Heartbreak Homestead (Hearts of the Outback Book 2)

by Susanne Bellamy

  “I’m on it. Your shout at the pub tomorrow.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “So tell me, Mrs. Carter, what led to your sudden marriage after the reading of Donna Campbell’s will?” Linda Minchkin of the DCS looked up from her laptop and waited.

  Lizzy had talked about this one key question at length with Alex and decided to stick as close to the truth as possible. “Alex and I hadn’t decided to get married before Donna’s death which came, as you know, hard on the heels of the death of my brother. Her suicide was a terrible shock. But—”

  Suicide—death—murder—

  The implications of last night’s discovery filled her with fear for her nephew and only Alex’s arms around her had held her together when they crawled into bed long after midnight. Lizzy sucked in a breath and held it. Chest aching, her vision clouded. She couldn’t think, couldn’t move.

  Alex took her hand and squeezed, and edged closer. The heat of his thigh along hers, his murmured “I’m here, Lizzy. It’s okay,” pushed back the nightmare of the double deaths. And the possibility that someone had killed Jeb to keep him silent.

  She slid her tongue over her dry lips and exhaled. Another breath in and another slow release. Lizzy raised her chin and met the case worker’s compassionate gaze. “I’m sorry, two deaths within such a short time in my family sometimes overwhelms me. After Donna’s death, Alex asked me to marry him. We’re both happy with the decision to raise Dan as our son.”

  Linda Minchkin typed on her keyboard and turned a page on her handwritten notes. She turned to Alex. “Have you planned a honeymoon and what will you do with Dan?”

  A bubble of anxiety rose in Lizzy. Honeymoon? They had scarcely buried Donna and this woman was asking about their honeymoon? “Do you really think—?”

  Alex’s voice smoothly rose over hers and he squeezed her hand. “Under the circumstances we didn’t plan a honeymoon. Dan was, and is, our first priority. At some future time, we may reconsider. Dan will, naturally, accompany us. We are a family unit, Ms. Minchkin, and we will travel together.”

  “Very commendable, Mr. Carter. So you and your wife are willing to—” Dan’s grizzly wake-up cry interrupted her question. “That sounds like the baby is awake. Would you bring him in please, Mrs. Carter?”

  Alex lifted her hand to his lips and stood. “You stay here, babe. I’ll get Dan.”

  What was Alex up to? Lizzy’s gaze followed him down the hallway until he turned into the nursery.

  The case worker turned back to face Lizzy. “Frankly, I was sceptical about the reason for your marriage before I got here, Mrs. Carter.”

  “Why? Because we chose to marry quickly?”

  “Yes. But seeing the two of you together, it’s clear you genuinely love one another. If I was ten years younger . . .” The woman’s voice continued without Lizzy hearing another word.

  ‘Love one another.’ Love?

  As the staggering realisation hit Lizzy, she clenched her hands in her lap. She’d committed the ultimate sin of falling in love with Alex. Her six-month husband.

  “Don’t you agree?”

  What had the woman said? “Uh, yes.”

  “I thought you would. I find it most compelling when an adoptive father not only shares the parenting but does it willingly. That’s a very special man you have there.” Ms. Minchkin closed her laptop and slipped it into a capacious handbag.

  The DCS worker looked at Lizzy and opened her mouth. Something about her stiff posture and her small frown sparked Lizzy’s curiosity.

  Linda Minchkin leaned towards Lizzy. “I shouldn’t say this; it would be construed as speaking out of turn but I have strong reservations about placing Dan with the Taits. That family is full of repressed anger. I felt it as soon as I walked in the door. Whereas here—this is a home filled with love.”

  Alex joined them and sat beside Lizzy. “What have you ladies discussed while we males were having a man-to-man chat?”

  Dan nestled into his shoulder, big blue eyes wide as he reached for Alex’s nose. “No you don’t, little mate.” Alex captured the tiny hand gently in his large one and settled Dan’s back against his stomach.

  Words failed Lizzy. In this house where her own father had beaten her, and Jeb and their mother, Alex cradled her nephew on his lap as though he was the most precious person in the world.

  In her head, she answered Alex’s question. ‘Linda Minchkin ogled your backside and I realised I love you.’

  She cleared her throat and lowered her gaze to Dan. Alex had dressed him in a sleeveless lemon all-in-one over a white singlet and her nephew lay trustingly on Alex’s lap, all toothless grin and questing fingers patting and grabbing Alex’s big hand.

  Handbag held firmly over her shoulder, Linda Minchkin rose and shook hands with each of them. “I think we’ve covered the requirements. Thanks for providing everything we asked for. I’ll be in touch.”

  They walked her out to the veranda where her pilot reclined on a drover’s chair, empty glass in hand.

  At their approach, he stood and stretched. “Ready to go, Ms. Minchkin?”

  “Yes, thanks. Goodbye, Mr. and Mrs. Carter.” She tickled Dan under the chin and he kicked both legs in glee. “And goodbye to you, Dan. You’re a lucky baby.”

  Alex handed Dan into Lizzy’s arms and followed their visitors to the car. “Back soon, Lizzy.”

  Raising a hand in farewell she watched the car turn onto the track to the airstrip. She dropped kisses on Dan’s head, and pressed her cheek against his. No matter what happened, she had to keep her secret from Alex. “Oh, Danny boy, what am I going to do?”

  ##

  She’d officially been in love with her six-month husband for four days, three nights and one hour. And she couldn’t tell him. But she could drink in the view.

  Through the window, Lizzy’s gaze hungrily followed him as he reached up and shook hands with two men on horseback. She gripped the edge of the sink and held her breath as he leaned over to pat the dog accompanying the riders. Tall and lean, what he did for denim could be bottled and sold. When he was in the house she buried herself in cleaning and baking against the return of the stockmen. And every night they made love in the dark as she bit back the damning words she allowed only in her head. Words that Alex wouldn’t thank her for. She closed her eyes and pressed a hand over her foolish heart. How the men she’d dated and dumped would laugh if they could see Lizzy caught in unrequited love.

  “Lizzy, the stockmen are back.”

  She spun around at the sound of his voice in the room. Lost in her reverie, she almost let her guard down and ran into his arms.

  “Pete said he needs to speak to you urgently.” Alex removed his hat and wiped his forearm across his brow.

  Lizzy put down the vegetable peeler and wiped her hands on a towel. Carefully stepping around Alex, she opened the freezer. “I’d better get some steaks out. I’ll bet the men are hungry for a decent meal.” Cooking for the hordes would add to her workload but it might relieve the tension clawing at her guts. Fearful of betraying herself to Alex, she’d made it her mission to scrub the homestead from top to bottom. Each day of the past week, another room gleamed.

  Yesterday, he’d come in from the shed and wrapped his arms around her waist. ‘You’re working too hard, Lizzy. Leave some time for us.’

  ‘This place has been neglected for too long. If I don’t care for it, who will?’ He’d frowned and she could see the puzzlement in his gaze as he shrugged and returned to his work. Feeling guilty but unable to reveal her feelings for Alex, she’d scrambled back up the ladder and turned her attention to cleaning the ceiling rose.

  Love wasn’t part of the deal he’d agreed to. She wouldn’t burden Alex by dumping that on him. In a little over four months, he’d move on and she’d be left with Dan and a heap of heartache. It was her fault.

  And so she scrubbed until, exhausted at the end of each day, she turned the lights off and tumbled into bed before Alex emerged from the shower.
If he didn’t see her face as he made love to her, she couldn’t betray her secret.

  The screen door banged and boots scraped on the boards of the back veranda.

  Alex stuck his head around the doorway and called, “Come on through, Pete, Len. We’re in the kitchen.”

  Lizzy tipped several freezer packets of steak into the sink and filled the kettle as Alex took mugs from the cupboard. He carried them across and placed them on the bench.

  Leaning into her personal space, his arm brushed hers. “Do you want me to go, Lizzy?”

  Her hand jerked and sugar spilled across the counter top. If she had her way, he’d never leave but that response would send him running for the coast. “What? Why would I want you to go?”

  “Thought you might want to meet your workers without me hanging around. After all, it’s your property.”

  For the first time in days, she allowed herself to meet his gaze. Her breath hitched at the hunger in the dark depths, and the tight control in the tense set of his shoulders. Without thinking, she raised a hand to his cheek and leaned in. “Please stay.”

  ‘With me’, she added silently. ‘Forever.’

  He covered her hand and dropped a light kiss into her palm as the stockmen entered. Alex introduced Len and Pete and they shook hands with Lizzy. Pete, a grizzled jackeroo, edged closer to the door.

  Alex closed the gap and jerked a thumb towards the outdoors. “Shall we move our meeting outside onto the veranda?”

  “Good idea, mate.” Pete retreated quickly and Len followed.

  Still flustered by Alex’s simple kiss, Lizzy nodded. “I’ll bring a tray out in a minute.”

  “Hope you didn’t mind. Pete seemed uncomfortable inside the house. Might be claustrophobic.”

  “Not a problem.” Alex paused at the door and opened his mouth as though to say more, then pressed his lips together and left her alone. She added a plate of homemade ginger slice beside the coffee mugs, took a deep breath, and lifted the tray. No matter what fear and speculation hung over her head, it was time to act like the new owner of ‘Craeborn’.

  Head high and smile in place, she joined the men and set the tray on the veranda table around which Alex had set four chairs. As she poured the coffee, she asked, “Help yourselves. So, aside from meeting the new boss, what’s urgent?”

  Pete appeared more relaxed as his gaze moved from staring out through the screen to meet hers. “You look a lot like Jeb. Reckon you couldn’t mistake the pair of you for brother and sister.”

  “I hope appearance is all we have in common.” Jeb’s attitudes had mirrored their father’s and Lizzy loathed the changes she’d seen from her childhood playmate to the abusive man she’d met only once.

  “And the boy. Jeb’s son. We heard you’ve brought him home. Word is you’re adopting him.” Pete flicked a glance at Len, who held his mug between both hands and nodded.

  Beneath the table, Alex’s knee nudged hers. Unsure how much he wanted to reveal about himself, she let him reply. “Lizzy is Dan’s aunt. Donna was living with her when she passed away.”

  Neatly done, Alex. Focus on Dan.

  “That’s part of the problem, according to Tait’s men. We met Josh’s team out near the boundary. He’s Tait’s foreman. Blokes from the Stock Squad have been through testing dams on Tait’s property and one said ‘Craeborn’ stock had been poisoned.”

  Pleased to hear Detective Richards had been as good as his word, Lizzy focused on the issues of running her property. Poison and stock were easier to deal with than her errant emotions. “It was Alex’s herd that drank contaminated water. So far, it seems to have been an isolated incident.”

  Len pursed his lips. “Probably meant for our stock. Bet he didn’t know Jeb had moved your herd a few days before he topped himself.”

  “He? Do you know who’s responsible for the contamination?” Alex tensed as he put down his mug.

  Lizzy gasped and linked her hands tightly together and shoved them between her knees. Len’s bald statement touched a raw nerve but probably not the way Len imagined. He didn’t know what she and Alex suspected.

  “Um, sorry, didn’t mean it to come out like that.” Len’s gaze dropped and he slurped his coffee.

  Pete picked up the narrative. “Josh told me on the QT he suspects old man Tait. For years he’s loathed the Campbells.”

  Donna had told her there was no love lost between her father and Mac Campbell. The surprise was that her sister-in-law had managed not only to meet Jeb, but to build a relationship and marry him.

  “Donna said my brother reciprocated the feeling and her father cut her off after she married Jeb.” Lizzy’s head throbbed at so much hatred. Did Tait still hate her family so much he’d tried to ruin their livelihood and murdered Jeb to cover up his crime?

  “Goes way back before then; before you and Jeb were born. Sanderson Tait was in love with your mother and planned to marry her. She chose Mac Campbell, rest her soul.” Pete crossed himself and reached for a piece of ginger slice.

  Len leaned his arms on the table and cut to the chase. “Me and the boys want to know if you want some of us to camp out near Big Hole and keep an eye on the main water supply?”

  Lizzy looked from the stockmen to Alex. “It could be a good idea. Alex, I know you arranged for your herd to be moved to a clean water site while you were in hospital, but do you want them closer to the homestead until this is resolved?”

  “I’d prefer to camp out for a few nights rather than move them again. Each change of location creates variables that affect our research results.”

  Camping out would give Lizzy breathing space and time to come up with a plan. Alex didn’t have to live under the same roof all the time to fulfil the requirements for Dan’s adoption, but she would miss him.

  Pete took the last piece of slice and held it. “I’d be happy to tag along, if that’s okay with the boss lady? Unless you’ve got anything around here needs doing?” He bit the piece in two and crunched away, a smile settling on his face.

  “No, you go, Pete. Okay, then it’s settled. Tonight we’ll have a decent cook up here and in the morning, you’ll all head out to the water holes. Dan and I will hold the fort.” With a calm she wasn’t feeling, Lizzy rose and cleared the plates and mugs and carried them through to the kitchen. She’d miss Alex like she’d miss air for the short time he’d be gone. But she’d better start getting used to not having him around.

  How did she expect to go on when their arrangement ended in four months?

  Chapter Fourteen

  Strewn across the night sky, stars glittered bigger and brighter and more plentiful than Alex could see from his home in Brisbane. A small campfire crackled cheerfully in the circle of stones and the aroma of brewing coffee rose as he leaned against his saddle. Pete’s dog dropped beside him and Alex ran his hands over the dusty black and white coat. “Reckon Patch will hear anyone before we do. How long have you had him?”

  Pete cleaned his plate and put it back in the camp box. “Five, maybe six years. Got him as a pup from a litter Jeb raised. He bred good dogs. Won a few ribbons in the shows with those he trained.”

  “And the ones he didn’t keep?”

  “Sold them. He had a good name as a breeder of working dogs. ‘Course it was a sideline to the cattle but he cared for all animals.”

  “Pity he didn’t take as good care of his wife.”

  Pete snorted and banged the lid closed. “Don’t you go believing those rumours. Jeb wasn’t like his father.”

  “Lizzy saw Donna’s bruises. And she was there when Jeb pulled a gun on the Flying Doctor when he wanted to fly Donna into hospital. Doesn’t sound like the same man you’re talking about.”

  “People like to believe the worst. Jeb wasn’t a saint but he wasn’t a wife-beater like his father. Say what you like, he had good blood in him from his mother.”

  “If Jeb wasn’t to blame for Donna’s beating, then who was?”

  Pete popped in a couple of pieces of c
hewing gum and leaned back against his saddle. “Her father, Sanderson Tait.”

  “Are you saying Tait abused his pregnant daughter?”

  “Mean as a cut snake, that man is. Loathed everything about the Campbells from the day Maureen Wilmot chose Mac instead of him.”

  “But—his own daughter and grandchild? Why didn’t Jeb stop him?”

  “Jeb was out with us. One of the cows had a difficult labour and Jeb—well, you might say he has—had—the touch when it came to animals in pain. Tait visited the homestead and gave his daughter an ultimatum. Go home with him and divorce Jeb or never see her family again. He threatened to stop her seeing her mum and sister.”

  “And then he beat her? What a bastard. But how do you know all this?”

  “Millie. She’s married to a mate of mine and was Tait’s cook. She’d been with the family for years and she knew Donna since she was born. Millie had taken to popping over on her days off to help Donna in the last couple of months of her pregnancy. Tait found out and dismissed Millie.”

  “Why did Jeb not correct the lie? And more importantly, why did he hold a gun and demand that Donna had the baby at home?”

  “I wasn’t there but my guess is that poor little Donna was torn about never seeing her family again. If she stayed with Jeb, she’d lose her mum and sister, and if she left Jeb, it would have been like cutting out her heart. As for Jeb, he said he thought she might not come back to him if she went to Mt Isa to have the baby. He knew the pressure she was under right when she was most vulnerable.

  “Jeb loved that woman. She was his reason for living.”

  “Hang on. Lizzy told me Donna said she was in an abusive relationship.”

  “With her father. Not her husband. Those two were mad for each other. Reckon that’s why she killed herself. But Jeb—I don’t believe he killed himself. Not while there was hope for him and Donna.”

  Alex thought about the photo in pride of place on Jeb’s desk. Lizzy had picked up on the love between them but couldn’t reconcile it with what she’d seen when Dan was born. Which was the true character of Lizzy’s brother?