Australian Odyssey

by Pauline Saull

  Dorothy chuckled. “I don’t think I actually said that. You’ve looked into those eyes…” She sighed. “Probably, if I was forty years younger I’d have gladly given him the lake if he’d have taken me with it!”

  Ella giggled. “Stuff and nonsense! Oh, I almost forgot. When I spoke with him, I’m certain I caught a hint of southern England in his accent.”

  Dorothy shrugged. “I wouldn’t be surprised. What better way to cover your identity than to take up another tongue. And we Australians love your quaint way with words. The other day I heard a man talking about his apples and pears and it took me a while to work out he was really talking about stairs. Delightful!”

  “Mm. You say you’ve never been married, Dorothy, but I wonder if I may ask something?”

  “Ask what you will. We Australians have very few hang-ups, Ella!”

  Ella smiled. “I do like this openness, it’s so very different to what I’ve been used to. Well, I wonder, you see, if living a life alone…that is without male company, do you get lonely at all?”

  Dorothy put her glass down carefully. “No, I don’t, Ella. Let me explain. When I was twenty-five I fell madly in love with a woman, Alice, and she loved me in return. You look startled.”

  “Forgive my naivety, Dorothy. I’m sorry, please go on.”

  “Not much more to tell. Her parents found out and the family disappeared overnight. I never heard from her again. I thought my heart would break but of course that treacherous organ doesn’t do that, and so I poured all my energy into Woomba. My father had recently passed it on to me. He never knew about Alice. Had he done, no doubt he would have made sure I got nothing! As to your question, loneliness is merely a state of mind, I tell myself.”

  Ella nodded. “It’s a sad tale, Dorothy. Do you ever wonder how different your life would have been had Alice stayed?”

  “No, my dear. Though I do sometimes think I should have made the effort to be more amenable with men. Like I said earlier, if Lucas had been available to me, who knows? Perhaps I could have settled happily with a man. I would have loved children.”

  “Oh.” Ella swallowed over the lump in her throat. “Yes, I think perhaps one day…I passed a young woman on the way here, and seeing the tenderness on her face as she handled her child made me feel very empty indeed.”

  “Ella.” Dorothy reached for her hand. “You are a very attractive young woman. I’m sure one day you will have your heart’s desire.”

  “Yes.” Ella smiled. “Meanwhile, I’m lucky to have Woomba to keep me occupied! I won’t allow silly sentiments to bog me down. Now, I must make haste and collect my trusty steeds. Thank you for a lovely afternoon, Dorothy. I’ve enjoyed it.” She kissed her warmly. “Oh, before I go. How will you visit me now you no longer have Marmaduke?”

  Dorothy smiled. “You gave me such a good price for the farm and this cottage cost so little, I intend purchasing one of the new Daimler petroleum motorbikes. It’s on order at the moment. I shall be dashing around town like a mad thing when it arrives.”

  »»•««

  Ella pondered the conversation with Dorothy as she walked back into town. How dreadfully naïve I am, she thought, that the idea of Dorothy loving Alice shocked me so!

  Her life had been very sheltered, she now realized.

  She smiled, imagining Dorothy on a motorbike.

  The road leading to the blacksmith’s was in the side street just before the Railway Hotel, and Ella spotted Lucas standing on the sidewalk outside it, his back to her. She wondered briefly what brought him into town on a Saturday night dressed in smart casual trousers and white shirt. She heard his name called and a pretty, curly-haired girl dashed across the street to grab his arm. Gazing up at him, raised on tiptoe she kissed his cheek.

  Like a moth drawn to a flame, Ella’s gaze stayed fixed on the back of Lucas’ neck and as though feeling it, he turned. Even with the distance between them, Ella felt the intensity of the look in his blue eyes.

  Inclining his head slightly, he made a show of pulling the girl’s hand through the crook of his arm. Ella watched her toss her blonde curls as they disappeared into the hotel.

  She hurried down the side street, her heart pounding.

  Any foolish thoughts she’d harbored about taming him, putting him in his place, she could forget. Clearly, here was a man who, if he couldn’t charm one woman, quickly moved on to the next available one.

  At the stable yard her animals were ready and Ella climbed into the cart. Marmaduke, tied to the back, ambled along. Star pulled the cart with ease. Ella clicked her tongue, urging him forward. She couldn’t wait to get back to the comfortable safety of Woomba.

  »»•««

  The thought on Ella’s mind as she made a breakfast on Sunday morning was for some form of shelter for the two horses. She looked down at her full skirt and buttoned bodice. Useless for working in, but as she had nothing else, they would have to suffice. Closing the kitchen door, she made her way to the barn.

  One of the large pieces of canvas the removal men had covered her unwanted furniture with looked ideal for what she had in mind, and she hauled it off.

  The wooden lean-to in the paddock, which had been fine for Marmaduke, wouldn’t house Star also. Ella stood, hands on hips, weighing up the possibility of nailing the canvas to the roof with ropes on each corner. When pulled tight and secured to the thick branches of the nearby gum tree, she envisaged it making a fine shelter from sun and rain for her animals. Dragging the heavy canvas into the paddock, she smiled as she watched Star rolling over in the lush grass, legs kicking in the air. Marmaduke carried on eating, one eye on him.

  “How lucky I am,” Ella said to the horses. “The birds are singing, the sun shines from a clear blue sky, and I’m free! A wonderful sensation!” Marmaduke raised his head momentarily as Star carried on rolling.

  Back in the barn Ella collected a hammer, nails, a long coil of rope, a knife, and a pair of rickety steps, and made her laden way back to the paddock. With the sun almost directly overhead, perspiring profusely, it took her a long time to haul the heavy canvas sheet up and over the lean-to. Up and down the ladders, gasping with exertion, at last it was satisfactorily in place. Making a hole in each corner at the front, she attached the ropes, leaving them hanging until the canvas was nailed in place on the lean-to roof. Marmaduke and Star stood beneath the sparse shade of the gum, watching her with what appeared to be polite disinterest.

  “I’m doing this for you two,” she called. “Lord! It is so hot.” Pulling her skirt up, she wiped her face and surveyed her handiwork. Picking up the hammer and box of nails, Ella put them down again. After a quick scan of the quiet empty fields and orchard around her, she untied her thick cotton skirt and dropped it on the grass. Her skin rippled with pleasure beneath the light organza underskirt. Undoing the buttons down the bodice front, she discarded that also, exposing the lacy camisole which clung damply to her breasts. She opened the top three buttons, experiencing for the first time in her life the feel of the sun on her chest. Invigorated, collecting the nails and hammer again, she climbed up on the steps to start hammering the canvas in place at the same time as she launched into a song she loved.

  Singing had been forbidden in Thomas’ house, but the words, suppressed for so many years, had never been forgotten.

  Chapter Seven

  Sundays were a favorite time for Lucas. He enjoyed the laziness of the day, having the time to read the local news sheet, eating at his leisure, maybe a glass or two of beer. Sitting in the rocking chair on the shady back porch his thoughts turned to the previous evening. He knew Mary had felt let down, disappointed with his lack of enthusiasm when she’d pulled him off the dance floor into the corridor. Her soft arms wound around his neck and her pliant body pressed so close to his had done nothing and he’d held her away.

  “Kiss me, Lucas,” she’d said. And memories of forceful Collette Pallin had flooded over him. He’d tensed. Mary felt it and drew back. The rest of the evening had pass
ed with uncomfortable silences, and Lucas had breathed a sigh of relief when Mary accepted a walk home from the hotel with a group of people who lived near her.

  He gazed across to the distant hills in quiet contemplation. Seeing Ella Bickerstaff last night had disturbed him. When their eyes had held, locked, she’d stirred something deep inside him yet again, something he did not want, but from that very first meeting on the lane, that was the effect she’d had on him.

  No woman had ever managed to break through his outer shell before and he didn’t like the feeling of vulnerability it caused. Since meeting her, and far too often—especially when working—his thoughts drifted, imagining the feel of her in his arms, the luscious softness of her body pressed against his as their mouths melded, her gasps as their kiss deepened, and each time he’d become instantly aroused, felt out of control.

  “Ella,” he whispered, liking the feel of her name on his tongue.

  Lucas knew the feelings were lust, nothing more, yet why had he not satisfied that lust with Mary, compliant and eager as she was last night?

  He could not, however hard he tried, find an answer for that question.

  The notion of love entered his head, but he quickly dismissed it.

  To Lucas it was a ridiculous emotion which made fools out of men with weak minds and even weaker bodies. He picked up the beer glass, draining the contents. Here he was, at thirty-six, a successful man who’d never experienced what poets and writers would have you believe to be the greatest joy in a man’s life—the love of a woman.

  Lucas read widely and had always enjoyed the English poets with their words of passion and heartfelt desires, which didn’t, he assured himself, necessarily mean he wanted to experience the feelings behind those words. All the same…

  Suddenly, over the faint but haunting song of the butcherbird, he picked up the barely audible but unmistakable sound of singing, followed by the dull echo of a hammer hitting home.

  As there were no neighbors for miles, it could only be Ella. Intrigued, smoothing his hair back and tucking his shirt tighter in his pants, Lucas walked across the stockyard, through the field and woods to the adjoining fence, which he clambered over with ease. As he crossed through the small wooded area sheltering Ella’s house from his land, her voice became clearer.

  He recognized the tune, felt his heartbeat quicken as she sweetly sang ‘Greensleeves’.

  On the edge of the woodland he stopped. In the paddock, Ella, busy banging nails in the roof frame, had her back to him. Stretching and arching, the skin of her back showed where the two flimsy garments parted, and Lucas watched in fascination as the calves of her slim legs tightened, her taut buttocks straining against the undergarments.

  He’d made no sound but without warning she turned round. He saw her mouth open in horror at the same time as the steps wobbled, and with a loud ‘oooh,’ she tumbled to the ground.

  Lucas raced over. “Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere?” It was impossible to keep his eyes from the full breasts straining against the almost sheer lace bodice which had opened, revealing pink nipples peeking through. His mind swam.

  “Of course I’m all right, you fool! How dare you trespass on my land spying on me in a state of undress,” Ella fumed. She sat up.

  Lucas’ blue eyes twinkled. “I’m not in a state of undress.”

  “Not you. Me!” Ella held the two flapping pieces of lace across herself.

  Lucas held out a hand, which she took, but when he hauled her to her feet she grimaced.

  “You are hurt.”

  “No I am not!” Ella held onto the lean-to with her free hand. Her hair had tumbled freely around her shoulders, and she was well aware that her new neighbor could see more of her than Thomas Bickerstaff in seven years of marriage ever had.

  “I asked,” she repeated, “why you are trespassing?”

  “Mm.” Lucas pulled his ear lobe. “Well I was curious as to why you didn’t turn up for dinner last night and also intrigued by the noise, thought I’d make a friendly call on a neighbor.”

  Ella glared at him, her eyes flashing. “I didn’t come to dinner because I was busy. The noise, as you can see, is my attempt at a shelter for my horses. And I don’t call this a friendly call! In future please approach me in the correct manner, at my front door like a gentleman instead of creeping around in the bushes like an escaped convict.”

  The twinkle in Lucas’ eyes disappeared, leaving them like shards of grey flint, and Ella caught her breath. Muscles in his jaw clenched and she took a step back, flinching as her foot took the weight.

  Something had happened to her ankle.

  She saw him look at her foot and said, “Please go.”

  “I may not be the sort of gentleman you’re used to, madam,” Lucas retorted coldly, “but I will not leave a woman in pain to limp back home alone.” And with one easy movement he picked her up, one arm tucked under her legs, the other around her waist.

  “Oh!” The movement exposed her breast and Ella gasped, trying to cover herself. Lucas, eyes straight ahead, strode to the house.

  “Please, put me down. Lucas…Mr. Helm. I haven’t finished the shelter…”

  “Be quiet! You’ve said quite enough for one day.”

  Ella pulled her lip between her teeth. From the corner of her eye, so close to his face, she could see the dark blond stubble of hair developing over his jaw, noticed the finely shaped mouth, and surprisingly for a blond, thick black lashes and brows.

  Lucas pushed her front door open with his foot and walked to the sofa, where he placed her none too ceremoniously.

  Oh!” Ella bounced lightly.

  Lucas ignored her. Bending, he took hold of her swollen foot, his hands warm and very gentle as he carefully touched the taut skin. Ella stared fascinated at the point where her foot lay in his lap, close to the buttons on his trousers…at the swelling…He looked up, their eyes locked briefly.

  “Do you have anything to bandage this with? I think you’ve sprained it.” He lowered her foot gently to the floor.

  “Well, yes, but it’s in my bedroom.”

  His eyebrows rose, challenging her.

  Ella looked away. “In the large dresser, top drawer,” she said.

  Lucas jumped up and as she watched his slim rear in the tight leather trousers, something deep inside her stirred deliciously.

  He returned within seconds, walked through to the kitchen and soaked the bandage. Coming back, dragging a chair forward he sat down, lifting her foot onto his knee this time. Ella could see her ankle was quite swollen, but his capable hands were surprisingly tender as he carefully bound it.

  She closed her eyes. His touch felt wonderful, soothing, momentarily helping her to forget the pain and she clamped her lips, but couldn’t stop a small moan escaping.

  “Don’t fret. It will soon heal,” Lucas said, and Ella hid a smile. He’d mistaken the soft sound of pleasure for one of pain.

  Expertly, he finished winding the bandage around her foot. “Try not to put too much pressure on it for the rest of the day.” He looked at her face. “You need some clothes.”

  Ella pulled the rug from the back of the sofa and wrapped it around herself. “This will suffice, thank you.”

  He shrugged and rose to his feet. “Then I’ll bid you good day.”

  “Wait, I…”

  He turned. “Yes?”

  “Nothing. Thank you. You’ve been most kind.”

  His face was unreadable. He ambled to the door, and with a backward wave was gone. Alone in the quiet house, Ella unaccountably felt tears threatening. She had a half-finished shelter and how could she see to the horses now in this state? Trying her foot to the floor hurt. It looked as though there was nothing else for it but to spend the day and night on the sofa. She huddled down, tried not to think about Marmaduke and Star out in the open.

  Within minutes, on hearing hammering, a smile broke out on her face. The reassuring noise went on for twenty minutes. Her heartbeat quickened at the th
ought that he’d surely come back to tell her when he’d finished the shelter. She resolved to be sweet and polite when he did. Running her fingers through her hair, she waited, and waited.

  »»•««

  Back at his ranch, walking through the yard, Lucas met Jonnie.

  “I have a favor to ask of you,” he said. “Follow me.”

  In the kitchen, he took out a plate, filling it with a piece of cold chicken, asparagus, radishes, and lettuce. Jonnie looked on patiently.

  “Mrs. Bickerstaff had a fall. She’ll be off her feet at least for the rest of the day. Will you take this to her please, Jonnie?” He covered it with a clean cloth. “Oh, and you might pick up her clothes too. They’re lying on the grass by the lean-to. If you heard hammering, I temporarily finished what she started. Tell her the horses have their shelter and are fed and watered.”

  Jonnie, his face impassive, said, “Sure, Boss.”

  From the porch Lucas watched him walk down to the paddock. Turning, he strode through the house to the back where the cold rainwater trough glinted invitingly. Shrugging off his clothes he jumped in, appreciating the shock to his system.

  He needed it.

  The sight of Ella’s dainty foot, the slender ankle, and oh, the feel of her satiny skin, the full breasts and rosy pink, peeping nipples! Taking a deep breath he ducked his head under the water.

  »»•««

  Ella had been dozing when she heard the footsteps and the tap on the door. Her heart leapt. Sitting up, anticipation on her face, she called out, “Come in.”

  “Hi. I’m Jonnie, Lucas’ stockman.” The tall figure appeared, smiling in the doorway. “The Boss asked me to bring this snack to keep you going. And I collected your clothes,” he added with unconcealed curiosity.

  Ella swallowed her disappointment. “Hello Jonnie, pleased to meet you. This is most kind of both you and Lucas.” She looked at the plate and the discarded dress hanging over his arm. “Thank you. I shall enjoy the food, I’m hungry. You can put the dress on the chair.” Ella gave him a demure smile. “Would you care to join me? In the kitchen there are glasses and a bottle of cordial. I should appreciate a little convivial company.”