Obsession Down Under

by MACADAM, LAYNE

  As she galloped along with her hair flying behind her, she recited every prayer her father had taught her until she could make out men working on the fences in the distance.

  The gap shortened and it became clear that the men were Mark and Cyril, and thankfully the Ute was parked nearby. The smaller figure with them though was Brenda, and her spirits sank for the briefest moment.

  On reaching the trio, she yanked on the reins. Rocket came to a grinding halt, nostrils flaring, flanks heaving, and as he pawed the ground she almost flew off.

  “Jess, what’s happened? Where’s Whip?” Mark yelled as he rushed over and grabbed the reins, steadying the temperamental animal.

  “Why are you riding Rocket?” Brenda’s tone was harsh and accusatory.

  Jessica flicked a quick gaze over the teenager and then turned away and addressed Mark.

  “Whip’s been bitten,” she rasped, trying to catch her breath.

  “Bitten!” Brenda screeched. “By what? Where?”

  “Let me give you a hand.” Mark reached up and Jessica fell into his arms as he helped her down. “Steady on, girl, take a breath and tell us what’s happened.”

  “Snake bite.” The air was pumping in and out of her lungs like a bellows. It was hard to believe riding hell for leather could leave her so out of breath.

  “What kind of snake exactly?” Mark asked, his fingers biting into her arms.

  “He said a belly black and red snake or something like that.”

  “A red-bellied black, damn nasty snake that,” Cyril muttered, echoing the words Whip had said earlier. “Best get the Ute, boy.”

  “What about Rocket?” she asked, stroking the horse’s neck. Whip loved that animal and no way was any harm going to befall his horse whilst in her care.

  “Don’t worry about him, Jess. That horse knows his way home better than I do,” Mark called as he climbed into the driver’s seat and switched on the engine.

  Brenda swung in next to him, and Cyril got into the back. Convinced Mark was telling the truth, Jessica hurried over.

  “Move over, sis.”

  Brenda shifted into the middle, and Jessica climbed in beside her. When the door slammed, Mark spun the wheels kicking up a spray of dirt and took off in the direction she had come from.

  Chapter 19

  Whip could feel himself drifting again. When a soft hand touched his cheek, he was confused. His eyes were leaden, but he forced them open. It wasn’t a dream. “Jessie Rose,” he murmured. He hadn’t heard them arrive. Cyril was there, too, and so were Mark and Brenda.

  “How’s it going, bro, you feeling okay?”

  Mark’s voice was low and nervous. Whip thought he must really look like shit for his brother to show that much concern. Lord knew, he felt like shit.

  His gaze found his sister’s solemn little face, it was paler than normal and her bottom lip trembled. “Yeah, I’m fine, just dreaming,” he reassured them all.

  “What the hell were you doing, boy, that you let a damn snake get ya?”

  How to answer Cyril? Not with a confession. So he stayed silent knowing if he survived, he’d never live this one down.

  Pity came from an unexpected quarter as Mark chimed in, “Never mind that old man, just help me settle him into the back of the Ute. Plenty of time for explanations later.”

  They picked him up and with tender hands carried him over to the vehicle.

  “I’ll ride with him.” Jessie Rose shot up and scampered into the back of the Ute. When he rested his head in her lap, her cool hands stroking his brow was soothing. Brenda jumped in, too, and covered him with the picnic blanket.

  “You’re going to be all right, Cowboy, just take it easy and stay still.”

  “Damn, babe, I wanted today to be special. I can’t believe . . . so stupid . . . not to have done a thorough check around . . . before spreading the blanket. A hot day . . . snakes get thirsty too. I know better.” He paused for a minute or three to catch his breath. “I’m just grateful it was me . . . and not you. I’d never forgive myself . . . had you been bitten.” His eyelids forced their way down, too heavy to hold open.

  “Stay with me, Cowboy,” Jessie Rose begged, giving him a gentle prod, but he couldn’t rouse the energy to open them.

  Even when Brenda cried, “Whip, please wake up.” His eyes remained closed. “Jessica, do something,” she begged.

  Jessica’s heart hammered and perspiration beaded her brow as the Ute bounced over the uneven ground. It must be one hundred degrees and not a breath of wind or a piece of paper in sight to fan Whip.

  “Come on, Cowboy, don’t do this to me. Wake up.” She gave Whip a firm shake. His skin was clammy to the touch, his color a pasty gray. She glanced at Cyril but couldn’t hold his gaze.

  “Keep talking to him love, try to keep him conscious.”

  “I’ll do my darnedest.” She looked across at Brenda. Silent tears slipped down the girl’s cheek as she chewed her knuckles.

  Jessica reached over and rubbed her arm. “He’s going to be okay. I refuse to accept anything else,” she reassured the teenager.

  “Promise me.”

  Brenda’s lips were trembling and her eyes were swollen. Jessica inhaled and then released the breath. “I promise to do all in my power to keep him safe.” She prayed her words weren’t rash, but what choice did she have? It was what she had to believe.

  She dragged her eyes from the frightened teen and rested them on the man she loved. “Don’t you bail on me now, Cowboy. I forbid it. Do you hear me? Open your eyes, Whip.” Her voice was strong and harsh as a blizzard as she took him by the shoulders and gave him a hard shake. When his lids cracked open, she let out a nervous sigh. “Talk to me, honey, tell me about some of the pranks you and your brothers got up to. I could sure as heck use a good laugh right about now.”

  At her words Whip, whispered, “Let me see. Well . . . there was this one time when Travis and I . . .” he began.

  She only half-listened, more concerned with getting him to hospital than the intricacies of the tale. When he lapsed once again into silence, she prodded him for details, and he rallied, beginning where he’d left off.

  Brenda was pale and silent. Her fingers twiddled and pleated her shirt with nervous apprehension.

  Jessica sent her a forced smile and squeezed her hand, though she was feeling less than confident.

  Armidale Hospital, when it came into view, was larger than she’d anticipated. Mark sprang out of the Ute the second it came to a standstill and raced through the hospital’s sliding doors, not even waiting to ask how Whip was doing.

  “How you holding up, boy?”

  Whip was semi-conscious and answered in little more than a croak.

  “Nauseous, weary.”

  “Don’t you worry, son, we’ll get some of that antivenin stuff into ya, and you’ll be right as rain in no time,” Cyril said before climbing down to open the tailgate.

  Brenda leaped down just as Mark arrived back with a nurse and an orderly pushing a gurney.

  Everything happened in a whirlwind after that. Whip was placed on the gurney and rushed into an examination room, a doctor and two nurses in attendance.

  Cyril, Mark, and she took turns pacing the corridor. Brenda sat rigid on a padded chair, waiting in sullen silence for news of her brother.

  When a nurse appeared and beckoned them in after what seemed an eternity of waiting, Jessica was through the door and by Whip’s side in a flash.

  “You’re awake.” She clasped his hand, and leaning down, brushed his lips with her own as the rest of the McGregor clan filed in.

  Brenda tried to maneuver herself between the bed and her, so Jessica released Whip’s hand allowing the younger girl to get close to him.

  Jessica raised her eyes
to the white-coated doctor. “What’s the prognosis?”

  “I’ve injected him with antiserum, and he’s responding well to the treatment. Time will tell, but he’s fit and strong.”

  “Thank you, doctor, that’s a relief.” Jessica wiped her brow, her mouth lifting into a full-blown smile.

  “First time I’ve treated a snakebite that high up on a leg, though. Still, I guess there’s a first time for everything. Mind you, I won’t ask what he was doing at the time.” He laughed, the skin around his eyes bunching as they lit with a knowing gleam.

  Busted.

  The devilish wink he gave her had her hot as a fire and she imagined her face was as crimson as a sunset, but before she could speak he saved her any further embarrassment.

  “Whip always was a lucky son of a bitch, and the pressure bandage worked a treat, slowing the toxin in his blood stream from travelling to his heart. Nice work, miss. Your quick thinking very well may have saved his life.”

  She smiled, her eyes sweeping over the others in the room. “I was just following Whip’s instructions,” she responded with an awkward stammer. With the exception of old Cyril and perhaps Brenda, they all had a pretty good idea as to how Whip had come to be bitten on the upper thigh.

  Cyril scratched his head. “For the life of me son, I still can’t get my head around how a red-bellied black got you just under your backside, you being so tall and all.”

  “Yeah, must have been part kangaroo to jump that high.” The older nurse added her two-cents worth with an impish snigger.

  “Or here’s a thought, Cyril, maybe Whip was lying down at the time with his mind on other things,” Mark hinted with a smirk.

  “Lying down by the creek, his mind on other things? Don’t be daft, the boy didn’t come down in the last shower, give him credit for some common sense.”

  Cyril’s voice held indignation on Whip’s behalf.

  Jessica sucked in her cheeks in an effort not to grin.

  “Why don’t you ask him yourself then?”

  Now that the danger seemed to have passed, Mark was going to milk Whip’s predicament for all it was worth.

  The way Jessica saw it, she had two options, either cover it up with a lie or brazen it out with laughter. “It’s my fault, Cyril, I’m just too damn desirable for my own good. I turned my feminine wiles on Whip, and what can I say? He didn’t stand a chance. It can be a curse sometimes.”

  “I know where you’re coming from, dearie. I have the same effect on men,” the gray-haired matronly nurse, who was busy taking Whip’s temperature, said, straight faced.

  “Ah, get away with you both,” Cyril muttered, turning his hat in his hands and shifting from one foot to the other. It was clear he was embarrassed at being so thick, and she felt a little sorry for him as the room erupted into laughter at the old man’s discomfit.

  The doctor cut him some slack and stepping forward, extended his hand to her. “I’m Bruce Harrison, and you must be Jessica. The McGregor boys always were ill-mannered when it came to introducing the hot women around.”

  Her face, already heated, surely deepened to a scarlet hue and must have registered surprise at his knowing her identity.

  “Only that I was on duty last night, we would have met at the barbeque, but news travels fast in the bush anyway,” he explained. “Besides, the twins and I go way back. We were at school together, got into mischief together. As kids we were practically joined at the hip, so believe me when I say nothing with this boy is sacred.” He grinned and tussled Whip’s hair.

  “Ah, quit flinging the bullshit, Harro. Whip’s as tightlipped as a corpse. ‘Sides, anyone in their right mind wouldn’t tell you a blasted thing. Your mouth’s as wide as the Pacific.”

  Her face stretched with merriment at Cyril’s rapid defense of Whip.

  “Get away with you. You always did take his side, you old codger.”

  “And rightly so,” Whip piped up, giving her a wink.

  She turned to Bruce. “It’s nice to meet you, Doctor Harrison, but I wish it had been under different circumstances.”

  “Call me Bruce,” he insisted. “We don’t stand on formalities around here.”

  “When can we take him home?” Brenda spoke for the first time.

  “Mmm, I’d like to keep him overnight for observation. He’s been very lucky, thanks to Jessica, but I don’t want to tempt fate. If he pulls up okay in the morning, you can take him home then and good riddance. But he’ll need a couple of days bed rest to recuperate, no exertion, you understand, and that includes funny business.” He wagged his finger, his gaze swinging between Whip and her.

  “You’re just loving this, aren’t you?” Whip grumped at his friend.

  “You got that right. Now I gotta vamoose and go see some really sick patients, so I’ll catch you lot later.” Bruce patted Whip’s shoulder and then gave it a light squeeze before leaving with the two nurses.

  “I’ll see he follows your instructions to the letter,” she called after him, and turning to Whip, said, “You look exhausted. I think we should leave and let you get some rest.”

  “Now that’s the first sensible dang thing I’ve heard said all day.” Cyril jammed his Akubra on his head and headed for the door. Mark made a move, and Brenda and she followed his lead.

  “Take it easy, bro.”

  “Yeah sure, see you tomorrow. Hang back a minute Jessie Rose, I want a word.”

  “Why just her?” Brenda muttered.

  “Scram, kid,” Mark ordered as he none-too-gently ushered his sister through the door. “We’ll wait for you outside, Jess, take your time.”

  She nodded, and the moment the door closed, she clambered up onto the bed and threw her arms around Whip. Her mouth found his in a brief but sensual kiss before she drew back. “I’m sorry, Cowboy, I feel so responsible. If I hadn’t seduced you . . .”

  “Rubbish, babe, you’re a city girl. I’ve lived on the land all my life and should have checked. You’re right about one thing, though. You are too damned desirable, so come here.”

  She caught his fingers as they stroked her cheek and pressed them to her lips. “You heard what the doctor said, no funny business.”

  “You just let me worry about that.”

  “Hmm, well, it was funny business that got you into this predicament, so I think we’ll follow doctor’s orders. Now is there anything I can do for you before I go?”

  “You can promise me you won’t be on the first bus out of town.”

  Her brow puckered, and she took her bottom lip between her teeth. Brenda would take some convincing, but seriously, she couldn’t leave now. “I promise.”

  “Good.”

  “Is that it?”

  “I guess a head job is out of the question?”

  She rolled her eyes. “See you tomorrow, and don’t give the nurses a hard time.”

  “Never, and don’t you take any crap from my family.”

  She gave him the thumbs-up and left to find the others.

  Chapter 20

  Jessica hurried through the sliding doors and out into the sunshine, but on rounding the corner, she could hear raised voices.

  Brenda’s face was contorted. “She’s nothing but a gold digger, and once she gets her claws into him, she’ll take him away, and we’ll never see him again.”

  “Hang on a minute, sis, nobody’s taking anybody anywhere. Surely you knew Drew and I were just teasing when we said that?”

  “No, I don’t believe it. You don’t know her like I do. She’s only got dollar signs in her eyes.”

  “You’ve got no proof of that, so why say it?” Mark folded his arms and demanded.

  “I have to agree, girlie, you’ve got the wrong end of the stick with that claim.”

  Jessica’s heart
warmed at the men’s defense of her as she approached the trio. So that was the reason for Brenda’s hostility. Time to put her mind at rest. “Brenda, you’ve got it so wrong,” she said, trying to amend the situation.

  “Of course you’d say that, but I know what I read.”