Moonstone Promise (22 page)

‘Yeah. The old man's way was no bloody fun.' Lawson laughed. ‘I left home at fifteen and rode steers and broncs for a few years, bulls when I turned eighteen. Harry was absolutely disgusted with me.'

Luke ran his hand through his hair and thought of Harry. He was such a brilliant old fella. Luke couldn't imagine being so lucky as to have him as a real father, to be brought up with all that knowledge and guidance at your fingertips, every day in the round yards and in the stables. The almost-four years he'd had with Harry had been the best of his life. Lawson had had thirty years of it.

‘First horse I ever broke in with Harry was a filly. I got tossed halfway across the property,' said Luke. ‘Landed outside the rails.'

‘Lucky bastard,' grinned Lawson.

‘I forgot to take my spurs off.'

Lawson roared with laughter. ‘The old man woulda seen them, too.'

Luke laughed with him. ‘Yeah, he did, but he let me get on and make my own mistakes. I never did it again.'

‘I bet you didn't,' chuckled Lawson. He downed the last of his beer and sat quiet for a while.

Luke looked at Lawson's face. It was so much like Harry's: the big nose, the heavy-set jaw. He had a thick head of black hair, though. Harry was a bald old codger.

‘You weren't the first foster kid we ever had come to live with us,' said Lawson.

‘I know.'

‘We had a few of them when I was growing up. The old man thought they would be good friends for us, you know, because we lived a long way out of town.' Lawson shook his head. ‘But I hated it. I had to share everything with them, my home, my room, my father. I never asked for any of them.'

Luke began to feel small again.

‘But you were different,' said Lawson. ‘You always showed me some respect. You never cut in between me and the old man.'

‘You weren't upset that he asked me to ride Biyanga?'

Lawson looked Luke in the eye and shook his head. ‘He saw you as a real mate and I respected that. If he wanted you to ride Biyanga, then that was fine by me. I just hoped you appreciated what a big honour that was. How much it meant to him.'

‘I did,' said Luke.

‘I came up here to ask you to come home,' said Lawson.

Luke wasn't game to look up at Lawson's face. Home. He had called it
home
. ‘Did Annie make you come up here?'

‘Nobody makes me do anything, Luke, you should know that.' Lawson looked at him. ‘Annie doesn't know where you are. If she did, she'd be here herself.'

Luke kept his eyes down. He didn't want Lawson to read his face, read how desperately he wanted to come home. He had more to negotiate. ‘I don't want to be a foster kid anymore. I want a job. Not just some crappy job – I could do that up here. I want to be a farrier.'

Lawson nodded. ‘You got it, Luke. You'd be a bloody good farrier.'

‘I would,' said Luke, nodding and frowning and not sure if he should laugh or not. He took his first swig of beer and felt it swirl around in his empty gut. He was so hungry, he skulled the whole glass.

Lawson's eyes were still on him. ‘Liquid breakfast?'

Luke nodded, embarrassed. Then he burped and laughed.

26

LAWSON DROPPED LUKE
at the front gates of Harry's place. ‘I nearly forgot,' he said as he pulled the handbrake on. He opened the centre console and drew out a milky white stone on a string of leather. ‘This yours?'

‘Where'd you find that?' Luke reached out a hand and took it.

‘You left it in Bob's ute.'

‘When did you see
him
?'

Lawson just winked. ‘I'll stop by later, okay, I'm going to go home and have a scrub.' He twisted around and looked through the rear window. ‘Then you can hose out the back of my ute.'

‘Yeah, sorry about that,' said Luke. ‘They don't travel well.' He unclipped Fang, then moved to the other side of the ute. ‘Ugh, Filth,' he muttered as he unclipped the bouncing yellow pup. ‘That's
disgusting!
'

It was weird walking through the front gate. The place was empty. There were no cars in the garage and the stable doors were all open. Wind whistled over the sand in the arena. Horses grazed in the small day yards and Luke could see right down the laneway to the mares' paddock, where new foals stood sleepily beside their mothers.

A familiar whinny brought a big smile to his face. ‘Legsy!'

The big black colt walked over to the fence and whinnied again.

‘Hey,' said Luke. ‘How are you, old friend?' With the pups at his heels, he slipped through the fencing rails and ran his hands up either side of the colt's neck, then wrapped his arms around him and breathed in his salty, horsey smell.

‘You been on holidays?' asked Luke, standing back and running his eyes over Legs. He hadn't been ridden for a while, that was for sure. He was fatter and his feet were unshod and chipped around the edges.

Fang rumbled a low-pitched growl just before Luke heard the clink of the front gate. He spun around.

Grace opened the gate and led a horse through without noticing Luke.

She wasn't the first person he wanted to see. He'd been horrible to her.

He waited for her to turn around.

‘Hi, Grace.'

‘Luke! Where did you come from?'

‘Just got here a few minutes ago.'

‘Does Annie know you're here?'

‘Not yet.'

Awkward silence.

‘There's been people here, asking heaps of questions, looking for you. The police have been here, too. Everyone wants to know where you are.'

Luke didn't say anything. Hadn't Lawson told anyone where he was?

‘We're not going to let them take you away,' said Grace, fierce determination in her voice.

‘I'm not going to let them take me, either,' said Luke. ‘I'm here on my own terms this time.'

‘How do you mean?'

‘I asked Lawson for a job. They'll probably let me stay if I can show them I've got a way to support myself.' He paused. ‘I won't be just a foster kid anymore. I'll be an apprentice farrier.'

Grace looked down at her boots. ‘I'm so sorry, Luke. I never should have said what I did. I feel like everything's all my fault. Everyone's been so mad at me.'

‘No way, Gracie,' said Luke. ‘I was such a pig. I'm really sorry.'

Grace looked up. She was crying. ‘You're not mad at me?'

Luke shook his head and wondered if he should hug her or something. She was really starting to blubber.

‘Umm, do you want a hug or something?'

Grace dropped the reins of the horse she was leading and hugged him hard, pinning his arms to his sides. Luke stood there. ‘It's okay, Gracie. It's okay,' he said. He put his chin on the top of her head. Had she shrunk or had he grown taller?

Grace hugged him for a while until she saw Filth and Fang.

‘Oh my God, look at these cute little puppies!' Grace dropped to her knees and held out her arms. They jumped all over her, waggling their scrawny bums and licking her face.

‘Kworr, that one's got bad breath! What you been eating, hey, fella? What you been eating? Yes, what you been
eating
, you're so
cuuute
!'

‘Fish guts,' said Luke. ‘And other unmentionable things.'

‘Yuck, you stinky little boy!' said Grace, roughing Filth all over, much to the pup's delight.

‘Watch he doesn't pee on you.'

A car door slammed.

‘Luke? Luke, is that you?' Annie got out of Lawson's ute and hurried down the path. ‘Luke! Good God, where have you been?'

He didn't even tell Annie?

Annie gave him a frail hug. She had lost so much weight. She was tiny. He hugged her back. ‘Hi, Annie.'

She held his face in her hands. ‘Let me look at you. Have you been looking after yourself and eating properly? You've grown another foot! You're getting so tall!'

Then she saw his arm. ‘What happened to your arm?'

‘Chasing brumbies,' Luke grinned.

She rolled her eyes.

Lawson appeared behind her with a stern look on his face. He was freshly shaven and had changed into a clean set of clothes. He nodded at Luke without smiling.

Luke nodded back.

‘What you been up to?' said Lawson.

‘Oh, hunting crocs, wrestling buffalo, that sort of thing,' shrugged Luke. ‘You know how it is.'

Lawson smirked. He was having trouble keeping that straight face, Luke was sure.

‘Find any brumbies?'

‘Yeah, had to let them go.'

‘That's a shame.'

‘It was.'

‘Probably some good blood running through some of them. They mix with the station horses, get the hardiness of the brumbies mixed with the good working bloodlines.'

‘Yeah, well,' Luke mumbled. They had already talked about this on the way home. Lawson knew the brumbies were gone, so why was he bringing it up again?

‘Go to any drafts?'

Luke nodded. ‘Just a small one, rough cattle.'

Lawson's grin grew. ‘Pick up your winnings?'

‘No, they . . .'

He heard the hiss of brakes, and the double clutch of a truck coming down a gear as it groaned around the bend further up the road.

‘Probably would have paid for some transport costs,' said Lawson. He was really struggling with that smirk. ‘Course, you gotta know who to talk to about that sort of thing. They can't hand prize money over to just anyone.'

‘What transport costs?'

Lawson shrugged and walked towards the front gate. A large truck wheezed as it came to a stop in front of the property. He walked stolidly out into the road, grabbed hold of the side of the truck with one hand and jumped up. He looked inside and then jumped down again to wave the truck through the gates. ‘Back her up to the loading ramp, mate,' he called to the driver.

Luke's heart leapt into his throat. He pointed to the truck. ‘Is that . . . ?'

Lawson raised an eyebrow and began to open the back gate of the truck.

No way . . .

Rusty came out first, slipping and sliding down the ramp, calling to the other horses behind him. The two yearlings followed and then came a tiny, bleating foal.

‘Brumbies!' squealed Grace. ‘Look at them!'

‘Chocky!' said Luke, unable to believe his eyes as the big brown colt charged down the ramp, biting at the rumps of those in front. ‘How did you get him? He was—' Lawson slapped him on the shoulder. ‘Ask Bob.'

Luke looked into the back at the truck. The driver, a rotund little man with a comb-over and tight shorts, got out and slammed the door. He walked up to Luke with an electronic gadget in his hand.

‘Was there a brown mare?' Luke asked him.

‘You the owner?'

Luke looked at Lawson, unsure. Lawson nodded.

‘Yep,' Luke said.

‘Your mate asked me to tell you the brown mare died. The foal presented breach and they had to choose between the mare and the foal. He said to say sorry, he did the best he could. I've been stopping and trying to bottle-feed her along the way, but she hasn't drunk much. Poor little thing. Didn't think she'd make it, but she's here.'

‘Okay, thanks.' Luke took the gadget and scribbled a left-handed signature on the screen with a plastic pen. ‘I'll look after your baby for you, Brownie,' he said as he looked at the tiny foal. She was pathetically small, all elbows and knees, ribs poking out from under her dull coat.

‘I'll help you look after her,' said Grace. ‘Oh, she looks so little and hungry. Can we call her Tinkerbell?'

‘
Tinkerbell?
Pfft, girls and horses,' Luke mumbled, as he looked at the wretched thing. ‘You can call her anything you like if she survives.'

‘I'll go and ring Dad and ask him to bring us some formula,' said Grace, jumping off the fence and running to the house.

‘She's a brumby, she'll pull through,' said Lawson, hopping up on the yard rails and looking in. Rusty ran up to the other two yearlings and began bleating like a goat. He was small and skinny, and his head was too big for his body. He was not an impressive horse by any stretch of the imagination. Chocky trotted past him, big, muscular and proud. His belly tightened as he let out an impressive roar and chased up the two fillies, herding them all into a tight bunch.

Luke noticed a glow in Lawson's eyes as he watched Chocky move around the yard.

‘He's got it all, that horse,' Lawson said, almost to himself.