Black Diamonds (43 page)

 

DANIEL

She's put the boys to bed, and now she's tucked up under a blanket on the sofa, reading about wage cases. That's what you do after a wedding, don't you, if you're Francine; book's almost as big as she is. I've just come in from a long walk, been thinking that it's a good thing Clem loves his rugby and won't let Harry and Charlie let it go; rugby
league
, though: don't tell Evan. She looks up at me with her specs on, since she needs them for reading now. We should get the electricity put on out here one day too, so she doesn't go blind squinting under the kero lights, especially since more than half of next year's contracts will go off to make the stuff.

She says: ‘D'you know, if the Arbitration Court ever hears another
sufficient wage
case, I'm going to make a scandalous submission to it, on the advantage of collectivisation.'

Really. Good for you. She's got a point, though: after more than a year of failed strikes here and there and all over the place, workers are travelling backwards. The economy is nowhere near as bad as the government keeps insisting it is; we're doing well enough, we'll be free of the debt by the end of next year, unless coal goes out of fashion overnight; a few are even planning debts of their own to buy their houses off us; the profit share is keeping everyone's head well above — well, except for those who couldn't float if you paid for their swimming lessons. But everywhere else most are too hungry and too desperate to hang onto the jobs they have to argue about wages and conditions. And whoever you are, don't ask about the disgrace that is the new beaut soldiers' rural settlement plan: granting city blokes Crown Scrub beyond the back blocks of Woop Woop, where no one can hear them at all. Fair go? Or maybe equitable distribution of population? I doubt that.

Got to say that I'm far more interested at this point in time in the bit of France's breast I can see and hopeful we'll be off to bed shortly.

I say, of her inevitable submission to the court: ‘You do that. Meantime, there's a local issue that needs your attendance. Very local one.'

Bell. Beautiful.

Except she's biting her lip now; she's got something else to say. She's looking at my boots like she's waiting for them to say something first.

I'm looking at the apple cores, three of them, on the little table beside the sofa: seditious thoughts have increased her appetite, as if she didn't eat enough round at Mum's today. I think I know what she's going to tell me, and though I can't say the thought fills me with a sense of calm, she treats me too carefully sometimes. I'm not that mad. Come on, out with it.

After another ten years, she says: ‘Daniel.'

‘Yes, France?'

‘Magic's on the loose again.'

‘What's it done this time?'

‘Made me fruitful again,' she says and she actually blushes with her plain happiness for it. What courage is that?

It really is impossible to describe this woman in words. And now that she's told me, now that she's looking at me like this, all I can think of is that this time I'll get to paint her as she grows, with us, from the beginning.

Funkel, funkel kleiner Stern, danke, danke, danke schön.
She is a star. Mine. Makes me want to get that first painting I did of her back; but Fanny's off-loaded all that
work
I let him have with his mate, or the son of his mate anyway, who happens to be a patron of this Kunstakademie over there, wrote a few weeks ago when he got back, saying that they have
a most appropriate home now
, and I'm sure he has no idea of the cracking irony in that statement. Not even sure if he knows I'm a Kraut; maybe Dunc never told his father that bit. Somehow
kunst
sounds easier to me than ‘art', or maybe more appropriately harder, but the invitation from this
patron
to come over and study gives me a kick of something like panic, not helped by the advice Mr Duncan sent without me asking: that you don't turn an offer like that down, it's the most prestigious academy in Germany if not Europe, according to him. I've never heard of it, unsurprisingly, and it's a long way to go to school, isn't it. Especially given the address: Dresden, of all places in the entire bloody world. Still couldn't point to it on a map. What would I say to Mum about it? Haven't even told France yet. Haven't even seriously told myself. Fanny also sent along a cheque, as his mate insisted on
something
, and a fair bit more than Sweet Fuck All it was too: sent it straight back to Fanny for someone else's poor bones. What else could I do with it? Jesus. I want to tell France, I know she'll be hysterical for it, but not till I know what I want to do. And now she's pregnant again … that's timely, isn't it. I can put it off for a good while longer.

Look at her. She's still blushing, getting teary now. Stop looking at her, you idiot, and give her a kiss.

 

SIX MONTHS LATER

Dawn: Josie's

‘What on earth?… Daniel? Oh dear … Are you all right?'

‘Yep.'

‘What happened?'

‘I slipped.'

‘Slipped?'

‘Off the roof.'

‘What were you doing on the roof?'

‘You don't want to know.'

‘Yes, I do.'

‘There's a rat, in under the chimney pot. Wanted to get it out before you got up.'

‘Did it bite you?'

‘No. It's a dead one. Smelled it when I went to put the fire on.'

‘Did you get it?'

‘No. I slipped.'

‘You're not all right, are you.'

‘No. It's. twisted.'

‘Can you get up?'

‘Just give me a minute. Don't blink at me like that. I'm already sorry.'

‘It's not that, Daniel. It's. pains have started.'

‘Awch. Fuck.'

‘Charming. I can drive … Sarah! Going into town!'

Dusk: Lithgow Hospital

‘Champion, France. He's a beauty. What are you going to call him?'

‘Well, I'm not sure. But since this one looks just like you too, how about we call him Stupid Arse?'

‘Very funny.'

‘You are.'

‘Someone's been having a lark, though.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘Well, if I hadn't fallen off the roof, then I'd have gone into work today, you'd have been at home with Mum, and I'd have missed this. Missed you.'

‘Aw, darlingest. What's the verdict on your knee?'

‘Sore. Nichols'll be laughing for the rest of his life, but I won't be going anywhere in a hurry for a few weeks.'

‘Good. Lock you in your room for the duration.'

‘Hmn. All right. You're the boss.'

‘And don't you forget it.'

‘Never again, France.'

‘Hmn.'

‘Francine, I …'

‘Yes, Daniel?'

‘There's something I should probably tell you …'

 

AUTHOR NOTE

Black Diamonds
is fiction, a ballad of two spirits inspired by history, but not confined to it. In order to sing it freely, I invented Wattle Dell, and my omission of any reference to specific units or regiments in the AIF is deliberate. I made these decisions not only for freedom to tell the tale, but in order to avoid dishonouring the memories of those whose true stories ignited my imagination, including those of my forebears, both German and Irish.

This story is my celebration of my funny, beautiful country, with its quirks,
imperfections and mistakes as I interpret them, and its deepest truth is its allegory, its
love song, of my own fractured fairytale.

 

MORE BESTSELLING TITLES FROM KIM KELLY

Kim Kelly

This Red Earth

It's 1939, another war in Europe. And Bernie Cooper is wondering what's ahead for her.

She knows Gordon Brock is about to propose. An honest country boy and graduating geologist, he's a good catch. And she's going to say no.

But the harsh realities of war have other plans for Bernie, and once her father is commissioned to serve again, she accepts Gordon's proposal mostly to please her adored dad. And with Gordon off to New Guinea she'll be glad of the reprieve from walking down the aisle, won't she?

As Gordon braces for the Japanese invasion of Rabaul, Bernie is in the midst of the battle being fought on home soil – against the worst drought in living memory, the menace of an unseen enemy, and against the unspeakable torment of not knowing if those dear to her are alive or dead.

From the beaches of Sydney to the dusty heart of the continent,
This Red Earth
is as much a love letter to the country, with all its beauty and terror, as it is an intimate portrait of love itself.

Kim Kelly

The Blue Mile

As 1929 draws to a close, Irish-Australian Eoghan O'Keenan flees his abusive family home, gets a job on the Harbour Bridge, and embarks on a new life in Balmain.

In her cottage on the north side of Sydney at Lavender Bay, the chic and smart Olivia Greene is working on her latest millinery creations, dreaming of becoming the next Coco Chanel.

A chance meeting between them in the Botanic Gardens sparks an unconventional romance. But with vastly different backgrounds and absolutely nothing in common, the blue mile of harbour separating Olivia and Eoghan is the least of the obstacles that threaten their love.

By mid-1932, the construction of the Bridge is complete, but the city is in chaos as the Great Depression begins to bite and the unemployed edge ever closer to a violent revolt.

And then Eoghan disappears.

Set against the spectacular backdrop of Sydney Harbour,
The Blue Mile
is a tale of both the wild and calculated gambles a city took to build a wonder of the world, and of the marvellous risks some people are willing to take for the love of a lifetime.

DON'T MISS KIM KELLY'S NEW NOVEL COMING APRIL 2015

Kim Kelly

Paper Daisies

As 1900 draws to a close, Berylda Jones, having completed her university exams for entry to medicine is heading home to Bathurst for Christmas. Tragically, ‘home' is where she and her beloved sister Greta live in terror, under the control of their sadistic Uncle Alec.

Then, on New Year's Eve, just as Alec tightens his grip over the sisters, a stranger arrives at their gate – Ben Wilberry, a botanist, travelling west in search of a particular native wildflower, with his friend, the artist Cosmo Thompson.

Ben is at first oblivious to what depravity lays beyond this threshold and what follows is a journey that will take him and Berylda, Greta and Cosmo, out to the old gold rush town of Hill End in search of a means to cure evil and a solution to what seems an impossible situation.

Against the tumultuous backdrop of Australian Federation and the coming of the
Women's Vote,
Paper Daisies
is a story of what it means to find moral courage,
of a crime that must be committed to see justice done and a sweet love that grows against
the odds.

 

About Kim Kelly

Kim Kelly lives and writes in a large shed on a small property just outside the heritage town of Millthorpe in the rolling green and gold hills of Central Western New South Wales. She is the author of
This Red Earth
and
The Blue Mile. Black Diamonds
is her first novel.

 

Also by Kim Kelly

This Red Earth

The Blue Mile

 

First published in Australia 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers Pty Limited
This ebook edition published 2014 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan
Australia Pty Limited

1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000

Copyright © Kim Kelly 2007

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be
reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made
available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar
organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by
any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior
written permission from the publisher.

This ebook may not include illustrations and/or photographs that may
have been in the print edition.

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available from
the National Library of Australia
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au

EPUB format: 9781743535912

Typeset by Kirby Jones
Cover design by Nada Backovic
Cover images: © Copyright Andrea Hübner/quadratiges.de, Shutterstock
and Clifford Palfreyman photograph, The City of Greater Lithgow
Mining Museum Inc.

Love talking about books?
Find Pan Macmillan Australia online to read more about all
our books and to buy both print and ebooks. You will also find
features, author interviews and news of any author events
.