Marion Lennox - Rescued By A Millionaire

His eyes darkened. She could see anger flaring.

‘So he conned you into leaving England.’

‘For myself I don’t care,’ she whispered. ‘But the way it happened was awful. Brian came into the lounge car on the train and everyone was there. An old lady was telling Karli a story about the Koori people who lived out here. Karli was happy. Just for a minute she was happy. Then Brian appeared. He walked straight up to Karli and he put his face into hers and he shouted “Your mother’s dead and you’ll get nothing. I’ve won. You stupid little brat, you won’t get a thing”.’

‘No.’ It was a whispered exclamation of horror that she could only agree with.

‘So I got off the train,’ she said dully. ‘There was nothing else I could do. Karli went limp with shock and I picked her up and took her back to our compartment and started throwing our stuff into our suitcases-fast, because the train was already stopped. Just as it started moving we got off. End of story. Brian’s gone on to Perth to claim Nicole’s fortune, and Karli and I… Karli and I are going home.’

Home.

Home to what? Home to her bleak little bedsitter. Home with Karli. There’d be no money for school fees now. Karli would have to live with her.

Maybe that was for the best anyway.

Maybe she could sue Nicole’s estate for Karli’s maintenance, she thought drearily, and then reality slammed back again. Yeah, right. As if she could afford a lawyer.

And she still had to get them home. She had to get to Perth so she could use their return plane tickets. How much would it cost to get them from here to Perth? Were their train tickets still valid?

It was all just too hard. Despite the heat, Jenna suddenly felt cold. She gave a long, convulsive shudder, then pulled her hand away from Riley’s and started to rise. She lifted a plate, but Riley was before her, rising and taking the plate from her.

‘Leave it,’ he told her. ‘I’ll handle the washing-up. Seeing you cooked, it’s only fair. You go and take a shower. I’ll clean up and make coffee.’

‘Coffee?’

‘It’s my one skill,’ he said with pride. ‘My coffee’s the best for miles.’

‘That’s not saying much,’ Jenna retorted, responding to the gentle smile in his eyes. He was encouraging her to lighten-and there was something about this man that did just that. He made her smile when smiling seemed impossible. ‘There’s nothing but saltbush for miles. Unless your cows make coffee.’

‘Don’t disparage my skills. You wait. And meanwhile…’ He turned and delved into a crate by the door, rising with an armful of linen. ‘Here you go, Miss Svenson. Don’t let it be said that Barinya Downs doesn’t provide its guests with luxury.’ At her look of amazement he grinned. ‘Maggie packs this for me, in case I ever want to change my sheets-which, I’ll admit, doesn’t happen so much as she hopes.’ His smile deepened. ‘You know where the shower is-you saw me come out of it. It works on bore water. You need to pump while you shower. Cold water only. And you found the toilet? I should have warned you that you need to watch out for spiders. Take the torch, and if you get bitten make sure it’s somewhere I can put a tourniquet.’

‘You’re kidding.’

He relented. ‘I’m kidding. There was a redback spider nest when I arrived, so I did the hero thing with a can of insecticide.’ He eyed her clothes. ‘You want something to sleep in?’

‘I guess.’ She’d put Karli to bed in her knickers, but knickers were hardly appropriate nightwear for her. She was practically sharing a bedroom here. ‘I left our gear on the siding.’

‘Very wise.’ He smiled again. ‘The good thing about being the only humans for a hundred miles is that no one’s going to pinch your designer luggage.’

Designer luggage? What did he think she was? She tried a glower but she was too tired and too confused and too…just too everything. The day was suddenly on top of her and he could see it.

‘I’ll put one of my shirts around the wash-house door,’ he told her, taking pity on her sudden confusion. He placed a hand on her shoulder-gently, reassuringly. It was the sort of gesture he might have used on Karli, and why it suddenly made her want to weep she had no idea.

‘Go take your shower, Jenna,’ he told her. ‘Worry about tomorrow tomorrow. For tonight, I think we all need to sleep.’

She definitely wanted to sleep, but she also definitely wanted to shower.

She made up the bed at the far end of the veranda and lifted Karli over. The little girl didn’t wake as she was shifted. Her tummy was full, she felt safe and cared for, and her body was taking all the sleep it needed.

Karli still had a child’s ability to sleep whenever she needed. Jenna wasn’t quite so lucky. Dust was ingrained in every pore, and the thought of cold running water was even more appealing than sleep.

Maybe she shouldn’t shower when the little girl was alone, she thought briefly, but Karli was deeply asleep. Even if she stirred… Jenna thought of Riley’s tone as he’d talked to Karli. The way he’d smiled and the way Karli had responded.

‘You’re nice,’ Karli had whispered. ‘Nicer than my daddy.’

Karli was right. Jenna acknowledged it as truth, using a sixth sense that years of coping with an unkind world had taught her to trust. Riley Jackson was kind, with an ingrained sense of decency she knew she could depend on.

She could depend on him?

‘I can,’ she whispered. The man might make her senses come alive as they’d never come alive before; he might make her feel as aware as she’d ever been aware of a man-but she knew that here in his house she’d found a haven for her little sister that she could trust absolutely.

So, yes, she could take a shower. The concept was even appealing when she examined the wash house.

It was definitely a wash house, she decided. Calling this place a bathroom would be a joke. The ramshackle lean-to at the side of the house consisted of four walls, a concrete floor and a pipe with a shower-rose at head height. Beside the pipe was a pump. If one pumped, Jenna guessed, the water would spray out over her head.

The only problem was that the pump was designed for someone with muscles like Riley Jackson.

Jenna stripped and pumped. And pumped. And pumped. The water trickled out, grudgingly.

‘There’s nothing like building up a sweat as you shower,’ she told herself as she tried to pump and lather at the same time. ‘No wonder the man has muscles.’

‘Are you talking to yourself or do you have company?’

She froze. Naked and soapy, she crossed her arms uselessly across her breasts. The door had no lock-of course-and part of Jenna expected Riley to walk straight in.

‘I’m okay,’ she quavered.

‘Hey, it’s all right.’ He’d heard her fear, she thought, and, damn, there was suddenly laughter behind his concern. ‘We colonists know not to intrude on a lady’s ablutions. Even though you imperialists do wander round strange men’s bedrooms at will.’

Damn the man, he was laughing at her! ‘Oh, go away,’ she snapped. She shoved the pump handle down so hard that a thoroughly satisfactory stream of water gushed down over her hot-and-bothered body. That was all it needed. Anger. Well, if that was all it needed, she had anger by the bucketload. ‘I can’t concentrate with you out there,’ she told him, pumping with a vengeance, and she could hear his grin broaden.

‘Do you need to concentrate?’

‘Yes,’ she snapped. ‘I can’t handle the soap and the pump at the same time. This pump was built for Superman.’

‘You want me to come in and help?’

‘No!’ It was a yelp and there was a broad chuckle from outside the door. Which, strangely enough, seemed reassuring. Then the door opened a crack and Jenna went back to clutching her breasts. But all that appeared was a tanned, sinewy arm, holding a shirt. The arm reached up and hooked the shirt behind the door-and then the arm retreated.