Valley of Sinners Ch. 02

"Your mother, as I understand from what you've told me, owns a small house on a small site in the city. In contrast, I have all this with the closes house three hundred yards away. How do you feel about this inequality socially, politically and economically?"

"Why do you assume I should be bothered to think such things?"

"If an attractive young woman you were hoping to impress were to ask that same question, would you answer as you've just answered me?"

"Oh dear, how can I refuse an acid-tongued older woman scratching like a chicken investigating to see whether she can uncover any philosophical and-or political morsels that may determine new frontiers?"

Hope squirmed, saying she was only making conversation but that response seemed to lack conviction. She attempted to cover up by asking Nash to answer the question graciously.

"Politically, my mother and I are poles apart. She wants to see everyone enjoying good health, equal opportunities with the rich people accepting they must be taxed for redistribution to the poor. A devout socialist is my mother Rose. While not wishing anyone poor health, I am aware that many of us foolishly contribute to our future poor health through bad living; no Government is ever going to eradicate that personal ineptitude in a democratic society. I don't wish to see everyone being given equal opportunity artificially through socialistic tinkering as that would destroy our social fabric, as taken to the ultimate there would be no poor and, as a result of fiscal plundering, no rich either. Some people deal with opportunities better than others -- and I would suggest that Rose and I, although not in your class, would probably do better than average because we are not short on drive and aspirations."

Sipping more Scotch, he continued: "Economically, neither Rose nor I would resent you being a person of far greater substance than ourselves. Just as some people run faster than others, swim faster than others and dance better than offers, some people grow their assets better than others and our society needs top producers like that -- but don't expect the bottom third of society to believe that fact of life. However, the true answer to your question lies neither in political nor economic reasoning. It's entirely a social based answer. If Rose uprooted herself to live alone in solitude she would wilt, truly. My mother is garrulous, community minded and simple-minded person, which explains why she became a country and western singer rather than an opera singer, leaving talent aside. She knows virtually everyone living within a hundred yards of her house, and they know her because she takes an interest in them. That's her way. Mum could never live an isolated life. End of story."

Hope looked at Nash closely. "Wow, well said. I was a little shocked to hear you referring to Rose as being simple-minded but in the context I got the point you were making."

"Thank you; next question."

"Well, um, I'm interested in this one: what is your attitude towards women? I am not expecting to be shocked, as you interact very nicely with me."

Nash stroked his chin, wondering what this question was really about, but was unable to decide. "They rate highly with me because they are sex objects, and don't gasp like that because fundamentally that's one of their primary functions. I like women who like men which explains why I object to those women who attempt to arbitrarily change the traditional social role of women as social re-engineering rarely works. Imagine changing natural blondes into the superior class of women at the expense of brunettes and then having to listen to dumb brunette jokes? That's meant to be a titivating analogy, not a learned profundity. On the other hand, people attempting to address unacceptable social inequalities between either sex are to be applauded."

He smiled. "I think by now you get my drift. I believe women should be women, and not attempt to either be men or to supplant men. I love my mother and think she is a fine woman. It is she who influenced my attitudes towards women, and for that I am grateful. Now, I've had a lovely day and evening with you and if you are a kind woman, as I really think you are, you will now let me go to my bed as I'm tuckered out."

"Of course," Hope said, standing up. "Come here and kiss me good night."

They hugged and Nash kissed her gently on the ear above her gold drop ear-ring. "You are a perfect hostess."

"Of course, I am a woman!"

"Will you tell me about the Chevy tomorrow?"

Hope sighed.

"Yes, but you need everything in perspective. First you must hear about my father. Now off you go."

"Goodnight."

"Sweet dreams."

* * *

Lying awake, thinking about the book, Hope rejuvenated some of the memories of her father -- either experienced with him or related by him. When she began talking about her father tomorrow Nash was bound to begin interrogating her. With the curtain windows, just stirring in the evening breeze and lit by the glow of the half moon, Hope stared at the ceiling and let her mind drift.

The next day after lunching on a mixed lettuce salad tossed with various chopped fresh fruits and cashew nuts, Hope and Nash lay on their sun loafers -- the backs of which at Hope's suggestion were propped up to aid digestion. Nash turned on the digital disc recorder that Hope had given him. She presented the condensed version of her father's life in the valley, warning that it would be crammed with detail.

In 1969 Cedric James Honeybun arrived at Te Henui, named after a river valley now without a river, as the waterway had been diverted during the Great Flood of 1949 to flow on a new course to the north-east.

Cedric, then aged fifty, was looking for a couple of acres on which to build a house and to re-establish his veterinary practice that originally had been located on the town fringe, but then gradually become over-run by urban sprawl. He ran a country practice with a receptionist as well as a field technician to help with heavier animals and doing the running and fetching. He had no interest in changing into an urban vet specializing -- as he said repeatedly -- in dealing with the neurotic felines of elderly women or the expiring canaries of retired clergymen.

Land on both sides of the western end of the valley was owned by one of his clients, Trevor Hopkins, a fourth generation farmer who was rather well beyond retiring age. Cedric called on Trevor and they talked over a whisky bottle. It turned out that Trevor was interested in Cedric's quest for land as he'd planned to divest some of his property holdings. He pulled out a subdivision scheme plan.

Pointing to a block on the scheme at the far end of the valley, closest to Henderson, the elderly farmer urged Cedric to buy that piece -- all two hundred acres of it. He reckoned it was the best piece of land in the entire valley as grass grew faster than anywhere else and it never really dried out during summer droughts like it did even on the block opposite.

A couple of hours later Cedric, a tall, fleshy faced but quite handsome man with a thickening waist and long, unruly auburn hair, drove away feeling very satisfied. Trevor had undertaken to arrange with his solicitor to draw up a sale and purchase agreement with the cost of surveying the two hundred acres to be included in the agreed sale price, as well as all costs for approvals of the subdivision through to and including issue of title. The purchase was dependent on the issue of title.

Cedric's wife Sally was dismayed that he'd purchased a farm while Hope -- then a young teenager -- was thrilled at the prospect of grazing her horse Silver on their own farm instead of having to forage in the present rental paddock shared with two other horses.

There was a row, with Sally demanding where would they get the money to buy a farm and Cedric insisting she was not to worry about money. He had money. Sally had demanded that he tell her how much money, but Cedric said she knew the rule: his money was his business, just as what she did with her personal monthly allowance from him was her business as well as the money she'd inherited from her mother's estate.

In the past year Cedric had received low-key enquiries about selling his house and detached office, so he contacted the appraiser who'd made the most recent approach. The appraiser said that developers were quietly buying up property for a proposed regional shopping centre and he'd let it be known that the property was available. Cedric used a golfing friend who was a real estate agent to broker the deal and received a price that almost stunned him: enough to buy the 200 acres plus pay the architect's fees to design his new family house and probably to complete the foundations and basement as well. He already had more than enough money saved from his lucrative specialty in veterinary work -- horses -- to complete the relocation project.

Before the house was completed, the feuding Cedric and Sally had separated and the following year she died of double pneumonia after a lung operation. Hope was aged fifteen; she and her father had always been close, but she told Nash her 'biographer' they really bonded after Sally's death.

Three weeks after the funeral Cedric handed Hope a check for five thousand pounds and told her it was all arranged for her to go to live with his sister in England and get herself a good education. It was a very tempting offer but Hope decided she would rather stay at home and look after him; Cedric was flattered by the loyalty of the young teenager so established a trust for her, seeding it with that five thousand pounds.

Completing high school, without distinction in marks or merit awards, Hope holidayed in Australia with another of Cedric's three sisters for three weeks and on her return announced she wanted to work as his assistant receptionist, with the intention of taking over when he thought she was ready for the responsibility.

For them, it was a perfect arrangement because they worked so naturally as a team. Later Cedric tried to persuade his daughter to attend university and then try to enter vet training, but Hope was not at all interested in becoming a vet. She half completed her degree, went overseas and returned to complete her degree and undergo teacher training. She married her school teacher boss Albert Wilson, and went to live in his rented home in Avondale.

Meanwhile, keeping up to date about development of grape-growing areas in such places as Poverty Bay, the Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa, Blenheim and Otago, Cedric began developing his vision of the whole of the valley floor and northern hillsides being covered in grape vines. Eventually he commissioned soil tests, which proved to be very encouraging and a consultant set up six weather recording stations for Cedric to monitor. Most of Cedric's holding was farmed on short-term leases by neighbors including Basil Tait. At this stage Cedric did not have a longer-term plan for land he owned other than hoping it would be suitable for grape growing.

The secret he'd shared with Hope was that the soil tests had been very encouraging, that the land was shallow clays over a base layer of silt -- the consultant's report stated, "revealing a soil structure closely resembling newer areas of West Auckland having being converted most successfully into viticulture in recent times." Cedric said if test drillings to find artesian water for irrigation and the weather monitoring confirmed to be conducive for viticulture -- as old Mr Hopkins was adamant it would -- then Hope could expect to see the valley change remarkably within the next five years.

Like other visionaries in this world, Cedric the highly regarded vet, very competitive golfer and well-known womanizer, became a bit of a joke in the district for his unshakable belief that one day the whole valley would be green with vines laden with grapes.

Hope was aware, more or less, that her father chased after women or was it women chased after her father? She wasn't sure and didn't try to find out as it didn't bother her.

Suddenly, in 1980 it was all on. One night in bed Cedric let slip to a Mrs Pope that the trial block was providing to be 'a cracker'. Two nights later Jennifer Pope unintentionally passed on that information at the golf club Sunday evening dinner and within hours the news had spread around the district and the rush by farmers to get their old river flats and sunny paddocks tested for grape growing potential was urgently pursued. Big money was offered for Cedric's valley flats.

Old Mr Hopkins, who by this time was very frail, had worked on the council to get a new road through the valley as he intended opening up hillside land with further subdivisions into smaller grazing blocks. Cedric called in his own surveyors to produce a subdivision scheme for the rest of his land, dividing it into eighteen blocks. The scheme was approved by the council so he had the survey completed and the blocks registered into separate titles -- the nine lots of better north-facing land were registered in his name, the other nine on somewhat inferior land on the other side of the road were registered in Hope's name and he formed Te Henui Holdings Limited, with himself and Hope as directors.

One of Hope's lots contained a rocky outcrop at the rear but the frontage ran parallel to the road and was practically flat for some distance inland until rising to the outcrop. Hope, who was staying with Cedric with her baby for a couple of nights while her husband was at a school principals' seminar, had written on the subdivision plan with a red pen, 'Juice extraction plant and later winery' Entertaining a new 'friend' that evening, Cedric looked at the notation on the subdivision plan on his desk when showing Mrs Holmes around the house and smiled, At supper he said to Hope that no-one would set up a winery in the valley.

"Not until you ask someone to set one up, and sell them the idea," interjected Mrs Holmes, a legal secretary whose husband, a solicitor, currently attending at a law conference in Canada which is why she was looking for someone like Cedric.

The years passed. Hope returned to live with Cedric after her marital bust-up, and changed back to her maiden name of Honeybun. One evening Cedric came home smelling of whisky and perfume and announced that earlier that day he'd signed a contract to have two acres by the house developed into a trial vineyard. Consultants had been most impressed with the table grapes growing behind the house on marginally poorer land and were staggered by the amount of money from the sale of table grapes that had gone either into Hope's pocket for clothes, or into her trust account. After listening to her father and Hope made a most amazing offer to him -- at least that's how he later described it to Hope. She invited Cedric to occasionally bring one of his women friends home for the night, but to select ones that were unlikely to land him in big trouble. She said he should not be out prowling like a tom cat when he had a very large bedroom to bounce around in.

The idea appealed to Cedric, so he decided to set up a pull-out bed for Hope in the basement office to use when he had female company overnight. The next day the still very pleased vet lodged ten thousand pounds into his daughter's trust account, partly because she was so kind about his friendships with women but also because she had undertaken to do almost everything around the house, including his ironing and washing.

Soon Hope had befriended a number of her father's females, sometimes meeting them for coffee in the village. From the arrival of the first one she made it her duty to make them feel at home, and to relax. She began bringing the man home herself, so Cedric installed a wider and stronger pull-out bed for her. Hope's male friends tended to head down the driveway at dawn, preferring to avoid meeting 'the father'.

That first woman Cedric brought home was Mrs Bronkovic. Natasa Bronkovic was considerably younger than Cedric; the two women already knew each other from art group. Natasa appeared terrified at seeing Hope waiting to greet here like a hostess, or perhaps Natasa was visualizing the reception was just like coming face to face with the madam of an European brothel.

Hope invited Natasa to sit down and said how wonderful it was for her father to have women friends who were willing to share his interest. She left the room and returned with a trolley loaded with coffee, cakes and bottles of wine and a bottle of whisky. Natasa was profoundly impressed. Hope then announced she was off to bed, kissed her father and smiling warmly told Natasa that she was must have breakfast with them in the morning and that set the pattern for the entertainment of Cedric's ladies.

After that evening when Hope next saw Natasa there was no embarrassment between them. Now, with that comment of Mrs Holmes -- 'Ask someone to set up a winery and sell them the idea' -- Hope decided to visit Natasa. Natasa (spelt without an 'h') was intrigued why Hope would want to visit her so suggested she come right away. So armed with her subdivision plan Hope took the first steps of her first business venture.

Natasa was thrilled with the approach, and thought her three young sons who worked in different wineries would be interested to hear Hope's plan to bring them together and with the prospect of eventually working for themselves fulltime. She agreed to set up a family meeting but advised Hope to bring her father as men liked doing business with men, especially men like her sons with Dalmatian blood. But Hope remained firm, either they did business with her or she'd go to someone else. Natasa said she would talk sternly to her sons and ask them to behave like real men.

The talks were a success, with the sons agreeing to start up a wine pressing operation as soon as sufficient tonnage was available. Eighteen months after that meeting the business was operational, with the Bronkovic brothers taking out loans to buy all the plant and machinery for juice extraction while leasing both the land and building from Hope, with an agreement to progressively buy shares in Te Henui's subsidiary company, Te Henui Winery Ltd, until they owned the winery and its block of land outright.

Cedric had been delighted with the development of Hope's business acumen, advising when he could, and providing an interest-free loan to top up her trust money for site development and construction of the building. By this time all of Cedric's nine leased lots were in staged development, averaging 2300 vines per hectare.

Hope paused to warn Austin that hereon the history took significant turns. The decision to set up the first stage of a winery did not go unnoticed and Tremain Hausman, a pugnacious 'gentleman farmer' who spent more of his time at the tavern than on the farming estate inherited by his wife Catherine, approached Cedric, announcing he wanted to negotiate to take a shareholding in the fledging winery operation. His suggestion was to form a company and that Cedric and himself each take up a forty percent shareholding in the land and winery, with Catherine and Hope taking up ten percent each.

Catherine Hausman was now very wealthy, being the sole beneficiary of her parent's estate -- the former 29,000 acre farm of her father, Trevor Hopkins, having been cut up and mostly sold off prior to his death. Trevor had gifted 400 acres of valley land and northern slopes to his daughter, now managed by her husband, and some of that land appeared very suitable for grape growing. Catherine, whose ability as an artist had been discovered and encouraged by the Natasa Bronkovic, had taken a fine arts degree at university and now painted fulltime. With really no interest in the land she left the decision-making to Tremain.