Blackpeak Station Read Online Free PDF Page A

I’m doing and I work hard. Just give me a chance. You won’t be disappointed.’
    Charlotte weighed her options. Jennifer Thorpe had to be better than nothing, didn’t she? And besides, there was something about her — an air of unflappable, no-nonsense capability.
    ‘Okay, Jennifer.’ Charlotte smiled. ‘When can you start?’
    ‘How does now work for you?’ She smiled back. ‘And you can call me Jen. Everybody does.’
    ‘Jen. All right. I guess I’d better show you round, then, since you’re going to stay.’
    After a tour of the bay shed and the silage pits, they drove over to the yards, where Rex was taking blood samples from this year’s crop of replacement rams. Approaching that oh-so -familiar plaid back bending over the rails of the stock race,Charlotte felt oddly nervous, as if she were the one trying out for a job. She’d asked Rex to sit in on Jen’s interview, but he’d just shaken his head in that easy way of his and said, ‘You’ll know if she’s right. You don’t need me.’ Now here she was, with a shepherd employed on not much more than a whim. Her first real decision for Blackpeak Station. Was Jen ‘right’?
    ‘Rex?’
    ‘Gidday.’ Rex released the lamb and stood up, rubbing his back, to look Jen over.
    Introductions complete, the three of them leaned on the rails and surveyed the pen of fat, wrinkled lambs.
    ‘Configuration looks good,’ offered Jen.
    ‘Getting there,’ Rex nodded.
    ‘You sampling for EBV?’
    ‘Just footrot so far. Still estimating breeding value the poor man’s way.’ Rex tapped a finger under his twinkling eye.
    Jen nodded back, with just a hint of a smile. ‘Sometimes the old ways are best.’
    ‘You might be right there.’ Looking up from the sheep, Rex appeared to give some thought to a spot on the far horizon. ‘Nothing wrong with looking for new ways, though. Never know what tricks an old dog might learn.’
    As Jen walked back to the ute, Charlotte shot a quick glance at Rex.
    ‘Yep,’ he said. ‘She’ll do.’
     
    Andrea and Nick arrived from Christchurch that evening, along with a shower of rain. Leaving a car full of shopping to Nick, Andrea hurried for the kitchen, a magazine held over hairdresser-glossy hair. She looked even blonder.
    ‘Oh, let me get inside! What a day … Hello, darling, how are you?’
    ‘Fine,’ said Charlotte, but her mother was already inside. Nick followed, festooned with Ballantynes bags. He was wearing fashionably battered jeans and a butter-soft v-neck sweater. Looking at him, and at Andrea dusting the rain off her new black cotton trenchcoat, Charlotte became conscious that she herself hadn’t bothered to shower and her own jeans were giving off a powerful aroma of wet sheep.
    ‘Looking good, Charles,’ noted Nick, with a grin. ‘Hey, Kath!’
    Kath, who had agreed to take over at the homestead in Andrea’s absences — ever-increasing now that Andrea had bought a place of her own in Christchurch — turned from the sink to give him a hug.
    Nick turned. ‘And I guess this must be Jennifer — is it?’
    ‘Jen Thorpe.’ Jen got up from the armchair beside the range and shook his hand.
    ‘Sorry! Jen, this is my brother Nick, and this is my mother … Mum, Jen’s the new shepherd, she just started today. We’re all having dinner — Rex and Matt are on their way up.’
    ‘Nice to meet you, Mrs Black.’ Jen held out her hand to Andrea, who was looking as if someone had just told her there was a pig flying by outside.
    ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were hiring a girl?’ she hissed, as soon as she caught Charlotte alone.
    ‘You didn’t ask.’
    ‘Does Rex know?’
    ‘Jeez, Mum — of course he does. And he’s fine with it.’
    ‘There’s something odd about her.’ Andrea pouted. ‘The way she looks.’
    ‘I didn’t hire her to put on lipstick.’
    ‘There’s nothing wrong with looking your best. It wouldn’t hurt you to put on a bit of lipstick now and again — I don’tsuppose