It would mean his life and those of every one of his crew if they were ever caught, or their identities discovered. They'd accepted that from the very beginning, and they carried that with them each time they sailed against an English ship. But their attacks had worked.
In the past two years, they'd sent an impressive amount of shipping to the bottom of the sea. And they'd gotten the attention of the Crown. The penalties were high. Every man who sailed with Zach had a price on his head. But Zach was undeterred. He'd strike and strike again, until the mighty English lion was ready to listen to the colonists' demands. Until that day came...
"Sorry, luv."
Zach smiled at Minnie.
"So, what are you waitin' for? My Tess is as close as you'll find to perfection."
"Maybe I'm not looking for perfection," he argued playfully, and leaned around the large woman for a better glimpse of supper.
She slapped, at his shoulder. "You'll not set foot in my kitchen smelling like range critters." Her eyes sharpened, just what are you lookin' for in a woman? Those fancy sportin' women in Sydney aren't for you. Yer mother would turn over in her grave if you tried to bring a woman like that onto Resolute."
Zach almost burst out laughing. "Sporting women are for sporting, not marrying." His stomach grumbled at the delay of supper. He laid hands on her ample shoulders.
"I'm waiting for the one woman meant to share my life." He pressed a finger against her mouth as she started to question just who that might be.
"I don't know who she is. I haven't met her yet." A smile teased at one corner of his mouth. "But I'll know her when I meet her."
"Well, it can't be for not lookin' that you haven't found her yet," she admonished. "Every woman in Sydney under the age of sixty and old enough to say yes is after you."
He winked at her. "One of these days, I'll return to Resolute with my bride flung over my shoulder and surprise everyone."
"Quit eyein' them biscuits. They're for supper." She motioned to Tobias. "Go on and get washed up."
Zach nodded, then gave her an affectionate peck on the cheek. "Besides, you've always been my favorite girl," he teased.
"Go on with you." She swiped at him with the ladle. "Don't you go bein' cheeky with me," she grumbled.
"Damned bossy woman!" Tobias muttered as he followed Zach to the closed-in porch off the kitchen, where a pump gleamed over a metal sink. "You'd think she owns the place."
"At times, I do," Zach admitted. "I don't know what we'd do without her."
Tobias rolled his sleeves. "Just don't go tellin' her that. She's impossible to live with as it is." He thoughtfully scrubbed his hands and arms; a habit he'd acquired when he'd been a physician, though many doctors had ridiculed the practice.
"There's something I need to talk with you about, but it'll keep till after supper." He cast a thoughtful glance at Zach as he reached for a nearby towel. "There's several things need to be discussed now that Megan..."His voice trailed off. "I'll meet you in the dining room. I need something from upstairs." He turned down the hallway and made his way to the stairs that led to the second-floor rooms.
Zach cut through a tender lamb chop, hardly tasting it as he popped it into his mouth. But he smiled his compliments to Minnie anyway. Then he drained the coffee from his cup and thoughtfully contemplated Tobias who was entering the room.
His old friend hesitated as if considering something of importance. Then, apparently having made a decision, he crossed the dining room, dropped into one of the straight-backed chairs, and set a small traveling case on the table.
Zach motioned to the satchel that looked much like a medical bag. "You thinking of starting' up your medical practice again?" he teased gently. Over the years, Tobias had provided medical care for the workmen at Resolute and other families across the valley. The library was filled with medical texts, most of them brought with him from England years ago. Occasionally he ordered a new book from Sydney, but it took months to reach New South Wales from Europe. In all those years, he'd never chosen to set up practice in the bustling port town. It was another of those unexplained secrets from the past. Just as Zach had learned never to question Minnie's past, he'd never questioned Tobias about his. Someone's past was no one else's business.
Tobias gave him a thoughtful look, then shoved the bag across the table.
Zach waved him off, thinking he meant to teach him some new medical technique. "I don't have time. Those lambs need to be brought into the feeding pens or we'll lose them. And there's wool to be loaded on the flatboats down at the river. The warehouse in Sydney is empty, and I want to get those ships out before Barrington Shipping and the Crown see fit to close us down." There was contempt in his voice.
Tobias patted the trunk solemnly, then took a cup of strong coffee from Minnie. "This won't wait, Zach. I promised to give you this once Megan was gone." His saddened eyes shifted down to the table.
Zach pushed his plate back. Toying with his coffee cup, he glanced across at the small satchel. "Promised who?"
Tobias' gaze met his. "I promised your father, before you were born. I've kept this all these years. Megan never knew about the trunk."
Zach's gaze fastened on the scarred leather case. The aching emptiness he'd felt earlier, returned. They were both gone now Megan and the father he'd never known. Nicholas Tennant had died before he was born, but Zach knew him as if they'd shared a life together. Tobias and Megan had seen to that, by telling him stories of the early days at Resolute, when his father had brought his new bride to the sheep station from Sydney.
The old man nodded. "Nicholas kept a journal, beginning on the day he left London. I imagine it’s inside. There's a great deal you never knew about your father, a great deal none of us ever knew, not even Megan. That's the way it was in the early days. No one asked questions and no one volunteered information."
It was impossible for Zach to tear his eyes away from the satchel with initials etched in the cracked leather. It was old and scarred, its corners worn away. It had endured much handling.
