From then on, although they never did dispense with his shirt, he tore off the rest of his clothes, she stepped out of her briefs and he picked her up so she could wrap her legs around him and, both almost frantic with desire, he took her there and then.
‘This union you belong to,’ he said later, when they were lying propped up by pillows on the bed and watching the moon, ‘they certainly send you out…fully prepared for all eventualities.’
She smiled dreamily. ‘On the contrary, it all comes down to one vital factor.’
‘Oh? What’s that?’ He stroked her hair and dropped a light kiss on the tip of her nose.
‘It’s the art of choosing a partner, then all you have to do is go with the flow.’
He laughed softly. ‘Thanks, but I think it would be fairer to say the effect we have on each other is rather spectacular.’
Rhiannon frowned faintly. ‘So?’
‘I was only hoping you would agree.’
She rolled onto her side so she could face him. She wore a brief turquoise satin nightgown with shoestring straps, he had on a pair of pyjama trousers.
The mosquito net was down and the only light coming into the room was from the lounge. She felt almost as if she was marooned on an island with him, insulated and isolated from the rest of the world.
‘Yes, I would agree,’ she said eventually.
‘So nothing’s going to change when we leave here.’
‘You mean—this isn’t some secret bower with magical properties? A time and place that can’t be replicated in the real world?’
He grimaced and slipped some strands of her hair through his fingers. ‘Something like that.’
‘I guess there has been a fantasy element to it, though, my tall, dark, dangerous pirate,’ she said.
‘We didn’t start out that way,’ he pointed out.
‘That seems like so long ago.’ She looked back through the weeks to the first time they’d slept together in his bedroom. ‘Why are you—why are we having this conversation, Lee? I thought—things were sorted between us.’
‘I just want them to stay sorted. We’re leaving tomorrow. I’m taking you out west for a tour of a couple of cattle stations before we go home. We know your father is doing well and your aunt is there for him anyway.’
‘Oh. Well, I can’t imagine a cattle station or two is going to change how I feel about you.’
‘Good. Ready for sleep?’
She nodded.
He got out of bed to switch the lamp off in the lounge then crawled back in under the net and took her in his arms.
‘Mmm,’ she murmured drowsily, ‘I love this too.’
‘Go to sleep,’ he said softly.
She did, but when she woke the next morning she was alone and for some reason it brought back their conversation of the previous evening and raised a little question mark in her mind.
Had there been an undertone she didn’t understand? Why did she have that unsolved something on the edge of her mind again?
Then it occurred to her that her resolve to preserve a part of her Lee Richardson couldn’t reach was virtually non-existent now…
She got up and wandered out onto the veranda. The rising sun was spreading a living pink on the water and the mountains on the other side of the estuary were hazy and dusky blue.
There was no one about save for a lone figure standing at the end of the jetty, the jetty they’d fished from—Lee. But he wasn’t fishing. He was standing with his hands shoved into the pockets of his shorts, staring straight ahead and obviously deep in thought.
Rhiannon caught her breath as the profound impression struck her that he’d gone away from her to some zone she knew nothing about…
But what really affected her was the stab of pain it brought her, and the realisation that came with it. In four days, hour by hour, Lee Richardson had come to mean more and more to her. Had she fallen hopelessly in love with him? she asked herself.
Even if not that, had she got to a stage where any barriers between them were going to hurt her?
Chapter 6
A week later her fears had subsided.
They’d travelled via a variety of transport from helicopters and light planes to dusty trucks over hundreds of miles of outback country.
They’d stayed at station homesteads, including the one Lee had grown up on, Jindalee. She’d participated, on horseback, in a cattle muster and shown an aptitude for it.
She’d camped out with Lee under the stars beside a billabong and loved every minute of it.
As well as all that, she gained new insights into the man she’d married. Dressed in a bush shirt, jeans and dusty boots with a ‘fair dinkum’ broad-brimmed cattleman’s felt hat, he was very much at home doing everything his employees did.
But under the easy familiarity that was the way of the outback, there was no mistaking who was the boss, no mistaking the keen mind that saw the big picture and held it all together.
There were also times, when she watched him on his horse, the reins in one hand, riding knees and heels, wheeling and wielding a stock whip, that did strange things to the pit of her stomach and made her ever more receptive to his lovemaking.
It was a strange sensation being married to a man you had almost a girlish crush on, she decided.
Everywhere they’d gone, they’d been greeted with enthusiasm. Apparently it was a source of satisfaction for all his employees that Lee Richardson had tied the knot at last, and not only that, but also to a girl who could ride like the wind. A girl who didn’t mind getting dusty and dirty, was a whiz in the kitchen and also scrubbed up rather dishily.
‘You’ve taken everyone by storm, Rhiannon,’ Lee said to her one afternoon.
‘Anyone would think you were born to this kind of life.’
‘Far from it.’ She grimaced.
They were out riding but just for pleasure. There was a particularly spectacular waterhole he’d said he wanted to show her—it was on Jindalee—one he’d swum in most of his life.
They wore their swimming things under their clothes and it was bakingly hot as they rode through the bush with its lovely colours of ochre soil, sage-green grass and an unlimited blue sky.
‘Here we are.’ He reined in and dismounted. She did the same.
‘Oh, wow!’ she breathed as she looked around.
The waterhole was in a bend of a sandy creek bed and surrounded by huge old ghost gums dispensing dappled shade and home to a flock of pink and white galahs that took to the air, squawking, then settled back again.
‘This is so beautiful! Race you into the water,’ she challenged.
They hit the pool at the same time and the spray rose into the air.
‘It’s cold,’ she carolled in surprise.
‘I know. Comes from an underground spring. See that old rope up there?’ He pointed to a branch that leaned across the creek.
‘Yes!’
‘That was my idea. We used to climb the tree and swing over and plunge into the pool from it.’
‘We?’
‘Matt and I and all the station kids—maybe they still do but it might be an idea to check it out, it looks a bit old and tatty.’
Rhiannon swam up to him. ‘I think it would be a very good idea. So you were a real daredevil even as a little boy?’
‘No more than most. What kind of a little girl were you?’
She considered. ‘A right handful so I’ve been told—and retold only recently, as it happens.’
He put his arms around her. ‘When?’
‘Uh—I think I’ll maintain a diplomatic silence on that one.’
‘Then—how’s this for diplomacy? I can believe it but you’re also such a gorgeous handful it’s hard to mind.’ And he moved his hands on her body.
‘I haven’t done anything to make you believe it,’ she protested, ‘but—that is nice.’
‘It could get a lot nicer,’ he murmured and took off her bikini top.
‘You make quite a habit of doing that,’ she remonst
rated but negated the effect by lying back across his arms and wrapping her legs around him.
‘So do you—of this.’
She sat up. ‘Mind? It is a rather favoured position of mine.’
‘Nope. I—’ But he stopped as a bellow split the air and they turned convulsively to see a mob of cattle on the far bank, eyeing them.
‘Holy cow!’ Rhiannon said, employing an irreverent but apt form of address. ‘I thought we were alone! That puts a different complexion on things.’
‘It does?’
‘Yes, definitely. Wouldn’t you agree?’
‘Yes,’ he said but he was shaking with laughter. Then he kissed her and presently they climbed out of the pool and dried themselves and Lee produced a Thermos, two metal cups and a container out of his saddlebag.
They got dressed and sat on their towels, drinking their tea, chatting idly and waving away the little bush flies. The cattle had drunk and dispersed.
‘Do you ever feel torn between this and city life, Lee?’ she asked. ‘Not that Southall is exactly city.’
‘Sometimes,’ he admitted. ‘But I always spend a couple of months a year up here.’
‘You know,’ she confided, ‘right from the beginning I got the feeling there was more to you than a board-room suit. How’s that for perspicacity or feminine intuition?’
‘What gave you that idea?’
‘I’m not sure. Anyway, it must have been a great place to grow up.’
‘It had a lot going for it. Funnily enough, bush kids often hanker for the big smoke but I guess I had the best of both worlds. Boarding-school on the Gold Coast then uni in Brisbane, and, of course, Southall. Where would you like our kids to grow up, Rhiannon?’
She was about to pop a bit of biscuit in her mouth but she froze, then put it down. ‘I haven’t thought about that.’
‘Is there any reason not to?’
She swallowed some tea. ‘No but we’ve only been married for a week or so.’
He stretched out his legs and lay back on his elbow. ‘Is there any hang-up to do with your miscarriage?’
She stared at him. ‘No. No physical impediment—it was just one of those pregnancies destined to terminate, so I was told.’
‘But it devastated you?’ he queried quietly.
‘It—did. It was hard to work out why, though, after being rejected by the—the father.’
‘Were you wildly in love with him?’
She said with an effort, ‘I thought so at the time. With the benefit of hindsight, the fact that everything was crashing down round my ears may have coloured things oddly for me.’ She looked away.
‘I’m sure it can happen.’
She sniffed and finished her biscuit. ‘Strangely, though, you know what was the most devastating? The fact that it was my baby I lost. It was—such a lonely feeling.’ She wiped a tear off her cheek.
Lee sat up abruptly and put his arms around her. He didn’t say anything but his warmth and bulk were wonderfully comforting.
She raised her head at last. ‘Anyway, that’s all in the past now.’
‘Yes.’ He brushed some strands of hair out of her eyes and looked deeply into them. ‘Have you any idea how much I admire you?’
Her lips parted.
‘Oh, yes,’ he said. ‘Listen, shall we go home tomorrow? I have a few commitments.’
There was a surprise waiting for them at Southall.
They got home after dark, to see lights on in the house. ‘Probably Matt and Mary come up for the weekend,’ Lee said as he opened the front door and dumped their bags in the hall. ‘Shouldn’t I carry you over the doorstep?’
‘Oh, I’ll step outside again,’ Rhiannon offered but they both paused at the sound of footsteps. It was neither Matt nor Mary, however, who walked into the hall; it was Andrea.
Andrea, with that provocative walk and her river of dark, glossy hair flowing down her back, wearing white hipster trousers and a tangerine silk shirt.
Lee said, ‘Andrea?’ with patent disbelief.
‘Why, Lee,’ she replied in her fascinatingly husky voice, ‘I was wondering when you’d come home. Rhiannon, congratulations! I think this calls for some champagne, don’t you?’
‘Thank you,’ Rhiannon heard herself say into the electric silence. She moved forward and offered her hand to the other girl.
Andrea Richardson hesitated then put her hand into Rhiannon’s as she swept Rhiannon from head to toe with a critical glance from her long-lashed great dark eyes.
Rhiannon didn’t flinch, although in contrast to Andrea she wasn’t exactly looking soignée in jeans, boots and a denim jacket.
But, while she hadn’t expected a warm response from Lee’s stepmother, she was somewhat taken aback by the sheer hostility that was beamed her way for an instant before Andrea veiled her eyes and murmured a cool, ‘Welcome to the family.’
‘As a matter of interest, what are you doing at Southall, Andrea?’ Lee queried, and Rhiannon could sense the tension in him.
Andrea smiled, a sleepy, tantalising little smile. ‘Have you forgotten about the memorial service I’m organising for your father, Lee?’
‘No, but I thought it was at least a month away.’
‘I’ve brought it forward—it’s in two weeks’ time so it makes sense for me to be here, since it’s to be held in the local church and then the reception here at Southall, don’t you agree? I was his wife whether you like it or not,’ she added
gently.
Rhiannon heard Lee’s swift intake of breath and something prompted her to intervene.
‘Andrea,’ she said serenely, ‘of course you’re welcome and I do hope you’ve made yourself comfortable. Just give us a moment or two to shake the dust out of our hair, will you? We are a bit travel-stained but then we’d love to share a toast with you. Come, darling,’ she added to Lee.
‘Well done,’ Lee said and took Rhiannon in his arms after he’d closed them into his wing.
She grimaced. ‘Maybe not so well done if you mean the “lady of the manor” pose I took. I get the feeling I’ve made an enemy for life.’
‘She wasn’t going to take kindly to whoever kept her out of Southall,’ he said, and rested his chin on the top of her head for a moment. ‘But in you she may just realise she’s met her match. Listen,’ he moved Rhiannon away so he could look into her eyes, ‘do you mind moving in here with me for the time being?’
Rhiannon blinked. ‘Not at all. Why?’
‘I took the opportunity to renovate the master suite while we were away…new bathroom et cetera. It’s not finished yet—and you can redecorate it to your heart’s content.’
‘Thanks.’ Her lips curved into a smile. ‘I’d like that, although I’m just as happy with a tent.’
He grinned and kissed her lightly. ‘I might hold you to that one day. Why don’t you have a shower before continuing your lady-of-the-manor role?’
But Rhiannon hesitated. ‘This is really difficult for you, isn’t it, Lee?’
He sobered. ‘Yes. I was…very fond of my father and, although I may have given off indications to the contrary, I do understand that she struck at what was a difficult time for him. So,’ he paused and frowned, ‘I didn’t want to break up the family but I don’t want her here.’
‘Why are you so sure she’s a gold-digger?’ Rhiannon asked with a frown of her own.
‘He would have been sixty this year, she’s thirty-two, Rhiannon,’ he said deliberately. ‘If that isn’t enough, she got him to marry her without either Matt or myself knowing what was happening or being able to preach caution. And afterwards, it was the last thing he was going to want to hear.’
Rhiannon sighed. ‘I guess that does damn her a bit but I might take another tack.’
He gazed at her narrowly. ‘Such as?’
Rhiannon shrugged. ‘I’ll just be friendly. We’ve got to get through this memorial service somehow, anyway.’
He continued to gaze at her intently. ‘I guess so. Just watch
yourself.’
Rhiannon blinked. ‘There’s nothing she can do to me,’ she said.
‘Yes, there is.’ He paused, a long, curiously tense pause, with the lines and angles of his face setting in stone. Then he drew a deep breath. ‘We were lovers before she married my father.’
Rhiannon’s lips parted soundlessly and the room seemed to whirl a little around her. She closed her eyes, but when she opened them experimentally everything was back in place, the lovely paintings on the walls, the chess set on the coffee-table…
But the last piece of the jigsaw, that unsolved something, had also fallen into place.
She should have realised from the moment she’d known what lengths Lee was prepared to go to, to keep his stepmother out of Southall, that the reason for it had to be this…
‘He had no idea,’ Lee continued in that same hard voice. ‘She lived in Sydney and it was a slightly long-distance affair. Matt didn’t know either. We broke it off when she found I wasn’t amenable to being manipulated—that I expected her to live my kind of life, cattle stations in other words, not the other way around.
You could say she paid me back handsomely. I went away to Argentina for two months, mostly cattle business. When I came back she’d married my father.
‘She then proceeded to demonstrate just how successful she was at twisting him round her little finger, even to the extent of getting him to move to France.’
‘Lee,’ Rhiannon whispered, ‘so she’s the reason you got turned off commitment?’ As if I don’t know now, she taunted herself.
He nodded.
‘You should have told me!’
‘I’m telling you now, Rhiannon. The only difference from what I told you before is that you can put a name and a face to it now.’
‘It’s not the only difference,’ she said urgently. ‘I assumed it was all over and done with. I had no idea I would be…paraded in front of an ex-lover in a…in a what’s-sauce-for-the-goose-is-sauce-for-the-gander scenario!’ She broke off frustratedly. ‘That doesn’t say it perfectly but you must know what I mean, a see if I care scenario.’
‘It’s nothing like that at all,’ he denied roughly.
‘It’s over and done with—do you honestly imagine I could cherish any form of finer feelings for a woman who did what she did?’
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