'Now do you believe?' he asked.
She nodded, raising starry blue eyes which were trusting yet reproachful. 'Why didn't you say anything before?'
Knowing what she meant, he replied wryly, 'They told me I was mad when I discharged myself from hospital, and by the time I got home I was nearly ready to believe it. I'd had a rest when you came, though. In fact, I was considering coming to see you, and when you walked in it was perhaps a culmination of many things, but I completely lost control. It had never happened before, although with you, I've often felt my restraint slipping. And when I woke you were gone and my head was so bad I couldn't even get as far as the door to come after you.'
'If only you'd rung,' she whispered, recalling the anguish she'd gone through.
'I didn't want it like that, Sherry,' Scott said flatly. 'The next time I saw you I had to be able to deal with everything. It also seemed to me that you hadn't been able to get away fast enough, and I believed I must give you time to be sure of your feelings.'
'I was—I am—I love you!' Sherry cried incoherently, pressing soft little kisses on his mouth and hard cheeks. 'Oh, darling, when you didn't come and Mary said Dulcie was with you…'
'Did she indeed?' His mouth quirked as he returned Sherry's kisses in good measure. 'Mary was probably wondering what was going on and trying to help me by making you jealous. Dulcie only stayed long enough to hear, very finally, that she was wasting her time.'
'She—she once told me,' Sherry swallowed, 'that you'd had an affair.'
'Nonsense! We were never lovers,' he replied with brutal frankness. 'Occasionally I took her out when I needed a partner, but I never let her think I had any serious intentions.'
'But you let me think!' Sherry looked at him reproachfully again.
Scott said wryly, 'I believe I was also trying to arouse a little jealousy in your seemingly immune breast. There I was seething with it, every time you so much as looked at another man, while nothing I did appeared to bother you at all. You responded when I kissed you, but I thought it was only physical, and I wanted more than that.'
'I didn't even know you liked me,' Sherry confessed with considerable awe.
His brows drew together darkly. 'I've been conscious of you since you first came to Googon, when I considered you were still a child, but it wasn't until we were alone together in Brisbane that I realised you were the woman I'd been looking for all my life. But it wasn't easy to admit it, even to myself. Despite what I'd told you, I hadn't planned on getting married again and I couldn't decide what to do about you.'
His voice was so matter-of-fact she felt a quiver of amusement even as she managed to note severely, 'It seemed very clear what you intended doing about me. After Kim left, you suggested immediately that I should follow him!'
Scott laughed. 'That was for your sake, not mine. If you'd taken my advice, I shouldn't have been long in coming after you. I may have said some unpleasant things, but you must admit I was provoked. Deserted by your brother, you wouldn't let me take over, and it actually hurt me to see you growing so thin.'
Sherry flushed and confessed, 'I was glad of your support, though I pretended not to be. It was because I loved you so much that I believed I'd be wiser to see as little of you as possible. I never imagined you would ever love me.'
His mouth crushed hers again to confirm it, then, lifting her chin, he stared deep into her bemused eyes. 'You won't ever have a reason to run from me again,' he said gently.
Suddenly Sherry remembered. She stiffened and went cold. 'I don't know how I could have forgotten!' she gasped, 'When I came here, I wasn't really running from you. I had a letter from Kim…'
'I know,' Scott cut in, his face darkening grimly, 'I found it and read it. You'll have to forgive me, but if I'd been able to get my hands on Kim there and then, he wouldn't have lived to enjoy his ill-gotten gains. Eventually,' he continued harshly, 'I might be able to forgive him, but I warn you, it might take years.'
Somehow, though she felt no bitterness, Sherry was content not to argue. In time they might all get together again, but Kim had treated her callously and she refused to worry about him any more.
She heard Scott saying, 'I'll put in an offer for Googon, darling. If we get it, Sam can stay on as manager. I think, your grandfather would like it kept in the family.'
'Oh, yes,' she smiled gratefully.
'Not that he wasn't at fault either,' Scott added in clipped tones. 'Did he pay you anything for all the work he made you do?'
'It doesn't matter,' she said quickly, unwilling to dwell on the past, now there was such a wonderful future to look forward to.
Scott captured her hand, kissing her soft little palm. 'You're very forgiving and loving, aren't you?'
Her cheeks flushed with rosy colour as she wondered what he was hinting at. 'The other night—' she began haltingly.
'That was only the beginning,' he broke in, tracing the line of her quivering lip with a seductive finger. 'My love, I didn't even begin to show you what it's going to be like between us. I think my strength gave out almost before I got started!'
Disregarding the wryness of his tones, she murmured in entrancing confusion, 'It was—beautiful, darling.'
He drew her closer, his eyes smouldering. 'I'll show you it can be that and more. It will be wildly exciting, so wonderful you won't ever regret marrying me. You, my darling child, arouse feelings in me I've never felt before. If you ever imagined I'd give you up, you must have been crazy!'
'It was you!' Sherry reminded him in breathless indignation. 'You kept telling me I wasn't good enough for you…'
'Well, I had to erect some form of defence,' he smiled, 'and that seemed as good a way as any. As long as you were angry with me I felt fairly safe.'
'Oh, darling, I was never that angry.' She looked at him remorsefully, then her voice trailed off incredulously.
'What is it?' he asked quickly, staring down on her startled face.
'Clouds?' she whispered, in awe-stricken tones. 'Clouds!'
Scott glanced upwards and sure enough, there were huge formations of greyish black clouds cutting out the sun, and even as he nodded in satisfied understanding, great drops of rain began falling on their upturned faces.
'It's raining!' Sherry exclaimed, almost unable to articulate.
Scott nodded soberly, much of the underlying grimness easing from his strong features. 'It started in the south—I heard just as I was leaving Coomarlee. I was going to tell you, but now all I can say is, thank God!'
Sherry could see he was remembering the dreadful tragedy of the past weeks and wouldn't easily forget. With infinite compassion she slid her arms round his shoulders, lightly caressing the back of his neck, trying to convey how she felt. 'There'll be much more you can do. That we can do together, once we're married,' she said.
He smiled, a great warmth and tenderness in his eyes as he regarded her. 'I'm taking you to stay with Mary and Simon for the two days before our wedding,' he murmured huskily. 'Then I'll be able to spend a lifetime proving how much I adore you.'
He might be taking her to the Armstrongs', but, although he drew her gently to her feet, he didn't appear to be in a great hurry. And as he lifted her face to look at her, what she saw in his eyes made her catch her breath.
'I love you,' he said simply, then began kissing her.
Sherry clung to him, returning kisses that deepened swiftly to passion, her heart racing in tune with his. He held her closely, so she could feel every urgent bone of his powerful body pressed against her, and it was, for Sherry, one of the most wonderful things she had ever experienced, to be standing here, in this sun-baked land, being kissed by the man she loved and getting steadily soaked by the now heavily falling rain.
She would stay in Australia, she thought dreamily. Scott's land would become her land, and perhaps, one day, their children might grow up to love it as they did.
A long time later her mouth curved in a smile of rapture as she looked up into his face. 'Oh, Scott,'
was all she could say, trying to tell him but her heart almost too full for words. She leaned against him, her head in the hollow of his shoulder, letting his passionate murmurs of love flow over her, feeling utterly content. Then, as he turned her tenderly from the river, she slipped her arm round his waist and together they made their way slowly back home.
Born of the Wind Page 18