English Rose in the Outback

by Lucy Clark

  ‘But that’s where you’re wrong,’ Scotty said.

  ‘He’s right. I’ve managed to find a locum for you,’ Tori stated. ‘Her name is Harriette and she’s arriving tomorrow so you’ll have a one-day hand-over before you head off on your overseas adventure to bring our Daisy back home.’

  ‘What?’ Oscar dropped his hands from his face and stared at the smiling, nodding faces of his friends.

  ‘It’s true,’ Erica said.

  Glenys clapped her hands with excitement. ‘Daisy’s going to be so surprised to see you.’

  Oscar stared at the travel details as the reality of his situation slowly sank in. He was booked to go overseas. A locum would look after the town. He could go and see Daisy.

  The question was, would she want to see him?

  *

  The phone from the gatehouse buzzed and Daisy walked across the polished marble floors to answer it. She’d been back in England for four weeks and she couldn’t believe how oppressed she felt. Her time in Australia, in Meeraji Lake, seemed like a mirage, something she could see, could remember, but would never be able to touch again.

  Her mother, thank goodness, had woken from the coma the day after Daisy had arrived back in England and was now convalescing at home, under Daisy’s watchful eye. Daisy’s father was home but keeping his distance from the situation as best he could. Upon arriving home, Daisy had discovered her father had insisted upon installing his mistress permanently at the house, that he expected her mother to be civil to the mistress but keep up appearances that everything was perfect in the Forsythe-York household. It had been the last straw for Cecilia and she’d taken to the bottle as though it were her only hope.

  Daisy had thrown herself into doing everything she could for her mother, organising for a private nurse as well as handling the press when she’d needed to, and she’d done it all with the firm intention of not focusing on Oscar. She hadn’t allowed herself to think about him and how much she missed him because she knew, if she did, she’d end up in a state almost as bad as her mother’s. Oscar Price and the way he’d made her feel were in the past. She’d been used to disappointment her entire life so why should now be any different?

  She picked up the phone. ‘Yes, Gibson?’

  ‘Sorry to bother you, Lady Daisy, but there’s an Australian gentleman here who says he knows you. Says he’s a doctor, not a reporter. He’s becoming more and more agitated the longer I refuse to let him through. He demanded that I ring up to the main house to speak to you.’

  ‘Give me that phone,’ Daisy heard a familiar deep voice say and a moment later he spoke.

  ‘Daisy? Daisy, is that you?’

  ‘Oscar! What are you doing here?’

  ‘Not getting past your bulldog. Let me in.’

  The last three words were ground between clenched teeth and she had the sense that if she didn’t give Gibson the all clear to let Oscar come up to the main house, Oscar would probably find a way to jump the fence and trip every alarm in the place. Then the police would be called, not to mention Gibson and the rest of his security staff weighing in on the misdemeanour. In other words, a complete nightmare.

  ‘Daisy!’

  ‘All right. All right.’ A moment later, Gibson came back on the line and she told him to allow Oscar access. The moment she put the phone down, her entire body began to tingle with confusion, excitement and dread. If Oscar was here, then there would be no way she would be able to protect him, to shield him from the overbearing attitude of her family, to ensure her father didn’t spend hours interrogating him. Why had he come? What could he possibly hope to gain from—?

  The front doorbell rang and she quickly headed across the entry hall, calling to the butler that it was all right, she’d answer the door.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded as soon as she’d opened the large wooden door and stared at Oscar standing opposite her. She hadn’t meant to be so direct, so rude, but he’d caught her completely off guard and…and…how could a man look so amazing, so handsome, so…? Her brain shut down and she could think of nothing else except the way his mouth was enticing her to taste, to…to…

  And then, as though unable to restrain himself at all, Oscar stepped forward, dropped his bag and gathered her into his arms, pressing his mouth firmly to hers. Daisy wound her arms around his neck and kissed him back with abandon.

  Even though he was groggy from the exceedingly long flight, tired, angry and frustrated, all that disappeared in an instant. Daisy. His Daisy. She was all he needed and he could stand here kissing her forever.

  ‘Wait. Stop. No.’ Daisy wrenched herself free and took two huge steps back from him. ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked again. Her breathing was as erratic as his and he stepped closer, needing her.

  ‘I would have thought that was obvious.’ When he reached for her again, she held up both her hands and he stopped.

  ‘You can’t be here.’

  ‘Well, I am.’

  ‘Oscar!’

  ‘Daisy!’

  ‘Shh.’ She looked around them, knowing they were probably being observed, whether by the butler, who reported everything to her father, or one of the maids, who, although having signed non-disclosure agreements, wouldn’t be above making money off this story. Closing her eyes for a moment, Daisy reached out and grabbed his hand, dragging him through the high-ceilinged rooms, around a few twists and turns, heading further back into the estate home, which was most definitely a mansion.

  ‘Where are we—?’

  ‘Shh!’ She put a finger over her lips for emphasis, then opened a door and dragged him inside. He looked around the room, the walls covered with display cabinets containing pieces of patterned china and other ornaments.

  ‘Whoa.’ He quickly looked around the room as she let go of his hand and went to close the door. ‘I wouldn’t want to be the person responsible for dusting this room.’

  ‘Oscar. You shouldn’t have come.’

  ‘Then you should have returned my calls, responded to my emails.’

  ‘I thought it best to make a clean break.’

  ‘You thought wrong.’ He stepped forward and kissed her again, loving the way she responded to him, as though the time they’d spent apart had done nothing to decrease the attraction between them, but had intensified it instead. When they broke apart, she shook her head and walked over to sit in the only chair in the entire room.

  It was an old fashioned tête-à-tête seat, designed in the eighteen hundreds. He sat on one side and Daisy sat on the other. Their faces were incredibly close and he couldn’t help but breathe in her scent.

  ‘How’s your mother? Is she out of the coma? Improving?’ He hoped all the answers were in the affirmative because if things had gone tragically wrong…

  ‘Yes. She’s home now, upstairs in fact and starting to eat.’

  ‘She wasn’t eating?’

  ‘Not really.’ Daisy looked down at her hands, knowing that now he was here he would find out the truth. Even by reading the papers, if he hadn’t already, he’d discover what was going on. ‘My mother is…an alcoholic. My father has finally installed his mistress in the house and my mother tried to drown herself in drink.’

  ‘Oh, Daisy. Is that what you couldn’t tell me?’ He cupped her face and kissed her. ‘Did you think I wouldn’t understand?’

  She kissed him back but then slowly shook her head. ‘I ruined our family’s reputation once before. I couldn’t do it again.’

  ‘I don’t understand. How did you ruin the reputation of your family?’

  ‘In my final year of med school, I met a guy called Walter. We hit it off right away and we fell in love, or so I thought.’ She sighed and shook her head sadly.

  ‘He turned out to be someone different?’

  ‘In a way. He turned out to be someone who wasn’t past trying to make some money selling a story to the papers.’

  ‘Ah.’ It all made sense now. ‘You told him about your mother,’ he stated a
nd she nodded.

  ‘Walter and I had been together for five months, we’d planned to get married and he’d given me a toy ring from a vending machine as a makeshift engagement ring.’ She smiled at the memory. ‘I’d loved it because it wasn’t flash or an enormous diamond. It was…fun.’

  ‘Did you bring him home?’

  ‘To meet my father. Yes. He insisted on doing everything right. Asking my father’s permission to marry, meeting my mother, becoming best friends with my brother. He was eager to please.’

  ‘Did he know who your family was before you met?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ The smile slipped from her face and she shrugged. ‘Still to this day, I don’t know if he targeted me or not. My father said he must have because when Walter discovered my mother was a recovering alcoholic, he didn’t hesitate to try and sell the story to the highest bidder.’

  ‘What happened then?’

  ‘My father has spies everywhere. Especially at different newspapers. He got wind of the story and paid Walter off. Walter received more money than he could ever have hoped for and completely disappeared from my life.’

  ‘And your father blamed you for the entire thing? For “ruining the family”?’

  ‘Yes, but he also emotionally abused my mother for a long time after that. He said that if she hadn’t been drinking, Walter never would have had a story to sell. He calls her a disgrace. He berates her and criticises her at every opportunity.’ She was gritting her teeth again and he could quite clearly hear the disgust in her tone. ‘He kept everything out of the papers and still ensures that his PR team handle anything and everything to do with information about the family.’

  ‘So why wasn’t he able to stop it this time?’

  ‘Because he didn’t want to, because he wants my mother to be disgraced, to paint her as the reason he wants to divorce her and marry his mistress.’

  Oscar shook his head in disgust. He could see how upset Daisy was and he knew that no matter what happened between them, he needed to tell her the truth, to be completely honest with her.

  ‘I have to confess I did try to look you up online and, apart from some very flattering pictures of you dressed in your army uniform and one of you in a very flash ball gown when you were younger, there really isn’t that much about you I didn’t already know.’

  ‘You looked me up online?’

  Was that disgust or disbelief in her tone? ‘You weren’t giving me any information, Daisy. I wasn’t sure if your mother had passed away or whether you were still safe. I was beside myself with worry. I had to do something.’

  ‘I thought you’d be angry with me.’

  ‘I was. I still am. Very angry. Don’t you ever try and cut me out of your life like that again because I will find my way back into that inner sanctum you keep so tightly locked up.’

  ‘Giving me orders, Dr Price?’

  ‘No, Major Forsythe-York. Making you a promise.’ He leaned over and kissed her, wanting her to feel, rather than rely on his words, just how much he adored her. When they broke apart their breathing was ragged. ‘I’ve missed you so much,’ he whispered against her lips before kissing them once more. A moment later, she pulled back and looked at him. ‘Wait a second. How could you leave Meeraji Lake? Who’s looking after the patients?’

  ‘Tori found a locum. Her name is Harriette and she’s happy to stay there for at least the next twelve months.’

  ‘Oh? Well, that’s good news, for the town. I do miss everyone. Oh, how are Scotty and Tori? Back together, I hope.’

  He smiled and nodded. ‘They are. And now we’re back together because, crazy woman, I’m not letting you go, ever again.’

  ‘Wait. Wait. Are you saying that…you’re staying? Here? In England? With me?’

  He tightened his grip around her and dropped a kiss to her nose. ‘That’s what boyfriends do.’

  ‘Boyfriend?’ She giggled nervously at the word. ‘You’re my boyfriend?’

  ‘Yes.’ He grinned, loving her reaction.

  ‘Do I get a say in this?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘Got a problem with that, Your Ladyship?’

  ‘If I do, am I allowed to register a complaint?’

  ‘No.’

  Daisy smiled, then kissed him soundly on the lips. ‘You are amazing.’

  ‘I love you, Daisy. That’s the amazing thing. I never thought I’d feel this way again and this time, with you, everything is magnified. Where I thought I was happy before, I’m ecstatic now.’

  ‘Oscar, I—’

  ‘You don’t have to reply. I’m not trying to put you on the spot. I’m here for you, Daisy. I think you don’t really know what it’s like to be loved so I’m going to give you very clear examples of what that means.’

  ‘Like travelling halfway around the world to support me?’

  ‘Exactly. See, you’re a fast learner.’ He kissed her and she responded with such abandonment, as though she was trying to express the way he made her feel with actions because she wasn’t sure how else to show him.

  After a moment, he drew back, both of them breathless and filled with desire. ‘Perhaps this isn’t the best room in the house to have a reunion.’

  Daisy nodded, overcome with emotion. Her lower lip began to wobble. ‘Thank you. Thank you so much, Oscar. Thank you for coming, thank you for pushing through my stubbornness, thank you for…for…loving me.’ She started to choke back the tears but Oscar shook his head.

  ‘Let it out, Daisy. You’ve been carrying far too much on your shoulders. Together we’ll deal with this.’

  ‘How?’ She sobbed.

  ‘Well, why don’t we take your mother someplace else? Somewhere she likes. Perhaps your mother will finally be ready to leave him.’

  ‘I hope so. Will you come and talk to her with me? Help me to convince her? Is that sort of thing part of the boyfriend description?’ She pulled back and looked at him, hope in her eyes.

  He smiled warmly. ‘Of course it is.’

  Daisy thought for a moment, then nodded slowly. ‘She likes Spain.’

  ‘Then Spain it is. We’ll rent a place where the three of us can relax and talk and find some sort of peace.’

  More tears gathered in her eyes. ‘Is this what love is? Being kind? Thinking of others? Being supportive?’

  ‘And all of it completely unconditional.’

  ‘Oh, Oscar. If that’s true, then I love you. I love you so incredibly much that it feels as though my heart is going to break through my chest.’

  He brushed the loose tendrils of hair back from her face and kissed her lips. ‘Mine, too. I love you, my beautiful Daisy. You’ve brought so much sunshine to my life and I hope you continue to do so forever.’

  She nodded earnestly. ‘Yes. Yes, I will. It won’t be easy, Oscar. You know that, don’t you? My family is—’

  ‘Your family is me. And Tori and Scotty and Glenys and Erica,’ he added. ‘And all of the Meeraji Lake district.’

  ‘And my mother?’

  He nodded. ‘Let’s hope so.’

  Daisy smiled and kissed him. ‘I’m liking the sound of this love thing, this family thing…this you-and-me thing.’

  ‘Do you think “this you-and-me thing” might end with a wedding?’

  Daisy couldn’t help but laugh, a rich sound of pure happiness. ‘Oh, it had better because now that I’ve found you, Dr Price, there’s no way I’m ever letting you go.’

  ‘I like the sound of that, Dr Daisy.’

  Then he stood and gathered her to him once more, kissing her soundly, both of them more happy than they could ever have imagined.

  EPILOGUE

  DAISY AND OSCAR stood barefoot on the beach in Spain in the cool of the day, a small marquee erected over their heads. Scotty stood beside Oscar as his best man and Tori stood beside Daisy as her maid of honour. Daisy’s mother sat in a wheelchair on the other side of her daughter, the two of them holding hands.

  It was far more than
Daisy could ever have dreamed. For the past eight weeks, she had come to know her mother as she’d never thought possible. There had been no objection from her father or her brother when she’d told them she was taking her mother to Spain. In fact, her brother had seemed more relaxed at this news as it meant he would no longer be hounded by reporters.

  Thankfully, Cecilia had finally realised that the life she was living was no life at all and that she did deserve better. In Spain, her mother had relaxed more and, through Oscar’s coaxing and relaxed Aussie manner, had started to open up, just as Daisy had. The two women had talked and cried for past hurts and lost opportunities.

  ‘Oscar is an absolute delight,’ her mother had said just that morning. ‘At first I thought him rather rustic and uncouth but now I understand. I most definitely see the appeal and I could not be happier that it is him you are marrying.’

  ‘Thank you, Mother.’

  Her mother had become rather emotional then but, rather than shying away from her emotion, she embraced it and held Daisy’s hand in hers. ‘I’ve never said this before and it’s long past overdue but I’m so proud of you, Daisy. You have done things I did not have the courage to do. You have stood your ground, gone head to head with your father and shown him that you cannot be bullied. And now look at you. You are so beautiful. A bride, waiting to be united with her knight in shining armour.’

  Daisy had had a difficult time choking back the tears. ‘Oh, Mother. Thank you.’

  ‘And Oscar said that if I continue to improve, I’ll be able to return to Meeraji Lake with you.’ Cecilia said the town’s name slowly and carefully as though she’d been practising it. ‘After all, if I’m going to be a grandmama in the future—a real one, who plays with her grandchildren and feeds them lots of sugary stuff and buys them too many toys—then I need to get better.’