by Jane Corrie
Added to Della's worry was the fear that the snake might come out of its sunbathing trance and head towards them; they could move with astonishing speed, she knew.
Giving Romano a comforting pat, she said, 'Okay, boy, back out now.'
The journey only took a few minutes, but it seemed an eternity to Della, who tried not to glance down at the depth of the valley below them as they edged their way gently back along the ledge.
When at last they were back on the firm ground below the trees, she fell on to Romano's neck and hugged him. 'You deserve a medal,' she whispered.
The sound of hooves heralded a rider coming at a fast gallop towards them from behind the trees, and Della felt a slight shock at the thought that Cora had not taken the route she had told Della to take.
Turning towards the rider, Della saw that it was not Cora, but Cal, who reined in and slid his long lean form off his horse with an agile movement. Then sweeping his wide stetson off his head and wiping some of the moisture off his face, he walked towards them. There was a stillness about him that alerted Della to his mood, but even so, she was not prepared for the verbal lashing he gave her.
'Where's Cora?' he asked, tight-lipped.
Della glanced down to the track she had just come from.
'She won't be down there,' he stated flatly as if Della were an idiot. Then piercing her with a steely look, he drawled, 'You couldn't keep up, I suppose, so you took a short cut. And who,' he rapped out at her in a voice that held the lash of a whip, 'gave you permission to take that horse?'
With an effort Della broke away from that steely gaze of his. It was no comfort to know her previous surmise had been right. He would not have allowed her to ride Romano.
'Do you always take what you fancy?' he grated. 'I'll grant you one thing, though, you know a thoroughbred when you see one.' His voice got harder. 'Which was just as well for you, my girl, on this occasion. Any other horse and you'd both be lying at the bottom of that gully. You can thank providence Romano is trained, and a fool of a girl
changing her mind half-way across a ledge is still alive to tell the tale! '
Della blinked, slightly stunned. If anything, she ought to be congratulated for getting the pair of them safely back. He didn't know about the snake, of course, neither did he know Cora had told her to take that route. She frowned. Where was Cora anyway? Her glance strayed once more to the track.
'Yes, take a good look at it,' Cal said coldly. 'It's called Tic-tac Slope, and can mean the end of the line for a novice. If you'd stayed with Cora instead of wandering off on your own, none of this would have happened. I'll make certain it doesn't happen in the future. Now get off that horse,' he ordered curtly.
Della complied with set lips; there was a lot she could say in answer to the novice accusation, and still more on the subject of Cora, but she doubted if in his present mood he would grant her a hearing. Of one thing she was sure, Cal Tarn regarded her as a nuisance and a fool into the bargain.
Thrusting the reins of his mount into her hands, he bit out, 'Just sit on him; he'll get you back to the homestead—and in future you'll wait to be given a suitable mount. No one rides Romano but me. If you'd sought permission before taking him, any hand on the ranch could have told you that.'
After Della had mounted, he slapped the rump of the horse, 'Home, Silas! ' he ordered.
Della's back was straight as they headed away
from Cal and Romano. Gritting her teeth, she had to restrain the impulse to spur the horse into a gallop. Cal would be sure to think she was showing off, so she sat much as a novice would have done until she was well out of sight.
The last glimpse she had of Cal was of him gently running his hands over Romano, as if to satisfy himself the stallion had come to no harm.
How, she asked herself furiously, did he think she had ridden him that far if she wasn't an accomplished rider? Wonder horse that he was, Romano still took some handling—but she wasn't supposed to know that, was she? novice that she was!
To complete her day, Cora appeared, having come up behind her at a fast gallop, and when alongside asked innocently, 'Where did you get to?'
Della gave her a straight look. `I was going to ask you the same question,' she said. 'You did say take the track below the gum trees, didn't you?'
Cora's brows went up. 'Goodness ! you didn't go down Tic-tac Slope, did you?' she asked in feigned surprise. 'Poor Cal he must have had a fit; no wonder he took Romano off you! ' She shook her head at Della. 'You couldn't have heard what I said,' she reproved her. 'The track to the left of the trees, I said—and there was I wondering where on earth you had got to, and all the time ...' she leant forward in her saddle in great anticipation. 'Tell me, was Cal very mad?'
Eyeing her dispassionately, Della was now sure she had not misunderstood her earlier direction. Cora had meant her to take that track. The thought gave her a cold feeling. She had deliberately sent her and Romano—she shivered, then reminded herself that Cora couldn't have known there was a snake across the track, and there was a way through there, as Cal had pointedly remarked earlier.
`Why don't you ask Cal later?' she said coldly. 'No doubt you'll be told to keep a stricter eye on me in future,' adding a little bitterly, 'You know, I don't think it's very helpful of you to dash on ahead anyway. Oh, and while we're on the subject, why didn't you tell me Cal doesn't allow anyone to ride Romano? Or did it slip your mind?' she asked sarcastically.
Leaning back in the saddle, Cora gave Della a sweet smile. 'But you're his wife,' she said dulcetly. `What's his is yours, and what's yours is his.'
Grinning maliciously at Della, she spurred her mare into a gallop, calling back, 'You might care to think about that last bit,' and left Della staring after her.
When the homestead was in sight, Silas skirted round the stables and headed for one of the paddocks. Della saw Cora's mare already in the paddock, but there was no sign of Cora, and wherever she had taken herself off to, she hoped it would be a long stay. Between Cora and Cal, her first day at Rimmer's Way had so far not exactly come up to expectations, and Della was not feeling very optimistic on the subject of obtaining better relations in the near future with either of them.
Dismounting, she eyed the heavy ornate saddle dubiously. She didn't think she ought to leave the horse saddled, but she was not sure she could lift the saddle off. Sighing, she began to unstrap it; it might not be quite so heavy as it looked, she thought, but as she attempted to lift it off, she found it no easy task. Even, she told herself crossly, if she did get it off, she couldn't see herself dragging it back to the saddling area. She was very tempted to go on acting out the role of novice and leave Silas saddled! She could perhaps enlist some help, preferably not Cora's, but there ought to be someone who could lend a hand.
The help she required came sooner than she had expected. As she made one more attempt to remove the saddle, a gruff voice behind her said, 'Cal will be back for Silas. He'll want him on the muster.'
Della started and turned round to meet the quizzical gaze of David Marsh. 'Well, I didn't think I could manage to remove the saddle anyway,' she said thankfully.
There was a short embarrassed silence, then the boy said quickly as if the words were forced out of him. 'You sure can ride! '
That was all he said, but the words held a wealth of sincerity, and Della's eyes widened a little as she gazed at the boy, wondering what had prompted the outburst.
He grinned shyly, and said a little shamefacedly, 'I followed you up to Tic-tac Slope.'
So had Cal, thought Della, but he hadn't exactly recommended a medal for her performance!
'Saw the snake,' went on the boy. 'Cal was below. I was above—so I saw it; Cal didn't.'. He gave Della an earnest look. 'Cal wouldn't have torn you off a strip if he'd known about the snake; he's fair—not like that Cora. Guessed she was up to no good when I saw you riding Romano; guessed she'd put you up to it. I knew Cal would get mad at you. He don't hold with anyone else riding him. He's a racehorse,
see—one of the best. He's got a race this weekend and Cal was resting him up, like.'
'Oh, dear,' sighed Della. 'No wonder he let rip at me!' She gave David a comical half grimace. 'You did say he would be coming back to collect Silas, didn't you?'
David nodded.
'Well,' said Della carefully, 'I've a feeling I ought to be making myself scarce. So if you don't mind ...'
As she turned to go, she suddenly remembered she had left Silas's saddle with the girth straps loose, and attempted to tighten them again.
A grinning David said, 'Here, I'll do that.'
Della was only too happy to leave it to him, for it enabled her to remove herself out of the vicinity, and from what might turn out to be another encounter with Cal.
A few minutes later she was surprised to find
David had caught her up, and walked back towards the homestead with her. 'You watch that Cora,' he said darkly.
Giving him a quick look, Della, meeting his serious blue eyes, smiled at him. 'Well, I admit we haven't got off to a very good start, but I'm hoping for better things,' she said ruefully.
His scowl darkened, and he shrugged his thin shoulders as if to suggest that she was hoping for the impossible. 'You married Cal,' he said simply, as if this explained everything, and in a way it did, but Cora was hardly helping her cause by her childish behaviour.
Love could be blind, Della thought, but not that blind. Cal would sooner or later see what she was up to. A sigh escaped her; he would also know why she was behaving as she was--and forgive her; it was the least he could do after marrying Della.
Della was too immersed in her thoughts to see Cal heading towards them, and it wasn't until he spoke that she became aware of him.
`Rub Romano down, will you, David, and saddle up Star for Mrs Tarn.'
With a slight start, Della came out of her reverie to hear herself thus addressed, and flushed as she met Cal's eyes. There had been an inflection of irony in his voice that gave her an idea of the sort of mount he had selected for her.
David's reaction confirmed her thoughts; his eyes fractionally widened and he jerked out, 'Star, Cal?'
Cal nodded grimly. 'Star, I said,' he repeated slowly.
David flushed and muttered a low, 'Okay, boss,' and moved off towards the stables. Della's eyes followed him as he walked away; she felt she had lost her one and only friend and it depressed her.
'Luis has laid some lunch on for you,' Cal said, bringing her attention sharply back to him.
She eyed him dispassionately; he had taken the opportunity to have a clean up before he returned to the muster, and his crisp dark hair was damp from the shower. 'Thank you,' she said stiffly, 'I'd better put in an appearance, then,' and walked swiftly away from him.
As she walked away Della had a definite impression of him watching her departure with—whatsurprise? it was only a fleeting impression, but that was what she thought it had been.
She had not realised just how stiff and formal her words and departure had been, or how much Cora's words had affected her. She only knew she was in a wretched position, and it had nothing to do with the incident on Tic-tac Slope—that she dismissed as an unfortunate occurrence. Quite naturally Cal had been worried about Romano, and probably her too. To have such an accident happen so shortly after her arrival would be bound to reflect on him.
These were only side issues, and her trouble went deeper than that. A nagging suspicion had entered her mind that Cora had been right and she had unsuspectingly, and innocently, walked into a web, and like the proverbial fly—there was no return.
Once on this train of thought, others came to bedevil her. Alice's whispered, 'It's going to be all right'. Cal calling her Mrs Tarn in front of David, when he could have said Della. Everybody else was addressed by their christian name, so why not her, too? Why had she to be singled out and called by her married name?
All the pieces were beginning to fit neatly into the picture, and Della didn't like the picture that was slowly forming in her mind's eye. The future looked bleak, to put it mildly. It wouldn't matter to Cal whether she settled down or not; he had got what he wanted—in making her his wife he now owned the whole property and, she thought scathingly, he was welcome to it, if it meant that much to him. She wanted no part of it.
There was, she told herself firmly, only one way out, and that was to convince him of her feelings on the matter. She had failed before, but she couldn't risk a second failure. From the moment she arrived, she had been made to feel an intruder; she wasn't wanted, and she didn't belong.
By the time she entered the homestead she had come to the conclusion that what had happened that morning could be turned into a vantage point in her favour. Della decided to remain a novice in Cal's eyes; and not only on a horse, she mused. In fact, she would deliberately set out to show him she was quite
unsuited to ranch life. Even take a leaf out of Cora's book; her lips twitched, with any luck he would send her packing in double quick time. If he still wanted to justify her uncle's wishes, he would have to come up with another idea, and Della was sure he would think of something if pressed hard enough!
The long dining table had been particularly laid at the further end, and Della found a bowl of salad and some rolls and fruit. Luis appeared just as she sat down, and served her coffee from a percolator he had left simmering on a side table. 'Her ladyship said she would see you later,' he remarked in his abrupt way. 'By that, I suppose she means at dinner,' he added with a sniff of disapproval. 'You'll find something to do, I suppose?' he queried gruffly as if to suggest he hoped Della wasn't going to hang around the homestead.
Della felt more unwanted than before, but she managed to give him a bright smile. 'Oh, I'll find something to do, Luis—er—away from the homestead, I mean,' she added, not quite able to suppress the bitterness she felt.
Giving her a straight look, Luis, as if not quite sure of her mood, muttered, 'This is your home now, Mrs Tarn —you please yourself.'
Della answered that straight look with one of her own. 'So everyone tells me,' she said dryly, and added firmly, 'My name's Della, Luis. Please call me that, and not Mrs Tarn.'
Luis started removing the remains of what had probably been Cora's lunch. 'Cal's orders,' he said softly. 'And Cal's the boss.'
On that disturbing statement he left Della to her solitary meal, and with a lot on her mind.
CHAPTER SIX
AFTER lunch, Della wandered round to the stables to find David, and the horse that Cal had deemed a suitable mount for her.
She found the mare in the saddling area. It would, thought Della, give a three-year-old thrust into the saddle for the first time in its life a great deal of pleasure!
Patting its grey muzzle and talking gently to the aged animal, she met the rueful eyes of David as he came out of the stables to join them.
`So this is Star,' she commented idly. 'I can see I shall have my work cut out in controlling her.'
Grinning, David said quickly, 'Sure, she's a real goer—or she was when I was a nipper
Della sighed, and stroked the muzzle that had nuzzled her hand. 'Oh, well, I wasn't planning on entering any races this season.'
'Why didn't you tell him about the snake?' David asked suddenly. 'We've got some real beauts in the outer paddocks—he'd have given you one of them.'
This, thought Della, could be awkward. She didn't want Cal to know about the snake, and if she were to act out her role of novice, she would have to gain David's co-operation. She bit her lower lip while she tried to come up with a plausible explanation.
'Covering up for her, was you?' he asked with the frown Della was becoming familiar with each time he mentioned Cora. 'She's not worth it,' he stated baldly. 'Don't know why Cal lets her hang around. It's not as if she's nowhere to go; her place is over yonder—still,' his frown became ferocious, 'I guess they don't want her around either.'
Cora, thought Della, certainly seemed to have the knack of gathering friends around her! As for the r
eason Cal 'let her hang around' as he had put it, David seemed to have missed out on the love angle, but then boys of his age usually did. To him Cora was just a nuisance, much as Della's presence was to Cal.
Della was grateful that David had accepted her silence on the subject of the snake as a cover-up for Cora's mischief-making, and even more grateful when the subject was changed.
'Like to see them horses I was telling you about?' he asked.
Della nodded.
'Right!' he said with a small air of importance in his voice that made her want to smile. 'You ride towards that paddock you left Silas in this morning, and I'll follow you down.'
Mounting Star, Della made for the paddock and at steady pace of her mount she was able to observe David collect and mount a roan that had been tethered to a post beyond the stables. She particularly noticed the way the boy swung himself into the saddle although the roan was already on the move, almost, she mused, like a circus act, and yet it was a natural movement.
A few seconds later he joined her, reining his horse to a steady trot to keep pace with Star's dignified but slow performance.
'Know an Arab when you see one?' he asked a little nonchalantly.
Here again Della had to be careful. It wouldn't do to appear too knowledgeable. She frowned slightly. 'I think so, but I'm not sure,' she said hesitatingly.
David grinned in huge delight. 'That's what these are. Cal breeds 'em.'
Shortly afterwards they were standing beside the white fencing of the paddock, and gazing at a group of horses gathered at the further end peacefully grazing. Della's eyes took in the white blaze on their foreheads, their lovely big eyes, and long blond manes. These were Arabians indeed, and Della didn't think she had ever seen such fine specimens. Cal could, and probably did, name his price for these animals, and whatever it was, he would get it, she thought.
'See how their heads are shorter,' explained David, intent on giving Della a lesson on horseflesh. 'And their ears are smaller, and see how they hold their tails up and away from the rear.'
