by Margaret Way
He had built a lot of defensive strategies. She was making rubble of them.
Amber began to plait her hair. “I’m fine. Don’t worry. The day bed was quite comfortable. What are you going to do with Marc? I’d like to take a shower to wake myself up.”
“Go ahead.” God, if only there were no restraints! He’d give anything to join her. Soap his trembling hands. Run them over that beautiful woman’s body. Instead, he lay the sleeping baby on the canopied bed. “I’ll wait here with him. When you’re ready we can go downstairs.”
She gave him another one of those smiles that wrapped him like a cloud. With this woman he was going some place he had never been before.
“I’m sure he’ll be ready for a bottle by then.” Amber grabbed up a few clothes, making for the en-suite bathroom.
“Well, for cryin’ out loud!” Dee exclaimed when she caught sight of them. “This is borderin’ on a miracle.”
“And good morning to you too, Dee,” Cal said. “Any chance of breakfast?”
“Don’t I always get you breakfast?” She gave him an indulgent smile before glancing quickly at Amber, carrying the baby. “How are you, love?”
“Fine, Dee.” Amber returned the smile. “Our little man had a good night. As you can see, he’s awake now and I’m guessing he wants his bottle.”
“Breakfast and a bottle comin’ up!” Dee bustled away.
Breakfast over, the Cattle Baron was on his feet to go. “The vet will be flying in around eleven,” he informed Dee, throwing his linen napkin down on the table. “We’ll give him lunch, Dee, as usual.”
“No problem,” Dee said, busy stacking plates.
He turned quickly to Amber, who was giving the baby a bottle. Miracle of miracles, Marcus was feeding contentedly. How different was one human being from another? Cal marvelled. “When I’ve got a minute I’ll take you around to the stables and let you pick out a horse,” he told her. “I didn’t bring you here to—”
“Forget it,” she broke in, knowing he was embarrassed by his family situation. “I’m enjoying this. Maybe baby Marcus is getting over his problem. It does happen.”
Eliot came down not long after, anxious to give his nephew a hand. Cal was handling far more than could be asked of one man and he had been for some time. Eliot knew it and felt bad. “Fitz” Fitzgerald, the vet, was flying in to make a spot check of the herd. He and Fitz went back a long way. He wanted to be on hand. He and Fitz could make their tour while Cal got on with more pressing matters. The big muster was on before Christmas. Back-breaking, often dangerous work.
Janis didn’t appear until around ten and what a world of difference there was between husband and wife! Eliot MacFarlane couldn’t have been more courteous, courtly, Amber thought, but Janis freaked out when she saw who was sitting happily minding a wide awake, tranquil baby.
“Get up. Get out of here.” Janis zoomed in on the hapless Mina, waving her arms as one might wave at a wallaby that had invaded the home gardens.
“Miss Amber…Miss Amber…” Mina stood cross-legged, looking as if she was about to wet her pants with fright.
“Miss Amber is no one around here,” Janis exploded furiously. “Is that understood? Haven’t I told you never to go near the baby?”
“Yes, Missus.” Mina was now in floods of tears.
“Yet you’ve disobeyed me. I’ll see to it you lose your place in the house.”
Mina, deeply distressed and frightened, hit herself in the head with both hands.
Amber and Dee, a room away, heard the uproar. “Oh, my God, I’ll have to get in there,” Amber cried.
“My fault again.” Dee hung her head.
“Don’t be silly.” Amber rushed away, desperate to ease the situation. Janis had no hesitation in taking all the help that was offered while still reserving the right to abuse whomever she liked. Everyone wanted to help her. Didn’t she know that? Or was she too self-involved to care?
Mina looked as though she was about to break into a run. The lovely peace had been shattered. Marcus had passed from contentment to distress, his wails gathering strength.
“Is this your doing?” Janis swung on Amber, her cheeks red with rage. “Exactly who declared you in charge? How dare you override my orders?”
The articulate Amber swallowed the retort that came to mind. For the moment she had to placate this ill-tempered woman. “Mina, I’d like you to go into the kitchen,” she said to the shaking girl. “You’ve done nothing wrong. Dee will have a cup of tea for you.”
“May I ask if you’re crazy?” Janis stared at Amber as if she’d taken leave of her senses.
“You may ask certainly.” Amber recovered her equilibrium fast. She waited calmly for Mina to disappear.
“You come in here, a visitor, and defy me?” Janis was shuddering all over with outrage.
Amber kept her tone low. “Spare me, Mrs MacFarlane. Have you noticed your baby? Are you going to pick up your little son or shall I? Didn’t you see when you came in he was quite content. Now he’s screaming his head off. Look at him. Really look. He’s every bit as distressed as you are.”
Janis didn’t even glance down. “You interfering bitch,” she said with great venom. “Wait until I tell Cal about this.”
“Why tell Cal anything?” Amber gave the other woman a straight look. “You have your husband. Now, are you going to try to settle your little son? Please look at him. He’s yours. You brought him into the world.”
“And a sorry mistake that was.” Janis turned on her heel. “I’m going to find Cal.”
Poor deluded woman! “I don’t think you’ll get a good reception,” Amber warned. “You heard him last night. The household is at the end of its tether. Please make an effort to calm down, Mrs MacFarlane. I know it’s easier said than done, but please try. I’ll take Marcus, shall I?” Amber didn’t wait for a reply, though none appeared to be forthcoming. She settled the baby over her shoulder, patting his heaving little back, while he sicked up on her cotton shirt. Well, she could change it. “Wait here, will you, Mrs MacFarlane?” she begged. “I’ll take Marcus through to Dee. She’ll take care of him. I’m sure you don’t want his crying to continue.”
“And I’m supposed to be grateful to you?” Janis’s dark eyes flashed.
Definitely, Amber thought. “Mrs MacFarlane, I don’t need or expect gratitude but you might learn from me about calming a distressed baby. I’ll go now, but I’ll be back. Please stay. I want to help you, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“You think you could?” Janis gave a dry smile.
“I’d like to try.”
Although Amber fully expected to find the room empty, Janis MacFarlane was standing rigid, as though cemented in place.
“Why don’t we sit down?” Amber suggested as pleasantly as she could. This was one difficult woman. She wondered what a happy Janis would look like. Was there a happy Janis? She appeared to be highly strung by nature. Had pregnancy and giving birth exacerbated an underlying psychological problem? Eating might help. Thinking that, she said, “You haven’t had anything to eat. What would you like for breakfast? It won’t take me a minute to tell Dee.”
“Don’t bother. I’m not hungry.” Janis flopped into an armchair.
“You mightn’t feel hungry but it’s difficult to function without food. What about fruit juice and cereal or maybe scrambled eggs?”
“Do shut up,” Janis said rudely. “When I need your help I’ll ask for it. And I don’t need it. I pegged you for an opportunist the moment I laid eyes on you. What’s your connection to Cal?”
Amber wasn’t in the least surprised this particular question had surfaced. “None of your business, Mrs MacFarlane.”
“Are you sleeping together?” Janis’s dark eyes ran all over Amber’s body. She looked as though she would have liked to use a cattle prod instead.
“Again, none of your business. You might consider I was fully occupied looking after your baby son, though I didn’t catch a thank you. Why d
o you treat him as though he’s not yours? I know a little about post-natal depression. I have great sympathy for women who have to confront and deal with it. It would be extremely difficult to handle without help and support. Why did you send those two nannies away? Had you allowed them to help you, you might be feeling a whole lot better by now.”
‘That’s your half baked opinion, is it?” Janis mocked. “No one can fix me.” She said it as if it were the end of the world.
“What’s so unfixable?” Amber asked with real sympathy, though she could darn near taste the answer. “You have a child—a son, a priceless gift. You have a husband, a lovely man. Perhaps you’d be happier in your own home?”
Janis snorted. “Trying to get rid of me?”
Leave the coast free? Amber shook her head. “I just thought you might be finding the isolation tough going. A lot of women would. Especially one who has had a successful city career. I had the idea that you and Eliot intended living in Melbourne.”
“Here’s the problem,” Janis said savagely. “Eliot brought me back here.”
“Are you saying he reneged on his word?” Amber was shocked. Had Eliot deliberately put his wife into a situation she couldn’t handle?
“We had a very short courtship.” Janis presented a bitter face. “I never met Cal until the day of the wedding.”
Here it was. Cause and effect. Janis meets Cal. Janis is instantly infatuated with Cal. Husband and baby bear the brunt of wife and mother’s unrequited love.
Janis stood up abruptly, angry she might have given an insight into her real problem. “I’ve endured your company as long as I can, Ms Wyatt. You’re nothing more than an ambitious hustler, even if you are beautiful in a way I don’t admire. If you’re hoping to land Cal, you’d better think again. He and Brooke Rowlands have a long history. Brooke may have stuffed up but she’s looking for an opening to get back into his good graces. Very persistent lady is Brooke. Once she finds out you’re here, she’ll come calling. Mark my words.”
“Sorry, is that supposed to affect me?” Amber sat back, a model of calm outside, upset within. “It doesn’t. I understood from Cal that Ms Rowlands isn’t all that welcome.” How she was succeeding in maintaining a level tone, Amber didn’t know. She put it down to her training and withstanding the likes of Jack Matthews.
“That’s what he says!” Janis pronounced bitterly, as though no man on earth was to be trusted. “The last time she stayed—which wasn’t all that long ago—she managed to share his bed. There, shocked you, didn’t I?”
“You look more shocked than I do,” Amber pointed out quietly, even though the woman was right. She was shocked. “If I were you, Mrs MacFarlane, I’d start counting my blessings. The closest man in the world to you is your husband. Your most precious possession is your baby son. If you keep that in mind, you might start to feel better. By the way, unless you intend to take over the management of Marcus, you’ll allow me, Dee and young Mina, who is the gentlest little soul in the world, to give you a hand. I can see Cal’s opinion is important to you. You must realise Cal has had enough of your issues with the staff.”
“Oh, how splendid!” Janis clapped her hands. “A crusader for staff rights!”
“Unlike you,” Amber returned quietly.
Janis MacFarlane gave her a furious stare. “And you can go to hell, Ms Wyatt. I begin to see why your fiancé dropped you for the Erskine girl. This conversation is over. It bores me. I’m going to get a little air.” She headed towards the front door, mistress to servant.
“Doesn’t that leave us holding the baby?” Amber called ironically. The woman’s failure to assume responsibility was incomprehensible. Janis MacFarlane appeared to have written her baby off, as though he didn’t exist.
Now she swung back with such a strange smile that Amber’s heart sank. “You can have him if you want him,” she said.
Could there be anything worse than that?
Cal and Eliot came back at lunchtime with their regular vet, an amiable man with a mop of sandy hair that might at one stage have been ginger, the countless freckles his skin had thrown up for protection forming a pseudo tan. Pleasant though he was, he nevertheless managed to stir the cauldron by asking Janis, albeit very kindly, if she was getting on any better with her baby.
Janis let her face show her extreme resentment. “I’m beginning to think he should be taken into care until he settles,” she said as though she had just come up with the solution to her problems. “That’s if he ever does.”
“But of course he will, poor little fella!” Fitz Fitzgerald, grandfather of eight, protested, staring from Eliot to his young wife in astonishment. “Where is he now?”
“Ask Ms Wyatt,” Janis suggested tightly. “She seems to have taken over the running of the household.”
Beneath the starched white tablecloth Amber clamped her hand down hard on the Cattle Baron’s knee. She knew he was longing to intervene. But she could fight her own battles. She offered the vet a smile. “Marcus is coming along just fine. Mina is watching him at the moment. She’s good with children. She has little brothers and sisters.”
Janis’s cheeks flushed as she spluttered, “This is not my idea, Mr Fitzgerald. Next thing we know, Ms Wyatt will have the girl taking Marcus walkabout.”
“I think we’ll take it more gradually than that, Janis,” Cal said, feeling yet another uncontrollable wave of dislike for his uncle’s wife. Was there ever a time her manner with people wasn’t freezing? Oddly enough, he seemed to get the lion’s share of her better moments. “Mina is a sweet, respectful, responsible girl. You should be grateful to her for the help.”
“Grateful is the last thing I am,” Janis huffed.
Somehow they got through lunch, with Janis throwing Amber malevolent looks across the table. Obviously she had moved up to the top of Janis’s hit list. She had to keep telling herself that Janis had problems. But it seemed that at least some of her problems were by choice. Afterwards, Eliot took his wife by the elbow, moving her away with a polite, “Excuse us.” It looked very much like Janis was digging in her heels, refusing to go. Women had been strangled for less.
Amber found herself asking Cal quietly if Janis had found him earlier on.
He eyed her with nagging worry. “I know this sounds weird, but I swear Janis could find me anywhere!”
To him it obviously presented a great mystery. Amber moved closer in, to whisper low, “And why is that, do you suppose?”
“How the hell should I know?”
Later Fitz offered a comment. “Poor lady! It’s the PND then, is it?”
“I thought the condition was more civil than that.” Cal was so mortified by Janis’s behaviour that he skipped any excuses. He put his hand on the vet’s shoulder, deliberately changing the subject. “By the way, I forgot to ask you, Is Charlie Morrissey recovering okay?”
Fitz shook his head. “No, he’s still pretty crook.”
“Crook in the head as well.” Cal tapped his forehead. “That was a fool thing he did, trying to pick up a taipan by the tail.”
Fitz gave a snort of laughter. “Drunk at the time. Drink always fuels stupidity.” He turned to Amber, who was standing quietly. “I must say it’s been a great treat to meet you, Amber. I don’t need to tell you to watch that skin of yours in the sun.”
Amber had to ask herself, why hadn’t he?
“We’ll look after her, Fitz,” Cal assured him. “There’s a ton of sun block on tap. I tell you that every time I see you.”
“Too late, m’boy!”
“Wrong attitude, Fitzy,” Cal pointed out, half turning his shoulder. “Ah, here’s Eliot back again. You two can go off. I’ll meet you a little later on. I want to fix Amber up with a horse to ride. She tells me she’s good.”
“Which means she is.” Fitz gave Amber another warm, approving smile. This was a young lady who mightily impressed him. He had never known what to make of Eliot’s second wife. The first one had been an angel, gone to God. This one might ha
ve strayed from the other place. Even before the little fellow had arrived no one could have called Janis MacFarlane pleasant. It wasn’t a marriage that had been planned in heaven.
Almost immediately, Amber settled on her choice. She picked out a handsome coal-black gelding called Horatio, a seven-year-old ex-racehorse that had won handsomely for Cal’s grandfather, Clive Erskine, only to be told that the gelding was too strong for her. Too mercurial by temperament.
“You haven’t seen me ride yet,” she said, affronted. The big gelding stood some seventeen hands high, but she was convinced she could ride him.
“We’ll fix you up with something else.” He ignored her tone. “What about this one now?” They moved down the line of stalls. “Star Belle. Isn’t she beautiful? A bright chestnut almost the colour of your hair. Star Belle is another ex-racehorse. She’s a little bit skittish with a new rider, but if you can handle her she’ll settle down nicely.”
“Sure you can trust me to have a go?” she challenged dryly, showing the mare her hand.
“I’d like nothing better than to trust you, Amber.” He smiled, but the expression in his eyes was oceans deep.
“We’ve got issues, haven’t we? They pop up all the time.”
“It takes time to build back eroded confidence and trust.”
“Loss of trust is a fact of life, Cal.” She shrugged, still petting the responsive mare. “It’s hard at first, but I don’t think we really have an option but to reach out again. If we do everything in our power to avoid getting hurt, we’ll never get to know what real love means.”
“And you really loved him?” he mocked, when he was hurting with the desire to touch her. Pull her into his arms. Cover the beautiful creamy skin of her face with kisses, before settling ecstatically on her mouth—full, luscious, made to be kissed. If he had to describe his picture of the perfect woman it would be Amber Wyatt.
“I might ask, did you really love Brooke?” Amber countered, unnerved by the quality of his glance. It was like a mirror giving back her own desire. Stupid to allow a flash of jealousy for his ex-fiancée to mar it. But human enough, she supposed.
