The Bridesmaid's Wedding

by Margaret Way

  actually saving for herself. He went to the washroom, saw his own face in the mirror, weariness and worry apparent in his eyes and as he ran an explorative hand over his face felt his jaw with its golden stubble. He powerfully needed a bit of good news.

  He got it as he was coming back from putting a call through to Fee. David had answered the phone. David who was fast becoming a fixture in Fee’s life. Fee had

  been unable to sleep for hours, David told him. Finally she had dropped off in an armchair about six o’clock. As for himself, like Rafe, he had spent a long sleepless

  night. Stress was affecting them all.

  When the neurologist told. Rafe there was nothing in Ally’s tests to cause wony, he fully understood what gratitude was. A tremendous sense of relief spread through him, as though a great burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He marched right back to the phone and put through another call to Fee’s home. This time Fee answered in an uncharacteristically tiny voice that totally changed when Rafe gave her the good news.

  “Oh, thank you, God,” she cried, her resonant tones vibrating down the wires. “I’ve been so afraid. As a family we’ve been rocked by tragedy. You, too, Rafe, darling. I know Ally loves you.”

  Rafe put down the phone, shaking his head. Yes, Ally loved him. in her fashion. Neither of them would ever forget their shared childhood, or their beautiful, romantic

  bonding, but inevitably after Ally got her strength and confidence back she would retmn to her career and the proposed movie despite her claim she wouldn’t take up

  the opportunity. At least this time there. wouldn’t bet a Matt Harper on the scene. Even if that tiny curl of hair didn’t come from Harper’s body, he’d have a hard time keeping to his trumped-up story.

  “I want to go home,” Ally told him the minute he saw her. “I’m perfectly all right. I remember everything.”

  She did look a little better, eyes brighter, but nervy, obviously still traumatised.

  “That’s wonderful,” he said with relief, “but you’ll have to be patient, Ally, you’re here for a few days.”

  “I’m leaving this afternoon.” She was enunciating too clearly, moving her uninjured hand up and down on the coverlet. “I hope you can help me, Rafe. You’re my pal, my

  protector.”

  “That I am,” he agreed quietly, saddened and angry this had to happen to her. “But think about it, girl. Your doctors want to keep an eye on you. They’re the experts.

  Not you or me. It makes good sense to do what you’re told.”

  “I suppose, she said. “I’m just being stupid. Remember how was always getting into trouble when I was a child?” The expression in her eyes softened. “Ally the daredevil, always trying to be one of the boys.”

  “Yes, darling, I do.” Her sheer vulnerability and her physical weakness were bringing back all the old powerful urges to shield and protect her.

  “Thank you for still calling me darling.” She rested at trernbly hand over his.

  “That’s quite all right, kiddo.” He yielded to the impulse to lift her hand and kiss it.

  “You know I idolised you and Brod,” she said with sweet recall. “You were both big brothers to me then. The two of you so famous for your bushcraft, the,wonderful way you had with a horse. Fee used to call you The Twins though your colouring is like day and night. You the golden boy, Brod with his raven hair.”

  “You always trying to tag along.” He smiled as memories began tumbling over one another.

  “You mustn’t have wanted me all the time but neither of you ever got annoyed. I used to love your visits. I used to love going over to Opal.” Her eyes started to sparkle. “Your parents were so kind to us, the motherless Kinross kids. Your mother always made at point of kissing me good-night on our stay-overs, sending me home with some beautiful little gift. She was a lovely, lovely person. I think of her so often.”

  Rafe could feel an harsh throbbing. in his own chest.

  “She certainly loved you,” he told her, his tone suddenly clipped. “The little girl she never had.”

  Both of them were quiet for at time, then Ally said, “She really believed we were going to get married one day.”

  She hadn’t lived to see the break—up.

  “Ah, well, Ally, we blew it,” he said steadily, his gold-fleckedf eyes cool as a rock pool. “But I’m still in your corner when anything goes wrong.”

  She felt his withdrawal. Saw it in his eyes. “I recognise that Rafe, and I thank you for it.” Ally looked down thoughtfully at the cast on her forearm. “I was lucky, wasn’t I?”

  “Lord yes.” He raised at hand to his temple. “It makes me ill just thinking what could have happened. You’re so damned impetuous. Even as a child, you seemed to have no regard for life or limb.”

  “Excuse me,” she said with some affront. “It was you I was worried about. I thought he might have a weapon.”

  “No weapon,” Rafe responded tersely. “That will work in his favour. God knows what he came for. I didn’t think he meant to confront you. I think he wanted to discover what you and I are to each other.”

  Her badly bruised body still reacted. filled with glittering spirals of heat. “Well, he got a damned good idea. All that frantic kissing!”

  Though his heart twisted at the memory, he managed to speak lazily. “It’s not as though we plan to do it again.”

  “At least until I’m out of plaster.” Ally slumped back against the pillow. “Oh, that black sweatshirt.” She shuddered as it all swam back to her. “The look in his eyes. Like dog apologising for giving you a goodbite. What I wanted to do was give him a piece of my mind.”

  “He couldn’t help smiling, his iridescent eyes crinkling at the corners. “I told you, Ally Kinross, you’re a dangerous woman. By the way, I sent, a fax to the Cipriani in Venice. Brod and Rebecca weren’t there when l rang so I faxed the message to ring me or Fee. I explained a bit. Not much. I didn’t want to alarm them at that stage. Now, the Lord be praised, we’ll have better news when they ring in.”

  “I don’t want them to come home.” Ally spoke emphatically.

  “They might have other ideas.” Rafe knew how much Brod loved his sister, and Rebecca was pretty fond of her, too.

  “Not on their honeymoon,” Ally maintained. “I’m not going to ruin their lovely time together. I’ll convince them I’m quite all right.” r

  “Don’t get uptight.” Rafe soothed her. “I happen to agree, but you’ll need help when your go home. Janet, I’m sure, will stay on.”

  “You’ve spoken to her, of course.”

  He nodded. “She sends her love. Like the rest of us, she was terribly upset.”

  “Poor old Janet, she’s had too many upsets. It’s not the apartment I want to goback to Rafe I want to go home.”

  “To Kimbara?”

  She lifted her face to him and looked straight into his soul. “The place where I was born. The place I love with all my heart. The place my father kept me from.”

  Rafe winced with the memory of so much heartbreak.

  “He wasn’t much of a father, was he?”

  Ally sighed deeply. “He simply didn’t have the qualities that went with the job.” Of a sudden, her lovely voice became muffled. “Oh, Rafe,” she murmured. “I’m so afraid.”

  “Of what?” He leaned towards her. “It’s not your nature to be afraid.”

  Weak tears swelled in her eyes, tears dashed impatiently away. “I’m afraid Matt will talk himself out of this. He can be very convincing. God, he even convinced me he was my friend. I just couldn’t stand it if the was around. I’d rather quit the show.”

  His heart sank at the thought of her resuming her career, but of course she would. “So go home for a while, Ally,” he advised. “We’ll take care of you. It’s only natural for you to feel this Aanxiety, but hang in there. Even if the hair that was caught on the Sellotape is something else, a fibre of some kind, I know the police will break his story. Innocent people don’t r
un. They don’t act unlawfully. They don’t dress up in ridiculous cloaks. Of everything, that’s what gets to me. It’s so damned bizarre.”

  “Maybe he fancied himself as Batman.” Ally tried to joke. “But he’s ruined it all for me. I can understand, now how that presenter, Gillian Craig, got out of the business.”

  “Being harassed would make anyone extremely nervous. One crucial thing, though, he didn’t lay a hand on you. This is, in the hands of the police now, Ally.

  Concentrate on your future.” He spoke gently, trying to calm her. Athough his heart was heavy. “A very bright future if all the critics are to be believed. I’m sure you’ll get to make your movie yet.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  A FAMILIAR landmark was coming up. Manarulla, a vast naked rock of ever-changing colours that dominated the approach to Opal Downs’ southwestern border, Ally felt excitement beat inside her like wings. Like all the rocks of the inland, Manarulla put on a daily pageant of changing colours. From a distance it rose from the vast red plains in a blue sea of mirage that turned an astonishing violet before the atmospheric haze disappeared as they flew through it. Looking down she could see all the horizontal bandings of raw earth colours that signified Manarulla’s tremendous age.

  At the start of the good season, the endless plains were thickly vegetated with soaring river gums and ghost gums along the countless watercourses, the spreading billabongs and the chain of lagoons that dominated the Channel Country landscape, Even the arid mulga scrub showed off varying greens, the stunted branches, sculptural in their stark, outflung arms. While the pungent spinifex with its tall seed-bearing spears was so thick across the fiery earth from the air it resembled scorched fields of grain. These same mulga plains that ran one to the horizon within a few weeks of good rains turned into the greatest garden on earth, with an astonishing palette of colours. No one who had seen them could ever forget Nature’s fantasy.

  Beyond Opal, lay Kimbara. Home. The Kinross desert fortress lay further towards the great living. desert, with its rolling red dunes, salt lakes and shimmering gibber plains of polished quartz. She was thrilled to be back. Thrilled! So intense was her love for the land. As a child she had gloried in the daring deeds of her ancestors, the Outback’s legendary heroes. The Kinrosses and the Camerons had covered themselves with distinction, their families interconnected down through the generations. More important she was coming home to peace. Much as she grieved for what might have been, the fact her father no longer reigned over Kimbara gave her release. No more being hurt. No more baffling black moods to contend with. No deep regrets, no frustration for lack of understanding and communication. No futile craving for affection. Her father had been such a complicated. Her brother, Brod, was a man of a very different character, like their grandfather, Sir Andrew, Fee’s beloved Sir Andy. Brod loved her and wanted her. Her sister-in-law, Rebecca, Was blessed with a tender nature.

  Now they were in clear sight of Opal’s runway with its huge, silver hangars emblazoned with the station’s name on the roof. Three Cessnas were on the ground. A

  distance away was part of the helimuster fleet. Ally counted four in number, maybe the yellow tip of one positioned in one of the hangars.

  “How many helicopters has Grant got now?” she asked, full of admiration.

  “Six,” Rafe said with satisfaction. “My kid brother is a very shrewd businessman and he’s a great pilot. He has eight on the payroll now. Three other pilots, all experienced older men, a couple of top bush mechanics, maintenance men, office people. He’s doing very well. Better than we both anticipated.”

  “That’s the Cameron name. That counts for a lot.”

  “Sure, but Grant is young to have such big ideas. Young to run a company that’s getting bigger every day.”

  “He’s full of confidence. Like you.” Ally smiled. “I’m certain he’s going to be a big achiever.”

  Rafe nodded, a smile around his handsome mouth. “He has visions of starting up his own airline.”

  “Qantas eat your heart out!” Ally laughed. “What’s he going to do when he gets married?” She meant, where was he going to live? Was he going to continue

  to operate from Opal? Was he going to build his own home on the station? He was bound to find as suitable spot in five million acres.

  Rafe shook his head. “I’d like him to stay single for a while longer.”

  “Drat it, you can’t live his life for him, big brother.”

  “I’d like to give him a fighting chance at any rate.” Rafe turned his head to give her a quelling glance. “He needs time to work up the business.”

  “The right wife could help him.” Ally was enjoying teasing him.

  “The right wife, of course, is the lovely Francesca, your cousin.”

  “Might I remind you, Francesca is a country woman.”

  “Take another look down there, Ally,” he urged. “It’s beautiful, it’s savage, it’s immense. It’s unique. It’s empty except for a handful of people, the great herds and

  the native fauna. It has absolutely nothing in common with the tranquil green beauty of England with its constant rainfall. This is the sun-scorched land where it mightn’t rain for years. You love it. I love it. We were born to it. We’re part of the desert scene. Francesca is a beautiful young woman. Warm, friendly, intelligent, but an exclusive creature. I’d be very careful if you’re trying to promote a romance.”

  “Promote a romance indeed!” Ally chuffed “Grant has always been greatly taken with Francesca. The same goes for her.”

  “It’s not her kind of life, Ally,” Rafe. warned.

  “Might I remind you our ancestors hailed from the misty Isles. Now their bones have become part of the desert sand.”

  “God, Ally, you’re a matchmaker,” he groaned.

  “Maybe I am.”

  “Except you’re not set on marriage yourself.” A sardonic glance.

  “I could be.”

  “Is hubby going to stay at home while you’re off making movies?” he asked suavely.

  “I haven’t committed myself to anything, Rafe,” she frowned, realizing it was an uphill battle convincing him she spoke the truth.

  “You will.” He said it casually, like he didn’t care any more.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to land on Opal?” she asked a moment later.

  He shook head. “No, I’ll get you home. You’ll want to rest. You won’t want to start up again. You can come over to Opal anytime you like.”

  “Don’t think I won’t take you up on that,” she said.

  It was a magnificent clear and cloudless day. Rafe turned downwind in preparation for the descent. There was Kimbara homestead, a jewel of colonial architecture set down in the ruggedly majestic wilderness, the main compound surrounded by its outbuildings like a small town. Kimbara was a self-sufficient community with its overseer, stockmen, ringers, jackeroos, fencers, mechanics,cooks and gardeners. There was even a small school-house with a resident school teacher for the children of employees. Even during the hard times, Kimbara hadn’t

  suffered much in the way of cutbacks, thanks to the excellent management of the cattle chain and the family fortune.

  The sparkle off Barella Creek that meandered through the home gardens was almost blinding as was the glinting corrugated iron roof of the hangar with Kimbara Station painted in huge black letters picked out with cobalt blue.

  She felt ecstatic! Safer in the vast empty bush than she had ever felt in the nation’s largest city. Of course her experience with Matt Harper had coloured her perceptions and robbed her of some of her natural resilience. So, too,iher injuries which might curtail her normal station activities. Ally was ta fearless rider. She had grown up adoring the companionship of horses. Now she wondered how best to go about station life with her forearm in a cast. Driving, too. How well would she handle the jeep? She had no intention of sitting around twiddling her thumbs. The wild bush called with its solitude

  and wonder.

 
; Rafe turned sharply over the homestead, dipping his wing to signal to Ted Holland, Kimbara’s overseer, they had arrived, then they were coming into land, making a perfect touchdown despite the brisk cross-winds.

  Ted was waiting, with his wife, Cheryl, who had opened up the homestead and stocked the refrigerator in preparation for Ally’s arrival. In Brod’s absence Kimbara’s housekeeper was off visiting her sister in New Zealand, so Ally would have the homestead to herself. Something she wanted. Fee and David planned on

  arriving the following week. Fee had wanted to come at once but Ally had persuaded her she needed a little time on her own. She wanted to think in this other world of her childhood, in the freedom and immensity of the ancient land, without the city’s jarring discords. She needed to compose herself in mind and body.

  While Rafe stood in discussion with Kimbara’s overseer, Cheryl accompanied Ally into the house which smelt of flowers and furniture polish. Cheryl had placed a huge bowl of brilliantly coloured zinnias on the library table in the front hall and Ally stopped to stroke a scarlet petal. All the time she half expected her father to stride out; tall, muscular, strong, in his riding clothes, always slapping at his side with his riding whip, extraordinarily irnpressive. Alive. Ready to pick an argument on the slightest provocation.

  “Thank you, Cheryl. The flowers are a lovely touch,” she said, genuinely appreciative. “I’d do anything to make things nice for you, Ally. You know that. Brod took time off to send us a card.” Cheryl smiled, obviously happy about it. “fVenice looks wonderful. Another world. We were; so pleased to get it. They’re having a lovely time.”

  Ally nodded. “I had a hard job convincing them not to come home,” Ally told her wryly. “They were really shocked by what happened to me.”

  “You and Brod are so close. It must be really scary being in the public eye.” Cheryl, who rarely left Kimbara-station said in a kind of awestruck tone. “Rafe told Ted the young fellow who’s been harassing you has changed his tune.”