Tiger Men (80 page)
âShe was over seventy when I first met her,' Hilda said, continuing to stare out the window, âbut still so beautiful, so very beautiful.'
Here we go again, Kate thought, Grandmother Ellie. Kate could even vaguely remember her great-grandmother, a slim, regal woman with white, white hair. She could remember Big Jim too, just, although he hadn't been particularly big then, a rather withered man, she recalled, who seemed terribly, terribly old. They'd died the same year, when she was five.
âOf course I knew who she was,' Hilda went on, âeveryone knew who she was. I'd seen her picture in the paper â Elianne and Jim Durham were famous. But I never dreamt I'd marry into the family. I never dreamt I'd come to know her as I did.'
She's really rambling tonight, Kate thought. It's probably because of the family meeting and the talk of the old house's demolition. Or perhaps it's simply the sherry, who can tell?
âYou're so like her, Kate.' Hilda turned from the window. âYou've grown into your beauty, my darling, just as I said you would.'
Kate was startled from the complacency of her thoughts. Her mother's eyes were not vague, but highly perceptive.
âDo you remember how I used to tell you that you would be beautiful?'
âYes, of course I do,' Kate replied a little brusquely. She could recall only too well her mother's constant attempts to be a guiding influence in a masculine world and to make her aware of her femininity. âYou will be beautiful one day, Kate,' Hilda would say, âdo not doubt yourself, my dear.' But Kate had not doubted herself for one minute. She'd needed no confidence booster, and she certainly didn't need to be beautiful.
âYou still don't believe me, do you?' Hilda smiled her pretty smile. âBut you will soon. One day, very soon, you'll know that you're beautiful.'
Hilda had recognised every nuance of the change in her daughter. Kate's physical blossoming had been evident at first glance, but she'd also sensed the restlessness in the girl. Kate is still a virgin, Hilda had thought. She hasn't discovered her true womanliness yet. But she wants to. She aches to.
âYou look so like the pictures of Grandmother Ellie as a girl.' Hilda studied her daughter fondly. âThe same green eyes and auburn hair.' She smiled again, and reaching out her hand, she stroked her fingers along the curve of Kate's cheek. âIt's a very effective mix with the Durham bones, I must say.' Her smile faded and her fingers rested where they were as her eyes locked with her daughter's. âI do hope you will find a great love, my darling, one as fulfilling as Grandmother Ellie's.'
Kate felt uncomfortable, exposed somehow. Her mother, far from being in her customary distracted state, seemed altogether too knowing.
âI think it's time we headed downstairs for dinner,' she said and she stood. âWe don't want to keep the others waiting.'
âGoodness me, no.' Hilda glanced at the antique mantel clock, which still kept perfect time. A lovely piece in cherry wood with brass-fitted face, it had belonged to Grandmother Ellie and was one of her favourite possessions. âWe certainly don't want to keep them waiting.' She drained the last of her sherry, delicately patted the corners of her mouth with a lace handkerchief and rose to her feet. âAfter Christmas, when Ivan leaves,' she said, âwe shall do a tour of Elianne House, you and I. No one else, just the two of us, and we shall bid our farewells.'
Our farewells to what, Kate wondered, the past? Her mother wore that distant expression again.
âYes of course, Marmee, that's exactly what we'll do.'
UTHOR
’
S NOTE
H
enry Fothergill finally completed his novel
A Tiger’s Tale
in 1936, closing with the death of the world’s last captive thylacine at Beaumaris Zoo, Hobart, on September 7 of that year. He made the wry comment that the Tasmanian government introduced official protection of the species on 10 July, just fifty-nine days before the death of this last known specimen. His work was never published.
Since 1936, numerous sightings of thylacines have been claimed, although none irrefutably confirmed. Wealthy businessmen and magazines have offered massive rewards for proof of the animal’s existence, extensive searches have been mounted, and government-funded investigation undertaken, but as yet no conclusive evidence has come to hand. The sightings, however, continue – fleeting, mysterious and elusive as they are.
There are some who believe that in the wild, untamed north-west of Tasmania the tiger exists to this day, safe from its one predator: man. We can only live in hope they may be right.
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
F
irst and foremost, my thanks and love to my highly talented husband, Bruce Venables. My thanks also to the family and friends who are always on hand to lend support: brother Rob Nunn, Susan Mackie-Hookway, Michael Roberts, Colin Julin and my agent, James Laurie. Further thanks, too, to those other nearest and dearest who contributed so much by way of research and inspiration: Nathan Venables, Sue Greaves and Patricia O’Brien.
Special thanks to my publisher, Beverley Cousins; my editors, Brandon VanOver and Kate O’Donnell; and the hard-working team at Random House.
For further assistance in the research of this book, I would like to thank Dr Christopher Bradbury; Helen Edwards of the Theatre Royal, Hobart; Warren Glover, Hobart historian; and Jackie Wilson of the Huon Valley Apple and Heritage Museum. A big thanks also to the ‘Hobart connection’: Lloyd and Jan Clark, owners of the beautiful Lenna of Hobart, Lee Renshaw and the irrepressible Dave Johnson.
Among my research sources, I would like to recognise the following:
A Short History of Tasmania,
Lloyd Robson and Michael Roe, Oxford University Press, 1997.
Thylacine,
David Owen, Allen & Unwin, 2003.
Down Wapping,
A. Hudspeth, M. Luck, K. Pearce, R. Radford, L. Scripps, M. Sprod, B. Stubbs, Blubber Head Press, 1988.
I Excell!,
Bruce Brown, Libra Books, 1991.
A Walk in Old Hobart,
Charles Wooley, Michael Tatlow, Walk Guides Australia, 2007.
The Huon Valley Yesterday and Today,
David Hammond, Southern Holdings, 1995.
Full and Plenty,
Catherine Watson, Twelvetrees Publishing Company, 1987.
Heroes of the Huon,
Edited by David Hammond and Peter Boyer, Huon Eldercare Foundation Tasmania, 2004.
Crack Hardy,
Stephen Dando-Collins, Random House Australia, Pty Ltd, 2011.
Gallipoli,
Les Carlyon, Pan Macmillan Australia, 2001.
The Great War,
Les Carlyon, Pan Macmillan Australia, 2006.
Other titles by Judy Nunn
Araluen
On a blistering hot day in 1850, brothers George and Richard Ross take their first steps on Australian soil after three long months at sea. All they have is each other.
A decade on, and they are the owners of a successful vineyard, Araluen, nestled in a beautiful valley near Adelaide. Now a successful businessman, George has laid down the roots of a Ross dynasty, born of the New World. But building a family empire – whatever the cost – can have a shattering effect on the generations to come . . .
Beneath the Southern Cross
In 1783, Thomas Kendall, a naïve nineteen-year-old sentenced to transportation for burglary, finds himself in Sydney Town and a new life in the wild and lawless land.
Beneath the Southern Cross
is as much a story of a city as it is a family chronicle. With her uncanny ability to bring history to life in technicolour, Judy Nunn traces the fortunes of Kendall’s descendants through good times and bad to the present day . . .
Kal
Kalgoorlie. It grew out of the red dust of the desert over the world’s richest vein of gold . . .
From the heady early days of the gold rush, to the horrors of the First World War in Gallipoli and France, to the shame and confrontation of the post-war riots,
Kal
tells the story of Australia itself and the people who forged a nation out of a harsh and unforgiving land.
Heritage
In the 1940s refugees from more than seventy nations gathered in Australia to forge a new identity – and to help realise one man’s dream: the mighty Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme. From the ruins of Berlin to the birth of Israel, from the Italian Alps to the Australian high country,
Heritage
is a passionate tale of rebirth, struggle, sacrifice and redemption.
Territory
Territory
is the story of the Top End and the people who dare to dwell there. Of Spitfire pilot Terence Galloway and his English bride, Henrietta, home from the war, only to be faced with the desperate defence of Darwin against the Imperial Japanese Air Force. From the blazing inferno that was Darwin on 19 February 1942 to the devastation of Cyclone Tracy, from the red desert to the tropical shore,
Territory
is a mile-a-minute read.
Pacific
Australian actress Samantha Lindsay is thrilled when she scores her first Hollywood movie role, playing a character loosely based on World War II heroine Mamma Tack. But on location in Vanuatu, uncanny parallels between history and fiction emerge and Sam begins a quest for the truth. Just who was the real Mamma Tack?
Maralinga
Maralinga, 1956. A British airbase in the middle of nowhere, a top-secret atomic testing ground . . .
Maralinga
is the story of Lieutenant Daniel Gardiner, who accepts a posting to the wilds of South Australia on a promise of rapid promotion, and of adventurous young English journalist Elizabeth Hoffmann, who travels halfway around the world in search of the truth.
Floodtide
Floodtide
traces the fortunes of four men and four families over four memorable decades in the mighty ‘Iron Ore State’ of Western Australia. The prosperous 1950s when childhood is idyllic in the small city of Perth . . . The turbulent 60s when youth is caught up in the Vietnam War . . . The avaricious 70s when WA’s mineral boom sees a new breed of entrepreneurs . . . The corrupt 80s, when greedy politicians and powerful businessmen bring the state to its knees . . .
From stage actor and international television star to blockbuster bestselling author, Judy Nunn’s career has been meteoric.
Her first forays into adult fiction resulted in what she describes as her ‘entertainment set’.
The Glitter Game
,
Centre Stage
and
Araluen
, three novels set in the worlds of television, theatre and film respectively, each became instant bestsellers.
Next came her ‘city set’:
Kal
, a fiercely passionate novel about men and mining set in Kalgoorlie;
Beneath the Southern Cross
, a mammoth achievement chronicling the story of Sydney since first European settlement; and
Territory
, a tale of love, family and retribution set in Darwin.
Territory
, together with Judy’s next novel,
Pacific
, a dual story set principally in Vanuatu, placed her firmly in Australia’s top-ten bestseller list. Her following works,
Heritage
, set in the Snowies during the 1950s;
Floodtide
, based in her home state of Western Australia; and
Maralinga
, set in South Australia during the British atomic weapons tests, have consolidated her position as one of the country’s leading fiction writers.
Judy Nunn’s fame as a novelist is spreading rapidly. Her books are now published throughout Europe in English, German, French, Dutch and Czech.
Judy lives with her husband, actor-author Bruce Venables, on the Central Coast of New South Wales.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian
Copyright Act 1968
), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Version 1.0
Tiger Men
First published by William Heinemann in 2011
This Arrow edition published in 2012
Copyright © Judy Nunn, 2011
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
An Arrow book
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Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry
Nunn, Judy
Tiger men [electronic resource]/Judy Nunn.
ISBN 978 1 86471 220 9 (ebook: epub)
A823.3
Cover design by Design by Committee
Tasmanian tiger illustration by Shane Nagle
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