by Valerie Parv
Tracey looked over her shoulder at the children. “Neither did they. They’re swimming in their clothes or underwear.” Her longing look suggested she would have liked to do the same, decorum permitting.
Remembering her friend’s former calling, Judy suppressed a smile. “How on Earth did you find this place?”
“When we were at dinner at the crocodile park, Blake and your father told us about the waterhole and how to find it. When we realized we’d pass so close by, we couldn’t resist stopping for a break.”
“We swam here often as kids. Ryan, do you remember?”
“I remember,” he said before she could say more. Judy felt a tingle as he looked at her, his gaze distant as if he were seeing her as she’d looked then, on the cusp of womanhood. Dressing in a navy one-piece swimsuit, she’d thought herself scrawny and unattractive. He’d looked at her as if she were Venus rising from the water. His stay with them had been too short for many visits to the Rapids and he’d never spoken of his feelings, but she’d always been conscious of a strange electricity in the air whenever they came here together. The place had a unique magic. She felt it again now, wishing they had the pools to themselves.
She shook herself mentally. The children looked so happy and uninhibited that she had to remind herself of the lurking danger—not from crocodiles this time, but from Horvath and his men.
“I’m worried about the weather closing in. Even this road can become difficult if we get much more rain,” Ryan said, giving the most sensible excuse for why they shouldn’t linger. Why hadn’t she thought of anything so simple?
Tracey nodded. “We’ll only stay long enough for the kids to dry off, then we’ll head back to town.” She gestured toward a couple of cooler bags Heather was rifling through. “We were about to pour cool drinks for everyone. Would you like to join us?”
Ryan nodded and Heather made room for them on a flat expanse of rock out of reach of the children’s splashing. “Sunny will be glad to see you,” she said. “He was disappointed not to have the chance to say goodbye.”
On cue, the little boy hurtled out of the water and threw his wet body at Ryan. The older man didn’t shy away, knowing as well as Judy did that clothes wouldn’t stay damp for long in the baking heat. “Did you see me swim?” Sunny demanded.
Ryan ruffled the child’s wet hair. “I sure did. You’re a champ in the making.”
“Matilda showed me how to do a slippery slide down the rocks.”
The little boy chattered on as Tracey called the others out of the water for their snack. Dripping and happy, they scattered across the bank, plastic tumblers of juice and chunks of homemade cake in their hands.
It was a happy, domestic scene, making Judy wish Horvath to hell and gone. The looming presence of the ochre escarpment behind them made a mockery of the wish. Up there was the Uru cave with its historic rock art, and a mile or so off to the left was the way into Blake’s and Jo’s hidden valley, the place more than likely holding the key to finding the lost diamonds.
“After the group leaves, we’ll take a look around up there,” Ryan said in a low tone, as if reading her mind.
Sunny dragged him off to inspect something he’d spotted in the water, and Heather came to sit next to Judy. “Aren’t we close to the Uru cave discovered by Shara Najran?”
Judy gestured to the escarpment. “It’s very close, but I wouldn’t advise taking the children there. The access is difficult.”
“I wasn’t thinking of seeing it today. Perhaps on another visit. When I worked in television, the meteorologists were fascinated by these places. They were once part of the ancient Devonian coral reef.”
Judy wrapped her arms around her bent knees. “Geology buffs have a great time around here.”
“Not only geology buffs. Weather freaks like me, too. After we met at the hospital, Tracey told me about the legend of your great-grandfather and his mine. I looked up the records for when he disappeared. Around here, the Wet was particularly heavy and the creeks rose to historic heights. No wonder Jack Logan’s mine was never found. It must have been a long way above the high-water mark.”
“Water that would have stayed trapped in underground watercourses for far longer than on the surface,” Judy said slowly. Inwardly, she felt as if she’d been struck by lightning. Jo and Max had both found traces of diamonds in the creek flowing into the hidden valley, leading them to think the mine was somewhere along the watercourse. They had never thought of looking up to where the creek would have flowed around the time of Jack’s explorations.
Excitement made her tingle. She wished she were alone with Ryan so she could discuss the theory. But he was sitting on a rock, surrounded by children. The sight tugged at her anew.
Finishing her drink, Tracey started to collect the picnic things into a bag. “Time we headed back.”
Heather stowed her cup in a bag. “Life on the land doesn’t allow much vacation time, but I hope Jeff can join us next time I get down this way.”
Would Judy herself still live here, or would all this beauty be in Max Horvath’s hands by then? She rejected the thought instantly. She would fight for her family land as long as breath remained in her body. “We’ll be here,” she vowed fiercely.
She helped to carry the picnic things back to where the cars were parked. After the ritual of goodbyes and loading up the car and van had been accomplished, the group was finally on their way. She let out a huge breath. “Thank goodness. I was scared Max’s men would try something while the kids were still here.”
Ryan’s arm came around her. “They’d have to go through me to get to them.” His tone included her and she felt comforted by the assurance, although she resisted the temptation to snuggle against him. The course she’d chosen for herself didn’t allow such indulgence, although the yearning was so strong it took her breath away. Why couldn’t she make up her mind what she wanted?
“Feel up to some climbing?” he asked.
She threw him a scornful look. “Anything you can do, big fellow.”
His interest quickened visibly. “Anything?”
Like him, she could think of lots of ways they could take advantage of the setting, but any one of them would violate her self-imposed rules. “Rock climbing,” she said.
He looked disappointed, but led the way through the bush, following the course of the creek along the escarpment to where it disappeared underground. After a half hour of steady walking, he looked upward. “According to Blake, there’s a curtain of vines screening the access.”
She regarded the endless screen of green with a sense of futility. Could even Blake and Jo have found their way back into their underground valley when every part of the vine-covered escarpment looked identical?
Ryan skirted the seemingly impenetrable thicket. “There has to be an opening here somewhere.”
“But where?”
He turned around, facing the valley. Above the calls of the wild birds, she heard the distant burble of the Rapids. He shook his head, as if at some inner thought.
“What is it?” she asked.
“According to Blake, we shouldn’t be able to hear the water.”
He walked on, away from the area where the Uru cave was located, the sound getting fainter. She followed. When the sound of the Rapids faded into the distance, replaced by the shrill calls of wild birds, Ryan climbed up to the green wall and began to explore.
She joined him, feeling her way along the base of the rocks, wondering if they would ever find a way in. Without warning the greenery gave way and almost pitched her into a black hole concealed by the vines. Saving herself by grabbing the edges of the rock, she called, “I found it. I’ve found the entrance.”
He ploughed back to her side and together they pulled aside the vine curtain to reveal a tunnel-shaped hole about four feet high and three wide. Beyond was blackness. He dropped the vines and swung her into the air. “You did it.”
“We did it,” she said, aware of a sense of exhilaration not wholly re
lated to the discovery.
He felt it too, and slid her down the length of his body until she was in his arms. They were both hot and sweaty, grimy from their explorations, but she had never known a more sensuous moment than when his mouth found hers.
In the steamy setting, she felt primitive and wanton, kissing him back with a hunger that made nonsense of her earlier vow. Had he wanted to make love here and now, on a bed of greenery in the shadow of the escarpment, she wouldn’t have summoned a shred of resistance.
In spite of her choice to remain uninvolved, she felt slightly cheated when he set her on her feet. “We’ll have to go back to the homestead for lamps, provisions and climbing gear before we can explore inside.”
Had she totally misread the moment? Was she mistaking unbridled joy for something deeper? Or was he simply giving her what she’d said she wanted? Distance from him and from any relationship that demanded more from her?
Confused and irritated with herself, she helped him gather small rocks and build a discreet marker that would help them locate the spot when they returned, equipped to explore more fully. The temptation to step into the opening was almost irresistible, but she knew the danger as well as Ryan did. Blake and Jo had been trapped in the caverns overnight, finding their way out as much by good luck as good judgment. With so many people depending on her, Judy wasn’t prepared to take unnecessary risks.
Ryan sensed that he’d disappointed Judy and felt his anger rise. Kissing her had been an impulsive act to celebrate their discovery. In spite of the needs clawing at him whenever she was within touching distance, he’d promised himself he wouldn’t touch her again unless it was what she wanted. He hadn’t meant to do so now.
If she’d been honest with him, she should have resisted him, but she hadn’t. Her body had felt yielding and fluid, her mouth hot and eager. If he hadn’t known better, he’d have sworn she wanted more from him. But what? Not his love, she’d made that clear.
To dissipate his frustration, he started to pile rocks together to mark the entrance of the underground complex so they could find it again when they returned with more gear.
He would need more than ropes and a lamp to work Judy out, he decided. He understood her fear of ending up like her mother. Fran Logan had been foolish to ignore the signs of appendicitis until it was too late. But she hadn’t been the type to be stupidly heroic. She had probably dismissed her pain as something that would go away if she ignored it, not realizing the danger. So at worst, she’d been guilty of wishful thinking, and had paid the supreme price.
Judy seemed convinced that all outback wives had to be sacrificial lambs, but Ryan knew that such behavior wasn’t exclusive to the outback. He remembered his own mother quietly choosing school shoes for him over new clothes for herself when money had been tight, and suspected mothers the world over had been making similar choices since time began.
Nor was self-sacrifice an exclusively female preserve. Thinking of his relationship with Sunny Coleman, Ryan knew he’d do almost anything for the little boy, and Sunny wasn’t even his own flesh and blood. At the thought of the children he hoped to father one day, Ryan’s gut tightened. He’d die for them and their mother. As he added another rock to the cairn, his thoughts came full circle back to Judy. He couldn’t work this one out for her. She had to solve the problem for herself.
He didn’t blame her for being apprehensive. The thought of being responsible for small lives he’d helped to create awed him. Other than Des Logan, Ryan’s experience of good fathering was terrifyingly limited. His birth father’s example had been all too brief, but he’d had his own issues. Ryan hadn’t understood when he was younger, but now he could imagine his father’s terror at surviving the accident that had killed Ryan’s grandmother. Ryan knew first-hand the nightmare of being left alone in the world. His father had dealt with that and the Logan family’s rejection as well. Of course, they’d probably believed it was best for little Nicholas Smith to live with his distant relatives. And since Jack Logan hadn’t survived to marry Lizina, the law wouldn’t have allowed the Logans to keep Nicholas with them anyway.
Full circle indeed, Ryan told himself, placing a final rock on the knee-high pile. First, his grandmother and her child had been rejected by the Logans; now, Judy was doing it to him. Well, to the devil with needing anyone. He had come this far on his own, he could go right on the same way.
The thought didn’t cheer him as much as it should have.
Ryan’s silence began to unnerve Judy. He was giving her the distance she wanted, so why was she so unhappy? The lowering clouds reflected her gray mood as she helped him build the cairn. After a time, she straightened and arched her back. “I wish it would rain. This period just before the Wet is the worst time of the year.”
“It is oppressive,” he agreed, looking at the leaden sky. Apart from the soaking shower two days before, the mountainous clouds had built up every morning only to roll away around midday, leaving clear blue skies. Today, the clouds had lingered longer and seemed lower and heavier, making rain seem more likely. “We could use a downpour just to wash away this blasted humidity,” he observed.
She swiped her sleeve across her forehead. “I’m beginning to wish I’d gone into the water with the kids.”
“It wouldn’t have helped for long. Fifteen minutes later, you’d be sweating again.” He looked around. “We’ve done all we can for now. Time we headed back.”
She thought of the walk back to where they’d left his vehicle. “If it does decide to rain, I’d rather not get caught out here.”
He offered her his hand to climb down to the road. After the slightest hesitation she was sure he’d noticed, she let him help her down the incline. He was as sure-footed as a rock wallaby. But no wallaby ever made her heart beat so fast at the slightest contact. Or made her wish she wasn’t so resolute in her determination to remain a solo act.
Reaching the road, she stopped and lifted her head.
“What is it?” Ryan asked, watching her.
“I don’t know. Something’s not right.”
“The stormy atmosphere?”
“Probably.” She looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of her unease. Then suddenly she stiffened, her fingers tightening in Ryan’s. “Is that smoke?”
He looked in the direction she indicated, and she felt his reaction through her arm. “It’s coming from the homestead.”
“Oh, my God. Do you think Horvath…”
His arm around her, he began to urge her in the direction of the car. “There’s no time to think. Let’s go.”
They made the car at a run, reaching it streaming with perspiration and on legs that felt like jelly. Judy didn’t care. Her home was in danger and she had to get there. If she could have made it faster on foot, she’d have run all the way.
She threw herself into the passenger seat as Ryan got behind the wheel and gunned the motor in a series of fluid movements. She was still fastening her seat belt as he spun the car around, the tires spitting gravel.
Smoke mingled with cloud on the horizon so Judy couldn’t tell how bad the fire was from this distance. She resisted blaming herself for leaving the homestead protected only by a couple of the stockmen. Making sure the children were okay had been more important. Thank goodness they were well on their way back to town by now.
“Do you think lightning struck the house and started a fire?” she asked Ryan.
Grimly focused on driving faster than conditions allowed, he didn’t look at her. “Do you think so?”
She hung on to the seat as the car became airborne over a corrugation. “No.”
Thick fumes from burning eucalyptus reached them before they saw the fire itself. A burned-out car sat corkscrewed near a cottage, one of the unoccupied ones, she saw in relief, but the structure already well alight. Through the acrid smoke she saw one of the stockmen aiming a hose at the flames threatening to engulf the next cottage. One of the wives was opening gates between the yards, allowing the terrified
horses to plunge through. Another woman was shooing chickens out of their yard.
Ryan abandoned the car on the perimeter of the chaos. Judy threw herself out of the vehicle and into the fray. The property had its own small water tanker and she saw that it had already been pressed into use to confront the fire centered on the bunkhouse. “Have you radioed Cade and the other men?” she yelled over the fire’s roaring voice.
“First thing we did,” the man yelled, without turning from his task.
Her main thought was to keep the flames away from the homestead. Ryan was there ahead of her, soaking the roofline and surroundings, she saw. She grabbed a burlap bag from a pile the others had dragged out, saturated it and began to beat at the spot fires springing up all around her from the burning eucalyptus leaves falling like rain.
Although cleared areas protected the homestead, the long dry season had left plenty of fuel to feed the fire in the desiccated eucalyptus trees, savannah grasslands and accumulation of leaf litter and forest debris. The timber buildings were tinder-dry and she felt despair grip her as the bunkhouse went up with a great whooshing sound, the flames shooting high into the air and staining the sky with red.
Ryan broke away from the homestead long enough to order the stockman away from the bunkhouse. “Concentrate on protecting your own homes.” The man nodded and turned his hose on the other buildings, while Ryan returned his attention to the main house.
There was a crack like a gunshot as a tree branch snapped off and connected with a power line in an explosive conflagration, showering her with sparks. She beat them off her clothes and hair, and started on the spot fires erupting around her, dodging pieces of burnt bark dropping around her like stones thrown by a malevolent sprite.
The intense heat was killing, the air barely breathable through a thick blanket of smoke. She tore a strip from the hem of her T-shirt and bound it around her mouth, filtering out the worst of the fiery particles. She could do nothing about the stinging when they landed on her skin. The pain seemed insignificant compared to the fight on their hands.