Читать книгу The Mighty Quinns: Teague - Kate Hoffmann, Kate Hoffmann - Страница 6

Queensland, Australia—August 1996

TEAGUE QUINN STRETCHED his arms over his head and closed his eyes against the sun, the warm rays heating the big rock beneath him. The wind rustled in the dry brush. The sounds of the outback were so familiar they were almost like music to him.

He’d managed to escape the house before anyone noticed he was gone, saddling his horse and riding out in a cloud of dust, the shoe box tucked under his arm. When he wasn’t working the stock with his father and brothers, he was tending to some other job his mother had conjured out of thin air. He wondered what it might be like to live a normal life, in a grand house in Brisbane, where daily chores didn’t exist.

There’d be girls and parties and school and sports—all the things fourteen-year-old boys were supposed to enjoy. Teague sighed. Most boys his age didn’t like school, but real classrooms with real teachers, chemistry and biology and physics and math, these were things he’d never experienced.

Instead, Teague was stuck on a cattle station in Queensland, with his parents, his two brothers and a rowdy bunch of jackaroos. Classes took place at the kitchen table, him and his brothers gathered around the radio listening to School of the Air. The closest town, Bilbarra, had a library and a small school, but that was a two-hour drive, much too far to make it practical day to day. Some of the kids on the more profitable stations were sent away to boarding school, but Kerry Creek wasn’t exactly swimming in cash. Though the Quinn family wasn’t poor, they weren’t in the big bickies, either.

Teague heard the sound of hoofbeats and pushed up on his elbows, scanning the approach to the big rock and cursing to himself. Would he ever be able to get away from his brothers, or would they be following him around the rest of his life?

When he didn’t see a rider coming from the direction of the homestead, he glanced over his shoulder and watched as a horse galloped full bore from the opposite direction, its rider hunched low in the saddle. Scrambling to his feet, Teague stood on the rock, ready to defend his territory against the interloper.

The boy drew his horse to a stop, the animal breathing heavily. From beneath the brim of a battered stockman’s hat, he stared at Teague, a grim expression on his face. He wasn’t very big, Teague mused, sizing up his chances if it came down to a fistfight.

But then suddenly, the boy smiled. “Did I scare you?” In one smooth motion, he brushed his hat from his head and a tumble of wavy blond hair revealed not a boy, but a girl. His breath caught in his throat as he stared into her pale blue eyes. Teague swallowed hard. She was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen.

“I scared the piss out of you, didn’t I? You should see your face. You’re as pale as a ghost.”

Teague scowled, embarrassed that she’d noticed his reaction. “Nick off. I wasn’t scared. Why would I be scared of a mite like you? You couldn’t knock the skin off a rice pudding.”

She slid off her horse. “Oh, yeah. Well, you’re so stupid, you couldn’t tell your arse from a hole in the ground.”

Teague opened his mouth, shocked to hear that kind of language from a girl. But then, he really had no experience talking to girls. With no sisters, he wasn’t sure how girls were supposed to talk. On the telly, they always seemed to act so proper and prissy. This girl was acting more like his brothers.

She hitched her hands on her waist and stared up at him. “Well, are you going to give me a hand up or are you going to be mingy about the view?”

Teague studied her for a long moment. There wasn’t much to fear from her. She was at least a head shorter than him and a few stone lighter. Though, in a verbal sparring match, she’d probably slice him into dinner for the dingoes. He reluctantly held out his hand and pulled her up beside him.

She scrambled to her feet and took a good look around. A frown wrinkled her brow, then she plopped down and sighed deeply.

“You don’t like the view?”

She shook her head. “I thought I might be able to see the ocean.”

Teague laughed, but when he saw the hurt in her eyes, he realized the depth of her disappointment. “Sorry,” he mumbled as he sat down beside her. “You can’t see the ocean from anywhere on this station. Even if you get up to the highest point. It’s too far away.”

She cursed beneath her breath before turning away from him. “I used to live near the ocean. I could see the water every day. I wish I could see it again.”

A long silence grew between them. “That must have been nice,” he finally ventured.

“It was better than living out here. Everything is so…dusty. And there are flies everywhere.”

“Yeah, but you don’t get to ride horses in the city,” Teague offered, surprised to find himself defending the outback. “Or keep cattle. Or have a lot of dogs. And you don’t see lizards and ’roos like you do here.”

“You like animals?” she asked, her disappointment forgotten as suddenly as it had appeared.

Teague nodded. “Last month I found a bird with a broken wing. And I healed it.” He pointed to the box beside him. “I’m going to let it go today.”

“Can I see?” she asked, bending over the box.

Teague picked the box up, said a silent prayer, then lifted the lid. The sparrow immediately took flight and the girl clapped her hands as it flew into the distance. He felt his cheeks warm. “Maybe it healed itself. It’s only a sparrow, but I kept it alive until it could fly again. I find hurt animals all the time and I know how to make them well again.” He paused. “I like doing that.”

A tiny smile tugged at her lips. “All right, there is one good thing about living on Wallaroo.”

Teague swallowed hard, wondering if she’d just paid him a compliment. Then her words sank in. “You live on Wallaroo?” He hadn’t even considered the possibility. But now that he thought about it, this was the girl his parents had had been talking about. “You’re Hayley Fraser, then.”

She seemed surprised he knew her name. “Maybe,” she replied.

He’d heard the story by way of eavesdropping. Hayley’s parents had been killed in an auto wreck when she was eight years old. She’d been moved from foster home to foster home, until her grandfather had finally agreed to take her. According to Teague’s mum, old man Fraser hadn’t been on speaking terms with his only child since Jake Fraser had run away from home at age eighteen. And now, his poor granddaughter was forced to live with a cold, unfeeling man who’d never wanted her on Wallaroo in the first place.

Teague’s mum had insisted that Wallaroo was no place for a troubled young girl to grow up, without any women on the station at all, and with only rowdy men to serve as an example. Yet there was nothing anyone could do for her. Except him, Teague mused.

“You ride pretty good,” he said. “Who taught you?”

“I taught myself. It doesn’t take much skill. You hop on the horse and hang on.”

“You know your granddad and my father are enemies. They hate each other.”

Hayley blinked as she glanced over at him. “No surprise. Harry hates everyone, including me.”

“You call him Harry?”

She shrugged. “That’s his name.”

Teague felt an odd lurch in his stomach as his eyes met hers. She had the longest eyelashes he’d ever seen. His gaze drifted down to her mouth and suddenly, he found himself wondering what it might be like to kiss such a bold and brave girl.

“It’s because of that land right over there,” Teague said, pointing toward the horizon. “It belongs to Kerry Creek, but Har—your grandfather thinks it belongs to him. Every few years old man Fraser goes to court and tries to take it back, but he always loses.”

“Why does he keep trying?”

“He says that my great-grandfather gave it to his father. It’s part of the Quinn homestead, so I don’t know why any Quinn would ever give it away. I think your grandfather might be a bit batty.”

Hayley turned and looked in the direction that he was pointing, apparently unfazed by his opinion of her grandfather. “Who’d care about that land? There’s nothing on it.”

“Water,” he said, leaning closer and drawing a deep breath. She even smelled good, he mused. He reached up and touched her hair, curious to see if it was as soft as it looked, but Hayley jumped, turning to him with a suspicious expression.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing!” Teague said. “You had a bug in your hair. I picked it out.”

She sighed softly. “I better get home. He’ll wonder where I am. I have to get supper ready.”

Teague slid off the rock, dropping lightly to his feet. Then he held his hands up and Hayley nimbly jumped down. His hands rested on her waist as Teague took in the details of her face, trying to memorize them all before she disappeared.

Hayley quickly stepped away from him, as if shocked by his touch. “Maybe I’ll see you again,” she murmured, looking uneasy.

“Maybe. I’m here a lot. I guess if you came out tomorrow night after supper, you might see me.”

“Maybe I would.” She glanced up at him through thick lashes and smiled hesitantly. Then she gave him a little wave and ran to her horse. Teague held his breath as she hitched her foot in the stirrup and swung her leg over the saddle. “So what’s your name?” she asked as she wove the reins through her fingers.

“Teague,” he said. “Teague Quinn.”

She set her hat on her head, pushing it down low over her eyes. “Nice to meet you, Teague Quinn.” With that, Hayley wheeled the horse around and a moment later, she was riding back in the direction from which she’d come.

“Shit,” he muttered. Now he knew exactly what his mother had been talking about when she’d insisted that someday he’d meet a girl who would knock him off his feet.

“Hayley Fraser.” He liked saying her name. It sounded new and exciting. Someday, he was going to marry that girl.