Young Anita Falls for Hudson

Chapter 1

Waiting for the 157,000-ton cruise ship, Luxury at Sea, to berth and the discharging of its almost 3800 passengers to begin, Hudson Lamont was also preparing to say goodbye to his fiancée, Sylvia King.

The previous night, after gentle sex in the spa bath in their stateroom, Hudson told Sylvia he'd sold his partnership in the Sydney law firm of Andrews, Gill, Lamont Partners three weeks before sailing.

"Omigod, why hadn't you told me you'd planned to do that before proceeding with that decision?"

"Because you'd been so looking forward to this cruise, Sylvia. I didn't want to spoil your expectations of fully enjoying what you'd been saying for months, that you were looking forward to our dream trip together."

The red-hair former beauty flared.

"How dare you offer that weak excuse. Other people would had known what you were doing, but you left me completely in the dark. You've let me down badly."

Hudson decided not to contest what she was saying.

Sylvia was winding her engagement ring around her finger angrily.

"You're hopeless, Hudson Bloody Lamont. What decided you to sell your money-making share in that prospering firm?"

"Ah, that's the other thing that I temporarily withheld from telling you the truth about at the time."

"Omigod, you tone sounds ominous, you bastard. Come on, out with it, are you to be criminally charged for legal malpractice?"

"What? Of course not. The reason why I decided to withdrew from the hectic life I've been living as Criminal Court defence lawyer was directly linked to me being rushed by ambulance recently to hospital where I stayed for a couple of nights."

"The medical team initially thought I'd had heart problems, but checked me out extensively without finding anything untoward apart from unusually high blood pressure. After I was questioned, the consensus was that my intense life-style and particularly the pressure of sustained overwork, had placed me on the verge of a breakdown."

"Omigod, then that means you are done, and will be a partial invalid."

"Rubbish, it means I've been advised to back off a bit, pursue an easier vocation and cut back on the booze a bit and to avoid wild parties or excessive exercising for at least six months."

"Ah, and that explains why we've only had sedate bouts of fucking during this voyage. Well, I'll spend this final night on this cruise in the spare room of our stateroom."

"Hudson you bastard, here was I suspicious that you must have found some chick to fuck while I was relaxing reading, swimming in the pool or going to lectures by experts on various topics."

"Yes, well sometimes the mind makes you believe what you brain wants you to believe. I may have kissed a babe or two in all our time of dating, but never have I cheated on you by having sex with anyone else since you and I began having sex."

"I'm really pissed off with you Hudson, and I'm too angry to decide what to do just now."

* * *

As Sylvia and Hudson continued to wait tensely for the announcement when passengers would be called for their turn to disembark, the butler they had for the entire cruise entered and informed them he'd be back in five minutes to lead them to the gangway.

When Paul left, Hudson asked, "Have you decided how to punish me?"

Sylvia looked triumphant.

"I'm leaving you. Here's the engagement ring you gave me."

Hudson immediately thought he'd talk her out of that extreme action but before he could open his mouth, she handed the ring and said, "I have no wish to taking the risk of being a nursemaid to you for the rest of my life."

"You wouldn't have to. I'm retiring from law, approaching 40, a wealthy man, with more assets than what we could cash up and reasonably spend in our life together."

"That's providing you manage to cash-up at face value and successive governments don't hit you with increased taxes. No, I'm not talking the risk, I'm grabbing my freedom back and my goal will be to find a bullet-proof man to marry, so to speak."

"You lack compassion."

"And you, Hudson, lack stamina currently. I'd call that a draw."

He decided not to argue than one. Instead he said, "When you get off the ship go directly to your parents' place. I'll get someone in tomorrow and we'll pack your stuff and have it delivered to you."

"Well, please yourself," she hissed. "Don't walk out of here with me."

That really convinced him not to offer her the ring to sell or keep in case she could only find a pauper to befriend, not that he would have said that last bit.

They sat in silence and when Paul the butler entered, Sylvia left with him, not even hissing goodbye when Hudson had said "Farewell, Sylvia and good luck."

Hudson relaxed, and wondered what hot food delivery should he order for dinner that night ashore.

On the cab ride home, he thought it was a great cruise apart from the unhappy ending. He then thought about calling some of his former girlfriends to find one interested in coming for dinner but told himself to forget it for the time being. He then decided to take a month off and go to recuperate on the farm where he was born to spend some time with his grandparents.

Two days later, he called his grandparents but the phone was answered by the farm manager they'd hire 18 months earlier before they retired to a nearby small town. Well, Hudson thought, he could still visit them and got their address.

* * *

Ten days after being unceremoniously dumped by his fiancée, Hudson Lamont arrived feeling very fit and well and took a flight to Adelaide and hired a rental SUV for two weeks. He drove to the fairly isolated town of Billing's Crossing, that straddled the banks of a river.

He'd phoned ahead from the airport and his grandparents were expecting him. He found Gramps was in a wheel-chair, looking jaded, but Grandma Olive was bright and greeted him warmly, saying, "Live family connection at last."

"What haven't my parents hopped over from New Zealand to see you for a while?"

"No, not since they relocated in the south-west of England almost six months ago."

"Oh yeah, they had told me they were thinking of returning there where mum was brought up but my parents and I have gone our own ways and really only come together at Christmas time."

"Yes, well it's the first time we've seen you for more than a year. What do you want?"

Hudson laughed and said, "You're still as confrontational that you have always been for as long as I can remember, Grandma Olive."

"We'll, we've long-accepted that you regard your kin as unnecessary attachments."

"It's either that, granddad or I've been committed to building a career in law so I could retire at 30, find a good woman, and we could raise two adorable children."

His grandma said that was a stupid plan, proven by the fact that he was now only two years from entering middle age at 40.

"Has yet another woman dumped you and you're come here for a bed to lick your wounds?"

"They tend to dump me for reasons I don't understand."

"You dumb-ass Hudson. You get as far as becoming engaged to them and they wait in vain for you to talk about a wedding date."

His grandfather Robbie said, "Have you set a new record for broken engagements yet, what is it, ten?"

"You're way out with that calculation granddad, it's only five."

Olive jumped in.

"Omigod, all the eligible females in Sydney must by now be categorising you as a monster who plucks virgins and then ignore them until their only resort is to leave you."

Hudson amused himself thinking what century was she thinking she was in assuming that Sydney was over-run by virgins aged 20-plus.

He went to bed that evening feeling over-full. Olive had heaped his plate, country style, and he'd left just under half of that but she sat with him making him finish to the point of almost having him lick the plate of the last streaks of gravy.

"Your mother told me your problem has been since leaving university has been you work every weekday until well into the night," Olive said. "It's not only that. You just don't eat sufficient food to sustain yourself. You badly need a wife to take care of you."

Hudson later switched off the bedside light smiling, thinking the last thing he needed was a wife who'd be much like his mother and grandmother. The wife that he wanted who perfectly matched his requirements and expectations hadn't been born yet, err probably not.

After breakfast two mornings later, his grandfather told him to go out and run his eye over the farm, where both his eldest son, Hudson's father, and Hudson had been born.

"Yeah, great idea."

"Yes, it will give you the chance to fill your lungs with fresh country air and feel the effects of good health coursing through your body."

Grandma believed in that crap and considered herself to be some sort of health guru as her grandmother had been.

* * *

At the summit of Thompson's Hill, Hudson stopped the SUV, got out, stretched and went forward and leaned against the front of the vehicle, taking long intakes of fresh air while thinking sometimes the things grandma said weren't rubbish.

Once upon a time the Lamont's from Scotland, three families of them, had owned the entire huge valley and also farmed the hills on both sides stretching back some miles. But taxes, droughts and untold farming disasters including plunging prices for grain and livestock and sending generations of kids to distant boarding schools when it became the custom, had resulted in hundreds of acres at a time being sold off to repay bank loans and re-grass drought afflicted land.

The Lamont's at the height of ultimate prosperity around 1910 farmed some 894,000 acres. Granddad was the last to sell down land when his son eldest child and only son Lachlan, Hudson's father, left to find a wife in Melbourne and never returned.

Today, the family was the only branch of the Lamont's left in the valley and the size of the farm was down to 82,317 acres or almost 130 square miles, comprising approximately one-fifth of the valley and some of the hills on either side of the valley floor.

Hudson was thinking back to his youth living on the farm when a female called to him, "Hey fuck-face, get your vehicle off the middle of the road so I can pass."

He hadn't heard her vehicle approach, with his mind back in the days of his youth.

Hudson hurried around to his vehicle's driver's door and looked at the skinny, baby-faced driver with her hair in a mess.

"Ma'am, I do apologize for being a road-hog. I'm just not used to drinking in scenes of beauty," he said, waving a hand expansively in the direction of the valley.

"Sorry mister. Obviously, by your educated voice you are not from around here. Who are you?"

"I'm visiting. I'm Hudson from the city."

She giggled and said, "Hi Hudson from the city, I'm Anita from around these parts. Enjoy."

He jumped into his vehicle and pulled it over. She accelerated around him in her ute (pick-up), stirring up a cloud of dust and waving a hand out the driver's window.

She's a lively young bitch, he thought and noted her speech wasn't what he'd term 'country uncouth' but she had a foul mouth. Calling him fuckface, indeed! At least his mother thought he had a nice face, but she hadn't seen him for almost two years.

Hudson drove up to the farmhouse that was larger than he remembered but looked badly maintained, probably having no maintenance at all in years.

A guy in his 50's stepped off the porch, both thumbs hooked to the belt of his decrepit jeans. and strolled, half-rolling, over to greet him.

"Hi, I'm Bill Williams, farm manager for the absentee owners. Your grandfather phoned and told me you were on your way here."

"Hi, I'm Hudson Lamont, down from Sydney for a bit."

"Welcome Hudson, come in and meet the missus who has hot scones and a cuppa ready for us."

They entered the rundown interior and going into the kitchen, Bill said, "My wife Mary-Jean nee Ashcroft who is excited about you coming here."

Hudson took a double-take and was convinced it was her and held out his arms and Mary-Jean rushed into them almost sobbing and they kissed.

"God you two have long memories," Bill said, chewing a scone without waiting for the guest was seated.

"Mary-Jean, you have hugged out visitor long-enough. Pour him coffee and for me too.".

"Hudson, before your arrival she reminded me she was a kitchen maid at the boarding school you were at in Adelaide. She was being roughly handled and stripped by four of the lads when you heard her screaming and raced in. In fury, you beat them off, knocking two of them cold. Then two nights later two of those guys attacked you with hockey sticks and beat the daylights out of you."

Hudson sighed and said, "They were expelled and I spent a week in hospital before returning to school with my head in bandaged, wearing a neck brace and on crutches with one leg in plaster."

"I was only just eighteen and it was rather ugly, on both occasions."

Mary-Jean said, "I attempted to date him but he said no, that I was too young. I bawled my eyes out. But I ended up rewarding my hero by introducing my 20-year-old sister to him one weekend. When I found they were to date at the first opportunity. I urged her to give him lots of kisses."

"Yeah," said Hudson. "I had reason to remember those two dates we had. Cathy got carried away on our first date and introduced me to sex and on the second date, my nervousness gone, we went at it in the park behind the Police Station until we rolled apart exhausted."

"Ah, for the energy of youth," Bill grunted. "I invite you to come and help me shift 128 head of 20-month bulls. I have a neighbour's temporary-hired kid coming over to help as my three farm hands are off for the weekend because one of them is getting married. If you lived on this farm in your youth, I guess you can ride a horse."

"Yeah, well I was riding until I left for university when I was 18."

"We'll take it easy. You ride the left flank and the kid will take the right flank."

"Bill, I's been 20 years since I've ridden a horse and..."

"Just do it. Remember when you fucked Mary-Jean's sister for the first time, have you ever forgotten how to fuck?"

"Now that you mention that, no."

"Well riding a horse is something similar. Throw a leg over the saddle and it all comes back to you"

Hudson thought bullshit.

Twenty minutes later, Hudson stood beside his horse that Bill said had been bred from quarter-horses imported from the US.

"They're magnificent on short period, high action stuff and can turn within their own length, but they tire quickly after expelling all that hi-octane energy and are next to useless on long cattle drives."

"Don't you truck cattle for long drives these days?"

"Yeah, I was just telling you like it is when just driving cattle about."

A dust-covered ute roared up to them at high speed but braked early to avoid coating the men in dust.

"This is the girl I was telling you about."

As she walked over, pushing her dust-covered sunglasses into her hair, Hudson said in surprise, "Hi, Anita."

"Hi, Hudson from the city," she said, showing lots of enamel.

Bill looked confused and said in awe, "You two know each other?"

"We met on the top of Thompson's Hill. He was eyeing the valley and I checked to ensure he was okay or just lost. We exchanged names and that was it."

"Well, how civil for you two. You are Anita Fleming and he's Hudson Lamont."

Anita said excitedly, "Are you Robbie and Olive's grandson?"

"Yeah."

"And have you come to claim your inheritance?"

"No, they don't look as if they're ready to jump a coffin just yet and anyway my father is next in line."

"Oh, I got that wrong."

Hudson, in his cross-examination style said, "Do you make a habit of getting things wrong?"

"Arsehole."

He said, faking a look of horror, "Oh my, you must excuse me. I'd taken you to be a lady?"

Anita looked rather taken aback.

"Omigod, nobody has even attempted to crown me with such a wholesome title."

Hudson said, "Well it's a bit like tuning a car motor, a small adjustment here, and a couple of twigs there and lo, you have it purring like a thorough-bred."

"You mean you could turn me into a lady."

He smiled at the gaping Bill and said, "Who knows, it could be worth trying."

Bill said, "This is becoming a bloody circus. Let's go, Anita canter ahead while we walk with Hudson from the city getting the feel of the saddle and Casey deciding whether or not he like his new rider. Go through the bulls and open the creek end north gate and let the mavericks lead the quieter ones out of the paddock."

That was completed without a hitch,

But as the riders were driving the restless herd across a 30-acre flat paddock soon to be shut to grow hay that would feed stock in the winter when grass growth was negligible, or perhaps sooner if more high summer temperatures than usual indicated the coming of a period of drought, a rambunctious steer left the herd at speed, heading back to where it had been driven from.

Aware that the runaway could induce others to follow, creating chaos, Hudson had already reacting instinctively and would learn he's really not forgotten to ride a horse.

While Bill and Anita were voicing obscenities, looking around at the fleeing maverick, Hudson had already jerked the bridle to the left, banged his heels with two mighty thumps into his mount's side, and had the gelding Casey into full gallop when covering just a few yards.

Hudson cut in alongside the thundering young bull and slammed the shoulder of the horse against the bull's shoulder, making the bull stagger and was pressured to turn a half circle. It admitted defeat and trotted back to the herd.

Hudson drove up to the other two riders feeling heroic.

Bill said, admiringly, "You've remembered to ride a horse while Anita said, "I have difficulty in believing what I've just seen; a middle-aged man riding just like he used to do when he was a carefree young adult."

"Up yours, Anita," panted Hudson and saw Anita's unexpected blush.

"I apologise for being overly personal about age."

"That's okay. I realise you've chosen to be a hard-nose bitch in your behaviour."

"Omigod," Bill said. "There she goes blushing again. It's the first time I've seen her blush in the three years she's been coming here to help me and the boys out. I think she has the hots for you, who I now regard is Hudson of the countryside."

"I think you're right," Hudson drawled.

Anita said hotly, "Don't talk so stupidly, you two."

The two guys grinned as the sight of her raging blush.

Bill said sternly, "Concentrate on the cattle Anita. Ride well out on the right flank clear of the cattle and open the far gate. That paddock is where they'll graze for the next three or perhaps four days."

She's only twenty-two, Hudson. She graduated from university with a degree in agri-business a month ago and is driving her parents mad by not deciding what to do next. Perhaps you could revert to Hudson from the city and try to give her some helpful advice/ What was your job in the city."

"I was a partner in a law firm and was a senior criminal defence counsel."

"Oh my god, one of the heavyweights in law."

"Yes, but please Bill, not a word to anyone about that. I don't want Anita being scared off. She's skittery enough already, but that's almost normal for a female of her age whereas guys of her age act if they're practising to appear stupid."

"But we adults have it all together, right?"

"That's true for some adults," Hudson grinned.

Chapter 2

A week later, seeing each other either in the farm manager's house or riding, Anita and Hudson were on more even and more friendly terms.

"Have you decided if you wish to have sex with me?"

"I have," he said lightly, not batting an eye.