A Changing Land(79)

Neville poured more tea for himself and spread his legs straight in front of him in order to pick up more of the sun’s weak rays. ‘Don’t like him.’

Anthony took a sip of his tea. He could have stood a teaspoon up in it, it was that strong.

‘Yeah, Mrs Kelly wouldn’t have let Ned play with him,’ Neville stated solemnly.

‘He’s not that much of a poor bastard,’ Bruce replied.

Neville shook his head. ‘Met him up at Carlyon’s place before his accident. Wasn’t too bad then.’

‘And now?’ Anthony asked, intrigued.

‘Delusions of grandeur.’

Bruce poured more tea. ‘Well, I don’t mind the poor bastard. He’s got a busted sandshoe for a face and fingers that are no good to any woman.’

‘He’s capable,’ Anthony admitted, draining his tea. ‘And permanent.’ He passed Bruce the thermos lid. The three of them finished up and Bruce packed up his esky, tying a narrow cotton rope around it to keep the broken lid on. ‘Got the ear of your girl, eh? You’ll have to put a stop to that. ’Bout time you two married and had a couple of sprogs. That will keep her busy.’

Neville grinned, displaying a gold front tooth. ‘Ahh, anklebiters. Would have lost an eye for me own little fellas. Course then they grow up and become right little arseholes and you can’t give the buggers away.’

Anthony blinked. ‘Look fellas, I need to stop the work here for a few days.’ It was a tough thing to be pushed into an uncomfortable decision, but if the development was going to cause such a major problem between them, especially with everything else going on, then he would do as Sarah asked – at least for the moment. One of them would have to take a step back before they did further damage to their relationship. Once she returned home he’d talk her around.

Bruce rolled his eyes. ‘Again?’

‘Yeah, the fuel truck’s been delayed,’ he lied. ‘It’s got me buggered, but we’re all out of diesel. And they’re not promising a delivery this week.’

‘Fair enough.’ Bruce heaved his burly frame out of the deck-chair. ‘We’ll go through to knock-off time. Give us a call when you want us back on board. I was hankering for a steak and chips at the Wangallon pub tonight anyway.’

‘No probs. Thanks, mate.’ Anthony shook Bruce’s hand, wincing at the vice-like grip.

‘Got yourself a bit of a fencing job,’ thumbed Neville over his shoulder. ‘Hit a wire back a bit. Old fence?’

‘Yeah, it’s pretty old. We might use that as a bit of a marker and clear up to that. Later on I might thin it out a bit.’

‘No worries. Up to the fencing relic it is,’ Neville confirmed with an excuse for a cough and a string of spittle that landed to sit foaming in the dirt.





Bullet was waiting at the back steps when Anthony arrived home. Surprisingly the dog actually stayed still long enough for a brief pat on the head. Ferret gave a melancholy whine.

‘Missing her, aren’t you, mate?’ Anthony commented, scraping his boots off at the back steps.

As if on cue Bullet looked down the back path. Satisfied that his mistress was not following, he ambled back to the rainwater tank and lay down beside Ferret, a half-chewed boot between them.

‘I’ll tell her you want her home.’

Bullet answered with a snappish bark.

Inside Anthony washed his hands, wondering if Sarah would be back at the serviced apartment where she was staying. He was half-inclined to jump on the next plane to Sydney. He hadn’t been to the big smoke for a while and there was nothing like a motel room for rekindling a love affair. He didn’t need to agree with her decision to fight Jim Macken, but he guessed a little support might make Sarah more amenable towards the land development. In the office he checked dates in the station diary, noting down flight times from the faxed listing the airline circulated every year. He was about to contact the travel agent when the telephone rang.

‘Hey, I was just thinking about you. Must be ESP. How’s everything going?’

‘Okay,’ Sarah said with little enthusiasm. ‘Looks like I might owe you an apology. Frank reckons we probably will have to sell.’

Anthony knew it was a bitter blow for her. ‘I’m sorry. So you’re coming home?’

Sarah sighed. ‘No. I need to see Dad. Tell him about everything.’

‘Oh.’ So much for the trip to Sydney. Anthony flipped the diary closed. ‘Good. I don’t see any benefit in keeping him out of the loop when he caused the problem.’