He had to be a farmer. The man’s whole appearance labelled him as such. He wore moleskin trousers and a khaki shirt, and in his hand he held a wide Akubra hat. This was an outfit Jenna recognised as almost a uniform among Australian men who worked the land.
Was he a farmer here? It didn’t make sense.
She had to speak. She had to say something.
‘H…hi.’ Not so good. Her voice came out as a squeak, and the man’s eyes widened.
‘Hi, yourself.’ Unlike Jenna’s, the man’s voice was deep, resonant and sure, laced with a broad Australian accent. His eyes were calmly watchful, as if at any minute he expected the apparition in his kitchen to vanish.
Jenna was still holding Karli to the tap. Now Karli finished drinking and pulled away. She lowered her to the ground; Karli stared distrustfully up at the stranger and then shrank against Jenna’s leg.
‘I… Is this your house?’ Jenna managed, holding tight to Karli.
‘It’s my house.’ The man was staring down at Karli as if he was certain he was seeing things. Karli didn’t look at him. She shrank behind Jenna’s legs and stayed there.
Silence. For the life of her, Jenna couldn’t think of what else to say.
Eventually, apparently recovering from the shock of finding strangers in his kitchen, the big man tossed his Akubra onto the table and walked across to the fridge. He opened the door and snagged a beer. Raising his eyebrows quizzically-for heaven’s sake, was the guy laughing?-he lifted the can towards Jenna. ‘I don’t know who on earth you are or how you got here,’ he said, ‘but can I offer you a beer?’
‘N…no. Thank you.’
‘There’s not much else,’ the man told her, pulling the ring from the top of the can and taking a long, long swallow. He didn’t lower the can until he’d almost emptied it. ‘Apart from water,’ he added then. ‘Which you seem to have found all by yourselves.’
Karli ventured a peek at him then from behind Jenna’s legs. Amazingly he gave the little girl a wink-which had her ducking back behind her sister.
‘We did find your water.’ Jenna took a deep breath, searching for composure. She didn’t find it. ‘I’m sorry. I guess…the thing is that we seem to be in a bit of trouble.’
‘You know, I guessed that,’ the man agreed gravely. ‘Either that or you’re a pair of very enthusiastic encyclopaedia salesmen.’ The man smiled at her across his beer, and when he smiled it was all Jenna could do not to gasp. The smile lit his whole face, making him seem years younger. She’d guessed his age at somewhere around forty, but when he smiled she knew he was closer to thirty. And, as well as younger, his smile made him seem incredibly…incredibly…
Male. Gorgeous. Sexy. The adjectives suddenly crowded into her head, and instinctively her hands fell to hold Karli tighter.
She gave herself a sharp mental swipe. She was being ridiculous. She didn’t react to men like this. She didn’t.
So why was this man so…mesmeric?
‘We’re not salesmen,’ she managed, striving for lightness. ‘The doors are a bit far apart out here to do door-to-door selling.’
She had her reward. The laughter deepened behind his eyes at her pathetic attempt at humour.
‘That’s a pity,’ he told her, his smile staying right where it was. He motioned to the pile of newspapers. ‘This is about all I have in the way of reading matter. An encyclopaedia would have its uses.’ Then his smile faded as he searched her eyes. The expression on his face softened, as though he sensed her fear. His gaze dropped again to Karli, peeping out from behind Jenna’s legs, and his expression softened still further.
‘So if you’re not salesmen, maybe you could tell me who you are?’
‘I don’t think…’ Jenna paused, the enormity of trying to explain their situation to this man almost overwhelming her in its degree of difficulty. ‘You won’t believe…’
‘Try me.’
‘But I don’t even know who you are,’ she burst out, and his gorgeous smile came flooding back.
‘No,’ he agreed. ‘You don’t. You know, I figured since you’re in my kitchen and you came in uninvited, that maybe it was up to you to introduce yourselves first. But maybe I’ve been remiss.’ He hauled his hat from the table and shoved it back on his head, then raised it a few inches in a gesture of salutation. ‘I’m Riley Jackson.’ His dark eyes twinkled down at Karli, who was still clinging as hard as she could cling to Jenna’s leg. ‘Have a seat, ladies. Make yourselves at home.’
Then he readdressed his beer. Duty done.
Jenna stared at him in confusion. She was way out of her depth, she acknowledged. If it weren’t for Karli she’d walk out of here-take her chances on the railway platform.
Who was she kidding? No, she wouldn’t. She had no choice but to keep on talking.
‘I’m Jenna Svenson,’ she told him. ‘This is Karli.’
‘I’m very pleased to meet you, Jenna and Karli,’ he said gravely. ‘Welcome to my farm.’
His farm. She stared around her at the layer upon layer of dust. She turned to stare out the cracked and grimed window at the dusty paddocks beyond. ‘This isn’t a working farm?’ she managed. ‘Surely. I mean…you don’t live here?’
‘Don’t you like my décor?’ Riley demanded, as if he were wounded to the core, and she blinked. ‘What’s wrong with it?’
‘It’s really dusty,’ Karli volunteered and that shocked Jenna, too. For Karli to speak in the presence of a stranger was amazing. ‘You don’t wash your table,’ the little girl said, and there was even a note of reproof in her tone.
‘Hey, I would have dusted if I’d known you were coming.’ Riley smiled straight down at the little girl, with what was almost a conspiratorial grin. ‘I would have got out the best china and made a cake. Or put some more beer in the fridge. Speaking of which.’ He hauled open the fridge to snag another beer and Jenna bit her lip at the sight of it. Her fears had started to recede, but now they resurfaced with a vengeance. They were so alone. He might not be an axe murderer, but if he were to get drunk…
He saw her look. He stood with his hand on the refrigerator door and his eyebrows rose in a query. ‘Does this worry you?’ He raised his beer can.
‘I…no.’
‘It shouldn’t,’ he told her, and went straight to the heart of her fear. ‘It’s low-alcohol beer. I’d have to drink a bathful to get tight. And, lady, even if I was drinking full-strength beer, I’ve been working in the sun for the past twelve hours and after effort like that, alcohol hardly hits the sides.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘You sound English. Are you?’
‘Y…yes.’
‘Australian girls don’t start getting nervous until their men down a dozen or more.’ He pulled the ring on his new can and took a long drink. ‘Now, having reassured you that I’m not about to get rolling drunk on my second light beer, I figure it’s your turn. Maybe I’m being picky but I would like to know what the hell-’ his eyes fell to Karli and he corrected himself ‘-what on earth you guys are doing in my kitchen, criticising my housekeeping and counting my beers. It’s not that I’m unappreciative. It’s always nice when guests drop in. I’m just not sure where you dropped from.’
She swallowed. He had the right. ‘From the train,’ she started and he nodded.
‘I guess it had to be the train. But I was over there picking up supplies. I didn’t see you.’
‘We got off just as the train left.’
‘You weren’t expecting to be collected, then?’
‘No.’
‘I see.’ He thought about it, his eyes not leaving hers. ‘So you thought you might indulge in a little sightseeing?’
‘There’s no need to be sarcastic,’ Jenna snapped. ‘We didn’t choose to get off.’
‘You’re saying someone threw you off?’ That amazing smile flashed out then. ‘What, for being drunk and disorderly?’ As she didn’t reply, he settled onto a chair with the air of a man about to enjoy a good book. ‘Well, well. Jenna Svenson. And Karli. Sit dow
n and tell me all. Please.’
She owed him that much, she thought. She needed him. She had to tell him.
She sat and hoisted Karli onto the chair beside her. Their chairs were touching and Karli was still in contact with her, but strangely the little girl seemed to be relaxing.
What was it about this man?
Jenna wasn’t relaxing. She sat gingerly on the edge of her chair. The chair gave a distinct wobble, and the wobble made her feel even more precarious. It was as if her world were tilting and she wasn’t at all sure that she wasn’t about to slide right off.
‘We had a disagreement with someone on the train,’ she managed. ‘We…we got angry and we got off.’
‘You had a disagreement.’ His thoughtful eyes glinted again, humour seemingly just below the surface. His eyes searched her face, then dropped to take her all in. His eyes ran over her dust-stained pants and blouse-they’d once been white-over her wind-tumbled curls where the red dust was blending with her burnt-red hair, down to her slim arms resting on the table before her. To her bare fingers.
His eyes went again to Karli. To study her dusty red curls and her big green eyes that were a mirror image of Jenna’s.
‘Who was your disagreement with?’
‘With Karli’s father,’ she told him. ‘Brian.’
His eyes flashed again to her fingers but there was no ring-mark there. That was what he was searching for, she knew. Damn him, she thought with anger. She knew exactly what he was thinking.
‘Oh, dear,’ he said. ‘You’ve left the third part of your happy family on the train.’
‘There’s no third part,’ she snapped. ‘And, believe me, it’s no happy family.’
‘Obviously.’
She flushed. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. How to explain within Karli’s earshot?
And how to justify her stupidity? Her stupid, almost criminal idiocy.
‘You know, what you did wasn’t all that bright,’ he told her, his voice gentle and his eyes resting thoughtfully on her flushed face.
‘I know that. But when I looked out there were people on the platform. It looked like a busy little country siding. I thought there’d be somewhere where we could stay until the next train came through. It wasn’t until we got off and everyone had disappeared that I remembered trains only come through twice a week.’
‘You did that with a child?’ he said, and there was suddenly a flash of anger behind the gentleness. She bit her lip. Okay, he was angry and maybe she deserved that. She was angry with herself. But if he’d seen the way Brian had treated Karli-the way she’d cringed…
‘I had my reasons,’ she said, in a tight little voice in which weariness was starting to show. ‘Believe me. I was dumb but I had no choice.’ She hesitated. This wasn’t easy. To ask a complete stranger for such a favour… ‘But you have a plane,’ she said. ‘We saw it when we came round the side of the house. We…’ She hesitated because the blaze of anger was still there, but she had to ask. ‘Could…is it possible that you’d fly us out?’ Then, as the anger deepened she went on fast. ‘I’d pay you, of course.’ Somehow she’d pay. ‘I’m not asking favours.’ When had she ever asked a favour of anyone?
He gazed at her, his eyes expressionless. ‘You want me to drop everything and fly you out of here. To where?’
‘Adelaide?’
‘Adelaide?’ he demanded, incredulous.
‘Please.’ Her hold on Karli tightened. Dear heaven, she’d got them in such a mess. She’d believed Brian. Why on earth had she ever believed Brian?
She’d wanted to believe him. For Karli’s sake.
‘I don’t know what to do,’ she confessed. ‘We can’t stay here.’
‘No,’ he agreed. ‘You can’t.’
‘If not Adelaide…’ she shrugged ‘…just anywhere with a hotel and a telephone and some way of getting back to the outside world.’
‘No.’
‘No?’
‘The nearest place with those sort of facilities is Adelaide,’ he said flatly. ‘That’s several hours’ flight in my small plane. It’d take me a day to get you there and get back here, and I don’t have a day free. I’m sorry to be disobliging, but I’m on a deadline.’
‘A deadline?’ She stared around in incredulity. ‘What sort of deadline can you have in a place like this?’
Riley’s expression became absolutely still. ‘Careful,’ he said softly. ‘Not so much of the disdain, if you please. This is my farm we’re talking of.’
‘But…’ Jenna closed her eyes for a fraction of a moment, to give herself space. She’d never felt so foreign or alone or out of control in her life-and she’d been alone for ever.
‘I’m sorry,’ she managed, and she fought for the courage to open her eyes again and face him. ‘I guess… Look, I don’t understand Australian farms. This is the first one I’ve been on. For all I know-’ she searched desperately for a smile ‘-this could be luxury accommodation.’
‘It isn’t,’ he said flatly. ‘But I have a roof over my head and a refrigerator full of beer. What more could I want?’
Anything, she thought. Anything.
‘The other people at the siding,’ she asked. ‘I don’t suppose…if they’re on farms, would one of them be able to fly us out?’
‘Those other farms are half a day’s drive to get to,’ he told her. ‘My nearest neighbour is over a hundred miles north over rough, unmade tracks. They came to the siding to get supplies from the train and they probably won’t be back at the siding for another couple of weeks. Today was the main supply run.’
Dear God.
‘We’re stuck here,’ she whispered.
‘Unless I kick you out, yes.’
Karli looked up at Riley then, with what, for the child, was an almost superhuman amount of courage. ‘Will you make us go back and sit on the train platform by ourselves until the next train comes?’ she whispered.
Jenna opened her mouth, and then thought better of it. Shut up, she told herself. Just shut up. She couldn’t ask that question any better than Karli just had.
Riley was staring at them with exasperation. ‘Your mother’s a dope,’ Riley told the little girl.
It was the wrong thing to say. Jenna flinched, and within her arms she felt Karli flinch as well.
‘My mother’s dead,’ Karli whispered. ‘She died yesterday.’
CHAPTER TWO
THERE was no way of softening the awfulness.
Riley knew Karli was speaking the truth. Jenna watched his face, knowing that he’d heard the shock and the raw pain in Karli’s voice.
He’d heard the despair of abandonment.
‘I’m sorry,’ Riley said at last. He set his beer on the table-very carefully, as if it might break. He looked from Karli to Jenna and back again. ‘I assumed you two were mother and daughter.’ He compressed his mouth and focussed on Karli. ‘Who’s this lady, then?’
‘Jenna’s my big sister,’ Karli whispered. ‘Sort of.’
‘Sort of?’
‘We’re half-sisters,’ Jenna told him. ‘Nicole, our mother-we’re the product of two of her marriages.’
‘Two-?’
‘Look, this isn’t getting anything sorted,’ Jenna said, and she was starting to sound as desperate as she felt. Karli was wilting against her. The shock and horror of the last few hours were taking their toll and it was amazing the little girl was still upright. She pulled her up to sit on her lap. ‘So you can’t take us anywhere?’
He hesitated, but then he shook his head. ‘No,’ he told her and there was even regret in his voice. ‘I’m sorry, but my labour’s not for sale. I have blocked bores and my cattle are dying because they can’t get anything to drink. If I leave before the bores are operational then I’ll lose cattle by the hundred, and their deaths won’t be pretty. I’m not being disobliging for the sake of it. I have urgent priorities.’
She bit her lip. ‘I’m sorry.’ This was getting harder by the minute. He was a
man in a hurry and the last thing he needed was to be saddled with a woman and a child. ‘I was really stupid to get off the train.’
‘You were.’
‘But it’s done now,’ she said with a flash of anger. She sounded like a wimp, she decided, and a wimp was the last way she’d have described herself. She’d been looking after herself since she was knee-high to a grasshopper. It was men who’d got her into this mess and this guy was of the same species.
‘Can you at least put us up here until the next train comes through?’ Then, at the look on his face, she went on in a hurry. ‘Please. We’ll be no trouble.’ She had to persuade him. What choice did she have?
What choice did he have?
‘I don’t have any choice,’ he muttered, echoing her own thoughts. Then he looked again at Karli and he relented. He even smiled again. ‘It’s a pretty funny place to stay and I bet it’s not what you’re used to, but you’re very welcome.’
He smiled across at Karli, and the child stared at him for a long moment and then tried to smile back.
‘You’re nice,’ she whispered. She nestled closer to Jenna. ‘He’s nicer than my daddy.’
‘Yeah, well, that’d be hard,’ Jenna said with some asperity, but she fondled the little girl’s curls and looked across at Riley.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘If there’s really no choice…’
‘You know, we could always contact the flying doctor and ask them to collect you,’ he said, suddenly helpful. ‘We could say you were psychiatrically unhinged.’
‘Gee, thanks.’
‘It might work. They have a psychiatric service.’
‘You’re being very helpful!’
‘Well, I think I am,’ he told her, but his eyes were still resting on Karli with concern. He was making light of it for Karli’s sake, she realised. ‘I’ve let you drink my water and sit at my kitchen table and if you decide to take up my very generous offer of accommodation I’ll even let you share my baked beans. Then I’ll offer you both a spare bed and keep you fed and watered until the next train comes through.’ He hesitated. ‘You realise just how much danger you put yourselves in? This man you were with. Brian. Will he realise and send a search party?’
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