Marion Lennox: Rescued By A Millionaire

Gee, thanks, Maggie, Riley thought, but he didn’t say it. He didn’t know what to say.

The silence went on and on. The pup nosed in and licked Riley’s hand. He whined softly as if he, too, was confused.

Everyone was confused.

Riley tried for anger, but it didn’t work. He tried for disdain or amusement or…or anything.

Nothing worked.

‘Riley’s fallen in love with Nicole Razor’s daughter?’ Dot asked at last, and Maggie nodded.

‘Hey, mate,’ Bill managed. ‘Whatcha go and do a thing like that for?’

‘You mean what did he go and fall in love for?’ Dot demanded, recovering a little and rounding on her husband. ‘Why shouldn’t he fall in love? Ooh. They must have got smitten while they were stuck at Barinya Downs. How romantic is that?’

‘It’s not even the slightest bit romantic,’ her husband retorted. ‘If you think Barinya Downs is romantic, you must have kangaroos loose in your top paddock.’

‘Yeah, but if they fell in love there now… It’s like you and me,’ Dot said dreamily. ‘I saw our place for the first time when we were in drought. You took me there and I thought it was great. I thought you were great. I fell in love then and you knew I was serious. Marriage is for the good times and the bad. If the bad times come first, then the marriage will last for ever.’ She sniffed and groped for a handkerchief. ‘So there. It is romantic.’

‘Yeah, but he can’t see it,’ Maggie said obtusely. ‘He thinks she’ll walk out on him.’

‘Why would she walk out on him?’ Enid asked, and Riley decided it was time to intervene.

‘Excuse me, but this is my-’

He was ignored.

‘Because every woman who’s ever come near this place has walked away,’ Maggie was saying over the top of him. ‘He reckons if he falls for Jenna and they try and make a go of it, then it’ll end in failure and the littlie’ll be hurt.’

Bill frowned. ‘That’s a bit of a long shot.’

‘You try telling him that,’ Maggie retorted. ‘He’s got rocks in his head.’

‘Will you butt out of what’s not your business?’ Riley demanded.

‘I flew all the way from Perth,’ Enid told him. ‘It is my business.’

‘And if we hadn’t contacted you and told you the cops were looking for them, you’d have had a search party at Barinya Downs days ago and you never would have fallen in love,’ Dot said severely. ‘So it’s our business, too.’

‘I haven’t fallen in love,’ Riley snapped.

‘Haven’t you?’ Maggie demanded. She fixed him with a look he’d first been fixed with when he was two years old. ‘Can you look me in the eye, Riley Jackson, and tell me you don’t love her? That you don’t love the pair of them?’

He couldn’t. Of course he couldn’t.

He tried another track. ‘Hell, I don’t want to hurt them.’

‘So what are you doing sending them away?’

‘It wouldn’t work. They’ll get hurt.’

‘They can’t be hurt any more than they are now,’ Maggie told him. ‘They’ve fallen for you. Just look at Karli’s rock. What sort of loving’s that?’

He should dispute it. He should even manage to laugh.

Instead he dug Karli’s rock from his pocket. He stared down at it while the misassorted group around him stared at him.

Hell.

They can’t be hurt any more than they are now.

Karli was flying down to Adelaide without her rock.

Jenna was flying down to Adelaide-without him.

‘I can’t,’ he said, and Maggie beamed.

‘Yes, you can.’

He stared at Maggie and she stared back.

He gazed at Dot and Bill.

What had Dot said?

Marriage is for the good times and the bad. If the bad times come first, then the marriage will last for ever.

Jenna had fallen for him when they were at Barinya Downs. She’d said she loved him when they were in that damned awful swimming hole. She hadn’t even known this place existed.

She’d said she loved him, knowing she had no money, thinking he had no money, believing Barinya Downs was the way he lived.

Maybe, he thought cautiously, just maybe, he’d been a fool.

Something shifted inside him right there. He waited for it to right itself, but it didn’t. This was a fundamental shift, moving things back that had been first hauled out of place when his mother had left. They’d stayed out of place when his sisters had gone, his father had died, his wife had left.

And now they were back in place. They were back in place because of Jenna, and suddenly he knew absolutely and for sure that this shift was for ever.

‘I don’t have a plane,’ he said blankly, and Maggie’s mouth twitched at the corners. A smile started at the back of her worried eyes.

‘I can see two.’

‘We’ll take you to Adelaide straight away.’ Dot was also starting to smile. She was quick, was Dot. ‘We’re flying there anyway, and there’s plenty of room in the back.’

Riley stared at her. Then he stared at the plane.

He turned to Enid. ‘Enid…’

‘Hey, you’re not borrowing my plane,’ Enid said. She could catch on fast as well. She grinned at her pilot, who gazed back in stolid indifference. ‘It’s only a two-seater and Harold and I are coming. We need to watch. Don’t we, Harold?’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

Riley glanced again at Dot and Bill’s tin can with wings. ‘We’ll never catch them. Not in that.’

‘I’ll radio Max,’ Maggie said serenely. ‘I can have him do a few big loops so he loses an hour before landing. I bet he can do it without Jenna knowing a thing.’ She glanced at Bill and Dot’s plane and her smile deepened. ‘Or maybe I should make that two hours. Lots of big loops.’

‘Is it safe?’ Riley demanded. He might be haring off on a mission of the heart, but he had no plans to get himself killed in the process.

‘Of course it’s safe,’ Bill said, outraged. ‘We’ve used it to transport a bit of blood and bone fertiliser, though. It might be a bit smelly in the back.’

‘Oh, great.’

‘Hey, what’s a bit of fertiliser to a man in love?’ Bill demanded, entering into the spirit of things. ‘You want to win the lady or not?’

Riley gazed at all of them. They all gazed back.

He stared down at his stone.

He looked at the dog. His dog. The pup was nuzzling his hand, just as a much-loved dog had done all those years ago.

He’d call him Bustle, he thought, after a dog he used to know.

Maybe he could give this love business one more go.

No. Three more goes.

Bustle.

Karli.

Jenna.

‘There’s no saying she’ll have me,’ he warned, and Maggie’s face cleared as if by magic.

‘Oh, Riley, of course she’ll have you. She loves you.’

‘Of course she’ll love you, young man,’ Enid told him. ‘If I didn’t have Harold here, I’d love you myself. I haven’t seen such excellent husband material going begging for a very long time. Now shake a leg. You’re wasting time.’

‘Faint heart never won fair lady,’ Harold said-and everybody stared.

The statue had a voice.

Enid chuckled and reached out to hug her pilot. ‘Well, you’d know,’ she said, and Harold hugged her back.

‘He’s right,’ Bill said. ‘Faint heart, hey? You’d never want to be called that, now, would you, Jackson? Well. If you’re brave enough to cope with a bit of blood and bone, then we’re game enough to take you. Take a good sniff of decent air, young fella, cos it’s the last clean air you’ll smell until we get to Adelaide.’ He gave a whoop that could be heard in the next state and headed back towards the plane. ‘Let’s get this baby in the air.’

‘Baby,’ Dot snorted heading after him. ‘Demented geriatric, more like.’