21

Holly stumbled out of the marquee and into the evening air. Everything seemed wrong, the world out of kilter. Even the stars and the clouds seemed to churn into a hissing whirlpool. The mauve silk dress was strangling her. She longed to rip it off and shred it into a thousand tiny pieces.

She hurried between catering fridges and piles of empty bread crates. There were bins filled with empty bottles and piles of rubbish bags. She hoisted her skirt and ran along in bare feet, thankful for the pale glow of moonlight that lit the gravel pathways between the polocrosse field and the stable block.

A dim light shone in the far end of the stables, where the barley for the horses had been set to cook overnight. The concrete aisle was cool under her feet, the sounds of horses chewing and the smell of fresh shavings and lucerne were soothing. Relieved to be alone, she leaned against a timber slat wall and slid to the ground, putting her head between her knees.

From here the music and voices, bursts of laughter and lively conversation seemed far away.

‘Holly!’ Kaydon stood in the doorway.

Oh, not now. What did he want?

‘How come you’re out here?’ he said.

She felt her hackles rise. ‘Dad’s not picking me up until midnight and I’m stuck here, okay. Do you mind if I just borrow a patch of concrete for a while?’ How could she tell him that she had never felt so second-rate in all her life?

He shook his head, stared at her a moment longer, then crossed the barn to sit beside her.

‘I just want to be on my own,’ she groaned.

He didn’t move.

‘Shouldn’t you be back in there with the lady in red?’

‘Is that why you’re upset?’

’No,’ she snapped. Boy, did this guy have tickets on himself. ‘I’m not upset. You can dance with whoever you like. I don’t care.’

He pulled his knees up and wrapped his arms loosely around them. ‘Her dad paid me five hundred bucks to dance with her.’

‘So what?’ She didn’t care how much he was paid. Wait. What? Did he say five hundred dollars? Holly looked him dead in the eye to see if he was lying. His face was open and earnest. ‘Seriously?’

‘Yep. The other two hundred was from my folks. It all went to the charity,’ he said.

A burst of shocked laughter shot from her chest. ‘How much for the big kiss at the end?’

He shrugged and looked uncomfortable. ‘That was an optional extra.’

Holly shook her head, unsure of what to think or say. ‘You sure do things differently out here.’

He looked down at the floor.

There was a long silence and Holly wondered why he had followed her out there. Charlie’s speech still echoed in her thoughts and it occurred to her that maybe things weren’t so rosy in his life either.

‘I feel bad about what I said the other day,’ she finally said. ‘About the feedlot. Charlie’s story was heartbreaking. I didn’t realise how tough farmers were doing it.’

‘Yeah, my dad’s just hocked half our property to try and make things work.’

’I know how that girl feels.’ Holly’s eyes started welling up and she blinked to keep the tears back. ‘We lost our home, the bank took it. I had to give my horse away. Dad sold all our stuff in a garage sale.’

‘That’s rough.’ His voice was gentle but matter-of-fact, and she was glad he didn’t ooze sympathy. It would have made her situation all the more humiliating.

’I hate this dress,’ she said.

‘Wanna get changed? There’s some polocrosse gear in the tackroom.’

‘You have everything in that tackroom.’

He disappeared, returning moments later with a handful of fabric. ‘Boardies and an old polocrosse jumper. They’re kinda clean.’ He shrugged and pulled a face.

Holly had never been so grateful for anything in her whole life.

In the tackroom, she tore the dress off any way she could before stepping into the board shorts. She pulled his rugby-style top, white with a large number 2 sewn on the back, over her head and inhaled. Lucerne hay again, insanely good. She wrapped the too long-arms around herself, and felt comforted.

When she stepped out the door he was standing in his tuxedo shirt and bow tie, hands in his jeans pockets. ‘Better?’

She looked down at the jumper, which hung on her like a tent. ‘Better than that dress.’

He stepped towards her, and rolled one sleeve back up her arm. She watched his face while he took the other one and did the same. When he was finished, he looked at her directly. His eyes were intensely blue and framed with thick lashes.

Holding his gaze, she undid his bow tie. It came easily undone in her nimble fingers. She threw it on top of the dress and undid his top button. ‘There, you can breathe again now,’ she said, pulling at the collar a bit to loosen it around his throat.

‘Thanks,’ he said. The corners of his mouth pulled. ‘Anything else?’

She looked down to his feet. ‘You could lose the shoes.’

He pushed the heel of one boot with the toe of the other and kicked off his boots, sending them down the stable aisle.

From somewhere outside in the darkness, came a popping sound.

‘What’s that?’ asked Holly.

‘Someone pig-shooting down by the river. Probably one of the neighbours.’

The sounds of crooning country music floated across the paddocks, mingled with voices. He stood in front of her in jeans and mismatched socks, with his white shirt rolled up at the sleeves and his collar loose, his blonde-brown hair dishevelled. ‘Wanna dance?’

’I don’t have seven hundred bucks.’

‘I’ll give you a freebie.’ He lowered his voice. ‘Just don’t tell anyone, it could, you know . . . drag down my market value.’

‘I’m totally dance-lexic,’ she warned him.

He reached for her hands and his fingers wove through hers. ‘Won’t matter.’

As much as she tried, Holly couldn’t push the image of Kaydon dancing with Chrissy out of her mind. Kissing Chrissy. She pulled her hands away from his and stepped away. ‘Who is Chrissy?’

Kaydon rubbed the side of his face. ‘She’s my Dad’s partner’s daughter,’ he said. ‘Dad bought Glenvale with them.’ His face dropped and twisted into a frown and she wondered what was behind the look. ‘What’s a rock nerd?’ he asked suddenly.

‘I think it’s a geologist.’

His eyes flickered, as though he was mentally joining dots together. ‘So Dad’s new partner is a geologist?’

‘I could be wrong,’ said Holly.

Kaydon still looked troubled. ‘Dad said he was in finance.’

‘Maybe he’s both,’ shrugged Holly. ‘Maybe he finances mining projects or something.’

His frown deepened.

Outside, voices began rising. There was a crashing sound and somebody screamed.

Kaydon walked to the door of the stables.

Holly followed. ‘That sounded like Jake.’

Something akin to panic shot through her. The last time she had seen Jake he had been downing his fourth glass of beer. The music stopped and angry voices flooded the night air. There was another scream and more crashing, like a stack of bottles had been upturned. Holly began running towards the marquee.

Behind her, she heard Kaydon curse.

People spewed out of the tent in a loud, quarrelling mass. Jake came staggering out backwards on the receiving end of a giant shove from Dan. He collected a girl in a long red dress on his way down and the pair of them crashed through a stack of empty crates, sending them tumbling to the ground. Chrissy landed in the pile of upended plastic squares with a dazed and mumbling Jake on top of her.

Dan looked ready to launch himself at Jake again but several pairs of hands reached out to restrain him. He stood snarling at Jake as if he wanted to kill him, arms pinned behind his back, chest heaving. A mob of people crowded around.

A shocked-looking Chrissy lay gasping. Her dress was up around her thighs and she had lost one shoe.

‘Dan!’ Kaydon pushed through the crowd. ‘What the hell are you doing?’ He reached down to help Chrissy up.

Holly squeezed through after him. ‘Jake! What happened?’

Her brother looked as taken aback as Chrissy. ‘I was only dancing,’ he said, trying to pull himself out of the bread crates. He glared up at Dan and muttered. ‘Neanderthal.’

Dan threw himself against the arms that held him, trying to launch into another brawl. ‘What did you call me?’ Everyone started yelling again, until Pat Armstrong’s authoritative voice boomed over the top of them.

Daniel! That’s enough!’ Kaydon’s dad appeared with a ginger-haired man beside him. Chrissy immediately shrugged Kaydon off and threw herself into the man’s chest. The way he wrapped protective arms around her, Holly guessed he must be her father.

Pat walked between the two boys. ‘Aaron, take Dan to the house and get him cleaned up.’ He faced Jake. ‘I think your night’s over, boy.’

Jake muttered something Holly couldn’t hear and took off across the paddocks, leaping the fence and disappearing into the darkness. Holly called after him, but before she could give chase, her father’s voice pulled her up.

‘What’s going on?’ he demanded.

Holly spun around and saw her dad appear from the darkness. ‘I . . .’ she stammered. ‘I don’t know.’ Everything had just gone crazy. How long had he been there?

Pat turned on Kaydon. ‘What are you doing running AWOL out here when you’ve got company inside? I didn’t raise you to behave like that.’

‘I was just . . .’ Kaydon stammered. ‘Holly was . . .’ He pointed to the stables then seemed to think better than to try and explain. Holly was grateful when he stopped mid-sentence.

Her dad interrupted. ‘We’ll be on our way, Pat,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry for the trouble. I’ll talk to Jake when I get home.’ Holly felt her dad’s hand on her arm. ‘Get in the truck,’ he said in an icy voice.

‘I think you and your family should find work elsewhere,’ said Chrissy’s father. He still held his shaken daughter in his arms. ‘We’ll get another contractor in to start the job.’

‘That’s a bit extreme,’ said Ken. He let go of Holly and turned to face the man.

Kaydon turned to his father. ‘What is he talking about, Dad?’

‘Yeah, what’s he talking about?’ said Ken.

Pat also gave the man a questioning look. ‘Shouldn’t we discuss this first, Hugh?’

Chrissy’s dad set his jaw. So he was the business partner Kaydon had told her about. That meant he was also Dad’s boss. Holly stood her ground, waiting to hear what would happen.

‘Dad, he can’t do that,’ said Kaydon. ‘This is our place. We say who . . .’

‘Take Chrissy inside and look after her!’ snapped his father.

Kaydon hesitated.

‘Get inside when I tell you to,’ Pat growled, so low and ferocious that the leaves in the surrounding gumtrees curled. ‘Nothing is going to jeopardise this Glenvale deal, do you understand me?’ He pointed to the marquee door. ‘Let me sort this out.’ He turned to Holly’s father. ‘I’ll ring you in the morning.’

Kaydon took Chrissy by the hand and led her back into the marquee.

Holly felt her father’s hand on her arm again. ‘In the truck,’ he muttered. ‘Now!’

‘I . . .’ Holly watched Kaydon retreat into the marquee. She wanted to say goodbye. ‘I have to get my purse and my shoes.’

‘Hurry up. We need go and find your brother,’ said Ken. He turned to Pat. ‘I’ll wait for your call.’

‘There’s nothing to discuss,’ said Chrissy’s father, intervening. ‘I want your family off Glenvale as soon as possible.’ He spun on his heel and stalked off after Chrissy and Kaydon.

Holly’s dad gave Pat another questioning stare. Pat gave a bewildered shrug before following the others into the marquee.

Holly’s heart squeezed so hard it could barely pump. Just like that. They were being kicked out of here? Why did she feel so shattered? This was what she wanted, wasn’t it? It was what they all wanted. To go back to Blue Gum Flats. ‘Dad . . .’

‘This whole trip was a mistake,’ he said, taking his keys from his pocket and heading for the truck.

Holly glanced back and saw Kaydon’s silhouette, handing a glass of something to Chrissy. ‘Yeah,’ she said, ‘maybe it was.’