The Other Woman

I am one of those women who used to be referred to in hushed tones at the church women's group and the CWA (Country Women's Association) scone judging as 'the other woman' and in the press which delighted in reporting such matters as divorce cases, as 'the co-respondent' and in men's clubs as 'the mistress' or 'his bit of fluff' or 'his bit on the side'. All of these euphemisms were descriptions of a woman who was having an affair with another woman's husband.

Okay, I admit that I'm that I am having an affair with a man who just happens to be legally married to, and not divorced from, another woman, that much is true. That this 'affair' is not the sleazy relationship that all of those euphemisms hint at is something that the straight-laced people of this town cannot comprehend, simply because they do not know the full circumstances of my relationship with Edward le Tourneau.

It all began a year ago when I answered an advertisement in the newspaper for a Secretary to the CEO of a large family owned pastoral company. The requirements were simple enough, keyboard skills with the emphasis on word processing and spreadsheets, a good phone manner and most of all an appreciation of the rural demographics. Coming from a rural background I applied for the position and was over-joyed to be asked in for an interview.

I wore my best conservative business suit and minimal make-up, reasoning that rural types didn't like painted ladies. I arrived ten minutes before my appointment and made use of the waiting time to look at the company's annual report that was conveniently placed on the coffee table in front of me, a point not lost on the receptionist. A few minutes after another applicant left she led me to the board room where the interview would be conducted and I was introduced to Edward le Tourneau, his wife Rachel and brother William, all directors of the company.

"Won't you sit down." Edward said, indicating a chair. I sat and took a deep breath to compose myself. He looked at my résumé for a couple of minutes. "You seem to be suitably qualified for this position so we have little doubt that you can carry out its technical functions. The reason that we called you in is to see how well you will fit in with us, you see you will be working closely with each of us at various times. Now I see that you were brought up in the bush, can you tell us a little about your life, what you did and what your father did?"

"He was for many years the manager of a Stock and Station agency and I grew up with market prices for crops and livestock, weather forecasts both immediate and long range, pest eradication and crop selections. I loved it and was half way through a degree in agricultural science with an emphasis on rural demographics when he died suddenly. Mum didn't cope that well so I gave up my studies to be with her. I was the only family she had."

"We're sorry to hear that. What part of your studies, I know you mentioned rural demographics, did you find most interesting?"

"I was interested in many things from how to keep the kids on the farm to crop selection, whether the farmers should move into the area of GM crops for instance, taking into consideration its benefits as far as increased yields and reliability against the opposition from environmental lobby, the viability of 'on farm' value adding as well as livestock selection for the area. It's really interesting."

"Good." He smiled at me as he made a note on the pad in front of him. "What do you do in your spare time, do you play any sports, or have any hobbies or interests?"

"What spare time?" I smiled at them, I needed to show them that I was confident in dealing with people that I've just met and who were in a dominant position. "Actually I do play netball for the local team, it gets me out of the house and away from the computer, and I need that to recharge my batteries. I did a triathlon last year, I placed in the middle of the field and told myself that it wasn't too bad for a part timer in her first race."

"What about cooking and things like that I assume that if you looked after your mother you gained some experience?" Mrs le Tourneau asked.

"I've been cooking pretty much my whole life, when I was a little girl my mother would let me help out, it started with licking the beaters and helping her to clean up and gradually as I got older she allowed me to do more until, by the time I got to high school I could prepare a three course meal for my parents and their friends. No-one died so I must have been okay."

"You don't seem to be taking this very seriously?" William commented.

"Oh I take this very seriously, it's just that my father told me that to get on with country people you had to treat them as equals, as soon as you set yourself up as being different they will either turn against you or, and I've seen this happen, go behind your back and tell their friends what an idiot you are, the most common phrase is 'dickhead'. I respect all of you, but my understanding of this position will require me to be able to deal with your clients and most of those will be country people. I needed to show you that I can do that."

"You've done that." Edward said, "what we need now is to see whether you look the part, you won't be wearing those clothes on the job. In that room." He indicated a door, "you'll find some clothes that should fit, could you get changed and let's see what you'll look like."

I went into the room and looked at the clothes set out on a table. My immediate thoughts were that this was a test, there were both new and old clothes there so I looked through the older clothes and selected a pair of moleskin trousers and a blue shirt. There was a pair of R M Williams boots that looked well broken in and to top it off an Akubra hat, also broken in so I chose those over the new ones. Looking at myself in a mirror I smiled at the result, I looked like a girl who'd just come in from the paddock for lunch.

"Why did you put on the old clothes instead of the new ones?" Edward asked.

"Wearing new clothes to me says that I'm trying too hard, I want to fit in but can't bring myself to being seen in old clothes. To blend in I need to feel comfortable and these are clean, not badly worn and the boots feel just like mine do. I could walk around paddocks all day talking to farmers in these without looking like a shag on a rock (standing out)."

"I don't know about you two but I think Megan here is just who we're looking for." Edward said and the others nodded agreement. "When can you start?"

I looked at my watch. "Oooh, in say five minutes. No I'll be ready to start whenever you want me to."

"We're staying at the 'Grosvenor' on North Terrace, can you meet us there at 8:00 on Monday morning?"

"Certainly. Am I to assume that you're going back to your property and I should wear something comfortable to travel in?"

"You assume correctly, you can wear those if you like."

"Thank you for these and the job, I won't let you down." How was that for a positive statement? We shook hands all around and I left the boardroom and smiled at the receptionist as I left the office.

At 7:45 on Monday morning I walked into the foyer of the hotel to find Edward checking out and Rachel and William standing by a couple of suitcases. "You haven't packed much?" Rachel observed.

"No, I thought that I'd settle in first and then work out what I needed and send back for it to be sent up. I don't even know where we're going."

"You'll see. We'll pay the cost of transporting your things."

Edward came over. "We're just waiting for the hire car to arrive, he shouldn't be too long."

Just then a uniformed driver came in and picked up the bags and headed for the door. We followed him and William got in the front seat while I sat in the back between Edward and Rachel. The driver pulled into the traffic and headed north towards Parafield, the traffic was heavy and it took us about 45 minutes to get to Adelaide's light aircraft field and the hanger where the plane waited for us, its engine already running.

"She's ready to go." A man said as he opened the doors and the luggage compartments. "I've done the pre-flights for you and lodged your flight plan with the tower."

"Thanks Bob. We'll see you in a month or so, I'll call to let you know."

"Sure thing Ed."

We stowed the bags and I was just about to climb into the back seat. "Would you like to ride up front with me?" Edward asked.

I looked at Rachel who smiled and nodded to me as she climbed into the back. I wondered about this arrangement but decided that they were just being friendly and that I shouldn't read anything into the fact that I sat between them in the car and now I'm sitting next to Edward. I'm sure that there's nothing going on here. Edward spoke to the tower as he taxied to the runway and as soon as he got his clearance we were airborne. I looked down at the urban sprawl as we climbed and headed north.

"We should be there in around an hour or a bit more depending on the winds. You're not uncomfortable sitting up front are you?"

"No, the view's great, it looks so green after all the rain we've had over the last couple of years."

"So much for global warming, we've had the coldest and wettest couple of years that I can remember." I was just about to put my two cents worth in about climate change when he went on. "If you go back through the history of the pastoral industry in this state you'll see a pattern. When the first explorers ventured into the middle they thought that there was permanent water and large amounts of it, in fact they thought that there was an inland sea. We now know that this is just a product of the 'la Nina' effect as opposed to the 'el Nino' that followed soon after, leading to devastating droughts that crippled expectations of fertile farmlands. We've just had two consecutive years of 'la Nina' and there's plenty of water around, but it won't last and we have to adjust to a boom and bust livelihood."

He changed heading and began to lose altitude. "That's us straight ahead." He pointed to a group of buildings surrounded by scrub and I could make out a dirt strip adjacent to them. I barely felt the wheels touch as we landed and he turned and taxied back up the runway towards a large shed. A man came out as we stopped and opened the doors for us. "How're things Frank?"

"Pretty good, the cows are as fat as I've ever seen them, all we need is for the price to go back up."

"I wouldn't hold my breath, most owners are off-loading in expectation of another drought soon."

"You don't think that's going to happen then?" Frank asked.

"It'll happen but we'll hang on as long as possible and as soon as it looks like they're losing condition we'll send them to market."

"Sure thing." We all helped to push the plane into the shed before grabbing our bags and heading for the house.

It was cool inside the house, a pleasant change from the temperature outside which was normal for this time of year but can get as high as 50 degrees Celsius in summer. Rachel led me to what was to be my room. It was huge and dominated by a large bed, there was a large dark wooden wardrobe and dressing table and a bracket on the wall held a small TV set. "We don't get to watch much TV out here, the reception is not bad, we've got a satellite dish on the roof but after a hard day's work all we want to do is crawl into bed. Toss your things on the bed and come and have a cup of tea." I followed her down a long hallway to the kitchen that was at the rear of the house overlooking a large vegetable garden. "We have to feed the station hands and they go through a lot of tucker so it pays to grow our own." She said as she filled the kettle.

I got four cups from the cupboard and the teapot. There was a large walk-in pantry with all sorts of interesting stuff, they really knew how to live. The milk in the fridge was fresh and unpasteurised and there was a thick layer of cream on top, I was going to have to watch my weight or I'll end up fat. "Do you have a cook and house staff?"

"No, I'm afraid that you'll have to look after yourself, and don't worry I'm not going to be breathing down your neck to keep your room tidy, that's your world and we won't intrude on it."

"Thank you for trusting me but you won't have to worry on that score, while I won't say that I'm anal about my tidiness but I'm not messy either."

Edward came in from talking to Frank. "We're going to have to do something about those rabbits, they've been breeding like rabbits and are becoming a nuisance, what are you like with a rifle?"

"I'm not Olympic standard by any means but I don't believe in hurting animals un-necessarily so with a refresher course I'm sure that most of my shots will be head shots, a clean kill and no wasted rabbit."

"Good, after lunch we'll give you a rifle and set up some targets and see how you go."

Lunch was a time when most of the business was discussed and I was included in the conversation. I found myself becoming almost one of the family they were that natural, and when I was asked for my opinion all three of them seemed genuinely interested in my answers, it was as if I'd been a member of the family for years, not hours.

Edward asked me to follow him and led me to a room built onto the back veranda. There was a locked cabinet with several rifles and shot guns. He took one from the rack and handed it to me. I held it in my hands and felt its balance before pulling the bolt back and looking down the barrel. It was one that I'd never seen before, a Beretta. "Nice, it's got a good feel to it."

"It's a semi-automatic, come." He gave me a six shot magazine and a box of .22 calibre bullets and led me out into the yard where he'd set up a target. "We'll start you at fifty metres and see how you go."

I slid the magazine into the gun, raised it and sighted the target. There was so little recoil that I kept pulling the trigger until I'd emptied the magazine. We walked to the target. "Not bad." Edward said as he replaced the card. "All within the outer circle, now let's see how good you are at a hundred metres." He was most impressed at my efforts the second time, but then I knew that I'd be better, the first time was to sight it in, the first two shots were just within the outer circle of the target while the fifth and sixth were on the bullseye. At a hundred metres I managed to group them all within the centre circle.

"We'll go out at dusk and see how many we can get, maybe we'll have rabbit for dinner tomorrow evening."

"I'll do my best."

"Come, I'll show you around the place." I handed the rifle back to him but he gave it back to me. "Bring it, we might see a couple of rabbits." We walked over to the big barn and in it was the usual paraphernalia associated with the running of a large grazing property, there were several quad bikes and motor bikes along with saddles and other horse equipment. "When possible we use horses to bring the cattle in, it's easier on them but harder on us, it's just the way that we do things. The cattle usual find their way back to the bores so we don't have to search for them."

"How many stockmen do you have working here?"

"We're down to about half a dozen. We used to have twenty or thirty when all we used were horses but with the bikes and the chopper for spotting and helping with the broader mustering we don't need as many now. We try to keep the operation as lean as possible while at the same time using locals for any additional work." We had moved to the back of the barn to the chook run and Edward saw something that bothered him. "Bloody foxes. They're supposed to be smart but they haven't figured out that there is no way that they can burrow under the fence, but they will keep trying. We don't like to bait any animals because other animals feed on the carcases, things like dingos and wedgies (wedge tailed eagles), things that we don't want to lose, they play an important role in keeping the rabbit population down."

"There's a rabbit now." I pointed to a large rabbit sitting next to its burrow about seventy metres away. "I think I can get him."

"You'd better be sure, the last thing you want is to wound it and it goes back down the burrow."

"I still think I can." I leant against a post to steady myself and sighted the rifle, squeezing off a shot. The rabbit fell where it sat so we walked over to retrieve it.

"I couldn't have done better myself." Edward said as he picked the rabbit up. "Right in the head, he wouldn't have felt a thing. Come here, I'll show you something, how to skin and gut a rabbit without a knife." He tore the skin around the rabbit's ankles and peeled it up and over its rump, when he had it peeled back enough he grabbed the rabbit's back legs in one hand and the skin in the other and yanked it off in one quick movement. Then he tore the belly open and, taking it by the front legs he flicked it away from him and the entrails all flew out of the carcase. "You can only do this when the rabbit is warm but it certainly saves time and a lot of bother and what the dingos don't eat the ants will clean up in no time at all."

We walked over to the yards and he showed me the holding pens. "We only use these when we have to hand feed before market but if we time it right that's not necessary." He put his hands into the bore fed trough and splashed water over his face. "This water's okay for watering the stock and the veggie patch, but we have to filter and soften it before we can use it in the house, you should see the mess it makes of your hair if you use it straight from the bore."

We walked back to the house and Edward put the rabbit onto the sink. "The hunters have returned with fresh food."

"Are you taking credit for this?" Rachel asked Edward.

"Good heavens no! Annie Oakley here brought this down at a hundred and fifty metres, what a shot."

"He lies. It was fifty if it was a metre." I ejected the magazine from the rifle. "I should clean this and put it away." Edward handed me the key to the gun room and as I left I heard him tell Rachel that I was going to work out just fine.

After dinner of baked rabbit and fresh vegetables we sat around in the living room, Edward and William with a glass of brandy, Rachel and I with a white wine. "As well as this property we have several other grazing properties scattered around the country, each strategically placed close to markets and with the right climate for the stock." Edward said. "The property in Queensland runs Droughtmaster and Santa Gertrudis while we run Hereford and Devons in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales and on a couple of properties in South Australia. We have wheat/sheep properties in the Central West of New South Wales and Western Australia and sheep only properties in Victoria. We produce most of our own fodder from cereal crops and Lucerne that we can truck around as needed. So you see we have diversified pretty well."

"What about canola, there seems to be a trend to that as a more reliable money maker than cereal crops."

"We have some canola but only when we don't need the land for fodder crops. The main point with this is the cost benefit of the crop, with canola we get paid for the crop only once, when it's harvested, we don't value add because of the economies of scale of the oil producers, we can't hope to get our costs down enough to make it viable for us. We do have olive oil production facilities to process our crops because of the various grades of oil. Most of ours is extra virgin and this gives us a higher profit margin than the lesser grades. When we need fodder it is more cost effective to grow our own than to buy it in because when it is needed the demand, therefore the cost, is higher."

The conversation continued around what the company was doing and what its plans were for the future. "Have you done any research into the future markets and what changes, if any, are needed to service those markets?" I asked.