Somehow he reached her. It was instinct, luck, something, but somehow he had her and hauled her back, away from the animals moving nervously forward. The water was deep and murky and the elephants were shifting in alarm but he had her tight and he wasn’t letting go. He hauled her to the surface just as Minnie surged forward.
The elephants could see them now, and they meant no harm. Maisie lurched as if to block off her daughter, and somehow Matt hauled Allie sideways and back towards the bank. Finally he found his feet in the mud and hauled Allie out of the water and out of danger.
What had just happened? A moment’s inattention...
He felt his knees sag as he realised how close...how close...
The elephants were now stock still in the water. Jack had surged forward almost as fast as Matt—he was knee-deep in the mud—but he, too, stopped.
Then Maisie took one, two ponderous steps forward and lifted her great trunk and touched Allie’s face. She checked her out with her trunk as Matt had seen mother elephants check their babies in wildlife documentaries.
Documentaries. Not real life.
In reality, Allie had fallen and if one of these huge creatures had moved sideways before he’d got there...
He was holding Allie hard against him and he felt her shudder. She didn’t flinch from Maisie’s touch, though. She stood within the circle of Matt’s hold and she touched Maisie’s trunk in turn.
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘I gave you a fright. I forgot to watch Minnie.’ She was talking to Maisie?
‘It’s the way accidents happen,’ Jack growled in a voice that said he was as shaken, or more, as they were. ‘You forget the power of these guys. They know you, girl, and they’re friendly but they’re elephants, not toys.’
‘Which is why they’re here and not in the circus,’ Allie managed, but she wasn’t moving from Matt’s hold. ‘I should never... That was so dumb. But it was great.’
‘Thanks to your man, here,’ Jack said.
‘He’s not my man.’ Her knees were giving in on her, Matt thought. He was holding her up and she needed it. It was okay by him; for now, for this moment, he was her man, whether she willed it or not.
She stood still, taking her time to recover, and Matt was happy to hold her for as long as she needed. Jack stood back and waited as well, and the elephants stood and silently watched, as if they, too, were coming to terms with what had happened. But that was crazy. Anthropomorphism, Matt thought—attributing human traits to animals. It was sentimental nonsense.
But as Matt watched Maisie watch Allie, as he felt Allie’s shudders fade, as he stood still while Maisie’s trunk explored him in turn, it was impossible not to feel that way.
Maisie’s trunk felt like a blessing. Look after my girl.
Thanks to your man, here...
That was how he felt right now. Her man.
Because she felt like his woman.
Nonsense. This was emotion, with no basis in reality.
Except the girl he was holding in his arms felt every inch real, felt every inch a woman, felt every inch a part of him.
His woman.
One dangerous moment had shifted his foundations. He needed to get on firm ground—which involved getting out of this dam.
Before Allie could object, he swung her into his arms and strode out of the muddy water, setting her gently on the bank. He held her for a moment, held her shoulders, then reluctantly let her go.
She didn’t move far. She still looked white-faced and shocked.
Emotion be damned, he moved back in again. He put his arm around her shoulders and tugged her against him. Just until she’d recovered, he told himself as they both turned to face Jack.
‘You’re really okay?’ Jack demanded and he was white-faced, too, or as white-faced as a weathered farmer could possibly look.
‘I...I’m fine,’ Allie said. ‘Just paying the price for being dumb. I’m sorry I scared you.’ She glanced back towards the elephants, who’d obviously decided things were okay, they could go back to water play. ‘What...what happens now?’
‘With these guys?’ Jack’s face turned even more grim. He stared at the great elephants and then he turned and looked into the distance. There were beef cattle grazing peacefully close by, but they could see another three elephants behind them. And two giraffes. ‘I’m starting to face it,’ he said. ‘Myra and I run this place on the smell of an oily rag, but we don’t make ends meet. The problem is, these guys live for ever. I started this place when I was wealthy, but I’m not any more. People felt sorry for individual animals—circuses and the like. No one wants to be the one to put them down so they’ve paid to have them sent here. Five years’ keep. Ten years’ keep if we’re lucky. But Myra and I are getting old. We’re running out of steam and we’ve run out of money. That’s why I decided I had to pull in what’s owing, only people like you are coming back to me saying sorry, there’s no more funding. Myra and I need to retire. My son and his wife would take this on in a heartbeat if it was a business proposition but it’s not. We have to walk away.’
He looked across at Maisie and Minnie, still cavorting in the water like two kids instead of a forty-year-old and her eighteen-year-old daughter. ‘I’m sorry, lass,’ he said. ‘But I’ve made so many enquiries. No one wants them. No one has the room or the facilities to keep them right, and I suspect you’ll be with me when I say I’d rather put them down than have them go back to the lifestyle we saved them from.’
‘All the animals?’ Allie whispered and it was as if all the breath had been sucked out of her.
‘All,’ he said.
‘How many?’
‘Ten elephants, two giraffes, four lions, three tigers, four panthers, forty-six monkeys, one gorilla, two bears and seven meerkats.’ He managed a smile. ‘We might manage to keep the meerkats. Building them an enclosure and keeping them happy might keep me happy in my old age, though I’m not sure how they’ll go in a retirement village.’
‘They’ll be awesome in a retirement village,’ Allie said stoutly but she was watching Maisie and Minnie, and Matt could see the iron will needed to keep her face under control. He was holding her and her body was rigid. ‘Oh, Jack...there’s nothing I can do,’ she whispered.
‘I know,’ the farmer said gently. ‘You did what you could as a teenager. They’ve had ten great years because of you. If it finishes now...’ He didn’t continue. He didn’t have to. ‘Do you two want towels? Showers?’
We’re fine,’ Allie said, starting to recover. ‘It’s hot. We’ll dry. Can you show us the lions?’
So Jack walked them across to the lion enclosure and Matt kept holding her because it seemed the right thing to do. She needed him.
After a scare like that, she’d need anyone with steady legs.
That didn’t seem important. What was important was that now she needed him.
Allie had fallen silent. Had it been a mistake to bring her here? Matt wondered. Would it break her heart? But even if these animals had to be put down, she’d want to have seen them.
Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all...
Where had that saying come from? He didn’t know, but suddenly instead of Allie and her elephants—or maybe as well as Allie and her elephants—he was thinking of Margot and her soldier fiancé.
Better to have loved and lost...
Why did it feel as if there was armour there and something was attacking it? It was as if armour was being picked off, piece by piece. There was a big part of him that wanted—needed—to retreat, to regroup, to stop holding Allie, to stop looking at Allie. He was thinking...thinking...
He saw Jack glance at him and then at Allie and he wondered how much the old man saw. Jack could read animals. Could he read him?
That’d be hard. He could hardly read him
self.
The lions were difficult to see. Their enclosure was magnificently built, double fenced, the fence embedded deep into the ground so nothing could dig through. It must have cost a fortune, Matt thought, as he saw it stretch away beyond their sight. The ground beyond was undulating, with trees and rocky outcrops, natural shelter, another waterhole. It was as close as Jack could make, Matt thought, to the wilds these creatures belonged in.
Jack handed Allie field glasses and pointed to a group far to the left. ‘Yours’ll be the old man,’ he told her. ‘Prince is still magnificent and Hilda’s loyal to him. Zelda died of natural causes last year. The other three in that pride are all lionesses from a guy’s private zoo. He made money in the IT boom, set up a private zoo, but his firm went bust so now...’ He shrugged. ‘Ah, well. I’ve done the best I can for as long as I can, but it’s over.’
Enough.
All the time he’d been talking, walking, watching, no matter that his emotions were in unaccustomed overdrive, Matt’s banker brain had been working. Yeah, he’d been distracted by Allie—who wouldn’t be distracted by Allie?—but somehow he now reverted. Focus, he told himself, and he did.
‘You say your son would take over here?’ he asked Jack. ‘If it was a viable business?’
‘Yes, but it’s not,’ Jack said shortly.
‘Do you and Myra want to go live in a retirement home—with or without meerkats?’
‘There’s no choice. The house is falling down. All we have goes into these animals. Myra has arthritis. She needs...’
‘Help,’ Matt said softly. ‘Major help. Would you mind if I looked at your books?’
‘There’s nothing to see,’ Jack said bleakly. ‘Outgoings equals incomings multiplied by three.’
‘But I can’t see a scrap of waste,’ Matt said. ‘I can’t see a hint of mismanagement. You know, Bond’s Bank has a vast international reputation. As part of our business model we take on projects that do our corporate image good. Usually they’re big and visible and attached to major charities, but this...’ He stood and gazed around him, at the vast outback landholding, at the elephants in the distance, at the lions in the foreground. ‘There’d be more animals than these needing homes,’ he said, and it wasn’t a question.
‘Every week I get requests,’ Jack said heavily. ‘I can’t take them, and I know they get put down.’
‘Allie, your camels could come here. They’d like it here.’
‘Camels,’ Jack said, and brightened. ‘That’d give me stuff to learn about.’ But the brightness faded. ‘You’re talking fairy tales, son,’ he said. ‘Do you have any idea how much this place is losing?’
‘I suspect I do,’ Matt said absently. ‘And I have a board I’d need to bulldoze. Would you have any objection to the Bond logo going on your website?’
‘What website?’
‘The website Bonds Public Relations team would build for you.’
‘But...’
‘We don’t do things in halves,’ Matt went on, working on his theme. Still not looking at Allie. This was business, he told himself. This was nothing to do with a soaking, bedraggled woman who was looking at him with the beginnings of hope in her eyes. ‘If we decide to put our fingers in this pie...’ He hesitated. ‘It wouldn’t be a finger. It’d be a whole fist. Or an arm right up to the chest.’
He glanced across at the decrepit homestead. An elderly lady was standing on the veranda, watching them, shielding her face from the sun. With a flash of intuition, he thought—that’s Mrya and she doesn’t want to be here because she thinks we’re talking about putting these animals down.
‘We’d build two houses,’ Matt said. ‘One for your son and one for you. No, make that three. Let’s put in a manager’s residence as well so your son can take a break when he needs to. You run beef cattle, to make a living, right? My proposition is that you keep doing that if you wish, but you no longer need to. We’ll take on the entire costs of maintaining the sanctuary, including generous wages for all of you. We’ll examine how much land you have here, thinking about expanding if we need. If you’re knocking animals back...Bond’s wouldn’t want them knocked back or put down. You’ll need more staff and we can organise that. Other banks sponsor sports clubs or car races. I’m thinking Bond’s will be in the business of saving animals instead.’
‘But...’ Allie said, and she’d lost her bluster. Her voice was scarcely a whisper. ‘But what we owe...What everyone owes...’
‘It’ll be retrospective,’ Matt said. ‘We’re taking on these animals as of now but we’ll take on the debts as well. Bond’s has the resources to pull in debts from those who can afford it but the animals’ survival won’t depend on repayment. For those who’ve paid for years, that’ll be deemed enough. If you wanted to make this place better for your animals, Jack, where would you start?’
The man looked dazed, as well he might. ‘I don’t...I don’t know,’ he managed. ‘My son has all sorts of dreams. Myra has all sorts of dreams.’
‘I’ll have my people contact your people then,’ Matt said and grinned and shook his hand. ‘This can work for both of us. As a PR exercise it’ll be magnificent. By the way, you need a name. Does the farm have one?’
‘No,’ Jack said faintly. ‘We’ve stayed under the radar. Kept it quiet, like.’
‘Then maybe we need to change that. It’ll mean more animals come to you; you’ll need more resources to handle them, but we can cope with that. We’re talking long-term funding.’
The commercial part of him was kicking in now, seeing possibilities. He’d hardly touched the structure of the bank since his grandfather had died. It was a staid institution, insular and secure.
Maybe it was time to break out.
‘We need an angle,’ he said. ‘A name...’
‘What about Bond’s Unleashed?’ Allie said. She’d pulled away from him to use the field glasses but suddenly she was right in front of him, staring up at him with shining eyes. ‘Bond’s Unleashed, for all of you.’
‘Bond’s Unleashed...’ The words drifted, the possibilities opening. Like the girl before him. Possibilities...
‘Letting go,’ Jack muttered. He stared around at the animals and he stared back at Matt. ‘This’d be me letting go of the responsibility—with your blessed bank taking over.’
‘Bonds unleashed all over the place,’ Allie said and Matt thought...Matt thought...
Bond’s Unleashed. He knew it’d work. He could see it.
But mostly all he could see was Allie.
‘You need a great snarly lion on your banking logo,’ Allie said and he thought incredulously—this is a businesswoman. She has business smarts.
She’s beautiful.
‘You could use Prince,’ Jack said doubtfully. ‘But he’s more smug than snarling.’
‘If Photoshop can get rid of cellulite it can turn smug to snarly.’ Allie’s eyes were glimmering with unshed tears and she reached out and took Matt’s hands in hers. ‘Matt, are you sure?’
‘I’m sure.’ The way he was feeling, it was all he could do to get his voice to work.
‘And your bank can afford it?’
‘Yes, it can. A thousandfold if need be.’
‘And I can send the camels here?’
‘Yes,’ he said and he saw a weight slide from her shoulders. Her face lightened and she looked...younger?
The feel of her hands in his...
Bonds unleashed. The way he was feeling...
‘We should check on the rest of your animals,’ he said quickly before his thoughts could take him one inch further into territory he was struggling to understand. ‘The monkeys.’
She nodded. ‘I...yes, please. We should.’
‘And you need to meet our meerkats,’ Jack said. ‘They’re not nearly as risky as elephants.’ He gr
inned at Matt, a great, wide grin that made him seem twenty years younger. ‘They’re playful. You want to play?’
‘I’m a banker,’ he said. ‘I finance this operation; I don’t play.’
‘You could be unleashed as well,’ Allie said softly, and suddenly things seemed right out of control.
‘No.’
‘No?’
‘No,’ he repeated and, whether he meant it or not, the words came out explosively. ‘Jack, I’ll need a rough idea of what you need to keep this place running until we can get long-term organisation in place. Can I talk you through it while Allie greets her monkeys?’
‘Sure,’ Jack said easily. ‘Myra has the books. She might also have a cup of tea.’ He grinned. ‘Maybe a whisky as well?’
‘No whisky,’ Allie decreed, casting a mischievous glance at Matt. ‘One, he’s my helicopter pilot and two, he’s my ringmaster and he’s performing tonight. For now, Matt Bond, that leash stays very firmly on.’ Then she tucked her hand in his and chuckled. ‘But now I’ve seen you dive into muddy waters and save me from elephants. Now I know that leash can come off at need.’
* * *
Allie checked out her monkeys, who didn’t recognise her but they looked gloriously content. Matt checked the books and tried to turn into a banker again.
As he went through the financial figures he understood why Jack was in such financial trouble. He should have folded this place years ago but instead he hadn’t compromised one bit. He and Myra were living in poverty but the animals were living in luxury.
Jack and Henry...two old men, following their dreams.
Allie following after.
At least he could save Jack’s farm, Matt thought, trying very hard to stay in banker mode as he guided their chopper back to Fort Neptune with a seemingly subdued Allie beside him. The Board might even think it was a good idea—Allie’s name was pure brilliance.
But he still couldn’t save the circus. No amount of money could make ageing performers young again.
‘But it’s just us now,’ Allie said, almost to herself, but she had headphones and mouthpiece on so he could hear every whisper.
Sparks Fly with the Billionaire Page 13