Beneath Outback Skies

by Alissa Callen

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘You’re welcome. But for the sake of Mrs Jessop’s blood pressure, you will have to scrub yourself off for the ball.’

  ‘Just as well I’m not going.’

  ‘Not going?’

  She met his frown and shook her head.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘You heard Mrs Jessop. It doesn’t matter if elastic-sided boots are perfectly fine to wear with a dress at a B&S Ball, for this dance it won’t be acceptable. Except for an old pair of thongs and some stilettos with a dodgy heel buried in the depths of my wardrobe, I don’t have any other shoes.’

  ‘That’s easily fixed. We’ll go shopping.’

  She couldn’t contain a burst of laughter. ‘Me, shopping, with you? No. Way.’

  ‘I’ll try not to take that personally.’

  ‘Take it any way you want,’ she said with a grin, ‘but I can guarantee I won’t be going to Glenalla with you any time soon.’

  Tait matched her grin. ‘But what will people talk about to distract them from the drought, if you’re not seen with me in town again?’

  ‘I’m sure your internet-dating bombshell will keep everyone entertained for at least another century.’ The ute swerved on the dusty track as she avoided a deep rut.

  ‘You really should go to the ball.’ His tone sobered. ‘It will be good for you.’

  ‘It will be good for Connor and the community, but not for me. I tell you what, I’ll read a book Friday night while you’re gone and go to bed early. That’s doing something good for me.’

  ‘But if you don’t come, who will save me from boys with missing teeth and little girls with arms like octopuses?’

  ‘You’ll be fine. The kids won’t be there and I’m sure if you’re in trouble you’ll have a queue of rescuers lining up.’

  Silence.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Oh please.’ She threw him a glance. ‘Don’t be coy with me.’

  ‘I’ve no idea what you mean. Will people line up to help because I’m from the city and assume I’m useless?’

  He couldn’t be serious.

  ‘They will all be females queuing to help you.’

  She checked his face to make sure he wasn’t playing with her. He appeared to remain puzzled.

  ‘People will help you because you …’ She paused as warmth seeped into her cheeks. How could she tell him that not only did he have cheekbones that could stop Glenalla traffic – all three cars – but he also had a butt that would even make a nun turn and check him out.

  ‘Because …’ Tait prompted.

  ‘Because you have a pulse.’

  ‘Everyone has a pulse.’

  ‘Oh, all right. Because you aren’t too bad-looking for a city boy.’

  Laughter glinted in his blue eyes. ‘Paige Quinn, are you paying me a compliment?’

  She gritted her teeth. He had been playing with her. ‘Take it any way you like, I’m just saying you’ll not be short of admirers or rescuers. You don’t need me there to hold your hand.’

  ‘But what if I said I happen to like you holding my hand?’

  She shot him a withering look. ‘Then I’d say you were suffering from heatstroke.’

  Tait could spruik his charm all he wanted – she wasn’t going to the ball. She had better things to do than spend the night with everyone constantly watching her and Tait. The lie that they were an item had gone too far. She couldn’t keep deceiving people who’d known her since before she could toddle and were happy she had someone in her life again.

  She turned the ute off the track and it rattled over to a set of double-gates.

  ‘Okay, Mr City Pretty-Boy,’ she said as she drew the ute to a stop. ‘Can you please do the honours?’

  ‘Gladly,’ he said, voice oddly gruff, ‘but I’m afraid I left my super powers in Sydney. The gate is padlocked.’

  Paige opened the ute console between them and pulled out a set of keys. ‘Here you go. The keys to the Killora Downs kingdom.’

  His fingers slowly closed around the keys. ‘We’re going onto Killora Downs? I thought you said nobody went there?’

  ‘They don’t, but we have permission.’

  Tait made no move to exit the car. Instead his hand remained curled around the keys as if she’d handed him a gold nugget. ‘From who?’

  ‘From some director of some company. I’m not sure exactly when, but about a year into the drought Connor received an official-looking letter granting us access to Killora Downs. In return we are to report any issues, such as broken fences or grass fires. We did graze stock there initially but now the paddocks are as bare as ours. There is a part though that has been a godsend. There’s a waterhole filled by a natural spring that shows no sign of drying up.’

  ‘The person to report things to could very well be the mysterious owner?’

  ‘Probably. Dad knows all the specifics and would have the letter stashed somewhere.’ An odd note had thickened Tait’s voice. She examined his face. ‘Why do you ask?’

  He turned away to open the car door. ‘No reason. Just curious. I like a mystery.’

  Paige bit the inside of her cheek, staring at Tait as he unlocked the padlock and swung the gate open. This time there was no mistaking the evasion in his voice or the caution in his eyes. Tait was hiding something.

  Chapter Eleven

  The screech of a cockatoo overhead failed to draw Tait’s attention from the waterhole before him. Seated on a log, with a small campfire crackling to his left, it was as though he’d stepped into a scene from a Boy’s Own adventure book. The smell of burning wood cleared the scent of dust from his nose and the clumps of green grass returned colour to a world he’d become used to being a drought-brown. At the far side of the billabong a gnarled red river gum leaned over the water. He eyed off a low branch that would make a perfect place to attach a rope to swing out across the water. He smiled. Surely Paige would have a rope in the ute so he could test his theory?

  ‘It’s lovely out here, isn’t it?’ she said as she turned the stick on which she’d threaded thin sausages over the fire.

  ‘Yes.’ He smiled again. ‘Thanks for bringing me.’

  ‘You’re welcome.’

  ‘What a difference water can make. I’ve heard more birds here than I’ve heard all week at Banora Downs.’ He took a swallow of his billy-boiled coffee. ‘Even the coffee tastes better.’

  ‘Well, make sure you look where you’re walking. It isn’t only birds the waterhole attracts, there will be snakes too. That’s why Dusty had to stay at home. Last visit he only just got the better of a western-brown.’

  Paige placed the cooked sausages on a plate before passing him a piece of bread. He watched as she wrapped a sausage in another piece of bread and coated it with sauce. He followed suit and again looked out over the billabong as he took a bite. The water was so still he could see the mirror-perfect reflection of the red river gum.

  ‘Is there a reason why there’s water here but nowhere else?’

  Paige nodded and took a moment to finish eating. ‘This would have once been a river bend but the river has changed its course.’ She pointed to the large trees to their right. ‘Over there is where the water now runs despite the flow only being a trickle. This billabong is fed by a spring even though it’s only half as deep as it should be.’ She again pointed, but towards a line of trees midway up the bank. ‘You can see there where the sticks are wedged against the trunks, how high it can rise after rain.’

  ‘From the air it would look like an oasis, whatever the level. No wonder there are so many birds.’ As if in agreement a kookaburra’s laugh echoed across the still water.

  Paige looked towards where the bird had sounded, her expression wistful. ‘You know if a kookaburra calls in the middle of the day, it’s supposed to be a sure sign of rain.’ She inspected the sky before glancing at the paddocks of red dust beyond the waterhole. ‘But I’m guessing it won’t be today.’ This time a flock of cockatoos screeched,
drowning out her words.

  She waited until they’d landed in the tree tops before continuing. ‘When I take the cattle droving to the stock route further north, I break the journey here. Even though I make sure I set up camp as far away as I can because cockatoos squawking isn’t always such a pleasant sound.’

  The sulphur-crested birds that covered the branches like a winter snowfall shrieked again.

  ‘I can understand why,’ he said above the racket.

  She reached for another sausage while the cockatoos quietened. Again she drowned the sausage in sauce. It was the most he’d seen her eat since his arrival. ‘Being out here agrees with you.’

  ‘It does. It doesn’t get much better than eating sausages around a campfire. I may have gone to both boarding school and university in Sydney but out west is where I belong.’

  ‘And this is where you’ll stay?’

  ‘Absolutely.’

  He repeated the question he’d asked her days ago. ‘So will you preserve Banora Downs as a mixed farming enterprise for the next generation that you may or may not have? Or do you have a back-up plan?’

  She laughed but her mind seemed preoccupied with another thought. ‘Here we go again, more questions. Yes, cattle, cropping and maybe a few sheep will continue to be our focus. And no, I don’t have a back-up plan, only to keep drought-proofing. When the season is good, Banora Downs runs along fine.’

  Tait nodded. Finally he had the information he needed to finish the business plan but satisfaction failed to flow through him. Now he’d no excuse to continue staying by Paige’s side. He accepted the second sausage sandwich she passed him and resisted the impulse to let their fingers touch.

  ‘My turn to ask the questions,’ she said, her eyes never leaving his. ‘So have you always been a city boy?’

  He chewed slowly. ‘I moved around as a child and didn’t really belong anywhere.’

  If Paige noticed he’d avoided her question, it didn’t show on her face. ‘That must have been hard.’

  ‘Not as hard as it was on my mother. But she didn’t ever complain.’

  ‘She sounds like a special lady.’

  He again waited before he answered. ‘She was.’

  Paige placed the billy on the fire to boil as if they had all the time in the world to talk about a subject Tait simply didn’t discuss. Ever.

  ‘The trouble with having special mothers is that they leave a very big hole when they go.’

  He nodded, hoping Paige would think he had a mouthful of lunch and not emotion.

  She darted him a quick look. ‘Was it cancer, like my mother?’

  ‘No.’ He paused. ‘Brain aneurism.’

  ‘I’m so sorry.’

  Tait finished the last of his bread. ‘It was a long time ago.’

  ‘That doesn’t make the loss any easier to deal with.’

  ‘No.’ He stood and dusted off his jeans. ‘That’s what work is for. How about we take a look around before another coffee?’

  ‘Good idea.’

  He walked away from the campfire. The greater the distance between him and Paige the less chance she would have to continue their conversation. The less she knew about him, the safer his secrets would stay. But when he came to a thin, narrow track that sliced through the mud, he stopped.

  Paige joined him and traced the indent with the toe of her boot before inspecting the coarse undergrowth behind them. ‘No surprise, this is a snake track.’

  Head down, she walked along the water’s edge checking for further tracks. ‘This is a wallaby and this over here, an emu.’

  Tait continued on ahead. ‘What about these? Are these the dog tracks you’ve come out to see?’

  Paige’s shoulders tensed. She headed straight to his side, crouched and ran her fingertips along the indentations. ‘Yes, there are at least five dogs. Three big and two small.’

  She straightened and looked around the waterhole, her teeth harrying her bottom lip. ‘I was hoping I wouldn’t find any. Dennis, our neighbour on the other side, warned me at the get-together there was a pack of feral dogs attacking his stock. He fired some shots and thought they’d headed off toward Taylor’s. But they must have doubled back to find water.’ She scanned the direction they’d driven from. ‘Let’s hope they don’t head our way. Dennis thought one of the big dogs was a Rottweiler and another a Bull Mastiff. Both are aggressive breeds.’

  ‘How would dogs like those get out here?’

  ‘They could have been town pets that didn’t work out and were dumped. Or they could be pig dogs.’

  ‘Pig dogs? Ones that oink?’ he said with a deliberately straight face.

  ‘No, you dill,’ a smile broke through her concern, ‘crossbred dogs brought out here by hunters to catch wild pigs. Sometimes the dogs get lost, or are injured and left to die. However they end up out here, they make fearless and crafty predators.’

  With a last look at the dog prints, she turned towards their campfire. ‘I’d better dust off Dad’s rifle when I get home.’

  Tait followed her.

  ‘Were you left on your own when your mother passed away?’ she asked quietly as they neared the fire.

  His steps slowed as he cast a quick look around the billabong. There was nowhere to run, let alone hide. He’d answer Paige’s questions simply and briefly and then change the subject. He sat on the log and pretended a calm he didn’t feel. ‘No. My mother had remarried and so I had my stepfather.’

  ‘You both must have been so shocked,’ Paige said as she spooned coffee into a metal mug. ‘I’ve heard brain aneurisms can happen very suddenly.’

  ‘We were and yes, everything happened so quickly.’ He picked up a smooth, flat stone and skimmed it across the waterhole. ‘Bruce is a good man and I was lucky to have him. Even at seventeen it can take a while to get over hugging your mother goodbye and then coming home from school to find her gone.’

  Paige reached over and squeezed his hand. He took her fingers in his. Her hand appeared so small compared with his larger one. He stared at her fingers, so delicate and yet so strong. He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had touched him without expecting anything in return.

  ‘As I said before, it was a long time ago. So long, in fact, Bruce has remarried and I’ve gained a new mother, Sophia, as well as a younger stepsister.’

  Paige slipped her fingers from his grasp. He fought the reflex to hold them for a little longer.

  ‘I take it that’s a good thing?’ she said, her eyes searching his.

  The noise of the cockatoos couldn’t mask his harsh laugh. ‘Good in the way I’ve learned many things. Sophia may look a bit like my mother, but she’s not like her in any other way. My mother never saw money as important, Sophia does. She simply can’t have enough.’

  Paige didn’t immediately answer as she concentrated on pouring the boiling water from the billy into his mug. ‘Your stepmother would find it hard living in a drought,’ she said after a moment.

  ‘You bet.’ He smiled his thanks as Paige handed him his coffee. ‘Sophia and Angelica wouldn’t cope not having their nails done every three weeks.’

  ‘Your stepfather must have deep pockets as well as patience.’

  Tait sighed. ‘To be honest I think he feels guilty. He missed my mother so much, he married Sophia thinking he could fill the void in his life, but unfortunately he couldn’t. So he showers her and Angelica with anything they want to make up for not being around.’

  What was he doing talking so much? Paige was far more lethal than a jab of truth serum. One glance into her sympathetic eyes and his life story left his lips at a rate of knots. He had to stop the conversation before he revealed far too much.

  He set his coffee beside him and came to his feet. ‘But enough about me. If I keep on yabbering we won’t have time for a swim. I might let my coffee cool and take a dip?’

  Paige didn’t look up from where she tended the fire. ‘Good idea. I’ll join you in a minute.’

  Paige slowly pa
cked away the items they’d used for their sausage sizzle. The suspicion that Tait was hiding something continued to unsettle her. She might have just been as nosy as Mrs Jessop in prying into his life, but she couldn’t discard the feeling that what he wasn’t telling her was significant. What had happened to his real father? Where had he grown up? His moving around as a child didn’t rule out him living in other places than the city. Other places like the outback.

  She shut the lid of the picnic basket. When they’d arrived at the billabong Tait had gazed around with an almost knowing half-smile as though he’d been to a similar place before. She needed to pack up her overactive imagination just like she’d put away the picnic gear. The waterhole could simply have reminded him of a photograph or a painting.

  She risked a glance toward where he was swimming. He’d already dived into the water. His hat, jeans, shirt and boots sat in a pile at the water’s edge. The pace of her pulse quickened. Hopefully he’d worn board shorts under his jeans. Sure, it was fine for her to swim naked when she camped out, but she wasn’t going near him if he was starkers.

  The water rippled on the far side of the billabong and Tait shot up for air. He wiped the water from his eyes and turned to wave to her. Even from where she sat, the well-honed lines of his torso stalled the breath in her lungs. He might sit in an office and be a city boy but he was built like any country boy who’d spent their days working up a sweat on the farm.

  ‘Come on, Paige,’ he called. ‘It’s perfect in.’

  She withheld a sigh and got to her feet. All her instincts told her that after the way her body responded to him yesterday in the shed, it was a bad, bad idea to now go for a swim with him. If the heat of the day and the warmth of the fire hadn’t melted her from the inside out, she’d stay in the shade and as far away from him as possible. But she needed to cool off. She tossed her hat onto the ground and removed her own boots and socks.

  She’d forgotten she owned swimmers but when she’d gone looking she’d discovered two pairs. Her old green school swimmers and a floral bikini she’d bought on impulse what felt like a lifetime ago. She shrugged out of her shirt and checked the strap of the bikini top she wore beneath her navy singlet. Her hand hovered at her metal belt buckle. She’d nothing to worry about. Tait might take the opportunity to check her out, but that didn’t change her from being the hostess of his farm-stay and someone he wouldn’t think twice about once home in the city.