Outback Sunset (19 page)

Reg thumped the table with his open hand and said to Bren, ‘By George, I’m glad she’s your wife and not mine,’ he grinned conspiratorially at Fran, ‘she’s got too much ummm … spirit for me.’

Vanessa silenced the head stockman with a stormy look. ‘I’m serious. And the sooner all of you take me seriously, the better.’

‘I think she means it,’ Curtis said to Bren and anyone else who might be interested.

‘Bloody right, she does,’ Nova affirmed, keeping the sourness out of her voice. Jealousy and envy
were emotions foreign to Nova but Vanessa in full cry, while interesting to see, was also annoying. She wanted to be like her, in control, confident and successful, but at the same time — she’d been noticing the feeling more often of late — close and prolonged proximity to the mistress of Amaroo was making her grind her teeth with frustration.

‘We can talk about it, learning to fly the chopper, when you come back from Adelaide,’ Bren’s tone was soothing, his change in demeanour meant to placate.

Vanessa would not be put off. ‘No, I want a decision on it tonight.’ She turned her attention to Curtis. ‘You’re the whiz in the family. I’m sure you can get some figures and do one of those cost benefit thingies you love to do.’

Curtis glanced at Bren who, after a sigh, gave an assenting nod. ‘Okay, I’ll get on to it after dinner.’

By the time Bren and Vanessa went to bed and made love, Vanessa had what she wanted — an agreement that she should learn to fly, and that they’d lease a Robinson 44 helicopter for two years — as well as a promise from Bren that he would give her some preliminary flying lessons.

On location in Adelaide to shoot
Heart of the Outback
, Vanessa stood in the open doorway of the trailer she shared with another female actress, letting the air conditioner cool the back of her body. She was aware that a percentage of the coolness was slipping out around her to merge with the outdoor heat, but for the moment, being blissfully cool, she didn’t care. This was the last day of on-location
shooting and inside she battled with a mixture of regret and elation. Regret that the shooting of the movie was over because she had enjoyed doing the role and working with the crew and the talented, new director, Ross Jaxson, and because she had a sense of pride as to how the movie was turning out. Reports from the movie’s editor on the dailys were positive and her part in the movie was almost done, except for the final scene. The elation part came because Bren was coming to Adelaide to fly her home and she had missed him dreadfully.

Curtis Selby, his brightly coloured visitor’s badge pinned to his T-shirt, stood on the periphery of the camera crew and other people who made up the production cast, watching Vanessa. Together with the star who played the leading role of Sara in
Heart of the Outback
, and the hero, she was about to play the final scene — they were saying goodbye to Vanessa’s character, Annie, who was returning to England.

It was the fifth take and Curtis had expected to be bored by now but, curiously, he found the filmmaking process interesting and was staggered by the number of people who worked at different levels to make a scene work. But mostly what captured and held his interest was Vanessa’s performance as Annie Brompton. How she managed to do it, he had no idea, but every time she played the scene she brought a new vitality and believability to her lines and expressions though she had done them several times before.

A spark of admiration for her ability began to force its way through the impenetrable wall Curtis
had erected in regard to her. Since she had come to Amaroo he had tried to maintain his dislike of Vanessa, silently belittling her efforts to assimilate to station life, believing it was an act to impress Bren and others. However, as much as he might like to continue that line of thought, he couldn’t any longer. Unconsciously, because he knew she didn’t care much for him either, she was whittling away and dismantling every reason he thought he had to dislike and distrust her.

When the director called, ‘Print that,’ everyone cheered and the cameras and work ground to a halt. Curtis moved forward to catch Vanessa’s attention.

‘Curtis? What are you doing here? Where’s Bren?’

‘You … you were great,’ Curtis said with a lopsided, can’t-we-be-friends grin. ‘Bren’s okay, but he had an accident, that’s why I’ve come.’

‘What? What’s happened?’

He watched her eyes darken, her features tighten with concern. ‘He’s all right,’ he stressed as, taking her elbow he moved her towards the edge of the crowd. ‘He had a fall. Tripped over Sandy in the dark, in the living room. He’s torn ligaments in his left ankle. Can’t walk well and he’s cranky as hell ’cause it hurts, a lot.’

‘Don’t go overboard with the sympathy, Curtis,’ Vanessa gave him a mild rebuke. ‘When did this happen?’

He shrugged a shoulder at her. ‘A few days ago. I thought he’d broken a bone, maybe several bones, so I flew him to the hospital in Kununurra. They x-rayed him and diagnosed it as soft tissue damage. He’ll limp for weeks.’

‘Poor Bren …’

Something jolted inside his chest. What was it? A response to her tone, so soft, so concerned. Hmmm, it must be nice to know that someone cares about you so much. He’d once thought Georgia felt that way about him. Now, well, all he had was Regan.

‘You should have let me know,’ she remonstrated, but in a less outraged tone as they walked towards the trailer.

‘Fran and I wanted to but Bren said no. He didn’t want you to get upset, in case it affected your acting.’

‘How sweet of him, but if anything similar happens in the future, Curtis, I want to know. Straight away, okay?’

‘Sure, if that’s what you want,’ he agreed readily enough. ‘When will you be ready to leave?’

‘I’m packed. My bags are in the trailer, but first I have to change and take clothes back to wardrobe.’

‘I’ve hired a car for the day, to take us back to Adelaide, and booked overnight accommodation near the airport. If you haven’t got anything else you want to do in town we can fly home first thing in the morning.’

‘In …?’ she arched an eyebrow.

He smiled, understanding the question perfectly, ‘In the almost new, only six-months-old Robinson. You can have your first lesson if you want to, on the way back. We’ll stop once to refuel.’

Vanessa’s eyes lit up. ‘I can? But I thought Bren …’

‘With his ankle, he won’t be up to teaching you for a few weeks. Besides, I’m the one with the
instructor’s licence, but, if you want to you can wait till he’s one hundred per cent again.’ He stopped, waiting to see if she’d take the initiative.

Suddenly she remembered what Nova had said on her first day at Amaroo — that Curtis would make a better chopper pilot instructor than Bren because he was more patient. By now she knew her husband well enough to know that patience was not one of Bren’s virtues, and that they’d most likely have many heated ‘discussions’ if he instructed her.

‘Are you saying that you’re prepared to teach me to fly?’ she asked straight out, because straight talking was something Curtis appeared to prefer.

The question jolted him into a momentary silence. Was he? Did he want to be bothered? Would they fight? She had a quick fuse temper and oddly, around her, his own patience was, at times, in short supply. Then came the careless shrug, which wasn’t careless at all, but more of a mannerism. ‘Why not, I have more flying hours up than Bren.’

‘Great.’ She took his odd answer as a yes. Curtis was a strange man in many ways but if Nova thought the sun and moon shone out of him, she guessed there must be finer points to him that, so far, she had missed. ‘Give me half an hour to say my goodbyes, change, and get this goop off my face then we’ll go.’

‘Isn’t there a party or something happening here?’ he asked. ‘Don’t rush off on my account.’

‘I’m not. I’m thinking about Bren. The sooner I get home to him the better.’

He couldn’t argue with that and again the niggle of … What was it? His gut tightened inexplicably. Was it admiration for her or envy towards his brother for having a beautiful, caring wife? Damn it, he didn’t know, but whatever it was it made him feel somehow … out of sorts.

I
t took months of lessons twice a week, and a lot of study done via correspondence, during which Vanessa notched up the legally required number of flying hours, before Curtis decreed her competent to sit for her pilot’s licence. Initially, and to her irritation, he insisted she not only know how to fly the chopper, but that she be able to do routine maintenance on it as well. This had resulted in a fair share of broken nails, grease deposits around her quicks and many bruises and several small abrasions — due to stubborn tools and an uncooperative engine. Still, now she could do elementary mechanical work on the motor, should she ever have to, and she understood why the chopper engine and the rotor blades worked the way they did.

Bren, at present leaning against a workbench near the hangar’s entrance, watched Curtis put Vanessa through the normal safety checks before they flew to Kununurra where she would do her test. He was proud of what she had achieved in the time she’d been at Amaroo. There wasn’t a task she wasn’t prepared to tackle and master, some — like branding and castrating the weaners — he knew she
found distasteful. But she’d gritted her teeth and done them because they had to be done, and because she was determined to prove to all and sundry that she was up to doing just about anything.

His gaze moved to Curtis and he was barely able to suppress a smug, I told-you-so grin. His brother, known for his seriousness, rarely found reason to complain about Vanessa these days. Not that he heaped praise her way though. He simply didn’t voice many negatives which meant, in his book, that she was doing most things right.

Vanessa got down from the cockpit and came towards Bren for a good luck hug, saying, ‘We’ll be gone most of the day, I expect.’

‘Why’s that?’ Curtis queried.

Without looking at her brother-in-law she answered him. ‘I want to do some shopping while I’m there.’

‘Don’t hurry back on my account,’ Bren said. ‘Stuart rang a while ago. He’s just taken delivery of a twelve metre, six-berth cabin cruiser and I’m flying the Cessna to Broome to see it. He wants to give it a shake-down run, see how it performs, and we’ll do some deep-water fishing.’ He purposely didn’t look at Vanessa as he added, ‘I won’t be back for a few days.’

‘Have you forgotten that we planned to start the winter muster tomorrow?’ Curtis reminded him, not bothering to hide his annoyance.

‘Start it without me. I’ll be back by the end of the week, in time to help you load the stock into the transports.’

‘Without you we’ll be shorthanded.’

‘No you won’t. Vanessa will help out on the ground. Won’t you, hon?’ She nodded that she would. ‘We decided that she has enough experience now to work the mob.’

Vanessa, slightly gobsmacked by the news Bren had just delivered, that he was taking off for Broome and wouldn’t be coming with them to Kununurra or on the muster, hid her hurt as she said to Curtis, ‘You and Reg can fly the choppers, chase the strays. Nova, Warren, Tony and I will move the mob.’

Curtis, tight-lipped, nodded. ‘Fine. I see that the two of you have everything worked out.’

‘As Nova would say, bro, “it’s cool. It’ll work out”.’ Bren glanced at his watch. He only wore it when he was going away from Amaroo. ‘You’d better get airborne if you want to beat the mid-morning turbulence.’ He kissed Vanessa. ‘Good luck, hon. Radio me after you’ve passed the test.’

‘I wish I had your confidence that I’ll be passing it.’ He didn’t even notice that her tone was cool, her expression stony-faced. He was already looking forward to being with his uncle and on his new boat.

‘You’ll do just great,’ Bren assured her. He looked at his scowling brother. ‘Won’t she?’

‘I wouldn’t let her take the test if she wasn’t ready to solo,’ Curtis replied dourly. He moved towards the chopper and got in on the passenger’s side, saying to Vanessa as he belted up. ‘You might as well fly us there.’

‘All the way?’ She got in and belted up too.

‘Sure. If you’re going to fly the Kimberley and beyond you’ll need stamina for distance flying. Your
test isn’t till midday, which gives you time to shop and to rest up. Start her up.’

Vanessa pressed the starter button and the overhead rotors began to whirl as the engine fired. When the revs were high enough, she manoeuvred the joy stick and the chopper rose, leaving in its wake a flurry of fine red dust. Once airborne, she executed a half turn to bring the nose around and slightly down, checked the direction of the compass and headed north-east.

Diane Selby answered the phone when it rang.

‘Diane, it’s Vanessa. Is Bren there?’

‘You’ve missed him and Stuart by half an hour. They’ve gone off on the boat, like kids with a new toy.’

‘Oh … ’

‘Something wrong?’

‘No, I said I’d let Bren know I passed the pilot’s test. I thought he’d still be there.’

‘That’s wonderful, Vanessa. Congratulations. I’ll radio him if you like.’

‘Can’t I talk to him?’ Speaking into the receiver at the pay phone in the restaurant’s foyer, she hid her disappointment. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Curtis at the table, drumming his fingers on the tablecloth.

‘The boat’s out of range but I’ll be able to contact it on the ship-to-shore wave length tonight. Stuart said we should take it in turns to call each other after they anchor for the night.’

Vanessa suppressed the urge to sigh. ‘Then that will have to do. Please tell him for me.’ A percentage
of the delight at having passed with flying colours began to evaporate. She had so wanted to tell Bren personally. But, as she glanced at Curtis again, the thought came to her that it was due to his patience and skill that she’d done so well, not her husband’s!
Oh
, almost immediately she banished the disloyal thought as she heard Diane say …

‘Be sure I will, Vanessa. And now that you can solo I’ll expect a personal visit soon. Kim and Tom are dying to show off baby Justine.’

‘Of course. As soon as the muster’s over. Bye.’ Vanessa replaced the phone’s receiver in its cradle and took a moment to compose herself, and to put aside her disappointment, after which she made her way back to the table.