A Place to Call Home(Madeleine Grace) Chapter One
Father and Daughter

The girl rode; she rode as far as she could away from the homestead. She rode to where her heart leads her to go. Her eyes fill with tears, while she rode away. As she glanced back, she saw the woman standing there watching her while the house and the front garden kept shirking into existence. The girl had to leave the house, the faces she knew. She had to get away, for a while; she couldn’t face her mother or her family. She drew her attention back to her horse, she stared ahead whilst the old Draughthorse carried her away, through the open paddock gates, they cantered away, down to the back paddock, where there was the river, a place she couldn’t see the house. A place to remember, a place she was happy being at and most of all, it may be her last time here at the stud…...
The old gelding snorted as he stopped quickly at the river flats. She jumped off and looked back behind her. The flat country, she loved, that she knew, that she grew up on and a farm that ran through her veins. She loved Cherry Creek more than anyone that knew the place, the farm was part of her life, without, and she’d always have a missing part of her.
Jess looked back at Ink; the horse dropped his head to pick at the grass. “God, Inky, I love this place. I think everything I love is falling apart, just in a day.” she whispered in his ear. She felt more tears wailing up behind her eyes, she couldn’t help but let the tears out. It will properly be the last time she can let anything she felt out. She felt the burning tears run down her cheeks and down her neck. Ink put his head upon her shoulder, Jess stroked Ink with the hand that contained the stock bridle’s reins.
She looked away from Ink and she glanced into the fading sunset. Suddenly, she felt her tears pour out of her eyes uncontrollably. “Maybe I’ll run away,” she whispered behind bellowing tears. “Maybe,” she glared down to the scaling red dirt. “Why am I thinking such thoughts, I can’t just run away, away from my family and my problems.” she frowns at her chestnut gelding, who was cuddling his head into her and he groaned loudly. “You’re right, Ink. We must go.” she smiles at him.

Jessica airs upon the soft coloured sunset, dragging herself away from what just happened and her life. She gazed into another world whilst she glared among her land.
“Jessica!” an angry breathless voice yelled. “Jessica Jones!” she didn’t bother to respond. She heard her father approach the river on his horse. She could hear his mare’s hooves banging against the cement ground as they gained steps towards Ink and Jess. “Jess!” the ruthful voice shouted.
Jess turned her back more and faced the river, she stood at the mossy, river’s edge, the gums concealed her from the evenings light. She gazed into studying the river flow. She could feel her fear rising inside of her, echoing inside her mind were words telling her “go now”, her sudden little world she was in, was disappearing with the flooding fear of what her father may do.

The old Draught Horse starts to flick his ears fearfully; he was alert of what was going on. “Don’t worry, boy…” Jessica trails off with a sharp blow.
“Jessica Jones! Stop being so suborn and answer me!” her father growled.
“Dad… I give up!” I groan. “I can’t do it anymore!” I shout furiously.
“Do what?”
“I can’t do this… this, right now… I can’t fight with you anymore!” I look away fearfully.
He laughs suddenly. “Bloody hell, you need to grow up!” he yells in my face.
“You’re the one that needs to grow up!” I sigh heavily. “I have tried with my wage I earn, alongside with my bare hands and days of work on this property to keep it going, for five years, I’ve tried, but the work I do to save this property goes down the drain, with you bloody buying bad and overpriced rams or whatever. Basically, it sends the whole white suffice stud belly up! You always sow crops and use the wrong or too much chemical. Most of all, because all you care about is the alcohol you drink and so on. Cherry Creek Studs never gets the money put back into it, it’s that bad, and we don’t even have a good set of sheep yards or a good paddock…” I scream hoarsely. My tears wail up behind my eyes.
I turn back to the river, beginning to cry, I look over to the paddock’s fencing; the posts were bent and twisted from too many years in the ground, the wire had holes contained in the fence; the wire was that wrecked in sections, that it would just be fallen apart, not holding a section of the fence.
My father grips my shoulder lightly and sighs. “Jessica,” he begins quietly.
I still stare ahead glancing at the river. “No… There’s nothing to say.” I say firmly moving away, leading Ink to the edge of the Lachlan River.

I plant myself beside the river, not listening to my father. The Lachlan River was her favourite place, it was her place, the river over stretched this property for a 1000 acres, which was the richer paddocks of the farm. I still wasn’t listening to the angry voice behind me. This river runs through me, like a stream of water. It’s my place… no matter where I go; it’s still my river I thought to myself.
The Lachlan River was a big part of this property, the jillaroo’s and jackaroo’s usually, come down here and sit by the river eating their lunch, sometimes, in the summer, Jess’s family, the jillaroos and jackaroos, would come together for a Christmas lunch or dinner. Jess’s best friend would also be there, he’s always there, every year. Henry….. I sigh heavily.
By the time I opened up my mind again, my father was sitting next to me. “Jess?” he tries to say calmly, but you can hear the shakiness within his voice. “Jessica… It’s understandable that you don’t like my way of living or farming or whatever and I know you aren’t a child anymore.” he looks away; Jess could feel his sadness creeping up on her. “But you are my daughter….” But you are my daughter; the place is yours, the stud, the horses and so on. But I need you to stay here for you to get that I grunt loudly, my head pounding with the words. Yeah right, bustard! You’re only trying to make me stay, so you can take my money and use it for your damn alcohol! I scream inside my head.
I glare at him. “Stop….” I snap harshly. “I know what you are trying to do.”
“What?” he glares back.
I frown at him. “You know what! You’re only getting me to stay and take every cent that I have for your stupid alcohol! You use the exact same words every time we fight and you always try to convince me to stay! Well, it’s no more! You only want me to stay because so you can work the guts out of me and treat like I’m a lousily sheepdog!” I scream in his face, I hate you, my mind bellowed, I hate you; I wish you weren’t my father, so I could knock some sense into you!
He begins to laugh. “I’ve never done that to you!” You could hear the sarcasm in his voice.
I could feel my face burning hot, my fists clutched. Oh you have done it now… My inner voice roared. “Well, how can you explain me not being allowed to even live under the same roof? Mum has always said ‘you may hate that girl, but she is still my daughter and she is to live in the family home!’ But you refused!”
“I never refused, you did.” he growled.
“Nah,” I shook my head. “I heard the whole conversation that day; you and mum were fighting over it and for goodness sake, I’m glad you didn’t let me live in the house. I remember, it was the day I just finished school, when I was meant to start university a month down the track, but you refused of me going. You also treated me horribly through school; at least I did live inside until I was fourteen.”
He smiles. Yeah, of course you know, you know to your core, that you have refused everything… my mind bellowed. “You moved out of the home because you hate me.”
I smile. “Well, at least you got that right… I’ve always had a reason to hate you. I moved out yes, but you also threw me out. I didn’t have anywhere to go and I knew I couldn’t leave the property, so I jacked up with the jillaroos ever since. So, for the past ten years, I’ve been working as a jillaroo, and don’t say you disagreed, dad. You agreed to it and you were going to treat me as another jillaroo and pay me a proper wage, but of course I was stupid and young to trust any of that, so you didn’t pay me, but my mum did the paying, anyway. Until I got my driver’s licence when I left school, I went looking for a job in town and found myself working at the vet clinic.” I begin to cuddle Ink again, feeling I was overwhelming myself.
He frowns… “Maybe I did these things and more...”
I cut him off. “You know you did and most of all, you did damage to me.”
He places his arms around me and embraces me. “There was a reason for you to hate me, but considering, I don’t regret anything, I want you gone by tomorrow morning, at sun rise, if you aren’t gone. I’ll shoot your lousily dogs.”
He did it now. “You bustard, you faked that! You didn’t mean a single word.” I push him away and slap him. “And you deserved that, for threatening to kill my dogs, that’s animal abuse!”
He placed his hand on his red cheek. “I want you gone by tomorrow, before sun rise…” He takes his hand and slaps me across my face, knocking me flat to the ground, breathless. “I’ve never liked you.” He turned and pulled himself into the saddle, before Jess knew it, he was gone.


Chapter Two
Henry

Jessica sat by the river, sulking. The sunset was still sinking. I hate him, I hate my father! I screamed on the inside. Ink stood beside her quietly, dozing. “Ink, we leave tomorrow. Everything we love is gone. It’s better if we leave…”
“Leaving? When did this happen?” He said sadly. “I hope if you leave, you have time to say goodbye to me.” He whispered behind me, placing a hand on my shoulder.
Jess knew who it was, but she was sad and too angry to look up at him. “Henry,” she whispers, smiling to herself, while she had her head hiding in her lap. “What is it with you?”
He wraps a hand around her waist, pulling her in. By this time, he was sitting beside her. Jess could feel him begin to weep a little. I know, that you know, that it’s goodbye I thought. “What with me Jess?” Henry leans into me. “What?”
I look up at him. “You always seem to turn up at the right time.”
He frowns. “Your father upset you again?”
“Yeah,” I sit up, pulling from Henry. I didn’t bother to meet his eyes, so I stared into the flowing water. “He wants me off the property by tomorrow at sun rise.”
“Drunken Bastard he is. Let me guess, he was drunk?”
“Yep, we always fight, of course you know. Mum should’ve left him years ago.”
“I agree. He doesn’t deserve a good woman like her or a good daughter like you. He doesn’t even deserve Donnie his own son.”
“I wish I could pull them from that sack too and take them with me.” I sigh.
“I had the feeling that you’d fight with him again, so I brought the old horse float.” Henry smiles at me, whilst I looked up.
“You didn’t, Henry?” I gleamed at him.
He nods. “But I did, I knew one of these days you would be leaving. Well, I really didn’t have a feeling.” he chuckles lightly. “But your mum had rung me to tell me that you and Mr Jones were fighting again and to bring the horse float. She didn’t want you leaving Ink here, just in case if his drunken brain decides to shoot him.” he pointed at Ink.
“Thank you,” I look into his eyes.
“Anything for you,” he smiles.
“Thank you, for your help, I’ll be out of here tomorrow morning. Is it okay if we float Ink to Uncle Rogers?”
“Nope, I’m sorry, but your mum said for Ink to stay at my place, until you get yourself sorted.” Henry smiles at me and winks. “You can even stay at mine as long as you like.”
Henry I thought. Henry is my best friend. He has helped me when the farm flooded more than once; he let me stay at his when it was drought. He was always there for me and I was for him, we always had each other’s backs. Only if he knew how I felt, I wept inside.
“I don’t think you should ever come back here, Jess. Because, I’m here to claim what’s mine…” he trails off.
I look away blushing; I didn’t know what to say. Did he just say that? I ask myself He did! But what does he mean by it? I looked back at him; his green eyes were gentle and tender. His smile was calming, his pale skin was glowing, and also his blonde hair was full of dry sweat. There was something different about him, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Something was making Jess wonder about him, which made her nervous.
Suddenly, she felt sweat forming on her hair line. Her brunette hair blew free against the wind. Her cap was containing the heat on her head. Her hands felt like ice on her pale skin, her jeans were sticking to her skin; the boots were worn to the sole, her shirt was covered in dirt from being knocked flat on the ground by her father. Her emerald green eyes were set on his. Time slowed down as his eyes smiled at her.
He lent into Jess. “You can stay at mine forever…” he smiles slightly. Slowly he closed his eyes, I placed my hand on his cheek, he stayed there hanging for a moment, but I was frozen, then I broke my eye contact and gazed upon Ink. I saw him in the corner of my eye, open his eyes, I saw the disappointment upon his lips and his eyes.
I still gazed at Ink; studying his features. Jess’s eyes begun to water, she bit her lip to hold back the tears. “I love you!” I shouted out and turned to see his expression on Henry’s face; he seemed shocked, but relieved, even doubted the fact I just said that. “I love you, Henry…”I repeated softly as I lent in close and stared into his eyes. Now you know, Henry, that I love you. Love me or not, you had to know, my mind whispers. He stared into my eyes; there was a long and awkward silence between us. Silence, I thought an awkward silence is always painful. Please, don’t leave me hanging, say something! My voice screamed inside my head. I looked into his eyes for hope, but there was nothing, nothing but silence.
I let go of his hands and stood up clumsily to move away, but his hand grabbed me at the last moment. “Where are you going?”
“To pack, I’m leaving tonight.” I say coldly without looking at him. I had my back turned to him. You know it is goodbye… I thought.
”Wait Jessica,” he got up after me. “Stay at mine tonight, then if you are so desperate to leave, you can leave tomorrow morning, I’m refusing you to go tonight.”
I frown. “No. So what are you saying?” I look at him, somehow I was in the circle of his arms, they felt protective around me and I liked it.
“I’m saying stay, stay with me forever if you like, be mine. I want you to be mine, because I love you.” he hung on to his words, still left hanging for an answer.
“I love you, Henry. Now you know I really love you…” I lent in slowly.
He started to lean in. His nose was touching mine lightly. “I love you, Jessica.” Then he kissed me. His lips were cool on mine; he tasted like sweet apple pie. I wrapped my arms around his neck, running my fingers through his hair, it was greasy on the hair line, but I didn’t care. He cupped my face, while he still kissed me. Henry pulled me in closer to his chest and I deepen the kiss with all my passion. I moan on his lips, to capture air. I begin to run my hand down his back, I felt is muscles through his shirt, I ended up gripping his shoulder blade bellow his neck.
Then the unexpected happened, Ink rubbed his head against me and pushed Henry away from me and shoved him over, then he whinnied. I smile lightly. “Oh Ink… That wasn’t nice.” I begin to laugh and walk over to put a hand out for Henry.

Henry grabs my hand to pull himself up; his hand was warm to touch, the feeling sent a shiver down my spine. I gazed at him briefly. "Are you staying with me tonight? Make a start with me?" He stood up facing me, he stood slightly taller than me, looking over my head. His eyes darted down upon mine. "I love you..." he said, wrapping his arms around me. "You'll always have a place to call home with me." I was speechless, I knew there were no more words to come, he knew that I would go with him, because I love him.

"If there is life after death... In our second lives, I will still love you then..."

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