Beneath a Stormy Sky by AnneMarie Brear

Author:AnneMarie Brear [Brear, AnneMarie]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2019-06-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Louisa stood on the bottom yard rail and watched the stockmen bringing in the sheep. Dust rose in the air. She gazed out over the flock of bleating ewes. The noise was deafening; mounted stockmen’s whistles to the working dogs, the yells, the bleating sheep, and the general clamour of horses’ hooves striking the hard ground vibrated through the air.

‘That’s the last of them from the southern paddocks, missus. They look good. The percentage of pregnant ones is high as well,’ Hunt said coming to stand on the fence with her. He hooked his arms over the top rail.

‘It’s been a great effort, Hunt, thank you.’

‘We’ve just got one more section of the northern paddocks to clear and put through the river and they’ll all be in.’

‘When is that happening?’

‘Carter and Sammy are on with it today. They’ll be at the river shortly. I’ll go and give them a hand.’

‘Ask someone to saddle Minty for me, will you? I want to see the sheep go through the river, too.’ She stared over the backs of hundreds of sheep. ‘Am I doing the right thing, bringing them in now and not next month?’

‘I would say so, the weather isn’t too cold and should hold. Mr Munro says the same.’

She glanced quickly at him. ‘Mr Munro?’

‘I saw him out riding the boundary yesterday.’

‘You told him what we are doing?’

‘Aye, and he agreed.’

Louisa nodded, relieved to have his approval. She just hoped George would agree.

Since his accident last month George had not recovered as fast as Doctor Milton liked. The good doctor, who insisted Louisa call him Edward, still lodged with them, for George hadn’t left his bedroom and each day seemed to bring more health problems. It was as though the fight had gone out of him. For the first time George’s body had let him down and he couldn’t cope with his fragility.

Louisa had no choice but to take command of the station while George remained bedridden. The prospect was daunting. She’d never had to control men before or run a farm as large or so different as King’s Station. Her family holding back in England had been so much smaller and so much easier to manage. Her father and brother worked the seasons like second nature.

Here, however, was different. Farming in Australia was on another scale. Everything was bigger, the land space larger, the weather more extreme, the numbers of labourers greater, and the sheep, a brand called Merino, more expensive and treated like walking gold, could change a man’s fortune overnight.

Since George’s confinement, she had thrown herself into learning everything she could about the station. George had no interest in anything and told her to do as she wished. So, feeling she had no choice, when the end of August came, she had gone ahead and sent the stockmen to herd the sheep into the yards for shearing – a whole month earlier than George had planned. She just hoped the weather wouldn’t turn cold again.

‘Mrs Henderson.’

She turned to smile at Edward.

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