Where There Is Smoke

by Elisabeth Rose

  ‘Okay. I still need to find Lola but I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘I guess I could take a ride around the paddocks and have a look.’

  ‘Would you?’

  ‘It’ll have to be a quick one.’

  ‘Take Calypso.’

  Rod stood up. ‘You should learn to ride. She’s a lovely mare.’

  ‘Arch Rival is friendlier.’

  ‘Yeah, she’s a favourite here. She’d be good to start on.’

  When he’d gone, Krista cleared away. Nearly twelve-thirty. The morning had blown by on the wind. She should check the house one more time. In the living area, she peered behind the cane chairs and looked behind the bar. Outside the wind had died down a little but the sky still had the sinister coppery look and the smell had seeped in to contaminate the house.

  Krista walked through the whole downstairs and then up to the first floor, kneeling to look under all the beds and opening cupboard doors Lola couldn’t possibly manage to slide open. Half an hour later she had to admit Lola wasn’t indoors. She walked around the outside of the house again, looking under bushes and behind trees. Her only hope now lay with Rod.

  How long would he spend out there? It was a horrible day for riding and very kind of him to offer. He’d been gone just over an hour. She walked down to the stables, averting her face from the full onslaught of the wind, which had picked up again and bullied and pulled at her clothes and body, forcing her to fight to reach shelter.

  The horses were restless in their stalls, snorting and stamping their feet, watching with ears pricked as she entered the wide corridor. The stallion still looked miserable tucked away in his stall at the end. Rod had closed the double doors, and the building creaked and groaned, but it was well-built and in no danger of collapse. Hugh had spared no expense.

  She continued on to the far end, opened the smaller door and stepped out into the light, steeling herself against the wind again. No sign of Rod. She climbed onto the post-and-rail fence of the yard to scan the paddock, but he must have gone around to the side out of sight. Nothing to do but wait for his return.

  She retreated to the office. There, she sat at his desk and checked the fire report. Not good. Smaller fires had sprung up, causing their own problems and diluting the firefighting forces on the main blaze which was still raging out of control. A shudder of fear rippled through her body as she stared at the screen with its red warning markers. They seemed horrifyingly close to The Grange although no evacuation notices had been given yet. Taylor’s Bend wasn’t listed as under threat but Jindalee was. This danger was real.

  She shoved the chair back with no clear idea of what to do next. Where was Rod? He should be back by now. They had to get the horses loaded and flee to safety. She couldn’t do that by herself. She called his number but the phone went to voicemail.

  Oliver. He answered almost immediately.

  ‘Krista.’

  ‘Where are you? Are you coming? I’m here by myself and I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘Sorry, I’m on an emergency call. I can’t get to you for a couple of hours. Where’s Rod?’ His lack of awareness of how dire her situation was sent a pulse of frustrated anger through her body.

  ‘He took Calypso out to look for Lola in the paddocks over an hour ago but he hasn’t come back yet. He said he’d be quick.’

  ‘Why would Lola be out in a paddock?’

  For God’s sake! Was he being deliberately dense?

  ‘I don’t know. We can’t find her. Mama left her behind and asked me to look after her but she’s lost and …’ A sob rose in her throat, drowning the anger, and she had to stop talking while the urge to wail subsided. Why didn’t he get it?

  ‘Okay, okay. Calm down. I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

  ‘I don’t know who else to call. You’re the only person …’ The words stopped abruptly. How could she finish that sentence?

  ‘I have to go now. See you soon.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  She slipped the phone into her pocket and went into the stables to wait with the horses. An hour and a half now he’d been out there. No-one would say that was a quick look. She patted the silky noses and murmured soothing words completely at odds with the turmoil in her head, but the horses seemed to like the company and a couple of them nuzzled her cheek and neck.

  Then Firebrand neighed and the horse in the stall closest to the end doors did the same. Rod on Calypso? Were the horses greeting their friend? Krista ran to the door and flung it open.

  Calypso stood outside the yard fence, reins trailing from her neck, with no rider.

  ‘Rod?’ yelled Krista.

  Calypso flung her head up and moved away in a nervous jog, but spun around when Krista opened the yard gate and trotted inside. Krista grabbed the reins and led her into the stables to an empty stall.

  A cursory check showed no injuries and Calypso wasn’t limping so Rod must have either been thrown, or he dismounted and she bolted.

  He could be anywhere. He could be walking back. He could be hurt.

  ‘Where’s Rod?’ she demanded. ‘What happened?’

  Calypso bent her head and sniffed at the straw on the floor of the stall. Krista set about trying to get the saddle and bridle off with only the haziest idea of where to start.

  ***

  Oliver turned into The Grange driveway much later than he’d told Krista but what else could he do? Col’s sow was in big trouble giving birth when she called and he wasn’t walking out on it to deal with Krista’s histrionics. She had to take responsibility and not substitute him for her mother when it came to dealing with things.

  Grabbing some very late lunch and hitching up the float had taken more time, then his mother had phoned to say Julian had had a bad fall and broken an ankle.

  She was her usual self and delivered the news with a typically apologetic, ‘Your father and Julian didn’t want to bother you with the news but I thought you should know. He is your brother.’

  ‘I know, Mum, thanks. I’ll give him a call.’

  The line crackled in his ear.

  ‘Are you still there?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes. How are you?’

  ‘I’ve been a bit tired lately but I’m all right.’

  ‘Take care of yourself. Make Dad take you on holiday.’ As if that would happen. If they ever went away it was to a medical conference where he was a guest speaker and Mum trailed about after him.

  She laughed softly. ‘Can you imagine? Your father can’t sit still long enough to have a holiday. He’s says they’re a waste of time.’

  ‘I know, but you don’t think that so why can’t he do what you want for a change?’

  ‘Oliver, don’t be like that. You know I don’t mind.’

  ‘Do I?’ he muttered. ‘Don’t you?’

  ‘Are you getting on all right out there?’

  ‘I love it. You should visit. On your own,’ he added quickly. ‘I’ve joined the local theatre group and we’re doing Patience in June. I’m playing cello in the orchestra. You could come to see the show.’

  She didn’t reply immediately then she said, ‘I would enjoy that.’ After another pause, ‘We’ll see.’

  ‘Mum, I have to go, I’m sorry. Think about it. You’re always welcome here and you’ve never visited.’

  We’ll see. As every child knows, that means ‘we won’t’.

  As he drove between the rows of trees lining the driveway he wondered what had made him blurt out that he was playing cello again. A childish need to please or impress a parent? Did that never go away? His father wouldn’t care. His father would think it a waste of his time, if he thought at all. But his mother … she’d sounded pleased and she also sounded as though she would really like to come for a visit.

  Families! He and Krista both.

  He turned and parked next to the stables so the car was facing out ready to leave. Krista ran out to greet him, the wind whipping her hair into a messy tangle, her feet in a hideous pair of fluoro
yellow sneakers.

  ‘Hi,’ he said. ‘Like your shoes.’

  She shook her head briefly, discarding the flippant comment, expression stern. ‘Calypso came back without Rod.’

  ‘When?’

  Not good. He’d be a very competent horseman. He followed her into the stables. The wind was still blowing but lighter than earlier in the afternoon, easing the fire danger a notch but not the smoke haze.

  ‘A couple of hours ago. I walked around this back paddock but I didn’t know which direction or how far he went and I wanted to stay close enough so I’d see you arrive.’

  ‘Is Calypso injured?’

  ‘Not that I can see. She’s here.’

  A saddle and bridle lay dumped on the floor outside the stall. The mare stood quietly as he ran his hands down her legs and checked for cuts or bites.

  ‘You’re right. She’s fine,’ he said. ‘She’s a beautiful animal.’

  ‘Bit different to Archie now I’ve seen them both up close.’

  ‘Yes, but close enough to fake it for a while. I can take the car around the paddocks and look for him.’

  Oliver hurried out to unhitch the float. Krista hovered, watching. ‘Shall I come with you?’

  ‘Might as well. Open the gate.’ He got into the car and started the engine.

  She ran across to the gate into the paddock that ran beside the driveway up to the road. He hadn’t seen anything on the way in but he hadn’t been looking.

  He stopped at the gate and she wrestled with the passenger door, but gave it a good yank to open it and a hefty slam when she was in.

  ‘What colour shirt is he wearing?’

  ‘Dark blue.’

  ‘Pity it’s not bright red.’ He smiled and glanced at her shoes. ‘Or yellow.’

  This time she smiled. ‘They’re all I could find. I can’t imagine why Mama had them. But I know why she left them.’

  ‘No sign of Lola?’

  ‘No. Do you think we’ll disappear too?’

  ‘A black hole in the paddock?’

  ‘Or abducted by aliens.’

  The ground sloped away to the right the closer they came to the fence along the road. Oliver swung the car to head downhill towards a windbreak of trees on the far side.

  ‘Is this the boundary?’

  ‘Yes. The property widens out behind the house and on the other side.’

  ‘Nothing here.’

  ‘No. I walked about halfway so I could see the fence. He’d never hear me calling, not with the wind.’

  He drove close to the tree line and turned to the right. A few branches had come down, a couple of them squashing the fence.

  ‘They’ll need clearing.’

  When he reached the fence that ran across to the stables, Krista jumped out to open the gate leading to the rear paddock where the post-and-rail yards adjoined the building.

  ‘Calypso came in here,’ she said.

  Oliver clamped his mouth firmly on a sharp retort. Why the hell didn’t she say so and they could have started looking in the right paddock? Horses couldn’t open gates as far as he knew. Not these gates.

  ‘Oh!’ She gasped. The penny must have dropped ‘How stupid. I’m sorry. I’m not thinking straight.’

  ‘Okay. So how far did you go in this one?’

  ‘Till I could see down to the trees from the rise. It’s much, much bigger. I couldn’t walk it.’

  ‘I take it you tried phoning him?’

  ‘Yes. Voicemail.’

  So he couldn’t answer, which could mean he was injured, had lost or dropped the phone or it was broken. Injury was certain. He could have walked back within half an hour otherwise. There was no way of telling how long Calypso took to come home.

  ‘Is this paddock isolated from the others? Would the gates be closed?’

  ‘I don’t know. The gate closest to the stables is shut but I’ve never been this far down. I don’t think they let the horses loose in here very often.’

  Oliver accelerated over the clear, dusty ground towards the copse of gumtrees, which stretched for a hundred metres or so. More branches had fallen.

  ‘Do you think Lola would come this far?’ he asked.

  ‘I’ve no idea. She might have chased a rabbit or something.’

  He glanced in the rear-view mirror. The buildings were almost out of sight behind the ridge. He ran the car slowly along beside the trees but not so close a falling branch would land on them. At the end he swung wide and followed along the other side.

  ‘There he is,’ shrieked Krista. ‘Stop.’

  She was out of the car before he’d stopped, running into the trees. Stumbling over fallen branches, twigs and leaf litter, he followed her towards the figure lying motionless, facedown on the ground, legs obscured by a jumble of leaves. The jagged broken end of the branch protruded from the tangle, thick and heavy.

  Krista knelt beside Rod. ‘Can you hear me? Rod?’

  She looked up, pale faced. ‘Is he alive?’

  Oliver checked for a pulse. ‘Yes. Call an ambulance. I don’t think we should move him but we can get the branch off.’

  ‘Thought you’d never come,’ Rod murmured. ‘Calypso …’

  ‘Smart girl went home. She’s fine. That’s how Krista knew to look for you.’

  While Krista made the call, Oliver studied the situation. It would take both of them to shift the branch and it would need to be lifted off cleanly and moved aside. Was she strong enough? Dropping it or scraping it over his body would be disastrous.

  ‘It’ll be half an hour.’ Krista jammed the phone into her jeans pocket.

  ‘Help me get this branch off him.’

  Oliver broke off as many smaller pieces as he could manage by hand. ‘You grab that end and I’ll take this bit.’ He took hold of the thick, broken end and gently tested the weight. Heavy but doable. ‘On three, lift and turn to your left, clear of his feet.’

  She bent her knees and grasped two thicker pieces branching from the main trunk.

  ‘One, two, three.’

  Oliver sucked in air and strained hard to lift the branch away from Rod’s body while she swung around and took two steps to the side. He staggered over the rough ground, hanging on with muscles straining until there was at least a metre clearance.

  ‘Okay.’

  The deadweight crashed down.

  Rod groaned and tried to move his head.

  ‘Take it easy, mate. The ambulance is on its way.’ Oliver spoke softly as he did a rough assessment of the damage to the lower body. One leg looked bad, the ankle bent at an odd angle but he didn’t dare move him.

  ‘Krista, there’s a blanket and a couple of towels in my car. Get them, please, and the water bottle in the driver’s side pocket.’

  She scampered away to return minutes later with laden arms.

  ‘Put the blanket over him.’ He folded a towel and slipped it under Rod’s cheek as a pillow. Carefully he held the bottle to the parched lips, allowing a few drops at a time to moisten his mouth. With the remaining towel he wiped away dirt and sweat from his face. No blood on the head was a good sign but the leg of his jeans was stained red.

  ‘Can you feel your legs?’

  ‘Damn right,’ came the hoarse reply. ‘Hurts like hell.’

  ‘Your left leg is broken.’

  ‘Branch fell. Knocked me for six.’

  ‘Yes. Lucky it didn’t hit you on the head.’

  ‘Fire?’

  ‘The wind has died down so we’re not in danger right now.’

  ‘Call Amy.’

  ‘What’s her number?’

  Krista typed as he recited. When Amy answered, she gave her a quick rundown then put the phone to Rod’s ear so he could reassure her he was alive.

  ‘She’s coming home,’ said Krista. ‘She’ll be here some time tonight.’

  Oliver nodded. ‘Take the car and go back up to the house so you can show Fiona where to bring the ambulance.’

  ‘Fiona?’

 
‘It’ll most likely be her. Could be Eddie.’

  ‘All right.’ He handed her the keys. ‘Can you drive a manual?’

  ‘Of course.’

  She gave him such a scornful look he said. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘My dad was a Formula One driver.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes, really.’

  She turned to go but Rod croaked, ‘Angus said you were three when he died.’

  Chapter 10

  Rod’s left leg was broken just above the ankle but Fiona’s initial appraisal was that an X-ray would probably show it was a relatively straightforward break. He had numerous scrapes and a cut on his thigh where a sharp, splintery piece of tree had ripped through the denim pants.

  Krista, with Oliver beside her, heaved a sigh of relief when the ambulance disappeared down the driveway.

  ‘Sounds like he’ll be okay,’ he said.

  ‘Thank goodness. I need a drink after that. How about you?’ A shower and food as well.

  ‘It’s getting late. I should go home.’

  ‘But …’ He couldn’t leave her here all alone. Surely he realised that?

  ‘What?’

  ‘What if the fire comes? I can’t load the horses by myself. And Lola is still missing. I can’t leave without her.’

  Oliver planted his hands on his hips and gazed at where the sun was slowly heading for the horizon, a glowing red ball behind the curtain of smoke. He came to his decision and turned to face her.

  ‘I’ll take Firebrand and another horse to my place. I’ll settle them in and do a few chores, then come back. Okay? We can’t move the others without someone to settle them and stay with them at the showgrounds.’

  Weak with relief, she could only nod.

  ‘I’ll take Calypso,’ he said.

  She found her voice. ‘Thank you. I’ll cook dinner. Will you stay overnight? There’s plenty of room,’ she added hastily in case he thought she was attempting to offer some sort of bonus. Or a bribe.

  ‘Not much point coming back if I don’t, is there? Specially if we have to get out in the middle of the night.’ Was he annoyed with her again? She couldn’t tell by the impassive tone.

  ‘No, I guess not. No. Thanks.’

  ‘All right. Come and help load them, and you’ll need to feed the others and check their water.’