Return to the High Country

by Tony Parsons

  ‘Very well, Sister Courteney. We’ll leave you. I am in a state of shock and will need a lot of wifely ministrations to get over it,’ David said.

  ‘Which I’m sure you will receive,’ Jean said quickly.

  ‘Well, I must say it’s been a surprising afternoon,’ David said, as they drove up the road towards the Inverlochy–High Peaks turn-off. ‘Imagine Jean, of all people, with a secret admirer.’

  ‘And why shouldn’t she have a secret admirer?’ Anne asked.

  ‘Jean has always said she came to Poitrel to get away from men. She said she had had enough of men,’ he said.

  ‘That’s only until the right man comes along, David. Jean is looking for companionship now. I’m very pleased for her. I would prefer her to marry this Julian fellow but things are different now. Maybe in Jean’s case it’s once bitten, twice shy. It’s a lot easier to get into marriage than out of it,’ Anne said.

  Later, Anne would say that the day Jean Courteney informed them of her Julian was the day that David climbed out of the depression caused by his father’s death. From that day on David MacLeod never took a backward step.

  Chapter Two

  It could be said that David MacLeod’s life was actually divided into two parts. The first part concluded when he won the National Trial with Clancy. Up till then his whole life had been consumed by kelpies and his desire to win the National for his father. After he had won the trial he married Catriona and, shortly afterwards, lost his father. Once David’s grief subsided, he then concentrated most of his efforts on acquiring more properties and building up prominent studs of sheep and cattle for the children he hoped to have. His vision was to create a great pastoral family that would be recognised throughout the land because of the quality of its livestock. He would build the foundations so that by the time his children were old enough to take an interest in showing sheep and cattle, the standard of the family’s livestock would be high enough to allow them to compete anywhere.

  Two days after visiting Glen Morrison, David laid out his grand design to Catriona. It was the first time he had really opened his heart to her about his plans for their future since his father’s funeral. David was back in full flight again.

  ‘The first thing I want is some Hereford breeders from Angus,’ he told Catriona. ‘They can be older cows, but they must be good. Then I’ll buy a good bull to put over them and keep the pick of the heifers.’

  ‘You can ask Daddy for the Herefords on Saturday evening, darling. We’ve been invited for dinner. We would have been invited sooner except that you have been so down in the dumps I asked them to delay the invitation,’ Catriona told him.

  ‘Sorry, sweetheart. I realise I’ve been a bit of a wet blanket since the funeral. Hardly the ideal husband for a new bride,’ he said, and kissed her several times.

  ‘There’s nothing to make up, darling. Losing a parent is never easy, let alone a father who meant as much to you as Andy did. Don’t forget that I know you almost as well as Anne does. Andy was my main competition for your time and love. His passing is a big loss. I would have been very surprised if you had reacted otherwise,’ Catriona said.

  ‘What a girl,’ he said.

  ‘It took you a long while to realise that, darling,’ she replied, and rubbed her hair against his face.

  ‘That’s ancient history, Cat. All I will say on the matter is that I am damned glad you stood up to your parents and didn’t marry one of those swanky fellows they had their eyes on for you,’ David said firmly.

  ‘Oh, I was never going to do that, darling.’

  Catriona was secretly pleased to hear that David was going to breed stud sheep and cattle because that meant trips away to shows and sales. She was determined that her husband was not going to kill himself with work as his father had done. Of course, David would never have to slave at shearing in oven-hot sheds to pay off a mortgage. But he was a tiger to work and she knew she would have to see that he didn’t overdo things. She was also determined that before she began having babies she would persuade David to join her on an overseas trip. She wanted him to see the sheepdog trials in Scotland and meet her Campbell relations, and come back via the United States to look at stud cattle there. She realised that once there were children it would be more difficult to get away.

  Inverlochy was one of the first properties to be cut off the famous Collaroy holding, which was one of the two original properties in the Merriwa district established by white colonial settlers. With very little hill country at all, it was high-class land conducive to breeding sheep and cattle. The sandstone homestead stood on a slight rise and presented a grand appearance as one turned in off the road. Wide, gauzed verandahs enclosed the house on three sides. The front steps were sandstone and two large stone lions sat majestically on stone platforms at the base of the steps, guarding the house and its owners. The front door led into a wide hallway, off which branched numerous large rooms distinguished by very high ceilings. The large kitchen was at the rear of the house. Like some other sections of the house, it had been renovated, and now featured a cork floor, which was unique in the district. The lounge room was large and magnificent with a cathedral ceiling and a grand piano in an alcove at one end. On cold nights a huge open fire in the lounge room would blaze. There were seven bedrooms, an office, and a flat for the housekeeper. Below the side verandah two terraces, a portico and a splendid rose garden led down to the tennis court. Beside the main house a huge jacaranda gave summer shade to a variety of garden furniture. Lawns surrounded the homestead and sprinklers kept them green. It was here that Anne MacLeod had met Angus and Jane Campbell, when she had been invited to Inverlochy for a tennis party when she first arrived at Merriwa so many years ago.

  Catriona had called her father ahead and told him that David wanted to purchase some stud cows from him, and to ask him if he could see his way clear to letting David have them. So Angus was ready when David made the request.

  ‘All right. How many do you want, David?’ Angus answered calmly.

  ‘As many as you can spare, Angus,’ David said quickly.

  ‘When do you want them?’

  ‘As soon as I can get them. Glen Morrison has been well spelled and is grassed-up. You tell me when you’ll have some ready to go and I’ll do the rest. I’d like some from different families if you can manage it,’ David added.

  Angus nodded. What David knew about livestock continually surprised him. ‘So you want to start a stud of Herefords? Merinos too?’

  ‘That’s right, Angus. What I thought we might do was pool resources to buy an even better bull. I realise you’ve always bought good bulls but I mean a real top bull. We could both benefit from him then. By the time our children are old enough, I want to have a top herd and cattle they can show.’

  For all his arrogance and high opinion of his place in the community Angus was no fool. He realised he had once seriously underestimated David MacLeod when he had discounted him as a suitor for Catriona. David was now a man of real substance with four properties and he was going places. Nobody could deny that. What he had to do now was support David and Catriona in any way he could, because their children would be his grandchildren. Moreover, with an ancestry of canny forebears, Angus knew a good deal when he saw one.

  ‘What have you got in mind, David?’

  ‘Well, I reckon that if we bought a Sydney winner that ought to focus a lot of attention on what we’re doing. If we bought him between us, it might only mean another five or ten thousand more than you’re paying for your bulls now.’

  Angus saw the wisdom of what David said, and also what the purchase of such a bull would do for his own reputation. Angus Campbell was a very proud man, especially where his livestock were concerned.

  ‘Let’s see what comes up, David. If we see the right bull, we could have a go at him,’ Angus said.

  ‘I’m pleased you agree, Cat will be pleased too.’ David then dropped his own surprise. ‘If you still want to breed a foal from Ajana, we’ll send he
r to a thoroughbred next time, Angus, to return the favour.’

  Angus was temporarily taken aback. He thought he had made a couple of significant concessions to his new son-in-law, but the young fellow had come straight back at him with something that was dear to his heart. Angus had bred some fair thoroughbreds, but never a champion racehorse. One of his great ambitions was to breed and race a champion horse. Ajana had won in Sydney – one in race record time – and that old fool Wilfred White had given the mare to David, who had bred her to stockhorse stallions. In Angus’s opinion it amounted to heresy to waste such a mare, but the MacLeods were not thoroughbred-minded. Angus realised that Ajana represented probably the best hope he would ever have of breeding a horse that could win a classic race.

  ‘That’s damned generous of you, David.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know. You’re letting me have some good cows, hopefully some in calf,’ (he added that for good measure), ‘so it’s not much to let you have the use of a mare to breed a foal. I’ll rear the foal and hand it over to you when it’s ready to go, as Wilf wouldn’t want me to let Ajana leave the property. You got any particular stallion in mind?

  ‘There’s a son of Star Kingdom I’ve bred mares to and he’s produced a couple of winners for me. Nothing brilliant, but my mares aren’t up to Ajana. She had a lot of speed and there’s plenty of that in the Star Kingdom line.’

  David nodded. ‘Righto. We’ll do it. Maybe after you’ve got your foal I’ll mate Ajana to the same sire again. Catriona seems very keen to race a horse, if only for the picnic races. I can’t have her getting bored with me and my animals.’

  ‘I doubt there’s any danger of that, David,’ Angus chuckled.

  ‘Is it going well, dear?’ Jane Campbell asked her daughter. The women were talking alone in the lounge room while Angus and David were in the study.

  ‘Very well, Mother. David was very upset for a while after the funeral but he’s firing on all fours now. He has very big plans for the future, and of course children feature strongly.’

  Jane had not wanted Catriona to marry David MacLeod. Not, that is, until she realised that her daughter would marry him whether she and Angus agreed or not. Jane was from a well-to-do family and placed a lot of emphasis on breeding and social standing; the idea of her only daughter married to a shearer’s son was repugnant. She admitted that David was a nice boy and a wonderful-looking fellow, but he had no social standing and had not attended a GPS school. Three times David had rescued Catriona from dangerous situations, but even that was not enough to make him a suitable son-in-law in Jane Campbell’s eyes.

  It was when Catriona accompanied David to the National Trials that Jane realised the cause was lost and that they had better make the best of the situation or risk losing their daughter’s affection. In David MacLeod’s favour was the fact that he was probably worth more than she and Angus. He was also the best-looking and most impressively built man in the district. David and Catriona were a splendid couple; they looked made for each other. And Jane thought highly of David’s mother, Anne, even if she was not from one of the better families. Anne had been an excellent teacher and could have aimed for a more prosperous match than Andrew MacLeod. Jane knew that for a fact, and remembered the stir Anne had created among possible suitors when she first came to Merriwa to teach. She conceded, though, that Andrew was a very formidable man.

  So Angus and Jane Campbell came to accept David MacLeod as their son-in-law and were doing everything they could to enhance David’s position in the district. Andrew MacLeod would have been highly amused at this about-face by Angus and Jane. Although Angus had been a good neighbour, both he and Jane clearly looked down on the MacLeods. Angus was the product of inherited wealth; he didn’t have to shear or break in horses to help pay off a property and Andrew had never been invited to join Angus for a drink, especially when he was entertaining other graziers. Now, the difference in the Campbells’ attitude to David was palpable.

  When sheep classing time came around, Angus invited David to come and watch his great sheep classer, Hugh Pfeffer, in action. David came and watched and asked a lot of questions. The great man, one of the finest classers of his time, liked David’s enthusiasm and showed him a lot. David learnt the importance of structure, and skin thickness. Years later some of what David had learnt that day would be utilised when he himself judged shows and taught his children. But for now he was looking to add to what he already knew about classing sheep, so that when he bought foundation ewes for his merino stud they would be as good as he could procure.

  The improved relationship between the MacLeod and Campbell families meant that Catriona’s brother, Stuart, and David got on very well. Despite his schooling and the fact that he was what many would consider a ra-ra man, Stuart was rather in awe of David MacLeod. While David had never been into sport he could ride the pants off just about anyone, and nobody could get near him as a dog handler. Stuart had a secret ambition to be an expert dog handler but neither he nor his father was instinctively a natural stockman. Neither man had a keen eye for a dog and, when they worked a dog on a few sheep, the dogs were always fractionally slow to respond.

  A few months after the wedding, Angus took his pride in his hands and asked David how he could improve his dogs and his own handling. It was the largest concession to anyone Angus Campbell had ever made. What Angus wanted almost as much as a classic race winner was a dog or two he could win trials with at the local show. Now he had a son-in-law who was a master handler and master breeder, even though he was only a young man. Angus recognised he’d be a fool not to take advantage of the situation.

  ‘Do you really want my opinion, Angus?’ David asked. He was very surprised that Angus had humbled himself so much as to ask for his help.

  ‘That’s exactly what I want, David,’ Angus replied.

  ‘Well, your dogs aren’t really good enough, Angus. They’ve got too much of the wrong sort of eye and they’re always a fraction late in moving. A lot of border collies in Australia have got kelpie in them. What we’ve got now is a kind of Australian border collie. Bill Marshall used kelpie twice in his borders and he bred some pretty good dogs – dogs that were good sheepdogs, not just trial dogs. I reckon what you should do is mate one of your bitches to one of my sires and keep all the pups. Maybe mate a bitch of that mating back to a good border collie and see how they shape. You should get better cover and quicker reactions. You’d get away from these heavier-coated dogs you’ve been importing.’

  Angus was silent as he considered all David said carefully.

  David continued, ‘To win good trials you’ve got to devote a fair bit of time to training a dog. I doubt that you’ve ever done that. If you’re prepared to put in more time I’ll show you how I break in my dogs, and what you need to do to develop a top trial dog. I won’t have the time to devote to dogs in future, so I’ll probably just concentrate on one dog at a time.’

  ‘All right, I’ll mate one of my bitches to one of your dogs and see how we go,’ Angus said. This was a significant concession for Angus to make, as years ago he had rejected Andrew MacLeod’s suggestion that the Campbell dogs ‘needed a bit o’ kelpie in them’.

  Angus was agreeably surprised with the quality of his litter sired by Nap. The pups had a lot of natural ability, with good cover and footwork. They were noticeably shorter in coat and a couple had one or both ears erect like their sire. These dogs had a great willingness to work and proved to be excellent all-round sheepdogs. Stuart took a fancy to one of the bitches and prevailed upon David to show him the finer points of training. Stuart was quicker to learn than Angus, and when he won an Encourage Trial with Nellie, his face was wreathed in smiles.

  ‘Mate Nellie or Nan or both with a good border dog and I think you’ll find they’ll be a bit easier for you to handle, Angus,’ David advised. The Nap progeny were terrific sheepdogs and were in high demand, but they were a shade too strong for Angus to handle. What he needed was a pliable, easy-to-handle dog with a lot of natural
ability. It took some years to produce this dog, but in the intervening period Stuart won an Improver and then a Maiden Trial.

  ‘It’s wonderful that you and Angus are getting on so well, David,’ Anne said to her son one morning. He had brought her some meat and was sitting with her for a few minutes on his way to town.

  ‘I suppose so, but Angus is a pain in the neck at times. He’s too full of himself and sometimes I’m tempted to tell him so. I’m doing my best for Catriona’s sake. And Angus has his good points,’ David said.

  ‘Of course he has. Old Angus was a great help to Andy. The Campbells are good people even though they’re snobby. That’s just the way they were brought up, though Stuart and Catriona are not like that. Is Catriona well?’

  ‘She’s very well, Mum. Why do you ask?’

  ‘No particular reason, dear.’

  ‘We go everywhere together. I’m breaking in another horse for her – a nice big bay horse. Cat doesn’t know it’s for her.’

  ‘That’s nice, dear. But you should try and get away a bit, David. Catriona is from a family used to going places. Girls like to meet up with old school friends and talk about babies and men and trips and clothes. You should remember that.’

  ‘We’re going to Sydney Royal, Mum. Angus and I might buy a bull in partnership,’ David said.

  ‘That is something,’ Anne said, and smiled. ‘But Sydney Royal is a fair way off.’

  ‘Well, we’re going up to Aberfeldy next month and we’ll have a day or two at Yeppoon. Would you like to come with us?’ he asked.

  ‘Not this time, dear. Maybe next time. That house has lovely memories for me,’ Anne said.

  ‘Me too,’ David said, and smiled. Both Anne and David had gone to Aberfeldy after idyllic honeymoons on the Queensland coast.

  ‘Being young and in love is the best time of one’s life. At least until the first baby comes. That is lovely too, but different. I am sure you and Catriona will have wonderful children. I am so looking forward to my grandchildren.’