Return to the High Country

by Tony Parsons

  ‘Good of you to put your cards on the table, David,’ Hamilton said. ‘It’s what I’d expect of you. I reckoned with what you’ve got here and that big place in Queensland the banks would be pretty sympathetic.’

  ‘Look, I won’t make a decision now, Troy. Can you give me a few days and I’ll let you know one way or the other?’

  ‘No worries – that’s fair enough. I didn’t expect an answer today. Thanks, Catriona,’ Hamilton said, as Catriona handed him a cup of tea and offered him a plate of biscuits. ‘By the way, how is the family?’

  ‘Very well, thank you Troy. They’re out the back with Lottie right now. Three children can be a bit overpowering at times,’ Catriona said.

  ‘Tell me about it. Beth brings her three up a couple of times a year and they just go mad. Probably does ’em a heap of good out here in the bush after Sydney. The city’s not my cup of tea but I’ve got to admit it’s where the good doctors are. The best doctors, I mean. I’ve been healthy all my life, even survived the war, and now this. No rhyme or reason for it.’

  ‘Jean Courteney, you know, Sister Jean down at Poitrel, says there’s a theory that too much meat in the diet can cause some cancers,’ Catriona said.

  ‘Well, I’ve certainly eaten a lot of meat in my time, Catriona. And I knew old fellows who never ate much else but meat and bread and lived into their nineties. I suppose these scientist fellows are finding out more things and maybe they’ll find a cure for cancer, but it won’t do me any good,’ Hamilton said.

  David was still thinking about Troy’s offer. ‘Troy, it’s a long time since I was on Strath Fillan. Dad took me there once when I was very young. Do you mind if I poke on down and have a look at your place?’ David asked.

  ‘Any time, David. Bring Catriona with you. Louise was only saying a few days ago that she hadn’t seen Catriona for ages.’

  ‘I’ve been a bit busy having babies these last few years, Troy. Thank you for the invitation.’

  They talked on about wool and cattle prices and then Troy said he had to go to town, and left. David saw him to his car and then came back to the lounge room.

  ‘Well, what do you think about that?’ Catriona asked, as he sat down.

  ‘I don’t know what to think, Cat. Troy’s offer takes me back to the day old Wilf visited and offered us Poitrel. We only had High Peaks then and it seemed the most wonderful news we had ever received. Owning more land was what Dad dreamed about, yet it killed him in the end,’ David said with emotion in his voice.

  ‘But you can buy Strath Fillan,’ Catriona said. It was a statement more than a question.

  ‘Oh, yes, we could buy the place, but it isn’t really the direction I had in mind for the business. If I buy Strath Fillan I couldn’t afford the breeding place out west. I haven’t found it yet, but the place I want would cost a lot more than Strath Fillan. I couldn’t afford the two. The whole idea of buying a breeding place is so we can breed replacement wethers. If we buy Strath Fillan without the breeding place then we would need to buy more wethers than we’re doing now.’

  ‘If it made good sense to buy Poitrel and then Glen Morrison because of their proximity to High Peaks then surely it also makes good sense to buy Strath Fillan, which adjoins Poitrel. It would give us three adjacent properties with Glen Morrison across the road,’ Catriona said.

  ‘I’m well aware of all that, Cat. It would give us over eleven thousand acres of hill country, plus Glen Morrison. And values are down now with the wool market the way it is, but I’m betting things won’t stay that way. If I wasn’t so keen to get hold of a good breeding place I’d probably say yes to Troy right now. He wants us to have the place just as Wilf wanted us to have Poitrel. Of course, Anne and Kate will have to be consulted. I know they’re happy to leave these decisions to me but they’re directors of High Peaks Pastoral Company so I can’t ignore them,’ David said.

  ‘Of course you can’t,’ Catriona agreed. ‘I think we should go and have a look at Strath Fillan. If you think it’s a good proposition, buy it.’

  ‘Then I’m up the creek for money to buy the other place. Sure, I could go to the bank but interest rates are too high now to make borrowing an option. There are good land people in lots of trouble over these high interest rates.’

  ‘I don’t know why you’re worried, darling. You can have my money to buy your breeding place. What’s mine is yours. I’ve told you that many times before. I wouldn’t have had Davana except for you. What I got for her would buy your breeding place, wouldn’t it?’

  ‘Close enough, Cat. But I don’t like using your money,’ David said.

  ‘Don’t be silly, darling. I have other money invested. Take Davana’s money. It’s for a worthwhile purpose,’ Catriona said.

  David looked at his wife and broke into a grin. ‘You’re a bottler, Cat. And to think I once thought you were a little pest,’ he said as he bent down to kiss her.

  Catriona knew that David did not throw praise around in an extravagant fashion. When he called someone a bottler, which was not very often, it was just about the highest compliment he could bestow.

  ‘But you always came to my rescue,’ she reminded him with a dazzling smile. It was the kind of smile that usually stopped him in his tracks.

  ‘So I did. Well, you were worth rescuing, Cat,’ he said.

  Catriona smiled broadly. The truth was that she really lived for David. He had always been the light on the hill for her. One of the things she most admired about her husband was that money hadn’t changed the way he treated people. He was just as likely to take Greg or Shaun to a stud sale as her father or brother. David had been lucky, but luck and money hadn’t changed him.

  David sat down in his lounge chair beside the fireplace and held out his hands towards her. Catriona got up and went across to him. She hadn’t sat on his lap for a while because the children were always underfoot. That was why she liked the privacy of the hills.

  ‘There’s another thing to consider,’ he said, as he kissed her cheek.

  ‘What is it, darling?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s Greg. He and Liz want to get married. On top of that, I’ve been trying to think of a way to upgrade his job – Greg is a good colt and I don’t want to lose him. I’ve put a lot of effort into making him a good stockman. When he came to us all he knew much about was horses and, while he’s still horse-mad, he’s not as one-eyed as he used to be. Liz is as horsey as he is but I think she’s a great girl. If we bought Strath Fillan I could make Greg manager there and he and Liz would have a place to make their home. The cottage is all right, but it’s only three rooms – not ideal for a young married woman,’ David said.

  ‘That’s a marvellous idea, darling,’ Catriona agreed.

  ‘I’m pleased you think so. I’ve got a pretty good idea what the property is like. I’ve looked at it from Wallaby Rocks. Some of it is top-of-the-range stuff but it’s got good valleys and a decent creek. On top of wethers and some cattle it would make a great horse place. Apart from Wilf’s remaining old mares and Starana, which have to stay on Poitrel, I reckon we could shift all the other horses to Strath Fillan. We could possibly stand Western Star there and Greg could look after all the mares. It would be another source of income and probably suit Greg and Liz down to the ground.’

  ‘You’re a genius, David,’ Cat said, and kissed him. ‘Daddy once said that you were a genius with stock and he was right.’

  David smirked. ‘If Daddy said it, it must be right, eh?’

  ‘David, don’t you dare make fun of my father!’ she scolded.

  ‘Wouldn’t dream of it, sweetheart. You know we get on very well these days.’

  The next day David and Catriona took two horses in a float down to Strath Fillan. It was the first time Catriona had been on the property. She had met Louise a couple of times and her son, Walter, only once. He was a quiet, middle-aged man who had never married. His arm shook as he extended his hand to David.

  ‘We brought horses and I thought you m
ight show us around a bit,’ David said, nodding at the float. ‘Can you manage that, Troy? I mean, are you well enough to ride?’

  ‘I’d sooner die on a horse than in a bed, David,’ Hamilton said proudly.

  Louise watched as David and Catriona mounted. She had always envied Catriona’s horsemanship. She had seen Catriona win Champion Lady Rider and Champion Hack awards and no woman she had ever seen rode a horse with more skill and beauty than Catriona MacLeod. Wilf White had told them that for sheer horsemanship David took some beating but Catriona certainly rode extremely well. She always had the best of horses to show her off, and the bay horse she was riding now was a beauty.

  Troy Hamilton took them through all his paddocks, though they didn’t attempt to ride to the tops. There were good grassy valleys and the timber was much the same as on High Peaks … ironbark, kurrajong, gum, and stringybark. David thought it was a better property than Poitrel, though it didn’t have the flat area that made Poitrel quite valuable. It was a fair sort of hill-country property suitable for wethers and cattle – the Hereford cattle they saw were in fine condition.

  They came back to the homestead mid-morning, flushed and enlivened from the ride. Across from the main house there was a smaller dwelling which, on enquiry, Troy told them had been the overseer’s cottage when the property had been much larger. It needed renovating but was structurally sound.

  The main homestead at Strath Fillan was similar to their own High Peaks house, timber with an iron roof. There was a gauzed-in verandah on three sides and one portion of the verandah had been converted into a sleepout-cum-bedroom. It was a comfortable country home with sweeping views of the surrounding country, and the kitchen was fitted with an Aga stove.

  The shearing shed was of three stands and again much like their own shed. It would hold several hundred sheep, probably close to two days’ shearing. There were stables in good nick, a feed shed and a cluster of other buildings – one of which, David noted, was a smithy.

  ‘Do all my own shoeing and make other things in my spare time,’ Troy explained.

  David nodded. He had heard that Troy Hamilton was regarded as a tough-as-teak bushman. David reckoned he would have made a good commando. It was a damned shame about the cancer. And about Walter’s Parkinson’s. A decent family like the Hamiltons shouldn’t have to face those sorts of problems. Sometimes life seemed brutally unfair.

  ‘How is your mother, David?’ Louise asked.

  ‘Well, thanks, Louise. The garden and grandchildren keep her busy. And of course she still does all our books,’ David answered.

  ‘I met Anne in town one day and she told me you had a landscape gardener come and set a garden up for her,’ Louise said.

  ‘And for Catriona too,’ he said, and grinned, ‘though Cat’s garden is more easy-care than Mum’s. Mum always wanted a nice garden, and now she’s got it. She needed something to take her mind off things after Dad died.’

  ‘I’ve only ever worried about a vegie garden here,’ Louise said. ‘I wouldn’t mind a more extensive garden but I don’t have much time, what with the writing and the quilting.’

  David and Catriona were both aware that Louise wrote children’s books and produced lovely quilts in her spare time. There was always something about Louise in the local paper.

  ‘I must come down one day and have a look at your quilts, Louise,’ Catriona said, as she and David were about to leave.

  ‘You’d better not leave it too long because Troy wants to sell up here as soon as he can, Catriona. He wants everything cleaned up so that if he goes, Walter and I are fixed up satisfactorily.’

  That afternoon David and Catriona met with Anne and Kate at the High Peaks homestead. David told them that Strath Fillan was on the market and that he had been offered first crack at the property.

  ‘Do you need more land, David?’ Anne asked. ‘It seems to me that you’ve got quite enough to look after.’

  ‘You can never have too much land, Mum. You do the books, so you would be well aware how much costs have gone up over the last few years. I’ve heard that good farming properties reckon ninety per cent of their incomes are going in costs. The smaller places are going to have a real battle replacing their farm machinery.’

  Anne and Kate listened intently as David continued. ‘In a few years’ time there will be three children to educate and two of them – the boys for sure – will want to stay here, and they will have to be paid a share of what we make,’ David said.

  Anne had said more than once that David shouldn’t bank on his children staying on the land. They might want to be anything but landowners but she bit her tongue now.

  ‘You only have to look at what’s happened in this district,’ David went on. ‘A hell of a lot of young people have had to leave their places because there’s not enough profit there any more. I’ve been lucky and have been able to acquire more land to build the business up, and now Strath Fillan has fallen into my lap. It fits in very well with what we’ve already got. There’s also the fact that Greg and Liz want to get married. If we buy Strath Fillan, I could put Greg there as a manager, which is the upgrade I’ve been wanting to give him,’ David said.

  ‘That’s a good point,’ Kate agreed.

  ‘I thought you wanted to buy a place further out to breed replacement wethers?’ Anne asked, a little confused.

  ‘So I do,’ David said.

  ‘I don’t see how you can buy two places,’ Anne said flatly.

  ‘Catriona wants us to buy Strath Fillan and she’s offered to give me the money to buy the other place. It will come from what she received for selling Davana,’ he said proudly.

  ‘Catriona!’ Anne exclaimed.

  ‘I’ve always told David that what’s mine is his, Anne. David is trying to build a future for our children, so it’s an investment. I wouldn’t have had Davana to sell only that David gave her to me. A property for a horse seems to me to be a very good exchange.’

  ‘Well, I must say that it was a very fortunate day for you, David, when you came to your senses and proposed to Catriona,’ Anne said.

  ‘Hear, hear,’ Kate chipped in.

  ‘That’s ancient history. Well, are we in agreement that we should buy Strath Fillan?’ he asked.

  ‘It seems we should,’ Anne said.

  ‘I agree,’ Kate said.

  ‘That’s the first and major item settled. What about my suggestion that we give Greg the manager’s job on Strath Fillan? He’s been in this little cottage a long time and I reckon he and Liz would be tickled pink to go there.’

  ‘I think that’s a splendid suggestion,’ Anne said.

  ‘Me, too,’ Kate agreed. ‘He’s certainly earnt it.’

  ‘My thinking is that we should move most of the horses to Strath Fillan and maybe stand Davana’s brother, Western Star, there one day. Greg and Liz are both horse-mad and that sort of thing would be right up their alley,’ David said.

  ‘That seems a good idea to me,’ Kate said.

  ‘Right, I’ll talk to Troy Hamilton and then to Greg. I reckon Greg and Liz will set their wedding date real quick when they hear the news,’ David said, and grinned.

  David and Catriona drove straight down to Strath Fillan to give the Hamiltons their decision. Relief spread across their faces. They knew that David MacLeod was the straightest man they could do business with and that they would get the fairest of fair deals. They made an appointment to meet with Hamilton’s solicitor next day, and High Peaks Pastoral Company bought Strath Fillan on a walk-in-walk-out basis.

  Before he and Catriona left Strath Fillan David pointed across to the old overseer’s cottage. ‘I’m going to renovate that cottage, Troy. When it’s done, you can tell Beth that she’d be welcome to keep bringing the kids up here on their holidays. The same goes for you people if you would like to spend some time here.’

  The Hamiltons looked at him in open-mouthed surprise. ‘I’ll fix it with the new manager,’ David said.

  He and Catriona got in the
car and drove away. When they had driven a little way down the road Catriona asked him to stop the car.

  ‘Why, Cat?’

  ‘Will you just stop the car, David,’ she asked again.

  He braked the car to a standstill and Catriona leant across and showered him with kisses.

  ‘What’s that for?’ he asked.

  ‘What you just offered to the Hamiltons – the use of the cottage – was one of the nicest things I have ever heard. For a supposedly tough, hard man, the son of a tough, hard man, you can be very soft at times, David MacLeod.’

  ‘Ah, well, those grandchildren of his would be very disappointed about not being able to go to Strath Fillan for their holidays. Maybe they’ll accept my offer and maybe they won’t. Given that Troy gave me first offer of Strath Fillan it’s the least I could do,’ David said. ‘Can I start up now?’

  ‘If we were out in the bush I’d –’ Catriona began.

  ‘And you the mother of three children,’ he said, as he started the car.

  David usually gave Greg his instructions for the following day on the previous evening. They would meet when Greg was feeding the horses, which was when David fed his dogs.

  ‘I’d like to see you in the woolshed at nine tomorrow morning, Greg,’ he said.

  ‘Anything wrong, David?’ Greg asked.

  ‘Nothing is wrong, Greg. It happens I might have some good news for you.’

  ‘Crikey, I like the sound of that.’

  ‘See you at nine, Greg,’ David said, as he walked away.

  The two men sat on wool bales in the shearing shed. ‘How long have you been with us, Greg?’ David asked.

  ‘A fair while, David. A year or so before you won the National and nine years since,’ Greg answered.