Marion Lennox - His Miracle Bride

‘You sent for them.’

‘Ruby did. She said she was worried about you, and before we could blink they were in the country.’ She hesitated. ‘Blake’s been magnificent. And…’ She took a deep breath. ‘Nik is cute.’

‘Don’t you dare go out with him.’

‘Why not?’

‘He’ll break your heart.’

‘Not possible.’

‘Of course. Mike’s already broken it.’

She flinched. Then, ‘You know, I thought for a bit that he might have,’ she said. ‘But I didn’t know the first thing about loving. And I sure as heck didn’t know the first thing about broken hearts. It’s taken an expert to teach me.’

‘Shanni…’

‘If you really don’t want me, then I’ll go,’ she said, and she broke away. ‘I’m coming, Dwayne,’ she called. ‘And your mum doesn’t need to worry about eggs. There’s enough food in the kitchen to feed Pierce’s immediate family and he has no intention of expanding it.’

She left soon after. She helped Ruby into the car, and the two of them headed off, with only Ruby looking back.

‘I hate to leave,’ Ruby whispered as the lights from the farm faded from view. ‘It seems wrong.’

It did seem wrong. Shanni’s face was set. Ruby glanced at her cautiously and then looked away.

‘I’m sorry, dear.’

‘It’s not your fault he’s a pig-headed, independent, bottom-feeding maw worm.’

‘You’ve got it bad,’ Ruby whispered.

‘I have,’ Shanni agreed and didn’t say anything.

‘You love him very much?’ Ruby murmured after a while.

‘More than life itself. Almost more than I love his kids.’

‘Oh, Shanni…’

‘But I’ll get over it,’ Shanni muttered. ‘I have to. And Mum and Dad get home tomorrow. Yay, I’ll get my bedroom back. I’m in extraordinary need of Susie Belle.’

‘Pierce?’

He was back standing against the post where Shanni had sat. Even Clyde had deserted him. Behind him, the house was in silence. The partygoers had gone. Blake and Nik were still here, as was Olga, but he’d said goodnight and left them. He’d assumed they were asleep.

But not Blake. Blake was two years older than Pierce, and he’d taken on the role of eldest sibling.

‘There’s a beer back here on the veranda,’ he called.

‘I don’t need a beer.’

‘Yeah, you do,’ Blake said easily. ‘You’ve hardly had a drink all night. You’ve looked like you were being chased by demons. Everyone else has had a ball, and you’ve looked like you were being chained and tossed into a dungeon.’

‘Hell, I didn’t…?’

‘Oh, you smiled,’ Blake said. ‘No one who didn’t know you well could guess.’

Should he say he hadn’t guessed himself until Ruby had grabbed him on the way to the car? ‘Talk to your brother. He’s in love with Shanni and he won’t admit it,’ she’d said.

Talking personal stuff didn’t come easy to any of them, but for Ruby’s sake-and for Pierce’s-he guessed he’d try.

So Blake tugged a couple of ring pulls and they drank beer and stared into the night for a while. Pierce had turned off all the outside lights and Blake hadn’t turned them on again. There was only the moonlight. And silence.

‘Ruby says you’re in love with Shanni,’ Blake said at last, and Pierce almost choked on his beer.

‘What the hell?’

‘She says you’ve got it bad. But you’re being stubborn.’

‘What does she know?’

‘Of all the people in the world, maybe it’s Ruby who knows us best,’ Blake says. ‘She’s seen us at our worst. She took us in and loved us, regardless.’

‘She’s great.’

‘Shanni says we have to toss out the stipulations on her apartment. She says it’s cruel.’

‘Shanni’s right.’

‘She’s quite a girl,’ Blake said cautiously. ‘Mind, she’s Ruby’s niece, so she has a head start. Nik is really taken with her.’

‘Tell Nik to leave her alone.’

‘Tell him yourself, little brother. And, if you don’t want her, what’s the problem?’

‘She deserves better…than us.’

‘What’s wrong with Nik? He scrubs up quite well. You’ve seen him in a suit. He earns a fortune. Some women would describe him as a catch.’

‘Yeah, but you know us. We don’t do…the love bit.’

‘I’m seeing you come pretty close,’ Blake said cautiously. ‘Five kids. What the hell were you thinking?’

‘If you’d met Maureen you wouldn’t ask. There was no choice.’

‘No.’ He hesitated. ‘I guess there wasn’t. But after it was a done deal, you could have packed them all back to Sydney. You’d get housekeepers there. You could have organized a crèche and after-school care. You could have stayed almost as independent as you once were. But you stayed here, boyo. Something inside must have seen what these kids needed.’

‘That’s Ruby talking.’

‘Yeah, it is,’ Blake agreed ruefully. ‘She said your independence is shot to hell and you’re in love with Shanni, and why don’t you ask her to marry you and be done with it.’

‘Because she’d say yes.’

Hmm.

Blake concentrated on his beer for a moment. Pierce stared out into the darkness, listening to his words echo in his head. He’d said it. The unthinkable.

‘You think she might love you back?’ Blake asked, and Pierce thought, he’s not asking if I love Shanni. He’s assuming it. Was it that obvious?

‘She might,’ Pierce said at last. ‘She’s a soft touch.’

‘She’s a nice kid.’

‘She feels sorry for me.’

‘Hey, I saw her watching you when you carried the kids up to bed,’ Blake said. ‘I’m pretty impervious to sentiment, but what I saw on her face wasn’t pity.’

‘No?’

‘Pure unadulterated lust, mate,’ Blake said with satisfaction. ‘Should be more of it. You think she’s hot? She’s besotted. So…You’re stuck here with five kids. One wife’s not going to make much difference, and it might make both of you happier. Come on, bro. It’s happy families. You’ve got the babies. Now you need the bride.’

‘You think I’d lay that on her?’ he snapped, revolted.

‘Why the hell not?’

‘Because she’s generous to a fault. She feels desperately sorry for the kids. She knows just how they feel-she has Ruby’s sixth sense. She’s just like Ruby. She tosses her heart into the ring without thinking of the consequences. She’s a brilliant art curator. To ask her to marry me and be saddled with five kids and their associated baggage…’

‘She can always refuse.’

‘She wouldn’t. She couldn’t. She’s too dammed soft-hearted.’

‘So you’re going to protect her like we tried to protect Ruby,’ Blake said. ‘Yeah, like that worked. We made Ruby miserable. It was Shanni who made us see. Surely you could give her the benefit of the doubt-that she’s an intelligent woman who knows you’re set up with a housekeeper and that you’re not asking her to scrub and bake?’

‘But she would scrub and bake. I know Shanni.’

‘Then surely she should be allowed to?’

‘Hell, Blake, if you were me would you ask her to marry you? I’m under a huge debt to her as it is. I won’t be obligated to her any more.’

‘You think she’d be doing you a favour, marrying you?’

‘Of course she would.’

‘Ask her and see what her reaction is.’

‘No.’

‘You want me to ask her?’

‘Don’t be daft.’

‘No, I mean it. I could just have dinner with her and run the idea past her…As sort of a hypothetical…“Would you ever consider marrying a man with five kids and a chip on his shoulder the size of Ayer’s Rock?”’

‘No.’

‘Or Nik could ask.’