Her Australian Cattle Baron

by Margaret Way

  “Then what on earth prevented him?” Royce asked, suddenly looking angry. “What did he think we were going to say? Condemn him? How ridiculous. So Marigold got herself pregnant. I don’t think the pregnancy was an accident in this day and age. We all saw how thrilled, one could say triumphant she was to become James’s bride. I knew something was eating away at Jimmy. God, what a fool he is to think we would turn on him. He should have been honest and open. A baby! Okay, the baby would be arriving much sooner than anyone expected, but the initial shock would have passed off quickly.”

  “Now she’s l-l-lost the baby,” Sally wailed. She picked up her coffee cup and slurped the cold contents. “My poor boy! He can’t seem to do a thing right. Like me.”

  Royce scarcely heard. Sally had been so traumatized by her marriage to his father putting herself down had become a lifetime habit. “He speaks as if the shock was brutal. He doesn’t even say the both of us, like any normal loving couple. He’s treating the heartbreak as if it’s his alone.”

  “We know how much Jimmy loves children,” Anthea said soothingly. “Maybe they didn’t want to tell us until they were absolutely sure all was well with the pregnancy.”

  Royce gave a flick of his elegantly formed hand. “We were all absolutely sure nothing was well with the marriage. Jimmy wanted Amelia. He couldn’t have her, so he took Marigold instead.”

  “Amelia, the bridesmaid?” Sally’s expression was that of a woman who believed she couldn’t possibly have heard right. “My son was in love with the bridesmaid, not the bride?” she gasped. “I don’t believe that for a second. Jimmy wouldn’t marry the wrong woman. He wouldn’t,” she cried over the hard lump in her throat.

  Royce locked eyes with his aunt. Anthea didn’t miss a thing. She would have guessed.

  “Perhaps Jimmy fell in love with Amelia because he knew he couldn’t have her?” Anthea offered by way of explanation. “She’s beautiful, charming, a highly intelligent young woman, holding down an onerous job. Jimmy’s usual approach would never have worked with Amelia.”

  “Jimmy’s ‘golden enchantress,’ ” Royce said, a blunt edge to his voice.

  “That was obvious once we met her. I’d say Amelia is very fond of Jimmy, but I’m convinced she isn’t in any way in love with him.”

  “In love with him!” Sally, a small woman, appeared to have shrunk. “I don’t understand what the both of you are saying. You sound so sure Jimmy did this. He married the wrong girl?” she asked, looking frantic. “That’s madness.”

  Gently Anthea patted the other woman’s shoulder. “Please calm down, dear. We’ll work this out together.”

  “We need to consider Marigold told Jimmy she was pregnant with his child,” Royce said. “It must have come as a great shock to him, given his admittedly careless lifestyle. He made the decision to do the honourable thing, or what he considered to be the honourable thing. I have to say I wouldn’t want my child to get away. I would want my child to bear my name. Be family. Jimmy obviously felt the same. God knows what’s going to happen next. This email isn’t all that far from despair. I need to get to him.”

  “I think you do,” Anthea confirmed.

  “Why didn’t he phone when he was away?” Sally asked, suddenly belligerent. “Not a single postcard. Now this highly upsetting email. He’s always been a problem boy. He really needs a hammering.”

  Anthea winced. Sally could and did come out with the most alarming things.

  Royce answered for both of them. “I’m amazed you’ve even suggested it, Sally, knowing the hammerings Jimmy did get. Hammering doesn’t work. I have to check on my brother. See he’s all right. The bravado he goes on with is only a façade. James, when he feels, feels very deeply. I’ll fly out tomorrow around midday. I have a few things I’ll need to delegate. Do you wish to come with me?” He knew Anthea would want to remain on the station.

  Sally’s slight body began to jerk. “I’ll stay here with Anthea. It’s you Jimmy needs, Royce. Not me.” She couldn’t have looked more desolate, at the same time not willing to go to her son.

  “So that’s settled,” said Royce, having fully anticipated Sally’s answer. Sally had never had the strength to be a hands-on loving mother. “I need to get on top of the whole situation,” he said. “I think I’ll ask them both to come back with me.”

  “Good idea,” Anthea nodded her approval. “Will you see Amelia, too?” she asked, meeting her nephew’s brilliant dark eyes. “Find out what really has been going on?”

  “I’ll certainly want to hear Amelia’s side of the story, Anthea,” said Royce. There was a hard intonation in his voice.

  * * *

  Amelia felt herself back in charge. She had read through any number of files, given orders, made decisions, consulted with one of the senior partners in the firm. Another hour and she could go home. Her phone rang. She picked it up. It was Megan, the pretty, very popular and efficient receptionist for the prestige Melbourne firm of Bannerman, Boyd, & Powers.

  No businesslike tone from Megan for once. “The most gorgeous guy I’ve ever seen is asking to see you, Amelia,” Megan murmured, her tone silky. “A Mr. Stirling. He doesn’t have an appointment,” she added almost breathlessly.

  Jimmy was a very handsome man. She had been expecting this. “Send him through, Megan, and then get back to work, my girl. The man’s taken.”

  Megan chortled.

  Amelia rose to answer the door herself, a sympathetic smile on her face. The man she confronted, however, wasn’t Jimmy, but Royce. She couldn’t have been caught more off-guard. Her whole body rocked. Her smile faltered, and then faded away.

  “Royce, how very unexpected,” she said. “Come in. Have you business in town?” She marvelled at the composure in her voice when his sudden appearance threw her badly.

  “Let’s not playact, Amelia.” Royce, too, was visibly rattled by the sight of her. “I’m here to see my brother. He sent us an email telling us Marigold had lost the baby. It sounded so stricken, I had to come.”

  “Of course. Of course!” The bond between the brothers. “I know how much Jimmy means to you. Please sit down, Royce.” She sought refuge behind her desk. “How can I help?”

  He remained standing, a tall man exuding energy. Royce Stirling was built for height and space around him, Amelia thought. He wasn’t a man to be confined. He looked strikingly handsome in a beautifully tailored city suit. Small wonder Megan had been so impressed.

  “You’ve seen him, needless to say?” Royce gave her the brilliant piercing look Amelia had come to know so well.

  “Sit down, Royce,” she repeated, falling back on the knowledge this was her home ground. “I’ll send for coffee, shall I?”

  Royce took a chair opposite her. Her desk was impressive. It would certainly appear that way to her clients. Not modern. A walnut pedestal desk with a dark green leather writing surface. Though the desk top was packed with files, it was orderly. She would have been able to put her hand on exactly which file she required. “Thank you, no,” he declined. “It’s explanations I want before I see Jimmy.”

  “Explanations of what, precisely?” she asked, coolly.

  He studied her across the desk. She was wearing what he knew was generally called a professional woman’s power outfit. A superbly tailored black suit: a fitted jacket that showed off her lovely feminine shoulders and narrow pants that made much of her long legs. A crisp buttoned-to-the-neck white shirt was beneath. Her long, beautiful hair was drawn back into an elegant knot. She was wearing gold earrings and what looked like an Arts and Crafts gold brooch set with cabochon stones and gold beads pinned to one lapel. She looked what she was: a highly intelligent, successful young lawyer not about to be intimidated by any member of the public. That included him.

  “You knew about the pregnancy, yet you said nothing?” he pressed on, regardless. He was a man who when he demanded answers, he got them.

  She hoped she hadn’t flushed. “It wasn’t my place to tell you and Anthea, Royc
e. Jimmy and Marigold didn’t want you to know. I couldn’t go against their wishes.”

  “You’re a lawyer,” he challenged. “You could have pointed out to them the best way to go. Jimmy hangs on your every word. I’m very surprised he hasn’t landed on your doorstep. Obviously, this wasn’t a marriage made in heaven.”

  “So, both of them have made a serious mistake,” she said, marvelling that his eyes, dark as night, yet could blaze.

  “Your sister made no mistake. She set out to get Jimmy and she succeeded like scores of unscrupulous women before her.”

  She let him see her extreme annoyance. “It’s the woman’s fault, of course.”

  “This time it is. We wouldn’t be talking like this if Jimmy loved her. I don’t even believe he likes her. Not anymore. There’s no point in denying it, Amelia. Misplaced loyalty in some way, I suppose. Marigold would have known how to protect herself from any unwanted pregnancy. The thing is, she wanted this one. Now on their honeymoon, she’s miscarried. Is it out of order to say I suspect she mightn’t have been pregnant at all?”

  Her heart lurched, yet she managed to hide her sense of shock. “None of this is my business, Royce. You have to speak to Jimmy.”

  “I bet you’ve already spoken to Marigold?”

  Amelia held her hands together tightly.

  “So you have?”

  She nodded. “Marigold always comes to me when she’s in trouble.”

  “I’m pretty sure that happens all the time,” Royce commented bluntly. “She had to know Jimmy is in love with you.”

  Amelia sighed ruefully. “She also knew I had no romantic interest in Jimmy. I do have a close male friend, an academic. Marigold knows him. Jimmy wasn’t an issue between us.”

  “The close friend? Is it possible to get a name?”

  “None of your business, Royce.” Her green eyes sparkled, green as the cabochons in her antique brooch.

  “You showed considerable interest in my business,” he countered.

  “I’m not saying any more, Royce.” She picked up a file, put it down again. Taylor versus Taylor. Another marriage not made in heaven. “I was devastated when Marigold told me she’d lost the baby. I was so looking forward to the new little member in our family.”

  “And Marigold? Was she devastated too?” His tone was highly sceptical.

  Amelia threw back her head. “Why wouldn’t she be?”

  “I have a great nose for odd behaviour, Amelia. So does Anthea, who sends not her regards, but her love. My aunt took a great liking to you even knowing Jimmy was in love with you, not his bride.”

  “Sadly, Jimmy was out of his depth,” Amelia said with quiet conviction. “I’m very fond of him, but as I have told you repeatedly, there was no romance.”

  “Except you allowed him to kiss you passionately the night before his own wedding?”

  This time, she felt heat flare into her cheeks. “As I recall, you kissed me in a way that would have startled and shocked the guests.”

  “Be that as it may, I suspect Jimmy will come to you, Amelia. Where does Marigold live?”

  “She has an apartment of her own.” She didn’t say her father had paid for it.

  “Address, please?”

  She was intent on not giving it to him. “Marigold is in no fit state to talk to someone like you. She knows you don’t approve of her.”

  “Neither do you approve of her,” he said, starkly.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  There was disgust in his voice. “Anyone who gets to know your little sister wouldn’t see her as an angel. You’re the angel, aren’t you, Amelia? Jimmy’s angel.”

  The infuriating man was testing her. “Shouldn’t you be out looking for him?” she challenged.

  “If you think he’s with Marigold, you have to tell me.”

  Amelia knew she had a responsibility to do just that. “Jimmy isn’t with Marigold. She told me he was out getting drunk most of the time. I can tell you, they are definitely estranged.”

  “Good,” Royce clipped off. “You are most kind to share that with me, Amelia,” he said sardonically. “Now, what pubs does he frequent?”

  An answer came to mind. “He likes the Docks on the bay. Any taxi driver will take you. Where are you staying, by the way?”

  He named arguably the best hotel in the beautiful city of Melbourne, repeatedly rated as one of the most liveable cities in the world. “I need your promise you’ll ring me when you see Jimmy,” he said as he rose. “And you will. Here’s the number.” He withdrew a card from his inside breast pocket.

  Amelia rounded the desk to take it.

  “That’s a promise?”

  “Yes, Royce.” She gave a deep sigh.

  “Yes. Royce,” he mocked her, abruptly taking her chin. “I do so have to watch myself around you.”

  How swiftly her emotions spiralled. “That’s because you have a devil in you.”

  “The devil prompts me to kiss you.”

  Amelia stared into his mesmeric, dark eyes. Beautiful eyes. His mother’s eyes. “Don’t listen to him,” she warned.

  His laugh was brief, ironic. “How profoundly weak is human nature, Amelia. I listen to him a lot when I’m with you.” He bent his dark head, unerringly found her mouth. Amelia tried hard to act as if it were beneath her dignity to resist, only his kisses did such strange things to her. A lifetime of such kisses would scarcely be enough.

  “Listen to me, please,” she said shakily when he released her. “You have to stop kissing me.”

  “Calm down, Amelia. It won’t get you disbarred.”

  “Why do you keep doing it? Have you asked yourself that?” she questioned as she followed him to the door.

  “Have you asked yourself why you let me?” he countered, turning back to her, a magnificent man.

  “I might be attracted to you. Which is a very bad thing.”

  “But easy to understand,” he said smoothly. “I’m quite willingly to admit I’m attracted to you too, Amelia. Don’t worry. It’s a chemical reaction.”

  “Of course it is, but it can’t be allowed to grow into a problem.”

  He laughed gently. “Count on me. By the way, I know where you live, Amelia. Jimmy let that piece of information slide.”

  “Do I take that as beware?”

  “That depends. Does your suitor, nameless for the moment, realize you don’t love him? Or is he content to worship at your feet?” His eyes continued to run over her, shamelessly drinking her in. So much for the power suit! She couldn’t have looked more feminine. Or sexier.

  “Does that go for Charlene too?” she asked with false sweetness. “Goodbye, Royce. I hope you find Jimmy very quickly. He needs your support and guidance. It’s a sad fact Jimmy doesn’t have a high opinion of himself. I suspect he mightn’t in your family.”

  At the implied criticism, Royce swung back. “I bear no guilt for that, Amelia. The time is going to come when you have to run to me for help.”

  “You really want me to believe that?”

  “Believe it,” Royce said.

  Chapter 4

  It was around 10 p.m. She was barely out of the shower, dressed in her nightgown and robe, when the intercom echoed through the quiet apartment. She felt her mouth go dry, knowing what this visit might mean. In the kitchen, she pressed the button on the wall unit to identify her late-night caller, even though she was certain it was Jimmy.

  It all had to be a bad dream. She would soon wake up. Jimmy was here to tell her about his terrible loss. Tender-hearted, perhaps to a fault, she would want to hug him, but she knew she couldn’t.

  “Please let me in, Amelia.” Jimmy stood there, imploring. He had taken a step forward so she could readily see his face. “I need to talk to you. I’m sorry it’s so late. I had to pluck up courage. Please.”

  She heard the frantic note in his voice. It occurred to her to ring Royce immediately, but she was already allowing Jimmy in. When she opened the door, it was a different-looking Jimmy to
the one she was used to. Not the super-stud, the handsome playboy. His skin was drawn tightly over features that were nearly puckered. There were dark circles under his eyes. He looked as if he hadn’t slept for days. “Come in,” she said quietly. She allowed him past her, catching the strong whiff of whiskey. “Royce is in Melbourne. Did you know? He went looking for you. I sent him to the Docks.”

  “I was there, but not for long,” Jimmy managed to turn about, albeit with a wobble. His dull, red-rimmed eyes suddenly brightened. “Royce is in the city? He flew all this way?”

  “He cares about you, Jimmy,” Amelia pointed out. “You haven’t been fair to your family, excluding them from the truth.” She stopped herself. This wasn’t the time to chastise Jimmy. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am you and Marigold lost the baby. It’s a great blow.”

  “To me!” His answer was pure anguish. “It might sound awful to your ears, but Marigold doesn’t care. She’s so twisted inside, I’m surprised she got pregnant at all. We’re finished, Amelia. Marigold is a singular woman in her ambitions, and woe betide anyone who gets in her way. I can no longer bear the sight of her. She can’t bear the sight of me. She got what she wanted: my name. Even if we split up, which we will, she can trade off that. She’s already run up huge bills.”

  Not on maternity clothes, Amelia thought grimly, feeling Jimmy’ s pain. “Sit down, Jimmy,” she urged. “I have to ring Royce. I promised I’d let him know if you contacted me.”

  “Royce, being Royce, knew I would,” Jimmy gave an off-key laugh. “You can’t fool Royce. He’s the man with the all-seeing eyes. Ring in a minute or two, Amelia. Please, can we talk first? When Royce arrives, he’ll take over. That’s his role in life. Royce is the man everyone admires, understandably.”

  “You’re jealous?” Amelia asked quietly.

  “I daresay, a bit. What younger brother wouldn’t be? But I love Royce far more than I envy him.”

  “Would you like coffee, Jimmy?” Amelia asked. It was easy to detect Jimmy had been knocking back far too many Scotch whiskies. It was on his breath, in his side-to-side stagger.