“I’ll do that for you,” Rose said. “I wish you knew a way to save me time.”
Not until the linen bleached in the sunshine did Ella wearily enter the kitchen. “I do know a way to save time,” she said to Rose, watching Vianna take the white plates for the shearer’s lunch from the dresser. “If we ate our meals with the shearers, we would have only one lot of serving and no dining room to prepare.”
Rose rubbed the back of her neck. “But could we bear to eat every meal with rough, sweaty males?”
“I could.” Vianna added three plates to the pile of six she had placed on the table. “Because our shearers are not very rough or sweaty, not like those men this morning.” She turned her mouth down with distaste. “The fat one wore really stinky clothes. Even Miffy backed away from him.”
“Not everyone has a chance to wash each day,” Rose said. “You mustn’t despise those less fortunate. If we ate with the men, it would save work,” she continued without taking a breath between the two subjects as if they might be a single thought—and they might well be. Ella knew her sister did not consider a shearer her equal.
“Let’s do it, then.”
Rose considered. “Unless it rains.”
“I’m sure we won’t see rain for quite a while.”
After lunch, eaten with none of the hilarity Ella normally heard from the shearer’s table, Ella left for the stables. She hoped the men would learn to relax in the sisters’ presence and she hoped that Rose would begin to see them as good people rather than uncouth men who should be offered a fine example of formal manners.
She almost sidestepped when she saw Cal carrying Vianna’s saddle. Her footsteps slowed as she wondered why the dratted man had left the shearing shed.
“So you’re going to practice jumps?” he asked Vianna as Ella neared.
“Miffy gets out of condition if I don’t keep her in training.”
He spotted Ella. “And is Miss Ella going to practice jumps, too?”
She had Papa’s flat-brimmed felt hat on her head. “I’m just going out for my daily constitutional.” Self-consciously, she walked past him, snagging a bridle from the stables and palming the crumbled lump of sugar she used to bribe the second stock horse to come to the fence. When caught, she took him to the mounting block, tethered him, and fetched her sidesaddle.
Cal, hands in his pockets and leaning against the wall, lifted his eyebrows. “I thought you might ride one of the chestnuts.”
“We don’t use them as hacks.” Ella swung the saddle over the horse’s back. “Normally Jed alternates with each of the stock horses, but today I need—want—to take this horse out.” She wriggled her hands into her leather gloves, trying not to glance at the breath-stealing man.
Vianna, already mounted, rearranged her skirt over her boot tops. “The mares are lovely, aren’t they?” she said to Cal. “They’re a matched carriage pair. Papa won them in a card game. They’re Ella’s. He left them to her in his will. He left me a painting of Mama.” She looked pleased.
Cal checked Vianna’s cinch and handed over her crop. He left without saying a word.
“Why was he here?” Ella asked her sister in a whisper.
“Oh, I asked him to help lift my saddle.”
“Gracious, Vi. You must have saddled your horse alone a hundred times.” Ella left to retrieve the roll of fencing wire and the cutters as soon as Cal was out of sight. “He can’t see me, can he?” she said to Vianna, who awaited her.
“Who?”
“Cal. I don’t want him to know what I’m doing. I can’t spend my life letting a stranger do our work.”
“What work?”
“Mending fences. I thought I would see if I could repair a few. Cal saved me from riding into Noarlunga to buy another roll of wire, which spared me the embarrassment of having to ask for credit. Therefore, if I can get onto this horse, I expect I can do everything else.”
“Why wouldn’t you be able to get onto the horse?”
“You’d know why if you helped with the bucketing.” Ella cinched her saddle girth. Now, on inspecting the stock horse, she wondered if the bay had grown two hands taller since the last time she’d ridden.
“I collected the eggs, I set the table for lunch, and I took the chestnuts out this morning,” Vianna said in a hurt voice. “My arms are little. Rose should help you with the heavy work.”
“Her arms are little, too.” After tying on the wire and slipping the cutters into her pocket, Ella mounted with an overdone groan.
Vianna smiled. “Oh, Ella, you’re not truly going to repair fences?”
“Cal has already given Jed enough jobs to last for days.”
“I wish we could keep him.” Vianna put up her hand to adjust her tiny riding hat. “He looks just like a fairytale prince.”
“Good gracious,” Ella said in a superior voice. “I’m shocked, Vi, truly shocked to hear such a shallow sentiment—we certainly can’t keep him.” She shot her sister a mischievous grin.
Vianna laughed. “I knew you thought he was handsome, too. Rose doesn’t. She says no man is worth thinking about.”
Ella stared into the distance, wondering what had brought about Rose’s disdain and wishing she could agree. For the past few days, her thoughts had been almost fully occupied by the handy shearer. If he would only be here for two weeks, before she shriveled into an old maid, she would have a chance to wallow in the presence of an attractive man—perhaps even flirt if given half a chance.
Her chest ached at the thought.
Chapter 4
Ella rode with her sister past the woolshed and parted with Vianna at the gate of the holding yard. After following the boundary fence for some fifteen minutes, she found a section of broken wire. With the tool Cal had shown her how to use, she pulled the ends together, though not easily. She fixed the next four faults a little faster. Most of the wire had been snapped at the top.
On the fifth repair job, she slid from her horse and saw the perfect explanation as to why. At the top of the incline, a mob of kangaroos leaped the fence. The first five found no impediment. The sixth hit the top. The wire didn’t break, but the kangaroo stumbled like any jumper who had misjudged the height. Unlike most other jumpers, however, the marsupial picked himself up and sped off even faster than he had approached the fence.
She couldn’t imagine how high or how strong a fence would need to be to keep out kangaroos. Many times she’d seen them leap even higher, and many times she’d seen them throw themselves continually at a fence until they’d conquered the invader and left the defenses useless. Fence mending would be a constant for anyone who made a living on the land. However, for a woman who had mastered the rigors of laundering, mending fences was a mere physical task. She laughed, socking her fist into her blistering palm.
The sun rose high in the sky. Eucalyptus oil scented the air and the haze hovered around a group of trees. She heard the pad of hooves and saw Jed approach on the other stock horse. Papa had often commented on the stockman’s ability to find him whenever he wanted. Ella stood waiting, wondering what sign she’d left of her movements for Jed to track her so easily.
She shaded her eyes with her hand. “Is there a problem?” she asked as soon as he came close enough to hear.
He shook his head and gave his wide smile. “Sheep where Missy say. Do Missy’s fences now.” He swung off his horse.
Stretching her aching back, she smiled. “I’d appreciate help. It’s hard to pull the