Chapter Eight

A week had passed without too much trouble, except for the deficit of water. Alex had called Peter, as Tess had heard from Nick, but he had always hung up on him. Charlotte still acted rather coolly and uncomfortable around Alex, although she had got used to life on Drover's Run besides that. He had made some attempts at casual conversation, but she had blocked them in a rude manner. Emily's riding was improving, but she still hadn't quite lost her fear of "big horses". She and Charlotte were getting along well, and yet Emily appeared a little jealous of the attention her cousin was getting.

The women of Drover's Run, except for Chloe, were all gathered in the kitchen, chopping vegetables, sorting the mail, cleaning the grill in the kitchen sink (to Meg's horror). Charlotte was cutting cucumbers for a salad, under Tess's supervision. Alex was sitting at the table, doing…well, nothing, for which he had received quite a few glares and pert comments from Stevie. Nick was working over at Killarney.

Suddenly, Jodi looked up from the letters, shocked. "Oh, bugger…"

Meg frowned. "What?"

"Uh, I forgot to get the eggs this morning."

"Jodi!" Stevie exclaimed in utter bewilderment. "You've been working here for how long…!"

"I know, sorry. I was so busy watching the kids that I just…forgot."

"Well, get 'em now."

"I'll go get them!" Charlotte offered, beaming. She dropped the knife and was already on her way out when Tess called after her.

"Be careful, chickens bite sometimes!"

Meg smirked knowingly. "Make use of that enthusiasm as long as it lasts. Farms don't remain that exciting forever."

Tess shrugged. "Well, if she had grown up here, all of us probably would've spoiled her. That's the one good thing about her not staying- she didn't turn into a little princess."

"Hey, I grew up here, and I didn't turn into a spoiled little princess!" Jodi remarked. There was a moment of silence in which all of the attendees had to try hard not to laugh. Stevie failed at suppressing it, but attempted to conceal it as a cough, which produced a weird snorting noise.

"What?"

"Honey, you know how Jack enjoyed spoiling you" Meg remarked. "I should have restricted him more on that area."

"Mum!"

"Oh, c'mon, Jodi", Alex laughed, "you know she's right."

She glared at him. "No comments from you, Alex Ryan. You probably had a bank account before you were even born. You're a member of the Ryan-Empire."

"Yeah, and don't forget to mention those silver spoons the servants used to feed us mash with" he replied sarcastically.

"Seriously, though, when I was little, you guys were like that clan from 'Dynasty' for me…and I was Lindsay, the girl from next door."

Alex laughed. "Thanks, so what does that make me? Fallon, the spoiled daughter of 'the clan'?"

Stevie grinned, visibly amused. "You used to watch the endless repetitions of 'Dynasty'?"

"Oh, just a few episodes…to see what the girls were talking about, ya know?"

"And did it work?"

"Did what work?"

She spread her arms in an exaggerated gesture. "Did you manage to impress them with your great knowledge of Crystle's and Alex's problems?"

"Ts, her name was Alexis, not Alex. Get it right!" He went over to the sink and stood behind Stevie, barely touching her waist with his hands, which he knew she hated because she was ticklish. Stevie yelped, dropped the grill and turned around, pushing him away with her wet hands.

Jodi shook her head. "Get a room!"

They were still laughing, when Chloe entered the kitchen, sweaty and covered in dirt. "I've cleaned the pipe." She wiped her face with the sleeve of her blue shirt, which had once looked nice. "What now?"

"Actually, why don't you sit down with us for a while and take a break?" Tess suggested friendly. She wanted to integrate the girl a little more.

Chloe shrugged and took the chair across from where Jodi was sitting. Tess handed her a glass of water.

"Thanks!"

"It's too hot outside for this work, I know."

"Well, it needs to be done."

"Unfortunately." Tess grabbed the rest of Charlotte's cucumber and cut it, but her actual focus was still on the new worker. "Where in England are you from again?"

"Uh, Durham. It's up in the north."

"Ah." She didn't know what else to say, although small talk had never been her weakness.

Chloe emptied the glass of water with another big sip. Tess looked her over, inconspicuously, as she was hoping. The young woman was neither pretty, nor unalluring. Her olive green eyes, the snub nose and the pale, faintly freckled skin that fell prey to sunburn easily, gave the impression of a sweet, kind personality. She was short and not as rangy as Stevie, which let her look a little stout, although she wasn't really chubby. Her most beautiful feature was clearly the long, straight red hair that fell over her shoulders in shiny wisps.

"And your folks?", Tess asked. "Don't they miss you?"

Chloe shrugged, smiling. "I don't know. I guess so." Gee, it was difficult to get some information out of that girl. For some reason, however, Tess liked her.

Alex turned around while he was helping Stevie clean the grill. "You got family up there?"

She nodded. "My mum and two brothers. Benjamin's twenty-two, he works as a joiner and wants to start his own workshop someday. Joey's the youngest, he's fourteen and in a…bad phase."

Meg snorted. "Who wasn't? Two brothers- must be tough."

"Yes, but…you miss them when they're gone." For a moment, a distant, melancholic look overshadowed her smile, but she shrugged it off quickly. "Oh well, that's what e-mails are for. I should get back to work now. What's next?"

"The stables still need to be mucked out" Stevie stated in her bossy tone.

"All right."

"I'll go see where Charlotte's got to" Tess explained upon leaving the kitchen. "Oh, and Alex, don't forget to take the pump Jodi used with you."

"Which pump?" he asked, confused. "Did you borrow something?"

"Um, Tess…", Stevie addressed her hesitantly, "that pump doesn't belong to Killarney, it's ours. We bought it a couple of years ago."

"But…oh, I see. Right. Sorry!" She laughed embarrassed, wishing that the others would stop staring at her. "It's a nice…pump."

Alex grinned. "I'll take it, if you don't want it."

"How very generous of you." Tess smiled and walked away, but inside, she was boiling. How could she have forgotten that e-mail Stevie sent her about the new pump? Sure, it was hard to keep track of all of the updates, but this was her property, she should at least know it, shouldn't she?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey" Nick greeted his brother, entering the neat living room of Killarney's homestead.

Alex was sitting on, or rather slouching about the beige couch, with his legs on the table. "Hey."

"What are you doing?"

"Nothin'. Just thinking."

"Mind if I join in?" He sat down on the couch next to his brother.

"I can't bar you from thinking. But what are you doing here anyway? It's a bit late, your wife's gonna miss you."

Although Nick didn't feel like talking about business at the moment, he knew he would have to bring it up sooner or later- and sooner was the preferable choice, most of the time. "I skimmed through Killarney's records today. And I noticed that the profit we used to make through wool went down rapidly."

Alex groaned. "Yeah, I know. It's because I invested more in cattle. The Charnwood contract gave us a real boost in meat production."

"Pretty risky. What if Killarney loses Charnwood as a customer? We'd be in the red right away. It would be better if you dispersed the investments more."

He sat up, shaking his head. "Nick, I know a thing or two about leading a farm, too, alright? So far, we've been doing fine. And we're not gonna lose Charnwood."

"I hate to bring it up, but…Killarney's been making seven percent less profit since…" He broke off his sentence in the middle, looking for a more sensitive way to express his concern.

"Go on, say it! Since Harry's death, I know!"

Nick sighed, annoyed that it was impossible to have a reasonable conversation with his brother without him feeling offended. "I'm just stating facts, you know that. Why do you never listen to me?"

"I do, but we hardly ever agree! You see, someone's gotta make the decisions. And you weren't here."

"Don't start that again…"

Alex shook his head defensively. "No, I'm just saying…things have changed, mate. We had to switch suppliers a while ago. The new food is more expensive, but we'll get a better price for the meat. And there's the additional income from grassland lease agreements, too. Everything's under control."

It became clear to Nick that his brother would stand by his opinion. "Okay, fine, you're the boss at Killarney, it's your business. But what about Wilgul?"

"What about it?"

He gazed at Alex, dumbfounded. Did he really have to state the obvious? "Alex, the new tenants will bankrupt it sooner or later! I doubt that they have much farming experience as leaders, they're completely overstrained with the managing part."

"Hey, Dan and Allison are trying their best, and their situation has improved lately. They're decent people."

"They're nice folks and little Lachlan's cute", Nick agreed, "but you make too many decisions based on sympathy. They haven't been making any profit so far and it seems like they're sick of it all, too."

"These are tough times, who is making profit, really? They've only been here for five months, we're in the middle of a drought, and they have a two-year-old son to take care of. Of course they're exhausted, what did you expect?"

Nick kept silent, considering his options. He didn't want the young family to get the sack, really. On the other hand, it was the only way to fulfil his plans for Wilgul. He had thought it through over and over again; it had been on his mind even before they had left Argentina. Now, regarding how things were working out at Drover's and Killarney, he didn't feel bad about it anymore. It was time to do what he wanted to do. Fifty percent of the property belonged to him; he had the right to demand that the Kneales left within a certain period of time, reasoning that they were doing a bad job. But he'd have to reach some kind of agreement with his brother, who owned the other half of the farm…and that was probably the hardest part.

Apparently, Alex misinterpreted his silence as disapprovement. He sighed. "Fine, I'll go talk to them tomorrow, see how bad their situation really is…and then we'll see."

"Okay."

"Want a beer?"

"No…no, thanks."

Alex looked at his brother for a long time. "Nick, why are you really here?"

"I told you. Farm business."

"In the middle of the night. Right", he replied in a tone, which clearly indicated that he didn't believe Nick. He got up from the couch. "That's settled, then. Mind if I go to bed?"

"I'd like to buy your share of Wilgul."

Alex turned around with a baffled expression. "What?"

"Let's not kid ourselves, Killarney always meant much more to you than it did to me. And now, it's your farm through and through."

"It's-"

Nick cut him off quickly. "No, you know that it would never work. We're too different."

Alex closed his mouth and sat back down, but the concerned look on his face didn't disappear. "So you wanna start your own business- by yourself? You plan to live on Drover's Run, but lead Wilgul?"

"Exactly. You see, ever since I got back from the university –no, long before that, actually- I wanted to have my own farm. I just couldn't see…that the solution was right in front of my eyes. And with Harry's heart disease and the job in Argentina, which was great…I just lost track. Of course I'll have to employ some workers and a qualified overseer, but it could work."

Alex nodded slowly. "And what does Tess say to that?" Nick shrugged. "You did tell her, didn't you? Man…"

"I wanted to wait until we've settled down a bit more. I can't build up Wilgul right away, anyway." Tess would understand, he was certain of that. She had always supported him in striving for his goals. And it wasn't as if a whole lot would change for her, or Emily. He had made a silent promise to himself that he wouldn't neglect his family, ever.

"But buying Wilgul means you'll spend a lot of time there, not just a few hours a day."

"Thanks, I know that. Will you sell?"

"Are you sure about this?" Alex still gazed at him doubtfully. Why couldn't he trust him?

"I am", Nick answered without turning a hair. He leaned back on the couch and stared up at the white ceiling. That stucco decoration in the corners was painfully tacky. "They don't need me at Drover's and, you know, it's really Tess's farm. The whole thing, organic farming and all that, it shows…her dreams, which is how it's supposed to be. She's so happy to be back, and I'm not gonna ruin it for her. But I need to do this."

After a moment, Alex stretched out his hand. "It's a deal, then. We'll talk about the financial part tomorrow, alright?"

"Alright." Nick took his brother's hand, held it for a moment longer than necessary, and smiled to himself.

Just then, the clock struck midnight. 'Another turning point', he thought, full of hope for the future.