Lake Hill

by Margareta Osborn

  Lights flashed on the track as another four-wheel drive pulled up near the yards. Two doors slammed and Rick and Charlie were coming towards her.

  ‘What’s happened?’ Rick’s voice was gruff. ‘I knew this dog caper wasn’t a good idea.’

  Julia couldn’t believe he’d take such a cheap shot. ‘Someone let the dogs off their chains.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘If I knew that I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you, would I?’

  ‘I reckon you’d have ’em lined up against a wall ready to be shot,’ interrupted Charlie, obviously trying to forestall an argument. ‘Well, that’s if you knew how to use a gun, of course.’

  She spun on him, about to let fly with something she would have later regretted, but he flapped his hands in the air. ‘Sorry, sorry. Obviously not the time for jokes. I’ll head down the hill, see whether I can spot some eyeshine in the gully.’

  He hurried away, leaving her and Rick alone. She stood with her back to him, watching the action through the now teeming rain. Gradually more and more owners were towing their dogs back to camp, but there was no sign of Montana.

  ‘I’m going to help your sister,’ Julia snapped.

  She walked off, her torch shining a path through the grass ahead. Rick fell in beside her and they trudged down the hill in silence towards all the other beams strung like fairy lights across the valley.

  Finally Rick said quietly, ‘What have I done?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  She couldn’t articulate why she was so angry with him, and with whoever had done this in an attempt to destroy Montana’s weekend. Was it Rick?

  Of course not, her common sense answered back.

  ‘Why are you so angry with me then?’ he asked.

  Julia turned and faced him. ‘You could start by being more supportive of what your sister’s trying to do here. From what I heard today, this “dog caper”, as you so unkindly put it, could help in educating your stock to be calmer, which in turn will give you better returns!’

  She stopped. Was she, a newbie, really telling this born and bred farmer what to do? Gauging from his expression, he couldn’t believe it either.

  ‘Right,’ he said, but there was a little grin playing around his lips, which made her cross all over again.

  ‘And if you’d bothered to show some interest and come over from your subterranean hideaway, you might have learnt all that and more for yourself.’ She crossed her arms and glowered at him.

  ‘Youch, she bites,’ he said, stepping a little away from her. ‘Am I safe at this distance?’

  ‘No, you’re not.’ She walked on, faster now. She could hear Montana yelling something.

  Rick obviously did too as he hastily followed. They met up with the two girls a little further down the paddock in a glade surrounded by dark and dripping blackwood saplings. Chloe had hold of one dog by its yellow collar, and had a lead on another one. Montana had baling twine through the collar of a tri-colour kelpie and was holding an older dog in her arms.

  ‘Rick? Thank God. It’s Winter. He’s hurt.’ She held up the dog’s leg and, in the torchlight, Julia could see the dark blood oozing out of a wound.

  Rick strode to his sister and took Winter from her arms, talking quietly and calmly to the old dog. He lay him on the ground and gently felt around the cut. Winter whimpered and tried to lick his hand. The dog liked him, even Julia could see that.

  ‘I think it’s only a flesh wound,’ he said. ‘I’ll carry him up to the car and we’ll get him home, have a proper look. If needs be, I’ll run him into the vet at Narree.’

  Which would cost a fortune out of hours, thought Julia.

  Montana was peering over Rick’s shoulder, holding the torch up so he could see the dog’s wound. She didn’t say anything but Julia could see she was gripping her brother’s shoulder. The touch was a bluetooth kind of thing between the two siblings, just like the instructor had talked about earlier. Julia, having no family to speak of, had never experienced it herself. But she understood it. Rick would help his sister, no questions asked. And she would let him, because that’s what he did. He looked after her, them, people in general. And just like that, all Julia’s recent worries about Rick subsided.

  Until he spoiled it by saying, ‘Perhaps they should pack up and go home? You don’t want something like this happening again.’

  Montana stiffened. ‘No way, bro. You’re not closing us down that easy.’

  ‘And you’ve still got to find Summer,’ Chloe said.

  They’d all forgotten her standing there with her two canine charges, watching the interaction between brother and sister. She didn’t look happy.

  All the owners had their dogs back and chained up at their camps, except for Montana who was still missing Summer. Winter was all bandaged up and lying in the cab of Rick’s ute. Carol, it turned out, was a vet. She’d reassured Montana it was only a flesh wound, and had treated it with the extensive first-aid kit she had in her vehicle. Rick had hovered over the dog while she worked, obviously making sure she knew what she was doing.

  Charlie went to check on the stock, which everyone had forgotten about in their distress at losing their dogs.

  Montana accepted a cup of coffee from Hamish, who was carrying a thermos. From the scent of her breath, Julia suspected the drink was liberally laced with rum.

  ‘What are we going to do about the missing dog?’ she asked.

  Montana looked bleak. ‘Wait till daylight. We’ve covered all the ground we can, and everyone’s tired, cold and wet. They deserve their rest.’

  ‘We can still keep looking,’ said Hamish, pouring Montana a top-up.

  This time Julia saw him add the alcohol from a hip flask in his coat pocket. She didn’t say anything though because Montana was shivering despite her Driza-Bone. She needed something to warm her up.

  Rick had noticed his sister’s state too. ‘At the risk of sounding like a bossy brother, I think we should all find a warm bed and meet again at first light. We can’t do much more tonight.’

  Just then, Charlie let out a yell as he came back across the paddock in the dark. ‘Boss! Montana!’

  ‘Oh God, he’s found her and she’s dead,’ gasped Montana.

  Julia put her arm around the shaking girl’s shoulders as Rick moved towards Charlie. The two men conferred under a spotlight, which Montana had running off a generator. The girl had really gone all out with her organisation, Julia thought, which made this situation all the more disturbing. For some reason someone was out to sabotage Montana.

  The faces of both men as they came towards the group were grim. Julia felt Montana tense. Chloe seemed on edge too, standing on Montana’s other side.

  ‘It’s the sheep,’ said Rick. ‘Someone’s opened the gate. They’re all gone.’

  Chapter 27

  The phone call woke Julia from a deep sleep. She was dreaming she was curled up in Rick’s strong arms so it was a shock to find herself in bed alone.

  Montana was curled up on her swag on the floor. The poor girl had been so cold, Julia had bullied her into coming back to the cottage to have a shower, warm up and stay the night. She’d only agreed so long as her dogs could come too. Winter was in the laundry and the rest of the team were in Julia’s garage. She didn’t want to think about the mess she might find out there.

  She picked up the insistent phone and heard Bluey’s gruff tones. A tourist had been out on the lake doing some dawn fishing and had seen a mob of sheep trapped between the water and a cliff face. He’d rung the pub figuring they’d know the owners.

  ‘Reckoned they must be yours or Montana’s,’ Bluey said.

  Julia groaned. How on earth were they going to get the sheep back? She thanked Bluey and hung up.

  ‘Montana?’ She shook the girl awake.

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘Bluey’s found your sheep.’

  Montana sat up, immediately alert. ‘Where? They can’t have got all the way into Lake Grace, surely?’


  ‘They’ve fallen down a cliff.’

  Surprising even herself, Julia thought she knew exactly where the sheep were. The cliff was on her land and it was high and steep. The only way they’d get those animals out of there would be by boat.

  Chloe had begged off, saying boating made her queasy and she couldn’t swim. Another thing to add to Julia’s guilt. She loved swimming having grown up by the sea, and if she’d brought Chloe up herself, learning to swim would have been a priority.

  She clung to the sides of the sixteen-foot tinny as Charlie wheeled it around a bend in the shoreline. The vessel slapped across the corrugated surface of the lake, until there, clinging to a sliver of muddy beach, was a mob of very bedraggled, clay-covered sheep.

  ‘Might start a new trend, boss,’ yelled Charlie over the outboard motor. ‘Sculpture usin’ clay and natural fibres. Those rich new-agers’d love that.’

  Rick just grunted. He was obviously working out where they were going to land and how to load the boat. Beside him sat a white-faced Montana. She still hadn’t found Summer, despite looking from the moment she’d woken up to when they’d had to leave on this rescue mission.

  Rick pointed to a spot that looked reasonably shallow. ‘Put us in there, mate.’

  Charlie guided the tinny in and bumped against the shoreline, throwing everyone forward. They scrambled to regain their balance, then Rick launched himself over the side.

  ‘Holy fuck! It’s cold!’ he yelled.

  ‘Well, what d’ya expect?’ muttered Charlie. ‘It’s had the snow melt.’

  Montana was next. She landed in water over her waist. ‘It gets deep quickly too,’ she yelped.

  ‘Blame the boss.’ Charlie was looking mighty happy that as the driver he got to stay in the boat.

  Julia wasn’t looking forward to her dunking. The wind was getting up and both Hallorans looked freezing.

  Rick’s voice halted her as she swung a leg over the side. ‘Julia, you stay there. We’ll drag the sheep over to you.’

  ‘How come she gets to stay in the boat?’ grumbled Montana.

  He rounded on her. ‘Because they’re your fucking sheep!’

  They approached the first animal. Julia could see they were expecting it to run, but it didn’t. The poor thing was so exhausted it simply stood there. Rick grabbed its back, hurled it over and held it under its front legs while his sister wrestled with the back end. They half-dragged the beast to the water’s edge.

  Taking a better grip, they walked into the lake, struggling to keep the animal out of the water. Finally they hoisted the woolly bundle up and over the side of the boat. It scrabbled and jostled, threatening to tip the whole thing over.

  ‘Grab it, Julia!’ yelled Rick.

  Seeing no other option, she threw herself on top of the disgustingly dirty creature as it struggled to launch itself over the other side of the boat and into the lake.

  A howl of laughter came from the stern. Charlie. He was almost over the side himself, he was laughing so hard.

  ‘Oh my God, what a pisser. That sheep was going over the side like a spring-loaded gazelle, and you just sat on it!’

  Julia could’ve killed him. Did he think she was enjoying this?

  Rick and Montana had another sheep ready to load.

  Julia looked around wildly from her position astride the sheep. ‘What am I going to do with this one?’

  Charlie was still wiping tears from his eyes. Rick was frowning at her. It was left to Montana to point towards the bottom of the boat. ‘Down there. Hay-band. Tie its legs.’

  She was kidding, right?

  Wrong.

  Charlie clambered over to Julia and reached down to grab a wad of hay-band. He wrapped a few lengths around her new friend’s legs, hog-tying it. Then he rolled the animal gently towards the front of the boat and stood ready to receive the next one.

  ‘C’mon, Julia,’ he said with a grin, ‘no slackin’ now.’

  ‘I’m not slacking!’

  ‘C’mon then, grab this one,’ said Rick.

  ‘Do we have to tie up all of them?’ Julia asked.

  ‘Yep,’ said Montana. ‘Every. Last. One.’

  She grunted and pushed her end of the sheep over the side. The boat tipped again.

  ‘Geez, Montana, careful!’ roared her brother as Julia very nearly went headfirst into the lake.

  ‘I’ll give you fucking careful! If you’d let me have the school over at the Grange, this wouldn’t have happened. All the security cameras would’ve scared off anyone wanting to sabotage me.’

  ‘I would’ve let you have it at the Grange if you’d only bloody asked.’

  ‘Yeah, right. You’re just saying that now. Chloe said you told her there was no way you were letting a bunch of strangers and a mob of dogs and sheep near the place.’

  ‘I did not!’ roared Rick as he grappled with the struggling sheep they were still trying to load into the boat.

  Charlie reached over to tie its front legs while Julia attempted to tie the back ones. She jumped back as it kicked out at her.

  ‘Did too!’ yelled Montana, red in the face now.

  She let go of the animal to push at her brother and, scenting freedom, the sheep gave a huge lunge and slipped from both Charlie’s and Rick’s hold. Down it went, SPLAT! Into the cold, deep water.

  Rick dived after the poor thing, which was upright but sinking fast with its waterlogged fleece.

  ‘Fuck it, Tan. Grab the wool!’ he yelled.

  ‘I’m trying, I’m trying,’ she cried, pushing and shoving, trying to get a grip on the animal.

  Julia leaned over the side of the boat and grabbed the sheep’s mouth, keeping it above the water so it could breathe, while the others worked out how to get it on board.

  After a lot of arguing and various schemes, the two Hallorans and Charlie agreed on a plan of attack. Heave and pull. Finally they rolled the poor animal over the side, where it lay in a watery puddle on the floor, too exhausted to move.

  Rick and Montana slumped over the side as well, puffing and panting.

  Charlie patted their backs. ‘Teamwork, guys, that’s how you do a tricky job like this.’

  They were too frazzled to reply. They simply pushed themselves off the boat and trudged off in silence through the water to grab the next sheep.

  It took several hours to ferry the twenty sheep, four at a time, back to the jetty at Lake Hill. Thankfully, Neil, the instructor, had sent a few blokes down there to build a small yard with some portable panels. They were able to dump the sheep in there while they went back for more.

  It wasn’t until the last load, when they were all sprawled in the bottom of the now very wet and muddy tinny, while Charlie guided it across the water, that Rick returned to the conversation that had caused the near-drowning of a sheep.

  ‘Montana, you only had to ask to use the Grange for your school and I would’ve agreed.’

  His sister seemed too emotionally and physically spent to answer for a minute. It was as if all the fire had gone from her, Julia thought.

  Then she said quietly, ‘You didn’t offer. I thought you didn’t want me there. It’s your heritage, after all. I’m not even really a Halloran.’

  Rick looked stunned. ‘That never mattered,’ he said eventually. ‘You’ve always been my sister. You’re my family.’

  ‘For you maybe. But the olds never cared.’

  Rick tightened his lips and gazed out across the shimmering expanse of water they all loved so much. Finally he said, ‘I love you even more because of all that.’

  Montana shook her head.

  ‘That’s why I want you to have a great life,’ Rick persisted. ‘To make the right choices.’

  ‘Choices that are right according to you,’ countered his sister. ‘Not necessarily to me.’

  Rick shot a glance at Charlie, who, despite looking like he was trying not to listen, nodded his head.

  Julia, on the other hand, couldn’t bear to catch Rick’s eye. She wanted
to sink right through the hull of the boat. Rick, Montana, Chloe – they were all family in one way or another.

  ‘I am going to find my father,’ Montana told Rick.

  He frowned, then turned his head and stared towards the mountains. Julia followed the direction of his stormy grey eyes and saw the imposing second storey of the Grange poking out of the trees, with its misfit balcony.

  ‘Okay,’ he said finally.

  ‘I’m not asking your permission.’ Montana’s tone was confrontational, her body language defiant. ‘I know you probably can’t understand it, but at least Chloe knows what it’s like not to know who your father is. We’ve had lots of discussions about it.’

  Julia inwardly groaned. Chloe again.

  Rick simply said, ‘Right.’ Then he stared at Julia and asked, ‘And what do you think?’ His tone suggested it was all her fault things had come to this.

  Julia considered her reply carefully, but in the end there was only one thing she could honestly say.

  ‘I think you should listen to your sister.’

  Chapter 28

  It was Charlie who noticed the jewellery was missing. The first Rick knew of it was his mate’s gruff voice barking into the phone. ‘Did you move those necklaces in that display case of Elsbeth’s somewhere else?’

  ‘No. Why?’

  ‘They’re gone.’

  ‘What the fu–’

  Charlie’s voice rode over him. ‘I didn’t move them and neither did Montana – I checked. And I sure as hell don’t think Chloe went anywhere near them. That kid hates dustin’. You should see this joint. Half the bottom of the lake’s sittin’ on top of your mother’s mahogany dresser.’

  ‘What are you doing up in my mother’s rooms anyway?’

  As soon as he said it, Rick was ashamed. He hated the way it had come out. Charlie, thankfully, didn’t take offence.