Mystic Mountains

she don't seem to get any fatter no matter what she eats." Isabella frowned, then brightened as she said, "Her husband and Dougal are a pair well matched, love those stupid sheep. What's your master like, and is his wife nice or a bit of a prissy missus like some of these nobs?"
    "Well, she thinks she 's a cut above the likes of me, of course." Gracie pulled in her chin. "And she has a regular list of do's and don'ts we have to follow, but when all's said and done we're well cared for. I mean, if we was in the old country would we be allowed to walk around like we was free? Like this?" She waved her hands about, and chuckled. "Oh no, we'd be locked up in some squalid prison. I don't mind telling you Bella, I'm content and that's a fact."
    Gracie glanced over Isabella 's shoulder, her grey eyebrows going up. "Oh, oh, 'ave to go, Bella. That's my missus over there in the green muslin. See you again. And you take care of yourself, d'you hear?"
    "You too, Gracie." Isabella gave her another quick hug. She returned Gracie 's wave as her friend went to take her mistress's parcels. With a grin and a wink Gracie followed the woman from the store.
    Gracie was right, they were indeed fortunate. A shudder ran through Isabella as she recalled the months on the ship, locked up below decks, enduring the stink, heat, and boredom, half dead with fear of what the future held. Those fears had receded now, but a remnant of them would always remain deep within to haunt her.

 
     
     
    Chapter Ten
     
    "It'll only be a matter of time, Gillie, before the Governor allows us grants over at Bathurst."
    Leaning back in his chair, Tiger crossed his legs, staring at his feet. Putting his hands behind his head he went on, "The grants he issued in March is the start; soon they 'll be letting us have pastures over the mountains, mark my words. God, it's been five years since they found a way over. Once the Governor ordered the road built I thought we'd be given the go ahead. Why do the officials take so long to get things moving?" With an impatient gesture he bent to toss a log on the fire, sending sparks flying up the wide chimney.
    Isabella watched the log flare up. "I still can 't believe it gets so cold here in winter," she said.
    Thelma 's chair was the nearest to the fire, for she felt the cold more than anyone. Isabella sat on a low stool at her side.
    "Aye, it took me a while to get used to it being chilly in August." Thelma nodded, plying her needle.
    To Isabella, the best thing about winter was having everyone sitting around the fire like this after the day's work was finished. Even Tiger didn't go off so much in the evening when the wind howled across the paddocks and whistled about the house. There was nothing nicer than listening to the men dreaming about the future. And Tiger's dream was to go over those blessed mountains. He talked of little else. Seemed it was a paradise for the sheep breeders, over those haze-shrouded mountains.
    Gillie took a draw on his pipe. "'Tis always the same, Tiger, government officials always were long winded. We all took it for granted we'd be allowed to go over as soon as the road was finished."
    "I heard there were big celebrations the day the men came back from the crossing," Dougal said, leaning forward.
    "Aye." Tiger nodded. "They put an end to the rumors running around for years. Some fools said there was a great inland sea on the other side of the mountains; some reckoned it was all desert. Others said paradise or China were over there. But us with a bit of sense already had it worked out, that with all those mountains with streams and creeks running down them there had to be rich pasture over yonder, not desert." He sighed. "The way the colony's expanding we'll run out of grazing land pretty soon. 'Tis the only way to go. We lose stock every summer when it gets drier than a desert. Then there's the floods."
    "People still talk about when the Hawkesbury flooded," Dougal said.
    "Aye, it was awful. This can be a harsh land," Gillie agreed.
    "It certainly is. But when we get over those mountains we 'll be living like princes." Tiger's eyes took on the glint they always wore when he talked of his dreams.
    Gillie dragged on his pipe and Dougal stared at the fire, no doubt picturing the future where his sheep were all stuffing themselves on the lush grass of the Bathurst plains.
    Isabella resumed her sewing. Tiger Carstair s in his arrogance believed anything he set his mind to was possible. But things