Summer Down Under

by Pensy, Alison

  “Don’t beat yourself up. No harm done.”

  “No, but it could have been. I bet you were scared. I’m sorry. I’m not doing a very good job at keeping you safe, am I?” Daniel hung his head.

  “Hey, now. Don’t say things like that. It’s not your job to keep me safe. I’m a big girl, I can look after myself… most of the time.”

  Sam smiled at him, trying to make him feel better. She was not about to let on how absolutely terrified she’d been when she thought she was lost in the dark out in the middle of nowhere.

  ***

  The time flew by quickly once Sam got back into the swing of things again. The days merged into weeks. Before she knew it, nearly a month had gone by. Daniel didn’t attempt anything but friendship with her since that time at the pool. Sam thought he sensed her comfort level was incredibly low on that score, and probably decided being friends was the best option. Sam did feel very comfortable with his friendship and wasn’t sure she had the courage to take it any further, anyway. The way things were going seemed to be working well for the both of them. Daniel made her laugh a lot with stories of what he got up to in college and some of the things that happened to him on the sheep station over the years.

  She was also learning a lot about handling and working with the sheep. She was much more confident around them now. When she looked in the mirror every morning as she brushed her teeth, the reflection staring back was of a confident country girl who knew just what she was doing, and at that point, where she was headed. Working there was preparing her for the rest of her travels to see the remainder of Australia, which she planned to continue in just a couple of months after the shearing was finished.

  The team of three had lamb marked and sprayed thousands of sheep over the past few weeks. They only had one paddock left to do. On their way back to the house, Mr. Miller wanted them to detour past a drying creek, just to check if any sheep had gotten stuck in the mud that would be developing now the water was drying up.

  They thought they were going to be lucky as they had ridden for a mile or so and not seen any distressed sheep. As they were going to head for home, Sam noticed a white blob a little further up the creek bed ahead of them.

  “I think there’s one down there,” Sam shouted over to Daniel and his dad.

  They rode further down, and sure enough, slap bang in the middle of the creek, was a sheep bogged down in the mud.

  “Can you get it?” Sam asked, as she watched Daniel take a length of rope from the back of his bike and proceeded to tie some kind of slip knot.

  “Should be able to,” Daniel replied, testing the lasso he had created by tossing it over an old stump a few feet from his bike. He swung his leg over the seat and walked over to collect his rope, wrapping it back into a loop. Sam followed him down to the edge of the muddy creek bed and kept her fingers crossed as Daniel tossed it out towards the sheep. It wasn’t long enough by several feet.

  “Oh, well,” Mr. Miller said with a hitch of his shoulder. “We tried.” He got back on his bike.

  Daniel started to roll up his rope.

  “What are you doing?” Sam said, horrified. “You’re not going to leave that poor sheep there to die, are you?”

  “I can’t reach it,” Daniel replied. “I’m certainly not going in after it. Do you have any idea how deep that mud could be?”

  Sam gave him the filthiest glare she could muster and snatched his rope from him. Muttering that she couldn’t believe they would just leave the poor thing there to die. She puffed up her chest, as she always did when faced with a challenge. “Right, then,” she said, with an air of indignation before she leaned down to take off her boots and socks.

  “Sam, you can’t go in there,” Daniel said.

  “Just watch me.” Sam squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, defying him to say anything else. “If you buggars won’t help, then at least have the decency to turn around so I can take my jeans off and save this poor creature.”

  The two men shot each other a nervous glance then turned to look at the stubborn jillaroo with incredulity.

  “Now, please!” Sam snapped.

  Daniel and his father looked back at each other and shrugged.

  “Better do as the lady says.” Daniel said to his father.

  Once she was sure they weren’t looking, she pulled off her boots and socks, shrugged out of her jeans and stepped into the mud. It felt cool and squishy as it oozed through her toes. She fleetingly thought that this was probably not one of her brightest ideas, but being the animal lover she was, there was no way that she could continue on home without at least trying to do whatever she could to save poor thing.

  “I hope you appreciate this,” Sam mumbled towards the sheep that was still struggling to get out of the mud, but only making matters worse for itself. If she didn’t get to it soon, it would surely die.

  The mud rose further and further up her calves with each step forward that she made. It oozed up over her knees the further she waded out towards the struggling ball of wool. Sam took a deep, steadying breath before taking a few more strides. By that time, it was half way up her thighs. She was starting to get a little nervous. The mud was deeper than she thought, but the sheep was only a few feet ahead of her now. She was so close, she couldn’t give up when a successful rescue was within her grasp.

  By the time she reached the sheep, the mud had stopped just below her panty line. She blew out a breath that fanned her fringe. At least it didn’t look like she’d end up with muddy knickers. She put the rope she’d snatched from Daniel around the sheep’s head.

  “I’m going to need you to help me,” Sam whispered to the sheep, so as not to frighten it. The poor thing looked exhausted.

  She tightened the rope and encouraged the sheep to move in her direction. Much to her relief, it obliged. Slowly but surely, she inched their way back towards the bank. Sam looked up to make sure the guys weren’t watching her leading the sheep, wading up to her underwear in mud. Little Bo Peep she was not.

  “I’m okay,” Sam called, just to make sure they didn’t start to get worried and look around to check on her. “We’re nearly there...oh, buggar!”

  The sheep had found its footing. Without warning, it decided to get the heck out of Dodge rather more quickly than Sam expected. She was still holding onto the rope when it pulled forward, tugging her off balance. Sam fell face first in the mud with a resounding splat.

  Both Daniel and his father had turned around at her exclamation and caught sight of her fateful fall. They were greeted by Sam’s lily-white butt sticking up out of the mud. They fell about laughing.

  She groaned, there was nothing more she could do. Sam pushed herself up onto all fours and dragged herself out of the mud. Unable to see anything, she scraped what she could off her face with her fingers.

  Daniel, who was still laughing, caught hold of the rope and freed the sheep. It ran off without so much as a backwards glance.

  “You’re welcome!” Sam shouted as its muddy tail disappeared over the embankment.

  “Best thing you can do,” Mr. Miller said between snorts of laughter, “is stand here for a while and let the sun dry the mud. It will brush off and you’ll be ready to go. I’m not hanging around, though. Daniel you best stay with the girl so she doesn’t get lost coming home.” He started his bike and rode off.

  Sam’s shoulders slumped. She looked over at Daniel who was trying very hard to stifle his giggles. “Well, you saved the sheep,” he said.

  ***

  A few days passed after Sam’s incident with the sheep. It was now the evening before the cattle were supposed to arrive. Daniel and Sam had been sent out to get the horses.

  “I am so excited about tomorrow,” Sam told Daniel. “I’ve never done a cattle drive before.” She was finding it hard to keep her excitement contained as she threw a leg over the four-wheeler.

  “You’ll enjoy yourself,” Daniel agreed. “But we need to catch us some horses first.”

  They spe
d off across the paddocks in search of the horses.

  They’d gotten half way across the paddock when Daniel signaled to Sam to stop and shut off her engine. She shot him a confused glance but did as he said. Daniel got off his bike, and much to Sam’s surprise, swung a leg over her four-wheeler and nestled down behind her.

  Sam had almost forgotten how her body reacted to Daniel’s touch, but as his chest leaned against her back, she had a pretty quick refresher course. Her skin tingled everywhere their bodies touched. Sam wondered if it would give her away, but Daniel seemed blissfully unaware of the effect he was having on her. She dragged in a long calming breath to prevent her heart from exploding out of her chest when he lowered his head and rested it on her shoulder, casually wrapping one arm around her waist. The other arm he held up in front of them and pointed to something in the distance.

  “Look,” he whispered, his warm breath fanning her ear. “Brolgas.”

  Sam followed where Daniel was pointing, even though it was taking every ounce of self-control she possessed to focus. Up ahead on the bank of a stream, stood a group of tall crane-like birds.

  “What are they doing?” Sam asked, watching as the graceful birds weaved side to side lifting their wings and ducking their heads.

  “They’re dancing,” Daniel replied. “You, my young jillaroo, are lucky enough to be witnessing a Brolga’s dance. It’s not very often we get to see that.”

  Sam could sense the awe in Daniel’s voice.

  “Why do they dance?” Sam asked, after watching the beautiful spectacle unfold before them for a few moments.

  Daniel draped his other arm about Sam’s waist and let it relax over her thigh, covering her hands with his. Tingles shot up her arms. She couldn’t help but relax into his caress.

  “To mate,” he whispered.

  Sam’s pulse quickened, but she said nothing.

  A few more moments passed as they soaked in the spectacle, made even more beautiful by the colors of the early-evening sun that was starting to dip behind the trees. Daniel broke the silence with a sigh. “Well,” he said pushing himself up from the four-wheeler. “This won’t get the horses rounded up.”

  Despite the balmy evening air, Sam felt an empty coldness cover her back with his departure.

  It took another fifteen minutes of weaving back and forth across the great sea of grass before they spotted the horses.

  “How many horses do you have?” Sam asked, as they drew closer.

  “Five now,” Daniel replied. “We don’t use them much anymore. It’s so much more convenient to work the sheep using the bikes nowadays. They do come in really handy for working cattle, though, so we keep them around for occasions like the one tomorrow.”

  As they got closer, Sam could make out the horses standing together, grazing on the lush grass. One by one, they pulled their heads up to look and see what the noise was heading in their direction.

  “Will they run off when we get closer?”

  “Shouldn’t,” Daniel replied. “They usually know when we come out to get them that there’s work to be done. They seem to enjoy the change in routine and make their way back to the corral with no problems.”

  Daniel turned out to be right. The horses didn’t run as the bikes approached. They looked at Daniel and Sam as though they were inconsequential, then put their heads back down and carried on grazing.

  The two rounded behind the horses and encouraged them in the direction of the house. The horses gave them the occasional look of contempt for disturbing their dinner, but moved at a fair pace in front of the bikes, not once attempting to break ranks and make a run for it.

  After stopping every now and then for a quick bite of grass, they made it back to the corral in good time. With the horses safely penned in until the morning, Sam and Daniel got off their bikes. Sam climbed up on the pipe fence to watch them for a moment. She loved horses, but very rarely had the opportunity to get close to them before now.

  Riding lessons and horses were not within her family’s budget when she was growing up. The thought of being able to sit on one all the next day was starting to bubble under the surface as uncontrollable excitement.

  Sam was mesmerized by the sheer beauty of the creatures ambling about in the corral in front of her. She gave Daniel a big grin as he climbed up and sat next to her. He put a hand on the small of her back, as if to steady her balance on the fence. If only he knew that his touch sent her almost off balance, anyway.

  “I had better do some introductions,” Daniel said, pointing towards the horses.

  “That mare over there...” He pointed to a beautiful dark bay mare with a striking white blaze down her nose. “Her name is Brolga. She will be your mount for tomorrow.”

  “Like the bird?” Sam asked

  “Yep, just like the bird,” Daniel replied. “Beautiful, isn’t she? That’s why we named her that and because she is graceful under saddle. She’s is also the most ridden out of the bunch, and as you have no experience, she is the safest one to ride. I have no doubt that she will look after you.”

  “Who are you going to ride?”

  Daniel pointed to a handsome jet-black gelding with a flowing mane and tail. “I’m riding Humphrey.”

  Sam’s eyebrows shot up. “Humphrey?” she chuckled. “My horse gets a beautiful name like Brolga. What did your horse do to deserve Humphrey?”

  He looked at her and chuckled. “I know, bless him. We bought him with that name, and, well, he just looks like a Humphrey, so we kept it.”

  Sam laughed again and shook her head. “How can you say that? He’s absolutely gorgeous?”

  “What, and something named Humphrey can’t be gorgeous? That’s a bit ‘namist’, don’t you think?”

  Sam gave him a shrug.

  Daniel introduced the other horses one by one and pointed to the one that Mr. Miller would be riding.

  They sat in silence for the next few minutes watching the sun go down, which turned the scattered clouds from bright white to burning red, then to gray as the sun disappeared over the horizon to brighten someone else’s day on another part of the planet.

  “Well, we better be getting back. Dinner should be ready soon.” Daniel held a hand out for Sam as she climbed down the fence. As soon as his fingers connected with her skin, electricity shot up her arm sending a charge to her heart.

  Once Sam had planted her feet on the ground she looked up into his heated eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “No worries.” He dipped his head and smiled. “Shall we?” He gestured in the direction of their bikes. They took a leisurely ride around to the front of the house and put the bikes in their usual resting place, next to the fuel pump.

  Daniel, as usual, held the door open for Sam when they got to the entrance of the house.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” he said before wandering off to his room.

  Sam had taken one earlier so she walked into her room and pulled off her boots, dusted off her jeans and went to check if her face was dusty in the bathroom mirror. Daniel appeared in the doorway, a towel around his waist.

  “Sorry,” Sam said, suddenly feeling awkward. She averted her gaze that was threatening to linger on his perfectly formed torso. “I’ll leave you to your shower.” As she started to walk by him he put out his hand to catch her arm, sending more volts of electricity into her body.

  “You don’t need to,” he murmured. “Stay and talk for a while...if you like.”

  Sam smiled, the awkwardness receding a little.

  “I’ll go grab a chair, then.” she said, leaving the room to get the chair, while Daniel got in the shower.

  When Sam came back, chair in hand, she announced her presence. The two friends fell into easy conversation, like all the other times before. Sam was so engrossed in their conversation, she almost didn’t notice the squeak of the taps and the water stop. She slipped out of the bathroom before Daniel pulled open the shower curtain and made her way to the kitchen in time for dinner.


  ***

  Morning couldn’t have come soon enough for Sam. She hardly slept a wink all night, she was so excited. Mr. Miller had told them the night before at dinner that the cattle were to be delivered around sunrise the next morning.

  Mrs. Miller didn’t even need to make the wakeup call. The matronly woman knocked on the bedroom door and poked her head inside. Sam was already dressed and just about to head to the kitchen. Mrs. Miller smiled at the young jillaroo’s excited expression and carried on up the hall. It was still pitch dark outside. It felt like the middle of the night, even though it was about five in the morning.

  Sam was already seated by the time Daniel crawled into the dining room rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

  “Morning,” she greeted him, just a little too brightly.

  “Urgh,” he groaned. “You’re far too chipper for this time in the morning.”

  “Your dad has already had his breakfast and is outside getting the horses ready. Does he ever sleep?”

  “Not that I know of,” Daniel said, running a hand through a shock of mussed hair. Was it possible that he could look any sexier? Sam stared at him and decided it wasn’t.

  Hearing Mrs. Miller enter the dining room, she averted her gaze, feigning interest in Lucrecia, who was squawking in the corner. Daniel’s mum was carrying a couple of plates piled high with steaming eggs, bacon, and a slice of toast on the side. Sam hardly tasted it, she threw it down so fast.

  “Come on, hurry up.” Sam nudged Daniel as he looked in dismay at her empty plate and saw that his was still half full.

  “Hold your horses,” he said with a smile “I’ll be done in a minute.”

  “That’s what I want to do,” she retorted. “Hold my horse.”

  Daniel looked to the heavens. “Oh, good Lord. We’ve created a monster.” He shoved the last forkful of breakfast into his mouth and got up, his cheeks stuffed like a chipmunk. Sam chuckled. Daniel looked down at her with a glint in his eye. He took hold of her hand and pulled her out of her seat and around the table.