Twenty-eight
‘Yep, I reckon this spot is good enough to swing a billy.’ Charlie climbed off his sturdy stockhorse. ‘Welcome to Dinner Camp Tree, you mob.’
‘What did Charlie say?’ Harper felt foolish asking Ash to interpret Charlie’s terminology. ‘I get that dinner camp is the name of the tree …’ The tree was an old and large eucalyptus tree with a salmon pink trunk and wide leafy canopy. Below its shade was a scattering of thick tree logs that formed a circle, around a circle of stones set for a campfire. ‘… but the billy bit?’
‘A billy is a tin with a handle and a lid, like a pot,’ explained Ash, while climbing off his horse. ‘Bushmen use it to make billy tea. And a billy tea isn’t a billy tea unless it’s done on the coals of a campfire.’
‘What kind of tea leaves do they use?’
‘Black tea leaves and freshly boiled water. Some add eucalyptus leaves for flavour or sugarbag honey. I don’t mind it with lemon myrtle myself.’
‘And the swinging bit?’
Ash grinned at her. ‘Not the modern term for swingers. Get that out of your mind.’
‘I wasn’t.’ But her cheeks got hot. She climbed down from her saddle to save face. But it only had Ash laughing as he held Mason strapped to his chest like a handbag.
‘The reason they swing the billy is to force the leaves to the bottom. It makes it easier to pour, and it helps with the infusion process. I’m sure Charlie will show you in the morning. It’s one of those things that is disappearing.’
‘Because of a tea strainer?’
‘No. I reckon the old bushies made a show of the billy tea, the same way the Japanese have their tea ceremonies, turning it into an art form. When an old stockman makes you a billy tea, you carve out time in your day to just sit and sip your tea while admiring the outdoors. I think it’s a tradition someone like you should create for yourself.’ Ash gently tapped her arm.
She grinned like a schoolgirl, even twirling a lock of her hair around her fingers. ‘A tea ceremony.’
‘It’s got to be better than drinking cold coffee because you’re too busy to ever see a sunset.’
He had her there.
Ash pointed to the scenery. ‘Where do you want to pitch your tent?’
‘I have a tent?’
‘The only tent.’
‘Where is everyone else sleeping?’
‘On our swags. We thought you could do with the privacy, and Bree said it’d be easier to contain Mason, so he didn’t run off.’ He unclipped the harness and lowered the boy to the ground. ‘Come on, mate, let’s give the horses to Charlie while Harper picks a spot to sleep.’ He held out his hand to Mason.
Her heart just melted to see Mason gripping one of Ash’s large fingers. It was happening. It was finally happening. But she didn’t want to spook Ash by noticing that the bonding had begun. ‘What do I look for?’
‘Make sure your tent lies on level ground that’s clear. You don’t want the blood rushing to your head in your sleep or having rocks sticking into your back. Go on, princess, find a spot for your palace. I’ll grab the tent.’ He winked at her as he led the two horses and Mason away.
Everyone was doing something, as Harper stumbled through the grasses brushing against her thighs, while her boots trod on dainty white and blue wildflowers releasing their fragrance. She was in awe of this valley that had scattered waterfalls tumbling from the escarpment that surrounded them. It was a world within a world, where even the air they breathed was rare.
Ryder and Dex carried an axe each and disappeared into the thick cluster of trees. Cap helped Bree drag out pots and pans to set up their campfire. Charlie and Ash set up a rope line to corral the unsaddled horses, leaving them to graze in the lush grasses. Yet, they all had that sense of peace, a sense of community, without any of the outside interference or stress and strain Harper was so used to living under.
‘ What the flip! ’ Dex came running out of the trees, knocking off his hat, waving his hands over his face, doing some weird kung fu dance.
Ryder ran towards him, axe ready to attack. ‘What is it? Snake?’
‘Spider. Can you see it? Is it on me?’ Dex stripped off his shirt, exposing his torso of muscle and ink, slapping and pawing at his neck and face. ‘It was the size of a dinner plate. Swear it.’
‘Look at Dex going all Bruce Lee over a spider!’ Charlie chuckled at Dex, swinging his axe at the dirt.
‘You’re not scared of spiders, are you, Dex?’ Bree stood with hands on her hips wearing a grin that said, I’m going to taunt you about this for the rest of your natural born life .
‘Bird spider.’ With a strong arm bristling with muscles, Dex pointed his axe at Bree. ‘No lip out of you, Bree. It was the size of a flipping dinner plate.’
‘Dex is making that up. Spiders don’t get that big.’ Harper pushed through the grass to find a suitable space away from the brothers, near a scattering of trees, and looked up.
‘AUGH!!!!’ It was a spider, bigger than her head. Harper turned away, only to rush straight into another web bigger than her body, with a massive spider staring at her face to face.
She screamed at the living nightmare, running somewhere, nowhere, anywhere, swatting at her face, jumping at the ground. Her screams echoed in her ears, that only made her scream more as she ran. ‘ Spider! Spider! ’
Oomph! She was rugby tackled to land on her back in the thick grass, with Ash on top of her.
‘Harper—’
‘ It was a dinosaur-sized spider! It had red and black legs. A huge body. And eyes that stared straight at me. Face to face. ’ She wriggled to get free and run.
‘Harper. Calm down.’ Ash pinned her arms to her sides as he lay on top of her in the grass.
Her heart hammered loud in her ears. ‘ It was huge. No, it was bigger than big .’
‘That was just a bird spider. It’s the golden orb spider, they’re harmless to humans.’
‘How can they exist? Where’s Mason?’ Now she understood why Dex feared them.
‘With Bree. Calm down, those spiders won’t hurt you.’
‘ I saw fangs! And their web is like a sticky string. How is that possible?’ She wanted a shower. She wanted to be back indoors.
‘They catch bats, birds, and even snakes in their webs, that’s how strong it is. I’ve seen their webs knock stockmen off their horses. It’s the only thing that scares Dex.’
‘I don’t blame him.’ Her pulse still pounded. She wanted to flee. ‘We have to leave this place.’
‘STOP.’ He forcefully held her wrists to the ground, effectively pinning her underneath him. ‘Harper, look at me. Hey …’ He got so close she had no choice but to stare into his dark brown eyes, while lying cushioned in the grass, under a clear blue sky, surrounded by a wall of green grass and wildflowers.
‘Take a deep breath, come on …’
She took a shallow one. Then another. Even though her heart slowed down, she was trapped by his gorgeous eyes, his care, and his heavy body weight, stirring her in ways she hadn’t thought possible.
‘Good. Welcome back to the living.’ He rolled off her, lying beside her in the grass.
She felt cool without his body heat. And embarrassed. ‘I’m sorry I laughed at Dex.’ She sat up, trying to straighten her hair, pulling out some leaves.
‘I’d say Dex is glad someone else is scared of them, too. Those bird spiders are big.’
‘How come you’re not scared of them?’
‘Oh, I am. Believe me. I jumped out of a moving vehicle once.’
‘Really?’
‘It was on one of my early musters.’ Tugging free a piece of grass, he twisted it into knots, while crossing his leg over his bent knee.
Harper leaned onto her side with her head cradled in her hand to listen, too embarrassed to face everyone else. Hiding was good.
‘Me and a mate had gone hunting to feed the stock camp. We were driving in the station’s Tojo, so focused on hunting, we drove straight through this spider’s web, we didn’t see what was on it.’
‘Oh, no.’ She went to sit up.
‘Ah …’ He pushed her back to lie on the grass beside him as he continued his story. ‘We were young, dumb, and loaded with an old twelve-gauge shotgun. Keen for a hunt, all I remember was we’d wiped off the web and kept hunting until …’ He paused for dramatic emphasis.
‘Until …’ She playfully shoved his shoulder.
‘My worst nightmare happened. It scared the kaka right out of me.’
‘Huh?’
‘Think about it …’
‘Oh. Right. Like I was just before.’ The rush of heat brushed her cheeks.
‘But this was worse.’
‘No way. How?’
‘It started climbing up the side of the Tojo with the thickest, biggest spider legs I’d ever seen. I swear you could’ve put a saddle on this thing and ridden it at the rodeo.’
‘So bigger than a dinner-plate-sized spider?’
‘Bigger.’ He spread his hands wide to the size of an inflated gym ball.
‘What did you do?’ Her voice was a whisper, with her eyes darting to the shadows between the blades of grass.
He grabbed her chin, dragging it to face him and not the scary wilderness. ‘I played my part of the hero, of course.’ He grinned with his dark eyes trapping hers. ‘I bailed, yelling, shoot it! ’
A giggle escaped her. ‘What happened then?’
‘Well, I kissed the dirt, rolling across the ground, watching the Tojo drive away with my mate still sitting in the passenger seat.’
‘You were driving!’
‘At that stage, no one was. But the next thing I hear is this shotgun blast, and I watched my mate jump out of the Tojo. The only problem was the vehicle kept going.’
‘Let me guess, you started running after it.’
‘We were like Olympic sprinters, worried we’d never catch it. Until it hit this thick cluster of saplings and I was able to knock it out of gear.’
‘And that spider?’
‘Gone. And the Tojo had a new hole in the floor.’ His chuckle made her smile. ‘Of course, we checked the car a few times before we climbed back inside.’
‘I’d do the same with a shoe in one hand and can of bug spray in the other, while calling for security.’
They both lay back, laughing.
‘Are you okay now?’ Ash was so close, lying on the grass beside her.
‘Yeah, I am.’ She stared up at the sky taking a deep breath. ‘Thanks for that.’
‘You panicked.’
‘I did.’ She hid her face. ‘And you rugby tackled me.’
‘You were scaring the cattle, and Mason. I was worried.’
She could see it. ‘I’m sorry. In all fairness, this is new to me.’
‘I get it. But the good thing is with all your screaming and running around like that, I’m sure you’ve scared off all the snakes.’
‘Snakes? ’ She scrambled to her feet.
Ash rolled around laughing at her, a perfect imitation of what Mason did when he was laughing hysterically.
‘Come on. Let’s go set up your tent.’ He tenderly held her hand and helped her past the assorted grasses. ‘Hey, at least you have your own scary spider story to share.’
‘You could have warned me.’
He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. ‘Why would I do that? You wouldn’t have come then.’