Darcy grabbed him and hauled him back. “Don’t you dare walk away,” he snarled, getting right up into Brandon’s face. “You are not leaving here until you tell me the truth. One day we were making plans for the station, and the next you were joining the military.”
The briefest flit of grief crossing Darcy’s face prevented Brandon from pushing him away and continuing back to the house. He’d never considered how his absence might have affected Darcy. He’d figured they were all better off without him.
Disgust filled Darcy’s expression. “Forget about it.” He let go.
Brandon watched him walk away and panic swept through him. He couldn’t let Darcy leave. He’d lost his parents because of his stubbornness, he didn’t want to lose the rest of his family. Though his voice was low, it carried. “I killed Charlie.”
Darcy stopped. Ever so slowly he turned, a frown on his face. “No, you didn’t. A stampede killed Charlie.”
“I was the one who convinced Dad to try the cattle,” he began. Before he could continue his list, Darcy shook his head and took a step back towards him.
“Webothconvinced Dad. We did the research and we approached him with our argument.”
Brandon paused. He’d forgotten that, but it hardly mattered. “I was in charge of setting up the pens at muster time, making sure they were secure.” So the cattle couldn’t knock them down if they leaned against them. When Darcy opened his mouth to argue again, Brandon held up a hand and admitted his most heinous crime. “I caused the stampede.”
Darcy flinched but came closer. “How?”
Revisiting that day was like reliving a nightmare. But his brother had a right to know, had a right to hate him for more than just leaving. “Charlie was going through a stage where he was trying to scare everyone, do you remember? He set up that fake spider to fall on your head as you walked into our bedroom.”
Darcy scowled. “I remember.”
“I figured he needed payback, so I bought a rubber snake and set it up outside the cattle yards. It was his job to encourage the cows into the yard with hay so I set a little trip wire up attached to the snake.” He’d been so proud of his trap. He’d watched a few YouTube videos and tested it the day before.
“Something else set it off,” Darcy guessed.
“Gertie.” Their old blue heeler. He hadn’t calculated her into the mix. “Charlie had dumped the hay inside the yard and then gone to close the gate behind the cattle. Gertie stopped for a drink at the leaking water pipe filling the trough and she tripped the wire. The snake actually flew over her head and landed in the yard with the cows and they stampeded.” He still remembered the horror. He’d been on his horse encouraging the final cows to enter and hadn’t seen the snake fly, but he’d heard the shrill bellow of the startled cow and watched as the entire herd turned almost as one and headed for the gate. The one Charlie was right next to.
The swell of the cows had been too much and the whole yard collapsed, the metal frame falling right on top of Charlie as the cows charged over him.
His gut convulsed and he placed a hand on his belly to calm it.
Darcy swore. “It was a freak accident, Bran. You didn’t know what the cows would do.”
“Dad’s one rule was never do anything to startle the animals. I was so focused on getting Charlie back somewhere he’d least expect it that I didn’t think of the consequences.”
His brother pressed his lips together. “We didn’t have a lot of experience with cattle.”
That wasn’t an excuse. “I still broke Dad’s rule.”
“Charlie broke the rules all the time.” The understanding in Darcy’s eyes almost did him in. “Did Dad find out what caused the stampede?”
Brandon still remembered every second of the following frantic minutes. The terror on Charlie’s face as he fell backwards near where Brandon rode, the utter helplessness of being unable to reach him as cow after cow charged over his younger brother. He’d had to stop his horse from panicking and joining the stampede and by the time the dust settled and he’d dismounted, his father was already by Charlie’s side. Together they’d lifted the fence from his battered and broken body. Darcy had ridden hell for leather for the house to call for an ambulance and his father had desperately tried to find a pulse. His scream of utter anguish when he couldn’t find one would haunt Brandon all his days.
Then his father had jumped to his feet searching for the cause of the stampede, looking for vengeance. And found the rubber snake.
Brandon nodded at Darcy. “Yeah, and he knew the snake was mine.”
“What did he do?”
Brandon rubbed his eyes. “He called me a stupid, stupid boy. Said I wasn’t fit to work the land. Then as you and Mum raced back in the ute he told me I was to never tell anyone what I’d done. He pocketed the snake and we never spoke of it again.”
Darcy swore again. “So you left.”
Brandon nodded. “Can’t you remember Mum’s screams when she saw Charlie? The devastation on her face. I couldn’t be around her knowing I caused her pain. Every time Dad looked at me I felt his judgement and every time one of you cried over Charlie it tore into me.”
“You should have told me,” Darcy said. “We were best friends.”
“I couldn’t have you look at me the same way Dad did. Better I have a clean break.” Somewhere in his mind he’d thought it would all be OK if he kept his distance.
