“Bastard,” Kate said.
The plane engines whirred and the propellers began to spin.
“Have you ever taken off from a place with no runway before?” she asked worriedly, now having something else to think about besides the obnoxious man beside her.
“Only about fifty thousand times,” Sean answered, reaching for a pair of mirrored sunglasses on the instrument panel and putting them on with a flourish.
Kate was back to gripping the edges of the seat, although she was so relaxed that it was hard to hold on. She wanted nothing so much as to crawl into some warm, safe bed right there on the ground and sleep for twenty-four hours.
The plane jolted terribly as Sean increased its speed. Finally, with a rattling mechanical grunt, it flung itself into the air. Kate let go of her seat.
“I’m getting hungry,” she said.
“I don’t wonder,” Sean answered, “considering the energy you’ve burned up in the past few minutes.”
Kate hit him in the shoulder, but she was grinning. She felt too damn good to be angry.
After another hour in the air, an enormous flock of sheep came into view, shepherded by a man and three dogs. In the distance, Kate could make out a sizable house and a number of rustic outbuildings.
“Is that your friend?”
Sean rocked the plane from side to side, and the man below waved a hand. “Yes,” he answered. “That’s Blue. He’s the best mate I ever had.”
Kate continued to stare at the ground as Sean banked the plane into a wide sweep around the house and buildings and began a descent toward a dirt landing strip below. She could see another plane on the ground, as well as gasoline pumps and a pickup truck with rusty fenders.
“Does he live here all by himself?” Kate asked, thinking how lonely that would be. This part of Australia was so vast and empty, except for the occasional gum tree and the ever-present brown grass.
Sean shook his head as the plane nosed downward. “He’s got a wife and kids.”
“Kids?” Kate echoed. “Out here? Where do they go to school?”
Sean was busy landing the airplane, so he didn’t look at Kate as they landed. “They don’t. Ellen teaches them herself.”
Any answer Kate might have made was prevented by the jostling impact of touching down. She breathed a silent prayer of gratitude for a safe landing and unfastened her seat belt.
Sean stopped Kate before she could open the door and jump out of the plane. “Don’t be trying to put any fancy ideas in Ellen’s head,” he warned. “She likes her life the way it is.”
While Kate was still thinking what an odd remark that was, Sean shut off the engines and got out himself. He came around to lift Kate to the ground as a slender blond woman came running from the direction of the house, her face alight.
“Sean!” she cried as she reached him and flung herself into his arms.
He gave her a hug and a sound kiss on the forehead and set her down. “Ellen,” he said, “meet Kate.”
Kate greeted the woman with a smile and an outstretched hand, even though she was wondering why Sean hadn’t mentioned that she was Abby’s sister. “Hi,” she said.
Turquoise eyes sparkled in a suntanned complexion. “Hello, Kate,” Ellen said, accepting Kate’s hand with a strong grip. Momentarily she turned back to Sean. “Did you bring me books and chocolate bars?” she demanded.
Sean laughed and gestured toward the plane where the gear was stowed. “Enough to last you six months,” he answered.
Kate heard dogs barking in the distance and the bleating of sheep. Soon, Sean’s friend Blue would reach them.
She looked nervously at Sean. She wondered if Blue and Ellen had been Abby’s friends, too.
Sean glanced at her, and once again she had the strange sensation that he could read her thoughts. He put one arm around her waist and pulled her close, his lips moving softly against her temple.
“Tonight,” he whispered.
Chapter 7
When Sean had taken a large grocery box from the back of the airplane, he and Kate and Ellen started off toward the house.
It was a sturdy, practical-looking place, built mostly of natural stone. Smoke curled from two different chimneys, reminding Kate that the day was cool. She’d forgotten in the heat of Sean’s lovemaking and its glowing aftermath that it was winter in Australia.
As they neared the house, three children, two girls and a boy, appeared at one end of a long, verandalike porch. “It is you!” one of the little girls cried, bounding down the steps to attach herself to Sean’s right leg.
Sean laughed and shifted the box in his arms so that he could ruffle the child’s flaxen hair. “Hello, Sarah,” he said.
Now that Sarah had broken the ice, the other two children came running, too. They were introduced to Kate as John and Margaret.
“We were doing lessons,” John confided. “I’m glad you’re here, Uncle Sean, because it was a dead bore.”
“John!” Ellen scolded, but there was a smile in her beautiful blue-green eyes.
The bleating of the sheep and barking of the dogs had grown much louder. Sean set the box down on the step and turned toward the mingled sounds, a broad grin stretching across his face. After a moment’s pause, he strode off to meet his friend.
Kate started to follow and then stopped herself. Ellen was shooing the children back to their lessons.
“Come in,” she said to Kate with a sunny smile. “Blue and Sean will be a while.”
Kate returned the smile and went inside with Ellen, finding herself in a kitchen that ran the length of the house. Burnished copper pans and kettles hung on the walls on either side of an enormous brick fireplace. School books, pencils and papers were strewn over a long trestle table, and a rocking chair sat in a sunny alcove.
“Tea?” Ellen asked, going over to an old-fashioned electric stove and lifting a steaming kettle.
Kate was developing a taste for tea. “Yes, please,” she said.
“You can sit here with us, Miss,” little Sarah put in. She looked to be about ten years old.
Kate sat down at the end of one of the benches aligned with the trestle table. “Thank you,” she said. She tried to look at the work the children were doing without being too obvious.
Ellen had gone back outside to fetch the box Sean had brought while the tea brewed in a blue delft pot. When she returned, she set the box on the end of the table, opposite Kate, and pulled back the flaps.
Kate watched as she lifted out boxes of chocolate bars and stacks of books. “Bless that man,” she said as John, Sarah and Margaret looked at the candy with round eyes.
“Just one between you,” Ellen told the children, smiling as she handed them a chocolate bar. “Mind that you break it up evenly now.”
While the kids were dividing the candy, Ellen turned her attention back to Kate. “Would you like one?” she asked.
Kate shook her head. “No, thank you,” she answered. She was more interested in the books.
Ellen laughed as she handed one to Kate. It was a romance novel showing a sweet young thing being swept up into the arms of a dashing buccaneer. “They’re better than candy,” she said. “I can’t get enough of one or the other.”
Kate smiled as she looked through the other books. The covers were all quite similar, depicting almost every period in history as well as the present day. At the thought of Sean shopping for these books, her smile widened.
Ellen brought the teapot to the table, along with lovely china cups, too fragile for a station in the outback. “Do you think they’re silly, those books?” she asked in a lilting voice, her expression worried.
“No,” Kate said quickly. “As a matter of fact, this one with the sheikh on the cover looks pretty interesting to me.”
Ellen’s eyes sparkled. “Doesn’t it, though?” she agreed, pouring the tea.
Before Kate could make further comment, a tall man with auburn hair and brown eyes entered the kitchen, followed closely by Sea
n.
“And who’s this?” Blue demanded good-naturedly.
When Sean answered, there was a note in his voice that Kate had never heard before. “Katie-did, meet my best mate—Blue McAllister.”
Kate nodded, feeling oddly moved. “Hello.”
Blue hung up his hat and lightweight leather coat before progressing to the table. “Hello,” he said, helping himself to one of Ellen’s cherished chocolate bars. “I suppose you have a last name, as well?” he asked. “Or is it a well-guarded secret?”
“Blake,” Sean said before Kate could answer, and this time he sounded angry.
Kate wondered why.
A look passed between Sean and Blue that wasn’t entirely friendly. “You were related to Abby?” Blue asked in gentle tones.
Kate nodded. “She was my sister.”
An uncomfortable silence descended, and Kate found herself wondering again why she’d given in to her passions when it was so clear that she and Sean could never have any kind of lasting relationship.
It was Ellen who smoothed things over. She laid a hand on Kate’s shoulder and said, “Welcome. It isn’t often I get a chance to talk with another woman. I’m glad you’re here.”
“Thank you,” Kate answered, but her eyes had strayed to Sean’s face, and she knew they mirrored all the questions she wanted to ask.
He turned away, ostensibly to gaze out the window. Blue suggested having a look at the starboard engine of his airplane, since it had been sputtering, and the two men left the house without a backward glance, John tagging after them when his mother nodded her permission to leave his schoolwork.
“Don’t mind the men,” Ellen said in her delightful accent after sending Margaret and Sarah off to play with their dolls. “I never met one yet that had half the tact he needed.”
Kate wanted to cry, but she didn’t. She couldn’t quite manage a smile, however. “Were you and Abby friends?”
Ellen hesitated for a long moment. “Not really,” she answered reluctantly. “The only time she ever came out here with Sean, she spent the whole of the weekend trying to convince me to leave Blue. Imagine it—me without Blue.”
There had been a special spark between the McAllisters when Blue came into the kitchen, now that Kate thought of it. “Why on earth did Abby want you to leave your husband?”
Ellen sighed. “She said I was downtrodden, and that I was going to seed out here with nobody to talk to but Blue and the kids.”
The remark Sean had made when they landed came back to Kate in that moment. Don’t be trying to put any fancy ideas in Ellen’s head. She likes her life the way it is. “Abby could be pretty thoughtless sometimes,” she said, taking a sip of her rapidly cooling tea.
Ellen smiled and shrugged. “She didn’t know how it is with Blue and me,” she said, and there was something in her tone and her manner that made Kate flash back to the explosive passion she’d felt in Sean’s arms a short time before.
She nodded, a little shaken by the experience.
Ellen seemed to sense Kate’s thoughts. She hid another smile behind the rim of her teacup. “You’re in love with Sean?” she asked a moment later, keeping her face expressionless.
Kate swallowed. “I’m afraid so,” she admitted miserably.
Ellen reached out for the pretty teapot and refilled Kate’s cup and her own. “Troubles?”
Kate lowered her head for a moment. “You saw how he reacted when I told Blue Abby was my sister,” she said.
Ellen looked genuinely puzzled. “Yes?”
“I’m a reminder of a very unhappy time in Sean’s life,” Kate told her new friend sadly.
Ellen’s face brightened. “I think perhaps you’re another kind of reminder altogether,” she reasoned. “I can’t remember when I’ve seen Sean look so relaxed.”
Kate blushed. If Sean looked relaxed, it was no mystery to her.
Ellen chuckled. “I see I’ve blundered in where I don’t belong,” she said. Then she graciously changed the subject. “Earlier you said you’d planned to teach once. What did you take up instead?”
Kate gave Ellen McAllister a grateful look. “Political science,” she said. “Daddy—my father thought it would be a better use of my time and his money. He wanted me to work on his staff.”
Ellen broke off a square of chocolate from the bar she’d opened earlier and laid the morsel on her tongue. A look of ecstasy flickered briefly in her eyes, then she commented, “Do you like it—working for your father?”
Kate searched her heart. “Not really,” she confessed.
“If you could do anything in the world,” Ellen began, narrowing her eyes in speculation at all the possibilities, “what career would you choose?”
Kate didn’t have to think. “I’d be like you, Ellen—making a home for the man I love. Raising his children.”
Ellen put one hand to her mouth in feigned shock. “You mean, you’d actually like to be a—” she lowered her voice to a scandalized whisper “housewife?”
Kate laughed. “Yes,” she answered.
Ellen squinted at her and took another square of chocolate. “I can’t figure you as Abby’s sister,” she said.
Kate knew the remark was meant as a compliment, but she felt sorry that Abby had missed having Ellen for a friend. “According to Sean, she didn’t like being a wife much.”
Ellen glanced nervously toward the door, looking for the men, then lowered her voice to a confidential tone. “She took a lover the first year they were married,” she said.
Kate was stunned. She’d known that Abby had been unhappy from the first, but she’d never suspected such a thing. “Did Sean know?” she asked.
“Yes,” interrupted a taut masculine voice from the doorway. “Sean knew.”
Kate raised her eyes to his face. He looked grim and angry.
“I’m sorry,” Ellen said quickly. She got up from the table and fled the kitchen in embarrassment.
“If you want to know anything about Abby and me,” Sean said coldly, “ask me and not my friends.”
Kate was quietly furious. “Now just a minute, Sean Harris. Don’t you think you’re being a little unreasonable here?”
He shoved a hand through his dark hair, and his broad shoulders slumped slightly. “Until about five seconds ago,” he said hoarsely, “I thought Abby’s affair was a secret.”
Kate went to Sean and put her arms around him, her chin tilted back so she could look up into his face. “She was a fool,” she said softly.
He kissed her forehead. “You’re prejudiced, but thanks, anyway,” he said.
Kate laid both hands on his chest, their torsos fitting together comfortably. “Go and talk to Ellen,” she suggested. “She thinks you’re mad at her.”
Sean held her a little closer. “Couldn’t that wait a little while? I’d like to show you where we’ll be sleeping tonight.”
Kate thought of Sarah and John and Margaret. “We’re not going to share a bed under this roof,” she said firmly. “There are children here.”
Sean moved her to arm’s length, his hands gripping her shoulders. “What?”
“It wouldn’t be right, Sean,” Kate whispered. “We’re not married.”
“Then we’ll get married.”
“You’re crazy. Where would we get a license? And a preacher?”
Sean sighed. Obviously those things would be impossible to find in the middle of nowhere. “Wouldn’t being engaged make it right?” he asked.
“No,” Kate said stubbornly.
Sean swore. “Then I’ll just have to convince Blue that we should sleep in the barn,” he replied.
*
Kate set the last bacon, tomato and lettuce sandwich on the platter with a flourish. Lunch was ready.
She started when she heard a sizzle behind her and turned to see Ellen cracking eggs into a frying pan. Kate could barely believe her eyes. “Eggs?” she asked.
Ellen smiled at her. “Blue and the kids really like them,” she answered.
Kate cast a bewildered glance toward the pyramid of sandwiches she’d prepared, then looked at Ellen again.
“They’ll just add them in,” Ellen said.
“Oh,” she finally answered, sounding a bit lame.
When they all sat down at the long trestle table a few minutes later, it made for a merry group. The children were all talking at once, while Blue and Sean carried on a separate conversation.
She watched the men lift the tops off their sandwiches and add a fried egg, but she let the platter pass her by without taking one. She didn’t usually eat this much for lunch but, keeping her eyes on her own plate, she ate what she could.
When the meal was over, Kate helped Ellen with the dishes. Blue and Sean and all the children had gone outside again.
“Are you feeling all right?” Ellen asked, looking genuinely concerned. “You didn’t eat much.”
Kate sighed. “I’m a little tired,” she confessed. “I’ve never really gotten over my jet lag.”
Ellen’s lovely eyes were full of concern. “I’ll show you where your room is, and you can lie down.”
Kate shook her head. She didn’t want to waste a minute of this experience on anything so ordinary as a nap. After all, she might never find herself on an Australian sheep station again. “I’d like to see more of the place,” she said.
Ellen was obviously pleased. “Then you shall,” she promised with a bright smile. They finished the dishes and walked outside.
“That’s the shearing shed over there,” Ellen said, pointing out a large building. “We have about two dozen lads come to help us when it’s time to crop the sheep.”
The bleating of the animals filled the air, and Kate could see them spread out all around the outbuildings like a sea of dusty clouds. “Do they make that sound all the time?” she asked.
Ellen smiled. “Mostly, yes. Of course, they’re generally not this close to the house.”
“Doesn’t Blue have anyone to help him?” Kate asked, imagining what a task it must be to drive so many sheep from one pasture to another.
Ellen squared her slender shoulders and looked just a mite offended. “He has me,” she answered.
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