Margaret Way - Her Outback Commander

“Lucifer, don’t you mean?” Amanda cried, not about to put all the things Mark had said behind her. “The fallen angel. Does he look like Mark?” she asked. “I don’t know if that would make me feel better or worse.”

Sienna shook her head. “You wouldn’t spot the relationship, but he is a half-brother. He’s dark, with the most remarkable light eyes.”

“So he got to you, did he?” Amanda shot her a look full of malice. “Did you get to him ? That’s your speciality, isn’t it? Getting to guys, fascinating them.”

Sienna threw up her hands in defeat. “You’d use a sledgehammer on me if you could, Amanda. At the same time you use me—and I allow it. Not for much longer.”

“Okay, I’m sorry.” Amanda backed off when she saw her cousin really meant it. “I’m just so sick with worry and grief.” Tears oozed out of her eyes.

“I understand that.” Sienna relented, as usual, although she knew Amanda could turn tears on and off at will. “Would you consider going to Australia?”

Amanda quelled the tears. “I could never go without you,” she declared flatly. “You’ve looked after me since we were kids. I need you, Sienna. Only you could get me through.”

Sienna felt a rush of warmth. Not at what Amanda had said, but at the involuntary exhilaration she felt at the idea of going to Australia. “Time is of the essence,” she said. “He has to fly back home. He has a vast cattle station to look after, big responsibilities.”

“And he doesn’t feel guilty ?” Amanda with one of her lightning changes of mood, banged the table. “He got through to you , all right, but I’m a different story. I’m Mark’s widow. Mark told me everything, how his brother ruined his life.”

“Half-brother,” Sienna corrected. “There was a tremendous amount of conflict in Mark.”

“It’s not the first time you’ve tried to malign Mark.” Amanda made it perfectly plain Sienna’s observations were unwelcome.

“I’m not maligning him, Mandy. I’m trying to point out some reason for all the discrepancies. He never told you about his twin. He never told you he was getting money from his mother. Mark’s account of his past life was all we had to go on up until I met Blaine Kilcullen. If you agree to meet him you can make up your own mind. It’s your decision, Amanda.”

“Why can’t he just give me the money?” Amanda suggested, looking hopeful. “I’m entitled to it.”

“And Mark’s mother and sister are entitled to meet you,” Sienna said, more sharply than she had intended. “You gave permission for his family to ship his body home. Surely you can find it within yourself to meet them and attend Mark’s funeral?”

“I don’t want to.” Amanda started to work herself into one of her rages. “I hate them. I hate Mark for the things he did to me.”

“ What things?” Sienna trapped her cousin’s darting eyes. “What is it you’re keeping to yourself? The reason you wanted me at the ski resort? I thought it very odd, considering the number of times you’d warned me off.”

“I wanted to have it out with him. I wanted you there.”

Sienna released a long breath. “You’re lying. You’ve been lying all your life—” She broke off abruptly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. But you’re not telling me the truth.”

“The truth will go with Mark into his grave,” Amanda said bleakly. “When does this man want me to meet him? I can’t do it today. I have to have my hair done.”

“Does this mean you will go, Amanda? If you want me to go with you I have to make urgent arrangements.”

“Really? The only thing you need to do is tell your father,” Amanda sneered. “He’ll find a stand-in. Lucien adores his beautiful Sienna, with the marvellous hair and the matching amber eyes. He’s told everybody you are his favourite model.”

“After my mother ,” Sienna contradicted. “I am no way as beautiful as my mother.”

“Who would believe you?” Amanda’s voice was brittle enough to break.

Sienna sat back, feeling defeated. “Amanda, we’ve all done our best for you, yet you keep slamming us with insults even when you put your hands out for money. I do care for you, Amanda. But I need your definite answer now.”

Tears sprang into Amanda’s eyes. “Do you have to be so dictatorial? You have to give me time.”

Sienna shook her head. “There’s little time available.” She rose as she heard the buzzer signalling someone had entered the gallery.

“If that’s another client get rid of them,” Amanda’s tears miraculously dried up.

“It might take a minute or two. Stay here.”

She walked out into the main room, startled to see the visitor to the gallery was none other than Blaine Kilcullen, cattle baron. She couldn’t help noting he looked marvelous: handsome, powerful, successful—someone very special. He had been studying her father’s remaining paintings—many had already been delivered—and now he turned his raven head to her. “Good afternoon, Sienna.”

She felt heat sweep her body when all he had done was say good afternoon.

“I thought, while I could, I’d take a look at the gallery,” he explained. “Your father has an international reputation, I understand? Looking at these paintings, I can see why. This portrait of you is stunning!”

He stood directly in front of the bravura portrait—a homage to a young woman’s beauty. The canvas shimmered with light. The treatment of her flesh was so good he had an urge to stroke, to check if the bloom was real. Her long hair had unfurled all around her face and cascaded down her back. The exactness of the colour of hair and skin was amazing. She was posed tucked into a roomy gilded armchair, clearly French, so the lovely pattern of the silk upholstery added to the arrangement. One bare arm hung over the side, her fingers curving over the gilded wood. She was wearing a long strapless dress in palest gold. Citrine and diamond drop earrings picked up the colour, as did a matching citrine and diamond pendant enclosed in swirls of gold that drew his eye to the high, youthful curves of her breasts.

“It’s not for sale,” she explained. “My father won’t part with it.”

“I don’t blame him.”

She felt the flush that came to her cheeks. “He looks on it as a lucky talisman for opening nights. I was about to turn twenty-one when he painted it. The earrings and pendant were my parents’ gift to me. I should tell you my mother is the real beauty in the family. I thought the portrait was going to be a present for me, but he kept it himself.” She laughed at the memory. “One never knows what to expect with Lucien. It flatters me.”

In no way was she fishing for compliments, he thought. She genuinely believed the portrait did flatter her. “I disagree.” He remained in place, studying the luminous canvas. “Have you had an opportunity to speak to Amanda?”

“I have, actually.”

“And?” He turned to her with his diamond-sharp gaze.

It was at that precise moment Amanda chose to appear—an actress entering from the wings to take centre stage. In the interim she had somehow managed to transform herself. From looking like a rag doll she was now looking almost perky. She had fluffed up her blonde curls and applied some make-up to good effect. She might even have used eyedrops because her blue eyes were wide and strangely bright.

“Blaine, at long last we meet!” She came forward with not one but two arms outstretched.

Award-winning material, Sienna thought. Not that she hadn’t seen such transformations in the past.