An Outback Affair/Runaway Wife/Outback Bridegroom/Outback Surrender/Home To Eden

by Margaret Way

  “What sort of question is that?” She was aghast. “We are cousins. Produced by sisters. We’re close family. It’s the only way I love you.”

  “Do you think I don’t know that?” He lifted a hand and stroked her smooth cheek, a gentle caress. “Only joking, Nikki. You’re such a special person. I badly need to find someone like you, but I figure that’s impossible. I can’t hide my emotional attachment, but it’s a mystical thing. Don’t you feel it, too? Growing up together, sharing experiences, a little boy and a little girl. It’s an intimate thing.”

  Only, intimate was unthinkable.

  DRAKE WAS WAITING for them by his four-wheel drive as they taxied in.

  “You’re not getting out?” Overnight bag in hand, Nicole looked back at her cousin, who made no move to leave the cockpit.

  “Say hello to him for me if you have to,” Joel said flatly, making no bones about the way he felt. “I just hope to God he treats you well. Him and that bloody bitch Callista. Talk about attachments! Boy, did she have a problem with her brother.”

  “Who’s now dead,” Nicole reminded him quietly. “Callista never created a life for herself unfortunately. Her life was her family. Thanks, Joel. I’ll let you know when I want to come home.”

  “You said tomorrow?” he inquired sharply.

  “I mean what time tomorrow. See you.” She gave a little wave. “Drake’s coming.”

  He looked out briefly. “He’d better not try to prolong your visit. Take care, Nikki. If you can’t put up with more than a day, I’ll be back in a flash for you.”

  “See you then,” she said.

  “Tomorrow or earlier,” he corrected.

  “JOEL IN A HURRY to get away?” Drake’s expression was sardonic.

  “He said to say hello. He’s pretty busy. He’s following up on a few of my suggestions.”

  “That’s gutsy, confronting Joel. He’s so darn belligerent.” Drake looked down at her, absorbing her beauty. Her abundant hair was up in some sort of knot except for a couple of long locks that curled forward onto her cheeks. She looked exquisite, but a little pale, he thought. He hoped that cousin of hers hadn’t been acting threatening in any way.

  “Sometimes I think I am gutsy.” She laughed. “I could have gone under, but I chose not to. Anyway, Eden is mine.”

  “So you can say exactly as you please.”

  “Well…within limits. Siggy didn’t like that I had all the jasmine pulled down from the columns. She couldn’t make sense of it and I didn’t explain.”

  “Bad memories. Perfume has an astonishing ability to remind us of people and places. When we were kids, you had the fragrance of boronia all over you.”

  “How extraordinary you remember. I can explain it. Dot always tucked sachets of it into my clothes and the bed linen.”

  “Nowadays you wear Chanel’s Gardenia.”

  “You’re too good.”

  “Maybe I had a girlfriend who wore it.”

  “I assume a girlfriend no longer,” she parried lightly. “I left Siggy and Joel holding the fort. You’re right—Eden has deteriorated with the passing of time, but I intend turning it around.”

  “So you’re planning on staying?” His glance was keen.

  “I’m going to make life interesting for you, Drake. I’m not going to tell you my exact plans.”

  “You don’t trust me?”

  “Not for years and years. The family’s amazed on two counts. One, you issued an invitation to Kooltar. Two, I accepted. Heath actually laughed when I told him.”

  “How is he?” Drake opened up the passenger door, before stowing her overnight bag.

  “Dying,” she said bluntly.

  “That could well have been preventable, but after your mother he simply didn’t care. It’s suicide in a way.”

  “I agree, but he was always self-destructive.”

  “Rumor has it he had a hard early life,” Drake remarked when he was behind the wheel. “Most of our troubles start in childhood. You’re allowing him to stay?”

  “No one with any heart could send him away. I was shocked at the change in him. Worse than I ever imagined. Sadly, I feel no love for him, but I’ll still do everything I can.”

  “He is your father, after all.” He set the vehicle in motion.

  Nicole left her window open, preferring to breathe in the dry aromatic air. The scents of the bush were wonderful to her. Better than anything that came out of a bottle. “It’s been years since I’ve been on Kooltar,” she said eventually.

  “Sir Giles’s auburn-haired princess.”

  “Your mother once told me she’d longed to have a daughter.”

  “Instead, she only had me.”

  “Maybe you were too hard an act to follow.”

  He smiled. “Thank you for coming, Nicole,” he said quietly, giving her a sidelong look.

  “It’s time for us to ease back into a normal life. How did Callista react to my being invited here?”

  “My aunt is far more sensible than you think. Any guest of mine is made welcome.”

  “Do you invite your girlfriends over? Of course you do. Why not? Rumor has it you’re all but engaged to Karen Stirling.”

  “Would that upset you?” he retorted.

  “I’d rather die than admit it.”

  He gave a low attractive laugh. “Karen and I have a thing going. I don’t know that you could interpret it as a serious commitment.”

  “Not on your part,” she said dryly. “As I recall, Karen carried a torch for you from her teens.”

  He swung his head. “Who told you all this? It had to come from home.”

  “Come to think of it, it was Joel.”

  “He needs to find himself a good woman and marry her,” he said firmly.

  “One could say the same about you.”

  “It’s not my most urgent quest at the moment.”

  “What is? Acquiring property?”

  “Certainly that’s part of it. Running a cattle chain efficiently and at a profit takes total commitment. At the moment, as you said yourself, you have a bit of a crisis on your hands.”

  She brought her chin up. “I see it as a challenge.”

  “You’ll have to bring in someone with a diversity of skills to run Eden if you’re going to survive.”

  “I realize that. But surely finding someone isn’t an insurmountable problem, is it?”

  He glanced at her. “I wouldn’t make too light of the magnitude of the undertaking, Nicole. There’s so much to learn. So much to know. Do you think I’d be as effective if I hadn’t been bred to it? I don’t think so. For that matter, how would Joel take to having a man put in charge over him?”

  She felt a chill. “I don’t imagine he’d like it, but I have broached the subject with Siggy.”

  “And?”

  “She’s fully aware Joel needs help, but of course he’s her son and she wants to see him remain as boss.”

  He groaned softly. “I don’t envy you your task. What do you suppose will happen after you return to New York?”

  “Let me settle in here first,” she said wryly.

  “What about your painting? Don’t you want to continue to show your work?”

  “There are any number of first-class galleries in Australia, Drake. Surely I don’t have to tell you that.”

  “But I thought you’d embraced your new lifestyle. The glamour and excitement, the feeling of being at the center of things. It would be hard to beat New York.”

  “Are you trying to get rid of me? Be honest.”

  She might have been laying down a challenge. “I want you to stay,” he said.

  A WOMAN IN RIDING DRESS, cream silk shirt, beige jodhpurs, polished boots, stood on the first landing of the finely joined cedar staircase that ran to the left of the spacious entrance hall. Tiny and dolllike, she had large dark eyes and hair black and sleek as ebony wrapped around her head in a braid.

  Callista McClelland.

  Nicole looked at her, apprehensi
ve despite herself. Even at that distance she could sense the lack of welcome. “Miss McClelland!” She didn’t forget to sound respectful. There had never been a time in her life she hadn’t addressed Callista formally. Callista McClelland was that sort of person. Meeting her was like being on the receiving end of a jug of ice water.

  “Nicole, so you’re here.” Callista seemed to have a struggle finding words. Nevertheless, she continued gracefully down the stairs, extending her small hand as if it demanded a deferential kiss rather than be shaken. “How are you settling into being home?”

  Dark, thickly lashed eyes, glittering like metal, drilled into Nicole.

  “As if I’d never been away.” Nicole accepted the cool, dry hand that was offered, finding the touch unwelcome, even embarrassing, given the hostility she had encountered from Callista during her childhood and adolescence. “How are you?”

  “Oh, much the same, Nicole, though I see you’re even more like your mother.”

  Well, she hadn’t expected Callista to envelop her in a hug, had she? “In looks, perhaps,” Nicole said pleasantly. “I have my own identity. My father doesn’t even agree about the looks. He says apart from the coloring there are differences.”

  “Only he can see.” Callista gave a cool little smile. “You must be furious he’s back on Eden.”

  Nicole, who had labored all her life to feel affection for Heath Cavanagh, now felt positively filial. “Let me say I hope you’re not, Miss McClelland. I simply don’t have the heart to be furious. He’s a very sick man.”

  “Ah well, at least he’s had a life.” The bitterness spurted like a geyser, for all Callista’s attempt at civility.

  “Callista, please.” Drake lifted a staying hand, his handsome features tightening in protest.

  “Forgive me, dear.” Callista’s smooth cheeks colored. She laid a conciliatory hand on his sleeve. “Sometimes my feelings get the better of me. I know you said it’s important we all be friends.” She turned her head to smile bravely at Nicole. “Let me show you to your room, Nicole. I know you’ll like it. It faces the garden. And please, do call me Callista. Miss McClelland makes me feel quite ancient.”

  “When you look ridiculously young,” Nicole said.

  “I try to look after myself,” Callista replied, dismissing her amazingly youthful good looks as if she had far more important issues to consider.

  The truth probably was that Callista McClelland in her mid-forties didn’t want to grow old, Nicole thought. She steeled herself to follow the woman up the stairs.

  “Would you like coffee, Nicole?” Drake called after her.

  “Lovely.” She paused to look back at him. Why was she really here? To suit his ambitions? However wary she felt, her heart gave an involuntary buck at the sight of him. He was a marvelous-looking man; one arm leaning on the banister, those vivid chiseled features, eyes glimmering against his tanned skin, little flames at their center.

  Beware, Nicole. Be very careful around this man. Don’t fall under his spell. It would be so easy.

  “Settle in, then I’ll take you on a tour of the house,” he promised.

  “I’m looking forward to it. Everything looks great.”

  “Callista must take the credit for that.”

  “I do it out of love, darling,” Callista said smugly. “I was very privileged to grow up in a beautiful house. I can’t imagine how I’ll cope when you marry, Drake, and I’m no longer chatelaine.”

  Now there’s a thought! Nicole wondered if the future Mrs. Drake McClelland should be warned.

  The bedroom was large, bright and airy, a mix of modern and antique pieces, the color scheme sunshine yellow and pristine white. Two lovely flower paintings decorated the walls. A nice change from the over-the-top sumptuous bedroom Siggy’s decorator had created for her, Nicole thought in relief. Sunlight streamed in across the broad veranda, giving the room a welcoming glow. On a small console table that held a charming silver-gilt bust of a young girl was a bowl filled with lilies and trails of a silver-gray native vine. Nicole approached and touched a white petal. “How lovely! Your arrangement?”

  “Of course. Arranging flowers is quite beyond Annie.” Callista dismissed Kooltar’s housekeeper’s creative abilities with a wave of her hand. “I love beautiful things. I had the flower paintings hung in here. I hope you enjoy them.”

  “French.” Nicole moved closer. “I’d say that one is by Jacques-Emile Blanche.” She was too far away to read the signature. “The other—”

  Callista butted in, apparently not pleased by Nicole’s ability to identify the works of famous artists. “Louis Gaillard. Signed and dated 1888. You’re right, the other is a Blanche. I forgot you were an artist.”

  “Am an artist, Callista. I still paint.” Nicole sent Callista one of her own looks of feigned sweetness. “I’ve had two successful showings in New York. As tough an art scene as you’ll find. But I don’t paint beautiful flowers like these.”

  “What do you paint?” Callista’s eyes gleamed with an odd challenge.

  “Journeys of my mind.” Nicole’s mouth twisted a little as she said it. “Visions.”

  “I take it they’re not happy paintings full of light?”

  “Some of them, in fact, are rather monstrous, but certain people lock into the emotion. They sell. Every trace of cheerfulness was knocked out of me years ago.”

  “You still see a psychiatrist?” Callista looked at her guest with anything but sympathy.

  “Not for a long time, but it’s helpful to sit on a couch and have a highly trained professional listen to your problems. I credit Dr. Rosendahl with helping me to face life. I’ll always be grateful to him. Actually I’d like to see him now that I’m home. Perhaps I’ll invite him to Eden if he has the time.”

  Something flickered in Callista’s metallic gaze. “Unfortunately for him, he has all the time in the world. Don’t you know, Nicole? Rosendahl is dead. He was killed in a hit-and-run accident leaving his Sydney office.”

  Shock blocked Nicole’s throat. She could see the doctor’s kindly distinguished face as clearly as if he stood before her. “No one told me.”

  “Your aunt should have known.” Callista shrugged. “It was in the papers. We do manage to get them, if a bit late.”

  “When was this?” Nicole felt sick.

  “Oh, six or eight months ago. It was a small item. I expect Sigrid missed it, or else she didn’t want to upset you. I mean, you can’t have many emotional resources.”

  Briefly Nicole debated how best to answer. Spirit won out. “On the contrary, I think I’ve met the challenge of facing up to my daunting past, Callista. What about you? Have you successfully mastered your pain?”

  Callista bristled. “Never. I’m a woman who feels very deeply.” She gripped her throat in a dramatic gesture that struck Nicole as playacting. Callista was the perennial young girl trapped in a middle-aged woman’s body.

  “So what you’re saying is you wish to cling to the unhappy past?”

  Dislike was written all over Callista’s unlined face. “Don’t be so naive, Nicole. The past is always with us. We can’t just shed it.”

  “You don’t want me here, do you?” Nicole spoke quietly, prepared for Callista’s reaction.

  “Why so melodramatic? This is Drake’s house. He invites whom he pleases. I would never go against him. You and I can work something out between us. We’re both adults, but you know as well as I do we can never be close. You are your mother’s daughter. You even have her voice. Extraordinary thing, genetics. Because of Corrinne I suffered a terrible loss.”

  Nicole looked back urgently. “I know that and I’m deeply sorry. But I know all about loss, too. It makes me want to weep. The difference could be I’m trying to deal with it. Feeling such terrible resentments can only be a burden to you, Callista. Don’t you want to lay them down?”

  Callista’s dark eyes were unblinking. “Then I’d be breaking my emotional connection with my brother. I adored him.”

 
Nicole lowered her head. “I acknowledge that, but he’s gone beyond human adoring, Callista. He’s passed on.”

  “Which doesn’t mean I won’t see him again.” Callista hugged her body tightly. “I don’t expect you to understand.”

  “Why not? Can’t you allow my heart is broken, too? In my case, it was a mother.” She turned away to compose herself. “I think we should stop there, don’t you? Before anything else is said.”

  “I agree. Life is hard. It really doesn’t matter, anyway. Soon you’ll go back to New York, get on with your life, as will I. Of course, I may have to rethink my situation after Drake marries.”

  “You think he has someone in mind?”

  “My dear, it’s an open secret. Karen Stirling. You know her. Lovely girl! Simply stunning. We get on extremely well. We have long talks when she visits.”

  “Does she have this beautiful room?”

  “No.” Callista gave a highly suggestive little laugh. “She prefers to be closer to Drake, if you follow my meaning. I expect they’ll announce their engagement very soon.”

  “That’s curious. Drake didn’t mention a word about any engagement. I imagine a man on the brink of proposing to the woman he loves would want to tell the world.”

  Callista ran her fingers over the smooth surface of the little antique writing table. “Even as a child you thought Drake was your property.” Her smile was nastiness in full flight.

  “We were friends, Callista. We hope to be friends again. Forgive me, Callista, but I can’t think Drake is truly in love with Karen. I do remember her as warm and friendly. Perhaps you simply want him to be.”

  Callista’s exhalation was sharp. “I knew it would be impossible for us to have a normal conversation. You’re like your mother. One of those women who can’t let a man go. Possessive to the end. Make no mistake—Drake is serious about Karen. He wants to marry a woman of good family, not someone with a tainted past.” She spat out the words, choking with the bitterness she didn’t seem able to transcend.

  “You never let go, do you?” Nicole retorted. “Well, better to have it out in the open, I suppose. I’ve only stepped across your threshold and already I’m a threat. Would you be brave enough to repeat the ‘tainted past’ bit in front of Drake, I wonder?”