Land of Golden Wattle

by J. H. Fletcher

  ‘Unthinkable,’ Ilse said. ‘There has never been a divorce in this family.’

  ‘Might be the time to start,’ Raine said.

  ‘You are deranged,’ Ilse said. ‘I shall arrange for Herr Doktor Stockli to examine you. No doubt he will recommend a mental institution.’

  ‘Suits me. It will give me the chance to take up a certain matter with him when he arrives.’

  Ilse’s knuckles were white. ‘What matter is that?’

  ‘Blood typing was developed in the 1920s. It matches the blood of a parent and a child and gives a clear indication whether they are related.’

  ‘I am familiar with the technique.’

  Mention the chemical composition of Saturn and Ilse would have claimed to have it at her fingertips.

  ‘You were saying this family has never had a divorce,’ Raine said. ‘What about an annulment? Someone with your influence, I am sure that could be arranged easily enough.’

  ‘And have the world know? Which it soon would. No, there will be neither divorce nor annulment in my lifetime.’

  ‘No scandals either?’

  Teeth. ‘Not until your disgraceful exhibition two days ago.’

  Raine smiled. ‘I am talking about a major scandal that could damage your family, perhaps forever.’

  Ilse’s hands clenched into fists. ‘What are you saying?’

  Raine fired her barb, knowing it would draw blood. ‘What makes you think Jaeger is Felix’s child?’

  Ilse’s face was purple.

  ‘Of course Jaeger is Felix’s child.’

  ‘Then you won’t object to his having the tests. Felix will have to take them too, of course. I’ll mention it to Doctor Stockli, shall I?’

  A major scandal, as Raine had said.

  ‘You never wanted me as your daughter-in-law,’ Raine said. ‘Now I am offering you the chance to get rid of me. Do that and people will soon forget. Whereas if I stay…’

  ‘My son believes the child is his. Jaeger will remain here.’

  Raine had considered that but had decided, despite the inconvenience, that Jaeger might prove useful to her down the track. ‘No chance of that.’

  ‘If you take him Felix will have to know the truth. It will break his heart.’

  ‘That is where you and I have the advantage over him,’ Raine said. ‘Neither of us has a heart to break.’

  She had one more matter to discuss before she was willing to relieve Ilse of her presence.

  ‘Let us talk money,’ she said.

  Three months later Raine Lardner was back in Australia, her son with her. She had managed to twist Ilse’s arm into giving her a modest nest egg. It was less than she’d hoped but she was philosophical about it, knowing she was lucky to have got anything at all. Now she set out to turn it into a fortune.

  It took years, and highly chequered years they were, with good jobs and bad jobs, numerous disappointments and dodgy deals along the way, but in 1981 she met Giles Penrose. She’d been looking for someone like Giles, a rich sucker many years older than herself. Now she’d found one and knew her luck had turned at last.

  1982

  ‘It’s my experience people who won’t tell you about themselves are hiding something,’ Bec said.

  ‘If Raine won’t talk –’ Tamara said.

  ‘We find another way.’

  ‘And if there’s nothing?’

  ‘There’s always something,’ Bec said.

  ‘You could be imagining things,’ Tamara said.

  ‘I could be but I’m not. Listen, I know what it’s like. When my husband and I first met just about everyone was against us. Grandma Bessie would have slit my gizzard if she’d dared. But I never doubted we would win.’

  ‘How could you have been so sure?’

  ‘There was a steady look he used to give me. His way of saying I was his. It rang in me like a bell and I knew we weren’t going to let anyone beat us. Grandma Bessie was a tough one but when he looked at me I knew even she would never be able to stop us. “We are one being.” He said that to me once, and so we were. The war messed him up psychologically. In some ways he never got over it, but I never stopped loving him. God, how I loved that man!’

  ‘You still love him,’ Tamara said.

  ‘He was my life. I can’t wait to catch up with him, when my time comes, but how will I face him if I let your father throw away everything he fought for? The war memorials we see in every town: they fought for this land. Now it’s our turn.’

  ‘To fight?’

  ‘To hold on to what is rightfully ours. Otherwise we are saying their sacrifice was meaningless. I will not do it.’

  ‘That look you say Grandpa gave you: you’ve seen nothing like that between Dad and Raine?’

  ‘Not a hint. She’s not in it for him but for what she can get out of him.’

  ‘And he doesn’t know?’

  ‘Men are great at fooling themselves and your dad is no exception.’

  ‘Have you spoken to him about it?’

  ‘I have not. The one certain way of pushing him into her arms will be if he thinks I’m trying to interfere in his affairs.’

  ‘They’re our affairs too.’

  ‘Which is precisely why I intend to go on poking about until I find out something I can hang on her.’

  ‘Looking for skeletons?’

  ‘I can hear them jangling from here.’

  ‘And if she tells him you’re sticking your beak in?’

  ‘I shall have to practise my innocent look,’ Bec said.

  ‘I’ve an idea,’ Tamara said. ‘Why don’t I have a go at Jaeger? At her son?’

  ‘After your run-in with him this morning?’

  ‘They say women say no when they really mean yes, don’t they?’

  ‘Is he really such a fool?’

  ‘I’d say there’s no limit to his stupidity.’

  ‘Will you be able to get anything out of him?’

  ‘It’s worth a try. He’s bound to know something, isn’t he? And right now we know nothing at all.’

  ‘How would you go about it?’

  ‘Shouldn’t be hard. He’s as cocky as Randy the rooster. The way he looked me over last night and then perving on me this morning?’

  ‘You never know…’ Bec said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘It would solve all your problems if you fell in love with him.’

  ‘With Jaeger? Are you out of your mind?’

  ‘It wouldn’t be the first unsuitable union we’ve had in this family.’

  Tamara didn’t go looking for Jaeger but drifted around, making herself conspicuous, and it didn’t take him long to home in on her.

  ‘Hi!’

  Smirking as though he’d said something clever.

  ‘Sorry about this morning,’ she said.

  ‘Take more than that to put me off.’

  ‘I like a man who knows his mind.’

  ‘That right?’ He looked her over and again Tamara felt his eyes peeling the clothes from her body.

  They strolled, Tamara saying little and Jaeger a lot. How he’d outsmarted this opponent and that; how he’d loved and left a whole regiment of women.

  ‘I never let anyone pin me down,’ he said. ‘I’m too smart for that. It gives me an edge.’

  What a show-off. Tamara was delighted. Jaeger was not the sort to resist boasting to someone he thought his inferior.

  ‘Is your mother going to marry my dad?’ she said.

  ‘He’s on his last legs anyway, but maybe she will. Act of kindness, you know? Either way it makes no odds.’

  ‘Why is that?’

  ‘He controls the trust, right? Mother’s twisting his arm to bring us both into it. Make her a trustee and me a beneficiary.’

  ‘Will he agree?’

  ‘What Mother wants, Mother gets. I’m not the only smart one in our family. But you needn’t worry. I’ll make sure there’s always a place for you here. If you want it.’

  Images of blood
filled Tamara’s mind.

  ‘As long as I hang around, anyway,’ Jaeger said.

  ‘What else would you do?’ she asked him.

  ‘I got plans,’ Jaeger said.

  ‘I’ll bet you have,’ Tamara said. ‘You’re a thinker. I’ve always respected that in a man.’

  He smirked.

  ‘You’ve got a degree,’ he told her, making it sound an offence. ‘Doesn’t mean you’re bright in practical things.’

  ‘You are right,’ said Tamara humbly.

  ‘If you were you’d have seen the opportunities for yourself.’

  ‘Which is why I’m hoping to learn from you, if you’ll give me the chance.’

  Now there was more smirk than man.

  ‘What plans have you got, anyway?’ Tamara said.

  ‘That’s for me to know and you to wonder about,’ Jaeger said, flashing bold eyes.

  She saw he wasn’t going to spill the beans immediately; he liked to think of himself as the smart one, teasing her with thoughts of his brilliance, but Tamara knew he was too vain to keep his lips buttoned for long.

  It took a week, by easy stages. Softly, softly, catchee Jaeger…

  When she saw he was ready she made it clear she was giving up this nonsense of asking, asking and getting nowhere.

  ‘I don’t think you’ve got plans at all.’

  That did it.

  He spelt them out, gloating, watching her face.

  ‘Won’t happen until your old man pops off, of course. But what do you think of those ideas, eh?’

  Tamara thought she’d like to smash Jaeger’s teeth down his throat. What she said was different.

  ‘A golf course? How wonderful!’

  ‘And maybe a wind farm.’

  ‘Wouldn’t you need to get state government approval for that?’

  ‘Shouldn’t be a problem. We know people.’

  Lord Jaeger, master of the universe.

  ‘And what would you do afterwards?’

  ‘After I started getting the trust income? I reckon I’d take off. No way I’m gunna waste my life on a mob of sheep. With the bright lights calling? I’d be crazy.’

  ‘Take off where?’

  ‘I might go back to Switzerland. Good place, Switzerland, as long as you’ve got money.’

  ‘Go back, you say? You’ve been there before?’

  ‘I was born there. In a chateau overlooking a lake.’

  ‘Your father must have been rich.’

  ‘Rich and influential.’

  ‘Is that right?’

  Tamara collared Bec as soon as she could get away.

  ‘The cheese factory,’ she said.

  ‘What about it?’

  ‘What’s the name of the production manager?’

  ‘Ernst Gerber.’

  ‘From Switzerland?’

  ‘From Bern, yes. Why do you ask?’

  Tamara explained.

  When Bec had taken in what Tamara had told her she went into her private office and made a phone call.

  ‘Mr Gerber…’ Bec would have preferred to call him Ernst but Ernst Gerber’s European soul had always craved formality. ‘How is everything with you?’

  ‘Everything is fine, Mrs Penrose. I think we may be looking at a substantial increase in our production in the coming year.’

  ‘I look forward to that,’ Bec said. ‘Now: there is something you may be able to help me with. Does the name Lardner mean anything to you?’

  ‘It is a name not uncommon in Switzerland,’ Gerber said.

  ‘They are said to be rich and influential. A Zurich family.’

  ‘There is a Zurich family of that name. I do not know them personally but they have a considerable reputation. I understand they own factories in many places in Europe. Could they be the people you mean?’

  ‘Sounds like they might be,’ Bec said.

  Bec spoke to Mr Gardiner of Elphinstone and Partners, the solicitors who had represented Derwent after Maurice Miller died towards the end of World War II. They were a big firm with correspondents in New York and London. Also in Zurich. She explained what she wanted.

  ‘I’ll get on to it right away,’ Mr Gardiner said.

  Bec put down the phone and went to look for her granddaughter.

  ‘I think we may be making progress,’ she said.

  ‘That’s a relief,’ Tamara said. ‘On more than one front, too.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Hopefully it means I won’t have to play games with Jaeger much longer.’

  Bec looked. ‘Games?’

  ‘Nothing like that,’ Tamara said. ‘Even pretending is bad enough.

  Can you imagine what it would be like in reality?’

  ‘Yuck,’ Bec said.

  ‘You’ve got it.’

  1834

  ‘I think I can say we are making progress,’ Emma said in response to Lady Arthur’s enquiry.

  Emma had been hoping to get back to the Derwent estate before this but the birth of her son William and Ephraim’s increasingly fraught business interests had kept them anchored in Hobart Town.

  Now, in response to a message from Lady Arthur, William’s godmother, Emma and her son, plus a nursemaid to take care of the baby as soon as Lady Arthur had cooed over him enough, were paying a visit to the lieutenant governor’s house.

  With baby and maid safely out of the way the two ladies were drinking chocolate on the porch.

  ‘The house is nearing completion. We are having a small church built also. I thought to name it St Madern, after a Cornish saint, provided the bishop agrees.’

  ‘A church on Derwent land?’ Lady Arthur said. ‘An admirable plan!’

  ‘And Mr Dark has arranged for our first shipment of merino sheep to be brought down from New South Wales. He plans to use discharged convicts as shepherds. I believe he has already spoken to Sir George about that.’

  Lady Arthur’s instincts were more maternal than agricultural. ‘It was your new family I had in mind,’ she said. ‘They are well, I hope.’

  ‘I sometimes think Richard is a lonely child. I am very fond of him but he seems to prefer his own company.’

  ‘That is a pity. But I am glad my godson is thriving.’

  Lady Arthur’s comment gave Emma the chance to display the servility that a woman in Lady Arthur’s position would naturally expect from someone of junior status.

  ‘How could he not, with your ladyship as his godmother?’

  Which gratified Lady Arthur, as aware as Emma of the favour she had bestowed on her friend’s child.

  ‘At his christening I saw what a strong boy he was going to be,’ Lady Arthur said complacently. ‘Your first-born son.’

  Which as far as Emma was concerned he was. Lady Arthur had never known Richard’s mother, which made her of no consequence and Richard almost invisible.

  ‘The wet nurse I recommended… She has proved satisfactory?’

  ‘Highly satisfactory, your ladyship.’

  ‘Children can be a great consolation,’ Lady Arthur said.

  With nine of her own and the first warnings of a tenth, Emma reflected that Lady Arthur certainly ought to know. With her life hedged about with so many children it was remarkable that her ladyship took any interest in another woman’s offspring, but it seemed she did.

  ‘I had rather hoped to see more of my godchild than I have,’ Lady Arthur said in what might have been reproof.

  ‘I did not wish to trouble your ladyship when I know you have so many commitments.’

  So that Lady Arthur was placated.

  ‘When do you intend to take up residence on your new estate?’ she said.

  ‘Mr Dark feels that it would be best to maintain our town house for the present. It is still wild country up there and he is concerned for the safety of the children. He intends to appoint a manager to look after Derwent for the time being. And of course he has his business interests to attend to in Hobart Town.’

  ‘I think you are wise to stay in town,’ La
dy Arthur said. ‘For the time being, as you say. Our precious children must always be our first concern, must they not? After all, they represent the future. On the other hand I know my dear husband is eager to see the outlying areas settled as soon as possible. How else is civilisation to spread across the land, Mrs Dark? And that, surely, must be a consideration, too.’

  Hmm.

  ‘I think we should visit the estate,’ Emma told her husband. ‘If you are agreeable.’

  Ephraim scratched his beard. ‘It is not a convenient time. There are problems with Tancred.’

  ‘There are always problems with Tancred,’ Emma said.

  The whaling ship which Ephraim had bought from Uncle Barnsley had been a source of endless trouble, ranging from sprung rigging and worm-infested and rotting timbers to a tendency to yaw in the heavy seas that were such a common feature of the Southern Ocean.

  ‘Somen wrong with the keel,’ the shipwright had told Ephraim. ‘Tain’t surprising: always bin a mongrel, that boat.’

  About which it seemed nothing could be done. It had led to high words between Ephraim and Emma’s uncle, who made it plain he had no interest in Ephraim’s problem, while the problem itself remained.

  ‘Surely repairs are possible?’ said Ephraim, mindful of the debenture holders in London to whom no interest had so far been paid.

  ‘Your best bet would be to scuttle her and buy another one,’ said the shipwright.

  With funds growing tighter by the day, that was hardly a practical proposition. Nor was Tancred the major difficulty. His other plans – especially construction of the new port on the north coast – were proving as difficult to realise and consuming capital at an alarming rate.

  ‘I do not think I can get away at the present time,’ Ephraim said.

  ‘My dear,’ Emma said, ‘what can you achieve by staying here? I think Lady Arthur was giving us a warning. I do not believe anyone is expecting us to live there permanently – not at the moment – but it might be prudent to visit the property from time to time. To demonstrate our commitment, as it were? Not to do so might endanger our title, if Sir George Arthur chose to revoke it.’

  ‘He surely would not do that,’ Ephraim said.

  ‘Remember, my dear, he is answerable to Governor Darling in Sydney and we know he is not in favour of the old system.’