And if he left tomorrow, that was all she’d have.
Remembering Finn.
She lay awake, staring at the ceiling, listening to the sound of the distant sea.
There were lies and lies.
Ramón’s lies. Finn’s lies.
Black, white and grey?
Black, white and rainbow.
She thought of Connie and Richard and the lies Finn had told them, and she thought, definitely rainbow.
But...what now? Finn owned a shipping line. She could hardly throw herself at him. Say she’d made a mistake.
Why not?
‘If I had the courage...’
She stared at her bedside clock. She’d been staring at it over and over, willing the night to disappear.
Four o’clock was hardly a time to ring Reception, asking to be put through to Finn’s room. They’d probably refuse. What right did she have to disturb him?
No right at all.
She lay and thought, and thought, and thought.
Five... Almost dawn. And, with that, a thought...
Low tide. She’d been watching the tides.
Dinosaurs... Footprints, only visible at low tide. The thought was suddenly front and centre.
What had Finn said? How could I die before I see them?
Or before I leave the country?
Maybe...
Thinking was doing her head in. What she needed was action. What she needed was to abandon her bed, slip on her shirt and shorts and head for the door.
She did.
Then she paused. Maud would sleep until breakfast but scaring Maud was not on the agenda. She’d done that once too often.
She left a note.
‘Off to look for rainbows,’ she wrote, and she thought Maud would know exactly what that meant. ‘Back by lunchtime, rainbows or not.’
And she thought: once I leave this note I can’t come back. Not without trying.
She went.
Outside, the night was warm and still. The moon was setting over the sea, and the first blush of dawn was tinging the horizon.
The tide was so far out that the beach was half a mile wide, a vast sweep of washed sand, with the sea colourless in the pre-dawn light.
At the end of the vast beach was a rocky outcrop. A lighthouse was set on a crag overlooking a reef where dinosaurs once roamed.
He wouldn’t be there.
It didn’t matter. She wanted to see the dinosaur footprints anyway.
Liar.
As much a liar as Finn?
Black, white or grey?
Black, white or rainbow.
* * *
He sat on the rocky outcrop as the tide receded and watched the first pale light filter over the horizon.
There was nothing, nothing, nothing, as far as the eye could see.
He shouldn’t be here. He should be back at the hotel, sleeping. He’d had to cancel his flight—Connie and Richard had been less than pleased that he’d intended to leave the day after they arrived and he’d agreed to stay on—but he knew as soon as they woke he’d be on call as tour guide.
He was their big brother.
Family.
The knowledge that they’d come half a world to reassure themselves that he was safe had touched him as he’d never been touched.
‘Heading off incognito, not telling us... You could have been nothing but scattered bones on that island and where would we have been then?’
He’d told them of the legal arrangements that ensured they were financially secure even if he’d died and they’d looked at him as if he was a sandwich short of a picnic.
‘We’re not talking about money.’
Family.
It had crept up on him when he’d least expected it. The feeling was unbelievable but, no matter how much they were to him, he wanted more.
He wanted one battered, brave slip of a girl who held his heart in the palm of her hand.
But she didn’t want it.
She couldn’t trust.
‘Hey. You’re sitting on my rock.’
He stilled. The whole world seemed to still.
One slip of a girl was clambering up the cliff behind him. Looking exasperated.
‘You’d think,’ Rachel said almost conversationally, ‘that if you go to the effort of waking up at five in the morning you should be able to search for dinosaur footprints without the place being overrun by tourists.’
‘Tourist,’ he said, and turned and smiled at her.
She smiled back. Just like that. She stood in the pale dawn light and smiled and smiled, and something lifted deep within him.
‘So it’s see dinosaur footprints and die,’ she said, sounding breathless. ‘Or...go back to the States.’
‘I’m not leaving today,’ he said. ‘Richard and Connie want to ride on camels.’
‘So you’ll watch them ride camels,’ she said cautiously. ‘Like you watched Maud and me.’
‘That’s right.’
‘It still seems...lonely.’
‘I’m used to lonely.’
‘I’m used to mistrust,’ she whispered. ‘People change.’
They looked at each other. They were twenty yards apart, and yet something passed between them, so deep, so real, that no words were needed to explain it.
No words could explain it.
‘Have you found the footprints?’ she asked at last, her eyes not leaving his, and he shook his head.
‘I was waiting for you.’
‘And if I hadn’t come?’
‘I’d still have waited. These prints have been here for a hundred and twenty million years. They can wait and I decided I’d wait, too, as long as it took.’
‘W...wow,’ she breathed. A hundred and twenty...You’d...you’d have missed breakfast. These...these footprints must be really something. You...you want to go find them?’
He rose and held out his hand. ‘Yes, I do,’ he said. ‘If you’ll come with me.’
And there was no hesitation. She stepped forward and put her hand in his, and they headed down to sea level, to the reef, to where they could see dinosaur footprints. And to whatever else lay in their future.
* * *
She became businesslike again. Rachel-the-Geologist. The prints were hard to find but Rachel seemed to know instinctively where to look. Once she found what looked to Finn to be shallow indentations in the rocks, she set about washing sand away, focusing only on what she was seeing.
He stood back and watched. And waited. This was Rachel’s call, he decided. He wouldn’t rush her.
Finally she stood up, wiped her sandy hands on the back of her shorts and surveyed the prints with satisfaction. Without the sand, they did look like prints. Big ones.
‘They’re from a decent-sized theropod,’ she told him. ‘I’m thinking he would have been about your height from ground to hip joint. No wonder he sank in the sandstone. These are amazing.’
They were amazing but, despite her businesslike speech, he had the feeling Rachel wasn’t totally zeroed in on the prints.
She was out of her comfort zone. Embarrassed?
He waited a bit longer while she examined them from all angles. While he examined her from all angles.
He could afford to wait. There was no plane to catch. Connie and Richard and Maud wouldn’t be impatient. In fact, Connie and Richard and Maud would be lining up behind him right now to say: give the lady time.
Rachel stared at the prints for as long as it took to get the courage to say what she wanted to say—and then she looked up at him.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said at last.
‘Sorry that the theropod died?’
‘Well, yes,’ she said
, and managed a smile. ‘You can’t help but wonder what happened to him. I bet he wasn’t shoved overboard by drug dealers.’
‘Eaten by crocs?’
‘There were crocs round even then, but this guy was seriously big.’
‘So we might assume he lived to a ripe old age. Which was what in dinosaur terms?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said and frowned. ‘How long is a good old age for a dinosaur? I need to look it up.’
‘But not today.’
‘No,’ she said and took a deep breath and met his gaze. ‘Today’s for saying sorry to you,’ she said softly. ‘I’m sorry I even suggested you’re like Ramón. You’re not the least bit like him.’
‘Isn’t Ramón good-looking?’
She glanced sharply at him. He smiled and she tried to smile back. The tension broke, just a bit.
‘He is,’ she admitted. ‘He...was.’
‘Well, then...’
‘Okay, you’re a little like Ramón,’ she conceded.
‘But I’m a lousy dancer.’
‘You’re also a lousy liar,’ she said. ‘You get caught out all the time.’
‘I do, don’t I,’ he said ruefully. ‘I’m sorry, too, Rachel. I messed this up from the beginning.’
‘You had good intentions.’
‘I’m full of them,’ he said bitterly. ‘They don’t seem to do me any good.’
‘I don’t know. The baddies are behind bars.’
‘There is that.’
‘And I got to be castaway on a desert island, which is a story I’ll be able to tell everyone in my nursing home.’
‘They’ll never believe you.’
‘Then I want you to be there for corroboration,’ she said. ‘In the next door rocking chair. Nodding and saying “Too True” and “Wasn’t She Brave?”’
‘And telling everyone how you can make a waddy.’
‘Should we tell the odd whopper about how delicious we can make roast lizard?’ She chuckled, and he reached for her hands and tugged her up close. Her chuckle died.
‘No more whoppers,’ he said, and it was a vow.
‘Black and white?’
‘Just white.’
‘Don’t promise,’ she said, suddenly urgent. ‘One day you might need to tell me a lie. One day it might be kinder. Like it was kinder to tell your siblings that their father had left them money. Like it was wiser to go on the ship under an assumed name. You need to hold it in reserve. Who knows? One day it might be the only way I can be persuaded to do something. Like if the fire’s licking my toes— “Jump, dear, it’s not very far.” I don’t want you remembering your promise and saying, “Jump, dear, it’s three storeys and you’re bound to go splat.”’
‘Remind me to buy a fire extinguisher,’ he said faintly. ‘Rachel, we seem to be talking long-term here. Staying in high-rise hotels. Graduating to rocking chairs. Is it possible...? Could it be at all possible that you’d consider marrying me?’
She stilled. The whole world stilled.
‘Finn...’
‘If it’s too soon, then say so,’ he said urgently. ‘Tell me to wait. Tell me you’ll think about it. Tell me anything you like, except don’t say no. A guy has to have some hope.’
‘Why...why would you want to marry me?’ She closed her eyes. ‘Finn, I’ve been married.’
‘You weren’t married to Ramón,’ he said, suddenly harsh. ‘That was the biggest lie of all. A marriage is about two people loving each other. Did that...’ He caught himself. ‘Could...he...’ he said the word like an expletive ‘...ever have loved you and treated you as he did? It’s not possible, my love. It was a sham. The only good thing about your sham marriage was it produced your daughter.’
‘You...you see that,’ she whispered.
‘My grandfather didn’t go after my dad with a gun,’ he told her softly, tugging her in close, ‘because his existence created me. So we’ll allow Ramón to continue to exist in the world, but we’ll set him aside as of no importance. And not to be factored into the question I’m asking now. Which is: will you marry me? And, as for truth...as for whether what I’m saying is another sham...Rachel, I’m asking you to take me on trust—but you can trust me. I fell in love with you when you were covered in red dust, staring up at ancient wombat paintings. I fell deeper in love when I swam with you when our lives depended on it. I fell totally in love with you when I lay with you in an inch deep-puddle and felt your heartbeat against mine. I love you and I can’t say truer than that. I just...love you.’
She’d pulled away a little. She was staring at a button on his shirt. It must be a really interesting button. She was staring at it as if her life depended on it.
‘But you need to think about it,’ he said softly. ‘I understand if you need time. I have obligations. Siblings. The odd ship or eight.’
‘I’ve met your siblings and one of your ships. They’re great.’
‘If Amy’s based in Darwin...I could possibly base myself here,’ he told her, holding her hands gently, trying hard not to pressure. ‘But it does depend a bit on Connie and Richard. They’re not as...solid as they seem. I might need to spend time in the States.’
And she looked up at that. A slow smile spread over her face. It was a smile he’d never seen before. It was a smile that made him...hope.
‘They need you and so do I,’ she said softly, but surely now, as if she’d finally accepted where her heart was leading her. ‘What was it you said? “Whither thou goest, I will go.” Finn, I’m a geologist. Rocks are everywhere. If I can’t teach where you are, then I’ll study.’ She managed a really shaky smile. ‘Mind, you’ll have to keep me in the manner to which I wish to become accustomed. Rock studiers don’t earn much income.’
‘So...’ His grip on her hands tightened. So much for no pressure. ‘You’d seriously consider...marrying me?’
She met his gaze full-on.
‘You’re an honourable scoundrel,’ she whispered. ‘Maud and I have decided that’s the best kind.’
‘I love you, Rachel.’
‘Then that makes it perfect,’ she said and she tugged him close. ‘Because, without a word of a lie, I love you, too. I love you, my gorgeous failed undercover agent. But no more subterfuge. Just love. Will that be enough, do you think?’
‘I think it will,’ he said unsteadily, and he folded her into his arms and held her, feeling her heartbeat against his, knowing he was being granted a gift without price. ‘I think it’ll be more than enough to keep us happy for the rest of our lives. Marry me, Rachel.’
‘Yes,’ she said because some things were black and white. Some things were grey, some things were rainbow but not this.
This was pure, pure white.
‘Yes,’ she said again. ‘Yes, my love, I’ll marry you, with all of my heart.’
* * *
Finn stood at the base of Uluru, waiting for his bride.
They were marrying at the magnificent rock that seemed the epicentre of the entire Australian continent. The setting was a waterhole where water slipped from the massive rock face and pooled and disappeared mysteriously underground.
He’d said; ‘Wherever you want in the world,’ and Rachel had chosen here. Here she’d scattered her grandmother’s ashes, and those of her tiny daughter. This place was her past.
Her past had held her. The ghosts of betrayal had almost destroyed her happiness, and she was facing them now, full-on. Together.
And not just with Finn, for she was surrounded. Amy was here, playing bridesmaid, saying, ‘It’s not fair. I’m the eldest: I should go first,’ but Amy’s wedding was timed for a week later, at the magnificent Thurston homestead. Guests for this wedding could stay on for the next. It was sort of a double wedding—only they’d decreed they needed two ceremonies, for one wouldn
’t do either credit.
Amy was holding one small dog, bedecked in rainbow ribbons. Buster, Rachel’s ancient fox terrier, had met and approved Finn by now. Finn had obviously been deemed yet another servant for one small dog, which was most satisfactory, from everyone’s point of view.
Hugo was standing in as father-of-the-bride. Best man was Matty, a beefy boat-builder from Maine, who’d arrived in Broome the day after Connie and Richard, equally concerned at the press reports on what his best friend was involved in. He was still concerned—but mostly with Connie. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes from her, and Maud’s matchmaking abilities were being given full credit.
Maud was matron of honour. Why wouldn’t she be? She beamed and beamed and beamed.
Connie had spent the last week furiously sewing. ‘What theme?’ she’d asked Rachel.
Rachel had simply said, ‘Rainbow.’
‘Excellent,’ Connie said, and rainbow it was.
She’d even have put the men in rainbow if they’d agreed.
They didn’t. They wore black dinner suits because, ‘I want this done properly,’ Finn had decreed. ‘I don’t want anyone saying I didn’t take this wedding seriously.’
‘Are you saying I shouldn’t have rainbow?’ Rachel had demanded and his smile had answered her all by itself.
‘Rainbow’s who you are,’ he said softly. ‘My Rachel of Rainbows.’
‘And you’re my honourable scoundrel. You should be in something out of Regency London. Pantaloons and top hat.’
‘Heaven forbid. Unless...’ He’d grown serious for a moment. ‘Unless you really want it.’
‘Really?’ she’d teased and he looked at her and shook his head.
‘I love you enough for almost anything,’ he’d said slowly.
And here she was. Here it was.
The time for his marriage.
Richard had his guitar. He was playing gently in the background—something wonderful.
He was skilled, but he could play anything he liked, Finn thought. As he stood beside the waterhole and waited for his bride, he thought anything would sound wonderful right now.
A Bride For The Maverick Millionaire (Journey Through The Outback #2) Page 16
