Novels 01 Blue Skies (22 page)

Chapter 51

The next morning, Amanda, still emotionally drained from the time spent with her father, got up and turned the kettle on, then turned the letter over and over in her hand, all the while promising herself she wouldn’t open it until she was sitting down with a cup of coffee.

Heaping coffee and sugar into her cup, she turned to the fridge to get out the milk and noticed a full cup of coffee standing on the kitchen sink. Her heart started to pound as she glanced around the kitchen and then moved forward to place her hand on the cup. It was hot. Who had been into the house while she was sleeping? She was sure that it wouldn’t have been her dad. She knew with certainty, he wouldn’t be back.

Mingus lay happily by the door, so whoever had been there must have gone. Trying to subdue her rising fear, she grabbed the letter, called Mingus to her, and walked down towards her father’s old office. Entering, she locked the door and sat down, her hands shaking as she sipped the coffee.

Slowly, she regained her composure. She thought about her dad and the meeting last night. Trying to analyse how she was feeling, she realised that she wasn’t as traumatised as she thought she might be. Perhaps somewhere deep down she had known he wasn’t dead. Or maybe she was just hoping . . . Whatever the reason, she was overjoyed to have had the opportunity to talk to him, to be able to say everything she had longed to say, even though she was desperately sad to have to say goodbye.

When she had first woken from a deep sleep, she wondered if she had dreamed his visit, but on opening her eyes she saw the letter next to her bed and knew it had been real. She lay in bed with her eyes shut, going over every word that had been said, every smile and every touch.

Finally she turned the envelope over and lifted the flap. As she withdrew the letter, she recognised her grandfather’s writing.

21 January 1984

Dear Brian,

You need to understand what has happened in
the past so you can protect the future of both our
family and Kyleena.

I can still remember my first night under
the stars on the plot of land that I had bought.
I named it Kyleena. While I was full of hope for
the future, I still longed for home. I was furious at
your Uncle Charles for the pain he caused – and
it was because of his actions that I had to leave
England for my own safety.

It has to be said, my brother was not of sane
mind. As the oldest son, he was of course the heir
to our property; he would have taken it over when
Father passed away. But he became convinced that
he would be passed over in favour of me.

At first no one took notice of the strange
happenings: dead animals in the field with
their throats cut; Father’s best stallion dying
mysteriously with not a mark on him . . .

Then, during a hunt, I fell from my horse –
someone had loosened the girth so that my saddle
slipped to the side and, with my foot caught in the
stirrup, I fell and was dragged for some distance.

Thankfully I suffered only a broken ankle – it
could have been much worse. Then a groom told
of seeing Charles adjusting the girth, and we
understood his intention – and what violence
he was capable of.

It was decided that I would leave the country
to see if Charles would regain his mind. Mother
and Father booked my passage to Australia,
organised for land to be available to me and
sent money every month – it was my rightful
inheritance, but I was receiving it while they
were still alive.

While journeying across the seas, I suddenly
realised that this would make me to all intents
and purposes a remittance man of sorts – I had
been quickly hustled away from England with the
promise of an allowance. A man who, in that day
and age, was to be shunned and despised.

I determined that I would not allow anyone
to know the real reason why I had come to
Australia.

Remittance man? Amanda grabbed the dictionary and looked up the meaning: ‘
an Englishman in
Australia whose presence was no longer acceptable
in England and who was supported by remittance
from his family
,’ the
Macquarie Dictionary
informed her.

Surely, though, this referred to drunks or gamblers who embarrassed their wealthy family. They wouldn’t have been young men with bright futures, like her grandfather. She could understand why Michael had preferred to conceal his background.

She read on.

After I had been here for some time, I met a
woman who was to change the course of my life – Kathleen Cramm.

I had forgotten how pleasant it was to spend
time with an intriguing and clever young woman
– and I hardly ever thought of my one-time
love, Grace, who was left behind in England.
I began to entertain the idea of asking Kathleen
to marry me.

Then I received word from my mother that
Grace was coming to Esperance. She had already
boarded the ship by the time I received the letter. It
appeared that Charles had threatened her as well.

I had loved Grace dearly, but in order to make
a success of my new life I had put all thoughts
and feelings about her to the back of my mind as
soon as I had boarded the boat taking me away
from England.

This posed a problem. Kathleen and I had
been talking of plans for the future – how could
I now tell her that another woman had a prior
claim on me?

Of course I had to marry Grace – she would
need to be cared for and protected in this foreign
land, and since it was thanks to me that she had
been forced to flee her home, it was the least
I could do.

But what to tell Kathleen?

Kathleen was brave upon hearing my news. I
didn’t tell her the whole story, just that I was going
to be too busy developing Kyleena to continue with
our courtship. I had hoped one day she would be
able to forgive me and realise that I hadn’t used
her, and that my intentions were honourable, but
I’m afraid that is not how our story played out.

As soon as Grace alighted from the ship, my old
feelings came flooding back – it was as if Kathleen
didn’t exist anymore, as if she never had.

Your mother was beautiful and a very hard
worker. If it wasn’t for her, Kyleena would have
never progressed as quickly as it did. She worked
as hard as I did, not only on the farm, but raising
two children, Diane, and you almost by herself,
and tended a veggie garden that fed us and
others.

Kathleen disappeared for a while – it turns out
that she was in Kalgoorlie, and that she had a child,
a girl, though the father’s identity was a mystery.

I later learned she had turned to prostitution to
help feed her baby and herself, until finally it all
got too much.

Leaving her child with nuns in Kalgoorlie, she
caught the train back to Esperance. It appears that
she came to Kyleena and spent the night in the
hut down on the riverbank, and then the next day
jumped into the river to kill herself.

I am ashamed to admit that we found her
clothes in the very place that she and I had
made love.

I was in town for supplies a few months after
Kathleen’s funeral when her brother Thomas
sought me out and gave me a letter. It had
been written in the last few weeks of Kathleen’s
life. It was addressed to me – and it was
unopened.

It said that she loved me, had never stopped
loving me, and that her daughter, Rose, was
my child.

Full of remorse and guilt, I felt that I had to
do something to assure the future of this poor
child who didn’t bear my name. Without alerting
your mother to the fact of Rose, I persuaded her
that we should fence off two hundred acres of
Kyleena, encompassing the hut and part of the
river where Kathleen died, and deed ownership to
the Cramms.

I watched Rose grow up from afar. She
was a beautiful child and became a stunning
woman.

She eventually married a retired soldier who
came from a wealthy background and they bought
a farm not that far from Kyleena.

The rest of the letter was so shocking that Amanda found it difficult to read; she skimmed the remaining four paragraphs, and read:

I now charge you with keeping this secret and
ensuring that Kyleena remains in the hands of
our family.

Your loving father,

Michael.

Amanda jumped out of bed and flew to her study to look at the title deed of the two hundred acres. It stated that the parcel of land was owned by
The daughter of
Kathleen Cramm, Rose Cramm
.

‘Bloody hell!’ she swore out loud. ‘Oh my . . . no, I don’t believe it! That bloody low-life!’

Chapter 52

The wheels of the ute spun as Amanda turned onto the main road and headed towards Paringa. She was so angry she didn’t stop to consider how she was going to deal with this – she just knew that she had to confront Adrian.

She pulled up at the homestead with a jerk. Stomping in through the kitchen she found Adrian at the kitchen table eating his breakfast.

‘You
bastard
!’ she shouted.

Adrian half rose from his chair with a stunned look on his face. Then, drawing himself up, he looked down his nose at her. ‘Why are you barging into my kitchen calling me names?’ he asked coldly. ‘Perhaps you would like to sit down and explain yourself calmly.’

‘Tell me,’ Amanda asked furiously, ‘why did your mother try to get Kyleena from my father?’

‘I’m sorry, Amanda, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Have you been taking your pills?’

‘So the two hundred acres that my grandfather kindly left to your family wasn’t enough for your mother – my father’s half-sister. She wanted all of Kyleena. Is that right?’

Adrian rolled his eyes. ‘I see your overactive imagination has been up to its usual tricks.’

‘Don’t you dare patronise me! And I can’t believe you were actually going to marry me, knowing that we’re cousins. What was your real interest in me? Were you planning to convince me to sign Kyleena over to you before we married and then call the wedding off? You’re a cold, calculating bastard,’ Amanda hissed.

‘Cousins, you say?’ Adrian cocked an eyebrow at her.‘Well, I’ll be! Do tell how you found out that piece of information.’

Amanda withdrew the piece of paper which had been enclosed with the letter and waved it in front of him. ‘All the proof I’ll ever need to bring you down for what you’ve done to me and my family. Rose Greenfield Cramm’s birth certificate. My grandfather was clever enough to make sure that she actually was his daughter before he signed any land over to your family.’

‘That’s enough!’Adrian’s fist slammed onto the table, his anger bubbling to the surface. ‘Your grandfather got my grandmother pregnant and caused her to commit suicide! The Greenfield family seemed to think that two hundred acres was enough to make it all better. That’s nothing. Guilt money, that’s all. Guilt money!

‘Do you realise that my great-grandmother almost killed herself trying to raise my mother? She worked herself into an early grave – my mother bemoaned the fact for years after Anna’s death,’ Adrian snarled. He rose from his chair, his face flushed. ‘No, I don’t deny we wanted Kyleena – we
deserved
Kyleena. But now it’s just me, I’m quite happy to sit back and let you make a balls-up of it and get it at a cheap price.

‘Of course, I was hoping to get it for free – but now I think having to marry you would have been too high a price to pay.

‘I can’t believe I even considered marrying you,’ Amanda spat.‘If I hadn’t been so scared and vulnerable, I never would have. So tell me, Adrian, while we’re clearing the air, how did you get across the river to throw the stones on my roof and whose car did you use when flashing the lights across my ceiling? And why fiddle with the taps that really hot day – trying to kill my stock, were you? Push me under financially as well as emotionally, all the while making a big show of being there for me? Is that why you killed my crop? I bet you were the one who put glyphosate into my boom spray. Did you kill my rams too? Bringing in the washing and all the other little tricks? Just to unhinge me? And what about the letters? Were they your handiwork?’ Amanda was so furious she could barely contain herself.

But Adrian just laughed coolly. ‘Your story is becoming rather far-fetched. Yes, I’ll admit I want Kyleena, but I wouldn’t stoop to stoning your roof! And where, might I ask, is your proof? You couldn’t even get the police interested in your story!’ Adrian sat down and resumed eating his cereal. ‘I think it’s time you left – and take your fanatical ideas with you. You’re obviously like your great-uncle Charles from England – quite unbalanced. Did you know that they hanged him in the end? He took on someone who wasn’t quite as weak as the members of your family.’

‘Oh I’ll leave,’ said Amanda, ‘I just have one more question: why did my father befriend you when he knew the history between our two families?’

‘Neither of us knew the history of the two families when we first met,’ Adrian said simply. ‘A little while afterwards, Brian received a letter from his father which explained the relationship between us. At the same time, my mother explained to me how shabbily she had been treated by the Greenfields, and we decided that we were entitled to Kyleena. Of course, when we spoke to your father about it he flew off the deep end and made it quite clear that we were never to return to the farm again.’ Adrian shrugged. ‘Not a great disaster; we just had to bide our time until we could get it all.’

‘I can assure you, Adrian, you won’t get away with this.’

‘That’s a hollow threat, Amanda,’ Adrian said airily. ‘I ask you again: where’s your proof?’

Fuming, Amanda turned on her heel and left.

But her anger had subsided by the time she arrived home, to be replaced with the familiar feeling of panic – she was sure that Adrian wouldn’t stop until he got his hands on Kyleena.

She burst into tears as she saw Jonno’s familiar ute parked at the front of her house. She hadn’t realised he would be in Esperance so soon. His large smile faded as he looked at her face and held out his arms, which she fell into.

After an intense questioning session at the station, Jonno by her side the whole time, Amanda was relieved to finally be back at home. She had watched the squad car leave the station for Paringa with a mixture of sadness and relief. Adrian was to be brought in for questioning.

‘Here you go,’ said Jonno gently, handing her a cup of tea and sitting down on the couch next to her.

After a while the phone rang and, nerves still jangling, she picked it up.

‘Hello!’ Hannah called down the line. ‘How much excitement are you having over there?’

‘Far too much,’ Amanda said. ‘But I think it’s about to finish. Detective Burns was heading over to question Adrian as we left the police station.’

‘I always told you he was a tosser!’ said Hannah, then lowered her voice. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Exhausted, sad, relieved . . .’

‘What about happy?’

Amanda looked over at Jonno and grinned. ‘Yeah, happy too.’

‘Well I’m pleased you guys have got it together. When Jonno rang me to talk to me about it, I told him how long I’d been waiting for it to happen. Have you got any idea how frustrating it is when the two people you love most in the world have got feelings for each other, but are too scared to tell the other person? It’s about bloody time!’

Amanda was about to reply when there was a knock at the door. When Jonno opened it Detective Burns was on the doorstep. Amanda told Hannah she would talk to her later and hung up.

‘Well, Amanda,’ Detective Burns said. ‘I don’t think Adrian will be bothering you again. He refused to admit any involvement until we hit him with the evidence of the partial finger print from the last letter. He must have got careless.’

Amanda closed her eyes, relieved.

‘We’ve got the courts to issue a restraining order against him, so he shouldn’t bother you again.’

‘How did he react?’

‘Oh, he was furious that we would even consider he’d done something wrong. And he was still angry when we let him go, but I think that was more because he’d been caught than anything else. Have you got someone to stay with you, just in case you have any problems?’

Amanda looked at Jonno, who nodded.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I have.’

The detective rose. ‘We’ve put out an AVO. Adrian isn’t allowed on Kyleena or anywhere near you. If he comes near you, you call us straight away.’ He held out his hand. ‘I’m pleased that we’ve finally got this sorted out, Amanda. And give us a ring if there’s anything else we can do. As for Slay, there’s no way he could have been involved in this. He’s been shearing up north for the past three years. He just comes back here on holidays to see his son.’

Amanda had her head resting on the back of the couch when Jonno came back.

‘I think Adrian will leave,’ he said.

‘Do you?’ Amanda asked, utterly spent.

‘Yeah. I can’t see the community being very forgiving when they all realise he was trying to terrify a lone woman into marrying him so he could get her farm.’

‘And I suppose this is where I should ask what your intentions are? Do you want my farm too?’ she asked, trying to make light of recent events.

The silence was so long that Amanda opened her eyes to look at Jonno. He had moved to within a couple of inches of her face. ‘My intentions are to love you for all of your life,’ he said and kissed her.