Wed in the outback volum.., p.27
Wed In the Outback, Volume 1, page 27
‘How did you leave it when you saw him in Marni?’
Eve huffed into her beer and promptly lowered it. Its scent made her stomach roll. Or was it Nate and the way he’d managed to get under her skin?
‘Honest answer—he said we should get ourselves husbands with an expiry date.’
She expected Rose to laugh or at least be as cross as she was.
But she was quiet. Contemplative.
‘You’re not seriously considering it?’
‘I won’t lie, Evie, the thought has occurred to me, too.’
‘You are joking!’
‘Would it really be so bad if it got us what we want?’
‘Please tell me you’re joking...’
But of course her sister wasn’t joking...this was precisely the reason Eve had come home. To ensure her sister didn’t do something so drastic to keep it.
But hearing her say it.
‘I don’t know.’ Rose shrugged. ‘Marriage for a set period and then being able to move on with our lives without this hanging over us, I can’t deny the appeal.’
‘Appeal? Have you heard yourself?’
‘I know, but I’m tired, Evie. Physically. Mentally. And what am I without this place?’
‘You’re a wonderful woman who deserves so much more than a forced marriage of convenience that wasn’t of your choosing.’
‘I choose this place, though.’
‘I know.’ And Eve did know, it was what worried her so much.
‘Have you come up with a better idea in the month you’ve been here?’
Eve’s heart launched into her throat. A month.
‘Has it really been a month?’
‘Time flies when you’re having fun, right?’
‘Yeah...’ Though Eve wasn’t really listening. She was doing the maths. A month equated to four weeks. Twenty-eight days and she hadn’t had a period.
And she was as regular as clockwork.
And... She raised the bottle to her lips, got the same whiff that sent her stomach churning.
No. No, she couldn’t be.
‘You want a Pinot Grigio instead?’ Rose said, spying her distaste. ‘We have plenty of Mum’s old favourite.’
‘No—no, I’m not in the mood.’
‘Really?’ Rose frowned, scrutinising Eve’s face. ‘Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine.’
‘You really don’t look so fine any more.’
‘Can you manage without me in the morning?’
‘Of course,’ her sister said, frown deepening. ‘How come?’
‘I need to pop into town.’
‘You’re going to try again with Harrington Junior?’
Eve gulped—sickness, unease, panic all rising up. ‘You never know.’
‘So long as you remember this isn’t all on you, Evie. We each have a role to play, whether it’s getting out of it or not. But I’m glad of it for one thing. It brought you back home, and for that I’m grateful.’
Eve’s smile quivered, her sister’s love battling against the inner panic.
‘Me too, Rose,’ she whispered, taking her sister’s hand and giving it a squeeze. Because she was. She had her sister back. Had found a place within the station again. But a baby. Pregnant. Her.
Tomorrow, she would buy a test, many tests...and then she would know for sure.
Though she suspected she already knew.
* * *
‘This is incredibly sweet of you, Mrs Cooper, but it’s really not necessary.’
‘Nonsense!’ the old woman said, shoving the Victoria sponge at him and giving Nate no choice but to take it. ‘With all the help your father gave us over the years, it’s the least I can do. You know, if it hadn’t been for him after my Charlie had fallen off that ladder and his company refused to pay out, I don’t know where we’d be now.’
‘So you’ve said.’
Several times over now. And Mrs Cooper wasn’t the only ‘client’ to swing by and tell him stories of his father’s generosity, and bring gifts, mainly of the richly unhealthy variety. No wonder his father’s health had taken a severe turn for the worse if he ate like this on a regular basis.
‘But, you see, it was your father who insisted he represent us. We couldn’t afford it. He took all the risk, did all the work and only took a fraction of what he was due. He was a godsend.’
A godsend. He’d heard his father called that many times over too. Or words to that effect. All of them effusive, all of them bearing no resemblance to the man he’d been brought up by.
And he wasn’t surprised their views differed because his father’s focus had always been on work, work and his clients, but these people weren’t paying clients. Not in the way Holt and his peers were.
This was pro bono.
The time it would have taken. Time when he’d resented his father for caring more about money and business than his own family.
Had he been wrong to judge his father so harshly?
But then how could he judge him any different—know any different—when his father had never been around?
With a tight smile, he acknowledged Mrs Cooper’s praise. ‘I’ll be sure to pass on your regards.’
‘You see that you do.’
‘Now, is there anything I can help you with?’
‘Oh, no, not at all.’ She gave him an eye-crinkling grin and reached out to pat his hand. ‘I was just passing and wanted to introduce myself. It’s good to know you’re here filling his extra-big shoes. We’re sure to be safe in Harrington hands.’
‘That you are, Mrs Cooper. Now I really must get back to work.’
Actual work because the past few weeks had been dominated by Mrs Coopers wanting to feed him up while waxing lyrical about his father. Probing mothers assessing him as husband material for their daughters, and husbands sent in by their wives for the same. And don’t get him started on the single ladies.
He ushered her towards the open door. ‘Penny, can you see this cake is stored somewhere safe?’ He slid it onto his receptionist’s desk and they shared a look that said, If this doesn’t stop, gym membership will need to be added to the employee benefit scheme.
‘I’ll pop some around to my father later,’ he assured them both.
‘Oh, that’s a lovely idea.’ Mrs Cooper beamed as he escorted her onto the street. ‘He really is such a wonderful man, so kind and generous and thoughtful.’
‘Goodbye, Mrs Cooper.’
He watched her amble away and scratched the back of his head. He was struggling to marry together the two versions of the man that was his father. Would have carried on debating it too if his senses hadn’t prickled as a blonde woman stepped out of the pharmacy across the way.
Head down, face mostly hidden by a dusty Akubra. He couldn’t see her features enough to identify her but there was something about her. Something that had him inexplicably drawn.
Maybe it was the hair. The way the golden hue caught the light as it fell in a loose ponytail at her nape. Or the way her tall and slender figure moved with the grace and confidence of a...swan.
Eve? But it couldn’t be. Dressed as she was. Bootcut jeans, a flannel shirt tucked in at the waist, dusty work boots, the hat...and yet—
‘Eve!’
Her name was out before he could think better of it. They’d hardly left things on good terms, and she’d ignored every call he’d made since. But as her lawyer, he needed to fix things. As her ex-lover, if you could call it that, he owed her much more.
Only, she wasn’t slowing. She was speeding up, the paper bag she was carrying clutched to her chest.
No doubt in his mind now, he leaned inside the office. ‘I’ll be back shortly, Penny.’
And legged it after her, narrowly missing a battered Jeep that honked its horn. He waved an apology, tried again. ‘Eve!’
He picked up his pace, caught up to her as she rounded a parked truck.
‘Eve, wait, please!’
She yanked the door open, tossed the bag inside and he stepped forward, fearing she was about to follow it in when she slammed it closed again and leaned back against the metal. Silently, she lifted her head, blue eyes blazing out from beneath the rim of her Akubra.
‘Look, I’m sorry for how we left things. I’ve been trying to get hold of you but—’
‘I’ve been busy.’
‘So I gather... Helping Rose with the station I take it?’
Because why else would she be dressed like so...
‘And we’re coping just fine, thank you.’
‘I didn’t doubt it. I’m just...’ he swallowed, chose his words carefully ‘...surprised to see you looking so different.’
She cocked her head. ‘You ran over here to comment on how I look?’
‘No—no, of course not. I ran over here to apologise. I didn’t want to hurt you, Eve. It was never my intention. I’d never have let things go so far if I’d known.’
‘That makes two of us.’
‘So if we agree on that, can we also agree to put it behind us and work together to move forward?’
‘Are you ready to forgo your father’s favour to help us?’
‘It’s not as easy as that.’
‘No?’
‘You don’t understand.’
‘What don’t I understand? Because last I checked you didn’t owe him anything.’
‘It seems...’ His eyes drifted to the front of Harrington Law, his head and heart at war with all that he had learned of late. ‘You know how you think you’ve known someone all your life, like really known them, and then...’ His eyes came back to hers that were spearing him, daring him to finish that thought. ‘Of course, you do, I’m sorry.’
‘And there I was thinking you were trying to dig a deeper hole... So your father’s not the man you thought either. This is my surprised face.’
He gave her a meek smile. ‘I didn’t mean to poke at an old wound.’
‘Don’t worry, this old wound has been opening up again ever since I returned.’
‘Yeah, well, mine doesn’t know whether it’s opening or closing or taking on a whole new shape.’
Her nose wrinkled. ‘This conversation has taken an icky turn.’
He gave a soft laugh, grateful for the slight thaw in her demeanour. ‘Fathers and their hidden lives.’
‘Mine had a whole other family, what was yours hiding from you?’
His mouth twisted up. ‘When I came here, I thought I was taking on a shrinking business. Dad’s big clients were going the way of your father and he wasn’t replacing them.’
‘Death becomes us all,’ she said smoothly, though she wasn’t as unaffected as she wanted him to believe. The flicker to her lashes giving her away, the defensive stance too as she crossed her arms.
‘True.’
‘I’m assuming this was your father’s wind-down plan though. He wouldn’t want to leave anyone in the lurch when he retired?’
‘Again true, though he thought he had a few more years in him.’
‘But life had other ideas...’
‘Yes.’
‘Hence your secondment.’
‘It’s more than a secondment.’
‘So you say, though I find it hard to believe you can give up somewhere like Sydney for the backwaters of Marni.’ She had the decency to look a little sheepish as she checked she hadn’t been overheard. ‘It’s not like it doesn’t have a certain appeal, but compared to the hustle and bustle of the city, the life...?’
‘I always intended to return one day, Eve, make a life here. I don’t want a family in a place where I can’t let my kids roam free for traffic and people. My—’
Her sudden pallor had him frowning, silencing his spiel.
‘You were saying,’ she said, her voice muted, her arms hugging her middle tighter.
What was wrong with her?
‘Nate?’
He pressed on, still distracted by her reaction but determined to make her understand his life’s ambition. ‘My intention was to make Harrington Law into something deserving of my name over the door. I wasn’t doing it to make my father proud. Work was everything to him and I set out to prove it didn’t have to be. That I could have a successful business and, eventually, a family. The whole package. And I’d do it better than him, because I’d never neglect those that I love to achieve it.’
‘It’s a lovely ideal,’ she whispered.
‘It’s more than an ideal, it’s my future. One I’ll see happen, but I never envisaged my father playing any role in it. He was always so distant.’
‘And now?’
‘Now it seems my father isn’t the man I thought, or he is, but there’s another side to him, one I never saw...’
‘And one that changes how you feel?’
‘I don’t know. All I know is that high-paying clients like Holt gave him the income to support those who couldn’t afford his services. When he wasn’t working for your father et al, he was working for the locals. Sometimes free of charge, sometimes to cover costs alone, sometimes in exchange for cake, but always working.’
Eve’s mouth quirked up. ‘Cake?’
‘It would appear that way.’
‘So your father was a modern-day Robin Hood minus the stealing?’
Nate pressed his lips together. ‘Unless you count the hours he robbed from his own wife and son to be able to do all that. Yes, he was.’
Her eyes flitted over his face. ‘I’m sorry. I know how much you resented his work growing up, but maybe this can help you understand why he did what he did. At least his motives were pure, altruistic even. No one can say that about mine.’
‘I don’t know. I’m fast learning that things aren’t always as black and white as they seem. My father believed Holt to be an honourable man, a man who wasn’t proud of what he did, but he did his best to make amends and look after all concerned.’
‘By keeping Ana a secret?’
‘Think about it, Eve. Your family was fragile back then. My father hasn’t gone into much detail, but I do know that keeping Anastasia a secret was as much about keeping your family together as it was about doing the right thing by her and Lili.’
‘Your father seems to know an awful lot about it.’
She lowered her head, hiding beneath her Akubra as she scuffed at the ground with her boot.
‘You could talk to him if you think it would help.’
‘Your father?’ Her head shot up, her eyes clashing with his. ‘It’s not me who needs to talk to George, but you.’
‘You wouldn’t say that if you saw us in a room together.’
‘Don’t you think it would help to get it off your chest, to tell him how you felt growing up? Give him the chance to fix things while you still can?’
‘Just because you regret not having it out with your father, it—’
‘That’s not what I regret.’
‘It isn’t?’
‘No. I had it out with him. I had it out with him in front of my mother, too, but I never had the courage to stay and deal with the fallout, I didn’t want to give him the opportunity to make amends, to explain away what he did. What I regret is all those years I could have had with my mother, my sisters... I don’t know whether things could have been different with my father and I don’t get to find out, but maybe you can tell me something?’
‘What’s that?’
‘In all those conversations with your father, has there ever been any hint as to why they didn’t do something about it?’
‘The condition?’
‘Yes.’
‘I asked my father the same.’
‘You did question it?’
He looked away. He couldn’t lie to her but neither did he want to give her false hope.
‘I was surprised to see the condition, yes. Surprised even more that my father and Holt hadn’t tried to see it changed. Especially when it risks the land going back to the Garrisons.’
She cursed the name, reaffirming what he already knew about the mutual hatred between the two families.
‘And what did he say, when you questioned it?’
‘He said that the station was a huge responsibility and that he believed Holt didn’t want his daughters shouldering it alone. My father believed your mother was your father’s rock, that they were stronger together—’
‘And look how he repaid her.’
‘Eve, he was unfaithful, I know, but my father truly believes they came through that period stronger. Your mother was unwell and—’
‘Don’t. Don’t go there.’
He hesitated but knew it wasn’t his place. Talking hearsay on something so personal.
‘That wasn’t all my father had to say...’
‘No?’ She was wary now, he could sense it in her held breath, her stiffened shoulders.
‘But these are my father’s words, not Holt’s.’
‘Understood.’
Nate took a breath and recalled the conversation he’d had that very first day back in Marni. And now he knew more, especially where Eve was concerned, he realised there wasn’t just ‘something’ in it, there was a lot.
‘According to my father, Holt feared you sisters would never come together again.’
He paused, thinking she may say something—reject it, accept it. Nothing. Not even a blink of the eye.
‘He was scared that Rose was too married to the land to ever find a husband to share the load with. Matilda would never leave. You would never come home. And as for Anastasia, she needed a reason to be brought into the fold, a reason that would bind you all together, something that requires you as sisters to come together for a single goal.’
Still, she said nothing. One second. Two. And then she laughed. Outright laughed.
‘My God, your father is a soppy old fool.’
Nate frowned. ‘Not the reaction I was expecting.’
‘It’s crazy. Fanciful. As fanciful as the clause itself!’
