Read Online Bella's Run by Margareta Osborn - Free Book Online

I’ve bought them a nursery rhymes CD as a present but I’ll have to get something else instead. I forget how quickly they’re growing up.’
    ‘Yes, they are, my darling, just like someone else I know,’ her mother added. ‘Miss you. We’ll talk to you tomorrow night. Don’t forget to ring. Your father will be counting on it.’
    ‘Okay, Mum. Love you. Bye.’ Bella clicked her phone shut and shoved it back into her pocket, amazed there’d been mobile reception. She’d had to rely on a Sunday-night call from the stockmen’s quarters phone and email to stay in touch. Even her brother, who was five years older, had sent her a couple of emails over the year.
    She knew they missed her at home. Twenty-two years before, her parents had almost given up hope of having another baby – then surprise, surprise, she’d come along. And life had been Hells Bells ever since, her father was fond of saying. Bella smiled at the thought of home. Cranking up the motorbike, she shook her hair in the breeze, pulled on her helmet and rode on, a grin as wide as the horizon spreading across her face.
    As she drove up to the quarters, she could see Patty letting one of her plant horses go in the paddock. ‘What’s going on?’ yelled Bella as she reefed off her helmet.
    ‘Finished mustering.’
    ‘This early in the day?’
    ‘Yeah. Truck was due early arvie, so we pulled out all stops and had the mob in by lunchtime. Have you eaten?’
    ‘Nope, and I haven’t got time. Siobhan’s on my case and I’ve got to clean the guest quarters . . . now!’
    ‘What’s her hurry?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said Bella. ‘But I’d better move. I just hope those toffy company VIPS weren’t too messy. The last lot were ferals.’

    ‘I’ll come help you if you like, though it’ll cost you.’
    ‘Like what?’
    ‘Mmm . . . let me see. How about lending me your new Ariat boots for the Burrindal B&S at home in December?’
    Bella had to weigh that one up. It was big. She’d only bought the prized boots a few months earlier, shelling out a couple of hundred dollars of her hard-earned cash. It was just her luck to have a best friend with the same size feet. Then again, those guest quarters were mighty big and she really hated cleaning.
    ‘It’s a deal but, girl, you are going to work .’

    The guest quarters stood alone on a rise looking down over the sweeping alluvial flats of the Ainsley River. They were in an impressive long, low brick building with broad verandahs shading all sides, and had been built primarily to house pastoral company visitors, Ainsley being only one of a group of stations held by the owners.
    Bella and Patty entered through the laundry door. The cleaning products were in a neatly packed box above the laundry wash trough, the vacuum placed in the doorway where, Bella assumed, Siobhan wanted her to trip over it.
    Avoiding the vacuum, they made their way into the main hallway of the house and came to a halt in front of the formal lounge bar, which, sadly, was empty. ‘A drink would’ve helped us get through this. Wonder if they left any liquor in any of those little bottles Siobhan puts in each bedroom,’ said Bella.
    ‘The toffs probably drank it all,’ said Patty as she collapsed into a soft leather chair. ‘Jeez, the décor’s a bit flash.’
    ‘Yeah, the visitors are mainly from Brisbane and overseas. They like the finer things in life. I’ll have a snoop around,’ Bella said as she walked off down the hall towards the bedrooms. ‘See if I can find us something to tipple.’
    ‘Fat chance,’ called Patty, bouncing up and down in the chair. ‘They would’ve taken it home. Like the cute little bottles of shampoo you flog when you stay at a motel.’
    ‘Oh ye of little faith!’ Bella waltzed back into the lounge holding an armful of clinking bottles. ‘I reckon there’s at least half left in each one. And there are six bedrooms, which means . . .’
    ‘. . . there should be plenty!’