‘I hate you, Mama!’ Belle said, before running from the dining room in tears.
Daniel looked at his wife, silently requesting an explanation. This was an explanation Elizabeth did not feel inclined to give. She knew very well why Belle refused to go to Hobart. What were those two young fools thinking? Even without Luke’s prison sentence hanging over them, there was no future for those two. Society’s rules were uncompromising. Girls like Belle simply didn’t marry below their station. Daniel, however, seemed blissfully unaware of their daughter’s unfortunate attachment to Luke. He thought so highly of the boy. In any case, the situation wasn’t really Luke’s fault. It was her own, and she must rectify her mistake. Whatever it took she was determined to separate the pair.
Elizabeth smiled reassuringly at her husband and excused herself. She knew what he would do – go for a long ride into the mountains. He never fancied being at home during an argument between his wife and daughter.
Elizabeth found Belle in her room, face buried in a pillow, her chest rising and falling with heaving sobs. She sat down beside her child, gently stroking her hair until the weeping subsided. ‘Belle, darling. Tell me. Is it that you have feelings for Luke?’
‘Don’t be stupid, Mama.’
‘Your rudeness does nothing to change the facts. This is an impossible union, Belle. You must understand this right from the start. Neither myself, nor Papa, nor anybody else will ever countenance it.’
‘It’s got nothing to do with Luke. It’s the tigers. I love them and now you mean to send me away. I can stroke Mindi, and play with Bindi a little. Even King puts up with me. I won’t go now, Mama.’ Belle’s face went scarlet with determination. ‘I just won’t.’
‘You know as well as I do that the plan is to release the tigers high in the range. They’re not pets, Belle, and besides, you always enjoy going to Hobart with Grace.’
‘Not any more. Things have changed.’
Elizabeth examined her daughter’s stubborn, tear-drenched face and knew exactly how things had changed. She kissed Belle and sat for a while longer, stroking her hair.
‘Very well then. You may stay.’
Belle sobbed out her thanks. Extracting herself from her daughter’s grateful embrace, Elizabeth left the room. Her mood was grim. There was no alternative.
First she went to find Harrison, communicating quietly with the coachman in urgent tones. Within minutes, he was galloping out the homestead gate. Then she went looking for Luke. She found him at the killing-gallows, butchering a sheep. Ordinarily she avoided this place, but the urgency of her business left no room for squeamishness. Elizabeth drew close enough to be heard above the grinding of saw blade on bone.
‘Mrs Campbell?’ Luke set aside his grisly task, and washed his hands and arms at the trough. His clothes reeked and she could sense his embarrassment.
With a smile Elizabeth indicated that he should walk with her, past the greenhouses and up the little path to the orchard.
As they went she confessed to Luke her fears for Belle, should she continue with her infatuation. The expression on Luke’s face confirmed for Elizabeth that this attachment was mutual. She hadn’t much doubted it.
‘I’m not good enough for your daughter, is that it?’
‘Oh Luke, the facts of the matter speak plainly. You’re on the run from the law. Any hint of a union between yourself and my daughter would ruin her. I’ve arranged for Belle to accompany me to Hobart but she insists she won’t go. We both know that she is staying for you. I dare not confide in my husband – his loyalty to you clouds his judgement. I implore you, Luke: if you have any regard for my family, and I know you do, leave here at once. I bear you no ill will. On the contrary, I’m very fond of you. But the Lord knows my wilful daughter will do as she pleases, regardless of the consequences. I doubt that even you could change her mind. So we must agree to protect her. Harrison rides to town as we speak to fetch Angus McLeod. I expect you to leave with him tonight. Tell no one, not even Belle, of your departure. Will you do this for me, Luke?’
Luke stood a minute in stunned silence, digesting her words. She was right. For the past few weeks he’d lived in a sort of fool’s paradise. His status as a fugitive, his lowly birth, his shameful cowardice, Bear’s dreadful secret – all forgotten in the rare glow of Belle’s affection. For Belle this might be no more than a passing fancy, but for him? Luke loved her. A deep, satisfying love that caused him to smile if she smiled, be saddened by her sadness, and place her welfare paramount among his concerns. The proposition that his love in some way endangered her horrified him.
‘I’ll do anything to protect Belle,’ he said. ‘Bear and I will leave right away.’
‘No. You must leave Bear here, for his own safety.’
‘He’s been cleared of killing sheep.’
‘Mistakenly cleared,’ said Elizabeth. ‘You told us yourself of his guilt.’
Guilty of more than killing sheep, thought Luke.
‘Would you entirely trust him if provoked?’
Luke shook his head, lost in a haze of misery and confusion. To lose both Belle and Bear at once. Whatever he’d done, whatever mistakes he’d made in life, he didn’t deserve this.
‘Perhaps enough time has passed.’ He was thinking aloud. ‘I’ll go to Hobart, see my family.’
‘I thought you knew . . .?’
Luke squeezed his palms against his eyes. What now?
‘Your mother and sister no longer live in Hobart. After your father’s death, Daniel found them work at Ruyton Girls’ School in Melbourne. The principal is a friend.’
Melbourne? All those times he’d daydreamed of a joyful return to his Hobart home – but he had no home. Not any more.
‘Mrs Campbell, tell me. What were the circumstances of my father’s death?’
She hesitated, took a moment to smooth her dress. ‘Thomas and Daniel were riding for Hobart to attend your trial. His horse fell . . .’ She put a hand on Luke’s shoulder. He shrugged it away. ‘Daniel swears he didn’t suffer.’
The ground pitched beneath Luke’s feet. His father. His strong, loyal, loving father. Dead, for years. Dead, because of him. It made sense now: the long years of imprisonment. Losing Bear, losing Belle. He deserved every bad thing the world could throw at him. There was only one person he hated more than himself, one person even more to blame for tearing his family apart. Henry Abbott.
Elizabeth pressed a wad of pound notes into his hand. He hurled it away as if it burned his skin.
‘I only thought . . .’
‘What did you think?’ His voice rose to a shout. ‘That I was for sale?’ Elizabeth shrank back. ‘I’m leaving because it’s best for Belle, not because of your goddamned money. No one will ever care for your daughter more than I do.’
Luke returned to the gallows, cleaving the rest of the carcass with great, angry strokes of his blade. Then he packed away, washed up and went to his little room in the cart shed. Bear wasn’t there – most likely off with Sasha. Luke desperately wanted an opportunity to say goodbye.
The tigers dozed in their shed. The devils slept in their log. All had their place. All except him. He dared not think of how badly he’d miss them. Luke packed his things and lay on his bunk to wait. Knuckling back tears. Hollow with grief.
Hours later, a knock came at the door. Davey, the stableboy – no friend of his – held the reins of a tall, dapple-grey thoroughbred. She was a new arrival at the homestead, freshly broken, still a little wild. Luke guessed Davey had deliberately chosen the mare to test him. Provisions spilled from her saddlebags.
‘Bill told me to saddle Sheba for ya. Going into town?’
With a curt nod, Luke motioned him away. Strapping swag to saddle, Luke soothed the skittish horse with a low voice. He liked how her ears flicked back and forth to the rhythm of his words. An intelligent one.
A barking chorus heralded the arrival of a visitor. Luke swung into the saddle and cantered to the gate, glad to hear the dogs were back. Harrison rode in with Scruffy chasing at his heels. He stepped down from his horse, threw his reins to Davey and strode to the house.
Angus was riding an old dun carthorse up the drive. Luke dismounted and knelt down to pat the dogs, his heart aching when Bear put a paw on his knee. Scruffy squirmed onto his favourite position on Luke’s lap. When Angus reached the gate, he greeted his young friend with a broad smile on his weathered face. He looked older, thinner. Luke wondered how much he knew.
‘Finally come to your senses, have you, lad? Ready to join the land of the living, ’stead of hiding out here in these here hills with mangy vermin for company?’ He clambered from his horse. ‘How are them wolves going? You’d make a pretty penny selling them. Zoos are paying good money for them things.’
Luke didn’t know what to say. Angus clearly thought he was leaving of his own volition. He supposed he’d better play along. ‘I’d be grateful if you’d maybe put me up in town for a bit. I’ll not be long out of work.’
‘Neither you will be, Luke, neither you will. There’s plenty of jobs for willing men down the mine.’ Luke flinched at the suggestion. ‘That black mongrel ain’t coming with you, is he? By jeepers he gives me the willies.’ Luke shook his head. ‘Thank God for that. Well, give an old bloke a cuppa, will you? I’m parched.’
Luke took Angus around to the shearers’ quarters where a big billy sat permanently on the boil. As they drank their tea, Elizabeth came by and thanked Angus for answering her summons so promptly.
‘When Luke decided to move into town, naturally we thought of you,’ she said. ‘Understand, Mr McLeod, that he must still be known to all as your nephew, Adam. Henry Abbott still offers a reward for his capture. There must be no slip-ups.’
‘As God is my witness, ma’am, I’ll protect the lad. You have my word.’
Elizabeth took hold of Angus’s hand. ‘Bless you, Mr McLeod. Goodbye, Luke, and good luck. You two better be off if you mean to reach Hills End before dark.’
Angus gulped down the last of his tea and smacked his lips. ‘Seems like the missus here’s given us our marching orders. Come on then, lad.’
Luke put Bear away in the tigers’ pen, stopping briefly to fondle his massive head. When would he next see his dog? How would he manage without him?
Bear sensed Luke’s sadness and paced up and down the wire, whining. Wrenching himself away, Luke mounted Sheba and joined Angus for the ride to town. What about Daniel? What about Belle? He hadn’t even had the chance to say goodbye.