by Anne Hampson
‘Yes, I did! Was that what it was?’
He smiled in some amusement and told her she would have to be a little more explicit. She then mentioned the tenseness she had noticed about him - and the indecision.
“You still haven’t told me why you didn’t - er - propose. . . . ’ She tailed away shyly and he bent his head and kissed her, lovingly and possessively.
‘Another occasion when I almost asked you to marry me,’ he said, by-passing her question for the moment, ‘was on the night of the dance. But all the while I was thinking of Gran Amelia. You see, darling, it was just the opposite to what everyone concluded. I didn’t want to bring a mistress to Moonrock and oust the old-timer. After all, I wouldn’t be the boss here had it not been for the fact that she made the property over to my father. When the doctor said her brain would soon go I felt I should wait-wait until she no longer knew what was happening,’ he ended in a rather sad and regretful voice. Loren said nothing, but merely rubbed her face against his coat, deriving an exquisite pleasure from the action. ‘Well, my dear sweet Loren, I can’t wait - and it so happens that Gran Amelia doesn’t want me to.’
Loren looked up then, drawing away from him in order to look into his face.
‘Gran Amelia wants you to marry me!’ she exclaimed incredulously. ‘Why, she called me a namby-pamby, and a hothouse plant!’
Thane laughed and said that was just what one would expect from the old-timer.
‘She considers you to be the lesser of the two evils,’ he teased.
‘The—?’ She stared. ‘What do you mean?’
‘She rather feared I had my eye on your cousin - and that was what she wanted to see me about that night after dinner -that and the money for Ian,’ he added, and then told Loren that water had been found while they were in Sydney. One of the workmen, thinking Ian was over at Moonrock, had brought the news, which was left with Gran Amelia.
‘Water. ... ’ Loren dwelt on this for a while, her eyes bright, reflecting her pleasure and relief at this news. ‘How wonderful for them! They’ll be able to have bore-troughs all over the place just as we - as you have.’
‘As we have,’ he softly corrected. ‘You were right the first time, my love.’ His lips found hers and it was quite a time before he began to talk about Janet - whom Loren knew had arrived back safely, from the scraps of conversation she had heard between Thane and Dena after they had found her, out there in the scrub. Apparently Janet had been some time in shaking off the bull, but according to Thane her story from that point lacked consistency and he refused to believe that she had driven around looking for Loren. His jaw flexed as he talked and Loren shivered a little because she could imagine Janet coming in for the full flood of his temper. ‘It seemed incredible to me,’ Thane continued in a hard and rasping tone, ‘how anyone could go off, taking all the water and food, and leave someone alone in the bush. She tried to twist her story in order to put herself in a better light, but I could see exactly what had happened. Your cousin didn’t care if that bull got you, and so she goes from here - as soon as it can be arranged. ’
Loren nodded, fully aware that argument was useless. And in any case, she had no wish that Janet should stay any longer at Moonrock. Had it not been for her the rift between Thane and herself would never have occurred, nor would the terrifying adventure in the bush have taken place. Loren agreed with Thane that it was a dreadful thing to drive off and leave someone alone out there in that hostile wilderness, without food or water. Suddenly Loren shuddered as in imagination she saw what might have been. It was a miracle that she had seen the brumby, and so been able to make her way towards Moonrock, and not taken a direction that would have led her further and further from it.
‘If I hadn’t been in that particular spot at that particular time ....’ She swallowed convulsively and was gathered into Thane’s protecting arms again; but she trembled against him and it was a few moments before his soothing words and touch had their effect. ‘It really was the brumby,’ she told him. ‘You thought I was rambling, didn’t you?’ Thane merely nodded, regarding her with a puzzled expression, and she went on to explain, asking once more that the brumby be left in his wild state.
‘Indeed yes,’ was Thane’s fervent reply. ‘In fact, he and his will be protected from now on. No brumby that in any way resembles him shall be brought in for breaking.’ He smiled tenderly at her and inquired if she were now quite satisfied. She nodded happily and nestled more closely into his arms, but after a little while he tilted her head and looked into her eyes. ‘You haven’t said you love me - but there’s no need, not when you look at me like this.’ He was kissing her when the door opened and Dena entered with the tray.
‘Break it up,’ she grinned. ‘Plenty of time for that later. Boss, Gran Amelia wants to know how soon you’re to be married. Says she’s decided that she herself must train the next Boss of Moonrock personally ... so that the place will be run with more efficiency than at present. ’
Table of Contents
Loren readily agreed to take a rest and they sat d
altogether, and from then on the conversation took