‘For accommodation,’ he told them. ‘Since you’d done such a fine job helping me with Cecil, and since he needs a lot of grooming at the show, I’d decided you needed to come with me. I’ve just booked hotel rooms for you and Erin, so all of us could come.’
Erin blinked. Had he?
He hadn’t. He’d only just thought of it, she decided as she watched his face, but it was a great idea. The boys faces dropped to their boots, and their look of incredulous disappointment was stunning.
‘You were going to take us?’ Henry whispered and Matt nodded.
‘Yep. But it’s no use now. We have a filthy bull.’
Charlotte’s jaw had dropped in disbelief. ‘You didn’t…’
‘Hush, Charlotte,’ Matt told her kindly. Bradley Moore, eh? Brad was a bachelor farmer living not five miles away. The man was horse mad, and had the brains of a peanut.
But he couldn’t think of that now.
‘I guess none of us can go, now,’ Matt said.
Silence. Erin was looking stunned, as well she might. She couldn’t think of a better punishment for the boys than this if she’d thought for a week. To miss out on something as brilliant as the Lassendale show…
She felt a stab of disappointment herself, and had to remind herself that he’d only made it up to punish the boys.
‘What if we catch him again?’ Henry asked. ‘We could wash him.’
Matt glanced at his watch. It was four-thirty already.
‘I have things to do,’ he said. ‘A lot if I’m to get to the show. I haven’t even started feeding yet.’
‘If he’s in the mud all by himself then we could catch him.’ William was right there with Henry, and their two active little minds were in overdrive. ‘If you gave us the rope…’
‘And we can wash him. We know how to.’
‘We helped the first time, and now we can do it ourselves.’
Erin compressed her lips, trying not to smile. Now what? Had Matt backed himself into a corner?
But no. He rose to the occasion with fortitude.
‘I don’t have the time to do it myself,’ he told them. ‘But if Erin’s willing to supervise and you’re willing to try-’
‘They’ll never do it,’ Charlotte snapped, but Matt simply raised his eyebrows and smiled.
‘They can try. I don’t want to miss out on showing Cecil unless I must. He’s a champion but I won’t get the highest stud fees for him unless he’s shown.’
‘Can we try?’ The twins were turning to Erin, their eyes a mixture of hope and despair. They knew they couldn’t do it without her help, and they needed her.
So what was new? Kids always needed Erin.
And she was a farmer’s daughter. Supervising the cleaning of one docile bull should be a piece of cake.
‘You really have booked us accommodation?’ she asked suspiciously. If she did let the boys go to this effort, Matt couldn’t let them down at the end of it.
‘I really have,’ Matt told her. His eyes met hers and held, and something intangible passed between them. Some assurance that wasn’t all about accommodation.
There was a moment’s pause.
Then…
‘What are we waiting for?’ Erin asked. ‘Come on, boys. Let’s go find us a bull.’
And four hours later, once again they had a fine looking bull. Cecil was brushed and groomed to within an inch of his life, and the three of them had never worked so hard to make him that way. He was some bull, Erin thought. To have put up with it all twice in one day…
He had, and the boys had worked themselves to the point of exhaustion to make him perfect. They’d stopped briefly for dinner-sandwiches eaten on the back step so they wouldn’t have to clean up-and then gone straight back to work until they’d finished. They gave Cecil the final brush-strokes right on eight, just as Matt strolled in for final inspection.
He’d kept far away from them all evening, knowing that was what was right, but it had cost him some resolution to do so. Charlotte had gone home an hour or more back, and it had been an almost superhuman struggle to stop his feet making their way to the shed.
Now though, it was all worthwhile as he entered to find three beaming faces, proudly displaying what they’d done.
And Cecil was practically beaming, too. He looked magnificent!
‘What do you think?’ Erin asked, and he heard the note of anxiety behind her words. She still thought that maybe he couldn’t keep his word. That he’d say the bull wasn’t good enough or there was a problem with accommodation.
But Matt was a man who was owed a few favours. As soon as Charlotte had gone he’d made some phone calls, and everything was set. Except Charlotte’s temper, he thought ruefully. She’d slammed off home in a vile mood, and he could see all sorts of problems looming ahead.
Erin had overstepped the mark with her threat, but then, he knew that Charlotte had been perfectly capable of slapping the boys, and he also knew how urgent it had been to stop her. She didn’t understand what he instinctively did-that a slap to kids who’d been kicked around in the past meant the undoing of all of Erin’s work.
So, in Matt’s eyes, Erin was forgiven. And who couldn’t forgive her now? She was wet and mud-stained and there was a soap bubble in her tangled curls that he just wanted to reach out and…
‘What do you think? she asked again, this time more urgently, and he practically had to slap himself to get his attention back where it was supposed to be.
Right. The bull. Cecil.
‘I think our Cecil’s never looked so good,’ he told them, and he included the boys in his broadest smile. ‘Well done, all of you.’
‘Does that mean we can come to the show?’ Henry demanded, and Matt nodded.
‘Of course. I promised, didn’t I?’
Yes, but they’d hardly believed him. William and Henry exchanged significant glances and Erin could tell Matt had gone up another notch in their estimation. Here was a grown-up who meant what he said, and there hadn’t been too many of them in their lives. In their eyes Matt was reaching hero proportions.
And in Erin’s?
Cecil was quietly munching from his feed-box, and Erin ran a hand down his glossy back, forcing herself to think of practicalities rather than thinking of Matt. It was hard, but necessary. Matt was engaged to Charlotte, she reminded herself bluntly and, even if he hadn’t been, he was way out of her league. Even if her errant heart was starting to think otherwise.
It was just the way he smiled, she thought, and the way he made her smile right back. His gentleness, and his intuitive knowledge of little boys…
Cut it out, she told herself harshly. There were still things that needed to be settled.
‘I’ll… I’ll pay for us for the hotel accommodation,’ she told him, but he shook his head.
‘Nope. The boys worked hard for this. This is their payment.’
‘But-’
He held up his hand. ‘No buts. Just say thank you kindly, and go to bed.’
She grinned at that. ‘Thank you kindly and go to bed,’ she said, and the twins giggled.
It was a great sound. She looked down at their exhausted but happy faces, and she could have kissed the man who’d made this happen.
She darn near did-but she remembered all too well what had happened last time she’d tried something like that.
Once was enough.
Any more might be a disaster.
So at nine the next morning she was in the car, following the truck which was towing Cecil.
They had to go separately. The truck didn’t fit five bodies and Erin’s car wasn’t strong enough to tow the trailer.
Charlotte’s BMW could have done it, but Matt had enough sense not to suggest it. Charlotte was angry enough already, and to have the twins sitting on her gorgeous leather upholstery would be unthinkable. She hadn’t suggested it herself, although he knew she didn’t like travelling in his truck.
This way, though, she had Matt to herself and Erin was f
orced back into her place.
Behind her betters.
Which Erin didn’t mind at all, she decided as she watched the trailer disappear around the first bend. They were moving fast. Let them go.
As the boys snoozed contentedly in the back, she turned the radio up and she sang along to schmaltzy songs at the top of her voice.
She was taking her boys to the Lassendale Show. They were happy, she was happy and not even Charlotte could spoil this one for her.
It was hard to say who was more impressed-Erin or the boys.
The show was an agricultural paradise. It lasted for two weeks. Matt had only come for the two days of Hereford judging and showing, but there were exhibitors there who’d camped the entire time.
As an exhibitor Matt had passes and he’d given one to Erin before he left. Therefore she parked her car easily enough, at the foot of the mountain that overlooked Lassendale, and then strolled with her two dumbstruck charges through the throng of people out to enjoy themselves.
Lassendale had started off a century before as a tiny country cattle show. Now, it was the biggest show in Australia, in the most gorgeous setting. The natural bush-land had hardly been disturbed. Apart from the show ring and the cattle pavilions, the displays and side-shows were set up under clusters of spreading gums. Crowded or not, the place retained its natural beauty, and the sound of the distant sea could be heard whispering beneath the hubbub of the crowd.
Erin looked around her and felt a frisson of excitement building. It was gorgeous!
‘We can afford to take our time,’ she told the boys. There were things here the boys would boggle at-amazing machinery, scary ghost rides and clowns where you poked ping pong balls into their mouths because ‘every player wins a prize’.
Matt and Charlotte would already be here with Cecil, but they wouldn’t need Erin or the twins. The judging was not for an hour. There were so many things to keep the boys entertained that she could take her time to find them.
But… ‘We need to see Cecil straight away.’ The boys were tugging her hands with urgency. ‘What if Matt needs us to help? He might not get him looking beautiful in time. What if he lay down in the straw and messed his coat? And we want to see the judging. Erin, hurry.’
Erin grinned. They felt totally responsible for the bull, and she could only hope he didn’t let them down when it came to judging time.
Not that it really mattered. If the judges didn’t think Cecil was magnificent then the boys would simply decree him an idiot and do their own judging. In their eyes, Cecil was simply the best.
As was Matt, and Erin didn’t take much persuading to turn her feet toward the cattle pavilion. Even if he was with Charlotte…
The boys were right. Cecil did look magnificent. Standing in his stall he seemed to have gained an aura of winner about him that hadn’t existed at home.
‘He’s a born champion,’ Matt told them as he stood back and admired his bull with pride. ‘See how he holds his head? He never does that at home. He knows there are people looking at him, and it’s all he can do not to preen.’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake…’ Charlotte had been jolted to bits in Matt’s truck, she’d been stuck here for an hour while Matt groomed his precious bull and she wanted to be off to see the horses. But she couldn’t go because Erin and the boys were coming, and some basic instinct told her she’d best stick around. But she didn’t need to be gracious about it. ‘The way you talk about him, you’d think he was intelligent!’
‘You’re saying my bull’s not intelligent?’ Matt teased her with his eyes but she didn’t smile back. She wasn’t in the mood for smiling.
‘I know he’s worth a fortune, but he’s a bull, Matt.’
‘Now you could put it much more diplomatically than that,’ Erin told her, while the boys petted and fondled Cecil as if he was a very large and dopey dog rather than a pedigree bull. ‘You could say you’re sure he’s almost as intelligent as his owner, and Matt would have to take it as a compliment.’ Then, as Charlotte paused to work that one out, she scooped the boys back from the bull. ‘Leave him be, boys. Matt has to take him through for judging now.’
‘We want to watch.’
‘It’ll take an hour or so before we know the outcome,’ Matt warned. ‘The judges look at everything.’
‘We’ll wait,’ Henry said firmly, and Matt and Erin exchanged looks. What harm could they get into? Matt’s raised eyebrows asked, and Erin’s imperceptible shake of her head told him she had the utmost faith in the boys to be on their best behaviour.
As they were.
No one was allowed near the cattle during judging. Only their owners stood by their side as the judges went over every inch of each beast.
Most family and friends took this time off to visit the fairgrounds-for something far more exciting than watching men watch cattle-but for all the interminable judging time the boys stood with bodies leaning over the fence that divided the public from the judging ring.
They were too far away to see what was happening, but it was as if they were willing Cecil to win, Erin thought as she watched their intent, silent faces. They watched and watched, as if part of themselves was being judged.
As indeed it was. They’d done the hard work. They’d paid their consequences, and when the blue ribbon was placed around Cecil’s neck it was as much as Erin could do not to burst into tears at the look on their faces.
William did. He buried his face into Erin’s breast and sobbed, while Henry just stood and stood, dumbstruck and silent.
‘Well done, us,’ Erin said in a voice that shook, gathering Henry into her as well as William. She found a tissue and mopped William’s soggy face. ‘Well done, all of us. And well done, Cecil.’
Then she looked up, and Matt was at the fence, leading Cecil away from the judges and beaming fit to bust. He’d seen them all. They’d been small figures in the distance, but he’d been so aware of them that the longing to win was no longer purely about what he could earn from his magnificent bull.
He knew how much the boys wanted this.
He’d wanted this ribbon for them-and for Erin.
He looked at her face, and he knew the trouble to get Cecil here-to get all of them here-had been worth it. She stood, her twins still tucked in beside her, and her eyes glowing with happiness. She was wearing Charlotte’s sensible clothes-jeans and a checked shirt-and her normally unruly hair had been tied back in a sensible ponytail. She wore no make-up, but her face was lit with joy, and he wanted to hug her so badly…
Instead, he contented himself with hugging the twins, grabbing them and swooping them over the fence, while Cecil looked on with placid bovine approval.
‘This calls for a celebration,’ he told them. He pushed a hand in his pocket and handed a note over to Erin. ‘Here you go, cola and chips, fairy floss and a ride on the tunnel of death, courtesy of me.’
‘Can we do that in reverse order?’ Erin said faintly, thinking this through. ‘Gee, Matt, thanks very much.’
‘There’s champagne for the grown-ups later,’ he told her, and his smile was so warm she almost melted.
He was only being kind, she told herself sternly. Cut it out, Erin. Stop imagining things!
‘We don’t want to celebrate by ourselves,’ Henry told him, casting a look for reassurance at his brother. ‘Can you come with us?’
‘I can’t leave Cecil.’ Matt’s voice was sure, and Erin nodded. The farmers didn’t leave their cattle. There were living facilities in the cattle pavilion. No one brought a bull as valuable as Cecil to a show and left him to the mercies of the general public. Even at the small shows around Bay Beach she’d learned that. No matter what they’d do tonight, Matt would be with his bull, sleeping on a camp stretcher beside him.
‘Tell you what,’ she told the twins. ‘Why don’t we go and buy a feast? A celebration feast. As much fairy floss, hot dogs, chips and fizzy drinks as we can find, and bring it back to share with Matt.’
Now it was Matt�
��s turn to say, ‘Gee, thanks,’ and Erin’s blue eyes danced.
‘It’ll be all our pleasure. Is there anything you’d like to add to our list?’
He thought about it. Fairy floss, huh. ‘A beer would do nicely.’ Before or after fairy floss? Good grief!
‘Coming right up,’ she sang, and they trooped away, leaving Matt and Cecil staring after them.
‘She’s quite a girl,’ he told Cecil, and Cecil pushed his great head against Matt’s chest, and nudged him sideways, as if reminding him of his duties.
He got the point. ‘You’re right. I have a woman. I’m an engaged man.’ Matt shook his head as if dispelling a dream. He looked down at his bull and he grinned. ‘Not like you. You can have thousands of them. In the human world we’re restricted to one, and a very suitable one she is, too.’
Charlotte had gone to inspect the horses, and he badly wanted her here now, to see Cecil’s ribbon and to share the moment.
Or maybe he didn’t.
Maybe it was enough that Erin had seen it and was coming back to celebrate.
‘Where are you going to sleep?’
It had turned into a party. The twins were working their way through mountains of junk food, Erin had had the forethought not to bring back one beer but a crate of two dozen, and half the cattle pavilion seemed to be crowded into Cecil’s stall.
Not Charlotte, though. She was off doing her own thing.
Which was how it should be, Matt thought doubtfully as Henry questioned his sleeping arrangements. That was why he’d decided she’d be a suitable wife. She’d lead her own life and he’d lead his…
But it was sort of nice being surrounded by kids-and by Erin.
‘Where are you sleeping?’ Henry’s small hand was in his, clutching him urgently as he repeated his question. ‘Erin says we’re staying in a hotel but you’re not.’
‘I’m staying here.’
‘Where?’
His eyes met Erin’s for a fleeting moment over Henry’s head. She was laughing at something one of the cattlemen had said, but he knew by the sudden stillness of her body that she’d heard what was being said, and was gently mocking him. See if you can stay uninvolved, her body language said, and for the life of him he couldn’t.
Adopted: Twins! Page 11
