by Trisha David
It wasn't quite true. At sixteen Jenni had been pretty and vivacious and more than ready for a good time. There had been boyfriends then, and the first few tentative hand-holdings and moist kisses in the back of the movie theatre.
None of which Jenni had enjoyed very much.
Then, once, she'd walked in on her father having sex with his secretary in her parents' bed. Ugh! There was no way she wanted any part of that.
And then her parents had died. Her world had come crashing down around her, and Jenni's sex life had been put on indefinite hold. Jenni had watched Rachel's succession of boyfriends without a pang. She didn't have time for distractions, and, from what she remembered of boy-girl kisses and her parents' fighting, she wasn't missing out on anything.
But William... William was something else! William was enough to make her think again.
His mouth touched hers, and Jenni froze.
First it was just shock—shock that he dared touch her. Shock at the strangeness of him—the feel of a male mouth on hers, of strong hands coming around her waist and pulling her into him.
Shock at the sensations that coursed straight down her body at his first touch.
And then it was something else. Something other than shock or physical sensation taking right over. Something she'd never felt in her life before, and until this moment she hadn't even known existed.
What was happening to her here?
Jenni stepped back, but William's hands permitted no freedom. He pulled her close, brooking no opposition. Her breasts were moulding against his chest and she could feel the steady beating of his heart beneath hers.
She could feel his strength. She could feel his maleness.
She could feel the pure, unfiltered pleasure of male against female.
She heard herself give a tiny whimper, but it wasn't dismay. Not that. Confusion?
Maybe.
Or maybe it was desire.
She didn't desire him. She didn't!
But her lips were opening under the strong insistence of his mouth. She was tasting the maleness of him. Her hands were circling the broad expanse of his back, daring to hold him as he was holding her, and suddenly she was kissing right back.
And this wasn't like any sixteen-year-old fumbling at the back of the movie theatre. This was like...
Like nothing. Like fire. Like a thousand-volt charge zinging back and forth until it seemed as if her body would melt in a pool of molten desire.
And it wasn't just her body. It was her head. Her heart. Her everything!
She groaned with pleasure, her body as alight with desire as his. Oh, William... Her hands pulled his head down to hers, deepening the kiss. Her tongue explored him, tasting him. Wanting him.
Dear heaven, she was out of her depth here. Way out of control.
What on earth was happening? What was she doing?
In a jolt of blind panic she managed to haul herself out of his hold and somehow...somehow stumble back against the remains of the sty wall. There she stood, gazing up at William in the moonlight, her eyes dazed and confused and frightened.
What was happening here? What? She stared up at him in horror and William stared back in the soft moonlight.
And William felt the same massive, earth-moving jolt.
He stared down at Jenni in the dim light—at this slip of half girl, half woman—and he felt his heart twist with something he didn't understand in the least.
This wasn't what was supposed to happen. Lovemaking... well, you followed certain rules. You kissed and you were kissed in return. And then maybe you ended up in bed or maybe you didn't. But, either way, the woman you kissed didn't stand there looking at you like a frightened doe. As if you were tilting her world on its axis and she didn't understand the new rules...
And neither did you end up feeling like this! As if you wanted to hold her in your arms and reassure her and tell her... Tell her what?
He didn't know. He didn't have a clue.
Hell! What now? What now, Brand?
He had to get out of here. He had his rules. No involvement.
He had to leave.
But William had promised to teach Beth to bake one cake, and there was the small matter of twenty-six pigs in the back bedroom. He did feel a certain responsibility to help move the pigs out in the morning.
Therefore he couldn't get in his car and go riding off into the sunset right at this minute—much as he thought he should.
'Jenni, maybe we should go inside,' he said, and his voice was none too steady. 'I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have kissed you. This has to stay platonic or we're both in trouble. It'll never work.'
He held out his hand for her to take, and he continued to hold it out.
Jenni stared down at it in the faint light and her mouth gave a bitter little twist. It was almost as if he was offering to help her. Asking her to put her hand in his... To trust him...
She didn't. Not after what had just happened. Her own body was betraying her here, and, if her own body wasn't to be trusted, this man sure as heck wasn't.
'I can walk by myself,' she said with dignity, and William's hand fell away.
He wasn't used to that either. Women knocking back overtures of affection...
Okay. He could play it her way, and maybe her way was best.
'All right. Let's go sort out sleeping arrangements,' he said softly—and then he turned at the sound of a car being gunned fast along the gravel of the beach road.
Faster and faster it came, the sound splitting the night— and then brakes squealed as the car came to a halt right outside the house.
A flare lit the night. There was a crash—the sound of breaking glass.
And the flare shot higher into the night and grew.
The house was on fire!
William and Jenni stayed motionless for what must have been about half a second. It seemed longer. Shock held them frozen.
But then they moved. Unconsciously William's hand grabbed Jenni's, and she took it without thinking as they raced back towards the house at a dead run.
Oh, no...
Jenni was so fearful she couldn't breathe. She couldn't even think.
The front room was well alight already. The glass pane in the front door was smashed and there were flames shooting out towards the verandah.
'Go around the back through the back door and get your sisters out,' William yelled above the roar of the flames. The fire was still contained in the front room. Jenni would be safe. 'Fast. Get Rachel and Beth out and then release the pigs. Move, Jenni...'
And Jenni released William's hand and moved as she'd never moved in her life.
Which left William wondering what on earth to do...
There was a hose lying beside the front step. William twisted the tap and the hose buckled as a jet of water spurted out. Great. The water pressure was great!
William shoved the hose through the broken glass of the door, singeing the hairs on his wrist as he did so. Then he let it run, spurting water into the burning room. Even if the end of the hose burned off, it would still run.
Next... Next? Think, man, think...
The fire extinguisher from the car!
Once, years ago, William had seen a car catch fire with appalling consequences—and he'd never travelled without a fire extinguisher since. Even in a hired car like this, he demanded an extinguisher be present.
The hire company had been a bit miffed as they hadn't had a small extinguisher available. Finally the manager had shoved a vast tank into the luggage compartment and shrugged. It was the sort of extinguisher usually reserved for putting out fires the size of, say, the eruption of Mt Helen.
'There you go,' he'd said. 'You can put out a petrol tanker blaze with this one!'
Thank goodness for smart-alec hire car managers, William thought, hauling the extinguisher free. This was just what he needed.
There were other noises starting around him now apart from the crackling roar of the fire. The occupants of
the cottages were waking and coming out to find out what was happening. Jenni had obviously released the livestock. Pigs were squealing, and one flew past him in the night.
It was probably the piglet that he'd caught six times tonight already.
There was a woman screaming...
It wasn't someone in the house, though. The screaming was coming from one of the cottages, and there was no fire there.
So where were the girls? Where was Jenni? Surely they should be out now?
William's breath caught in his throat, but then, suddenly, Jenni was beside him, her hands linked tightly in her sisters'.
'Stay right where you are,' William barked. 'Don't move.'
'My books...' Rachel was practically hysterical as Jenni held her back. 'My year's notes.'
'They're not important enough to die for. Stay! I've got the extinguisher. You stay where you are and let me deal with it. Jenni, hold her.' Then, checking that Jenni had both girls under control, he ran forward again up the verandah steps.
The crackling had stopped. The flames were no longer shooting out of the glass in the front door. There was thick black smoke—but no flames.
The hose was still spurting water inwards.
Maybe...
There was a doormat before the door. William lifted it and used it to grab the door, handle, turning it cautiously inwards.
A vast tunnel of smoke belched out to greet him.
Coughing, he fell back. He took only seconds to recover and the smoke cleared a little. He held the mat around his face and walked forward, one step inside the house. Through the belching smoke he could barely see, but he could see enough.
There were flames at the side of the room, licking up from the floorboards at the curtains. They were away from the jet of water, and were about to erupt into a mass of flames as the curtains caught. William could just see the orange glow through the smoke. The bulk of shooting flames he'd seen at the start must have come from whatever had been thrown inside. The house itself was only just catching, but the floor rag was on fire and it was spreading.
He lifted the extinguisher and hauled the nozzle high. Foam burst out with such force that he staggered backward.
And there he stayed, spraying everything in sight until the whole place was a sea of foam.
And then water landed on his head.
At first he thought he was imagining it.
No. The water became a jet, spraying down. He tried to look up but could see nothing through smoke and water. The ceiling was ancient plaster. The water was coming straight through.
And then something else did.
Jenni.
There was an almighty crash, the plaster buckled and burst, and Jenni's slight frame crashed down on to the floor below.
She landed right at his feet. On his feet! If he'd been expecting her, maybe he could have caught her. As it was she tumbled down, feet first, and landed in a crumpled heap on the floor.
'Jenni!'
She didn't move. There was one long, heart-stopping moment—a moment so awful William couldn't figure out later how his heart didn't stop completely. A moment when he thought someone might be dead...or so dreadfully injured...
Like Julia...
But then Jenni uncurled from her heap and tried to rise, pushing herself to her feet, coughing and gasping and choking for air. William stooped. His arms came around her. He lifted her and held.
Tight. Close. Not brooking any argument. Letting the mat he'd been holding across his face fall, so that he too was choking. Holding her to him in a grip of iron.
This wasn't Julia. This was no nightmare revisited. This was Jenni and she was alive.
And then he was staggering outside, leaving the hose squirting and the extinguisher spraying for all they were worth. He no longer cared about them. The fire could burn. All that mattered now was Jenni.
She wasn't Julia. She was alive.
Dear Lord!
They reached no further than two steps out of the house before people were grabbing them and hauling them further from the mess and smoke and the danger. Rachel was sobbing and hugging and scolding the pair of them for being idiots because her books weren't that important, and Beth was feeling every inch of them to make sure they were still in one piece.
'It's okay,' William said as he laid Jenni on the ground and crouched over her. 'At least, I hope to hell it's okay. Jenni...'
'I'm fine.' Jenni's voice was a shaken thread. 'Holy heck... I'm fine. Why didn't you catch me?'
'If you'd told me you were coming I might have.' Good grief, the girl was laughing! 'What in heaven's name were you doing in the roof?'
'The shingles on the roof... They were starting to burn. They're ancient wood. If they'd caught...'
'Sod the shingles.'
'This is my house and I love it,' she said, but she still didn't move a bit, and the laughter gave way to pain.
'Jenni, are you okay?' William's voice was hoarse and thick with smoke.
'I might be.' She still didn't move. 'I think... Did I land on my hip?'
'You landed on my foot,' William told her. 'But I'd say there was hip included there somewhere. Don't tell me it's broken.' He looked up at the sea of faces all around him. Every guest from the cottages was there now. Plus a pig or two. 'Can someone call a doctor?'
'We already did. We called the ambulance,' Florence Haynes volunteered. 'And the fire brigade. And I think my husband also called the police. They should be here any minute.'
They were. Before William could speak again, the night was pierced with sirens. Then there were people everywhere and Jenni was taken away from him as ambulance officers and the local doctor gave her the once-over.
'I think the hips's only badly bruised,' the doctor told her, 'but if it is, then you've been very lucky. I want you to come into hospital so we can make sure. I need an X-ray.'
'I'm not going anywhere.' Jenni's eyes searched behind the doctor's shoulder. 'William...'
William was holding Beth while he watched what was going on, but his eyes had scarcely left Jenni.
'I'm here. Go to hospital, Jenni. I'll take care of things here.'
'I've never been to hospital in my life. I'm not starting now.'
'You've never crashed through burning ceilings before.'
'I have so crashed through ceilings.'
William closed his eyes. 'Then I don't want to know about it. Go to hospital.'
'No.' Jenni shook her head fiercely. 'William, that was Ronald. He started the fire.'
'I know that,' William told her. 'But we'll never be able to prove it. Go...'
'If I go, then I'll never come back.' Jenni's voice was desperate and pleading. 'He'll destroy the farm rather than let me have it. He only wants the land anyway. He'll drive us away.'
'No.'
'But you're leaving tomorrow, and Ronald's so angry. He'll destroy us...' Shock was starting in earnest now. There was terror in Jenni's voice and she heard it herself. And caught it. What was she doing? This was no concern of William's. She caught herself with a massive effort.
'It's... It's no...no matter. But I'm not going to hospital.'
'I told you, Jenni. You must. I'll stay.'
'You can't.'
'Jenni, I'll stay until you're safely settled back here. Until you and your family are safe. I promise.' William knelt down then and touched her smoke-stained face. He could feel the tremors running through her body as the shock set in. 'Jenni, I'll take care of Beth and Rachel and even your twenty-six pigs. And your cows and your chickens and your lunatic goat. I promise. Now go to hospital like the doctor says.'
'But...'
'If the doctor says it's okay, then we'll come and pick you up in the morning,' he told her. 'Me and Beth and Rachel will pick up Sam from the vets and you from the hospital. It's a promise. And nothing will happen while you're away. I swear.'
And he took her hand and gripped it. Hard.
'I promise,' he said.
And Jenni looked up into h
is grimy, blackened face and she believed him. And in that instant something slipped away from her. A burden so heavy...
For ten long years she'd born absolute responsibility for this farm and for her sisters. And now... This man was offering to share.
The lifting of the burden, combined with the shock and the pain, made her feel giddy and slightly sick.
'O-okay. I'll go.'
In truth there was little choice. The pain in her hip was searing and she couldn't stop the shakes coursing through her body. But she returned the grip of William's hand with fingers that still held strength. Still held courage.
'Thank you, William,' she whispered. 'Thank you...'
And in that instant William felt the shifting of her burden. He knew what was happening here, and he couldn't avoid it. For most of his adult life, William Brand had sworn he wanted no more emotional entanglements. Ever...
But Jenni's burden... He felt it shifting across on to his broad shoulders, and for the life of him he didn't know whether to be glad—or whether to run a mile.
CHAPTER FIVE
William passed a very uncomfortable night.
Rachel and Beth were swept into the holiday cottages and cocooned in motherly concern by the Hayneses and the Pattersons, but William stayed awake.
The fire brigade mopped up and left.
'You did a fine job,' the fire chief told him. 'An old weatherboard place like this... It's a wonder it didn't burn to the ground.'
Before they left they made a discovery. The remains of a bottle lay on the charred floor of the living room, still smelling of petrol.
'It's an amateurish Molotov cocktail,' they said, and the police took it away to use as evidence.
'Not that it'll ever come to that,' a morose police chief told William. 'We know who'll be behind this, but there's no way we'll prove it. He won't have done it himself. He'll have paid a lout to do it for him.'
'You know it, but...'
'Look, we've been after your stepbrother for years,' the police officer told him. 'But the man keeps just one step ahead of us. Oh, we'll interview him—lean on him as much as we can—but I'll guarantee we won't get anywhere near the evidence we need to charge him.'
And then he left, too, promising to return in the morning to go over the events in more detail. Which left William staring at the smoke-stained house and wondering what to do next.