Brumby Mountain Read online

  ALSO IN THE

  DIAMOND SPIRIT

  SERIES

  BY KAREN WOOD

  Diamond Spirit

  Moonstone Promise

  Opal Dreaming

  Golden Stranger

  KAREN WOOD

  First published in 2012

  Copyright © Karen Wood 2012

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or ten per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

  Allen & Unwin

  83 Alexander Street

  Crows Nest NSW 2065

  Australia

  Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100

  Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218

  Email: [email protected]

  Web: www.allenandunwin.com

  Cataloguing-in-Publication details are available from the

  National Library of Australia

  www.trove.nla.gov.au

  ISBN 978 1 74237 863 3

  Cover photos by iStockphoto / Eileen Groome (girl and horse), cynoclub

  (girl’s face), Gary Radler (background), Björn Kindler (storm clouds)

  Cover and text design by Ruth Grüner

  Set in 11.3 pt Apollo MT by Ruth Grüner

  Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  For Anthony

  Contents

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  1

  JESS HUNCHED HER shoulders against the wind as she watched Opal prance around the paddock on knobbly long legs, nostrils flaring. Dodger followed and together they galloped through the long grass with sudden bursts of speed and frantic skidding around corners. Dodger stopped abruptly at the top of the hill and trumpeted across the valley.

  ‘Come on, you big wild boy,’ Jess called, and walked into the paddock with a steaming molasses and bran mash. It smelled so good she could have eaten it herself. ‘Get it while it’s hot!’

  The old stockhorse gave one last snort and trotted across the slope towards her, succumbing to the temptation of the feedbin. Opal followed and ducked in under his neck to take a mouthful too.

  Jess ran a hand along the filly’s neck. The time out west on Lawson’s cattle station had done her good. She was a yearling now, taller at the rump than at the wither. Her woolly coat was a deep liver colour, unbroken but for three white spots over her left shoulder. One ear stood proud, the other flopped at a funny angle, something that Jess found endearing. She didn’t mind if Opal wasn’t perfect.

  As the horses devoured the feed, Jess grabbed her saddle and bridle from the shed. Today, her boyfriend, Luke, and his stepbrother, Lawson, were coming home with a truckload of wild horses from New South Wales. Soon it would be time to ride over to Harry’s place to help get the brumbies settled, and see Luke again.

  Jess slung a rope around Opal’s neck, then mounted Dodger and rode down the driveway with the filly trotting along behind. The horses knew the track to Harry’s place well. Although Harry had died a couple of years ago, Jess and her friends still met at his stables often. Luke, as his adopted son, still lived there with Harry’s widow, Annie.

  When Jess arrived, Grace was perched on the yard rail, texting, in old joddies, thongs and a baggy fur-lined hoodie. ‘About time!’ she said, tucking her phone back into her pocket and jumping off the rail. ‘I wish the truck would hurry up and get here too! I can’t wait to check out the brumbies.’

  ‘Me too,’ said Jess. ‘Hey, maybe one of them will be your dream horse, Gracie.’

  ‘Surprise!’ Shara burst out of the stable block and did a star jump, making Opal startle.

  Jess gave an elated squeal. ‘What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at boarding school!’

  ‘Corey drove down and picked me up. He brought me home for the weekend,’ said Shara. ‘He knew I was busting to see the brumbies. And to see you.’

  Jess slipped off Dodger and hugged her best friend.

  Grace’s phone jingled. ‘That’ll be them!’ She pulled it out and read the message. ‘It’s from Lawson. They’re on Coachwood Road. The horses’ll be here any minute!’ She jumped off the fence. ‘Let’s open the gates!’

  Jess felt her heart beat faster in her chest. She could hear the truck coming, groaning and hissing around the last bend. She saw its dirty red cabin, like a bald sunburnt head, appear above the line of trees. Hooves stomped and banged in the crate behind. But it wasn’t the horses that had her all wound up.

  She led Dodger and Opal to the stable block, grinning at the floor. Doing something useful might stop her from dancing on the spot and making a total git of herself.

  The truck gave a final hiss as the brakes released. As Jess shut Opal inside a stable, she heard a door slam. Back outside, she saw Lawson walk around the nose of the truck in his standard jeans, shirt and peaked cap. Two wolf-like dogs leapt out of the passenger side, one after the other, and then came Luke.

  Jess stood back and drank him in – tall, lanky, all rumpled hair and dirty jeans. He reached back into the cabin for a tattered mustering hat and clamped it onto his head, then hauled out a rolled-up swag. He cast a glance about the property and stopped at Jess. She smiled. On the outside she was calm, but on the inside she was leaping about like a puppy itching to be let off its chain.

  Within moments Luke was surrounded by excited, noisy people. Tom ran down from the house and started punching him. Annie called out from the front door and shuffled down the pathway, wiping floury hands on her apron. Grace climbed the side boards of the truck and peered in through the gaps. Grunter the pig squealed and screeched. The dogs barked.

  Jess laughed. It was a mad scene. It always was when one of the gang came home.

  Luke threw his swag over one shoulder and a bag over the other. ‘As soon as I dump my gear you’re dead meat, Tom!’ He walked towards the small stable that was his living quarters at the property, catching Jess’s eye again briefly before Tom pushed his hat down over his head.

  The pair of them disappeared through the flat door. Jess heard laughing and wrestling. Something smashed. She rolled her eyes and led Dodger to the end stable. ‘Boys,’ she said as she let herself in, giving the gelding a quick rub on the forehead.

  Within minutes she heard the sound of boots coming down the stable aisle. The quiet clink of the door latch. Three steps through soft wood shavings.

  ‘Hey.’

  She spun around. ‘Hey!’

  He grinned and held out his arms. She leapt into them, twined herself around him and took in his hair, his skin, his warm, bristly neck. She squeeeezed him.

  He lifted her up and squeezed her in return. ‘Missed you,’ he whispered into her hair.

  She pulled back and looked at him, beaming. Th
ere was so much she wanted to ask. Where had he been? What had he done? Why had he been gone so long?

  He beamed back at her, and in his eyes she could see a million thoughts buzzing in his head. His mouth opened and he inhaled, as though he was about to tell her something amazing.

  ‘Ahem!’ Lawson stood in the doorway, clearing his throat. ‘You guys gonna help get these brumbies off the truck?’

  ‘No!’ they said in unison.

  ‘Suit yourself,’ Lawson muttered, and he disappeared down the stable aisle.

  ‘Oh my God, come and look at this!’ Grace yelled from somewhere outside. ‘Where’s Jess?’

  Luke groaned. ‘We should go help them.’

  ‘No we shouldn’t.’

  ‘Yes we should.’

  ‘No we shouldn’t.’

  ‘You’re right, we shouldn’t.’

  Jess sighed. ‘We probably should.’

  ‘No we shouldn’t.’

  Jess laughed and reached for the stable door. The questions could wait. ‘Coming!’ she called. She looked at Luke and felt a rush of excitement. ‘Let’s get them unloaded!’

  2

  LUKE’S ENTHUSIASM DIDN’T seem to match Jess’s. Something of a warning flashed across his face. Jess looked at him with surprise. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Those brumbies were caught by brumby-runners. Lawson didn’t want to take them, they were too . . .’ Luke paused, as though lost for a description, ‘ . . . bad.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  At that moment, Lawson rolled the back door of the stock crate to one side and Jess saw the four horses inside. They were brumbies all right, with rolling eyes and wild, snorty nostrils. Their flanks were hollow and their hips poked out like coathangers. ‘See what you mean,’ she said.

  ‘John’s on his way over,’ said Luke. ‘I already rang him.’

  Jess nodded approval. John Duggin was the local vet.

  As she looked over the brumbies her pity turned to shock. There were two mares, one bay and one creamy white, with swollen, cut legs. A buckskin foal had welts around its neck that looked like rope burns, and large patches of skin off its face.

  The fourth was a palomino stallion, tall and well-built, but his tail, Jess noticed, was stripped of hair and had sores all over it. It hung crookedly to one side. ‘His tail’s broken.’

  ‘Look at his face,’ said Shara, joining her in the doorway. The entire side of the stallion’s face was one nasty wound, with pus seeping out of it. Even more startling were his eyes, like ice-blue sapphires.

  Jess stared. There was something unnerving about those arctic eyes. They were strangely human, and somehow drew her deep inside the wretched creature’s soul.

  ‘Shame they ran him,’ said Lawson, hopping up onto the side of the truck and looking in. ‘He’d have been a good horse.’

  ‘Ran him? What do you mean?’ asked Grace.

  ‘They chase them with horses and dogs until they’re exhausted. When they catch a brumby, they tie its head and tail to the side of a truck and drive away, dragging it alongside. It’s the only way they can get them out of the bush. There’s no way they could get them up a ramp.’

  ‘He must have fought really hard,’ added Luke, ‘for his tail to be broken like that.’ He looked away.

  ‘How could anyone do that?’ whispered Jess.

  ‘Makes you sick, doesn’t it,’ said Luke. ‘Angry, too. I could—’ He bit off the rest of what he was about to say. ‘Step back and give them some space,’ he said instead, hopping down off the rails. ‘They’re a bit freaked out.’

  The brumbies huddled in a corner. ‘They don’t know what gateways are,’ said Luke.

  ‘We should draft out the stallion to start with,’ said Lawson. ‘He needs a vet, big time.’ He leaned over the side of the trailer and tapped at the stallion with a long hollow pole. The horse pinned its ears back and lunged, smashing against the truck wall with a deafening clatter.

  Lawson swore and leapt off the side of the truck.

  ‘They’re going to hurt themselves even more if we don’t get them out quickly,’ said Jess. ‘How long have they been in there?’

  ‘Too long,’ said Lawson. He looked towards the stables. ‘We need a coacher – a domestic horse to show them the way out.’ His eyes came back to Jess. ‘You bring that filly over today?’

  ‘Opal?’

  He nodded.

  ‘I’m not putting her in there!’

  ‘You don’t have to,’ he said. ‘Just lead her to the bottom of the ramp, to show them where to go.’

  ‘That stallion would kill her!’ She glared at Lawson. ‘Put your own horse in there!’

  ‘Mine’s too old. We need a young horse – one that’s submissive, non-threatening.’ He held her gaze. ‘A filly.’

  Jess shook her head and folded her arms firmly across her chest. ‘Not a chance!’

  ‘What about in the mares’ paddock?’ suggested Luke. ‘Are any of Biyanga’s foals handled?’

  ‘Only the colts,’ said Jess. ‘They came up to be gelded. None of the fillies leads very well yet.’

  As she spoke, one of the mares squealed and kicked out at the metal walls with a crashing blow. It stirred the whole mob up. They scrambled up the side, threatening to jump out.

  ‘They won’t hurt her, Jess,’ said Luke. ‘Brumbies are different to domestic horses. They have different instincts.’

  Jess looked at the wild animals in the back of the truck and snorted. ‘Yeah, I can see that!’

  The brumbies gradually settled again and everyone seemed to go quiet. Jess looked around and noticed that everyone was staring at her, saying nothing.

  ‘What?’ she demanded.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Grace.

  ‘Jess—’ Shara broke off.

  Tom looked away.

  Lawson was still eyeballing her. Luke turned to her pleadingly.

  She gave him a pained look. For the first twelve months of Opal’s life the filly had been racked with illness and there’d been times when Jess had thought she wouldn’t survive. How could Luke ask her to put Opal at risk again? ‘She’s been through enough. She’s only just come good. If she got hurt again . . . ’ ‘They won’t hurt her.’

  ‘They will.’

  ‘She only needs to walk onto the ramp and come out again. She doesn’t have to go all the way in there.’

  ‘Oh my God, the bay one’s fallen over,’ Grace suddenly shouted. ‘They’re standing on her!’

  ‘Okay, okay,’ Jess jumped off the fence and raced for the stables.

  ‘Opal,’ she called softly.

  Jess took the rope from the hook on the wall and walked calmly to the filly, slipping it around her neck and pulling her away. ‘We need your help, girl.’

  Lawson stood at the gate to the yards, holding it open for her. ‘Do you want me to take her in there?’

  ‘No,’ she said, giving him an as-if look. He rolled his eyes.

  Jess led Opal into the yards and Lawson closed the gate behind her. The ground was muddy and churned up. The filly put her nose down and sniffed.

  ‘Can you get her to walk up there?’ asked Lawson, nodding towards the ramp.

  ‘In a minute,’ Jess said, not wanting to be rushed. She wasn’t sure if Opal could even do this. She had only ever trained her at home, never in strange surroundings.

  She led Opal to the truck, gave a quiet cluck and pointed up the ramp. ‘Walk up.’ Opal put one hoof out and placed it cautiously on the metal. It was different to the timber one at home, making a clanging noise instead of a thud. She scuttled backwards.

  Jess brought her back to the ramp. ‘Walk up,’ she repeated. After a few more attempts, she managed to get Opal to put her front hooves on the loading ramp. The filly stretched out her neck and peered into the truck, sniffing curiously.

  The creamy mare clattered across the truck with her ears pricked.

  No one else made a sound. Grace and Shara were crouched behind the fence, out of the w
ay, watching through the lower rails. The boys stood well back. Opal took another step up the ramp. Jess glanced anxiously at Lawson.

  He made a quiet gesture and nodded. ‘Let her go in,’ he mouthed.

  Jess shook her head. ‘No,’ she mouthed back.

  He scowled.

  She tugged softly on the rope, asking Opal to back out again, but the filly pulled against it and walked another few steps up the ramp. She sniffed some more. The creamy mare sniffed in return, with short, anxious puffs. Opal champed her gums like a baby foal and lowered her head. The mare snorted and put her ears back.

  ‘Let her go,’ Lawson whispered.

  ‘No way!’ Jess hissed. She gave another tug. But Opal clambered the rest of the way up the ramp and into the truck, yanking the rope through Jess’s hand and giving her a scorching burn. Jess mouthed a few choice words and shook her hand, trying to lessen the pain.

  ‘Told you to let go,’ Lawson said.

  At that moment, the creamy mare squealed.

  Opal clattered back down the ramp, but before she could get out Lawson leaned over and grabbed her by the mane. ‘Whoa!’ He looked at Jess pleadingly. ‘Just a few more seconds.’

  Jess held Opal on the ramp, waiting, as Lawson backed away. Within a minute the creamy mare appeared at the gateway.

  ‘Lead her down,’ Lawson whispered.

  Jess called Opal softly and brought her down the ramp, then walked her briskly to the exit gate.

  ‘Not yet,’ called Lawson. ‘Wait.’

  ‘Stuff that,’ said Jess, reaching for the latch and letting herself through. ‘She’s done enough.’

  Safely inside the forcing yard, Jess exhaled loudly and gave Opal a pat. ‘Clever girl!’ She looked at Luke. ‘Did you see that? How good was she?’

  He smiled and nodded towards the yard. ‘Look!’

  She spun around to see the creamy mare making her way down the ramp, snorting suspiciously. The other horses followed and soon all four were together in the holding yard.

  Grace hooted loudly, making them all spook again. ‘Way to go, Opal!’

  There were more cheers from her friends. Even Lawson was smiling.