Master of Moonrock Read online

  Loren frowned, thinking of this old lady and actually feeling her sorrows for her.

  ‘You said something about being a lady’s maid. Does that mean you look after Gran Amelia?’

  ‘I do, actually, but never you dare say such a thing in front of that old-timer. She truly believes she does everything for herself. She only allows me to read to her, she affirms, because it will ultimately improve my diction. Admit she’s almost as blind as a bat? Not Gran Amelia! She’d wallop you if you so much as dared suggest it.’ Loren felt herself go red. Thane was not the only Benedict who was prone to walloping people, not by the sound of things.

  ‘Is that all?’

  ‘All?’ The sudden twist of the head, and the grin in those deep grey eyes. ‘Don’t get you?’

  ‘Is that all the family consists of? ‘That’s all the family, yes, but dozens of people come and go - always do on these stations. Travellers, for instance, they can’t go on indefinitely and they stop at our place for a night’s kip.’

  ‘It’s different from what I imagined.’ Loren stared through the windscreen. They were driving due north through an endless vista of sub-tropical grassland.

  ‘What did you imagine?’

  ‘I expected to be alone with Thane-except for servants, I mean.’

  ‘Would you have liked that?’ Curious the tone, and edged with humour.

  “No, I wouldn’t!’ The exclamation was out before Loren had time to think. Dena said, still in the same curious voice,

  “Your turn, Loren. Who are you? And how did you come to know Thane?’

  It did not take Loren long to explain everything. Naturally she refrained from mentioning the indignity suffered at Thane’s hands, but Dena, with the sort of alert mind that must assuredly go with her vivacity and wit, said, after expressing sympathy for Loren’s loss,

  ‘Why the swift exclamation when I asked if you would have liked to be alone with Thane?’

  Loren’s blush went deeper; Dena saw it as she flicked her head round again.

  ‘He - he hit me - once.’

  Dena’s eyes opened very wide.

  ‘He what?’

  So surprised she was. It would seem that formidable as she regarded Thane, Dena could not accept the fact of his having raised a hand to a female.

  ‘I was only thirteen. I did tell you that I haven’t seen Thane since then.’

  ‘Of course. I forgot.’ Dena put her foot down still further. Loren felt her flesh begin to creep. Don’t think about the speed, she told herself. Keep your eyes off that clock. ‘I can’t see him hitting you. It must have been an accident.’

  Loren bit her lip. How to withdraw from this situation? No use, Dena was turning again ... and Loren had no desire for her to turn, not while she was pressing the accelerator right down to the floorboards.

  ‘You see,’ Loren began, looking at her hands, ‘I kicked him and he—’

  ‘You kicked him? - actually kicked Thane!’

  ‘I’d had a beautiful hair-do - it was my very first. And Thane made a mess of it. The whole thing was absurd, I realize that now, because Thane didn’t really mean to do it, and he did apologize, but at the time I saw red, and kicked him.’

  Dena thought about this, her eyes fixed on the road; the vegetation was turning from green to gold as the sun eased itself towards the clear sharp line of the horizon.

  ‘So he put you across his knee and spanked you - hard?’ Loren nodded.

  ‘You obviously know him well,’ she observed, a faintly tart edge to her voice.

  ‘It was not difficult to imagine his reaction to a trick like that. What made you do it?’

  ‘I’ve explained; I saw red, because of my hair-do.’ Another silence; the sun seemed to be sinking far too rapidly and Loren felt sorry for Dena as she visualized her having to drive such a long way in the dark.

  ‘Well, Loren, must I proffer a little good advice - or did the chastisement teach you a lesson?’

  Loren wanted to change the subject. She said she would never again be so imprudent as to tempt providence, if that was what Dena meant.

  ‘Providence - in the form of the Boss of Moonrock Station, eh?’

  As the simplest way of dropping the subject was to refrain from replying Loren lapsed into silence and for a while they drove alone like this, with Dena’s foot still pressed to the floorboards and Loren still determined not to allow herself a glance at the speedometer. But although there was nothing on the road the ride was hair-raising and at last Loren invited her companion to tell her more about Moonrock Station.

  ‘Well, as I’ve said, it’s enormous, and in one area - which was originally a separate station before Gran Amelia bought it

  - Thane has introduced some lovely Asian cattle. They’re very pretty animals, with creamy coats and long drooping ears and a look in their eyes that makes me feel quite small.’

  ‘How do you mean, small?’

  ‘They always appear so dignified and unruffled and I find myself with an inferiority complex!’

  Loren laughed and asked to hear some more.

  ‘Do you have sheep?’

  “Not many - just for our own use. Our type of country isn’t suitable for sheep. You get those further east.’

  ‘Do you have hundreds of workers?’

  “Not hundreds, no. Ours are mainly Aborigines—’

  ‘They are? I always thought they were unreliable.’

  Dena smiled to herself.

  ‘Been reading too much, Loren. They do sometimes get drunk and go walkabout - but not ours, they’re too well looked after. Thane pays them the same rate as the Australian stockman, so naturally they have no urge to roam. And they don’t take too much grog either because they know the Boss. Our other men drink more than the Aborigines, or so I should think.’

  She went on to describe life on a large station like Moonrock and Loren learned that it supported quite a community, the stockmen’s wives and families living with them in modern bungalows, of which there were thirty- two on the station.

  ‘You have all those on the farm?’

  Dena turned her auburn head.

  ‘My dear girl, ours isn’t a lowly farm. Here that term is far different from in your country. A farm is a small place

  - by comparison, of course. We’re the squatocracy, and don’t you forget it - at least, not in Gran Amelia’s presence. An awful snob element exists among the Outback people because there’s a sort of hierarchy of wealth which has resulted in the graziers forming an exclusive set of their own. Gran Amelia’s very conscious of this superiority and so is Thane. He presides over his settlement and watches the others make money for him.’

  Loren fell into a contemplative silence. This set-up would suit Thane Benedict, she felt sure. He would be in his element lording it over all his employees.

  ‘Doesn’t he ever work himself, then?’ Immediately on phrasing the question Loren recalled the reason why Thane had not been at the station to meet her.

  ‘I shouldn’t have given you a wrong impression like that,

  Loren. He does work, darned hard, simply because he has so much of Gran Amelia in him. Actually he never stops working. It surprises me that I ever wanted to marry him, because he’d never have been with me - only now and then,’ she added with a grin, ‘just to make sure the Benedict stock was maintained.’

  Another thin laugh escaped Loren, although Dena’s way of speaking was most disconcerting and Loren knew her cheeks had coloured at her companion’s words.

  ‘Tell me some more about Gran Amelia,’ she pressed. ‘She sounds a dear.’

  ‘Dear? Wait till you see her!’

  ‘But she was so brave—’

  ‘Here in the Outback brave women are hard women; that’s a proved fact. Gran Amelia should have been a man because she was merciless and ruthless when set on her path of making Moonrock what it is today - or almost what it is today. True, Thane’s father did a little, and Thane himself has made tremendous improvements, but basically Gran A
melia is the one we have to thank.’

  ‘She certainly sounds tough.’ How would she herself get on with Gran Amelia? Loren wondered. It would not be very pleasant if the old lady took a dislike to her.

  ‘Toughness is the first Australian trait. Thane is as tough as any man I know.’ Dena glanced at her watch and then at her speedometer, calculating the miles already covered. ‘You haven’t seen Thane for five years, you say? You’ll find a vast difference, Loren. Thane’s not the man you knew when you were thirteen years old.’ Loren remained silent, remembering that Thane had come up to her room, offered her a handkerchief and tried to persuade her to go back to the party with him. Would he do that now? From what Dena had said Loren felt sure he would just leave her to sink in her own stupidity - for it had been stupid not to go down. A few moments of embarrassment, perhaps, and then the whole thing would have been forgotten by everyone. Dena was still talking about the station, and life generally in the bush, but presently she said, ‘I forgot. Looming large on the Moonrock map is one Felicity Brandon - alias a bitch! She lives on the next station, Pine Creek, which is fifty-four miles from ours. She’s the pampered only daughter of one of Thane’s friends. He would love the two estates to be joined in matrimony — Felicity’s father, I mean.’

  ‘Thane -- does he like this Felicity?’

  ‘Your question requires thinking about. Stick around while I cogitate.’

  Loren looked at her; she just had to say,

  ‘Have I any option but to stick around?’ And her eyes did then stray to the clock. Ninety. ... The finger trembled on the mark, then became steady as Dena noticed the direction of Loren’s gaze.

  ‘You’re safer with me than with Thane. He drives as if the devil were on his heels.’

  ‘He was going to fly me, though.’

  ‘I’m talking about when he cars it. You just cling and say your prayers, and rush through your unending line of sins, ticking them off in the hope that He’s forgiving them as you go along.’

  ‘You are funny, Dena!’

  ‘Not funny peculiar, I hope?’

  ‘Certainly not — just amusing.’

  ‘Thanks. But one has to have a sense of humour here or one would go mad. Men off all day while you slave and then when they come in, or there’s a party, what do they talk about?’

  ‘I’ve no idea.’

  ‘ Cattle, cattle and more cattle. Nothing else ever enters a grazier’s mind except cattle. Girls - women! Odd little creatures providently supplied by nature to keep the homestead fires burning and, as I said, the stock maintained. Some day they’ll all go on strike! And now back to your question about Felicity. Maybe he does like her a little. She’s beautiful, I’ll grant you that, but Thane’s no fool where women are concerned. He’ll be fully acquainted with her bitchy ways.’

  ‘What are her — bitchy ways?’ Loren turned her head to watch the profile of the girl she was already thinking of as her friend.

  ‘Couldn’t really say,’ admitted Dena frankly, and with a return of that attractive grin. ‘I suppose it’s because she makes eyes at Thane. Incidentally,’ she added, changing the subject, ‘you’ll find that Thane and Gran Amelia fight like cat and dog. Just telling you so that you can make yourself scarce when they start on one another, because if you don’t you’ll be bound to feel the sting of either Gran Amelia’s temper or Thane’s.’

  ‘But why do they quarrel?’ Loren felt that Gran Amelia should not excite herself unnecessarily at her age.

  ‘Gran Amelia likes to think she’s still in charge, and if Thane does something of which she doesn’ t approve then she lets him know it — with a vengeance. Because she’s so old he does make some effort to keep arguments down to a minimum, but she’s really a great trial to him. You see, he naturally believes he knows what’s best — he definitely does know what’s best, but Gran Amelia just won’t accept that. It’s understandable, in a way, because as I’ve said, she herself made the place, starting practically from scratch.’

  ‘I thought the station now belonged exclusively to Thane?’ ‘It does, through his father, the old lady having made it over to him some time ago. But Gran Amelia just can’t leave go of the reins altogether. She can slacken them, but the moment she sees some change which she herself would not have made, the reins tighten again. It’s an impossible situation sometimes, since no one could override a man like Thane.’ Dena gave a sigh and added, ‘If Thane should marry the position would iron itself out, because the wife would be the mistress at Moonrock, whereas at present Gran Amelia is. Thane’s the master, but Gran Amelia is certainly the mistress, and she lets him know it, often. When he’s married she’ll step down, she tells him. But until that time she is mistress and what she says goes — in the house entirely and outside if she can possibly get away with it. This she rarely does, of course, unless Thane happens to be absent, and then she starts to give the men orders. They obey her because they have to, but then they get a telling off from Thane. As I’ve said, it’s an impossible situation at times, and one which will be resolved only by Gran Amelia’s death or Thane’s marriage. And as the doctor has told us that Gran Amelia will live to be a hundred, and as there’s no sign of Thane’s marrying, we look like having this situation on our hands for several years to come.’

  The sun was dropping and a tremendous flame lit the sky. Loren looked out of her side window and gasped at the sheer wonder of it all.

  ‘I’ve never seen anything like it!’ she breathed, realizing that practically all her fears had evaporated. With Dena around everything must be all right, she decided, reassured by this girl’s friendliness and sincerity.

  ‘Twilight lasts only about twenty minutes, Loren, so we’ll have to make camp. I’d hoped to get a little farther on, but in any case I’m tired. I’ll make Darooka Creek before complete darkness descends upon us, so here goes. Clip up your seat belt, for the old bus will do a hundred on this highway!’

  ‘Make camp?’ faltered Loren, not quite sure whether her sudden nervousness resulted from Dena’s intention of increasing her speed or from the idea of sleeping out in this strange wilderness.

  ‘Always have to if we car it. There’s some shelter along by the creek.’ For a split second she took her eyes off the road to glance at Loren. ‘You’re not afraid of camping?’

  ‘No — not really.’

  ‘There aren’t any wild animals, if that’s what you’re thinking about.’

  ‘I know that.’

  Dena now swung off the Bitumen and the road became bumpy.

  ‘Have to slow down. Aren’t you glad?’

  ‘I think you’re a very good driver, Dena.’

  ‘Thanks. Hope I’ll never let you down— Drat that darned boulder! Sorry about the bump. Do you drive?’

  ‘I w-was l-learning. In my uncle’s car.’

  ‘Sorry, Loren.’

  ‘That’s all right. You weren’t to know.’ That car. . . . Loren had not seen it, but she had been told about it.

  ‘Why didn’t you say something? I’d have taken it easier.’ ‘It’s safe here. There isn’t the traffic on your roads.’

  ‘In the big towns there is. Wouldn’t like to live in a town, even though there’s much more to do. Well, here’s where we kip down. Food and an early night, for we’ve to drive four hundred miles tomorrow. ’

  ‘Four hundred!’

  ‘That’s right.’ Dena spoke as if it were nothing. ‘The Highway for about three hundred and then we slow down. So I want to do that three hundred before lunch, otherwise we’ll have to camp again tomorrow night.’

  ‘Is the last part of the road very bad, then?’

  “Not all the way, but some of it is. We certainly can’t bat along as we have been doing.’

  Dena parked the car, slid from the drive seat and immediately began unloading the equipment necessary for their camp. Loren could only stand and stare, every sense and nerve quiveringly alert to the silence and immensity of her surroundings. A few minutes earlier the transient f
laring sunset had streaked the acacia plains with rose, and left its brush marks on the coolibah trees along the dry creek bed. Now the lavender shades of twilight were also stealing away, shading the solitary landscape with changing textures and shapes which gently dissolved into a world of mystic purple, soft as velvet.

  ‘It’s unreal,’ Loren whispered in the haunting stillness, half afraid that the sound of her voice would break the spell.

  Dena stopped what she was doing and straightened up, one of the waterbags on the ground at her feet.

  ‘I’m forgetting,’ she said softly, ‘it’s your first experience of our sunset and twilight. Magic, isn’t it?’

  Speechless with wonder, Loren merely nodded and remained motionless. This miracle was too precious to abandon for such mundane tasks as unloading camping equipment. In two and a half years she would be leaving this strange land, but her first impression of the poignant ethereal beauty of the bush at sundown was a memory she would carry back to England with her ... and keep forever, locked away in a compartment of her mind from where, on occasions, she would bring it out and it live again.

  ‘I feel stunned,’ she murmured at last. ‘It’s so beautiful I could cry.’

  ‘No time for that,’ said Dena practically, aware that Loren

  was in fact on the verge of tears. ‘We have work my child.’ ‘Yes.’ She looked inquiringly at Dena. ‘What shall I do?’ ‘Collect some dried gum leaves and some dead branches. We’ll make a fire.’

  Loren did as she was told, while Dena brought out a spirit stove and heated a tin of meat. The billy was boiled on the fire and within twenty minutes of parking the car they were eating their supper by the light of a pale moon, while on the banks of the creek the river red gums and coolibah trees took on awesome, grotesque shapes as the camp fire cast strange shadows on to them.

  CHAPTER THREE

  ‘Another hour and we should be there.’ Dena spoke in her customary sprightly manner, but Loren sensed a hint of tiredness in her voice.

  ‘I don’t know how you can drive for such periods. How long were you driving yesterday?’