"No, I'm like Kunmanara," he replied, chuckling. "I've been eating mutton and damper too long to know anything of Aborigine ways. However, what you did put me in mind of things my ma used to do."
"What was that, Eulie?"
"Well, she believed that if you needed to get rid of something completely, you had to get a dingo to eat it. When one of us kids was poorly, she would have us spit on something that dingoes liked, then put it out for them to eat. That was supposed to get shot of the illness."
"Did it do as your mother believed it would?"
Eulie hesitated, then shrugged. "I think it did sometimes, but there were times when it certainly didn't. When that happened, though, my ma always said that a bird or something had got the food before a dingo found it." He laughed heartily. "Now there's a handy excuse for you."
Alexandra laughed, agreeing with him. She mounted her horse as the others prepared to leave. A few minutes later, they rode down the track.
Her mood was even more lighthearted than the previous day, but her surroundings made it difficult to be anything less than cheerful. A few fleecy clouds floated in the sky, and the sun beamed down on a landscape that appeared bright and freshly-scrubbed after the rain. The foliage had reacted quickly to the moisture, the sun-baked brown of the spinifex already lightened with a haze of green, while the trees were a rich emerald.
The sweltering heat had ended, and the day was pleasantly warm with a refreshing breeze. There was a hint of approaching autumn in the air, an ineffable feeling that gave rise to poignantly nostalgic reflections about the swift passage of the years. The coming change in season around her also gave her a sense of contact with the cycles of the land she loved so much, the only place on earth that she would ever regard as her home.
As the track led past pleasant, shady groves of giant trees and across lush grasslands, kangaroos and wallabies sprang out of brush and bounded away. Koalas stared down haughtily from high limbs as they munched eucalyptus leaves, while wombats, emus, brush-tailed possums, and other animals scurried away from the horses. Like always, the birds made the scene come alive in their staggering variety and multitudes. Flocks of colorful galahs, lyrebirds, currawongs, pipits, and numerous other species chattered and swarmed about.
The hours passed swiftly, Alexandra looking around in enjoyment as she rode down the track beside the stockmen. But in the back of her mind, there was a gnawing anxiety about Catherine's baby. Her terrifying nightmare of months before about the baby had been as real as life, too much like an ominous portent for her to dismiss.
Late in the day, the home paddock came into view. The sun low in the west, the light had a warm hue, tinting the clouds and the landscape with rich, golden shades. The huge stone mansion in its gardens on the hill had never been more beautiful to her, the shadows long around it. Towering over the complex of station buildings and pens at one side of the hill, and the married stockmen's houses and Aborigine huts on the other side, it was her castle as well as her home, the center of her domain.
Only a moment after her first glimpse of the home paddock, Alexandra saw that the track was being watched for her and her party. A rider left the barns at a gallop, and she knew it was either her husband or Jonathan, the two of them identical from a distance. Leaning forward on her saddle, she nudged her horse with her heel and urged it into a gallop, leaving the others behind.
Her horse tried to run, eager to reach the pens, but Alexandra kept the reins tight and held it to a gallop. The wind brushing her face, she balanced herself lightly on the saddle and looked at the rider as the distance closed. Then, she saw that he was her husband.
Glancing over the paddock again, she noticed smoke rising from the Aborigine huts. It was a corroboree, undoubtedly because Catherine was in labor. Releasing the pressure on her reins, she let her horse run.
At the same instant, David urged his horse into a run, and Alexandra knew the reason. It was one she shared, because their months apart had also been very long for her. A few minutes later, they reined up beside each other on the track, their horses panting. A wide smile of delight on his tanned, handsome face, David leaned over to kiss her.
His warm, fresh scent and the feel of his muscular arm around her awakened a yearning need. She clung to him and kissed him eagerly. Then, almost losing her balance on her saddle as their horses pranced about, she pulled away as he sat back on his saddle.
''God, I've missed you," he said with sober intensity, then he smiled again. "But why did you leave again so suddenly, love? What was so important that it couldn't wait?"
"I'll explain later," she replied, pointing toward the huts. "Are the Aborigines having a corroboree because Catherine is giving birth?"
"Yes, she began this morning. Martha is with her, as well as Isaac Logan's wife, Mandy. Amy is there also, looking forward to being nursemaid to another baby, and Emma is helping the others. She has plenty of women with her, love."
Alexandra sighed in regret, turning her horse toward the house. "I knew she would have, David, but I did so want to be with her myself when it began. That can't be helped, but I can go to her now."
David nodded as her horse moved away, then he laughed and called out after her, "You'd better not leave again! If you do, this is the last time I'll let you out of my sight!"
Alexandra laughed as she replied, promising to stay, then she let her horse run again. A short time later, she heard the corroboree over the wind past her ears and the pounding of her horse's hoofs. The mournful groaning of didgeridoos, along with the clattering rhythm sticks and voices harmonizing in a chant, evoked memories of when her own children had been born, as well as other events the Aborigines had considered important.
At the foot of the hill, her horse tried to turn toward the barns and pens. Tugging a rein, she rode straight up the slope. When she reached the tree-lined avenue leading back to the house, she saw Jonathan sitting on the wide steps. He came down the steps, then reached up to help Alexandra down from her saddle as she reined up.
"I've been waiting here all day, Mother," he said worriedly as she dismounted, "and no one has told me anything. Would you either come and tell me or send word about how Catherine is doing?"
"I'm certain she's fine, Jonathan," Alexandra assured him. "What she's doing is very natural, and I had three babies myself, remember."
"Please, Mother," he insisted. "I must know."
"Very well," she replied in amused resignation. "If it's going to be much longer, I'll let you know."
He smiled in gratitude, squeezing her hand affectionately and kissing her, then Alexandra entered the house. As she crossed the entry and climbed the stairs, the house seemed too quiet to her. There were none of the sounds of pain and effort that accompanied bringing a new life into the world. Then, going down the hall, she heard a baby crying. She paused outside the door, breathing a silent prayer, then opened it.
The four women were at the washstand, bathing the wailing baby, and Catherine's beautiful face was lined with fatigue and the aftermath of pain as she lay in the bed. The women's faces revealed nothing, all of them tired after the day of tension and rushing about. Just as Alexandra started toward the washstand, Catherine saw her and lifted a hand toward her. Alexandra rushed to her daughter-in-law, taking her hand.
Bending over the bed, Alexandra kissed the young woman. "Catherine, I'm very, very sorry that I wasn't here," she told her. "I came back just as quickly as I could, but obviously it wasn't soon enough."
"You couldn't have had the baby for me," Catherine replied, smiling wanly. "And I'm very pleased that you're here now."
Alexandra smiled, pushing Catherine's raven hair back from her face. "No more than I am to be here with you, my dear. How do you feel?"
"Well enough, but weary. May I see my baby, please?"
"Yes, I'll fetch it for you, then I'll tell Jonathan that he can come up for a few minutes. After that, you must rest."
Catherine nodded, smiling drowsily. Alexandra kissed her again, then turn
ed toward the washstand where Martha was wrapping the baby in a soft blanket. Both apprehensive and eager, Alexandra crossed the room, and Martha held out the baby to her.
When she took it, Alexandra experienced an instant of terror, the feel of the baby in her arms identical to the sensation she remembered from her nightmare. Forcing herself to look down at it, she opened the blanket. It was a beautiful baby girl, with no sign of a birthmark. On its head was a haze of black hair, similar to Catherine's, and the small, lovely features were very reminiscent of Jonathan's as a newborn.
Weak with relief and sheer bliss, Alexandra took the baby to the bed. She placed it beside Catherine and looked down at them, the young woman and her child exquisitely beautiful together. Then, as Martha and the other women put the room in order, Alexandra left to get Jonathan and to spread the good news about her granddaughter.
Alone in the hall, she gave in for a moment to her joy, as tears of happiness streamed down her face. She remained unsure if what she had done had changed anything at all. But she did know that after decades, the last vestige of Enos Hinton's evil presence was gone from her life. Even more important, the stigma of his corrupt bloodline was no longer a threat, having failed to appear in the next generation.
The future was now bright with promise, free of his malignant influence. Her happy, productive life with her husband and family would now be more rewarding than ever. But she and her husband were mortal, and an end would come to their stewardship of the sheep station they had established in the outback. Then it would be time for Jonathan and Catherine to accept the responsibility of protecting it for the next generation.
The first of that next generation had now been born, and continuity was assured. Some of the Kerricks would seek other paths, as Morton had, but some would remain at Tibooburra Station and maintain it as a family seat for generations to come. That gave ultimate meaning to what she and her husband had done, making their lives a triumph. They were the founders, the ones who had established a dynasty and its heritage in the outback.
The coming generations would fight grass fires, floods, droughts, and other perils as they labored up the steep, winding road of life. They would also be faced with more insidious dangers, as she had been in battling against the ghost of Enos Hinton, but Alexandra was certain that they would prevail and Tibooburra Station would endure. Rapturously happy, she dried her eyes as she went down the hall and the stairs to her son.
Outback Station Page 44
