Territory by Judy Nunn

Author:Judy Nunn [Nunn, Judy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: C429, Extratorrents, Kat
Publisher: Random House Australia
Published: 2002-01-21T13:00:00+00:00

Henrietta found herself desperately lonely when the boys left for boarding school. She’d anticipated that she would, but the degree of her loneliness was beyond all expectations. She was busy enough, certainly. She was still the bookkeeper for Bullalalla station which involved endless paperwork and meetings with Buff Nelson, Terence being away more than usual on mysterious trips to Adelaide. But she’d been managing the books for so many years that they were hardly a distraction.

Occasionally she went for a ride with Jackie and the other stockmen when they rounded up the steers for the kill. Henrietta enjoyed Jackie’s company, he seemed to have eyes everywhere, and was always eager to share with her his latest observation. They’d be riding side by side in silence and Jackie would suddenly say, ‘Look, missus.’ And soaring majestically far above there would be a wedgetail eagle, wheeling in never-ending circles, its curved wings motionless as it caught the thermal draft. Or he’d pull his horse up to point out a frill-necked lizard which, chameleon-like, was the colour of the parched rock upon which it sat as it basked in the sun. Henrietta found Jackie’s love for life contagious.

Sometimes Henrietta would chat to Nellie in the kitchen, usually about Pearl and her two children—Nellie was a very proud grandmother. Sometimes she’d make the trip into town to see Aggie, but much as Henrietta enjoyed Aggie’s company, she no longer enjoyed Darwin. Darwin reminded her too much of Paul.

For the most part, Henrietta was bored and disinterested, simply marking time until the school holidays.

Terence was aware of her listlessness. She missed the boys, it was obvious. Well, the boys wouldn’t be with them forever. Malcolm would be going to military school in a couple of years, a fine career for a young man, and Kit would follow suit when his turn came. Henrietta would need to prepare herself for a life without her sons. She was not yet forty, still a comparatively young woman, surely she would welcome a change from her isolated existence at Bullalalla. One evening he tested her out.

‘I had an offer from Vesteys a while back,’ he said, sipping at his Scotch as they sat in the lounge room, Henrietta with her head in a book as usual.

‘Oh yes?’ Henrietta didn’t take much notice. Vesteys were buying up every property they could lay their hands on, it was hardly surprising.

‘What would you say to selling?’

‘Selling what? Bullalalla?’ She sounded incredulous, but at least he’d gained her attention, she’d put down the book.

‘Yes.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous, Terence.’ He was simply trying to get her attention, she knew her reading annoyed him, but then what was she supposed to do of an evening? Sit silently in his company? They had very little to talk about these days.

‘I’m not being ridiculous,’ the dismissal in her tone annoyed him. ‘The offer’s a good one, why shouldn’t I sell?’ he said belligerently.

He was being purposefully argumentative in order to engage her in a fruitless conversation, she thought. Bullalalla was in his blood, he would never sell.

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