Outback bride - Hart Jessica - Страница 15

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No, she had failed her father once, but she wouldn’t do it again.

Megan was ensconced at the kitchen table, breathing heavily over a work of art provisionally entitled ‘Two Horses in a Paddock’. An identical scribble, which Copper had assumed was a third horse, was scornfully described by the artist as ‘a house-no, a crocodile-no, it’s Dad’, which just went to show how much Copper knew.

Copper couldn’t help thinking that a house or even a crocodile would be a lot easier to deal with than the particular dad in question as she dialled her parents’ number on her mobile phone. She wasn’t going to ask their advice-they would be appalled if they knew what she was considering-but she needed to talk to them before she made up her mind one way or the other.

‘Dad’s much better,’ said Jill Copley in answer to Copper’s determinedly casual enquiry. She lowered her voice so that Dan couldn’t hear from the bedroom, where he was resting. ‘You know what a worrier he is, and he’d been fretting about what would happen if you didn’t manage to set up this deal with Matthew Standish, but ever since you rang and told us you were staying on up there for a while he’s been so much more relaxed. He seemed to think that it was a good sign and he’s been driving me mad with plans for once the site’s agreed. I haven’t seen him this positive for a long time,’ she confided. ‘It’s done him so much good and we’re both so grateful to you, dear.’

‘Mal-Mr Standish-hasn’t committed himself to any definite agreement yet,’ Copper said. She felt she had to warn her, but her mother was apparently in as confident a mood as her father.

‘He’d hardly say no when you’ve been up there nearly two weeks, would he? What’s he like, anyway?’ she went on, before Copper could answer. ‘Your father’s not much help. He just says he’s no fool. Is he nice?’

An image of Mal burned behind Copper’s eyelids: the stern angles of his face, the impenetrable brown eyes, the corners of his mouth that dented into something that was almost but not quite a smile, the way he picked up his daughter, the way he rode his horse, the way he settled his hat on his head. ‘He can be.’

‘Is he married?’

Copper hesitated. ‘No.’

‘Ah.’ Her mother managed to invest it with at least six syllables, not to mention a question mark and an exclamation mark.

‘Don’t be silly, Mum,’ said Copper, a little too sharply. ‘Is Dad there?’

Dan was delighted to hear from her, and was bubbling over with so many plans that Copper had a hard time getting a word in edgeways. ‘Now, how are you getting on with Matthew Standish?’ he asked buoyantly at last. ‘Have we got to the stage where we can start drawing up a contract yet?’

Copper looked at Megan’s dark head bent over her picture, and then at the phone in her hand. ‘Just one or two details to sort out, Dad,’ she said slowly, ‘and then we’ll be ready to sign.’

‘Good girl!’ Dan was bursting with pride and excitement. ‘I knew you wouldn’t let me down.’

‘No,’ said Copper almost to herself as she pressed the button to cut the connection. ‘I won’t let you down, Dad.’ Very carefully, she pushed the antenna back into place and laid the phone on the table. It looked as if her decision was made.

CHAPTER FIVE

Copper edged warily around the holding yards, eyeing the milling cattle with distinct nervousness. She had watched, awed, from the verandah as they had come pounding in a cloud of snorting, stamping red dust. It was hard to believe that so many animals could be controlled by a mere six men on horses, but now, a couple of hours later, they were all firmly corralled and the noise and confusion had slowly subsided to an occasional aggrieved bellow.

Two of the jackaroos were perched laconically on a fence, enjoying a smoke with the satisfaction of a job well done. ‘Have you seen Mal?’ she asked.

‘Last time I saw him, he was heading towards the paddock,’ said one out of the corner of his mouth.

So he was back. Copper’s mouth tightened. It was two days since Mal’s proposal-or rather, his ultimatum-and since then he had made no effort to get her on her own. Copper had been gripped by a kind of nervous energy after making her decision, and all she’d wanted was to tell Mal so that she could stop thinking about whether it was the right one or not. But they had been out mustering in the far paddocks yesterday and had slept in their swags under the stars. This was her first chance to talk to him.

Copper had been tense all day, waiting for him to come home, and since she had heard them come in her nerves had reached snapping point. But Mal, it seemed, was in no hurry to find out what she had decided, and in the end she had come in search of him herself, unable to bear the waiting any longer.

The paddock where the horses were kept was irrigated, and in the late afternoon light, it looked peaceful and still and very green in contrast to the red dust around it. Copper could see Duke grazing in the shade, flicking his tail against the inevitable flies, and she called his name, absurdly gratified to see his head come up. He gazed at her for a moment with liquid brown eyes and then calmly resumed his placid chewing, having obviously decided that it wasn’t worth the bother of coming over to say hello.

He and Mal had a lot in common, thought Copper with an inward sigh, and turned away from the fence only to see Mal himself coming round the corner of the paddock on his great chestnut, Red.

The paddock, the yards, the dusty track beneath her feet all dropped abruptly into nothingness, and there was only Mal, very distinct against the blue outback sky. Copper felt oddly weightless, suspended in thin air, and something clutched at her heart as the nerves that had buoyed her up all day collapsed into sudden shyness. Two whole days she had been waiting to talk to him, and now that he was here, she couldn’t think of anything to say.

‘Hello,’ was all she managed, shading her eyes against the glare with one hand as he brought Red to a halt in front of her.

High up on the horse, Mal seemed impossibly remote and unapproachable as he looked down at Copper, standing slender in jeans and a pale, long-sleeved T-shirt. The sunlight glanced off her thick brown hair, turning it to bronze, and tipped her lashes with gold. Very conscious of his scrutiny, Copper found that she couldn’t look back at him. Instead she stroked Red’s nose and fiddled with his bridle.

‘Where’s Megan?’ asked Mal after a moment.

‘I left her with Naomi.’ Bill, the “married man”, and his wife had two toddlers and another baby on the way, and when Copper had seen how tired Naomi looked she had felt rather guilty about asking her if she could keep an eye on Megan for a few minutes. ‘I

1 wanted to talk to you on our own.’

‘About our marriage?’

‘Yes.’

Without a word, Mal swung easily off the horse and led it into the paddock. Copper had to wait and watch as he took off the bridle and hung the saddle over the fence. The men were notoriously unsentimental about the animals they worked with, but she was oddly touched to see that Mal fed Red something from his shirt pocket and let the big horse nuzzle his arm before he gave it a final pat and a slap on the rump to send it cantering off into the field.

Only then did he close the gate behind him and join Copper where she stood watching the way Red kicked up his heels and revelled in his freedom. He leant his arms on the fence and glanced at her from under his dusty hat.

‘Well?’ he said.

‘There’s no need to sound so anxious to find out what I’ve decided,’ snapped Copper, whose nerves had snarled up again as soon as Mal came near her.

Mal sighed. ‘What would be the point of me getting in a state about it?’ he asked. ‘Nothing I can do is going to change your mind, whatever you’ve decided.’

‘That’s good coming from a man who wrapped up a proposal of marriage in a neat bit of blackmail!’

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