Return to the High Country

by Tony Parsons

  ‘You must think I’ve got a lot of cheek coming to you like this, but you’re the only person who can help me, Mr Mac,’ Sarah began.

  ‘Surely not. You must have admirers galore, Sarah. Couldn’t Dougal have helped you? He’s a clever fellow,’ David said.

  Sarah tilted her head and smiled. ‘Dougal has asked me to marry him, Mr Mac.’

  ‘Good heavens, has he? Well, he could hardly do better than you, Sarah. I’d say he’s made a very good choice.’ But the thought of this sweet, warm young woman being married to his dour son filled him with foreboding. Dougal wasn’t the man for Sarah.

  Sarah got up and walked to the edge of the verandah. From there she had a view of the country below Yellow Rock and the mountain itself.

  ‘I need to know something, Mr Mac. You know I love you. I still love you and I don’t love Dougal. If there was no Catriona, would you marry me?’

  Her question almost took his breath away. He realised it must have taken a lot of courage to ask it. And he knew he would have to answer it with equal candour.

  ‘Why do you ask such a question, Sarah?’

  ‘I don’t know much about men and have never wanted to. I never liked a man until I met you. I used to see you watching me and I thought perhaps you liked me a bit more … a bit more than as someone who simply worked for you. There was something in your eyes but maybe I was foolish thinking that because I knew how happily married you were, and are. But I have to know. One way or another, I have to know,’ she said.

  ‘What did you tell Dougal when he asked you to marry him?’ he asked, without answering her question.

  ‘I said I would have to think about it,’ she said.

  ‘You don’t love him?’

  ‘No, I don’t love him. Dougal is a clever man, he has high principles and he’d be a good provider. A girl has to ask herself if she could do better,’ she said with a wry smile.

  ‘Dougal isn’t the man for you, Sarah. He’s my son and I agree with you that he is a clever vet and a good-living man but he isn’t the right man for you. He’s too full of himself and a little arrogant and cold. I would hate to think of all your warmth wasted on Dougal. You’re great with animals and Dougal appreciates that. It sounds more like a business arrangement than a marriage. If you came for my advice, there you have it,’ he said.

  Sarah’s eyes were wide and fixed on him. ‘You haven’t answered my question, Mr Mac,’ she said.

  ‘No, I haven’t. I love Cat, and I’ve always loved her. Next to Cat you’re the sweetest woman I’ve known, Sarah. I hated it when you left here and I’ve missed you every day since. But Cat is my wife, and there is no place for you in my future. This is as far as it goes, Sarah. I’ve answered your question but I would never cheat on Cat.’

  She looked up at him through eyes wet with tears. ‘I wouldn’t expect you to,’ she said. ‘I’ve heard what I wanted to hear.’

  ‘You surprise me, Sarah. I never imagined you would need my help to make up your mind over something like this. You had definite ideas and weren’t backward in expressing them – that was one of the things I liked about you. It would be you that has to live with Dougal,’ he said.

  ‘Things aren’t always simple, Mr Mac. It’s a tough world for a woman on her own. Some day I’d like to have a child or two and it’s not easy to do that on your own. I look at Dougal and I ask whether I could do better. He doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke and works hard. He isn’t … well, he isn’t –’

  ‘A bundle of laughs?’ David suggested.

  ‘That will do, Mr Mac. Dougal isn’t a bundle of laughs but he’s a good man. Then there’s the fact that he’s your son, which raises a different set of problems.’

  ‘I understand what you’re trying to say,’ David said. ‘Look here, Sarah, I’m not an expert where women are concerned but it seems to me that you’re asking yourself whether you can live with Dougal even though you don’t love him and he doesn’t actually love you. What I think you have to ask yourself is whether you would prefer to live without him. I don’t know how many times you can fall in love, but I’m willing to bet that you’ll find another man you’ll love with all your heart and he won’t be a man twice as old as you like David MacLeod.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ she said, ‘although I haven’t much time for men generally – they don’t impress me. I prefer horses.’

  ‘Then stick to horses, Sarah. Now that you and Emily have a Starana filly, you’ll have something really worthwhile to work on and a promising future.’

  ‘I’ve dreamed of owning a horse that could win big races,’ she said.

  ‘That’s fine. Everyone needs a dream. I once dreamt of winning the National sheepdog trials for my father. That dream became a reality when I won the trial. Yours could too, Sarah. Keep dreaming because life is a damned hard place without a few dreams.’

  ‘The trouble is that you are in most of my dreams, Mr Mac,’ she said.

  David shook his head. ‘You have to focus on something else, Sarah, or you’ll mess up your life. I’ve been honest with you and you’re a great girl, Sarah. I mean that sincerely. Any man who can claim your hand can consider himself very, very fortunate. But don’t throw yourself away on someone who doesn’t love you as much as you should be loved.’

  He saw that she was close to tears again and wished to blazes that there was a simple solution to her problem.

  ‘I knew I was right to come to you,’ she said.

  ‘So what will you do, Sarah?’ he asked.

  ‘Not marry Dougal,’ she said.

  ‘A very wise decision. A disloyal sentiment considering the subject in question is my son but with the regard I have for you, I can say nothing else,’ he said.

  ‘It is what I expected from you, Mr Mac. You are the most honest person I know. I had better leave now. I would so much like to call and see your mother but under the circumstances it would be better if I didn’t. She might let it slip to Mrs Mac that I was here and that could cause trouble for you,’ she said.

  ‘I’ll tell her anyway,’ David said.

  ‘You amaze me,’ Sarah said. ‘Will you tell her everything?’

  ‘Not everything, but I’ll certainly tell Cat that you came here for advice. I wouldn’t want her to think I had tried to conceal the fact that you came here. We’ve always trusted each other and that’s the way it has to be in a marriage,’ he said.

  She kissed his cheek. ‘Thank you, thank you for everything,’ she said.

  ‘Good luck, Sarah. Good luck with whatever you do,’ he replied, warmly. He watched her walk down the steps to her vehicle, and noted that she didn’t turn back. Her old white utility had been exchanged for a newer model. He wished to blazes she was still working for him. It had been great working with her. Why did she have to fall in love with him and spoil everything? He wondered how differently he would have treated Sarah if he didn’t have Cat.

  News reached David a few weeks later that Sarah had left Dougal’s employ and had accepted a position at a horse stud in Britain. Emily told him that she was working there to gain experience – as good an explanation for her departure as any, David reflected.

  Catriona and Moira arrived back from Sydney with a couple of cases of new clothes and accessories and full of accounts of the ‘new’ Sydney. For his part David couldn’t care if he never saw Sydney again, or any capital city for that matter. Cities were tiresome, cold places and he confined his visits to Royal Show times and wool sales.

  ‘Did you have many visitors, darling?’ Catriona asked.

  ‘Yes, any interesting ones, Dad?’ Moira added.

  They were having dessert on their first night back and catching up on the local news and gossip. ‘A couple of reps, two ram buyers, a bull client and the fuel fellow. Oh, yes, and Sarah Matheson,’ he said casually.

  Catriona sat up straight and Moira’s eyes became bright.

  ‘Sarah Matheson. Sarah hasn’t been here since she resigned,’ Catriona said. She might as well have come straig
ht out and said what she was thinking. Why did Sarah come here while David was on his own? She would have known he was on his own because Emily knew that she and Moira were going to Sydney.

  David knew precisely what his wife was thinking. ‘Sarah came to me for some advice,’ he said.

  ‘What kind of advice, darling?’ Catriona asked. The old alarm bells were ringing again.

  ‘Dougal asked Sarah to marry him,’ he said bluntly.

  The two women looked at him in astonishment. This wasn’t the answer they were expecting, and it had them stunned.

  ‘Dougal asked Sarah to marry him?’ Catriona repeated.

  ‘That’s right,’ David said, and went on eating his dessert while the others watched him.

  ‘What advice did Sarah want from you?’ Catriona asked.

  ‘Whether or not she should,’ he said through the peaches and custard.

  ‘What did you tell her?’ Catriona asked.

  ‘Well, Dougal doesn’t actually love her and she doesn’t love him so it would be a marriage of convenience rather than love. Dougal regards Sarah as an asset to his business and Sarah wonders if she would ever do any better than Dougal. She recognises that he’s not a bundle of laughs but he’s a good-living fellow who would be a good provider. She also wants a child or two later in life, and is wary of doing this on her own. I told her that the big question wasn’t so much whether she could live with Dougal as whether she wanted to live without him,’ he said.

  ‘Good heavens,’ Catriona said. Her husband’s answer stunned her. Not because she found fault with it but because it was so sound.

  ‘So what is Sarah going to do, Dad?’ Moira asked.

  ‘I have no idea, Moy,’ he said. Sarah had told him that she wouldn’t marry Dougal but at that stage he didn’t know she had handed in her resignation and was going to the UK. He knew that Catriona would ring Emily posthaste to try and learn more.

  ‘It’s strange that Dougal didn’t say anything to me,’ Catriona said. She thought he might have let her know what he had in mind.

  ‘Ah, well, that’s our Dougal, isn’t it?’ David said with a wry smile.

  ‘Do you approve of Dougal’s offer, David?’ Catriona asked.

  ‘It’s not for me to approve or disapprove, Cat,’ David said in a side-stepping answer to her question. If he had been a totally one-eyed parent he would have responded by saying that he did because he reckoned that Dougal would never find a better woman than Sarah Matheson. But he reckoned that Sarah could find a more convivial partner than his son.

  This was not the answer Catriona wanted and she let him know it. ‘You must have an opinion one way or another. You aren’t usually reticient on such matters – or any matter if it comes to that,’ she said.

  ‘I doubt that Dougal could do much better in a wife than Sarah Matheson, Cat,’ he said.

  ‘Hear, hear,’ Moira said.

  This was a very clever answer for a fellow who was supposed to be a dyed-in-the-wool bushie, and it left Catriona high and dry. She couldn’t find a way to extract more than this from her husband, but she was far from satisfied that he had given her his honest opinion.

  Catriona’s view was reinforced a fortnight later when she learnt that Sarah had resigned from her son’s practice and was off to the UK. She would have given anything to know just what advice or opinion David had tendered Sarah but whatever it was, she had turned Dougal down. Catriona’s private view was that David had advised Sarah against marrying their son. It was the straight-from-the-shoulder kind of thing David would do. He was never less than honest and sometimes honest to the point of bluntness.

  Nor was Dougal much help to her because he didn’t mention his proposal to Sarah, and Catriona couldn’t very well bring it up without revealing how she knew of it. If she let on that Sarah had talked to David about the proposal this would only lead to more bitterness on Dougal’s part. He would blame David for Sarah turning him down. So she and Moira agreed that it was better to say nothing. David, they knew, would certainly not refer to the matter. Catriona wasn’t sure whether she should be happy or relieved. While it would be a relief to see Dougal happily married like his younger brother, whether Sarah was the best possible choice was another matter. Although Sarah was the daughter of one of Catriona’s oldest friends, there wasn’t much behind her in the way of property, which meant wealth. Like her parents, Catriona was of the view that a man as clever as her son could find better prospects for a partner than Sarah Matheson. More important was the fact that Catriona knew that Sarah had been in love with her husband and could still be in love with him for all she knew. If so, she wasn’t the right woman for Dougal. But the inkling persisted that David had suggested to Sarah that Dougal wasn’t the right man for her. That was a totally different kettle of fish.

  By the time Sarah came home, Starana had foaled a second filly and was in foal again. Her mother had already refused a big offer for the first foal, which was being trained to race. This was the forerunner to a return to prosperity for Emily Matheson.

  Over at High Peaks it wasn’t horses that were a concern right now, but kelpies.

  Chapter Eighteen

  It could easily be assumed that with eight properties to run and a business to oversee, David MacLeod had no time at all for his kelpies. But this wasn’t so. David continued to trial locally for some years until his stud stock and property interests became so demanding that he was unable to devote enough time to training his dogs. But with so much mountain country, dogs were an essential part of station life – sheep were just as difficult to muster as they had always been – and while David didn’t attend trials as often as he once did, his dogs were still a big part of his life. David also kept Greg Robertson supplied with dogs, although in comparison to the hill-country properties, Molonga and Wirrewarra were relatively easy to muster.

  David’s kelpies were still full of the blood of Nap, Clancy and Belle. At Inverlochy David and Stuart had started a line of dogs with Meg, the imported collie Angus Campbell had purchased before he died. David recognised that you couldn’t breed dogs too close and he liked the go of the collie bitch so much that he reckoned she was worth using as an outcross. He wanted to see what the progeny of this cross were like before he decided to use them.

  The dogs were never neglected and David had built new pens to house them. When Kate had retired from Glen Morrison she asked if she could look after the dogs for him and she did this very well until not long before her death. When Moira came home from school she too looked after the dogs and their pups, and Catriona would also help at times.

  David tried earnestly to keep abreast of developments in the sheepdog field. He noted the increase in popularity of yard-dog and utility trials while at the same time good three-sheep kelpies seemed to be on the decline. David knew that some of his current dogs had the potential to win three-sheep trials and it irked him that he hadn’t sufficient time to do them justice. He had always tried to work at least one dog at the local trial to ‘keep his hand in’. He didn’t work a dog the year Angus Campbell won the Open with Rob Roy and he hadn’t worked since then. Young Angus was working some of the dogs from High Peaks and he was a very good handler, but the old yearning was still there. When both Angus and Stuart Campbell told David that some handlers were saying he was finished, he was determined to have one final lash at the Merriwa Trial. It so happened that some of the locals decided to up the prize money and run a championship trial to coincide with Merriwa’s annual wool promotion, the Festival of the Fleeces.

  David had a female line going back to the great bitch Belle, and from a bitch of this line he had bred a black-and-tan dog he called Rip. The venerable but still fanatical breeder, Bruce McClymont, had tried to buy Rip when he saw him work. The dog was then not much above a year old but had so much natural ability Bruce fell in love with him and compared his work to Clancy’s. David declined Bruce’s offer for Rip because he felt that this was probably the best male dog he had owned for a long time – for
one thing Rip had wonderful distance off his sheep, a rare and priceless trait in a trial dog. Most kelpies, and certainly most current kelpies, wanted to come onto sheep too quickly, which was devastating for three-sheep trial work; Rip could adjust his distance to suit the pace of sheep.

  David knew that if he could find the time to educate Rip he was capable of winning any trial with him. He put fresh wethers into the old training paddock above the house and devoted time to working Rip either early in the morning or late in the evening. It was as if the years had peeled away and he was back training Clancy and Needle. Rip didn’t have Clancy’s rare hypnotic power over sheep but he did have his beautiful hold-and-drive footwork. Rip wouldn’t move an inch more than he had to because he had the anticipation of the old MacLeod dogs and was always in position.

  Further criticism of David came via Stuart Campbell, who told David people were saying he was one-eyed and out of date because of his attitude towards yard trials. Infuriated, David resolved to knock the damning rumours on the head quick smart. He had a brother to Rip that lacked his class but was a very useful dog. Spike had less eye than Rip and he would push up on a mob fairly well.

  David got hold of a couple of videos of yard trials and studied how the top dogs and handlers worked, and how these trials were scored. Using these videos as his training aids, he began training Spike as a yard dog. Spike soon took to running over sheep and he had just enough eye to hold sheep in the bigger yards. When Bruce McClymont drove up to make another attempt to buy Rip he saw Spike and said he was a dog David would have no trouble selling for a tasty sum if he wanted to let him go. David reckoned that in the light of the sheep he had to handle, Spike was probably too useful to let go. He would be just about perfect for Greg Robertson, too.

  Rip and Spike were coming along well, and David was pleased with their work. But on the land it’s not uncommon for disaster to loom when things are looking good. However, that this should involve Moira took David completely by surprise because he believed his daughter was just about perfect. And whether ‘disaster’ is an accurate description for what almost happened to her could be disputed. Certainly David treated the matter as if it were an imminent catastrophe.