21 January 1984
Dear Brian,
You need to understand what has happened in the past so you can protect the future of both our family and Kyleena.
I can still remember my first night under the stars on the plot of land that I had bought. I named it Kyleena. While I was full of hope for the future, I still longed for home. I was furious at your Uncle Charles for the pain he caused – and it was because of his actions that I had to leave England for my own safety.
It has to be said, my brother was not of sane mind. As the oldest son, he was of course the heir to our property; he would have taken it over when Father passed away. But he became convinced that he would be passed over in favour of me.
At first no one took notice of the strange happenings: dead animals in the field with their throats cut; Father’s best stallion dying mysteriously with not a mark on him . . .
Then, during a hunt, I fell from my horse – someone had loosened the girth so that my saddle slipped to the side and, with my foot caught in the stirrup, I fell and was dragged for some distance.
Thankfully I suffered only a broken ankle – it could have been much worse. Then a groom told of seeing Charles adjusting the girth, and we understood his intention – and what violence he was capable of.
It was decided that I would leave the country to see if Charles would regain his mind. Mother and Father booked my passage to Australia, organised for land to be available to me and sent money every month – it was my rightful inheritance, but I was receiving it while they were still alive.
While journeying across the seas, I suddenly realised that this would make me to all intents and purposes a remittance man of sorts – I had been quickly hustled away from England with the promise of an allowance. A man who, in that day and age, was to be shunned and despised.
I determined that I would not allow anyone to know the real reason why I had come to Australia.
Remittance man? Amanda grabbed the dictionary and looked up the meaning: ‘an Englishman in Australia whose presence was no longer acceptable in England and who was supported by remittance from his family,’ the Macquarie Dictionary informed her.
Surely, though, this referred to drunks or gamblers who embarrassed their wealthy family. They wouldn’t have been young men with bright futures, like her grandfather. She could understand why Michael had preferred to conceal his background.
She read on.
After I had been here for some time, I met a woman who was to change the course of my life – Kathleen Cramm.
I had forgotten how pleasant it was to spend time with an intriguing and clever young woman – and I hardly ever thought of my one-time love, Grace, who was left behind in England. I began to entertain the idea of asking Kathleen to marry me.
Then I received word from my mother that Grace was coming to Esperance. She had already boarded the ship by the time I received the letter. It appeared that Charles had threatened her as well.
I had loved Grace dearly, but in order to make a success of my new life I had put all thoughts and feelings about her to the back of my mind as soon as I had boarded the boat taking me away from England.
This posed a problem. Kathleen and I had been talking of plans for the future – how could I now tell her that another woman had a prior claim on me?
Of course I had to marry Grace – she would need to be cared for and protected in this foreign land, and since it was thanks to me that she had been forced to flee her home, it was the least I could do.
But what to tell Kathleen?
Kathleen was brave upon hearing my news. I didn’t tell her the whole story, just that I was going to be too busy developing Kyleena to continue with our courtship. I had hoped one day she would be able to forgive me and realise that I hadn’t used her, and that my intentions were honourable, but I’m afraid that is not how our story played out.
As soon as Grace alighted from the ship, my old feelings came flooding back – it was as if Kathleen didn’t exist anymore, as if she never had.
Your mother was beautiful and a very hard worker. If it wasn’t for her, Kyleena would have never progressed as quickly as it did. She worked as hard as I did, not only on the farm, but raising two children, Diane, and you almost by herself, and tended a veggie garden that fed us and others.
Kathleen disappeared for a while – it turns out that she was in Kalgoorlie, and that she had a child, a girl, though the father’s identity was a mystery.
I later learned she had turned to prostitution to help feed her baby and herself, until finally it all got too much.
Leaving her child with nuns in Kalgoorlie, she caught the train back to Esperance. It appears that she came to Kyleena and spent the night in the hut down on the riverbank, and then the next day jumped into the river to kill herself.
I am ashamed to admit that we found her clothes in the very place that she and I had made love.
I was in town for supplies a few months after Kathleen’s funeral when her brother Thomas sought me out and gave me a letter. It had been written in the last few weeks of Kathleen’s life. It was addressed to me – and it was unopened.
It said that she loved me, had never stopped loving me, and that her daughter, Rose, was my child.
Full of remorse and guilt, I felt that I had to do something to assure the future of this poor child who didn’t bear my name. Without alerting your mother to the fact of Rose, I persuaded her that we should fence off two hundred acres of Kyleena, encompassing the hut and part of the river where Kathleen died, and deed ownership to the Cramms.
I watched Rose grow up from afar. She was a beautiful child and became a stunning woman.
She eventually married a retired soldier who came from a wealthy background and they bought a farm not that far from Kyleena.
The rest of the letter was so shocking that Amanda found it difficult to read; she skimmed the remaining four paragraphs, and read:
I now charge you with keeping this secret and ensuring that Kyleena remains in the hands of our family.
Your loving father,
Michael.
Amanda jumped out of bed and flew to her study to look at the title deed of the two hundred acres. It stated that the parcel of land was owned by The daughter of Kathleen Cramm, Rose Cramm.
‘Bloody hell!’ she swore out loud. ‘Oh my . . . no, I don’t believe it! That bloody low-life!’
Chapter 52
The wheels of the ute spun as Amanda turned onto the main road and headed towards Paringa. She was so angry she didn’t stop to consider how she was going to deal with this – she just knew that she had to confront Adrian.
She pulled up at the homestead with a jerk. Stomping in through the kitchen she found Adrian at the kitchen table eating his breakfast.
‘You bastard!’ she shouted.
Adrian half rose from his chair with a stunned look on his face. Then, drawing himself up, he looked down his nose at her. ‘Why are you barging into my kitchen calling me names?’ he asked coldly. ‘Perhaps you would like to sit down and explain yourself calmly.’
‘Tell me,’ Amanda asked furiously, ‘why did your mother try to get Kyleena from my father?’
‘I’m sorry, Amanda, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Have you been taking your pills?’
‘So the two hundred acres that my grandfather kindly left to your family wasn’t enough for your mother – my father’s half-sister. She wanted all of Kyleena. Is that right?’
Adrian rolled his eyes. ‘I see your overactive imagination has been up to its usual tricks.’
‘Don’t you dare patronise me! And I can’t believe you were actually going to marry me, knowing that we’re cousins. What was your real interest in me? Were you planning to convince me to sign Kyleena over to you before we married and then call the wedding off? You’re a cold, calculating bastard,’ Amanda hissed.
‘Cousins, you say?’ Adrian cocked an eyebrow at her.‘Well, I’ll be! Do tell how you found out that piece of inf
ormation.’
Amanda withdrew the piece of paper which had been enclosed with the letter and waved it in front of him. ‘All the proof I’ll ever need to bring you down for what you’ve done to me and my family. Rose Greenfield Cramm’s birth certificate. My grandfather was clever enough to make sure that she actually was his daughter before he signed any land over to your family.’
‘That’s enough!’Adrian’s fist slammed onto the table, his anger bubbling to the surface. ‘Your grandfather got my grandmother pregnant and caused her to commit suicide! The Greenfield family seemed to think that two hundred acres was enough to make it all better. That’s nothing. Guilt money, that’s all. Guilt money!
‘Do you realise that my great-grandmother almost killed herself trying to raise my mother? She worked herself into an early grave – my mother bemoaned the fact for years after Anna’s death,’ Adrian snarled. He rose from his chair, his face flushed. ‘No, I don’t deny we wanted Kyleena – we deserved Kyleena. But now it’s just me, I’m quite happy to sit back and let you make a balls-up of it and get it at a cheap price.
‘Of course, I was hoping to get it for free – but now I think having to marry you would have been too high a price to pay.
‘I can’t believe I even considered marrying you,’ Amanda spat.‘If I hadn’t been so scared and vulnerable, I never would have. So tell me, Adrian, while we’re clearing the air, how did you get across the river to throw the stones on my roof and whose car did you use when flashing the lights across my ceiling? And why fiddle with the taps that really hot day – trying to kill my stock, were you? Push me under financially as well as emotionally, all the while making a big show of being there for me? Is that why you killed my crop? I bet you were the one who put glyphosate into my boom spray. Did you kill my rams too? Bringing in the washing and all the other little tricks? Just to unhinge me? And what about the letters? Were they your handiwork?’ Amanda was so furious she could barely contain herself.
But Adrian just laughed coolly. ‘Your story is becoming rather far-fetched. Yes, I’ll admit I want Kyleena, but I wouldn’t stoop to stoning your roof! And where, might I ask, is your proof? You couldn’t even get the police interested in your story!’ Adrian sat down and resumed eating his cereal. ‘I think it’s time you left – and take your fanatical ideas with you. You’re obviously like your great-uncle Charles from England – quite unbalanced. Did you know that they hanged him in the end? He took on someone who wasn’t quite as weak as the members of your family.’
‘Oh I’ll leave,’ said Amanda, ‘I just have one more question: why did my father befriend you when he knew the history between our two families?’
‘Neither of us knew the history of the two families when we first met,’ Adrian said simply. ‘A little while afterwards, Brian received a letter from his father which explained the relationship between us. At the same time, my mother explained to me how shabbily she had been treated by the Greenfields, and we decided that we were entitled to Kyleena. Of course, when we spoke to your father about it he flew off the deep end and made it quite clear that we were never to return to the farm again.’ Adrian shrugged. ‘Not a great disaster; we just had to bide our time until we could get it all.’
‘I can assure you, Adrian, you won’t get away with this.’
‘That’s a hollow threat, Amanda,’ Adrian said airily. ‘I ask you again: where’s your proof?’
Fuming, Amanda turned on her heel and left.
But her anger had subsided by the time she arrived home, to be replaced with the familiar feeling of panic – she was sure that Adrian wouldn’t stop until he got his hands on Kyleena.
She burst into tears as she saw Jonno’s familiar ute parked at the front of her house. She hadn’t realised he would be in Esperance so soon. His large smile faded as he looked at her face and held out his arms, which she fell into.
After an intense questioning session at the station, Jonno by her side the whole time, Amanda was relieved to finally be back at home. She had watched the squad car leave the station for Paringa with a mixture of sadness and relief. Adrian was to be brought in for questioning.
‘Here you go,’ said Jonno gently, handing her a cup of tea and sitting down on the couch next to her.
After a while the phone rang and, nerves still jangling, she picked it up.
‘Hello!’ Hannah called down the line. ‘How much excitement are you having over there?’
‘Far too much,’ Amanda said. ‘But I think it’s about to finish. Detective Burns was heading over to question Adrian as we left the police station.’
‘I always told you he was a tosser!’ said Hannah, then lowered her voice. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Exhausted, sad, relieved . . .’
‘What about happy?’
Amanda looked over at Jonno and grinned. ‘Yeah, happy too.’
‘Well I’m pleased you guys have got it together. When Jonno rang me to talk to me about it, I told him how long I’d been waiting for it to happen. Have you got any idea how frustrating it is when the two people you love most in the world have got feelings for each other, but are too scared to tell the other person? It’s about bloody time!’
Amanda was about to reply when there was a knock at the door. When Jonno opened it Detective Burns was on the doorstep. Amanda told Hannah she would talk to her later and hung up.
‘Well, Amanda,’ Detective Burns said. ‘I don’t think Adrian will be bothering you again. He refused to admit any involvement until we hit him with the evidence of the partial finger print from the last letter. He must have got careless.’
Amanda closed her eyes, relieved.
‘We’ve got the courts to issue a restraining order against him, so he shouldn’t bother you again.’
‘How did he react?’
‘Oh, he was furious that we would even consider he’d done something wrong. And he was still angry when we let him go, but I think that was more because he’d been caught than anything else. Have you got someone to stay with you, just in case you have any problems?’
Amanda looked at Jonno, who nodded.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I have.’
The detective rose. ‘We’ve put out an AVO. Adrian isn’t allowed on Kyleena or anywhere near you. If he comes near you, you call us straight away.’ He held out his hand. ‘I’m pleased that we’ve finally got this sorted out, Amanda. And give us a ring if there’s anything else we can do. As for Slay, there’s no way he could have been involved in this. He’s been shearing up north for the past three years. He just comes back here on holidays to see his son.’
Amanda had her head resting on the back of the couch when Jonno came back.
‘I think Adrian will leave,’ he said.
‘Do you?’ Amanda asked, utterly spent.
‘Yeah. I can’t see the community being very forgiving when they all realise he was trying to terrify a lone woman into marrying him so he could get her farm.’
‘And I suppose this is where I should ask what your intentions are? Do you want my farm too?’ she asked, trying to make light of recent events.
The silence was so long that Amanda opened her eyes to look at Jonno. He had moved to within a couple of inches of her face. ‘My intentions are to love you for all of your life,’ he said and kissed her.
Epilogue
One year later . . .
Amanda, Hannah and Jonno pushed their way through the bush leading to the hut. It was a cool August afternoon and the trees were still wet from the rain the previous night. Mingus followed the procession, chasing rabbits or birds, but came to heel when called.
Hannah carried a bunch of white roses and Amanda had candles and food in her backpack. Jonno lugged the sleeping bags and camping gear they would need for the night.
Today, they were going to say goodbye once and for all to Kathleen and the devastation that had happened a generation ago.
They found the paved gutter and followed it to the hut. Jonno put down his load and helpe
d Amanda take off her backpack, smiling at her lovingly.
They talked softly as they set up their camp then, on dusk, they walked to the river, Amanda and Jonno holding hands. Amanda threw a couple of the white roses into the water and murmured, ‘Kathleen, I’m so sorry for your tragic life and death. Pop and Grandma, thank you for your gift of Kyleena. I promise to look after it well.’
Hannah lit a candle and then she too threw a rose into the river.
‘To Kathleen, Rose, Michael and Grace and the whole sorry mess – I hope you all can rest in peace. Brian and Helena – we miss you,’ she said.
Silently they stood and watched the roses float down the river until they were out of sight.
That night, Amanda slipped away from the fire and walked off a little way to stare into the night sky. So much had happened to her in recent years and she still found it amusing that she was the exact opposite to her parents. She was the farmer and Jonno the journalist, but she hoped that now they could work together, uneventfully.
Amanda still wished her dad were home, but he wasn’t, so she silently toasted a star and wondered if he could be looking at the same one. The important thing was that they were under the same blue skies.
Acknowledgements
Blue Skies was a challenge for me to write. I started, stopped and started, came up against a brick wall, thought everything I was writing was rubbish, but I finally got my rhythm and kept going. My dearest girlfriend, Carolyn Middleton, was instrumental in keeping me on track, through endless phone calls, tough love and lunches. She also drew up a family tree for a family that didn’t exist! Cal, I love the fact you’re my mate!
Once again, to my mentor Jeff Toghill, your wisdom and emails have also kept me focused on the business of writing and Blue Skies wouldn’t have eventuated without you either.
To my wonderful husband Anthony and kids, Rochelle and Hayden, thank you for putting up with me when I’m in writing mode. I usually do make it through the washing in the end!
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