The Fire Blossom

by Lark, Sarah

  Ida flinched.

  “That doesn’t change the fact that we don’t have any money,” she said tentatively. “We don’t know if Te Haitara will sell the land either. Now that the Maori are farming sheep themselves—”

  Ottfried grinned. “Exactly,” he said, sounding satisfied.

  “He’s going to do what?” Karl said. He had met Ida in the glade by Jane’s hidden bathing place, but instead of throwing herself into his arms, she’d told him unhappily about her husband’s intentions. “He wants to sell your sheep?”

  “Not all of them,” Ida said, and sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree. Instead of southern beeches, rata bushes stretched toward the sky. Here, the red-blossoming plants had triumphed over their former hosts. “Only the original fifty. Ottfried says you might have objections if he tried to sell the offspring.”

  “We would!” Karl said decisively. Now he paced back and forth along the edge of the river, the way Ottfried had paced Ida’s kitchen the day before. “My goodness, Ida, even my patience is running low. I’d do anything for you, but Ottfried . . . How can he be so ungrateful? We took him in when he was up to his neck in trouble. And now he’s not even telling us about his plans to sell!”

  “He says that Chris didn’t tell him everything either, about the land. And it’s true, he did actually kind of make a fool of him, when he signed over a third of the farm, even though it didn’t belong to him.” Ida didn’t feel comfortable defending Ottfried, but it was possible that Chris had gone a little too far.

  “Still,” Karl insisted, “I have a bad feeling about this. Especially since he wants to sell exactly the sheep that were supposedly from the market in Nelson, when very similar animals disappeared from the Redwoods’ farm at almost the same time. It looks suspiciously like he wants to get rid of them. It’s still hard to imagine he would have the nerve, but . . .” He sat down and put his arm around Ida’s shoulders. “I don’t like any of this. And if Ottfried wants to leave—you can’t go with him, Ida! You have to choose. Choose me!”

  Ida shook her head vehemently. “No, no, Karl, it’s not like that! It’s true Ottfried isn’t a good person, but he’s not a thief either. He doesn’t want to just get rid of the sheep. He wants to sell them to Te Haitara, in exchange for his leased land.”

  “Ottfried wants to stay here?”

  Ida nodded. “That’s good, isn’t it?” she asked softly. “Then I won’t have to—”

  Karl sighed. “Good and bad. Of course, I’m glad that he isn’t planning to take you away to Australia. But in the end, it just delays the decision. And it will be difficult for you to get away from him if he honestly owns land here. We can’t betray him all our lives, Ida. And we can’t live next door to him either! It’s not like Chris and Jane. Ottfried wants to keep you. He won’t recognize a Maori divorce.”

  “No one recognizes that,” Ida replied. “In the eyes of God, I can’t be free.”

  Karl didn’t bother to comment on God’s role in divorce. “You could stay here if Ottfried leaves, or Ottfried could stay if you leave with me. But I’ve told you that often enough!” Karl’s voice sounded angry. “You just don’t have enough courage. At some point this could all end badly, you know that!”

  Ida bit her lip. The night after the happy party with the sheep shearers, Ottfried had hit her again. She’d told Karl and Chris that she’d gotten the bruise on her cheek from a ewe that kicked her while she was milking. But Karl must have known the truth.

  “Don’t scold me,” she said quietly. “Love me instead. It’s such a beautiful day. It’s warm, we could pretend that the land here is a beach.”

  The banks of the river were actually sandy, and it was easy to dream of the Caribbean there under the nikau palms.

  Karl forced himself to calm down, and pulled Ida into his arms. “I won’t scold you,” he whispered. “But you must finally come back from Bahia, before Ottfried drags you back to Raben Steinfeld.”

  Chris listened to Karl’s news about Ottfried’s plan with mixed feelings. He had talked with Cat the day before, and not just talked! She had walked to Fenroy Station by his side, and they had talked, and finally they had made love among the rata bushes. In a bed of blossoms and grass, Cat and Christopher had reveled in the sweet scent and the warmth, and had enjoyed the sight of each other’s bodies in the sunshine. Neither of them wanted to deny anymore that they were made for each other. But Cat didn’t want to get married, not even in a Maori ritual, and she wanted no part of Chris’s farm. For that, she’d have to take her sheep away from the tribe again, which was unthinkable for her.

  But if Te Haitara bought Ottfried’s sheep, Cat wouldn’t have to worry about that. The Maori would then have their own animals, and anyway, Te Haitara knew that Chris loved Cat. He’d even offered her as part of his exchange for Jane. Cat, for her part, would be prepared to move in with Chris if she didn’t have to see Ottfried on the farm every day.

  “I don’t particularly like the idea of having Ottfried as a neighbor either,” Chris said to Karl. “But to be honest, I’d just be glad not to have him on the farm anymore. He can do what he wants with the offspring of his sheep. Of course, he has too few animals for breeding by himself, so I can’t imagine the lambs are much good, but that’s his business, not mine. We’ll be fine without him. We can buy new sheep with our profits from the shearing. If Cat does move in with me and brings her animals, I’d even be fine on my own. I could pay you off with my money from the shearing, if you want to leave with Ida.”

  Karl shrugged. “Thank you for the offer, but Ida still isn’t ready for that.” He rubbed his forehead as though he were battling a permanent headache. “She’ll probably never be ready. So if it’s all right with you, I’ll stay. I know I’m crazy. I should give up on her and find someone else, try to be happy. Cat did the right thing when she left because you were still married to Jane. Except I’m not as strong as Cat. And Ida isn’t as strong as you are. Neither of us would be able to stand it.”

  Chapter 67

  Te Haitara agreed to Ottfried’s proposition. Jane drew up another deed of transfer, which the chieftain signed neatly, and Te Haitara sent several men to help Ottfried sort the original fifty sheep out of his herd. Now that the men were looking, they did actually recognize the earmarks on the sheep that hadn’t been born at Fenroy Station. Chris and Karl weren’t helping with the work directly, but they were watching to make sure that Ottfried and the Maori didn’t make any mistakes. All of Ottfried’s sheep had the same cut on their ears.

  “That only proves that they all came from the same breeder,” Chris said to keep his friend from getting too upset. “It’s different with Cat’s sheep, for example. They were bought in several groups from various French breeders. It doesn’t necessarily mean that Ottfried’s animals came from the Redwoods.”

  Karl shrugged. “I hope. Otherwise, there’s going to be trouble. Ottfried could have been forced to give the sheep back. But the Maori are buying them in good faith. I don’t think Te Haitara will give them back, no matter what pakeha laws say.”

  A few days after Ottfried’s sheep had been driven to the Maori, the shearers stopped by Fenroy Station again. They had finished their work with Butler and were on their way back to Port Cooper.

  “Captain Butler wanted us to give you a message,” Nils said. “We told him that you wanted to buy more sheep, and he has about three dozen young animals he’d like to sell. They are of excellent quality, I saw them myself. They would fit very well with your herd. So if you’re interested, you should go see him. It’s about time you get to know him, anyway, seeing as you’re practically neighbors!”

  “So, shall we visit Butler?” Christopher asked Karl after the shearers had left.

  “It sounds like a huge stroke of luck,” Karl agreed. “We shouldn’t let the opportunity pass. And we definitely shouldn’t tell Jane and the ariki about it! Otherwise, they’ll get there first. They seem to have gotten a taste for the business. I never would have believed tha
t Jane would be so excited about sheep.”

  Jane had visited a few days earlier to discuss the future breeding program with Chris, Karl, and Cat in detail. She proved herself to be highly knowledgeable about wool quality and breeding criteria.

  “Jane gets excited about anything that she can make a good business deal with,” Chris said grimly. “Although she surely prefers goods that don’t bleat and leave manure. But the Maori do better with the sheep than with the production of medicines. Before, the tohunga was about to go on strike. The spiritual side of her art was getting the short end, and the people couldn’t keep up with demand. But raising sheep isn’t constrained by any tapu, aside from avoiding certain grazing locations, and expansion doesn’t necessarily mean a lot more work, at least not most of the year. So they’re all enthusiastic about it. Jane just doesn’t like being dependent on us. She’d like to do her own thing, like Ottfried. But she’s smarter. She knows that she won’t get very far on her own with fifty animals, and if she finds a way to buy more, she will. We’d better reserve Butler’s sheep as soon as possible.”

  Karl nodded. “But I don’t like leaving Ottfried alone here with Ida and Cat.”

  Chris toyed with a piece of reed. The two men had accompanied the shearers for a short distance along the river and were now resting in Te Haitara’s favorite spot. “My house can be locked, and Cat’s defended herself against Ottfried before. If he even dares to bother her again at all. He’s only really dangerous when he’s drunk, and the shearers didn’t leave much whiskey. As for Ida, I know you want to think your presence helps, but she still always has bruises or fat lips. Ottfried is a threat to them, but it’s probably about the same whether we’re here or not. I’m more concerned about leaving him alone with our sheep.”

  “I don’t trust him either,” Cat said when the men spoke to her about their trip. “But he certainly won’t be stealing any sheep here! It would be too obvious. And where could he go with them? In Port Cooper he’d probably meet the shearers again, not to mention the Deans brothers and the Redwoods. He’d have to go to Nelson, which would take days. Ida would ask questions. Plus, he’d have to leave his own sheep alone, and he guards them like they’re made of gold.”

  It was true that Ottfried didn’t like to let his animals out of his sight. He was suspicious of the usual, half-natural style of animal husbandry from England and Ireland. He was determined to run his farm like the squire of Mecklenburg had. There, animals had been kept in barns or fenced meadows, under the constant watch of shepherds.

  “Maybe one of us should stay back,” Karl suggested. “I can stay here, Chris, and you could ride to Butler’s with Cat.”

  But Cat shook her head. “Not all of our ewes have lambed yet, and neither have the Maori sheep. I promised to help.” She laughed. “Or could you imagine Jane in the barn? Not that she isn’t trying. She has fantastic books about midwifery for sheep. The Maori women are asking me to translate them. But Jane herself with her hands up a sheep’s rear end? There’s no way I can leave. And as I said, I don’t think it’s a problem if you go together. Especially since you have to leave again next month, anyway. Or do you think just one of you can drive the sheep to the highlands on your own?”

  In November, the men planned to take the ewes from Fenroy Station and the Maori village into the foothills of the Southern Alps and let them spend the summer grazing in freedom there. Ottfried was still determined not to send his sheep with them. So, no matter what happened, he would be alone with Ida at Fenroy Station for a week or two. Or at Raben Station, as he liked to call his own farm.

  Chris nodded. “She’s right, Karl. We should leave tomorrow so we’ll be back as soon as possible. Cat, please keep an eye on Ottfried and also ask the Maori to watch him.”

  James and Joseph Redwood came to Fenroy Station not long after Chris and Karl had left. Ida, who received them alone because Ottfried was with his sheep, had mixed feelings about the visit. It was clear they weren’t just there to see old friends. But then her pleasure in seeing the Redwood brothers, and her relief at not having to be alone with Ottfried, won out.

  The nights were hard for her, and she couldn’t even cry on Cat’s shoulder this time. Her friend was with the Ngai Tahu, helping with the lambing. Makutu and many of the Maori women had more experience with midwifery than Cat did, and would have been able to handle it alone, but Jane felt better when a pakeha was supervising, and Cat didn’t want to argue. After all, she was very glad about the amicable agreement between the Maori village and Fenroy Station.

  Ida welcomed the Redwood brothers cordially, and at the same time attempted not to look too happy about their visit, to prevent Ottfried from getting jealous. She was careful to keep her eyes lowered, although she’d learned a long time ago that she could look men openly in the eye without compromising herself. She asked after Laura and her cheese dairy.

  “Well, she’ll be very envious when we tell her how your two little daughters are flourishing here,” James remarked warmly, and grinned at Carol and Linda, who were sitting on the kitchen floor playing with a flax ball Cat had woven for them. Ida served the men bread and cheese, and they both ate hungrily. “Laura’s doing well, but her cheese still isn’t nearly as delicious as yours, Miss Ida. You’re going to be seeing her more often again soon. We’re in the process of buying land from the Maori. It’s just fifteen miles up the river, between your place and the Butlers’. And we’ve bought land this time instead of leasing it. So this will be the last time we move, and Laura will finally get her stone house. She’s very happy about it, and also about being near you, Ida! Now, where is your husband? And Chris Fenroy? We heard about his spectacular ‘divorce.’ Maggie and Karen Rhodes, the wives of the men who are buying our farm, were totally shocked. Laura, on the other hand, is highly amused. She tells Joseph at least three times a day that if he doesn’t behave, she’ll ask the Maori to sing a karakia toko for her!”

  Joseph grinned, but Ida blushed. “Well, we don’t really know what to think about it. Jane wanted it that way. And the Maori—”

  “What about Maori?” Ottfried demanded as he entered the house and saw the Redwoods sitting at his kitchen table. “What you tell them?”

  Ida flinched. “Just about Jane. James and Joseph were wondering how the divorce worked.”

  Ottfried snorted derisively. “Whore, from one man to next. She thinks, blessed by god of savages. Is scandal! If my wife did, I pull her back by hair to my bed!”

  Ida bit her lip and went silent in shame. The Redwood brothers seemed similarly embarrassed.

  “Miss Ida seems above any suspicion to me,” James said finally, and bowed slightly in her direction.

  Ottfried grimaced. “That would be too nicer! Ida good wife, or—” He glanced angrily back and forth between James, Joseph, and Ida.

  “Perhaps you’d like to greet our visitors,” Ida said, trying to ease the tension. “James and Joseph came so far to see us. You must have some whiskey for them. We’ve just run out of beer. I can’t brew more until after the harvest.”

  “You have always excuse!” Ottfried shouted. “But yes, Joseph, James, welcome to Raben Station. My farm!” His voice sounded triumphant.

  The Redwoods looked worried. “They’re dividing up the farm?” Joseph asked in surprise. “I wouldn’t do that, in their position. Small farms have no future here. Planting fields isn’t profitable. At least not until the town has been built. And for sheep, you need large areas and many animals.”

  “Can get bigger,” Ottfried said disinterestedly. “Have big plans. But what you want? Why come here?”

  James Redwood’s brow creased.

  “My husband wants to ask what brought you here, and if we can help you in any way,” Ida said in fluent English. “Chris and Karl aren’t here. They’re at the Butlers’ looking at sheep.”

  Joseph nodded. “We’re here for similar reasons,” he said grimly. “We heard a rumor. No offense, but we heard that there are sheep wandering around here that look
exactly like ours. And you know someone robbed us not long ago.”

  “You say us robbery!” Ottfried shouted in outrage. “We stole you sheep?”

  James waved his hand. “We aren’t saying anything. But our sheep didn’t just disappear into thin air. They must be somewhere. Perhaps you bought them honestly, not knowing they’d been stolen. In any case, we won’t rest until we’ve found them. So please, we don’t want to fight. You show us around the farm once, we’ll take a look at your herds, and then we’ll drink a whiskey. Understood?” James made an attempt at a diplomatic smile and reached into his saddlebag, which he’d brought into the house. “We even brought some with us,” he said, and pulled out a bottle. “You can consider this a neighborly visit, Ottie. You don’t have anything to hide, do you?”

  “Of course not,” Ida said nervously. “Ottfried, please, do you want to go now, or—”

  “Now!” Ottfried ordered. “Make check, Misters Redwood, then we see. I not bad want throw you out. But good, you want be friends, then friends.”

  He turned on his heel and went outside without waiting for the Redwoods, who had to get up first and put on their jackets.

  “This would have been a lot easier with Fenroy and Jensch.”

  Ida listened shamefaced as James whispered to his brother. She clenched her fists. If the Redwoods hadn’t suspected Ottfried before, they certainly would now.

  After the men left, Ida used her nervous energy to prepare a stew. A roasted rabbit probably would have been more appetizing for the men, but she didn’t have any fresh meat in the house. Ottfried still didn’t know about her revolver or her skill with the weapon. When she served rabbit or duck, she always claimed that Karl or Chris had shot the animals or that they’d been caught in Cat’s snares.