‘Of course,’ Baz replied, matching her seriousness, although a slightly arched eyebrow was a bit of a giveaway.

‘The main problem is the venue,’ Val said with a frown. ‘Where the hell are we going to put this club?’

‘Don’t give it another thought, Boss.’ Baz leaned back in his chair, hands behind head, the picture of confidence. ‘I’ve got the perfect place. Just five miles out of town. We’ll need a hundred quid up front and it’ll be ours for the taking.’

Baz had a plan.

CHAPTER NINE

‘There you go, mate.’ Baz slapped a wad of ten-pound notes down on the kitchen table. ‘A hundred quid up front, more than enough to get you and Vera and the kids settled down south. What do you say?’

Ned Parslow stared at the money sitting on the scarred old wooden table. He and his wife rarely saw this amount in cash. The payments for their produce usually came in the form of a cheque, a long-overdue cheque at that, and after being banked the sum was immediately paid out to their various debtors with cheques of their own.

Vera, seated beside her husband, grabbed the notes. ‘I’ll look after that, love,’ she said.

‘No, no, hang on a minute,’ Ned protested, but it didn’t stop his wife clutching the wad of money to her chest. Vera wasn’t about to give up easily.

‘What are these people who want to hire the place gonna do with the actual property?’ Ned asked Baz. ‘You say they want to rent the buildings, but what about the farm? I won’t have my place going to rack and ruin.’

‘No, no,’ Baz exclaimed, holding his right hand up in the air as if swearing an oath, ‘the farm will be well looked after. The tenant will retain your hired help, Johnno, and pay him his customary wage.’

‘Johnno can’t run the farm on his own,’ Ned said scathingly, ‘Young Johnno’s a moron. He can only take orders.’

‘The tenant is prepared to pay an overseer’s wage and also, if necessary, another worker,’ Baz said smoothly. This was something he hadn’t been prepared for, but upon quick consideration it was certainly worthwhile. It would be to his advantage to maintain the farm. ‘You’ll be receiving regular monthly rental payments, Ned,’ he said, flashing a winning smile to Vera in the knowledge that he already had her on side, ‘and by the time all this terrible threat of invasion is over, you’ll come home to a flourishing farm, I can promise you. What’s wrong with that?’

‘Nuthin’, Ned,’ Vera broke in with the voice of authority, ‘bloody nuthin’. We get the kids down to Brisbane right now, you hear me? Soon as we can, within the next couple of days. Let the Japs invade, let the yellow bastards do whatever they’re gonna do, but our kids’ll be safe.’