Tanya hastily changed the subject by asking her how long Melanie had worked for Kade.
'I believe she started working for him shortly after he came here,' replied Linda. 'I've a feeling he met her in Hobart, and offered her the job. She may have been working for his father, she seemed to know a lot about his home background,' she added ruminatingly.
'Do you know why Kade removed her?' asked Tanya tentatively, as she wasn't sure how much Linda knew of the past.
Linda shrugged casually. 'She'd been getting a bit too big for her shoes, I guess,' she said. 'Although it's rumoured that she put her delicate little paw into something that didn'
t concern her. Anyway,' she concl
uded happily, 'I'm glad Kade chose me to fill in. I'm going to ask him to make it permanent. Bill and I are saving like mad to buy a small property this side of the valley, and this job is better paid than the last one. Do you think he'll agree?' she asked Tanya doubtfully.
'Oh, I'm sure he will,' said Tanya warmly. 'It's not that easy to get someone who knows the job,' she added. She did not offer to speak to Kade about it, and she hoped Linda would not be offended by this. She had had very little to do with Kade since she had begun work in the main offices. To her relief she had found that her worry that she would be constantly thrown into his company had been pleasantly forestalled by the realisation that he did not spend a lot of time in the office, and allowed only an hour from nine to ten for queries and dictation, then he was off on his business rounds of the orchards
Now and again, he would pause on his way out of his office and enquire how Tanya was getting on with the job of familiarising herself with the files of the firm's customers, and she would give a polite if stiff reply, that she was coping.
Linda had watched these exchanges with a slightly puzzled air, particularly as Tanya was the only one in the whole works who referred to Kade as Mr Player. When she had got to know Tanya better she asked her about this. 'It does sound odd, Tanya, when you call Kade Mr Player. I mean, no one else does, do they?' she queried curiously.
Tanya's lips set on this innocent-sounding query. She didn't want to snub Linda as she could understand her curiosity—nevertheless, she had no intention of discussing the matter. She shrugged casually. 'It's just that I always think of him as Mr Player,' she lied, and hoped that Linda would leave it at that, but she was doomed to disappointment.
'You don't like him, do you?' replied Linda musingly. 'And that's odd, too. Everyone likes Kade.' She flung Tanya an assessing look. 'I wouldn't say you were the sort of person who took instant likes or dislikes to anyone—unless you had cause to. You sort of freeze up whenever he's in the room, I've noticed that much,' she continued in a wondering way.
Tanya sent her a warning look from her grey-green eyes. 'Don't make a mystery out of it, Linda, there's a dear,' she said quietly. That was all she said, but it had the desired effect, and Linda gave her an apologetic smile and started talking about the house she and her Bill had their eyes on, and Tanya was able to draw a tiny sigh of relief for safely scrambling over that particular hurdle.
After a fortnight in the office, Tanya found her happy sojourn in Linda's company was to come to an end. Kade altered her schedule for the next stage of her indoctrination into the firm's affairs, and she found that
she would be accompanying him on his daily rounds of inspection of the orchards. The thought of being constantly in his company made Tanya wish that she had had the courage to walk out of Orchard Farm as she had planned to do after that traumatic interview with Kade, but she had given her word—or to be more precise, she corrected herself bitterly, a promise had been forced out of her.
Far from sympathising with Tanya, Linda had given her a mischievous grin and commented teasingly, 'You might just end up calling him Kade!'
Although many things were likely, Tanya told herself the following morning, as she saddled the horse Kade had lent her for the round of the orchards, Linda's bright forecast on the future relationship between her and Kade blossoming into friendship was definitely not one of them. Linda didn't know the whole truth, and Tanya had been devoutly grateful for this. Kade had said that he had clamped down on the gossip concerning the past, and it said a lot for his authority and integrity that he had succeeded in confining it to within the boundaries of the home farm. Tanya might not like him, but she did concede this.
At the sound of hoofbeats in the near distance, Tanya mounted the bay gelding and rode out to meet Kade who would be impatient to be off.
As she followed Kade's big black stallion past the office section and out to the orchards, Tanya's thoughts went back to the past, and she recalled Kade's words that at heart she was still the child that used to follow him round the orchards all those years ago. But it wasn't years, it was aeons, she thought sadly, things were so different, not at all the way she had imagined
them in her memory when she had been away. The few weeks that she had spent in the past with her father during her allotted period of stay each year had been spent as a holiday vacation. He had taken her out on sightseeing trips to Sydney, and they had visited the home beauty spots. Tanya's plea of 'Couldn't we stay at home this time?' had been of no avail, for he would always smile and say that he had saved up this period of time exclusively for her, and that he enjoyed taking her places, and that it was his holiday too.
She gulped as the memories washed over her. How plain everything was when you were given the answers! Now she could understand her father's anxiety to keep her away from the farm, never letting her stay around there long enough to strike up a friendship with anyone who might unwittingly make some reference to the past. She could also understand why he had wanted to imprint upon her that her own country still had much to offer in the way of outstanding beauty that was not man-made, but gifts of nature.
So Tanya's memories of the farm had remained the same as she had had as a child, but now she was seeing it from an entirely different angle, and a rather jaundiced one at that.
As -a van loaded with boxes hooted as it passed by them a few moments later, Tanya realised with a start that it was the picking season. She had had so much on her mind that such an event had gone unnoticed by her until now. There was further evidence of this when they arrived at the first acre, where hordes of men and women were engaged in picking the rosy-hued fruit that clustered in groups on the healthy-looking trees.
Some sang as they worked, and others held animated conversations with their workmates working alongside of them. The atmosphere was one of cheerful bustle and an unhurried urgency to get the fruit off to the sorting department and away to its final destination.
Kade's popularity with the workers was evident as they passed through the lines of activity. Tanya was surprised by the fact that Kade knew and greeted each worker by name, although there were so many of them —there had to be to cope with the vast acreage to be worked.
The cheery greetings were extended to Tanya too, and as most of the helpers had been with the firm for a great many years they would know who she was without being told. Returning their greetings, Tanya felt a glow of warmth flow through her for the first time since she had returned home.
When Kade dismounted and strode over towards a group of women industriously engaged in picking the firm fruit, Tanya followed suit presuming that that was what he would expect her to do. As her eyes followed his tall figure, and then rested on the group of women he was about to join, she noticed the way they automatically patted the bright kerchiefs they wore on their heads, much in the way they would pat a hairstyle into place, as if making sure that their appearance was presentable. She also noticed the almost reverent way they watched him select an apple from the box that lay at their feet and minutely examine the fruit. When he replaced it with a curt satisfied nod it seemed to Tanya that they all relaxed, as if it would have been their fault if the fruit had been found wanting.
Kade repeated this action at random intervals right
through the upper acres of orchards and the same hushed atmosphere would prevail during the inspection. As before, Tanya would stand beside him and just watch proceedings, and only once did he call her attention to one particular tree whose fruits were just as healthy as the others, but were smaller. 'This is the sort of thing we watch out for,' he commented to her, and turned to the foreman anxiously watching the inspection. 'Look up last year's charts, Len,' he ordered. `I'm pretty certain you'll find the crop from this one slightly under norm, might be as well to give it a soil test and a change of feed next season.'
The foreman nodded in agreement with this diagnosis; and Tanya watched Kade's long lean fingers gently run over the smooth skin of the apple. If he had been stroking the skin of the woman he loved, his touch could not have been more gentle. At this thought she felt acutely embarrassed and moved away on the pretence of examining other apples from the same tree.
To Tanya, the morning had been an experience. Apples to her were a fruit to be picked when ready, and eaten when required, and that was all there was to it—or had been before her introduction into the growing of the fruit and its attendant problems. The trees had to be sprayed every year to keep them free from pests, and at the acreage covered, it was a pretty expensive operation. There were also records to be kept of each year's crop, and a certainty of a plentiful harvest to ensure a healthy profit after the deduction of the seasonal workers' pay.
The majority of the pickers were seasonal workers who came year after year, and the general atmosphere was one of feverish but happy activity. As most of them
came from the surrounding hamlets, they all knew each other, and it was like a yearly family outing. Food was provided from Orchard House, and wooden tables with trestle seats were placed at convenient points throughout the orchards to serve the army of helpers.
It reminded Tanya of a national park area, where picnic sites were placed for the use of tourists passing through, only here they were workers and not tourists, and were surrounded by acres of rosy fruit waiting to be picked. When one considered all the angles, it was quite a big business and not just a case of waiting on the sidelines for the fruit to ripen, as Tanya had once mistakenly thought, but then she had had nothing to do with the business side of the farm.
When Kade told her at midday that they would be having lunch at Orchard House, she was slightly taken aback and wondered with a certain amount of misgiving if this was to be the start of a new relationship between them. He had never before honoured her with his presence at the meal table, and she wondered if this was Connie's doing. She must have asked Kade to lunch the previous evening, when he had brought the bay gelding over for her use the next day.
He could have refused, she thought crossly, and wondered why he had accepted. She looked longingly at the picnic tables and the helpers now gathering round to sort out the large hampers of food provided, and wished she could stay to lunch with them. It wouldn't be so embarrassing for her since she could not imagine what she and Kade would have to talk about, unless it was to be a working lunch.
They had almost reached the driveway to the house when an expensive-looking car emerged from the drive
and drew up in front of them. A tall thin man then unfolded himself from the driving seat and came towards them smiling. 'Hi! I was told you were out on the rounds. I'm Charlie Page,' he volunteered, looking at Kade. 'We usually do our business by phone, but as I was in these parts I thought I'd look you up.'
Kade dismounted and held a welcoming hand out to the man. 'Pleased to meet you,' he drawled. 'I trust our last consignment was satisfactory?'
Tanya, who had remained seated, had a sudden hope that Kade and his unexpected visitor would start on a long discussion that necessitated his absence from luncheon, but she was doomed to disappointment.
'This is my partner,' said Kade abruptly, introducing Tanya to Charlie Page, and dismissing any chance of her making her departure.
The man gave her a wide cheery grin and walked over towards her, forcing her to dismount, and then held a large horny hand towards her. 'Very pleased to meet you, Mrs Player,' he said happily.
`I'm not Mrs Player!' exclaimed Tanya, after the short shocked silence that followed. 'Just a working partner,' she managed to get out, as casually as she was able to, but her voice echoed her outraged feelings as did her wide eyes as they flew from Mr Page to Kade, who appeared to be thoroughly enjoying her discomfort.
'Thanks, anyway, for the compliment,' he said to the now embarrassed man. 'You haven't answered my query, is everything okay?' he asked, casually turning the conversation to other matters, and relieving him from the necessity of having to make profuse apologies all round.
Tanya did not take in the rest of the conversation,
she was too busy digesting Kate's sarcastic, 'Thanks for the compliment,' remark. She did remember that Mr Page was asked to lunch but tactfully refused, and she wished he had accepted, since that would have made it a business lunch, and would have considerably eased the situation, as far as she was concerned anyway. However, far from being unsatisfied with past consignments he wanted to double up on past orders, and having told Kade this, he went on his way, favouring Tanya with an apologetic smile before he drove off.