From Glowing Embers

by Emilie Richards

  * * *

  The Bartow farm was the closest property to Flinders Chase. But "close" was deceptive when it meant seven miles of corrugated gravel roads and dirt tracks that wound through thick stands of mallee scrub and eucalyptus and pine forest. The main road to the park accounted for four of the miles, the drive leading to the farm's homestead the other three. On the advice of her landlord, Peter Bartow, who lived in Victor Harbor on the South Australian coast and held the Kangaroo Island land as investment property, Alexis had bought a brand new four-wheel-drive wagon. The shocks had been worthless in a week.

  From the first moment Alexis had stepped off the ferry to gaze at the island that was to be her new home, she had felt like a stranger. Since that had been the whole point of coming to Australia, she had refused to let herself be overwhelmed by loneliness and a longing for the familiar. She had tried to accept each facet of her new life with grace and patience. Grace and patience ended abruptly when it came to the Kangaroo Island roads, however. Only a little of the island had anything as civilized as asphalt. The rest was a maze of gravel lanes or, worse, deeply rutted dirt paths.

  Getting anywhere was a major expedition. For a city woman used to having civilization at her fingertips, the roads were a symbol of Alexis's new and profound isolation.

  Now, after miles of teeth jarring jolts, she pulled to a stop in front of the fading-to-gray frame house that was her new home. Before she had turned the key to silence the engine, Jody was out of the car. Alexis watched her crash through the underbrush, and, with resignation for what they might see, she got out to follow.

  The koala was still alive, its dark eyes a chastisement.

  "The ranger'll be here in a few minutes," Jody told the animal. "He's going to take care of you."

  Alexis kept a careful eye on the little girl as she carried on her soothing monologue, reaching out once to halt her when Jody got too close. "Listen, I hear a car," she said when Jody's stream of reassurances had almost petered out.

  Jody peeked through the bushes. "A truck—ute," she corrected herself. "Sometimes I forget."

  Very rarely, Alexis thought. Jody had taken to the Australian vocabulary with enthusiasm. But then, she had shown a remarkable facility for languages from the moment they had begun spending weeks in places with names like Bora Bora and Waimauri. The long and circuitous trip to Kangaroo Island had been a nightmare for Alexis but one marvelous adventure for Jody.

  "It's the ranger," Jody announced.

  "Mr. Haley."

  "He came quick." Jody pushed aside the bushes as Matthew descended from his ute. "We're over here."

  If the ranger was surprised to be summoned through a dense growth of scrub, he didn't show it. He had pulled on a khaki shirt sporting a park insignia on its left sleeve, and he carried a burlap sack and rope in one hand and a small black bag in the other. He was all Boy Scout preparedness and clean-cut good looks. He was also all business.

  "Step back, please," he said with no additional greeting.

  Alexis moved to one side, taking Jody with her. "He's still alive," Jody said, wriggling out of her mother's grasp to peer over the ranger's shoulder as he squatted to get a closer look at the koala.

  Then he moved even closer. He began to speak reassuringly to the little animal.

  Alexis was stunned by the warmth, the sympathy, in his voice. It was hard to believe this was the same man who had almost shut his door in their faces.

  "That's right, mate, we'll take care of you. There's nothing for it, though. We're going to have to bundle you up in this bag until I can put you in a cage for the trip back to the park. No worries, though. You might be a bit crook now, but we'll have you climbing trees again in no time." Mathew reached out to touch the koala, frowning when it didn't try to escape.

  Jody couldn't see the frown, but she explained the koala's lack of response anyway. "He knows you're trying to help," she told Matthew. "He'll let you."

  Matthew could feel the little girl right behind him. She was almost leaning against his back. He wanted to snap at her and tell her to stand clear, but he couldn't make himself do it. She was so concerned, and he couldn't make himself add to her unhappiness. He sat back on his heels and opened the sack, reaching in for a pair of thick leather gloves. "I'm going to have to take him back to the Chase. We can care for him there and see what his problem is. He won't want me to move him, and koalas can be quite nasty when they're disturbed. You'd both better wait on the porch.''

  "But he knows me," Jody said. "He'll feel better if I'm here."

  Alexis reached for the little girl's hand and tugged her toward an opening in the scrub. "Come on, honey. You'll need to do as Mr. Haley says."

  "But he knows me!"

  Alexis did the only thing possible under the circumstances. She picked Jody up and started toward the house. Matthew turned to watch her go, reluctantly admiring the way she had taken charge of the situation. She seemed almost too slight to bear the burden of the little girl's weight, but she managed without complaint, like a woman who had always managed alone. For the first time he wondered what circumstances had brought her here, and why she was making her home in this godforsaken spot on an isolated island in the Southern Hemisphere.

  Then he turned back to the koala, all thoughts forgotten except how he was going to rescue the animal.

  On the porch, Jody tried to wriggle out of her mother's arms. "But I didn't want to leave," she said for the fourteenth time.

  "Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to." Alexis set her daughter down but wisely didn't take her hands off her. "You know that. Sometimes you have to do what other people tell you because you're not always right."

  "I almost always am."

  "You almost always think you are," Alexis corrected. "Now, can I trust you to stay here without disturbing Mr. Haley?"

  Jody's expression was rebellion incarnate, but she nodded, and Alexis knew she'd stay. "I'm going inside to start breakfast. Call me when Mr. Haley is finished." She cupped her hand under Jody's chin. "Come on. Smile."

  "Is that one of those things I have to do?"

  "Tis."

  The smile was reluctant and brief. Alexis bent to kiss the heart shaped face so like her own, then went inside to set the table. It was only minutes until she heard Jody's call. When she emerged from the house, Jody was in the drive, watching the unsmiling ranger transfer the koala from the burlap sack to a wooden cage in the back of his truck.

  "What's wrong with him? Do you know? Will he be all right?"

  Alexis hurried off the porch to rescue the ranger from Jody's questions, but he was already answering them.

  "I'm guessing he'll be fine. You don't need to worry."

  "Can I come see him?"

  Alexis reached Jody just as the little girl noticed a bandage on the koala's shoulder. "What's the bandage for?" she asked accusingly.

  Matthew fastened the lock on the cage before he turned. His eyes sought Alexis's, and she knew he was trying to phrase his answer carefully. "He was bleeding," he said finally, turning his gaze to Jody.

  "What from?"

  "A bullet hole."

  Alexis drew in a sharp breath, and she instinctively reached for the little girl. But Jody had already figured the worst. "Poachers?" she asked, her high childish voice at odds with the adult word. "Was it poachers?"

  Matthew frowned, puzzled. "How did you know that?"

  "Koalas are protected. Only a poacher would shoot one."

  He looked to Alexis for explanation. "She reads everything," Alexis told him, shrugging. "Is she right?"

  He nodded, and concern broke through his carefully neutral expression. "I'm afraid so. This isn't the first koala that's been shot at, and I doubt it will be the last. It takes a ruthless man to kill one. Until we find out who's behind it, you may want to reconsider living way out here by yourself."

  "Why? It's koala skins he wants, isn't it?"

  "Right. But you might as well be a koala if you get between one and the
man who wants it. A poacher's bullet could be as deadly to a woman or child as to an animal. And next time our poaching friend might do more than injure his target."