The Outback Engagement

by Margaret Way

  “For cryin’ out loud!” Curt tried hard to rein his temper in, but he was feeling extreme frustration. He put a steering hand on Darcy’s willowy back. “I’ll come with you. I’m getting too old for this, girl.”

  “Tell me that later!” She threw the challenge over her bare shoulder.

  It was an answer Curt liked.

  Courtney had disappeared.

  “She told me she had a headache,” Katherine Berenger told them when asked. “I find myself with a tiny one too. Such a lot of noise but everyone is enjoying themselves immensely. She’s probably popped back to the house for a few minutes.”

  Half way back to the homestead Curt pulled Darcy off the path and out of view.

  “For goodness sake, forget Courtney for a moment, kiss me.” He took her face in his hands.

  Darcy closed her eyes. For long moments she melted into him and he into her, their bodies galvanised wherever they touched.

  “I love you,” Darcy breathed on one long voluptuous sigh, arching her throat so he could kiss it. There was no resistance in her only exquisite sensation.

  He captured her mouth again, his arms suddenly crushing her.

  She didn’t complain. She wanted it to last forever. He could devour her if he liked.

  Long minutes passed before Darcy stumbled a few steps back.

  Curt caught at her arm to steady her. “You want to go after Courtney, right?” He was amazed at his own admirable self-control.

  “I think I should.”

  “One of the things I love about you,” he mocked.

  They expected to find Courtney in the house. They didn’t. She wasn’t downstairs and she wasn’t in her room.

  “No doubt about it, Courtney’s an exceptionally tidy girl,” Curt remarked, looking with approval around the bedroom where not a thing was out of place.

  “Where is she?” Darcy, who wasn’t the tidiest person in the world, moaned.

  “Obviously, my love, she’s gone back to dancing,” Curt said patiently. “Or Adam wants to make love to her. I could see it in his face. We all know I want to make love to you. I’m just comforting myself with the thought there’s plenty of time later.” He moved in closer and pulled her in to face him. “Courtney’s a big girl now.”

  “Of course she is, but it’s not like her to disappear. Maybe she’s run off?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Curt groaned and began nuzzling her ear and cheek. “It’s our golden opportunity to get away.”

  She rested against him, thinking the fact he loved her—had loved her for so long—was a miracle.

  “I’m absolutely ravenous for you,” he said, dropping an exploratory kiss on her mouth.

  Perfect! Her lips quivered beneath his. She wanted him to peel her beautiful dress off her. From the fine tremor in his body she knew he could barely stop himself from trying. Desire was starting to consume them. Like fire… They were moving, slowly, sensuously, finding their fit, her breasts to his chest, thighs locked, her long legs parted to accommodate one of his. Oh to be totally alone to make love all night!

  Courtney’s voice sounded so close it forced its way through their passion. Almost dazedly they broke apart.

  “I don’t want to discuss it. Why are you acting like this, Adam?”

  “Oh hell!” Curt moaned. “I’m going to get the two of us onto an island. This has nothing to do with us.”

  “Why don’t we find out?” Darcy whispered.

  Curt squeezed her fingers. “What are you whispering for? It’s a lover’s tiff surely?”

  “They’re not lovers,” Darcy said. “You’ve got it all wrong.”

  Curt’s mouth compressed. “Have I? One thing I’ve learned. Don’t argue with you, Darcy.”

  It was Courtney’s clear voice again, raised in temper. “It’s not true.” They could barely hear Adam’s reply.

  “We’ll have to go downstairs,” Darcy said, reaching out and banging a cupboard door presumably as a means of alerting them. “This is embarrassing.”

  “Imagine how I feel!” Curt groaned. “An interloper in my own home. Come on, while I’m still able to summon up my last remnant of patience.”

  Courtney and Adam were standing in the entrance hall. Adam raised a laconic hand as they walked down the grand divided staircase. “Hi!”

  Courtney was speechless, her blue eyes like Delft saucers in her young unhappy face.

  Darcy hurried down to her. “Kath said you had a headache. We came to find you. Are you okay?” She touched her sister’s arm lightly.

  “No I’m not.” Now that Darcy was there, Courtney relaxed very slightly. “I never met a worse trouble maker than Barbra Vaughn. She’s been having the time of her life bad mouthing me all night. Adam, here—” she swept him with a scalding glance “—couldn’t wait to tell me.”

  “That’s not exactly true, Courtney,” Adam answered. “Barbra spoke to Darcy. She had quite a bit to say to me too later on. I was actually coming to warn you about her, not to start a fight.”

  “I’ll speak to her,” Darcy said, the blood rushing into her cheeks. “I can tell you she won’t come off best.”

  “I’m sure none of us seriously considers she will,” Curt laid a calming hand on Darcy’s shoulder. “Why don’t you let me speak to her. I remind myself I’m the host around here.”

  “I’m not going to let you go without me,” Darcy exclaimed.

  “My dearest Darcy, that would be overkill.”

  Darcy went to answer, but Courtney burst out, “What I want to know is, did anyone outside Adam believe her?”

  The muscles along Adam’s firm jawline tightened. “It’s good they don’t hang people around here any more,” he said, sounding bitterly sarcastic. “You’ve turned yourself into judge and jury.”

  Strain showed itself in every line of Courtney’s delicate body. “You’ve been suspicious of me from the first.” She turned on him. “You practically accused me of trying to influence my dying father unduly.”

  “No, no, Courtney,” Darcy protested. Not that it hadn’t appeared to anyone who didn’t know her there might be some grounds for such an accusation.

  But Courtney, tormented by Adam’s kiss was unstoppable. That kiss had shaken her to the foundations, causing her to indulge in a glass too many of champagne. She shook her head from side to side. “Now Barbra, what a rattlesnake! She’s never forgiven me for getting the job. You know the saying. Throw enough dirt and some always sticks.”

  Darcy surveyed her sister in dismay. Dirt had stuck in the past. She could attest to that.

  “Calm down, Courtney,” Curt said soothingly. “I promise you I’ll deal with this Barbra without making a big thing of it.”

  “No one has answered me.” Courtney looked very near to tears. “Did anything she said get through to you all? I swear I’ve never discussed my family with anyone. It wasn’t a nice story anyway. Cold-blooded abandonment. I certainly didn’t entertain my colleagues with how I was going to con my own dying father—” She broke off, deliberately presenting her back to Adam.

  A powerful surge of protectiveness swept through Darcy. She went to her very threatened looking sister, wrapping an arm around her. “We didn’t believe a word of it! Adam hit it right on the head. It was pure jealousy. Jealousy is one of the deadly sins. I think you owe him an apology.”

  “No I do not!” Courtney was a long way from forgiving Adam. She was, in fact, in a highly emotional state, conflicting feelings boiling through her bloodstream.

  “You know where she probably got some of her information from don’t you?” Darcy said. “Poor Lara. Another innocent party. She must have schemed to get Lara on side.”

  “Well you don’t need me,” Adam started to turn away, his handsome dark face hawklike with tension.

  “Of course we don’t!” Courtney cried. “I think you should look on yourself as being sacked!” Now the tears were starting. “I could see it in your eyes. You believed her. You think I’m a vampire!” she accused hi
m with high drama.

  Adam turned back. “Oh cut it out. You don’t know what to do, do you, unless you get adoration?” In the very next breath he apologised. “I’m sorry,” he said stiffly.

  Curt could scarcely credit this was little Courtney. He slung an arm around Adam’s shoulders, man to man, it was so much easier—thinking from such splendid beginnings this had turned into a very bumpy night. “Why don’t we let Darcy handle this,” he suggested. “I could do with a drink.”

  “Fine in my book,” said Adam.

  It was a down hill slide after that. A magical evening ended in dashed hopes.

  The sisters returned home to Murraree facing certain inescapable facts. It wasn’t easy coping with relationships. The traumatic alienation of their childhood and adolescence which they’d thought to be putting behind them had resurfaced in the form of Darcy’s niggling doubts. This had the effect of putting Courtney very much on the defensive. She could only think her motivation for returning to Murraree when her father was dying was being silently questioned. In effect, Barbra Vaughn’s spiteful lies had put her back on trial. She was not quite the person they believed her to be? Also she’d made a perfect fool of herself—something she tried never to do—and suffered waves of mortification because of it.

  Hot tempered Darcy, by the end of that night, a hair’s breadth away from explosion, had her own wincing feelings of regret. She had left a frustrated Curt striding away from her as if in the space of twenty four hours he had gone from professing his undying love for her to wanting to strangle her with her own hair.

  “First you played hand maiden to your father. Now you’re going to hold Courtney’s hand,” he accused her, storming off. “From where I’m coming from, that’s more than enough!”

  Equally upset Darcy had hurled after him. “Oh, grow up!” A bizarre thing to say when she had finally made the decision nothing would stand between her and her man.

  Even before they’d left Sunset Downs talk had continued to rage about the way Barbra Vaughn had offered unsolicited insights into Courtney’s character. Of course Barbra was jealous, they were all in agreement on that. But the degree of influence Courtney had had on the re-making of Jock McIvor’s will couldn’t be ignored could it? Nor the fact they’d all at some point voiced caution. Few people could achieve what Courtney had achieved in such a short time. She was blessed with exceptional charm. Was she to be blamed for using it for her own advancement?

  “Everything Barbra told you was lies!” Courtney protested, believing they were all turning against her. “It was revenge pure and simple.”

  It wasn’t true they were turning against her. All three, Darcy, Curt and Adam were trying to deal with the allegations in their own way. Curt appeared the most convinced, ready to dump the whole issue but Darcy had so many emotions jostling around in her heart it was difficult for her not to go into overdrive. As usual, Curt was the one to bear the brunt of it.

  So for the sisters getting back to where they were prior to the polo weekend wasn’t all that easy. Neither was as comfortable with the other as they had been. To compound the fraught situation Darcy hadn’t heard from Curt for a week, which made her feel utterly wretched. Not only that, anxiety was gnawing away at her regarding her promise to tell him what had caused their dramatic rift.

  Back to square one.

  Work continued on the restoration. Courtney lost herself in that, hoping and praying things would settle down though she considered she would be on her guard against Adam Maynard always. Darcy went back to her dawn to dusk schedule. For several days now a bull catching team had been operating roughly four miles out. By mid-morning of what turned out to be an eventful day Darcy rode into the second mustering camp where about three hundred cattle, a lot of them cleanskins, were milling about, sending up a pall of red dust. There she caught Sean Davis, the jackeroo, hot-footing it through the rails.

  A cheeky grin lit his face when he saw her. “Hi, Boss! Bloody bull nearly got me.” He wrested the end of his checked shirt from a piece of barbed wire. “Just made it.”

  “You’ve been warned not to do anything foolish, Sean,” Darcy settled the mare and walked towards him. “Where’s the rest of the team?”

  Sean took off his akubra and ran a hand through his tangle of sweat dampened hair. “They’ll be back shortly with another mob. Joe and I had been wiring new rails into position, until that mad bull decided I’m outta here.”

  “You’d better give Joe a hand then,” Darcy said, waving at the aboriginal ringer who waved cheerfully back.

  “Bloody thing charged a few minutes before you arrived,” Sean said as though he was mortally offended by the bull’s actions. He swivelled to take another look at the intimidating beast. “Just what I needed after a crook night. He’s a real bastard. Doesn’t like humans.”

  “Language, Sean,” Darcy said mildly, looking at the “mad bull” in question.

  “Sure you weren’t antagonising him?”

  “Yeah, well…” Sean’s tanned cheeks coloured. “I might have yelled olay a couple of times but I wasn’t figurin’ on that response! How come nothing much seems to happen to the aboriginal guys?”

  “For one they don’t go around rousing the stock. They exercise caution at all times. Another they’re too smart, they’re too fast, and they have totems to protect them. Up in the Territory they can swim through crocodile infested waters where you and I would make a lovely meal.”

  “Maybe it’s about time I acquired a totem,” Sean said, impressed.

  “All you need to do, Sean, is go down a gear.”

  The large reddish coloured bull was standing its ground in the centre of the holding yard. It still looked furious, snorting violently and pawing the earth. The black tips of its horns carved the air with every movement of its massive head. It bore an uncanny resemblance to the fighting beasts in a bull ring.

  Joe, single-mindedly repairing the smashed fence, looked completely unperturbed. Like Darcy he’d been working cattle all his life. A pandemonium of sound in the form of bellows, barking dogs and cracking whips, was coming closer. Darcy turned her head. A distance off through the acacia shrouded timber she could see the other mob spread out. Cleanskins probably. Four riders were behind the cattle, cracking the odd whip, the working cattle dogs, the Blueys, thoroughly enjoying themselves, kept pace beside the mounted stockmen, yapping their heads off, moving the mob along.

  “They’re back,” Darcy said with satisfaction, pointing the jackeroo back to work. “Don’t let Tom see you standing around talking, Sean.”

  “Right, Boss.” Sean gave her another one of his cheeky salutes and moved off. It wasn’t easy keeping authority over the men. She wasn’t surprised after they had worked under her father, but Sean was just a bit of a kid, Darcy thought tolerantly. If he got too cheeky she’d pull him back into line. It was the other new guy, Prentice, who was starting to make her uncomfortable with his looks. She knew her father wouldn’t have tolerated those kinds of glances levelled at her. Any man who hadn’t shown her the utmost respect was literally out on his ear. She couldn’t allow a situation to build up. She couldn’t make anything of it either by asking Tom to have a word with him. Prentice might have to go. She should have read the signs at the beginning or had Curt show his presence. Curt was perfect boss material.

  The roar of a rapidly approaching vehicle added to the considerable din. A station four-wheel drive with Courtney at the wheel was coming down into the clearing at speed. Darcy was momentarily distracted. What did Courtney want? She didn’t often come down to the yards. Next moment she felt her heart miss a beat as Sean yelled loudly: “Darcy, watch out!”

  Instinctively Darcy took to her heels, obeying the warning without quite knowing why. She threw a glance back over her shoulder, rocked by what she saw. The monstrous bull, excited by all the noise and confusion, had taken it into its head to mount a second charge It smashed through the standing side fence as though the heavy rails were matchsticks.

 
; There was movement everywhere, a frantic rush to her aid. The stockmen left the mob to surge through the trees. Another stockman on one of the mustering motor bikes burst into the clearing but it was Courtney who in the end valiantly drove the four-wheel drive with its heavy bull bar into the gap between the bull and her running sister.

  They all heard the bull’s horn rip through metal before it went down.

  In the same instant four stockmen converged on the fallen animal its tail flicking back and forth in agitation. Darcy left the men to it. She raced over to the vehicle, her own fright forgotten, only to find Courtney’s golden head slumped over the wheel.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  COURTNEY spent almost a week in Koomera Crossing Bush Hospital. She had suffered a concussion that had the hospital chief, Doctor Sarah McQueen worried at the beginning and two cracked ribs. Accidents, even tragedies were a way of life in the bush. Even so Darcy was extremely upset to see her younger sister lying so quietly in a hospital bed. Darcy knew if anything had gone seriously wrong with Courtney she would never have got over it. Courtney’s quick action had undoubtedly saved Darcy from injury or worse. That alone overcame all obstacles and drew the sisters close.

  At the beginning when Courtney was rambling incoherently it was impossible not to catch the word, Mum.

  “You know she wants her mother, don’t you, Darcy?” Curt had drawn Darcy out into the hospital corridor.

  “Yes, yes, I know.” She was trembling with reaction.

  “So what are you going to do about it?”

  “I’m going to get my mother out here. Are you happy?” Darcy had looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “Oh Curt, you just don’t know how I feel.”

  His eyes were compassionate. “I know it’ll be hard for you to see your mother after all these years. I also know anything that’s good for Courtney you’ll allow.”

  “I haven’t begun to thank you,” she said. “I’m always amazed the way you turn up when I desperately need you.”