked into it not long after the funeral. I hated to think of her lying there unnamed, people not knowing who is buried in that grave. But it’s got something to do with the earth settling properly before they can put up a headstone.’
Amanda took the toast, buttered it and poured the baked beans onto the plate.
Her father nodded. ‘That’s right. I remember now from when Dad died.’ There was silence. ‘Have you got any ideas about what you want on it?’
Amanda flopped at the table and handed over a plate. ‘I can’t think of the right words to describe how special she was yet.’
‘Me either.’ They ate in companionable silence for a while.
‘I really miss her,’ Brian said.
Amanda was quiet. It was the first time that he’d said anything of the sort. ‘Me too. Is it getting any easier for you?’ she asked delicately.
Her father chewed slowly and then shook his head. ‘What about for you?’
Amanda tried to analyse how she felt. On the one hand, she didn’t have time to miss her mother. But she longed for her.The conversations, the laughter. Amanda had always wanted to work with her and it would never happen now. Not able to find the words, she just shrugged and her father nodded as if understanding her feelings – maybe for the first time.
Coming out of her thoughts, she looked at her dad and asked ‘How would have you handled Slay during the crutching, Dad?’
There was a silence as her father took a sip of his drink and scanned the horizon. Waiting for him to answer, Amanda looked over and noticed he’d stiffened.
‘Looks like someone’s coming up the drive.’ Brian said, ignoring her question. She took a swig of her beer; despite the chill of the air, the beer was warm and flat. She screwed up her nose.
‘Who’d be coming here now?’ she wondered. ‘It’s nearly dark.’
‘Not expecting anyone?’
‘No.’
They watched as the lights from the car came closer. Amanda couldn’t really make it out in the darkness, but it looked like some sort of four-wheel drive.
She frowned as Brian leaned forward in his chair, suddenly watching intently.
‘You’ve got to be joking!’ he murmured quietly. ‘After all this time. What the hell does he think he’s doing, showing up on my farm?’ His voice began to rise in anger. ‘You make bloody sure he knows he’s not welcome here.’
Amanda looked at her father in surprise. His face was bright red and furious. As she watched, her dad stood bolt upright, tipping his chair over in his haste, and disappeared into the house. The sound of him slamming the office door shocked her. Who could possibly evoke such a reaction?
Curious, Amanda walked to the garden fence, pulling her jacket closer around her, and watched as a top-of-the-range, dark blue Toyota LandCruiser pulled up at the gate. She recognised the driver now, though she still had no idea what he was doing on her farm, or why her father had reacted so violently.
Amanda watched as a handsome man got out of the car. He was dressed to the nines tonight.
‘Amanda! After all this time. How are you?’ he asked as he walked towards her, hand outstretched.
‘Mr Major. This is a bit of a surprise. I don’t think I’ve seen you since I was about nine or ten.’
Adrian laughed. ‘Oh, call me Adrian, please. “Mr Major” makes me sound so old – I’m not much older than you really.’
‘Well, it’s hard to change the habit of a lifetime, but I can try . . . Adrian.What brings you here?’
‘I heard that you’ve taken on running Kyleena, so I thought I’d do the neighbourly thing and offer my services to you. I’ve been meaning to come over and renew our acquaintanceship since your mother died, but the time never seemed quite right. I was afraid of intruding on your grief. But then I heard . . . well, the gossip mill has been working overtime, as I’m sure you’re a
ware.’ His mouth turned up in a half-smile and he held up his hands in an apologetic manner. ‘I guess I wanted to see how you were getting on and if I could do anything to help.’
Amanda couldn’t help grin back at his infectious smile.
‘Well that’s very nice of you. Thank you. But I’m managing just fine.’
‘I had an inkling you would say that. Miss Independence! Just like you were as a child. But please, Amanda, if you need any sort of help, let me know. If I can’t come, I can send one of my workmen.’
Amanda smiled. ‘Thank you. I’ll keep it in mind.’
Adrian looked towards the house curiously. ‘Is your father home? I haven’t seen him about for some time. Don’t tell me you’re here all by yourself?’
‘No, no. Dad comes and goes,’ she answered in a noncommittal voice.
‘Right. Well, like I said, give me a call if you need anything.’
Adrian got into his car and drove away. As his tail-lights disappeared down the driveway Amanda noticed the curtains in the office moving. She turned and headed back into the house. She’d always thought her Dad was on good terms with the owners of the neighbouring properties. What on earth had got into him?
Chapter 12
Winter 1934
Michael’s hand hovered over the letter to his family. Outside the rain lashed the tin hut and the wind threatened to tear the roof from the wooden rafters.
Bowy huddled closer to the fire as Michael realised that it was slightly smoky inside tonight. The wood he’d collected must have been damp. It wasn’t surprising since it had been raining for five days straight and dry wood was hard to come by.
The river was rising and he was worried about his stock. He imagined the animals falling into the raging waters, being swept away and . . .
Shaking his head, he decided not to continue in this line of thinking. ‘What will be will be.’ He could hear his mother’s lilting tones echo around his head.
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