Brandon shook his head. “They refused.”
All three of them looked at her as if praying she had an answer. She hated to disappoint them. “From all reports, Stonefish values their reputation. Any time there is a hint of a scandal, it’s swept under the rug or they make a show of hunting down which part of the business is responsible and then fixing it.” It wasn’t how she normally operated, but it might be their only choice. “I’ll send an official letter stating a breach of the contract terms and requesting an immediate refund of your money. According to the contract, they have seven days to respond to the letter.”
“But you’ve said they’ll draw it out,” Brandon said.
She nodded. “We then put a claim in with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Stonefish don’t want to be on their radar. If that doesn’t work, we go to social media. The Aussie battler, the poor farmer who has been taken advantage of by the big corporation, will be a story no reporter will want to miss.” She wasn’t sure how they’d feel about that.
“Won’t it make us look bad?” Brandon asked. “We’re relying on tourists to keep the money flowing in and this might cause them to stay away.”
Amy spoke. “We can spin it to our advantage. Show how we’re still managing even though times are hard. Welcoming people in.” She glanced at him. “We could arrange some kind of fund-raiser. How about a Bachelor and Spinster ball?” She clicked her pen and began writing notes. “We’d need a band, lighting, more toilets, food and drink. People could stay the night in the shearers’ quarters, or camp in the sheep pens.”
Brandon got up to finish making the tea. Faith smiled. “That’s something we can consider, but the first step is the letter to Stonefish.”
“If you write it, we’ll sign and send it,” Darcy said.
She shook her head. “It has more weight if it’s signed and sent from a lawyer.”
“You aren’t practising,” he countered.
His concern warmed her. “It doesn’t matter. It will make them sit up and take notice.”
Darcy squeezed her hand. “No. It will just put you on their radar.”
She chuckled. “I’m used to big companies not liking me.” She thanked Brandon as he placed the mugs of tea on the table and then took his seat.
“I’m worried what they might do to scare you off,” Darcy admitted.
“They know nothing about me,” she said. “No point going after the messenger.” She tried to sound more confident than she felt. “It will be fine.”
He scowled.
“I don’t like it any better than you do,” Brandon said. “But it’s us they’re after, not Faith. She can’t give them what they want.”
Faith cleared her throat before asking what she’d been so curious about. “Why do they want the station so badly?”
“We can’t figure it out,” Darcy said. “One guy said they had a connection to the Retribution but then wasn’t interested in the history I offered to share with him.”
She chewed on her lip. “Could there be something valuable on the land—a mineral deposit or something?”
Brandon shook his head. “They surveyed the land in the sixties and found nothing of real value.”
“Do you have a map?” It wasn’t likely she’d spot anything.
“Yeah.” Darcy left the kitchen and returned a few minutes later with a large A2 sized map of the property. A red line marked the border which stretched almost the entire way to the coast in the west, with access to the bay in the north.
“Are there any towns on the east side of the gulf?”
“No. Closest is Onslow.”
She studied the map, but nothing unusual stood out to her. “What about the rumours of buried treasure Lara told me about?”
Darcy smiled. “She made those up.”
“Could someone have thought they were true?”
He shook his head. “I doubt it. Besides, there’s so much land, they could look for it and we probably wouldn’t know they were there.”
Good point. She handed Darcy the draft letter she’d written. “With your permission, I’ll email the letter to Stonefish tomorrow and also post a registered letter to their head office.”
