Ironbark (57 page)

They stopped the wagon for Keziah to set up the children's school lessons. Jake saw how she delighted in teaching two bright, receptive little students. Sister Mary Bridget had taught Pearl well. Despite poor eyesight, her reading and writing were so fluent Gabriel worked doubly hard to catch up to her. In their open-air classroom Keziah wrote new words on his slate.

‘This isn't a competition, Gabriel. We all have our own special gifts and we learn at our own pace.'

Jake took elaborate care to conceal his own semi-literate state, but he chose to work in close proximity to their lessons, covertly learning along with the children.

It was Pearl's first encounter with a boy. Jake watched her studying Gabriel as if he was a little alien who strutted and aped Jake's mannerisms. It pleased Jake to see how his new son had also absorbed his own protective attitude to women. When Pearl tried to move boxes, Gabriel stepped in.

‘Here, that's too heavy. I'll do it for you.'

But Jake could see that although Keziah tried her best, Pearl remained wary of her. Jenny had cast a long shadow over all their lives.

That night when the children settled down in the wagon, whispering on the brink of sleep, Jake lay beside the campfire with his head in Keziah's lap. Aware that something had been on her mind for days, he decided to corner her.

‘What's up?'

‘Nothing.'

He sat up and tenderly bit her ear. ‘That's bull, Kez.'

Jake knew how to still her fears. He made love to her long and hard.
Afterwards he lay with her in his arms under the stars. He was ready to sleep. The problem was Keziah was ready to talk.

‘You don't feel for me what you felt for Jenny, do you?'

‘No. Thank Christ.'

He immediately regretted his lack of tact when he saw the flash of jealousy that pride forbade her to admit. He hated being forced to put his feelings into words.

‘What I felt for Jenny was like a sickness. With you I'm a whole man again. It's like – you're the other half of my body.' He baulked at the word ‘love'. ‘If that isn't
it
, what is?'

Keziah was blunt. ‘I'll bet you never spilt your seed on the ground with Jenny.'

‘Ah, so that's it.' He sighed. ‘I know what you want, Kez. When the Depression's over I'll start giving you those other five little ones you reckon you can see in my palm. Till then it's my job to take care of you the best way I can. Understand?'

It was clear to him Keziah did
not
.

• • • 

Jake's luck finally ran out. He drove around a bend in a remote stretch of bush to find a cluster of troopers a few hundred yards ahead interviewing a family outside a farmhouse; the muster team in action.

He turned to Keziah and barked the order. ‘Do as I tell you. Don't argue! Get Pearl and Gabe out of the back of the wagon quick smart. Keep them out of sight in the bush. I'll bluff my way through the muster then come back for you when it's safe.'

Keziah sprang into action and smuggled the children into the bush when the troopers' backs were turned.

Jake drove the
vardo
up at a leisurely pace and gave them a lazy salute. ‘Good day, Sergeant. Want the story of my life for the gov's records?'

The sergeant gave him a hard-eyed look. ‘Name? Bond or free?'

‘Jakob Isaac Andersen. I'm Currency. Doesn't it show?'

‘Don't get smart with me. Just answer my questions. Married or single?'

‘Married. My wife bolted but she did me a big favour.'

The trooper wrote down the details. ‘Any issue?'

‘One daughter. In a convent.' Jake tried to look sad. ‘Wish she was with me.'

‘Religion?'

‘Ma's Catholic, Pa's Lutheran. Reckon I'm on an each-way bet to get into heaven.'

Jake suspected the trooper had never cracked a smile in his entire life.

‘You own any land, Andersen? Or just squatting on Crown land?'

‘Mine, fair and square. A hundred and thirty acres. None under cultivation. No house, no sheep, no cattle. Yet.'

‘Good bit of horseflesh you got there. That black stallion looks familiar. You
buy
it?'

The inference was unmistakable. Horse theft could lead to the gallows.

‘I see you've got an excellent eye for horses. That's Sarishan. I trained him. He won Terence Ogden's silver cup a few years back. See him win it, did you?'

The trooper circled the wagon suspiciously. ‘Peculiar wagon you've got there. You're not a
Gypsy
, are you?'

‘Nah! Won this thing in a game of cards.'

‘Yeah? So what do I mark you down as? Farmer or card sharp?'

‘Horse-breaker. You don't catch
me
being a farmer.'

Jake grinned to disguise how edgy he felt. If this snoopy trap looked inside the
vardo
he would discover Keziah's clothing and children's toys. Jake needed to distract him fast.

‘Seeing as you're all done with me, do you fancy cracking a bottle of red?'

The trooper actually smiled. ‘Reckon I won't say no.'

• • •

It was dark by the time Jake returned the
vardo
to where Keziah had hidden the children. When she emerged from the bush, furious, Jake tried to look innocent.

‘What's wrong? I said I'd come back for you. What's for dinner?' he teased.

Sparks flew from Keziah's eyes. ‘Easy for you to joke – sitting in the sun drinking grog with the traps.
You
try keeping two active children quiet in the one spot for three hours!'

Jake patted her on the head. ‘You're a good girl, Kez. Hop in the wagon with the kids and I'll get a fire going and rustle you up some johnnycakes. Those traps have shot through to the next farm miles away.' He whispered in her ear, ‘I'll make it up to you tonight, love!'

Keziah ushered the children inside then turned to him with a half-smile. ‘You think that solves everything, don't you?'

His eyes wandered over her. ‘It does for me!'

As the year slipped by like an idyllic island in time, divorced from news of the outside world, Jake saw no signs of the upturn in finances that he was counting on – along with every settler, stockman and swagman in the backblocks. Wherever they travelled paid work had dried up. They passed properties with weathered ‘For Sale' notices, many of them mortgage foreclosures. Clearly no one had money to buy land or livestock. Jake retained his last small stash of cash against an emergency and continued to live off the land, but then came the day his prowess as a hunter failed.

The minute Keziah saw him shouldering the dead kangaroo she shrieked in horror.

‘All right, calm down,' Jake called out. ‘I'll get rid of it.'

He stomped around in the bush, swearing profusely until a shot succeeded in putting different game on the table. A rabbit. Over supper he tried to set things right.

‘I thought you'd be sick of fish. Roos are good tucker. A bit like the

Brits' venison they tell me. Sure you don't want to try it sometime?'

Keziah was vehement. ‘Not even if I'm starving! How can you live with me and not know me? Kangaroos are so beautiful, so free. Like horses!'

‘Well! We all know how you Romanies feel about
them
. Horses sit on the right hand of God. You'd shoot
me
before you'd shoot a bloody horse.'

Her question was tricky. ‘Aren't we going to make our living breeding horses?'

‘What's this
we
business? I'm man enough to support my own family, thanks very much.' Her hurt look made him add, ‘But you have a real way with horses, I'll grant you that. You can use your magic box of tricks when they're crook. And you're damned good at breaking in a wild colt as I have good reason to remember.'

Jake shot her a familiar look. ‘I know what's for dinner. I shot it, but what are you giving me for “afters”?'

‘A surprise. Something you've never had before.'

Jake's pulse was racing, but after supper the surprise wasn't quite what he'd counted on.

After she had tucked the children into their bunks, Keziah emerged wearing her best red dress, swathed in a silk shawl.

He put his glass aside. Keziah watched him intently from the far side of the campfire, as if she had some private celebration that she wanted to share with him. The firelight shadowed her face making her smile seem enigmatic. Jake realised the night was far from over.

‘Hey, what are you up to now, Kez?'

She crossed towards him with great deliberation. Slowly, very slowly, she knotted her shawl low on her hips and began to clap her hands in a steady, insistent rhythm.

From deep in her throat came a song without words, like the sound of some primordial mating rite. She beckoned him to clap his own hands and Jake felt himself drawn to his feet to accompany her, giving
her the beat for the staccato stamping of her feet, the clapping of her hands, the movements of her body growing stronger, faster.

Her eyes said it all.
Tonight there will be no barriers, Jake. No withdrawal. Tonight I will take you prisoner.

• • • 

Camped by the Wollondilly River, Jake worked up a sweat as he chopped wood, keeping Keziah in his sights but at a safe distance. During their sixteen months on the road the phases of the moon had become his guide to handling the wild pendulum swing of her moods. Normally she greeted the day with the spontaneity of a child, but every full moon she became downright irrational. Jake bore the full brunt of it, knowing it was beyond her control, the price he was willing to pay for her. Tonight it would be full moon so he kept his guard up.

Keziah descended on him with a washing basket on her head and angrily waved sheets of paper in his face. Jake leaned on his axe.
Jesus wept, here's trouble.

‘I won't live with a liar!' she yelled. ‘You've kept these letters hidden ever since you picked up the mail at Goulburn Post Office. Mac Mackie says he's matched you against some visiting pugilist next week. You hypocrite! You won't let me read the Tarot to earn cash for us, but you were going to sneak back to Goulburn to fight for money!'

Cornered, Jake took the offensive. ‘I'll tell you one thing for free. Jake Andersen's kids are never going to be fed by a woman who gets her palm crossed with silver in a public house. Not while I've got breath in my body!'

‘And Keziah Stanley's Rom is never going to be battered to feed us while I've got breath in
my
body!'

They stood toe to toe like two dragons breathing fire at each other until Jake turned amiable. ‘Fair enough.' He moved in on her with intent.

‘No, you don't!' She waved the evidence in his face. ‘What's this one about?'

‘Oh
that
!' he said casually. ‘It's from Joseph Bloom.'

‘I know that. I can read. Why is this Lily Pompadour giving you all this money?'

Jake saw the fear in Keziah's eyes and stopped teasing. ‘It's not like you think. I was full of hate after Jenny. Lily taught me what I know about women. She was tough on the outside but gentle at heart. Not like the other girls in Bolthole Valley.'

Keziah gasped. ‘She was a whore?'

He snapped back at her. ‘Any girl can be if she's hungry enough and her spirit is broken. Lily was meant to be a good woman. I won't hear different. I helped her clear out of Bolthole and start a new life. She must have done all right for herself in Melbourne Town. This money for a horse is her way of saying thanks.'

Keziah's mood changed like quicksilver. She handed back the letter. ‘Forgive me, Jake. I'll never read your mail again.'

‘Yes, you will. You're a woman,' he said. ‘Can't help yourself.'

Keziah was contrite. ‘A horse is the best gift in the world. Buy the finest thoroughbred money can buy.'

That night after Pearl and Gabriel were bedded down in the
vardo
Jake lay with Keziah under the stars. He admitted he
was
going to fight in Goulburn. The children needed new boots. He could repair them but he couldn't stop their feet from growing.

Keziah clung to him. ‘Don't leave me, Jake! You won't come back! Remember that terrible white light with the tail we kept seeing crossing the sky. I warned you. That comet's a bad omen!'

Jake gently nuzzled her. ‘Hey, just some shooting star. Your bad dreams and omens aren't real.
I'm
real, Kez. I'll camp you close to a settler's wife and be back before Gabriel has time to sing his way through
Rule, Britannia
. Now go to sleep. I'll keep the
mulos
away.'

• • • 

Instead Jake had fallen instantly asleep. Keziah listened to the precious sound of his breathing as he slept beside her, but she was unable to
banish the images from a recurring nightmare she had kept hidden from him. Horses. Rope. Blood. Fire. Guns. Jake's face behind the grid of a prison door.

Jake stirred beside her. ‘What are you doing, Kez?'

‘I'm listening to your breathing.'

‘Well, let me know if I stop, right?'

She could barely manage a faint smile. The power of her nightmare refused to fade.

She awoke with a jolt when the sun was high in the sky. The children were eating porridge. She could smell the fresh damper Jake had baked in the ashes of the fire.

When Pearl gave her a tentative smile between her lank strands of hair, Keziah hoped it was a chink of light in their relationship. Keziah had still not won the little girl's trust, but Gabriel's natural intuition had sensed Pearl's insecurity and he'd become his new sister's ally. The two children ran off now to collect kindling. Jake always turned work into a game.