Born of the Wind

by Margaret Pargeter

  'I shouldn't have asked you to do it in the first place, Miss Sherry,' he told her. 'Your grandfather wouldn't have liked it, so I'm backing Mr Brady up, in this, anyway.'

  Shooting Sam a resentful glance, Sherry returned to the house. She had been tempted to remind him that Mr Brady wasn't boss here yet! In other circumstances she mightn't have hesitated, but she knew it wouldn't be easy to make Sam understand the complications of the matter without explaining more than she wanted to.

  She attended to the stove, making a cup of tea she didn't want, though she sat down and tried to drink it. Suddenly she knew she must see Scott and tell him the truth about Kim. She was accepting Scott's help under false pretences and had no possible excuse for doing so any longer. She had put off far too long in any case. From blaming her for what had happened, Scott was now blaming Ellen and himself. He believed it was because of Ellen that Kim had left and was staying away. If she didn't tell Scott the whole truth immediately, he might, when he did find out, as he must, despise her even more than he did now.

  With a weary glance at her unfinished tea, Sherry pushed the tumbled hair from her eyes and decided she would go to Coomarlee and see him that morning, if he wouldn't come here. Thinking he might prefer to see her here, rather than at his place, she went to give him a ring. He might say no to even seeing her again, on whatever pretext, but at least if he did she would always know she had tried.

  She was told, however, on contacting Coomarlee, that Scott was out and wouldn't be home until evening. Recognising Mrs Fox's voice, Sherry asked where he was.

  Clearly Mrs Fox resented what Sherry realised was a rather presumptuous question. 'Who is speaking?' she asked stiffly.

  'Sherry Grant,' Sherry revealed haltingly.

  'I'm afraid I'm unable to divulge Mr Brady's whereabouts,' the woman said coldly.

  'Well, would you ask him to give me a ring, as soon as he comes in?' Sherry pleaded.

  Despite her humble tones, no one rang. And if Scott had done so she couldn't have missed him, for when she wasn't there herself, she had Leda stationed near the telephone with strict instructions to find her should anyone ring. When, in desperation, she rang Coomarlee again, about nine, she was told Mr Brady didn't wish to be disturbed.

  Realising that no amount of meekness was going to get her past Mrs Fox, Sherry hurriedly called to Leda that she had to see someone but wouldn't be late. Without waiting to change the short skirt she was wearing for something more practical, she set out for Coomarlee. The truck was going well, for which she breathed a sigh of relief. She might be acting impetuously, calling on Scott at this hour, but if she didn't see him she knew she could never sleep!

  It was almost ten when she reached her destination and when Scott opened the door himself, she guessed his staff had already retired to their own quarters for the night. The expression on his face, as he saw who was standing on his doorstep, wasn't exactly inviting, but he did ask her to come in.

  Because he said nothing, apart from those two coldly polite words, she found herself stammering, 'I had to see you…'

  He must have been working in his study or simply relaxing, for he had discarded his jacket and tie and his shirt was half unbuttoned. To the world he presented a cool, impenetrable mask, but underneath her feminine antennae picked up his sensual vitality.

  'Isn't it rather late to come dashing over from Googon?' he asked, as she turned to face him in the hall. 'Why didn't you give me a ring?'

  'I did,' she felt a faint heat touch her skin as his eyes went slowly over her, 'I asked Mrs Fox to give you a message.'

  'Did you? She must have forgotten,' he replied, without notable rancour. 'Well, now you're here, what can I do for you? Is the cook I sent not satisfactory?'

  'It's not that…'

  'Good. So you're after something else?'

  'No!' His cool glance wasn't making things easy for her, but she supposed she couldn't blame him. 'I'm not here to ask for more favours. I wanted to explain about Kim.'

  'There's something I don't already know?'

  'I think so, yes.'

  With what seemed deliberate insolence, his eyes made a return trip over the pronounced curve of her breasts until the colour in her cheeks deepened. 'You'd better come in here, then,' he responded, ushering her through to the lounge and asking her to sit down.

  He left her to pour two drinks. 'Actually, I've something to say myself.'

  Wondering what it could be, Sherry numbly accepted the brandy he gave her. 'Anything special?' she asked.

  'Nothing so special it won't keep. I'll hear you out first. After you've had your drink,' added Scott, so firmly she dared not argue.

  Taking a nervous sip of the brandy, she looked anywhere but at him. Scott's house was nice, she thought absently. All the furnishings were good, the colour schemes in the various rooms soothing. That was something she disliked at Googon. The colours of the plains were vivid, even harsh, and sometimes she longed, indoors, for something softer than Googon offered.

  'Drink up,' Scott said impatiently, sitting down beside her and touching her arm. 'It will do you good.'

  She obeyed, though she wasn't sure it was good for her and it made her choke, but it did warm her blood and give her some courage.

  'Scott,' she said slowly, her eyes on her empty glass until he removed it from her hands, 'I'm sorry about last night. It was inexcusable, speaking to you as I did, after you'd been so kind.'

  He frowned. 'You didn't come all the way here to tell me that?'

  'No,' her voice was unsteady, 'I came to tell you the truth about Kim.'

  'The—truth?'

  'Yes,' she said quickly, before her courage failed her. 'I should have told you sooner, I really should. I realised, today, I was taking help from you which I'd no right to.'

  'Try and be more explicit,' he said curtly.

  Sherry realised she was explaining things badly, but it wasn't easy. 'Kim isn't coming back,' she whispered. 'He's returned to England, for good.'

  Scott didn't reply immediately and she looked up to find him staring at her. She thought he was feeling something, but she couldn't be sure what it was. His face was coldly expressionless again.

  'You'd better begin at the beginning, hadn't you?' he suggested.

  Helplessly she nodded. 'There's not a lot. When I got back to Googon, after we'd been to Brisbane, I found a letter from Kim.'

  'So soon?'

  'He'd paid someone to deliver it. In it, he said he wasn't coming back; that the whole business with Ellen had been a joke—at least, it had started out that way. As you suspected, he'd done it as a break from boredom and because he imagined you considered him no good.'

  Scott's eyes hardened, but he only said, as she hesitated, 'Go on.'

  'He had the chance of a fresh start in England and he decided to take it. Unknown to me, someone had been asking him to go back for ages.'

  'And you? What's going to happen to you? Did he say?'

  Scott's voice was well under control, so why did she sense a kind of violence in him? Nervously, Sherry hesitated, but there seemed nothing else to do but continue. 'He—he asked me to carry on for a year, so that if this London venture fails, he would still have Googon.'

  'To come back to or sell?'

  'To—to come back to,' she muttered. That wasn't what Kim had implied at all, but it sounded better.

  Scott retorted, witheringly astute, 'You're still loyal, aren't you?'

  Sherry didn't want to think about it. She couldn't be sure. What she did know was that she hated Scott's disparagement, because it seemed to reflect on her. She didn't reply.

  Scott wasn't finished. 'You didn't agree to stay on, I hope?'

  She hesitated. 'I haven't heard from Kim since and I haven't got his new address.'

  'You must know where you might be able to locate him?'

  She nodded uneasily, not wanting to confess that she hadn't felt like it.

  With a muttered curse, Scott caught hold of her chin, forcing
her face up as though he was determined to read something from it. 'Your brother must be perfectly aware you aren't capable of running Googon on your own.'

  'Why not?' She flushed, angry with herself for looking to him for assurance which he wasn't likely to give. 'Sam will help.'

  She found it humiliating that Scott didn't even bother to argue. 'How much is your brother paying you for probably killing yourself?' he asked.

  'There's no need to be nasty!' she retaliated. 'Kim's always been fair.'

  'Is that what you call it?' he jeered. 'Why didn't he take you with him to the U.K.?'

  'It wouldn't have been convenient,' she said quickly. 'But you don't have to worry. I realise you think I'd be better out of the way, but I promise not to bother you any more. I came this evening to tell you that. I know I should have told you before, but I thought there might be a chance Kim might change his mind and come back, in spite of what he said in his letter.'

  This wasn't the sole reason she hadn't explained everything until now, but she couldn't possibly tell him how she'd been trying to make sure he couldn't get his hands on Googon.

  Scott asked, with apparent detachment, 'Who is your brother working for in London?'

  'Someone called Harold Gibson. He used to work with my father. I realise your opinion of my father,' she added hastily, but he broke in.

  'I was talking to Nick Wallace today.'

  'Nick—Wallace?'

  'Yes, in Bourke.'

  Shock rushed through Sherry. Mr Wallace would surely never have betrayed what financial straits she was in. 'Had it anything to do with me?' she asked cautiously.

  'In a way.' Scott let go of her chin but went on looking at her, observing her changing colour. 'Your grandfather's name cropped up. As a matter of fact, Nick was reminiscing, as people are apt to do, about their younger days, and it became clear he had known your mother.'

  'You—you asked about her?'

  He didn't seem to notice Sherry was having difficulty in speaking. 'I did,' his voice hardened. 'He told me about visiting your parents in London, the kind of business your father was in, the way he lived.'

  Sherry was silent, her head bent. Funny how it didn't seem to matter any more. Suddenly that part of her life had little meaning. She could remember it without wishing to return to it. Her roots were here now, not in London.

  'You must have been very young when you lost your parents,' Scott said quietly.

  'Almost seventeen, not that young.' She looked at him enquiringly. 'Is this what you had to tell me?'

  'Yes.' He was staring at her watchfully. Sherry thought dazedly that he might have been considering how much she could take. 'Your brother must have known before he left Googon that your father's name had been cleared. Did he tell you?'

  When her head moved in assent, he commented coldly, 'It's a pity he didn't stay in London after the crash, then it might have been sorted out sooner.'

  She couldn't dispute this, but she felt it was too late for recriminations. She almost said it might have been better if her grandfather hadn't pressurised Kim, but it seemed pointless. She murmured something about hindsight which merely earned a contemptuous exclamation.

  Scott sounded grim, but she noticed he offered not a hint of regret for presuming her father had been a disreputable money-lender. It wouldn't be his way to apologise for something like that. He had told her what he had learnt from Nick Wallace, which would, as far as he was concerned, set the record straight. Nothing had really changed, of course. He would still commit her socially to the level he would consider her family had fallen to.

  She stared at the carpet, trying to lose herself in its beautiful mellow colours. His lack of remorse didn't hurt as much as his remark that Kim should have taken her with him. He couldn't have made it clearer that he would be glad to see the last of her!

  His voice interrupted her painful thoughts, startling her afresh. 'You didn't tell me the truth about your brother as soon as you knew for fear I might try to take Googon from you. In your twisted little mind you were so sure I had villainous intentions you had to dash round consulting other people first, trying to get a guarantee that I couldn't.'

  Sherry caught her breath and went white, her guilt so plainly showing that a look of scorn crossed his face. It was too late to protest, but words tumbled out before she could stop them.

  'I never mentioned your name. At least—' her voice faltered uncertainly as she tried to recall exactly what she had said to Dan Cleary, 'if I did, I would certainly not accuse you of being dishonest. And anything,' she added bitterly, 'that I told Dan Cleary ought to have been confidential!'

  'Dan Cleary told me nothing,' Scott retorted with a contemptuous smile, the savagery in his tone shrivelling her as he leant nearer. 'Your opinion of me seems no secret. You'd like to make me out as a monster with an insatiable appetite for land. I might just take Googon— and you with it, before I'm finished. Just for revenge.'

  CHAPTER NINE

  Sherry froze as blinding shock hit her and she sat motionless, wanting to rush from the room but feeling unable to move. Her face, which had gone white, now flamed with colour, and she began protesting bitterly without being conscious of what she was saying. Scott's threats terrified her, and if he carried them out it wouldn't be rape. She suspected he knew the effect he had on her and with his experience Would be able to make her respond until she was practically begging him to make love to her.

  She flinched from the contempt in his eyes, but somehow it steadied her, changing her ineffectual babbling into sharper anger. 'You said you weren't interested in revenge any more!'

  'So now,' he murmured silkily, 'you're accusing me of lying?'

  'Well, aren't you?' she cried.

  'This time,' he said menacingly, 'I want to punish you for thinking the worst of me, when you had no reason.'

  Sherry shrank back as his eyes flicked coldly over her. 'I wouldn't let you punish me the way you threaten, in the way you implied!'

  Scott laughed softly and her senses leapt in alarm as he spoke. 'You couldn't stop me.'

  It was what she had feared all along. She stared at him, her lips parted on a frightened gasp. Trying to protest, she found herself mesmerised by molten grey eyes full of smouldering intent. His mouth, when it suddenly covered hers, was something she had no strength to avoid.

  The unexpectedness of his action caught Sherry unawares, and before she could collect herself sufficiently to struggle, his arms were around her, holding her fast. When she did try and beat at his chest with her small fists, the light pressure of his mouth hardened to hurt her for trying to escape.

  Scott's arms were too strong, his kisses too insistent. Her ability to think coherently was rapidly fading. She could only feel his strength, his completely male domination. His mouth, with brutal cruelty, smothered her moans of protest, forcing her lips to part as he demanded total submission. She went ice-cold, then red-hot, her head clouding, her ears singing as the heated blood sped through her veins.

  She heard his breath coming rough and thick as his lips slid to her throat, as he bent her back over his arm. 'Scott—please…' she whispered, hardly knowing what she was pleading for.

  He lifted his head to look at her, his eyes glowing hotly. 'Please what?' he asked tersely.

  'You'll regret this,' she breathed incoherently, despairing that this was all she could manage when she really wanted to shout at him to let her go. Her mind and her body were splitting down the middle. Her mind was ordering her body to regain control, but her body was taking no notice. It was laughing at her, telling her she wanted Scott's kisses, more than anything she had ever wanted in her life.

  'I never waste time on regrets,' she heard Scott drawling mockingly. 'Life's too short.'

  Hotly he went on kissing her, her mouth, her face, her neck. At the angle she was lying, her dark hair spilled on to the cushion behind her and he ran his fingers through it before his hands slid down to begin exploring the outer curves of her breasts. Slowly he moved i
nexorably inwards until he was brushing the sensitive tips, where nerve ends leapt in response to his touch. Sherry gasped as a white-hot desire flooded through her and the pitiful remnants of her common sense rapidly disappeared. She trembled as the sensual tension between them became like an electric force, threatening to burn them up in the next second.

  She couldn't speak, she was too dizzy with pleasure. Her arms went round his neck, her hands tangling in his thick black hair, her mind clouding with an urgency that made her bones melt.

  Scott's arms tightened around her. He got up, carrying her, striding with her across the hall before she knew what he was doing, and a breath of sanity returned as she looked in alarm at the strong features above her.

  'Where are you going?'

  He stared at her. 'You must know the answer to that.'

  He was going in the direction of the stairs and scorning her own stupidity, Sherry began wildly to struggle, her anxiety increasing as he wouldn't let her go. 'Scott,' she gasped, trembling, 'put me down!'

  He paused at the foot of the stairs and began kissing her sensuously, his mouth making a mockery of her lingering protests. 'You want me. Whenever we're together I'm aware of it. You can't hide it from me, Sherry—I've had too much experience.'

  'Don't, Scott,' she whispered, but as his hand slipped to her breast her breath caught in a betraying shiver of pleasure. Her half-closed eyes quickened his breathing while she clung to him in wordless capitulation.

  Without another word he climbed the stairs, the silence of the house closing about them. Sherry lay in his arms, dizzy with an explosive mixture of fear and excitement. She wanted to fight him, the feeble voice of caution warned her to, but even though she knew she would be sorry later, at the moment her need seemed as great as his.

  Scott walked straight into his bedroom and put her down on the bed. It was a huge bed and Sherry felt herself sinking into it. Her arms stiffened as he sank down beside her and began taking off her blouse, but she didn't attempt to evade his swiftly moving hands. Soon she was naked, her clothes a small heap on the floor, but she could only gaze at him numbly.