Master of Moonrock

by Anne Hampson

  ‘Eleven hours getting to you and then another couple on top - before we camped, that was.’

  ‘Do you usually stay at the wheel that long, asked Loren, shocked.

  ‘Just depends. Thane almost always uses the aircraft, but there are times when we have to use a car.’ She shrugged her shoulders. ‘You get used to it out here. The nearest town to Moonrock is Kouri End, which is a hundred and fifty miles away.’ Dena flicked her head round, the inevitable grin breaking. ‘Thinking you’ll be lonely?’ ‘Not if you’re there.’ The answer came spontaneously

  and Dena laughed.

  ‘I’m working all day long. Shan’t have time to walk and talk and ride and play tennis.’

  ‘You must get some time off.’

  ‘Yes, as a matter of fact I do. I have to pinch it, though. Thane has no interest in how a skivvy should be treated, and the idea of giving me a day off has never once occurred to him.’

  Loren glanced sideways at her, convinced that Dena pleased herself what she did. That she was fond of work was evident by the way she had driven this great distance from Moonrock and back and been so cheerful about it. Loren wondered if Thane realized what a treasure he had in his cousin.

  ‘The road’s getting bumpy,’ observed Loren when another few miles had been covered. ‘Will it be like this all the way now?’

  ‘Afraid so. We’re really in the wilds now.’ She made a comprehensive sweep of her hand. ‘What the geographers call tropical savanna - the Queensland bush to you. Scrub and eucalyptus.’

  ‘Are all these cattle yours?’

  ‘Thane’s, yes.’ Silence fell between the two girls, broken at length by Dena saying curiously, ‘Not beginning to feel scared, are you?’

  ‘Scared — n-no. Why do you ask that?’

  Dena smiled to herself.

  ‘Soon be meeting Thane. Your guardian—’ She shook her head. “You know, the last thing I can imagine is Thane in the role of guardian. Why did he consent, do you think?’

  ‘I really don’t know, unless he felt reluctant to refuse my uncle. I don’t suppose he ever expected to be forced to shoulder the responsibility,’ Loren added.

  ‘I’ve been thinking about it on and off since we set out this morning and I’m completely at a loss as to why he insisted on your coming out here — when you were willing to look after yourself, as you’ve told me you were.’

  ‘I was, if he had only let me have some of my money.’ ‘Most odd.’ Another silence and then, ‘And he has absolute control, you said?’

  Loren nodded.

  ‘Even as regards my marriage. I can’t marry without his permission - not while I’m under his guardianship, which, as I said, terminates when I’m twenty.’ ‘And then you’re returning to England?’

  ‘Yes, that’s my intention.’

  ‘Well, I don’t envy you being under the complete control of Thane, I must admit. I told you he’s not the same man you knew five years ago. ’

  ‘Are you trying to say he’ll be awful with me?

  ‘Not at all - only he’s hard, somehow, and tougher than he was a few years ago. Perhaps it’s Gran Amelia. As I’ve said, she’s a great trial to him.’ Dena made another gesture with her hand as they topped a rise. ‘There it all is. Moonrock and its adjuncts.’

  Before them lay numerous buildings; Dena explained that the station had its own shop run by Mary, a half-caste, and its own school run by ‘Prof’ whose real name was Walter Briggs, but no one ever called him that. He was known simply as Prof.

  These buildings were some way from the house, which could be seen now and then through a belt of trees as they drove along.

  ‘Is that the station?’

  ‘That’s the homestead. We’ve been driving through the station for the last couple of hours.’

  ‘We have?’ echoed Loren in an awed voice.

  ‘And this isn’t our longest side. Our station’s quite something, Loren. It was vast even before Gran Amelia acquired the other stations.’

  Dusk was falling when, a short while later, Dena swung into the long avenue of white gum trees and drew up in front of the homestead.

  Loren stood by the car, staring around her at lawns, and gardens filled with flowers.

  ‘I always imagined water was so scarce that you couldn’t use it on flowers and lawns.’ Loren turned her head to see Dena stretching her body and arms. ‘How nice to be on one’s feet instead of one’s backside!’ Dena continued to

  stretch her slim young body. ‘We’re very lucky here; we have plenty of water—’

  ‘But every river I saw was dry,’ interrupted Loren, glancing again at the flare of vivid colour all around her. ‘Creek beds are dry for most of the time, but we have bores all over the place. Beneath here is a great artesian basin, and we get all the water we require from about eight hundred feet.’

  Loren glanced down. Water under here ... to support this vast holding and about two hundred people, and thousands of cattle.

  Glancing up at the house, Loren was impressed by its elegant simplicity.

  ‘It’s just like the houses we have at home - the small mansions one sees, I mean.’

  Dena came up and stood beside her.

  ‘We have lots like this; they’re reminders of bygone days of gracious living when colonists built their houses after the pattern of their manor houses at home. You’ll see many of them here - if you decide to do some travelling, of course,’ she grinned. ‘As I said, our nearest neighbour is fifty-four miles away.’

  Loren was still absorbed by an examination of the house, its symmetry suggesting that no additions had been made since it was first built a century ago. Two-storied, its austere Georgian facade looked on to a garden alive with phloxes and dahlias and tall shady trees. The stone, mellowed to a soft honey-ochre, provided a striking backcloth for such climbing plants as the bougainvillea, whose flaring red and orange and purple floral bracts spread in glorious profusion over the walls. Filtering the low verandah, the sun’s oblique rays dappled it with palest gold, while in the corners shadows gathered, heralding the descent of dusk, welcome and cool.

  ‘Come on in.’ Dena pushed the door and it swung inwards. ‘Stew will unload your luggage—’ She stopped, turning round as her cousin strode on to the dusty forecourt. He carried a stockwhip and Loren saw Dena’s eyes widen disbelievingly. ‘What have you been doing?’

  ‘Breaking horses.’ He looked at Loren and would have spoken, but Dena said,

  ‘Breaking horses?’ The merest pause before she added, ‘Well, imagine that.’ Her eyes glinted, her face had paled with anger. With a sort of lazy movement Thane turned his head and looked at her. Loren noticed a surprising hint of humour appear in his eyes.

  ‘Never jump to conclusions, Dena. I’ve warned you about that before.’ He tossed the whip on to the bonnet of the car. ‘I took it from Cooper, who came along to assist me. Cooper had better watch himself if he hopes to remain at Moonrock,’ and now the humour had disappeared from Thane’s eyes and his mouth went tight. Of one thing Loren could be sure, she thought, as she noticed these things, Thane was not a cruel man, nor would he permit cruelty in his stockmen. He gave his full attention to Loren, looking her over briefly before asking if she had had a good journey.

  ‘Yes, thank you.’ She placed her hand in his, and tilted her head to look up at him. He had seemed like a giant when she was thirteen; he still seemed like a giant because although she herself had grown, he appeared to have acquired added inches also. He was broader across the shoulders than she remembered him and his hair at the temples, visible under the broad brim of his hat, was flecked with grey. His face was still lean and dark. His eyes - the grey-brown of unpolished serpentine - fixed hers disconcertingly, and with a sort of satirical amusement which sent the colour rushing into Loren’s cheeks as she was left in no doubt at all that he was recalling vividly the incident that had occurred at their last meeting.

  ‘You’ve come a very long way,’ he said in his deep lazy drawl. ‘You’
ll be tired. Dena will take you to your room. After dinner you will come to my study and we’ll have a little talk.’ He turned to Dena. ‘Everything all right?’

  ‘With the car, you mean?’ she asked and, when he nodded, ‘Yes, ran like a bird. No mishaps either going or coming back. No scrubs or ’roos colliding with us - or we with them.’ Dena put a hand to her mouth and yawned. ‘Is Stew about?’

  ‘I’ve no idea. What do you want him for?’

  ‘To take Loren’s bags in.’

  Loren stood listening to this interchange, an outsider, yet for the next two and a half years one of the family. What sort of welcome had she expected from Thane? Loren now realized that the actual picture of the meeting had not made any concrete impression on her mind; all else had been visualized - the flight and the train journey, the arrival at the station at Manleyville, but from then on she had either not been able to form a picture, or had evaded doing so.

  On entering the hall, which might have been the hall of any English Regency manor, Loren had the impression of dignity matching the exterior of the house, of wide doors and a graceful balustraded stairway and elegant mouldings, of floors of knotted red wood, gleaming with the patina of age and loving care.

  Loren’s room, which was at the end of the house and on the same side as the lounge, commanded a view of a wide creek bed, dry now and looking like a crumpled ribbon of beaten copper as the last dying rays of the sun touched its boulder-strewn bed. This river valley formed a natural border to the garden, and as it meandered round a small bluff, its course also determined the shape of the garden.

  ‘Like it?’ Dena’s voice from behind brought Loren from the window, a smile on her lips.

  ‘It’s enchanting,’ and impulsively she added, ‘Perhaps it’s not going to be nearly so bad as I imagined.’

  Dena’s happy, good-humoured face clouded a little.

  ‘Had you such great fears, then?’

  Loren nodded, unaware of how small she appeared, standing outlined against the window, the ceiling of the room towering above her, corniced and dazzlingly white.

  ‘I wondered about Thane - and I still do. But you, and the house - they’re such pleasant surprises—’ She broke off, giving Dena a faint smile. ‘You see, I didn’t expect anyone like you to be here. As I said, I thought I’d be alone with Thane. I’m very glad indeed that you’re here as well.’ ‘Thanks a lot. Hope you’ll always think so. Perhaps we’ll manage a ride together after all— You do ride?’

  ‘Yes, Uncle Thomas paid for both Janet and me to learn.’ ‘Fine. Thane will find you something nice and gentle. We can swim, too. We’ve a grand pool in the grounds - you can’t see it from here, but I can from my room. Come round when you’re ready.’ Dena pointed to the end of the corridor and thumbed towards the left. ‘Turn thataway and it’s the first door on your right. Bathroom nearest you is third up on this side. You don’t have one to yourself yet because although Thane wanted extensive alterations done the old lady put her foot down and they had one big flare-up, but Thane capitulated when Gran Amelia looked like having a heart attack. I often wonder if she uses that old heart as a lever when she’s becoming defeated. Thane probably wonders too, but he’d hate to be responsible for her - er - untimely death. S’long; come round when you’re ready,’ she invited, and left the room.

  Loren sat rather uncomfortably on the edge of a chair, while Thane, immaculate in a white shirt and fawn linen suit, sat to one side of his desk. They had dined on wild duck and home-killed pork, with excellent vegetables straight from the garden, and home-produced butter and cream. They had been served by the Aboriginal woman, Maisie who, black and unsmiling in her outsize dress of flowered cotton, waited on the table in absolute silence. At each end of the gracious dining-room with its Regency furniture and silver, a rotating punkah fan stirred the still air, providing a welcome draught.

  “Your solicitor told you everything?’ Thane was saying in his faintly drawling tones. ‘You know just how much control I have over your affairs?’

  ‘Yes, Thane, he told me everything.’

  ‘You sound as if you resent my authority?’

  She hesitated, but he seemed prepared for straight speaking and Loren told him frankly that she did resent it, but went on to add that she could not find fault with her uncle, whom she had dearly loved, both for himself alone and because he had provided her with the home in which she had been so happy.

  ‘I’m sorry about your loss,’ Thane returned unexpectedly, and as his face softened slightly she wondered if he were as hard and unfeeling as his cousin had branded him.

  ‘It is awful - they were young, really, and I never thought to be on my own like this.’ Faint apology entered her eyes as she realized what she had said. ‘It was good of you to accept responsibility, of course,’ she added, and instantly knew her words lacked diplomacy.

  ‘I must admit, Loren, that when I agreed to your uncle’s request, I never thought for one moment I’d be called upon to honour my promise.’

  ‘That’s the conclusion I myself reached,’ she confessed. ‘My uncle told the solicitor that you were the most trustworthy man he knew.’

  Naturally ignoring that, Thane said,

  ‘You’ll find life here very different from life in England, Loren. We’re like a - well, a feudal society, as you might say.’ With you as the lord of the manor, she mused as he hesitated a moment. ‘The station supports a small community of people, all mixed. We have the Aboriginal stockmen working alongside our own men; we have half-castes, and as you know we have Stew, who originally came from England and has worked all over the place until coming to me. He lives alone in one of the bungalows. We have Prof, who also occupies a bungalow. Any entertainment we have to make ourselves. We have parties now and then, and on occasions one or other of the station owners arranges a barn dance or barbecue. More often than not, when we attend these we naturally have to stay overnight as the guests of our hosts -but Dena will have told you of the great distances we travel in order to see our neighbours?’

  Loren nodded, easing herself awkwardly further on to

  her chair.

  ‘She told me a lot about the life here, yes.’

  ‘The landscape and climate, the vegetation - these are all different. We have no winter here as you know it. On the other hand, we do have almost unbearable heat at times, but you’ll become used to it.’

  A faint smile touched Loren’s lips as she said,

  ‘I shall have to get used to it, seeing that I’m to remain here for two and a half years.’ He nodded and she went on to tell him of her intentions, even while convinced that he would not be in the least interested. ‘When I’m twenty and in charge of my own affairs I shall return to England and buy a little home for myself.’

  His hard grey-brown eyes flickered with an unexpected quality of interest.

  ‘You appear to know what you want. A home for yourself?’ with a certain degree of amusement. ‘Doesn’t marriage enter into your scheme of things?’

  She considered these words.

  ‘I expect I shall meet someone eventually,’ she murmured at length. ‘I really haven’t given the matter much thought.’

  Thane changed the subject, inquiring about Janet who, he knew, was married and living in Canada. Unthinkingly Loren mentioned her own request that she should go over and live with Janet and her husband and Thane commented drily, ‘Anything was better than coming to me, apparently?’

  She looked down at her hands.

  ‘I’m sorry if I offended you.’ The forlorn note in her voice could not possibly escape him and the serpentine eyes softened.

  ‘I’m not so easily offended, Loren. Your resistance to my wishes was sufficient proof of your dislike of my guardianship.’ She made no attempt to deny that and he continued, not without a hint of amusement in his voice, ‘We didn’t exactly get on, did we, Loren?’ and naturally she blushed; but when she raised her eyes he saw the militant sparkle in her expression, and the accusation.
/>   ‘It isn’t gentlemanly to remind me of that!’

  “You’re quite right, it isn’t,’ he admitted, but with a short laugh which seemed to detract from any sincerity he might have wished to convey. In any case, he made no attempt at apology, as again he changed the subject, reverting to the question of what her life would be like on the station. ‘You appear to be getting on well with Dena, and that’s good. Now, about Gran Amelia - you’ll find her rather trying, I’m afraid, but you must bear with her; she’s old and therefore demands a certain amount of respect. She is also a domineering woman who will undoubtedly issue orders.’ He paused as if to give emphasis to his next words. ‘Should those orders be contrary to any I have previously given, you will disregard them. My word is law here, not Gran Amelia’s. Is that understood?’

  _ She nodded, her lack of surprise all-revealing to his perceptive gaze.

  ‘Dena has obviously told you about the friction which occasionally occurs between my grandmother and myself?’ ‘She has, yes. But won’t I find it awkward to - well, to defy her?’

  ‘You’ll find it more awkward to defy me, Loren,’ he rejoined with a sort of dangerous quietness which caused a prickle to run the whole length of her spine.

  That was his first warning to her; his second came several days later when, having ridden out alone and left the bush tracks, she arrived back late for lunch, saying she had got lost.

  ‘I told you not to leave sight of the homestead buildings. When I extend advice, Loren, I expect it to be followed. Unless you wish to incur my displeasure you must take heed of what I say.’

  She flushed, because they were all there, round the table -Gran Amelia and Dena, and Prof and Stew.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Loren said almost inaudibly, but more to the others than to Thane. His face was set and stern; Loren wondered if he would have more to say to her later, when they were alone. To her relief they never were alone, and as the days passed Loren found herself becoming deeply attached to the homestead with its solidarity and serenity. It was an oasis of peace and security in an otherwise wild landscape which, while possessed of an incredible compelling beauty, was at the same terrifying in its vastness.