River Run

by Alexander, Nicole

  Exhausted, she wished she could sleep. Prayed that the night would end. That Robbie and Hugh would come back to her.

  But there was no-one. Eleanor was completely alone.

  She needed water.

  Eleanor closed her eyes tightly and began to pray.

  When the wind finally dropped and heavy rain came in the hour before dawn, Eleanor cut the rope binding her and sank to the base of the tree.

  Thursday

  Towards the Light

  Chapter Fifty

  Hugh woke before dawn, his first thoughts of Eleanor. Beside him, Robbie stirred. ‘The worst of it’s over, Robbie. We’ll soon be home.’

  The boy groaned as Hugh propped him against the side of the overturned truck. Overhead, a pale sky began to appear.

  ‘There you go.’ Hugh positioned Robbie’s leg, splintered between two lengths of timber.

  ‘Is it bad?’ asked Robbie between gulps of air.

  ‘It’s broken and your collarbone doesn’t look too great either.’

  Robbie grimaced. ‘Everything hurts.’

  ‘I reckon it would, especially when you add on the miles you walked yesterday.’

  Bluey crawled out from around the side of the truck and sat beside his master. Robbie petted the animal, feeling the dog’s front leg, which he favoured.

  ‘We’ll check him out when we get back to the homestead,’ Hugh offered.

  ‘He’s my attack dog now,’ the boy shared. ‘Guess what, Bluey, looks like I won’t be going to school for a while now.’

  Hugh laughed.

  Robbie grew serious. ‘And the men?’

  ‘I did a circuit earlier in the dark but I couldn’t see much.’ And what Hugh had seen had been quite unexpected. ‘I’m worried about your sister. I promised Eleanor that I’d come back and I’ve left her alone the entire night. She’ll think I deserted her.’ He would have tried to find her sooner, however, he was uncertain as to how badly Robbie was injured. It was a hard decision, leaving Elly to fend for herself.

  ‘It was a bad storm,’ Robbie said slowly, ‘but Elly can look after herself.’

  Hugh dearly hoped so. ‘Made worse by those idiots with their out-of-control fire. If not for the rain, who knows how much of the property would have been burnt out.’ The ground was charred black and littered with dead sheep. ‘I’m just going for a bit of a walk and then I’ll be back, Robbie. Alright?’

  The boy nodded.

  Half a mile from where Robbie lay, Hugh found Rex where he’d left him earlier. He guessed the old man had spotted the fire in the distance during the night and ridden out to investigate. It was while Hugh was out searching for signs of the men Robbie confronted during the night, that he came across Rex lying on the ground. Whether he’d been thrown from his horse or suffered a heart attack, Hugh couldn’t tell.

  ‘I’m sorry I had to leave you, Rex.’ Hugh squatted by the dead man’s side. ‘I had to get back to Robbie and I’ve still got Eleanor out here somewhere as well.’ He rested a palm on the gardener’s cold forehead. ‘You should have stayed at the house, old man … You’ll be missed.’ He had no blanket or covering. Hugh hated to leave Rex out in the bush but he reckoned River Run’s oldest member of staff wouldn’t mind.

  As dawn approached, Hugh walked back to Robbie. He wished he hadn’t asked Elly to come with him last night. He was so damn worried about her that it made his guts churn. Why had he pressured her into joining him? Because it was an opportunity to spend time with her, alone. That was the truth of it. And when he wanted something he tended to go after it. His recent promotion was proof of that.

  Hugh had convinced himself that Elly would be safe. That they’d find her young brother and return safely to the homestead. Sure, he could pretend that her knowledge of the location of Robbie’s treehouse was vital, but he roughly knew of the spot and would have eventually found it alone. Hugh also knew that Elly wasn’t comfortable in the dark, and she shouldn’t have felt compelled to ride out at night. But he’d made a logical argument at the time and her family were in eventual agreement with the plan.

  The reality was that he was now filled with guilt for having subjected Elly to such grave danger. Was she injured? Would she be angry with him for not coming back to her as he’d promised? It was not what he’d intended. Hugh hadn’t felt this way about a woman since Vivien, and the intensity of his feelings for Eleanor had taken him quite unawares.

  ‘See anything?’ the boy queried weakly on his return.

  ‘Rex,’ Hugh answered thoughtlessly, his mind still on Eleanor. He sat by the boy’s side, then not wanting to upset the kid, he added, ‘He’ll be fine.’

  ‘It hurts,’ Robbie admitted.

  ‘I know, mate. How do you feel about being carried for a while? We could head towards the area where I left your sister.’

  ‘In a little while maybe,’ was Robbie’s reply.

  Chapter Fifty-one

  Eleanor awoke curled at the base of the tree. A weak light suffused the bush as she sat up slowly, wiping dirt from her cheek, to stare at the surrounding wrecked land. Branches, leaves and twigs were scattered among larger saplings toppled by the brunt of the storm. The heavy scent of burnt ground clogged the blue air. Stretching out stiff legs, she kicked away leafy branches and rose unsteadily. A heavy pall hung over the area, the silence only broken by the arrival of a kangaroo, tracking its way through the debris in the early morning light.

  Eleanor looked heavenward and, for the first time in many years, crossed herself. She’d survived. Not only the storm, but she’d also faced her fear of the night and endured that as well. The kangaroo headed in the direction of the river and Eleanor followed, wary of tripping over, although the ground was sodden from the heavy rain that had arrived before dawn.

  At the river, Eleanor splashed water on her face and neck, her fingers tracing the uneven crust across one cheek that pain told her was a cut. The feeling of revival was instantaneous. She was drained of energy but Eleanor also felt strengthened. She thought back through the long hours of the storm and her fierce desire to not only withstand the ordeal but to also overcome some of her own demons. It was as if the whole experience had afforded her a fresh perspective on life.

  In clearing her thoughts, the enormity of what had transpired was reinforced. Eleanor gazed at the damaged land. Where on earth was Robbie? And what had happened to Hugh? The bush woke slowly. Birds twittered, swooping low across the ground to search for insects. Eleanor took in the scale of the storm, quickly comprehending that there would be no chance of tracking Hugh. Any footprints had been obliterated by the rain. The most logical decision was to head back to the homestead so that a search party could be sent out for Robbie and now Hugh.

  Hugh. He’d said he’d come back for her. Eleanor had trusted in that during the long hours tied to the tree, the wind bashing and howling about her. She believed that he would return for her and he’d sealed his intent with a kiss.

  But he hadn’t come back. Why? What if Hugh hadn’t returned as promised because he couldn’t?

  The ramifications of such thoughts worried Eleanor more than she cared to admit and she set off in the direction of the homestead. A weak sun straggled into being in the east, light stretching through the damaged bush as she clambered over the fallen limbs of trees, the stench of doused flames growing stronger with the day’s heat. With each step, Eleanor increased her pace. Her waist ached from the taut rope, her head pounded and as the fear grew within, all she could think about was Robbie and Hugh lying injured somewhere in the scrub. She had to get back to the house and raise the alarm. It was impossible to take a direct route, so Eleanor veered to the left, stepping over and ducking under branches. It was an effort to forge a path in a direct line of sight towards the house. There was no choice but to cut back towards the river in the hope of easier going. Ten minutes later, Eleanor lifted a low-hanging bough and walked through the rain-slicked leaves to a clearing.

  Ahead, the ragged blackness of charred eart
h spread out towards the east. Logs smouldered, trees were bereft of leaves. The land stretched burnt and barren into the distance where sheep could be heard, as if crying out in pain. The river paddock was a moonscape, and on the edge of this new world was the truck Eleanor witnessed rolling in that lightning flash during the night. The vehicle lay by its side near the river, the water glistening brilliantly in the sunlight.

  From this desolation, a figure rose.

  It was a man, a man she would know anywhere. Eleanor was so grateful, so overjoyed to see him again, uninjured, that she began to run to Hugh immediately. But he carried Robbie in his arms and the boy was clearly hurt. Behind them, the cattle-pup limped. She met Hugh midway across the fired earth, her earlier concern replaced with joy, tempered by this, their first meeting, after the kiss they’d shared.

  ‘I was coming for you,’ Hugh said flatly, the strain of the night obvious in the way he moved. Reaching grass untouched by the fire, Hugh carefully lay Robbie on the ground.

  Eleanor touched her young brother’s forehead. ‘You found him’. ‘

  It’s broken.’ Hugh gestured to Robbie’s leg, the cattle-pup coming to sit by the boy’s side. ‘And I think his collarbone is as well.’

  Eleanor noted the makeshift leg splint constructed with branches. Robbie was pale, but awake, groggy with pain. She knelt by his side and took his hand in hers. Bluey licked her arm, then gave his master a nudge in the ribs. The boy moaned.

  ‘You’re alright?’ asked Hugh, surveying her briefly, before studying Robbie. ‘You’ve got a few cuts and bruises.’

  It was almost an aside, a token comment, as if he was barely interested. ‘I hadn’t noticed,’ Eleanor answered carefully, tracing her own face, feeling the swell of skin and tender areas crusty with dirt or maybe blood. She thought of their kiss. Eleanor was confused.

  ‘The fire did a lot of damage, Elly. It looks like it burnt out a good portion of the eastern corner. I heard sheep –’

  She interrupted him. ‘I was worried when you didn’t come back.’

  The briefest expression crossed his face. ‘I know. I’m sorry.’ Hugh checked the splint on Robbie’s leg, asked the boy if he were comfortable. Robbie said he was.

  Eleanor wondered if Hugh felt guilty about deserting her. Was that why he was behaving this way. She’d prayed for him to return to her last night, but Eleanor also knew how impossible that was considering the ferocity of the wind and the lack of moon. ‘It was a bad storm,’ she persevered. ‘I was –’

  ‘Scared?’ Hugh completed her sentence, nodding in agreement. ‘It wasn’t a good night to be out, that’s for sure.’

  ‘No,’ agreed Eleanor, ‘it wasn’t.’ Somehow their conversation didn’t seem to match the event they’d all lived through. It was stilted and Hugh seemed strangely formal. ‘I never guessed you two were only a ten minutes’ walk away.’

  ‘Neither did I,’ Hugh replied.

  ‘And Rex?’ Robbie said softly. ‘Is Rex alright?’

  ‘He’s fine,’ Hugh assured him. ‘Got caught up in the storm,’ he explained to Eleanor. ‘Rex must have decided to check things out himself. Either that or he saw the bushfire and came to investigate.’

  ‘Where is he?’ asked Eleanor.

  Hugh answered vacantly, ‘Not far. Look, I’ll have to leave Robbie here with you, Elly, and head back to the house. We need a vehicle.’ Hugh rested a hand on the boy’s forehead. ‘I’ll be back.’

  Robbie gave a weak smile. ‘I stopped them, Mr Goward.’

  ‘You sure did, Robbie.’ Hugh smoothed Robbie’s matted hair. ‘You sure did.’ To Eleanor he simply gestured towards the homestead, a nod that took in the tangled bush. ‘I’ll be back soon.’

  Eleanor sat crosslegged in the dirt beside her half-brother. This time she didn’t watch River Run’s Stud Master walk away.

  ‘He saved me, Elly,’ Robbie grimaced. ‘Did he save you too?’

  Eleanor thought of the kiss they’d shared, and how the sensation of Hugh’s lips on hers made her feel. It was that kiss that made her keep her word. She’d stayed tied to the tree, endured the thrashing of the storm, cowered as the lightning bit the earth nearby, striking trees only feet away. Eleanor should have run for cover, hidden deeper in the timber. A change in the wind direction and she too may have very well been engulfed in flames.

  ‘Did he save you, Elly?’ Robbie asked weakly.

  Eleanor looked to the now empty fringe of scrub. If she’d ever wanted to be saved by a man, Hugh Goward should have been the one to do it. He may have tied her to a tree, but Hugh didn’t save her. In fact, he’d abandoned her to the elements, knowing how bad the storm was, aware a thief could be nearby, conscious she was uncomfortable alone in the dark. ‘No, he didn’t save me, Robbie. I saved myself.’

  ‘That’s what he said to me, Elly. That’s what Mr Goward said that you’d do.’

  Tuesday

  Beginnings and Endings

  Chapter Fifty-two

  Georgia levered herself up from the roll-top desk, closing the cover on the rows of figures written in the ledger. Having taken refuge from the mourners at the wake by escaping to the station office, she joined Eleanor at the bay window. Rainwater still lay in pools around the homestead, while across the endless acres, the countryside heralded the faintest tinge of green. The thirsty land was drying out. Indeed, in some places the deluge was barely noticeable. Mother and daughter observed twittering birds as they dashed from shrub to waterhole and back, hovering above the place where the toppled bird-bath once stood.

  On the gravel drive, locals from the district gathered to say their last goodbyes. Sympathies and fond memories and a store-house of tall tales mixed with discussions regarding damage. River Run was not the only property affected by the wild storm, although it fared worse than most.

  ‘Should we see them off?’ asked Eleanor, referring to their departing guests. Pattie Hicks was speaking to Mrs Howell, while a dozen or so other friends and acquaintances were staring at the famed rose garden, or what was left of it.

  Georgia pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘I’ve spoken to everyone at least twice, Elly. And I’ve said my goodbyes. To be honest my brain is numb. I couldn’t possibly subject myself to another round of condolences and platitudes. Besides, I think our guests are exhausted as well. It’s been a long afternoon.’

  Mrs Howell kissed Pattie on the cheek and retreated towards the house. Of everyone associated with River Run, the housekeeper was the most visibly affected by the recent events. Even her grey hair appeared whiter, her footsteps noticeably slower.

  ‘We’re lucky to have the support of such loyal workers and friends,’ Georgia said with pride. With shearing due to recommence in the morning, the team elected to hold a cut-out party, usually reserved to mark the end of shearing, to honour Rex March, the man they’d buried today.

  Eleanor brushed away a tear. It was still difficult to comprehend the magnitude of incidents that had befallen the family in the space of only one week, culminating in a bushfire and the worst storm in decades and, most tragically, the loss of a beloved member of the property.

  The damaging storm’s path of destruction included a portion of the shearers’ quarters, a large section of the woolshed’s roof, the schoolhouse and the windmill, which simply vanished, while a trail of decapitated trees marked the wind’s route. Mother and daughter surveyed the decimation to the rose garden as cars drove slowly along the driveway. There were few plants left and those that were there were ruined.

  ‘We were lucky in some respects.’ Georgia straightened the collar of the plain black dress she wore. ‘It could have been worse.’

  Eleanor pondered how much worse. The ferocious dust storm and dangerous winds ripped across their lands with such intensity that even now, five days on, Eleanor remained haunted by what she’d witnessed, roped to the tree by the river. The world was turned inside out that night. The land had shrieked and groaned, as if being cut down by some super-human force. And the wind,
the wind was a steam engine and she the tethered victim tied to the tracks. Her survival was due more to luck than anything else, but she had survived and come out stronger for the experience.

  As if reading her thoughts, Georgia prodded the cuts and grazes on her daughter’s face, a result of the flying debris that had struck her body during the height of the storm. ‘I don’t know what I was thinking, allowing you to accompany Hugh that night.’

  ‘Well, if Robbie had stayed put in his tree we probably would have been there and back before the dust storm hit. Anyway, no-one knew the storm was approaching, Mum. And I wasn’t exactly dragged away kicking and screaming.’

  ‘You didn’t jump at the suggestion either if I recall. I still can’t fathom why Hugh was so adamant that you go with him. I must admit I was furious with him initially, but as it turned out Hugh Goward certainly proved himself to be a good man in a crisis.’ Her mother tucked a length of curly hair behind Eleanor’s ear. ‘You’d just as likely have been blown away as well, were it not for Hugh’s quick thinking.’

  At the mere mention of the Stud Master’s name, a surge of anxiety flooded through her. ‘So you keep saying, Mum.’

  ‘And I’ll keep saying it. You shouldn’t have been out there, but you undoubtedly owe him your life, Elly. Your brother certainly does.’ In a corner of the station office, Robbie dozed. Georgia gave her son a fond smile. ‘Did you speak to Hugh today?’

  ‘Sort of, no, not really.’ Avoidance seemed more appropriate considering Hugh’s own evasion. They’d not talked beyond necessity since his return to the spot where he’d left her and Robbie. By then, three hours later, an army of men – shearers, shed-hands and jackeroos – were on hand to tend to Robbie, resume the search for the stock-thieves and begin accessing the damage to livestock. What Eleanor didn’t know at the time was that Hugh had already found Rex, the old man dead from a heart attack. There was little wonder Hugh behaved so distantly that morning. He’d been protecting both Eleanor and Robbie. But Eleanor hadn’t known about Rex, all she knew was that she’d gone through the most frightening experience of her life, and when she’d finally found Robbie and Hugh, it was as if the man she’d ridden out with the night before had been replaced with a stranger.