Margaret Way - Required - Three Outback Brides - Cattle Rancher, Convenient Wife / In the Heart of the Outback... / Single Dad, Outback Wife

Rory offered up a silent prayer.

And lead me not into temptation.

‘I’ll stay,’ he said. ‘Thank you most kindly, Allegra. It’ll give us the opportunity to have a good long chat.’

Rory washed out his gear and threw it in the dryer. Then he turned to examining Mark Hamilton’s clothing most carefully. Everything Allegra had selected was brand-new and fine quality. He read the labels. From the dark blue polo shirt to the beige cotton trousers and the classy underpants. He tried to visualise Allegra’s ex-husband. Couldn’t. Chloe had called him a ‘lovely guy’ handsome and clever. Was he all of those things? Allegra in a driven moment had called him a clown! What did that mean exactly? A man forever playing innocuous but annoying practical jokes? A man not seriously minded enough for her? He had to be impaired in some way. He was a poor lover? He was a violent lover? Clown didn’t sound violent. Who knew what went on inside a marriage anyway? Besides he couldn’t trust Chloe. Chloe had made an art form out of putting down her exquisite sister.

Hamilton was a heavier build. And some inches shorter. The shirt was okay. He had to hitch up the trousers with his own belt. Rory was much leaner through the waist and hips. The length fell short but okay, who cared? She had even found him a pair of expensive leather loafers that fitted well enough. He took a look in the mirror, thrust back his damp hair and laughed. He had never worn a shirt of such a wondrous electric-blue.

‘Gosh you look like someone famous!’ Allegra swallowed when she caught sight of him.

‘Don’t say a rock star.’ He grimaced. ‘The blue makes me look swarthier than usual.’ He glanced down at the shirt.

‘Far from it. It’s great. You’re a good-looking guy, Compton.’ She led the way into the kitchen. ‘I could find you work tomorrow.’

‘You surely can’t mean as a male model?’

‘You want to check out what they’re earning,’ she retorted. ‘The guys who get to model here and overseas earn a fortune.’

‘No, thanks. For better or worse I’m buying Naroom. All we need is the paperwork done.’

‘And Valerie’s and Chloe’s okay,’ she tacked on.

‘Consider that a fait accompli.’ He watched her take salad ingredients out of the crisper in the refrigerator.

‘What are we having?’

‘Something easy,’ she said. ‘Steak and salad and maybe some French fries. This afternoon was pretty strenuous.’

‘I did warn you.’ He let his gaze rest on her, feeling a surge of desire. She had teamed a delicate little lilac top, which looked like silk—he had a mad urge to feel it—with a flowing skirt. Her beautiful hair streamed over her shoulders and down her back, drying in long loose waves. There wouldn’t be a man alive who wouldn’t get a buzz from simply looking at her, he thought. She was just so effortlessly beautiful. Exclusive looking yet she had worked tirelessly that afternoon. Tirelessly and extremely well. This might be a woman who looked like an orchid but she didn’t hesitate to pitch in. He found himself full of admiration for her. She was a woman of surprises.

‘Valerie and Chloe were prepared to say yes to $3.5 million,’ he reminded her, picking up the conversation. ‘Thanks to you they get more.’

She took two prime T-bone steaks from the refrigerator and put them down on the counter before turning to him. Her expression was brushed with worry. ‘Valerie said she was going to consult a solicitor with a view to contesting the will.’

‘In what way?’ He could see that upset her.

‘Dad left me a half share of everything,’ she said, ‘whereas Valerie and Chloe had quarter shares.’

‘Tough,’ he said, thinking she didn’t have a problem. ‘I’m no lawyer but I’m willing to bet your father left his will airtight. Don’t worry, Allegra. I’d say Valerie was trying to make you suffer. You can bet your life she’s already been on to a solicitor who’s told her she hasn’t a chance in hell of contesting the will. You won’t be embroiled in any lawsuit and this deal will go through more smoothly than you think.’

‘I don’t really want it to go through,’ she confessed, leaning against the table.

‘Which part of me don’t you like?’ He stared at her hard.

‘This is home, Rory.’ She met his challenging gaze. ‘My father brought my mother here as a bride. I was born here. Even when I was away from it I still lived here, if you know what I mean?’

‘I surely do.’ He thought she put it well.

‘To be honest I’d like to die here.’

He stirred restlessly at that. ‘Don’t for God’s sake talk about dying,’ he said tersely. ‘You’ve got a long life in front of you. Would you want to stay here and work it?’

‘I could do it,’ she said. ‘I’d have to sack guys like Gallagher and Evans and hire some good men. Then I’d see if I could get our old overseer back.’

‘Well, well, well,’ he said. ‘Like I said, you’re a most surprising woman. But then I don’t know a lot about women. I grew up mostly in an all male environment. Even so I’m sure you’re very unusual. Do you have the money to buy your stepmother and Chloe out?’

She lowered her head, picked up a shiny red capsicum and set it down again ‘No, unfortunately. I didn’t take a penny off Mark.’

‘You were entitled to.’

‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I didn’t want to do anything like that. He didn’t want to break up the marriage. I did.’

‘So he was the innocent party?’

‘No he wasn’t, Rory Compton,’ she said with sharp censure. ‘I was the innocent party but don’t worry about it. I thought maybe I could borrow like you.’

‘Really?’ He sat back, his hands locked behind his head. ‘You could try but maybe you wouldn’t be so successful,’ he warned her. ‘You’re a woman and you have no real hands on experience.’

‘All right, I know that!’ she said, giving in to irritation.

‘And what about your big city job? I thought you intended going back to it? Surely you’d miss city life? I mean it couldn’t be a more different world?’

‘Rory, I love the land,’ she told him passionately. ‘I know it’s a little unusual my making such a success of being a fashion editor, but that’s only a little part of me. I doubt I would ever have left home had my mother lived. At the beginning living in the city was like living in a foreign country. After life on the land, I felt so hemmed in by all the tall buildings and so many people rushing about. All our space and freedom was lost to me. You should understand.’

‘Of course I do.’

She nodded. ‘It’s not a nice thing to say, but Val drove me away. Val and Chloe to a certain extent. I was made to feel an outsider in my own home.’

‘Have you a photograph of your mother?’ he asked, sitting straight in his chair again.

She sighed deeply. ‘Sure. Wait here.’

Rory rose and walked to the sink feeling vaguely stunned. The last thing he’d expected when they had first met, was such a glamorous young woman would want to live in isolation. In his experience it was men who did that sort of thing. Solitary men who had pioneered the vast interior before admitting women and children to their lives. He knew plenty of reclusives who could only live in the wilderness. Not that the central plains country was anything like wilderness but Naroom was isolated enough. God knows what she’d make of his desert home! Or what had been his desert home he thought with a stab of pain.

His mind wheeling off in several directions, he began to run some of the salad ingredients—tomatoes, cucumber, a bunch of radishes and some celery—under the tap. He could see the mixed salad greens had been prewashed. He felt like that steak. He hoped she had some good English mustard. He was hungry.