by Margaret Way
Sandra on the other hand made a good start on learning about the running of Moondai. As the weeks went by Daniel was able to spend more and more time with her though the amount of time was determined by his own heavy work schedule. She was grateful he was loosening up his routine in order to be able to show her the ropes. It had taken no time at all to discover his workload was considerable. He was on the job at sunup, not returning to the homestead until well after sunset. Consequently she never saw him at breakfast or lunch, meeting up maybe an hour before dinner when they retired to the office. There they read through piles of memos, invoices, letters and documents that Andy, the station accountant had arranged in batches for inspection and signature where necessary. Whatever decisions Daniel came to regarding the business side of running the station he explained the reasons for it, going into quite a bit of detail and not fobbing her off or treating her as if her opinion at this early stage had little value. He treated her like the intelligent person she was. She liked that about him. Her uncle invariably talked down to her. Sandra had never thought of herself as a businesswoman in the making, but she was finding learning about all these financial matters far more interesting than she ever supposed.
“Your grandfather has left you one of the finest cattle stations in the country and the fortune to keep it intact,” Daniel told her. “It’s important you understood how everything works. You have a good mind. Now’s a great opportunity to use it.”
To that end she and Daniel continued their learning sessions for a couple of hours after dinner. Even dinner had turned into a routine with some degree of normalcy. Her uncle solved the problem of Daniel’s presence at the table by addressing the odd civil remark to him but concentrating on his niece. Sandra who had no great knowledge of the desert flora but had always been filled with wonderment at the phenomenon of the vast desert gardens began to avail herself of her uncle’s extensive knowledge.
“Don’t start him off for God’s sake!” Berne had warned when she first started to show an interest.
“You’re incapable of appreciating the beauties of nature, Bernard,” his father responded, finding he was warming to his niece now that she had become an adult. Sandra had been a very precocious little girl as he recalled. Something both his father and brother had encouraged no doubt to counter Pamela’s single digit IQ.
But it was to Daniel Sandra always turned for advice and instruction. It was getting so she couldn’t hide her feelings. From herself at least. She prided herself she had the sense not to allow Daniel to see how important he was to her. That might have put him in a very awkward position. She knew she was more than half way in love with him—hell, madly in love with him—which might have been precisely what her grandfather had in mind. Just thinking about it all was interfering with her sleep and her thought processes. To counter her increasing need for him and his company she upped her businesslike manner. The last thing she wanted to do was put pressure on him. A girl had her pride. Daniel was there to give her protection, to be her friend and mentor, so that when his year was up she could step into his shoes albeit with the help of a professional station manager they would select together.
End of story or the start of a great adventure?
It was only when she lay in bed at night, thinking about him, she wondered if he were fooled by the briskness of her manner. She was so aware of him, every word he spoke, every inflection, the way he laughed, the way he walked, the gleaming glances he sent in her direction, every gesture he made. When their hands brushed, whilst passing documents to one another, little electric shocks zapped through her. There was such a buzz around him. No use pretending. She was in deep. It amazed and alarmed her, causing her to wonder if her own susceptibility had overtones of her mother? She had seen too much of vulnerable women. She had no intention of becoming one.
It took six weeks before they received a full report on the helicopter crash.
Daniel stood by the window in the study reading it, a frown of concentration between his brows.
“Well?” Sandra couldn’t stand the suspense.
He broke off to look at her. “Nothing much new.”
“Damn, are you sure?”
He shoved that errant lock of hair off his forehead. “Of course I’m sure. You can read it in a minute. It’s much the same as the preliminary report. Mechanical failure. There’s no blame laid, no criticism of the maintenance of the aircraft. In fact a little pat on the back for me for pilot skills.”
“Is that all they came up with?” Sandra felt angry and frustrated.
He sighed. “Don’t get upset. We survived. The failure of mechanical components is well documented, Sandra. Now we have the chopper back, I’ll have the hangar, attended by day and locked up at night. It’s never been done before.”
“So we drop the whole thing?” Sandra showed her dissatisfaction.
“Nothing else we can do.” Daniel shrugged in acceptance. Nevertheless he quietly went about putting new security measures in place.
It didn’t take long for a steady stream of visitors to start to call; station people and business people from Alice Springs who wanted to welcome Rigby Kingston’s granddaughter back home. Most were good-hearted, Outback people simply wanting to wish her well. A few busybodies came to size her up. Gossip was rife Moondai might very well come onto the market. The wheeler-dealers wanted to be there on the ground floor. Even would-be suitors came to call; some overconfident, dressed nattily, some afflicted by stammering shyness that was painful to behold. None of them fortune hunters exactly—they were all from established families—but young men looking for a suitable wife and future mother for their brood. Sandra’s enviable financial standing made her a prize candidate.
The consensus of opinion was made available by way of the grapevine. Alexandra Kingston would make some lucky bloke the perfect wife.
“The word’s gone out,” Daniel told her, a dry note in his voice. They were sitting atop a fence watching a mob of around thirty brumbies being drafted. For wild horses they had surprisingly well developed muscles and came in varied colours, bay, iron grey, black, big, medium, compact sized, some showing station blood. One liver chestnut beauty was trying its level best to bite a stockman on the shoulder.
“What word?” She turned on him so precipitously he had to grab her to prevent her falling.
“Why your beauty of course, Ms Kingston.” His eyes beneath the brim of his hat mocked her.
“And you’re the expert?” she asked tartly, to cover the strain of sitting next to him without being able to touch him. Every single day she was reacting more bodily to him. Lord help her she wanted him to crush her in his arms. Envelop her. A great thing had happened to her. She was head over heels in love. Then there was the other thing which might or might not have significance but she had to find out from him.
Among the visitors who wished to renew their acquaintance were station people called McAuliffe accompanied by their only daughter, Alanna. Sandra vaguely remembered Alanna, although Alanna was several years older, a vibrantly attractive brunette with a shapely figure and unusual coffee-coloured eyes.
Memories of that afternoon kept coming … After partaking of afternoon tea and complementing Meg on her cooking, Alanna stood up with an appealing, “Do you mind if I go off and find Daniel?”
Sandra had been shocked at her own reaction. She’d wanted to tell Alanna to back the hell off. She was jealous, when she had vowed never, never to become a jealous woman.
“I need him to confirm something,” Alanna explained. “Would you mind if I borrow the Jeep?” she asked prettily, casting her eyes over the Jeep that Sandra kept parked in the drive for her own use.
Again Sandra couldn’t for the life of her wring out a “Please do.”
“There’s a ball coming up.” Alanna looked back, big eyed. “Daniel has promised to be my partner. He’s just so much in demand, I’m thrilled out of my mind it’s going to be me.”
“Lana’s absolutely crazy about him,” Mrs.
McAuliffe piped up, just in case Sandra had missed the message. “Daniel’s enormously popular with the girls. There’s something about him that makes the knees buckle,” she gushed, turning quite pink cheeked herself.
“We’re kinda hoping something good might come of it,” Mr. McAuliffe tacked on, cracking his knuckles.
Over my dead body!
“Prickly little thing aren’t you,” Daniel interrupted her recollections, amused by her feisty expression. “It just so happens I like it. You must have known you were going to attract every last bachelor from eighteen to eighty in the Territory and beyond.”
“I’m relying on you to put it about I’m very bad-tempered,” she said shortly.
She had taken off her akubra and damp golden curls clung to her nape. Her hair had grown so quickly Daniel thought, resisting the powerful urge to fluff the gilded halo that had replace the short petalled look. No wonder the little kids at the hospital had mistaken her for an angel. But she was more spicy than sweet though she had her sweet moments. A man couldn’t ask for more he thought. But it wasn’t going to happen to him.
Forget it, Daniel.
The words dropped as dull as stones.
“Unfortunately temper doesn’t put a man off,” he said. “It’s the really nice girls who tend to get overlooked.”
“That certainly doesn’t apply to your friend Alanna,” Sandra retorted, sharper than she meant. Be careful. Be careful. Don’t give yourself away. “Now there’s a sexpot if ever I’ve seen one. Are you going to the ball with her?”
He laughed, an infinitely attractive sound to her ears. “Though tempted I had to turn her down.”
She turned her head to stare at him. He was worth staring at. He had a beautifully structured chin and jawline. She wanted to trace it with her hand. She was painfully aware of the excitement that was throbbing inside her, wishing and wishing she could pass her excitement on to him. “She told me you had promised. I’m surprised at you, Daniel. You shouldn’t break a promise.”
“As it happened, I didn’t.” He whistled at a hostile horse with a star-shaped white blaze on its forehead. The horse amazingly quietened, ears tipped forward. “Alanna thinks if she wants something badly enough she’ll get it.”
“And she wants you. Mamma and Poppa made that clear. You better remind her you’re working for me.”
“Yes, Ms Kingston.” He tipped a tanned finger, eyes sparkling. “Anyway what’s not to want?” he quipped.
“I suppose. You’re very likeable, Daniel,” she said kindly. “What are you going to do with your life? You’re so clever and capable.”
“You forgot popular.” His glance seemed to mock her. “Trying to get rid of me already?”
She wanted to say, you can stay forever but was worried about frightening him off. How could you stop yourself from giving your heart away? It just happened. “The truth is I’m coming to rely on you more and more, Daniel,” she said. “Do you suppose—I don’t want you to take this the wrong way—but do you suppose Grandad had some master plan in mind?”
Sunlight made a dazzle of his eyes. “For you and me?”
His tone was so highly sceptical she was stopped in her tracks. “Well we all know it wouldn’t work. I am resolved not to get married anyway. But I keep wondering why he arranged things the way he did. Berne stirred things up as he meant to. There’s got to be some logic to it. Grandad was nothing if not logical. Did he assume in throwing the two of us together some magic might happen? Or more likely did he think we’d see it in materialistic terms? What would undoubtedly advantage you would advantage me as you could successfully step straight into Grandad’s shoes. You’d maintain authority and style. You said yourself it made a kind of sense.”
His mouth twisted. “Where would I get style from, Sandra?” he asked as though he was burdened by some terrible legacy. “I have no family, not a lot of money but enough to get started somewhere on my own and I didn’t get to go to university, like you. But a good man made sure I got the benefit of a fair education. He would have let me continue but I was too determined to pay him back.”
“That was Harry Cunningham from the Channel Country?” she asked with care.
“You’ve done your homework. What else have you found out about me?” His tone was astonishingly clipped.
“Don’t get mad. It was Vince Taylor who told me,” she said, trying to sound casual when she’d really been pumping foreman Vince, for information. “Mr. Cunningham must have been a good man.”
“The best,” Daniel confirmed.
“Obviously. He trained you. As for style, as far as I’m concerned, style is innate. It’s knowing who you are, not who your dad was; what you are. You’ve got good blood in you, Daniel.”
“The hell I have!” It came out like a soft growl.
“Oh, you’ve got good blood all right,” she insisted. “You’d be at home anywhere.”
He gave her a smouldering glance. “Your family doesn’t seem to think so. I’d be lucky if your appalling snob of an uncle addresses two words to me over dinner.”
“I wouldn’t have a nervous breakdown about it,” she said dryly. “Uncle Lloyd is worried you’ll ask him something he doesn’t know. Think about it. Exactly what does he know about? He’s spent his whole life on Moondai but he couldn’t possibly run it. His towering achievement is becoming an amateur botanist.”
“Well that in itself is something,” Daniel said with unexpected approval, given Lloyd Kingston’s patronising manner with him. “I’m like you I’m finding the whole area fascinating. I’ve even taken to looking out for the exquisite little plants tucked away in the canyons. Botany is a legitimate career. Your uncle would have been a much happier man had he struck out for himself. The same goes for Berne.”
“It hasn’t occurred to you both of them are bone lazy?” Sandra said, marvelling that it was so.
“Now that you mention it, yes. Listen, much as I’m enjoying the break, I must go. I have to do some bull catching this afternoon with a couple of the men. The tallest and the fittest.”
“So they can lift the steel panels for the portable yards?”
“Right on.” He gave her a little nod of approval. “You might only have been ten when you left but you haven’t forgotten much. It’s great you’ve kept up your riding, too.” She was, in fact, a natural born horsewoman. He took great pleasure in watching her ride, knowing she loved horses as much as he did.
Daniel swung himself off the fence in one lithe movement, without thinking, holding up his arms for her.
Yes, yes! She craved those strong arms around her, those tanned hands holding her, his hard muscled chest against her cheek.
“Catch me!” she invited, joyous as a child. She threw out her own arms launching her feather light body at him.
But it wasn’t a child who landed in his arms. It was a woman who was growing more lovely, more sexually exciting by the day. Just holding her was dangerous. Her skin was perfection even in the strong sunlight. Her buttery curls swept up from her graceful neck. Her full tender lips were curved in a smile but it was her eyes that drew Daniel in. So deep and so sparkling a blue he wanted to drown in their lagoon-like depths.
A woman’s beauty and sexual allure was a powerful weapon to render a man helpless. A weapon he couldn’t risk putting into her hands. There was no way he could reverse their station in life. She was the Kingston heiress; he was the overseer. He had to hold tight to his pride though he realised had they been on their own and stockmen weren’t around, all it would have taken was to tighten his hold on her and lower his head.
Desire swept through Daniel’s body like a dark rushing river. He couldn’t step back from it. It was on him. All of his senses were astonishingly keen. Sight. Sound. Smell. Touch. They were far too close, their heads bent to one another, both of them seemingly fearing to speak. He could savour the fresh scent of her; feel the heat off her body. She was the very essence of femininity. He could almost taste her on his palate.
&nb
sp; For one long precious moment he allowed himself to be held in thrall. He couldn’t even think straight; just standing there, holding her, drenched in a yearning so powerful, so evocative of something just beyond his reach, it was causing him pain. He wondered with an unfamiliar surge of panic what more lay in store for him. What could happen from this point on? This was no fleeting attraction. It was something over which he was losing control. Yet getting her to fall in love with him wouldn’t be so difficult. He had enough experience to recognise that. He could see the little electric flame in her eyes. What burned her burned him.
Only it wasn’t right. This was far more than a momentary indiscretion; it was as good as forbidden. She was quite alone. Her family wasn’t much use to her. She relied on him; she trusted him. Sometimes she seemed so terrifyingly young and innocent. He couldn’t possibly hurt her or betray that innocence which he knew instinctively she retained for all that predatory stepfather who deserved to be pummelled into the ground.
Daniel made his decision. Falling in love was not only a powerful emotion, it could come as a body blow. One false move could spoil everything. They were friends. They could never be lovers. He stepped back abruptly, dropping his arms.
“I do believe you’ve put on six or seven kilos?” He rallied sufficiently to make a joke.
“I’ll be a butterball in no time,” she said, herself faring quite well in regaining her balance. As he turned away she called, “Do you think you could spare me a full hour tomorrow, Daniel?”
