‘Of course.’ Kate handed over the basket, and together they gathered fragrant blooms and took a basketful back to the shady veranda.
That was where Noah found them an hour and a half later.
Kate was sitting in a deep cane chair with a magazine, which she wasn’t really reading, and Olivia was on the floor beside her, surrounded by flowers which she had arranged into patterns and was now merrily rearranging.
A plate with crumbs and an apple core sat on the cane table beside his daughter, as well as an empty milk-glass. Clearly, Kate had not only found a resourceful way to entertain Olivia, but she’d also given her breakfast.
Noah knew it was pointless to make comparisons, but he couldn’t help being aware of the huge difference between this peaceful, happy scene and the bitter tussle he’d just endured with Liane.
He despised self-pity, but right now he felt totally depressed—as if his life had been falling apart for years, and he was Atlas, carrying the world on his shoulders. It wasn’t just that his marriage had been a disaster almost from the start. Now, with that pain more or less behind him at last, he’d faced a host of other problems.
The drought was a real headache. Radnor station still carried a thousand head of cattle, and the last of the pasture was almost gone, which meant the cattle were going to die if he didn’t act very soon to save them.
And then, in one short week, he’d lost the man he’d loved as a father, and he’d learned he had a better than average chance of losing the property he’d always expected to inherit.
As if these two shocks weren’t enough, he’d been handed back the daughter he was sure he’d lost.
At least this last surprise was something to smile about, something to celebrate. He had assumed he’d have to struggle for fair access to his daughter. Liane knew how much he loved Liv, and he’d half-expected her to cling to their daughter just to add to his suffering.
Instead Liane had asked him to take over raising Liv. No doubt the child had become a burden that hindered Liane’s high-flying lifestyle in Sydney.
Motherhood had never sat well with his wife. From the moment she’d discovered she was pregnant, she’d never been as excited as he was, and he’d missed Liv terribly after she went to Sydney.
He’d been eaten up with worry about her the whole time she’d been away, so of course he’d jumped at the chance to have her back at Radnor with him.
The irony was that having his daughter back in his life only highlighted his dilemmas—the drought and the huge black cloud hanging over his future. Had that been Liane’s ploy? Was she trying to break him?
Noah shook that thought aside. He couldn’t stand in the doorway all day brooding. The Outback was no place for pessimists.
He stepped onto the veranda and Kate turned, saw him and smiled.
Her smile was so amazingly pretty—green eyes sparkling, cheeks turning pink, soft lips parted.
Zap! He came to a halt as if he’d been stung by a stockwhip.
CHAPTER FOUR
WHAT WAS WRONG?
Kate saw the dark pain in Noah’s face and knew that his conversation with Liane had upset him terribly. She supposed he was still in love with his former wife, and she tried not to mind. It was none of her business if Noah cared deeply about a woman who was grasping and selfish.
He crossed the veranda towards them, crouched next to Olivia and picked up one of her flowers. As he held it to his nose, the shocked light in his eyes and the deep vertical lines on either side of his mouth lingered.
But he remembered his manners. ‘Thanks for playing nanny, Kate. You’ve been fabulous with Liv.’
She brushed the compliment aside. ‘We’ve had fun. I haven’t played with flowery princesses for years.’
‘I don’t suppose you have.’ His grey eyes gleamed with the beginnings of a smile, then he turned to his daughter. ‘Liv, your mother and I have had a long talk.’
The little girl looked up from her game and her face tightened. ‘What did Mummy say?’
Noah paused as if he were hunting for the right words.
Perhaps he couldn’t find them, for he said in a rush, ‘She’s asked me to look after you now.’
A delighted smile brightened the little girl’s face, but then it crumpled almost as quickly as it had appeared. ‘Will I still see her?’
‘She’s—’ Noah’s throat worked as he swallowed. ‘She’s going back to Sydney.’
‘Without us?’
‘I’ll look after you, Liv.’ Noah drew his daughter into his arms, nestled her head against his shoulder and kissed her forehead. ‘Pumpkin, you know Mummy and I can’t live together any more.’
She pressed her face into her father’s broad shoulder and made sad little snuffling noises.
Noah stroked his daughter’s hair. ‘I promise I’ll take extra-good care of you.’
Kate’s heart ached for them.
The farewell was understandably tearful, but Olivia’s heartbreak was somewhat lessened by Noah’s promise to take her in his ute to see the cattle. He knew his daughter was mad about anything on four legs, and he needed to check on the condition of his stock, so he invited Kate to join them for the drive.
Her green eyes widened. ‘I didn’t realise there were any cattle left on Radnor.’ She cast a surprised look out over the sun-bleached paddocks. ‘What do they eat?’
‘The very last of the grass,’ Noah admitted. ‘Most of my neighbours have already de-stocked.’ He didn’t add that protecting the dry country from over-grazing was part of good station management. Too much information for a girl from England.
The three left as soon as Kate and Liv had collected sun hats, long-sleeved shirts and stout shoes. Kate brought a rather fancy-looking camera, too, and she began to snap away almost as soon as the ute took off across the trackless red ground, tyres bouncing over grey hummocks of spinifex.
The effects of the drought were everywhere, but it had encroached gradually, getting slowly worse each year, and Noah was used to the dry landscape. But now, with Kate beside him, he tried to picture the country through her eyes, and knew it must look pretty grim.
They passed a large gaping waterhole, its bottom barely covered with water, and he pointed to the wide circle of trees that ringed it. ‘Those river red-gums should be standing waist deep in water.’
Kate lowered her camera. ‘How do you keep your cattle alive if there’s not enough water?’
He grimaced. ‘There’s a little water left in a few of the dams and bores, but the truth is I can’t keep them going here much longer.’
‘What happens then? Do you have to buy in food?’
He shook his head. ‘Can’t really afford to.’
They topped a rise, and below them the country dipped down into a low sandy river-bed.
‘There’s the cows!’ Olivia squealed from the back seat, and she wound down her window and leaned out, squinting against the sun’s glare.
The river valley was dotted with red cattle stretching in a long, thin line to the horizon.
‘By some miracle they haven’t lost too much condition.’ Noah frowned as he switched the motor off. ‘But they’ll start to go downhill any day soon.’
Liv, in the back, rattled her door handle impatiently. ‘Daddy, can I get out?’
‘Sure. But keep your hat on, and don’t go too far.’
Liv gazed at the cattle to her heart’s content, then began to hunt on the ground for her favourite river-washed stones. Kate left the truck and stood beside Noah in the scant shade of a bimble box tree.
His throat constricted. Beneath her hat brim Kate’s eyes were so very sparkly, her skin so fair against the brightness of her hair.
‘There’s a bit more grass here,’ she said. ‘But it still looks very dry.’ She lifted her camera and squinted through it, and clicked madly as a small mob of curious cattle stopped grazing quietly and lumbered towards them.
When she lowered the camera again, she turned to him. ‘If the cattle can’t
stay here, and you can’t feed them, what are you going to do? Can you sell them?’
An uneasy sigh escaped him. It would be so much easier if she was asking this question out of idle curiosity, but she was a stakeholder in this property now. She owned half of everything—the land, the stock, the buildings—and she hadn’t a clue how to care for any of it.
‘I could sell the stock,’ he admitted. ‘Or rather, as joint owners, we could sell them.’ His swift sideways glance caught the rush of colour to Kate’s cheeks, and he wished he could retract that pointed dig about her inheritance. After all, she hadn’t asked for half of Radnor. And she’d made it clear that she felt really uncomfortable about her uncle’s decision.
To make amends, he tried to explain. ‘Actually, I don’t have many choices. I could sell the mob now, but it would be much better if I could move them onto fattening country first. They’d be worth a good deal more.’
‘How much more?’
‘Well.’ He dropped his gaze to the ground and kicked roughly at the dry earth. ‘They’re not in top condition, so I’m not sure what they’d fetch right now, but a well-fattened beast could bring close to a thousand dollars.’
‘Good heavens.’ Kate’s pretty mouth sagged as she stared at him, and he knew she was making quick mental calculations. ‘If—if a thousand cattle are worth a thousand dollars each, why that means there’s potentially—’ she gulped ‘—there’s potentially a million-dollars worth of cattle out there.’
A weird little laugh escaped her, and she shook her head. ‘I thought you said you were poor.’
Noah shrugged uneasily. ‘Potentially, we have the chance to make good money.’ He felt compelled to warn her. ‘But I’d only make that much if I can get the stock away onto good grazing country soon. And I don’t know how I can manage that.’
‘So you have half a million acres, a million dollars worth of cattle, and little or no money in the bank. That’s a unique example of asset rich and cash poor.’
‘Too true,’ he agreed, grimacing.
‘But what’s stopping you from shifting the cattle onto good grazing country?’
Noah watched his daughter. Beneath her shady hat, Liv looked like a mushroom as she squatted on the ground, searching for perfectly round, smooth stones.
Kate followed his gaze and said softly, ‘You have too many responsibilities now, don’t you?’
He nodded. ‘It’s not going to be easy.’
‘Can you tell me what’s involved in getting the cattle to good grazing country? I seem to remember there were enormous trucks. Road trains, I think Angus called them.’
‘Road trains are damned expensive.’
‘Right. And you have limited capital.’
He nodded. ‘The best option is to walk them.’
‘Walk them?’
Noah looked at Kate, saw the way her white teeth chewed at her soft lower lip and, for a moment, all he could think about was how once, long ago, he’d kissed that soft, pretty mouth.
He could remember exactly the soft, warm pressure of her eager young lips, and she’d tasted of…
‘I don’t understand,’ she said.
He blinked. ‘Pardon?’
‘About walking the cattle.’
Hell. His thoughts had wandered completely off-track. ‘It’s—eh—called droving.’ He tried to cover his confusion with a slanted grin. ‘Like in the old days. Men on horseback muster the cattle, and then walk them down the stock routes to the sale yards. They were tough, those old drovers. Never slept in a bed for months at a time. Never saw anything except the rear end of a beast. Best horsemen in the world.’
‘Quite a challenge. How many men would you need?’
‘At a pinch, two men on horseback could just about handle a mob this size, if there was someone else to bring the spare horses and the truck.’
Kate was still frowning. ‘But it would be a very slow journey, wouldn’t it?’
‘Very slow,’ he agreed. ‘It would take weeks. And that’s why it’s not really an option.’
‘Now that you have new parental responsibilities.’
‘Exactly. I can’t just head off for weeks at a stretch.’
Sobered, Kate stood for some time in silence and then she said slowly, thoughtfully, ‘Olivia needs you. So I don’t suppose I’d be any help if I offered to stay on to mind her. She’d still miss you terribly.’
‘I wouldn’t ask you to do that, Kate. And you’re right. I couldn’t possibly abandon her. And I don’t expect you to stay on here.’
‘No.’ Her voice was strange and tight. ‘I don’t suppose you do.’
Noah looked at Kate sharply. Had he said something to upset her?
‘I’m sorry,’ he said quickly. ‘I’ve been a very neglectful host. I’ve been so caught up in my own problems that I haven’t asked anything about your situation. I don’t know anything about your job, or your life in England. I don’t even know how long you plan to stay here.’
Kate dismissed his concern with a wave of her hand. ‘I don’t expect you to play host. You have far too much on your plate. But, to answer your questions, I wasn’t planning to stay very long at all. As for my job?’ She shrugged and patted her camera. ‘I’m a freelance photographer.’
‘A photographer?’ Intrigued, he stared at the camera she held.
‘Would you like to see the photos I’ve taken this morning? The camera’s digital.’
‘Sure. Thanks.’
As she gave him the camera he was aware of how small and neat her hands were. Her fingers were delicate and pale, and tipped by pretty, unpainted pink nails. ‘You press this review button,’ she told him.
‘Right.’ With a work-toughened thumb, Noah pressed as directed and was quickly delighted by the images that leapt to life on the small screen. Suddenly, the Channel Country’s flat red landscape and brilliant blue sky became a work of art. He clicked on close-up shots of cattle, of Liv crouching, searching for stones, of the dried out waterhole. Every shot revealed Kate’s artistic eye.
He continued back and found more photos from this morning, taken at the homestead. Sunlight shining through the petals of a perfect frangipani. Liv, fairy-like, surrounded by a carpet of flowers. The rusted iron wall of the machinery shed. A lone clump of drying grass.
Every image had taken on artistic beauty. Amazed, pleased, he grinned at her. ‘You’re good. You’re better than good.’
‘I’m glad you like them.’
‘So you’re a professional photographer?’
‘I used to work for a magazine, but I’ve branched out on my own.’
‘That’s brave.’
‘I know. My boyfriend warned me I’d be broke inside a year.’
Her boyfriend? Noah was ashamed of the sinking feeling in his stomach as he watched a rosy tide spread over Kate’s cheeks. Of course a pretty woman like her would have a boyfriend. She probably had a string of them.
Before he could question Kate further, Liv came running up to them. ‘Look, Daddy!’ she cried. ‘I found a perfect white egg.’
With a triumphant grin she thrust a stone into Noah’s hand. It was warm from the sun and perfectly white—a smooth oval, just like an egg.
‘Hang on,’ called Kate and, with a quick adjustment to the camera settings, she snapped the stone cradled in Noah’s dark hand.
‘Can I keep it?’ Liv pleaded.
‘Of course.’ He tickled his daughter under the chin and grinned. ‘One thing there’s no shortage of out here is stones.’
‘More stones than you can poke a lens at,’ Kate joined in with a laugh.
He grinned at her, and he saw that she was still looking rather pink and flushed. ‘I think we’ve spent enough time in the sun for now. Poor Kate’s from England and she’s not used to this heat.’
Kate wished it was only the heat that bothered her. On the way back to the homestead she wrestled with her conscience. She’d come here to attend a funeral, nothing more, and now within less than twenty-four
hours all she could think about was how much she wanted to stay on at Radnor.
She still didn’t understand why Uncle Angus had left her this legacy, but with each minute she spent on Radnor she felt less stunned and more grateful. For some reason that was hard to pin down, she loved Outback Australia. It was one of the world’s last frontiers. Life here felt like an adventure.
And then, of course, there was Noah. Forget the attraction she felt—that was an affliction she had to learn to live with. More to the point, she was becoming increasingly aware that Noah carried overwhelming burdens. He could really use her help.
If only she had something practical to offer him. If she was a large-animal vet, or an expert horsewoman, even a nanny, she might have been some use. But what use was a photographer on a cattle property?
* * *
On their return to the homestead, washing fluttered from lines stretched between two posts in the back yard.
Noah grinned at her. ‘Ellen the housekeeper’s back.’
‘Is she the same housekeeper I met last time?’
‘That’s the one.’ He lowered his voice as he turned off the motor. ‘I suspect the poor old girl was secretly in love with Angus. She took it very hard when he passed away, but she must be feeling on top of things again.’ He smiled suddenly. ‘Or perhaps she’s heard about you and curiosity’s got the better of her. At least she’ll take over the cooking.’
Ellen was in her mid-fifties, with greying hair and a cheery smile, and she was one of those warm, friendly country women who have the gift of making strangers feel comfortable the minute they meet.
She welcomed Kate and Olivia like long-lost relatives. ‘Lovely to see you again, dearies. Now come on in, both of you, out of that heat. I’ve already put the kettle on and there’s a nice, cold chicken salad ready and waiting.’
When the telephone rang, dusk was lighting the paddocks with a rosy-bronzed glow that was absolutely perfect for photography.
‘It’s for you,’ Noah called to Kate. ‘You can take it in the study, if you like.’
The call was from her mother, full of apologies for missing Kate’s earlier call. ‘Nigel took me out to dinner last night,’ she explained.
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