Marriage at Murraree

by Margaret Way

  “I agree. But do you see yourself as a cattle baron?” Courtney asked, struck by a fantastic idea she was sure she’d better keep to herself. “It’s not an easy life though I’m absolutely certain you could master it.”

  “Nothing really worthwhile is easy, Courtney. We both know that. Out here it’s survival or go under. Today’s cattleman has to be an excellent business man. Even Curt turns to me from time to time for professional help. Come to that I have a few ideas we should all discuss about running Murraree better. Then there’s the matter of Casey. The wrong that was done to her has to be put right. I expect she’ll make her own life. She’s very gifted.”

  A kind of sadness flooded her. “Casey is gifted— I’m sure Paddy’s entrepreneur friend could make her a big star, but I don’t want her to go away. Neither does Darcy. I’m pretty sure Troy Connellan doesn’t want her to go away, either, even if his sister can’t wait to see the back of her. Casey presents a threat to Leah and her father’s plans.”

  “Troy and Casey?” Adam asked with faint surprise in his voice.

  “Hadn’t you noticed?” She picked up a handful of sand, ran it through her fingers. “The air hums around them.”

  “I thought it fairly crackles around us,” he said dryly. “Then again I’ve been too busy watching you to watch them. But now that you mention it there is some understanding between the two of them but they’ve only just met.”

  “Whoever loved that loved not at first sight?” she asked, giving him a brief slanting look.

  “I think there’s a warning attached to that,” he reminded her. “Too rash, too unadvised, too sudden. Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be.”

  “You don’t think love lasts?” A real desire to know was in her voice.

  “I’m sure it does,” he affirmed. “True love never dies. The only trouble is not all that many people experience it when love is central to harmonious life. My mother thought she loved me. In the end she chose not to live without my father. They were inseparable from the time they met in their teens. Then again there was the horrible way my father died rescuing us from the fire. She couldn’t handle it. She knows what I would have done without my wise, loving grandparents. My mother had a breakdown from which she never really recovered.”

  Her heart sank. “Adam, I am so, so, sorry.” Ready tears sprang into her eyes. She was passionately in love with this complex man.

  Adam’s dark handsome face was intense, his eyes looking sightlessly straight ahead, full of the grief that years later hadn’t really relented. “I found her. She did what severely depressed women often do. She overdosed on her medication.”

  Courtney had suspected as much, still it came as a shock. “Is it possible she didn’t mean to, Adam?” she asked. “Maybe she thought she needed a larger amount to help her through a particularly bad time?”

  He forced himself to speak normally. “There was some doubt about it at the time. My grandmother always said it was an accident. She was convinced my mother wouldn’t have left me even knowing I’d be well looked after. I suffered, too, losing my father. He was my hero. A marvellous man. We were great friends.”

  “Did you never consider the accident theory yourself, Adam?” she asked, not only thinking it would lessen his pain, but chances were that was what really happened. “Living with so much grief your mother wouldn’t have been exactly clear in her mind. She shook out too many tablets and in a cloud of misery swallowed them down. Then she simply went to sleep undisturbed.”

  His voice was tight. “I have to confess I’ve mostly believed my mother wanted to be with my father. Not me.”

  “Does that fit?” She didn’t dare touch him. “Did your mother try hard to get home to you after she was hospitalised? I assume she was.”

  There was a fissure in the grimness of his expression rather like a ray of hope. “She did. She was very concerned about me as she always was. My father and I adored my mother. We would have done anything for her.”

  “Your father did. He saved her life. And yours. Maybe your grandmother was right, Adam. It really was an accident.”

  He sighed deeply. “We’ll never know. Even if I did know for sure, nothing can bring her back.”

  “But it might work for the good,” Courtney insisted. “It would influence your thinking. Soften your memories. After such a terrible tragedy your mother was in a very fragile state of mind. I’ve done a few funny things I normally wouldn’t do when I haven’t had my mind on what I was doing. I suppose we all have. If I were you, Adam, I’d trust your grandmother. You did say she was a wise person?”

  “She was.” His voice softened.

  “Do you think she would have lied to you even for the best of reasons?” Small wonder Adam had such difficulty with trust.

  “I don’t know,” he said wearily, at the same time stirred by hope. “My grandmother was as straight as a die. She shaped me.”

  “You could trust her,” Courtney suggested very gently. “It won’t cure your grief but you’ll be able to think about your mother in the old way. The loving, protective mother she was before tragedy struck. The efforts she made to regain control. I don’t think she would have deliberately chosen to leave her adored son.”

  There was silence for the space of a full minute. Then he turned to her. “The way you put it, how can I not believe you, or my grandmother? You’re wonderfully persuasive, lovely Courtney. The shadings in your gentle voice, the tender expression in your beautiful blue eyes. When I look into them, I can believe anything.”

  Was that irony? Whatever it was she reacted. “You worry me, Adam. You really do.” Those black eyes were intent but she couldn’t read them. She made a swift movement to stand up, but he pulled her back onto the sand, one enveloping arm beneath her as she lay.

  “No, don’t go.”

  She saw the desire in his eyes.

  “I want to kiss you. I want to make love to you. Oh, how I want that! I want to inhale you.” He dipped his face to hers, his mouth travelling across the satiny heated skin of her cheeks, his teeth nibbling on the small lobes of her ears. “You’re delicious. I could eat you.”

  “Oh, yes, you can eat me!” she fired, putting up her hands, trying to hold him off. “But you can’t trust me. That would require a huge quantum leap. Though really I understand, Adam. I do. You were terribly injured and you haven’t healed.”

  “So heal me,” he growled. “If anyone could, it’s you!”

  His mouth fell upon hers, so passionate an answering desire devoured her. She was fighting him, kissing him, fighting herself, while all the while he continued to rain kisses on her with sweet fierce abandon. His hand shifted to her breast, shaped it, taking its delicate weight. His fingers moved into the V-neck of her shirt, popped a button so he could stroke her creamy flesh.

  “You’re so beautiful!” His tone was harsh, yet velvety, powerfully seductive. Now his fingertips ran in under the fabric of her bra seeking her rosy erect nipple.

  Excitement hit. So violent, so white hot she almost took off like a sky-rocket.

  We’re all alone. No one will find us.

  She wanted him to cover her right there and then. The more time passed, the more he meant to her. The more she needed him. Her body needed him. Oh, how much! She might as well admit she was lost.

  His mouth found her breast and she abandoned herself to pure sensation. It radiated through her with the heat of golden sunshine. She could smell the flowering earth rise all around them like incense, breathe in the fresh green air. Passion was a fever, a sickness, but it was irresistible.

  She wanted to love Adam. She wanted him to love her. He could kiss her forever, pull all her strings, melt her like chocolate, but that didn’t prove he loved her. Until he’d learned to trust her she didn’t know if he could.

  She was almost weeping with the effort of rolling away from him, out of his reach.

  “What’s wrong? What’s gone wrong?” he asked urgently, watching her sit up, re-hook her pretty f
limsy bra and pull the edges of her shirt together.

  “Nothing’s gone wrong, Adam,” she said, breathing fast. “Not yet!”

  He was breathing hard. Just like her. “You surely didn’t think I would force you?” There was anger and wounded pride in his dark eyes. “Can’t you see I would never hurt you?”

  “I need to make sure, Adam,” she said, standing up and tucking her shirt into her cream jodhpurs.

  “What the hell does that mean? For God’s sake, Courtney, is this a game?”

  “No games, Adam. Not at all. I want something from you you don’t seem able to give.”

  He stood up, towering over her. “Tell me,” he enunciated very carefully.

  “I’m trying to understand you, Adam. I’m trying very hard to understand how you think. You told me about the tragedy in your life. I know what it did to you. You had a girlfriend who probably broke your heart when she cheated on you—”

  “She didn’t,” he cut in, his voice hard.

  “But you cared about her, didn’t you? It must have been a fairly intense relationship for you both to live together?”

  “All right, I cared about her. But I never loved her. I’d never have let her go if I’d loved her.”

  “I don’t know about that, Adam,” she protested. “I think you’d never forgive any woman for betraying your trust. I know you’re in love with me. I can’t hide the fact it’s the same way with me. We want each other. But despite everything part of you thinks I could be a sweet talking con woman. A liar in other words. The quintessential blue eyed blonde who manipulates men. Soft as marshmallow on the outside, inside sharp as a tack.”

  “The fact is you are as sharp as a tack,” he said angrily. “You can get the better of me any day.”

  It was all a question of escape or succumb. “I’m ready to go home,” she announced jaggedly, the bitter taste of salty tears already in her throat “Now!” She threw out an arm as if she were in an over-powering rush.

  “Okay,” he replied through his teeth, making a decisive move back to the horses. “That’s the last time you’ll dismiss me with a wave of your hand.”

  How could two people who wanted each other desperately hold themselves so far apart? Lovers and enemies. The answer lay in the strains and pressures of the past.

  Paddy Nicholls lost no time setting up a meeting between Casey and his high flying pal, the entrepreneur Glenn Gardiner.

  “It’s a wonderful opportunity, Casey,” Darcy said after they were told the news. “Courtney and I are thrilled for you. He’ll want to hear you sing. What songs have you got in mind?”

  Casey began to list a few. Some country classics, others her own material.

  “I bet he’s going to love you,” Courtney said. “You have something that sets you right apart. What’s more your own songs are beautiful. What’s the matter, don’t you feel like going?” Strangely Casey didn’t appear to be overjoyed.

  Casey shook herself, trying to free herself from some emotional trap. “Of course I do,” she said, suddenly breaking into a smile. “It’s what I’ve wanted for years but I’ve been honing my skills. I guess I’m ready.”

  “You sure are!” Her sisters confirmed.

  “What about your wardrobe?” Courtney studied Casey’s tall lithe body, the long elegant build.

  “I guess I should look good.”

  “That won’t be hard,” Darcy smiled. “You have money at your disposal. Credit cards. That’s all been taken care of. I’d get there a couple of days early if I were you. Do some shopping. First off, we have to arrange a charter flight to connect up with your domestic flight….”

  It seemed like a roomful of people were waiting for her. The meeting place was a big name recording studio on the fringe of the city.

  Paddy Nicholls stood up, his charming face wreathed in a boyish smile.

  “Casey! Lovely to see you!” He came towards her, holding out arms wide enough for a group hug. If that weren’t enough next she was kissed Euro style.

  It was all because she looked terrific! Paddy was delighted she had lived up to his glowing spiel. Casey McGuire-McIvor was an agent’s dream. And the outfit was right on without going over the top. Turquoise silk shirt with a satin trim. Turquoise silk-satin jacket with the long sleeves pushed up. Beautifully cut toning pants she wore to perfection. Her make-up was perfect. Her hair a glorious red-gold mane. She’d done him proud!

  A good-looking mature man Casey recognised as Glenn Gardiner joined them, his hand stuck out in a greeting.

  “Glenn Gardiner, Casey. Good to meet you.”

  “Good to meet you, Mr Gardiner.” She sounded poised, confident when in reality she was nervous.

  “Glenn, please,” he said affably. When she’d seen him on television she’d thought he sounded like a really nice person. Not cocky or full of himself at all. Nothing flashy. He was well dressed, prosperous-looking, pleasant.

  “Let’s just say you’re even more stunning than Paddy told us.” He turned, extending a hand towards the several people in the room. “Let me introduce you to these people. They’re in the business. Jake, Ben and Matt are top musicians. They can back you or you can back yourself. Either way we’re looking forward to hearing what you can do.”

  In the end backed by the three top flight musicians she gave a bravura performance. It must have been because it put a big smile on everyone’s faces. And these were people who would only tell you you were good when you were great!

  “I tell you what, Casey, you’re amazing!” Matt, the lanky guy with the shoulder length hair and the little goatee told her. “How come I’ve never heard of you?”

  “It takes a little time, Matt.”

  “Not any more,” Paddy was bouncing the soft pads of his fingers together as though he had already negotiated a piece of the action. “With Glenn to manage you, you’re on your way.”

  Glenn stayed another twenty minutes before he had to leave. The contract was discussed. Did she have a lawyer?

  Of course she did. Adam Maynard. Courtney was head over heels in love with him but she acted like she didn’t want it to get around.

  In the end Paddy drove her back to her hotel in the city. Five star. She hadn’t stopped spending money. “It’d be nice if we could have dinner?”

  What was wrong with her all of a sudden? Couldn’t she say yes. Paddy really was charming and he had gone out of his way to help her. It’s not as though they intended to jump into bed together afterwards. Well…probably he did but she didn’t.

  “That would have been lovely, Paddy,” she lied smoothly, “but I’ve made plans to catch up with an old friend.”

  “Another time.” Paddy smiled. “In any case we’ll be in touch.” Six-foot Casey was absolutely stunning but the one who had really captivated him was that adorable little package, Courtney. Being on the good side of Casey would automatically put him on the good side of her sister, half sister, whatever. All of them were heiresses. Paddy had vowed a few years back he’d marry one. His chances were better than most. He mixed with all the right people.

  The rest of the day Casey spent wandering around the city. She loved Sydney. No other city in Australia was like it, not simply because of its magnificent sparkling blue harbour; the Bridge that dominated the skyline, the unofficial symbol of the city all over the world; or the Opera House, a great architectural achievement with its white sails glistening in the glorious sunshine. Sydney was a powerhouse, its dynamism reflected in the mood of the people who knew they enjoyed a lifestyle hard to beat.

  It was an incredible feeling to have so much money at her disposal, not that it made her gloriously happy. She’d give it all back to have her mother with her. Had she been given a chance she would have been able to look after her mother but fate decreed otherwise.

  She was waiting for an elevator to arrive to take her up to her room when a voice hailed her.

  “Casey! How did it go?”

  Casey turned as Leah Connellan hurried up to her. “Hey, y
ou look great!” she said, her eyes darting all over Casey’s classy outfit like a wasp deciding where to land.

  “Thank you. You do, too,” Casey said, observing the pleasantries.

  “Paddy actually wanted me to be there, but I couldn’t get out of another appointment.”

  By the look of it, her hairdresser. Leah’s brunette bob was cut and styled to perfection.

  “It went very well,” Casey said, hoping against hope Leah wasn’t staying in the hotel. “I’ve thanked Paddy for making it possible.” And he asked me to dinner!

  “That’s great!” Leah renewed her smile, but somehow it looked false. “You could be the find of the decade. You’ve got what it takes to make the big time. Who knows you might even get the opportunity to make a name for yourself in the U.S.”

  Which should be far enough away.

  “Are you staying here, Leah?” Casey asked, already resigned.

  Leah nodded. “Dad and I. Dad’s here to buy me an apartment. I can’t think why he hasn’t done it before. I need a city pad.”

  The elevator arrived and they stepped in. “Any date set for signing a contract?” Leah asked, now studying Casey’s designer handbag.

  “The contract was discussed. I’ll have Adam Maynard look over it before I sign it,” Casey said.

  “You don’t exactly sound thrilled?” Leah stared in to the depths of Casey’s eyes, fishing for a reason.

  “I never sound thrilled, Leah, even when I am. But I was very pleased at the way things went. Ah, my floor coming up. You’re going to the penthouse?”

  “Yes.” Leah gave her a where-else? look.

  “Nice to see you.”