“I have a small circle of wonderful friends who I know are not on the make, as far as our friendship is concerned. I have a larger circle of friends, many introduced to me by my ex-wife, most of whom work in the big end of town, who I would not trust an inch and certainly not with my secrets or my money.” Angus looked at her. “I’m sorry; didn’t mean to sermonise, although some of my family think I am a bit monastic living out here.” Then he grinned. “They don’t know what they’re missing.”
She looked at him as she stubbed her cigarette in the ashtray on the table. “Can’t say I blame you. You and my dad will get along fine. He hates lawyers and accountants.”
“What does he do?”
“He’s a mining engineer. Got re-trenched two years ago after twenty years of loyalty to one company. The firm he worked for was taken over by an American company. Dad was the Chief Engineer. He was integral to the takeover; it was his knowledge that secured the deal with the American investors. After assuring him there would be no changes they called him in one morning and put his retrenchment deal on the table, told him take it or fight, but ‘clean out your desk and be gone by lunchtime’. They had a security man stand by his desk. He had to catch a taxi home. They humiliated him and it hurt him so deeply.
“Dad fought them until he had spent all his savings and re-mortgaged the house. When all that money was gone, then he gave up. He’d spent his entire package and his savings on legal fees and then his lawyer told him that they were still at least two years away from the Supreme Court and that he had better have eighty thousand dollars available when the time came. So he gave up. His lawyer also told him that they had done everything they could and the decision was up to the Court, and whether the Judge had shit on his liver and whether he liked the look of Dad when the case started. That really depressed him. Now he hates lawyers and the legal system.”
“He and I do have something in common then. The whole legal system seems to be out of control. Justice it seems to me is now the province of the rich in this land. Who is right and who is wrong doesn’t seem to matter. Whoever has the most money to pay the best lawyers wins. What average workingman or woman can afford lawyers at anything from three hundred to five hundred dollars an hour? Lawyers are leaches. What’s your father doing now?”
“He formed a small engineering consultancy firm with a friend. With the boom in mining they are now in great demand. He’s changed though.”
“How?”
“He split up with my mother after thirty-two years. I don’t think it was because of the lawsuit. I think they’d been unhappy for years, but the lawsuit and the cost wouldn’t have helped. She’d always worked as a theatre nurse; she now works in Royal Perth. Dad knew nothing but work – so they drifted apart. Then Mum and a skin specialist found each other and she moved out to live with him down by the river. The settlement went through very quickly. Her lawyers started on Dad when he was at his most vulnerable, so he gave her everything that was left. Basically he got screwed when he was most exposed. I lent him some money when times got really bad and that embarrassed him, I think. The whole thing made him very bitter against my mother.”
With a knowing look, Angus replied, “I’m not surprised he’s bitter. I sometimes wonder about the law, justice and lawyers, it’s – they – are almost an oxymoron.”
“He paid all the legal costs out of what was left of his share of their house when it was sold. He now lives in a rented apartment in East Perth, overlooking the river. If he has another good year he says he will be able to buy in the same complex. Mother bought a BMW with her share of the house.”
“Do I occasionally catch a hint of an accent in your voice?”
“I thought it had all gone. Mum and Dad came out from Scotland when I was ten. He’d been in the coal industry and, as he often says, he got ‘Thatchered’ or ‘hand bagged’ when the British coalmines were closed down. Being a mining engineer, they eventually came out here.”
Angus looked at her. “We lead such complicated lives don’t we? Much of it is not of our own making.” Then, smiling, he said, “I suppose we’ll have to wait for Michelle and the others to get here before we can have lunch. Cup of tea?”
Pat moved to stand up and said, “You stay there, I’ll get it. I know where everything is.”
“Sit down, Pat. You’ve hardly been here what, fifteen, sixteen hours? And not found what you expected, I’m sure.”
Before she could answer the flywire door banged behind Angus as he went into the house. She thought about the last twenty-four hours. She had to admit she hadn’t known what to expect. What Ewen had told her about his father didn’t really fit with what she’d found. For a start she’d expected to find someone older than Angus. She didn’t know how old, but Ewen was thirty-two and from what Alice had said when they were making the beds, Angus was just fifty-one or two, but he looked younger. So Angus and Michelle must have been quite young when they got married, twenty maybe. Ewen had said that Angus and his mother just drifted apart and that was not the true story, again according to Alice; it looked as if they had been moving apart for years, since Ewen was a boy.
Every time Ewen had spoken about Angus to her it had been almost with awe. His father was the giant in his life and she had felt more than once that the regard in which he held his father was the reason Ewen had decided not to return to Bangalore. Even though he had told her he loved the place and he knew he would be breaking the dynasty as he called it, he had chosen a career in the army. Was Angus just too big a character for Ewen to live with? She hoped she would get a chance to find out, sometime, when Ewen came home.
Her thoughts then turned to Michelle, the ex-wife. Before her thoughts could develop, the flywire door opened and Angus came through with two mugs of tea. “Here you go – milk no sugar.”
As he handed her a mug of tea and sat down he said, “How are you feeling, Pat? You look tired.”
“It’s been a busy twenty-four hours, Angus. I’m glad I’m here; I think Ewen would want me to be here. Even though we are a long way from Perth, I’m glad I’m here. But you’re right, I’m tired, and we won’t get much sleep tonight either. I keep on thinking about those men, those warrior soldiers, Ewen, and those ghastly mountains in Afghanistan.”
“So do I. It’s practically impossible to make conversation. I find myself thinking about them and feeling so helpless. I’m sure it will be good news when we get it. I still can’t help wondering why his mother wants to be here. She usually only comes up here when the races are on… doesn’t seem to make any difference to her that we’ve been divorced for so long… she still waltzes about the place as if she’d never left.” Angus didn’t seem to be talking to Pat directly, just letting his mind wander.
“It’ll be good to see Rach though. Haven’t seen her for…must be twelve months. We won’t see much of Alice while Michelle is here; she’ll stay well clear. Michelle and Rachael are very alike, but very different, certainly in looks. Both of them are very brainy. I sometimes think Michelle envies Rachael and what she’s achieved. It’s a strange paradox, almost an absurdity. I have always felt that what Rach really wanted was to be here on Bangalore. She was always as good or better than Ewen around the station – terrific horsewoman, loved the station life. But Michelle wanted more from her. I've often wondered if Michelle persuaded Rachael to do those things she never had a chance to do because we got married so young and we lived out here. So Rachael went off at just twenty to university and did Medicine. Was it to please her mother? God knows. I never understood it. There I go again, talking about my family and soon to be your in-laws.” He laughed at her and added, “We’re a strange lot the Sinclair Clan; been in the mulga too long.”
Pat stood up from her armchair and stretched her arms out wide above her head and took a deep breath, giving Angus the opportunity to admire her slim figure and his son’s choice of a wife. ‘She really is quite beautiful,’ he thought. ‘The