Frontier Wife (10 page)

“Did you get the money?”

“Yes, twenty lovely pounds.” He grinned, and she knew it had been worth the effort to see him happy once more.

“Three people approached me about Warrior. They want to wait until the drought breaks before bringing their mares over. Our luck might be changing for the better at long last. Where did you get the sweets from?” David ruffled Jamie’s hair.

“Adam bought them for me and a drink too.”

“You should call him Mr. Munro. I hope you didn't ask him for money?” She lifted her chin and raised her eyebrows at him. “The Lindsays never take charity.”

“No. After you won the race I was just walking along. He said I looked hot and thirsty, said he'd get me a drink. I told him I didn't have any money, honest. He said he would buy me one.”

“The sweets?”

His lips trembled. “I didn't ask, just showed them to him, and asked if he wanted to buy some for himself. That lady told me to go away because I looked all dusty and might dirty her gown. I wouldn't touch her old gown. I said you had better ones than her.”

David and Jim chuckled behind their hands, while Tommy nearly laughed out loud.

“She told me to stop being rude so I poked my tongue out at her.”

“Then what happened?” David grinned.

“Stop encouraging him to be cheeky.” Tommy shook her head at them. She found it difficult not to laugh though; Jamie looked as if he had been rolling around in the dust. His appearance would not endear him to a fastidious lady like Sophia Bothroyd. She couldn’t understand why this young woman caused her hackles to rise. They hardly knew each other.
You both want the same man
. What a ridiculous thought. The sun must have addled her brain.

“The sweets?” Jim started laughing.

“Adam—he wants me to call him that—said he didn't like sweets much, but if I wanted them he'd buy me some. I gave him one, I wasn't greedy.”

“Of course you weren't.” She smiled at him. How could anyone stay angry with such an endearing little scamp?

“Did you offer Miss Bothroyd one,” David asked with a wide grin. He was almost back to his old cheerful self.

“No, I don't like her, she hates little boys. I told Adam, too.” He popped another sweet into his mouth.

To change the conversation Tommy asked Jim whether he and Mary would like to come over for a meal on Christmas day. “I thought we could have our main meal in the evening. It will seem strange walking around in summer clothes instead of being rugged up against the snow.”

“Thank you. Mary would enjoy sharing Christmas with you. She really misses her family. Her mother is coming down a couple of weeks before the baby is born. She’s from a large, close-knit family, and this will be our first Christmas away from them all.” He gave a deep sigh. “They live in Beechworth, and it's too far for us to go up this year. You've been good for her, stopped her from feeling lonely. We haven't made many friends, a bit too isolated, I suppose. The squatters who are our closest neighbors won't mix with us.” A bitter edge roughened his voice. “Don’t own enough acres.”

“We're glad to have you and Mary for friends.” She gave a rueful smile. “You're really the only people we know here. No one wants to associate with us, either, thanks to Adam Munro. Still, who needs the likes of them when we can have a good time on our own?”

Jim went off to start work dismantling everything once the activities finished. Tommy overheard a couple of people discussing a party at Adam’s house for the officials and other gentry. How strange she should feel hurt because they didn’t receive an invitation.

She felt drained now the excitement had worn off. Warrior, who had recovered, seemed quite content to trot along tied to the back of the buggy. David’s spirits soared higher than an eagle. As they drove along he broke into song and she joined in. Their voices floated clearly in the vast open spaces, but no audience heard this impromptu concert.

Although the race meeting was held on Adam's station, they had not seen his home. How idiotic for her to feel disappointed about this.

They arrived home at dusk. The sun had already set in a blood-red sky, a sure sign it would be another scorcher tomorrow.

While she prepared their supper, David and Jamie attended to the outside chores, and every now and again she caught snatches of song. Maybe their luck was taking a turn for the better, not before time. She slapped at a mosquito buzzing near her face. If Adam wasn’t so ruthlessly bent on destroying them, life could be quite pleasant. He always seemed to be hovering in the background, poised above them like some revenge-filled devil, just waiting for the chance to hammer them into the ground.

That evening after Jamie went to bed, they sat out on the back verandah in the cool air. Tommy gave a sudden, huge sigh.

“Not homesick are you?”

“No I'm not.” How could she explain to David that she felt disappointed, somehow cheated of a special treat, because Adam didn’t invite them to his home?

“Do you really like it here, sis?”

“Yes, it's so different. In England everything is soft, pretty; out here this untamed frontier is harsh, cruel even, yet it has a wild beauty.”

“You know, I feel the same way. One has to be strong to survive. It’s not a land for weaklings, but we can make it.”

He leaned back in his chair. “I don't know of any young woman who could have ridden in that race today. I'll admit now to being worried sick, especially when Munro called me an idiot for letting you risk your life. I don't understand why, but he acted so furious. When you took the water jump, his body went rigid and he turned white as a ghost.”

“Probably annoyed because we put it over him.”

“I don't think so. It was more than that.”

They lapsed into silence, the only sounds being the chirping of the crickets and the buzzing of a stray mosquito. No matter how scorching the day had been, in the evenings as they relaxed on the verandah, a cooling breeze caressed them with gentle fingers. Even the stars and moon seemed larger, somehow brighter, than in England.

Chapter Five

A few days after the race meeting, Tommy read an article in the local paper, about a pre Christmas ball being given by the Chief Commissioner.

“David, read this. Could we go?”

He skimmed through the paper. “I don’t know, only the landed gentry like Munro would attend this kind of function.”

She picked up a piece of chalk Jamie had left lying around and started playing with it. “Couldn’t get more landed than him.” The chalk broke in two with a loud snap. “I’d like to go just to show him we’re as good, if not better than him and his cronies.”

“We’re better than him all right, our grandfather was the youngest son of a lord; we’ve got blue blood. Oh, Tommy, if only you could see the expression on your face when you speak about Munro.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your eyes seem to, well burn, and your cheeks color up. I don’t know why but that man stirs you up, there’s no doubt about it.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” She forced a laugh, wondering indeed what was wrong with her. “Could we go to the ball? Please.”

“What would we wear? It will be a formal affair.”

“I brought my favorite ball gown with me. I just couldn’t bear to part with it at the last minute. You could wear your uniform. You haven’t been discharged from the army; well not officially, anyway.”

It would be wonderful going to a ball again after so long. Jim and Mary would mind Jamie. In Mary’s condition they would not be able to attend even if they wanted to. It would be worth going just to watch Adam Munro’s face. Of all the arrogant men she had ever met, he would be the worst. As for Sophia Bothroyd—snobbish little upstart.

****

Tommy rode over to see Mary and Jim the next afternoon. David reluctantly agreed to take her to the ball providing they would take Jamie for the night.

Her deep blue gown was trimmed with white lace around the three-quarter-length sleeves. She wore a wide brimmed straw hat trimmed with blue and white feathers.

The horse’s hooves kicked up swirls of dust as they rode through the tinder dry countryside. The twigs scattered over the track were so brittle they snapped every time the horse stepped on one. The nearer she got to the Cavendish place the drier, more barren the ground became.

The split log homestead had a bark roof. No garden except for a few dust covered geraniums struggling for survival. No wonder Adam Munro didn’t worry about this forlorn little farm.

Mary must have seen her arrive as she waddled onto the verandah before Tommy even dismounted.

After tethering her mount under the shade of a huge gum tree, Tommy stepped up on to the verandah, drawing off her gloves as she did so. “How are you, Mary?”

“Worn out.” She gave a weary smile. “But it’s nice to have a visitor. Let’s go inside out of this heat.”

“Have you got much longer to go? It must be so uncomfortable in this weather.”

“A few weeks. I’m showing a lot.” She laughed. “Hope it isn’t twins.”

As she followed Mary inside Tommy wondered how anyone could be so cheerful living in such harsh conditions. The kitchen and parlor were combined, the ceiling lined with calico, the cracks in the walls stuffed with newspapers. Old chaff bags, embroidered with scraps of colored wool covered the earthen floor.

“Like a cup of tea?”

“Yes, I’d love one thanks. You don’t realize how hot the sun is until you go out in it.” She took off her hat and dropped it on the end of the table. The furniture was roughly hewn from tree trunks, but planed so smooth the grain of the wood still showed. She swallowed down a lump in her throat. How brave Mary and the other pioneer women were to live in such primitive surroundings. Could she do it?

Over a cup of tea and a slice of cake, she regaled Mary with her exploits in the steeplechase.

“Jim told me what happened. I don’t know how you dared.”

When Tommy asked about the Commissioner’s pre Christmas ball, Mary said she had never attended, nor had anyone they knew. David’s supposition about the landed gentry proved correct. Although you didn’t have to purchase a ticket, no working class person would dare attend.

“I don’t mind having Jamie, but surely you don’t mean to go?”

“I’m going, if it’s the last thing I ever do. I have one good ball gown left that I intend wearing. And David can wear his uniform. He hasn’t officially been discharged from the army.”

“I’d like
to be there just to see the looks on some of those highbrow, snobbish faces. Jim said David got wounded in some war in Africa.”

“Yes he did, quite badly. We won’t stay the whole evening at the ball. A couple of hours will be long enough to set the ‘so-called gentry’ back on their heels.”

When it came time to leave, they both agreed the hours had flown too quickly. Mary insisted on Jamie coming over on the Saturday afternoon and staying the night. They would drop him back on Sunday morning on their way to church.

Tommy rode home feeling light-hearted, nothing like a girlish gossip to cheer a person up. She rode slowly. On this treeless, dusty plain, the sun bore down from the sky with such intensity it burned through her clothes. By the time she reached the treed area, her head ached and her throat felt parched and scratchy. Christmas had not yet arrived. January and February were supposed to be the hottest months out here. How could a mere mortal endure it?