Valley of the White Gold Read online

  ‘God, no,’ she answered with a laugh. ‘I’m Bella Stafford, Dan’s eldest daughter. Yes, Jess is a pretty handy dog. We’ve got some others, too. My brother and sister are nuts about sheepdogs. Jess is one of my sister’s dogs but she’ll work for me.’

  Wally felt the palms of his hands begin to perspire and little prickles of heat run through him. What a gorgeous creature. She was miles better than any woman he had paid to entertain him. But surely she had to be spoken for.

  ‘It seems that this country produces very good-looking women as well as very good wool,’ Wally said in his best private-school manner.

  Bella laughed again. This wasn’t what anyone from the Half Moon would say about her. No one would be anywhere near as smooth. ‘You should see my sister. She leaves me for dead.’

  ‘I refuse to believe anyone could leave you for dead,’ Wally said as he looked appreciatively at her. She was like a ripe plum ready to fall and he was ready to catch her.

  ‘I suppose you’ve been up looking at Glen Avon? What do you think of it?’ Bella asked.

  Wally decided that before he could answer this he needed to know something and he could only get it by coming right out and asking directly.

  ‘Are you spoken for?’ he asked and smiled. He could be very charming when required.

  ‘Oh, what a question! No, I’m not,’ she said.

  ‘In that case, I shall probably buy Glen Avon,’ Wally said and watched with pleasure the faint blush of colour that crept into Bella’s face.

  ‘Well, you’d better be a fine-wool man or you and my dad won’t get on at all,’ Bella said, laughing again. When she laughed, Wally thought, it was something else.

  ‘I’m a fine-wool man, all right. You can tell your father that you’ve just met the next owner of Glen Avon,’ Wally said. He took a final look at Bella before he got back in the car. Suddenly, he couldn’t sign up for Glen Avon quickly enough. Bella Stafford promised paradise.

  Back at the homestead, Bella did indeed tell her father that she’d met the next owner of Glen Avon.

  ‘I didn’t know it had been sold,’ Dan said, looking confused.

  ‘It wasn’t… until today. They stopped on the road when I was putting the young ewes into the pines. Stan Cullen was with him.’

  ‘What was he like?’

  ‘Youngish, maybe mid-twenties or a bit older. Pretty sure of himself,’ Bella replied. ‘He said he was a fine-wool man,’ she added, knowing that would pique her father’s interest more than anything.

  ‘What’s his name and where’s he from?’ Dan quizzed.

  ‘He didn’t say and I didn’t ask.’

  ‘Hmm.’

  Something told Bella that Glen Avon’s new owner had been instantly attracted to her and that she could expect to see a lot more of him after he took up residence next door. It was something to think about.

  Chapter Three

  Like most of the Half Moon’s woolgrowers, Dan Stafford was afflicted with a kind of xenophobia. It wasn’t directed so much against people from other countries (though he couldn’t see how some of the new migrants would ever be much use to Australia) as people from other districts. Dan felt that anyone from outside the Half Moon was an interloper who couldn’t possibly have a proper conception of what fine-wool breeding was all about. And he wasn’t on his own in this regard. There were legendary stories about the extent to which people of the Half Moon had gone to keep fine-wool properties in the ownership of the original families that had settled in the region in the nineteenth century. Some of these stories were so strange as to defy imagination… but they are a different book.

  It was not often that a property such as Glen Avon came up for sale, but Matt Jackson had had no close family. Dan had clearly been worried about who the buyer might be. So it came as a surprise, even a shock, when he gave his endorsement to Wally Osborne almost before he’d got to know him. The fact that Wally had owned one of the best fine-wool flocks in Tasmania, and that his best wool prices had almost equalled Dan’s own, put him into rarefied company. And to help matters further, Wally had teamed up with Jim to play cricket.

  Wally wasn’t a class batsman like Jim, but he was a big hitter and could turn a game quickly. When he went in to bat he tried to dominate every bowler he faced from the very first ball. He might get out first ball, but if he stayed there, he’d belt fifty runs in no time at all. If these attributes weren’t enough to impress Dan, Wally was a sheepdog man and had been a trialler of border collies in Tasmania. He’d already been to Mattai to inspect Dan’s sheep and had given him an order for rams, immediately putting him in Dan’s good books. And Jim was equally impressed with his new mate.

  The three Stafford women, however, reacted quite differently to Wally. Dorothy, who had been a teacher and was a good judge of people, had some doubts about Wally, which she kept to herself. There was something about him that she couldn’t put a finger on, and she was always reserved in his company. But she took the view that as Bella seemed to think he was all right, she would leave it to her daughter to judge. She realised that Bella was getting increasingly anxious about finding herself a partner. Dan had pronounced against several young men, any one of whom might have made a good husband for Bella. So Dorothy did not want to come across as a wet blanket. She remembered, too, that her own mother had left it to her to make the decision about marrying Dan, even though Dorothy hadn’t loved him at the time. And if Bella was to marry Wally, then at least she wouldn’t be far away.

  Bella had been quite won over when she saw pictures of the Osborne family’s castle in England. There had been Osbornes going back to the time of the Crusades, and the Tasmanian property sounded magnificent. There was also a kind of flamboyancy about Wally that excited Bella. She saw it when Wally went out to bat; everyone at the cricket ground could see his intention to put every ball over the fence. He didn’t always succeed, but when he did it was something. There was no one in the area quite like Wally. He was charismatic and commanded attention. He was attractive, too. He had fair, wavy hair and blue eyes, with a deep, commanding voice. He always dressed extremely well, right down to his shoes, which were the best money could buy. Wally walked with a distinctive spring in his step that was suggestive of great energy. What’s more, he obviously liked Bella. He’d made that very clear from the start. So what was she to do? It seemed to her that if she wanted a home of her own, and she did, she could do a lot worse than marry Wally Osborne, even if he hadn’t set her heart on fire. She knew that other women in the Half Moon hadn’t been desperately in love with their partners when they’d married, and they had made a fist of things.

  But Beth couldn’t stand Wally. She tried to conceal this from her sister because she was aware of how much Bella wanted things to work out. In Beth’s opinion, Wally left much to be desired. The man had wandering hands, for one thing. One of them had even tried to wander up her thigh at a local dance. Admittedly this had been before he’d asked Bella to marry him but he had been courting her and Beth considered it a very low act. Like her mother, Beth felt there was something strange about Wally. He just gave her the creeps.

  Bella and Beth were very close and had always discussed men frankly, though not in their father’s hearing. When Bella first asked her sister what she thought about Wally, Beth’s answer was so non-committal that Bella couldn’t believe her ears. ‘It’s not what I think about Wally that matters, Bella; it’s what you think about him.’

  Bella looked at her sharply. ‘You don’t like him?’

  ‘Well, he’s not really my type. I guess he’s got his good points and he doesn’t seem short of money but he’s… well… different,’ Beth said.

  ‘What do you mean by different?’ Bella asked.

  Beth looked at her sister as she thought about how to answer her. The way things were shaping up, there was a distinct possibility that Bella would be leaving Mattai. Bella would become a wife, and the sisters would never again be as close as they were now. A husband took precedence over
a sister. But it was the thought of Wally being with Bella in an intimate way that caused Beth to shut her eyes and shake her head. ‘He’s… he’s…’ and here she paused as she sought the right words to convey her thoughts. ‘Wally’s just not the kind of man I thought you’d marry,’ she finished.

  ‘What kind of man did you think I’d marry?’ Bella asked sharply. And then, without waiting for her sister to answer, she plunged on. ‘A fellow as thick as a brick who can only think sheep?’

  ‘No, absolutely not,’ Beth answered quickly. In Beth’s opinion, Bella was not in love with Wally but in love with the idea of being married. ‘I always thought that you might, just might, leave here and marry someone from outside the district. Maybe not a man on the land at all. Of course, it does seem you’re thinking about marrying a man from outside the district because obviously Wally is a Tasmanian, but he’s a sheepman, like the blokes around here. I doubt that he’s any brighter and he’s…’ and here words failed her again as she struggled to convey her doubts about Wally’s character. What she would have liked to say was that he had wandering hands and he made her flesh creep. Instead, she fell back on the age-old, ‘I just think that Wally’s not good enough for you, Bella. Not good enough for my lovely sister.’

  ‘Would any man be good enough in your eyes?’ Bella asked.

  Beth shrugged. ‘Well, I won’t marry a man I don’t love, even if I never get married. And if it’s a matter of marrying the best man available, I have my doubts that Wally is better than anyone around here. Wes Saunders is a very genuine kind of person.’

  ‘I couldn’t see myself getting on with him,’ Bella said. ‘Besides, he’s much keener on you than he is on me.’

  ‘Well, it’s your life. I’ve told you what I think. If you want Wally, you’re welcome to him. At least Dad seems to think he’s okay. Funny that, when he’s usually so hard on outsiders,’ Beth said thoughtfully.

  ‘Wally is exciting, Beth. Everyone sits up when he’s around. And there’s nobody who can dance like him.’

  ‘They’re hardly the ideal attributes for a good marriage,’ she said dryly.

  ‘I’m sure I don’t know where you’re going to find your Mr Perfect, Beth,’ Bella snapped, her eyes flashing. ‘And if I don’t say yes to Wally, someone else will.’

  They’re welcome to him, was Beth’s immediate thought. ‘I think you’ll be making a big mistake if you marry Wally. I would hate for my beautiful sister to be unhappy and that’s what I think you’ll be if you marry Wally.’

  Bella shook her head stubbornly. Her mind was made up and nothing that anybody said, even Beth, was going to change it.

  Chapter Four

  The wedding was all that Bella had hoped for. It was memorable for a number of reasons, one of which was that there wasn’t a single person from Tasmania in attendance. When Bella had asked Wally who he would like to attend from his side of the family, he had told her that his father was dead and that he had no other relatives to invite.

  ‘What about your mother?’ Bella pressed.

  ‘She’s in England,’ Wally said.

  ‘Don’t you want her to meet me?’ Bella asked.

  Wally looked past her at Dorothy, who was sitting close by in the Stafford lounge room while they discussed the wedding. He was conscious of the fact that Dorothy wasn’t altogether his way and while he wanted to quickly terminate any discussion about his family, which included why his father had left Britain and taken his son with him, he couldn’t be too curt about it.

  ‘We don’t get on. My parents broke up before Dad left England. My mother remarried. There’s a couple of girls. I’ve never met them. It’s a lost cause, Bella,’ Wally said bluntly.

  ‘So you’ve got no relations in Tassie? What about friends?’ Bella asked.

  ‘There’s none close enough to warrant bringing them over,’ Wally said. There weren’t either, and he knew he couldn’t ask any of the fellows he’d played cricket with in Tasmania.

  The upshot of it all was that Wally gave the Staffords a brief list of names, but they were all names of people he’d met since coming to the Half Moon. There were four men from the cricket team, Bill Stratton, who was a very popular wool rep, and a couple of sheepdog enthusiasts Wally had befriended. These men, along with their wives and girl-friends, made up the small group of Wally’s guests. It was about one twentieth of the number of family and friends the Staffords proposed to invite. Wally had asked Jim to be his best man and he had dispensed with a groomsman.

  The excitement generated by the coming event and the fact that Dan wasn’t sparing any expense on the occasion short-circuited further discussion about Wally’s background, although Bella determined that after they were married she’d ask Wally for more details.

  Dan took the quite unexpected decision to arrange with Farmers & Graziers for some of his best superfine wool to be sent to Italy for milling into a bolt of stunningly beautiful material of the most incredible softness. This set the entire district talking, because nobody had ever done anything like it. Bella created from this material a wedding dress of simple design but of such originality it was remembered by the ladies of the district for long after the wedding.

  There were plenty of well-wishers standing outside in the courtyard of St John’s as the white limousine drew up before the tower entrance of the old brick church. The sun was glinting on the beautiful stained-glass windows as Beth fussed about her sister, arranging her veil and straightening her train. The incredibly fine woollen fabric of Bella’s gown hugged her figure to perfection.

  There were subdued oohs and aahs from the guests and friends in the church as Bella took her father’s arm and made her way down the aisle. Preceded by Beth, looking stunning in Bella’s creation of very pale lilac satin, Bella began her journey down the aisle to the powerful strains of the wedding march played on the church’s celebrated organ.

  And there, waiting for her at the pulpit, were Wally and Jim, both looking striking in charcoal-grey suits, with white shirts and burgundy ties. Her groom really did look something, thought Bella as she approached them. At that moment, she couldn’t have been happier, and when they were finally pronounced husband and wife and Wally took Bella in his arms and kissed her, she felt like the luckiest woman alive.

  On Dan’s instructions the caterers had turned the Masonic Hall into an elegant reception room with a central bower of blossoms and greenery. Virtually every item of food was locally produced. One stunning pyramid of massive peaches took everyone’s eye and their flavour was, by common consent, just wonderful.

  Jim Stafford made a good speech with several references to wool and to Wally’s predilection for hitting a cricket ball for six. At the end of the night, everyone agreed that it was an occasion to be remembered for a long time to come. When the bride and groom finally waved their guests goodbye, Dorothy and Beth saw the hugest smile on Bella’s face. Dorothy found herself hoping that Bella would still be smiling twelve months down the track.

  Wally didn’t skimp on the honeymoon, either. The destination was a luxurious tropical resort in Fiji. But even before the holiday was over Bella had begun to have second thoughts about her new husband. Wally made her do things she’d never imagined anyone would ask her to do, and none of them gave her any pleasure. Quite the opposite. Like a lot of women who marry in the absence of love or even great affection, Bella did not enjoy Wally’s hunger for her body. She was aware that so much was part of the marriage contract, but she had never thought a man could be so insatiable. And this state of affairs continued long after the honeymoon was over.

  Moving to Glen Avon hadn’t been too traumatic for Bella. The house was quite comfortable, even in its original condition. The stables were absolutely first-class and there were good horse yards.

  The homestead was not dissimilar to the Mattai house and had actually been built by the same builder. The major difference was that it had a verandah on three sides and a covered area at the back door, which was where Ginger, Matt Jackson
’s red roan pony, used to sleep at night. Bella had visited Glen Avon several times before the wedding and established that Wally was a stickler for a tidy house. The house wasn’t in bad order when he took it over, considering Matt’s bachelor status, but Wally had had it cleaned throughout and some rooms, including the big kitchen, had been repainted. He had also replaced the old kitchen cabinet with a much larger one in a varnished pale wood. Wally was big on sets of containers and just about every food item was stored in these. Bella told her mother she had no idea a man could be so tidy in the kitchen. He would help with the washing up and performed every task with the same speed and vitality he exhibited in the sheep yards.

  The furniture wasn’t anything exceptional and the lounge chairs in the dining room were showing gaping tears. Wally threw them out and suggested to Bella that she shop for something that appealed to her, as he knew she’d been looking forward to making a home she could call her own. There wasn’t a big selection, but Bella opted for a burgundy lounge suite and replaced the old rugs with wall to wall carpet. Wally said he’d like a glass cabinet for his better wool trophies, and with a new and smarter table and set of chairs, the lounge room underwent a complete transformation.

  There were four bedrooms, one of which Bella had claimed for her sewing room. With her two sewing machines sitting on the old lounge room table she felt quite at home. She was especially delighted with the new Singer that her parents had given her as a wedding present and which she’d hardly had a chance to use yet.

  For Wally, marrying Bella was the prelude to the most satisfying period of his life. His wife was a stunning woman who, initially, was anxious to please him. And he took full advantage of this. Bella did make it clear that she didn’t like being taken for granted and didn’t appreciate Wally’s roughness in bed. By way of compensation, Wally would buy her expensive gifts like gold bracelets and necklaces. He was forever offering to buy her new outfits and fancy footwear because he liked to see her well dressed, especially when they went anywhere in public. After a while, she began to feel like a mannequin, an object. She would protest that he had no need to buy her clothes because she liked to make her own but Wally would insist on it. He had an obsession with expensive lingerie and wanted her to wear the very best that money could buy.