Six Ways to Sunday Read online

  ‘Okay,’ he shrugged. ‘But it’s probably only delaying the inevitable.’

  ‘I’m not going to have an animal sentenced to death just because I’m scared of it,’ she frowned.

  ‘It’s just a chook,’ Dan said, eyeing her strangely while accepting his coffee.

  ‘I know. But I don’t want you to fight all my battles for me. I can do this.’

  ‘All right, soldier,’ he said, after downing his coffee and leaning over to kiss her goodbye. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’

  Rilee knew he wouldn’t understand her logic—how could he? He’d been brought up in this world where everything had its place and was there for a reason. Cattle were bred to eat and sell; chooks were kept for eggs and meat. Dogs were not pets, they were workers; even the cats were only tolerated because they kept the mice and other rodents under control. There was no such thing as a freeloader at Thumb Creek Station. Everything had its place…except her. She didn’t really fit anywhere. She wasn’t earning her keep; she felt redundant here.

  Well, she was going to fix that. One way or another.

  After the church committee fiasco, things had been rather quiet over at the main house, but Ellen seemed in a particularly good mood as she greeted them and led the way into the dining room.

  Rilee had never really cared for the decor in the room. The old-fashioned wallpaper and heavy, dark green velvet drapes that hung at the tall windows made the room feel oppressive and museum-like. A fireplace with an enormous marble mantelpiece dominated the far wall, and two huge oval portraits of the original Kincaids stared down with stern gazes that seemed to follow Rilee around the room in a most unsettling way.

  Talk centred mainly on work and what needed doing the next day before Ellen finally cleared her throat and caught her husband’s eye. ‘We didn’t invite these two across for dinner just to talk farm work,’ she said pointedly.

  ‘So what’s the big occasion?’ Dan asked half-heartedly, his attention focused on the plate that had just been placed in front of him.

  ‘I’ve decided to go ahead with the party.’

  ‘What party?’ Dan asked, his fork poised between mouth and plate.

  ‘Your post-wedding reception, of course. I refuse to put it off a moment longer.’

  Rilee tried to keep a neutral expression on her face and hoped she hadn’t just groaned out loud.

  ‘I’ve told the girls and they’ve both put it in their diaries.’

  Rilee’s ears pricked up at this piece of news. Finally, she would get to meet Dan’s two sisters.

  ‘And when are we doing this?’ Dan asked before shoving his fork in his mouth and chewing.

  ‘The twenty-fourth, that gives us three weeks,’ Ellen said, flicking her napkin with practised ease and spreading it across her lap. ‘It’s the only free weekend we have in the foreseeable future.’ She picked up her cutlery and delicately cut her thinly sliced beef into smaller portions. ‘If you can have a list of your guests to me within the next two days, Rilee, that would be lovely,’ she said without lifting her gaze from the plate.

  ‘I’ll get right on it.’ It wouldn’t take long; there was really no one other than her parents and Shae. The Browns would be too busy and three weeks was too short notice for them to organise someone to take over supervising the pub for a weekend.

  ‘So what have you been up to, dear? You’ve been rather scarce over the last few days.’

  Rilee concentrated on sectioning her baked potato and meat ratios into equal portions. ‘Oh, I’ve been keeping busy. Actually I have a meeting with the careers advisor at the high school tomorrow.’

  ‘What for?’ Dan asked, lifting his gaze from his meal to eye her curiously.

  ‘To find out how we can implement some kind of program for at-risk girls. He seemed really interested in it.’

  ‘So you’re still determined to go through with it then?’ Ellen said, raising her eyebrows slightly.

  ‘Yes, Ellen,’ Rilee said. ‘I am. Someone has to try to make a change.’

  ‘Another one of those,’ Jacob muttered from the head of the table. ‘Don’t like the way something is, let’s change it.’

  ‘Not all change is bad, you know,’ she said a little more sharply than she’d intended and saw Dan send her a sideways glance.

  ‘Let me tell you something, girly,’ Jacob started, pointing his knife at her. ‘The problem with this damn world is that too many do-gooders have too much free time on their hands. Instead of going out and getting a job like everyone else, they decide to stay in university and think up ways of changing everything. If something’s working, you don’t mess with it. That’s the way we did things in my day and in my father’s day before me. You didn’t see the world going crazy back then.’

  Rilee stared at her father-in-law, unable to decide where to even start with a reply, but Dan’s apprehensive expression changed her mind. She could see him bracing himself for confrontation. But there was no point getting into a debate with a man like Jacob. He was stubborn and arrogant, two qualities that didn’t lend themselves to constructive discussion. There was no point arguing with a man who refused to accept anyone else’s views on anything.

  ‘So I’m thinking we’ll have a rustic-chic theme to the reception. I’m thinking an outdoor garden setting with a pig on the spit and roasted vegetables and long tables that everyone can walk past and serve themselves. But with a touch of class—formal attire. What do you think, Dan?’ Ellen cut in smoothly, changing the topic like a pro.

  ‘Sure, Mum. Whatever you want.’

  Rilee picked up her cutlery and went back to eating her meal. Once the Ellen train was in motion, there wasn’t any way to derail it without being caught up in the wreck. For the rest of the meal Rilee kept her head down and mouth shut.

  Later, as she and Dan walked back to their house, Rilee brought up a subject she’d been wondering about for a while. ‘How does it work with your sisters and the farm? Do they have any input in the business?’

  ‘No, they both left the place as soon as they could and headed for the city.’

  ‘So will the place eventually get split between you all?’

  ‘No, the farm goes to me.’

  Rilee frowned. That seemed a little sexist.

  ‘It’s okay, Ri, they aren’t going to be left high and dry. Mum and Dad have sorted out investments that’ll go to the girls.’

  ‘But what if they wanted part of the farm?’

  ‘Trust me, they’re getting the better part of the deal.’

  ‘But surely Thumb Creek is worth quite a bit more than any investment could return?’

  ‘Maybe on paper. The reality is, I may be inheriting a property, but I’m also inheriting its debt as well. The girls will have money and property, free and clear. We, on the other hand, will have quite a few generations’ worth of debt hanging over our head.’

  It was a sobering thought. ‘Exactly how much debt are we talking about here?’

  ‘You don’t have to worry about it, Ri. It’s all part of life on the land.’

  But she did worry. Debt was not something she particularly liked the sound of, and after seeing the fuel bill the other day, she had a feeling it wasn’t the kind of debt most people were used to. ‘Dan, I really think we need to discuss this. I don’t have any idea how all of this works.’

  Dan stopped walking and turned her to look at him. ‘I don’t want you to worry about it, okay? It’s under control. Besides, I thought you wanted to run your own business? You really think you’re going to have time to work on two?’

  He had point. But still, if she and Dan were going to be responsible for a hefty debt some day, she should take a bit of an interest in how it all worked.

  Rilee was still thinking about it long after Dan fell asleep next to her. What she needed to do right now was focus on starting her clinic. With everything else that had been happening around here, the project to keep girls in school swirling around in her head, and now this damn party Ellen had drag
ged her into, Rilee could feel herself losing sight of what she’d set out to achieve.

  Well, it was time to refocus. As soon as this party was done, she’d get the ball rolling with her clinic. The sooner she was back in her own element, the easier it would be to settle in. She needed her career to give her back some much-needed confidence.

  Fifteen

  ‘Okay, Red, I didn’t want to do this, but you’ve forced me into a corner,’ she said, trying to sound assertive.

  Earlier she’d taken out her box of Bach flower remedies and set about making a recipe to combat the hostile rooster. A drop of chicory, which worked well in animals for possessive and territorial issues. Some beech to tackle the rooster’s intolerance towards people, and some water violet which was good for stand-offish animals with a dislike of affection. She figured that just about covered most of the rooster’s unfavourable traits.

  She could have added her potion to water, but she really needed to target Red, so she was going to have to be sneaky about it. She tipped the contents of the small bottle onto the piece of bread she’d brought along with her. Red eyed her with his beady stare, and Rilee swallowed back a rush of fear. ‘It’s only a bird,’ she muttered to herself firmly. She tossed the bread to the feathered fiend and watched as he greedily gobbled it up, beating the other chooks to it as she was hoping he would, before looking back at her expectantly for another piece.

  When Rilee returned to the pen half an hour later, she tossed the feed as a distraction and edged around the frenzy of chooks diving for the corn and pellets, making a beeline for the feeding dishes to fill with the remainder of the food. Much to her relief, Red was too busy pecking at the feed to even glance at her.

  She made the rounds of the laying boxes and collected the eggs, all the while keeping check on Red’s location. While he didn’t seem completely docile, he also wasn’t intent on chasing her either. When she’d finished collecting the eggs and was ready to leave the relative safety of the laying pen, Red wasn’t doing his usual patrol back and forwards, waiting to attack her ankles. She searched the yard and found him happily pecking along with the other chooks, seemingly oblivious to her presence.

  Rilee couldn’t help the satisfied grin that crossed her face as she placed the basket of eggs on the kitchen counter in the main house.

  Ellen looked up from the recipe book she had been browsing through and lifted one manicured eyebrow.

  Rilee didn’t say a word. Small as it was, it was still a victory, and as she made her way back to the house she felt a tiny bud of optimism inside her begin to unfurl. It was a start.

  ‘You drugged the rooster?’

  ‘I didn’t drug it,’ Rilee hedged as she sipped her coffee and watched Shae across the kitchen table. ‘He just needed a hormone realignment.’

  ‘Clearly,’ Shae said dryly. ‘I don’t know why more people don’t call a naturopath to give their poultry hormone rebalances.’

  ‘You know, that’s not a bad idea.’ After her success with Red, Rilee had actually been thinking about introducing some of her treatments to animals.

  ‘I was joking,’ Shae said, staring at Rilee incredulously.

  ‘I wasn’t. Animals can respond just as well to treatments as humans. Only I’m not sure I have the right bedside manner for animals. I don’t like chooks. Cows scare me, and don’t even get me started on sheep.’

  ‘Then I guess it’s safe to say you better stick to humans for now.’

  ‘Probably for the best,’ Rilee agreed.

  ‘How did your meeting with Aaron go?’

  ‘It was promising.’ The careers advisor had been interested in her idea, but he had to take it to the principal and then there would be a long way to go to work out how to fund it, and how to get it approved from there. ‘It’s going to take a long time before it’s up and running.’

  ‘You knew that already though, right?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Rilee agreed, ‘but he has to get the principal on board before he can go any further.’

  ‘And that’s bad because?’

  ‘Well, not bad…but the principal is apparently an old friend of Ellen’s.’

  ‘Oh.’ Shae sat back with a twist of her lips. ‘You think Ellen would try to sabotage it?’

  ‘I don’t know. I hope not. I’m hoping that she’s too busy organising this party to be bothered with making any trouble.’

  ‘So what’s the latest on the upcoming shindig?’

  ‘Circus more like it,’ Rilee groaned. It seemed Dan was right: once his mother got an idea in her head, it was useless to try to stop her. ‘It started out as only a few close friends and family, and last I heard the guest list was up to about one hundred and five.’

  ‘Give it time. I’m sure that number will grow over the next few days.’

  ‘I don’t know any of these people.’

  ‘It’ll be fine. I’m sure most of them will be neighbours and local families, and they’re a nice enough bunch. Besides, you’ll have Dan there.’

  ‘I guess so. And it’s not like I don’t want to meet these people, it’s just that I feel like I’m on show or something. Like I’m the latest cow they’ve brought from the saleyards.’

  Shae choked on her coffee at that. ‘Oh my God, can you imagine? I can just see Dan leading you around the yards on a rope as they all discuss your breeding lines.’

  Shae’s laughter was contagious and soon Rilee was giggling too. ‘Check out the teats on that one,’ she said.

  They were laughing so much neither of them heard the screen door open until Ellen cleared her voice noisily, bringing an abrupt halt to the hilarity.

  ‘Oh, Ellen, hi, I didn’t hear you come in.’

  ‘Apparently,’ her mother-in-law said with that annoying eyebrow lift. The woman made Rilee feel as though she were a child being reprimanded. ‘I could hear you laughing all the way over at the house.’

  So it was official, Rilee thought, her mother-in-law did indeed have supersonic hearing. ‘Sorry about that,’ Rilee said, carefully avoiding looking at Shae who was pulling an unflattering face, since her back was towards Ellen. ‘Would you like a coffee?’

  ‘No, thank you. I came over to go over some arrangements for the engagement party,’ she said, before sending a bland look at Shae, ‘but I see you have a guest.’

  Like that would have been a total surprise. Considering she’d heard the noise from her house. Rilee was more than a little irritated by the woman’s assumption she could just invite herself over.

  ‘It’s all right, I was leaving anyway,’ Shae said, getting to her feet and taking her cup to the sink. ‘Thanks for the coffee,’ she said. ‘Nice to see you, Mrs Kincaid,’ she added before disappearing out the door.

  Rilee stared at the empty doorway and felt suddenly abandoned. Traitor, she thought. Ellen was already busy unloading her notepad onto the table and making herself at home.

  Rilee tried to listen as Ellen gave her a rundown of arrangements. Clearly her opinion was not being asked for; everything had already been decided. Rilee continued to fume silently right through the menu plan and on to the decorations.

  By the time Dan got home Rilee was ready to explode.

  Dan took one look at her face and paused as he reached for the fridge door. ‘What’s she done now?’ he asked wearily.

  ‘She’s doing my head in, Dan,’ Rilee said, throwing her arms in the air. ‘She just walks in the house—never bothers to knock. She basically kicked Shae out so she could discuss the engagement party with me, although I might add she didn’t stop to take a damn breath the entire time, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t get a word in edgeways.’

  ‘It’s just her way,’ Dan said, taking out a beer.

  ‘Well, it’s rude!’

  ‘Just let her get this party out of her system and things will settle down.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘What do you mean, why?’

  ‘Why do we have to let her have her way just to keep the peace?’

 
‘Because the alternative is too horrible to think about.’

  ‘She’s got like this because no one around here will stand up to her. It’s ridiculous.’

  ‘Ri,’ he sighed, dropping his head. ‘Just trust me on this. Making a big deal about it will only cause drama. We don’t want drama, do we?’

  ‘How is standing up for ourselves drama? I just want a little common courtesy. I want her to respect boundaries, Dan. She can’t just waltz into our home whenever she damn well feels like it and she can’t dismiss my friends as though they’re…peasants.’

  ‘You have to appreciate that sometimes things are done differently out here.’

  ‘All I’m asking for is a little respect.’

  Dan paused, seemingly to gather his thoughts. ‘There’s a certain order to things around here. You can’t just start rearranging things without ruffling everyone’s feathers.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘Look,’ Dan sighed, putting his can of beer down on the table. ‘There’s a system. You have the hierarchy, which at the moment is Mum and Dad. They run the show. Then there’s me, and then there are the workers. The hierarchy doesn’t mix with the workers. Anything they need to get across to said workers goes through me. I’m the official channel.’

  Rilee stared at him, unimpressed.

  ‘Years ago, my grandparents were the hierarchy and Mum and Dad were where we are. If you start messing with things, then the whole system falls apart.’

  ‘What century are you living in?’

  ‘I know it seems strange, but Mum and Dad are the last of an era. They still hold on to a lot of the social politics that used to be commonplace out here.’

  ‘Well, it doesn’t wash with me. I don’t care what her views are about the workers,’ she said pointedly. ‘This is my home and Shae is my friend. She has no right to think she can get away with rudeness. I don’t care how ruffled her feathers get, if she does it again, I’m telling her how it is.’

  ‘I’ll have a word to her,’ he promised, tugging at her hand so that she sat down on his knee.

  Rilee bit back a frustrated sigh at his words. She knew that Dan having a word to his parents would be about as effective as spitting to put out a bushfire. It wasn’t fair that Dan was in the middle and had to be the peacemaker, but she was really beginning to hate the way he always turned to the patronising ‘I’ll have a word with them’ to placate her and end an argument.