Читать книгу Perfect Proposals Collection - Lynne Marshall - Страница 34

IT WAS one of the station Range Rovers Gavin led Jo to, and he said, ‘Sorry about this, but we’re driving.’

She looked surprised.

‘Things have got tricky overnight. There’s been a lot of flooding and the plane was seconded to fly a pregnant woman to Brisbane. Nor is there one damn chopper in the district that isn’t on search and rescue missions. But I’ve put an extra sheepskin over the seat to make it more comfortable.’

‘Thanks.’ Jo climbed in. ‘How are things out at Kin Can?’ she added as he got into the driver’s seat.

He switched on and drove out of the hospital car park. ‘Wet. We’ve still got access in and out but we’re having to move sheep up to higher ground.’

‘That bad?’

‘Uh-huh.’ He flicked on the radio. ‘I was tempted to leave you in hospital for a day or so but they need all the beds they can get. There’ve been some real emergencies with the floods.’

‘I didn’t realize it was so bad,’ she said with a tinge of guilt.

He flicked her a glance. ‘No. Well, you did have other things on your mind.’

Jo gazed at her hands. ‘Gavin—’

But he stilled her with an upraised hand, then pointed to the radio.

It was a road and weather report being broadcast, and he swore fluently. ‘The main road is cut. We’ll have to go the long way round.’

‘Perhaps we should go back to Charleville?’

He grimaced. ‘There’s not a spare bed for love nor money in Charleville and the Warrego is rising fast so Charleville may not be so safe itself. Don’t worry, I’ll get you through.’

It was six horses stranded in a flooded paddock that caused their downfall.

Jo noticed them first. ‘We can’t just leave them,’ she said.

He hesitated, glancing at her stricken expression. ‘No.’ He pulled the Range Rover up beside a huge gum tree. ‘I’ll have to open up the fence. Stay where you are,’ he ordered.

But without wire-cutters it was easier said than done to open up the barbed-wire fence so the horses could reach the relative safety of the higher ground beside the road. And Jo couldn’t believe how swiftly the water was rising.

In the end she ignored his order and got out to help him. It was pouring now out of a low, sullen, steel-grey sky as he used the tools from the Range Rover’s toolbox to unwind the wire from a corner post.

‘They shouldn’t have horses in barbed-wire paddocks in the first place,’ he said bitterly at one stage.

‘Here.’ She’d gone to the vehicle and brought back some of her clothes to wrap around his hands that were scratched and bleeding.

‘Thanks. Nearly done.’

‘Where will they go, though?’ she questioned anxiously.

‘Back down the road if they’ve got any sense—and they do have great survival instincts when they’re not fenced in, plus they’re strong swimmers,’ he said, breathing heavily. ‘Can’t believe I’m sweating when I’m so damn wet. There.’ He unwrapped the last strand and the fence was open.

In a flurry of hooves and flying manes and tails, the horses galloped out of the paddock, and as he’d predicted, took the road back to Charleville.

‘Thanks, it was nice of you to help us but got to go!’ he said with some irony and Jo grinned.

But he sobered rapidly as they got back into the car. Water was already lapping the side of the road. ‘That little “good Samaritan” act may have cost us, Jo. Let’s get the latest info.’

It wasn’t good. The flood waters in their immediate vicinity were rising rapidly, both in front of them and behind them.

He switched off the car radio and clenched his fists. ‘I must be out of my mind. We won’t get through now.’

‘You couldn’t have just let them drown,’ she said shakily.

‘It might come down to them or us. Listen, I’m going to check in on the CB radio, and then I’m going to investigate that tree.’

He used the CB radio, talking tersely into it and getting patched through to the SES, State Emergency Services, and one of their helicopters, giving them their position and their situation. Then he moved the Range Rover into position right beside the tree.

‘Oh, good heavens!’ Jo breathed as she stared out of the window. There was a wall of brown frothy water crossing the paddock towards them.

‘Just do exactly as I say, Jo,’ he commanded. ‘I’ll help you up onto the roof.’

If that was a painful experience for her, what was to follow was worse. Gavin managed to throw a tow rope over the lowest branch of the tree and he climbed the tree like a big cat.

‘It’s quite solid, quite safe, Jo,’ he called down to her as he tied the rope onto the branch, then lowered one end down to her with a loop on it. ‘Now put the loop over you and around your waist, and I want you to come up exactly as I did.’

‘But it’s so smooth, I don’t think I can!’

‘Use all the little knobs and knots you can find for your feet. Don’t worry if you slip, I’ve got you and I can help hoist you as well.’

She hesitated, but the water was up lapping against the car doors now. She put her hands on the tree and felt the rope tighten around her waist. And slowly, agonizingly slowly, somehow she began to inch her way up it.

He talked to her all the time, but as she was just out of reach, with her lungs bursting, she froze and knew she could go no further.

‘Jo, grab my hand!’

She looked up to see him lying along the branch with his hand held down to her.

‘I can’t,’ she gasped, clinging to the tree trunk. ‘I can’t reach.’

‘Yes, you can. Jo, I love you. I’ve loved you since that very first day.’

‘What?’

‘I wasn’t going to tell you until later, when we got home, but it’s true. Just another few inches, Jo.’

‘But you’ve been so…so…’

‘I told you I was a bad loser!’

‘I know you can’t forget her, Gavin—’

‘It’s you I’m petrified of losing. Please, my darling, just a few more inches. We can do it!’

She did it. She never knew how she achieved it physically, except to know that without his strength and his SAS expertise she wouldn’t have made it. But, perhaps, what he’d said had been the most powerful impetus of all, and just as the Range Rover started to float away she was huddled into the crook of the tree, breathing like a train, and he was sitting astride the branch in front of her.

‘What did you say?’ she panted.

He touched her face. ‘I love you, sweetheart. I’ve been going quietly insane for the last three months wondering when, if ever, you were going to fall in love with me.’

Her lips parted, but before she could say a word they heard a helicopter approaching.

He squinted upwards and then down at the rising flood. ‘Thank God—and I mean that. This time you’ll have a winch to pull you up, and I’ll be with you.’

‘Never seen the like of it,’ the pilot of the State Emergency Services helicopter yelled over the roar of the rotors. ‘If it’s any consolation, Gavin, both Charleville and Cunnamulla are on high alert now.’

‘How about Kin Can?’

‘The news isn’t good, I’m afraid.’

‘Rosie,’ Jo murmured urgently.

‘She’s in Brisbane.’ He held her against him.

‘Where are we going?’ he asked the pilot.

‘Roma. Still dry there, although the Mitchell is rising too. But I’m afraid that’s as far as I can take you. I need to refuel and get out again—there are dozens of emergencies.’

‘Can you take me out to Kin Can?’ Gavin shouted.

‘Sure, mate, but it’s going to be a fast turnaround!’

‘Jo,’ Gavin said into her ear, ‘I’m going to send you down to the Coast from Roma. I need to get back to Kin Can—can you understand?’

‘Of course. But be careful. I just couldn’t believe how quickly that all happened!’ she said dazedly.

‘I know—these things have to be seen to be believed—but I will be careful. You too. I can’t imagine how you must feel now on top of all your other sore spots.’

‘I think I’ll be OK.’ She nestled into him, then looked into his eyes with a smile in hers. ‘You know, I led a very dull but safe life until I met you!’

He kissed the tip of her nose and laughed as he marvelled, ‘Kidnappers, boats exploding, floods, helicopter rescues—maybe something about our meeting caused the planets to go on a collision course?’

She laughed back, nestled against him again and they didn’t talk any more; it was too exhausting making themselves heard.

She had four days in the house on the river before he came back to her.

Thanks to all the confusion due to the floods, Roma’s airport had been no place for any further explanations as he’d gone about organizing a flight for her. But he’d cupped her face just before he’d left and said very quietly, ‘Tell me you understand?’

‘I do.’

‘That’s my Josie.’ He kissed her, then let her go.

Adele had met her in Brisbane and driven her down to the Coast, where there’d been a doctor waiting to examine her, despite her protestations that she was fine.

‘Well, you are, Mrs Hastings,’ he said finally, ‘apart from some new bruises, grazes and strained muscles. I’d take it very easy for a while. You did have concussion, then having to climb a tree to escape a flash-flood—’ He shook his head. ‘I’m going to leave you a couple of mild sleeping pills.’

Adele took a long look at Jo when the doctor departed, then insisted she do just that. Go to bed and take a sleeping pill.

‘I…’ Jo started to say, but the truth was she was mentally reeling from all the events of the day, and one event particularly.

‘I’ll be here,’ Adele continued. ‘But have a bath first to help wash away any stiffness. Have a spa! Everyone tried to tell me I was insane over that bath but I knew it would come in handy one day!’

Jo opened her mouth to tell her mother-in-law that the spa had already performed one good deed for her, then she decided against it.

And it did help, so did the sleeping pill, although she woke very early and lay very still as she pictured Kin Can under water—and the miracle and mystery of what Gavin had said.

Did I imagine it? she wondered. Was I hallucinating from sheer strain? Did he say it only to get me to make that vital extra effort? Why can’t I altogether believe it?

She stared at the light rimming the curtains as the sun rose and found herself recalling their angry conversation before she’d crashed the quad bike. She remembered how everything had added up to one thing—sons.

She remembered his determination not to talk about their marriage when he’d picked her up from the hospital, and how, so suddenly, that had changed…

She did rest for most of that day, as muscles she hadn’t known existed protested at any unwise movement.

Adele insisted on staying with her, saying that Rosie was fine with Sharon and she loved her cousins’ company.

But the following day, when Jo was feeling better, she suggested that Adele needn’t stay on with her.

They’d just received the news that everyone left on Kin Can was fine except for a lot of it being water-logged.

‘These things happen,’ Adele said philosophically. ‘Charleville all but disappeared in the last big flood. It’s not only the rain in the area, it’s the result of monsoon rains in the north. But life in outback Australia was never meant to be easy with its cycles of drought and flood. Uh—no, dear, I’m not going to leave you until Gavin gets back.’

‘I’ll be fine—’ Jo stopped rather abruptly and narrowed her eyes. ‘Is this what I think it is?’

Adele grimaced. ‘Probably. I’ve had strict orders to stay with you until he gets here.’

‘That’s…’ Jo breathed rapidly.

‘Typical Gavin,’ his mother agreed. ‘I’ve also been told to keep Sharon away. Apparently she rather thoughtlessly caused some mayhem between you and Gavin?’

Jo subsided but said nothing.

‘On the other hand,’ Adele continued after a long moment, ‘after what you’ve been through, Jo, I wouldn’t feel good about you being here, or anywhere, on your own. So you’re just going to have to make the best of me!’

‘It’s not that,’ Jo protested. ‘I thought I might be taking you away from—whatever.’

‘Well, you’re not,’ Adele said comfortably. ‘And I have some good news.’

Jo frowned.

‘I got a phone call from a friend of mine this morning. She runs an art gallery of some repute. She’d be very interested in holding an exhibition of your work.’

Jo gasped. Then her eyes softened. ‘One thing I do know—I couldn’t have a better mother-in-law!’

Adele looked set to take issue with the statement, but in the end she held her peace, and said only, ‘One thing I promise, as soon as Gavin arrives, I’ll disappear.’

He came two days later.

It was early evening and Adele had ordered a light, informal meal that they would eat early so Sophie could get away.

It was set out on a table in the terrace room, with a bottle of wine. There were open smoked-salmon sandwiches and tiny quiches; two individual sashimi platters decorated with carrot and onion pickles in a soy and ginger sauce; a heaped bowl of fresh, peeled prawns and Sophie’s famous, secret-recipe seafood sauce. There were home-made rolls and, for starters, two lidded bowls of asparagus soup.

Jo, who had several grazed patches of skin on her body that were still healing, had changed into something light and cool—a pair of Miss Saigon wrap-style pyjamas in a dusky pink with plum-coloured blossom embroidery.

She’d just lifted the lid off her soup bowl and was inhaling the lovely aroma, when he walked through to the terrace, taking both Jo and Adele by surprise. They hadn’t had any messages from him since the day before.

‘Well, what a lovely surprise!’ Adele rose. ‘I take it things must have improved out west?’

‘Yes. It’s peaked and subsiding rapidly now. Hi, Jo.’

‘Hello!’ She put down her linen napkin and stood up herself, and it occurred to her she was drinking his presence in through her pores. She certainly couldn’t think of anything else to say.

There was also quite a bit about him to remind her of his bushranger image. His jaw was blue with stubble, his khaki shirt was torn at one elbow, his jeans were stained and his boots were caked with dried mud.

‘What’s the damage?’ Adele asked.

‘The only place to escape flooding was the homestead—’ he smiled as his mother heaved a sigh of relief ‘—but the stock losses were more than I’d hoped for. Still, we did the best we could.’

His gaze returned to Jo, standing beside the table like a frozen statue. Then he looked down at himself ruefully. ‘I think I ought to take a shower. I could even smell! This seat on a plane came up unexpectedly so I grabbed it. Will you excuse me for a few minutes?’

‘Of course,’ she said, coming to life at last. ‘We’ll organize some more food in the meantime.’

‘No need for that, Jo!’ Adele objected. ‘I’m heading off right now—’

‘But you haven’t had a bite and—’

‘Sharon can feed me,’ Adele said blithely. ‘And as you know I don’t have to pack. All I need is my book, my purse and my car keys.’

This was true. Adele kept three complete sets of clothes and cosmetics. One at Kin Can, one on the Coast and one at her home in Brisbane. She’d also advised Jo to do the same—one of the practices of the rich Jo had found amusing at first, until she’d discovered it saved an awful lot of time and preparation.

‘Well—’

‘Now, you take care of yourself, my dear!’ Adele came over and kissed her warmly. ‘You too, mate!’ She saluted her son, and was gone.

Leaving Jo and Gavin staring at each other with Jo, unknowingly, reflecting all her fears and uncertainties in her eyes.

He moved abruptly, then looked down at his grimy hands. ‘Give me five,’ he murmured and turned away.

Jo sat down again, and covered her soup. The sun had set and there was just a lingering soft gold light over the river and the mangroves. But for once in her life, she didn’t respond mentally to the colours and shapes before her eyes as she wondered what was to come. For, with each succeeding day away from him, her awful fear that there was some catch to what he’d said had grown. ‘Jo?’

She turned to see him standing beside the table in clean khaki shorts. His hair was wet, his beard was still in place and he was pulling down a yellow T-shirt. If he smelt of anything it was soap and clean clothes.

‘Uh—that was quick.’

‘Mmm,’ he agreed and fingered his jaw. ‘Sorry about this but I get the feeling I’ve been away for far too long as it is.’

He picked up the wine and poured two glasses. ‘You look as if you could do with it.’

‘Thank you.’ She accepted the glass and their fingers touched briefly.

He sat down and raked his hand through his hair, scattering droplets. ‘What’s the problem, Jo?’

She opened and closed her mouth several times, then, ‘I…when I thought about it, it didn’t seem to make sense.’

‘I never—’ he captured her gaze ‘—gave sons a second thought when I asked you to marry me.’

She blinked incredulously. ‘You said…I can’t help knowing that starting a family is a primary concern of yours,’ she stammered.

‘Because of some guff Sharon spouted about dynasties? If you’re wondering, I got that bit of information out of my mother.’

‘It didn’t help,’ she conceded, and took a sip of wine. ‘But it wasn’t only Sharon. You yourself led me to believe it.’

‘Yes, it was a primary concern,’ he agreed. ‘But it had nothing to do with sons or dynasties. It seemed to me to be the one way I’d get to keep you.’

Her lips parted. ‘You didn’t think—I don’t understand.’

‘I didn’t either.’ He paused and grimaced. ‘I guess it didn’t seem possible for me to have fallen madly in love in a matter of hours. Of course I’d also sworn off “deeply, wildly, madly” but not, I now know, for the reasons I told you when we were handcuffed together.’

‘No?’ Her voice was threadbare as different emotions claimed her. Seeds of hope?

‘No. Because what Sasha did for me wasn’t to ruin me for any other woman, as I thought. She taught me what the real thing was, and it was a wonderful legacy she gave me. I was just too blind and stupid to see it. But what she did leave me with—was a deep fear that I could lose someone I loved, as I lost her.

‘As the months passed,’ he went on, ‘it all became clear to me—from my point of view anyway. But you—’ he smiled, although with no amusement ‘—stayed the same lovely enigma you’d always been.’

She closed her eyes briefly.

‘And I couldn’t help wondering if, when our marriage was no longer convenient, you would simply move on. That’s why I wanted to start a family, so you wouldn’t be able to.’

They stared at each other.

‘That’s why,’ he added quietly, ‘I could never tell you how I felt—until I was afraid I was going to lose you to a flood. I couldn’t bear the thought of hearing you say it hadn’t happened for you.’

‘So—’ she cleared her throat ‘—you hedged your bets by not letting me know how you felt?’

‘Yes. I’m sorry.’

‘So did I.’

There was a little silence as he regarded his glass, then looked across at her with a frown. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that I fell in love with you when you first asked me to marry you—and then you passed out cold. It just—’ she moistened her lips ‘—it just came like that.’

He stared at her incredulously.

‘To be honest,’ she said with a shaky little smile, ‘I didn’t ever think I was hiding it that well.’

‘Jo,’ he said hoarsely, ‘why hide it anyway?’

‘It was such a miracle for me, I couldn’t bear to think it was so…so one-sided. And I reasoned that if you didn’t know how I felt it would be—I don’t know—like a form of self-protection.’

‘I guess I can understand that all too well,’ he replied slowly and with a trace of grimness. ‘But why was it such a miracle?’

She sighed suddenly. ‘I lost everyone I’d ever loved, my parents, my grandmother. My father’s mother, who looked for me nearly all my life then died before I was found. It makes you scared—’

‘I know that, sweetheart,’ he interrupted, ‘from my own experience. And you have no idea how often I told myself not to forget why you might be such a dedicated loner. It was getting harder to convince myself, though.’

‘There was another reason. I swore once never to depend on anyone, and it’s the real reason, I guess, why I didn’t think I would ever fall in love.’

She took another sip of wine, then told him factually and unemotionally about what had happened to her at fifteen.

‘Oh, Jo,’ he said softly and with such a wealth of understanding and concern as he covered her hand with his, sudden tears beaded her lashes.

‘The thing is,’ she said, ‘you swept all that away almost as if it had never existed.’

‘I did?’

She nodded.

‘Almost?’ His fingers tightened on hers.

‘It came back to hit me when you told me you thought I might be secretly on the pill. Not the revulsion, but the memory of not being believed in. That’s why I got so angry and felt so hurt. That’s why I did something so stupid like running into a kangaroo.’

He got up and came round to draw her to her feet. ‘I love you, Jo Lucas,’ he said intently. ‘Deeply, wildly and madly. Will you marry me?’

Her grey eyes widened. ‘We are married.’

‘Properly. With our hearts as well as our bodies. No more secrets, no more uncertainty—you do realize I’m a nervous wreck?’

Her gorgeous mouth dimpled at the corners, then curved into a smile. ‘Yes, Gavin. I would love to marry you properly.’

‘Heaven help me,’ he said huskily, staring at her mouth, ‘I’ll never get enough of you, Jo.’

‘I think the same could be said of me!’

Later, he untied the sash of her pyjama top and told her she was extremely well dressed for what he had in mind.

She lay in his arms and chuckled. ‘Just be careful of all the grazes and bruises.’

He lifted his head from her breasts. ‘Damn, I’d forgotten!’

‘Perhaps we could work out a plan whereby they might be avoided?’ she suggested.

‘A plan?’ He scratched his head. ‘How?’

‘You’re the ex-SAS person in the family, and pretty good at that,’ she reminded him gravely. ‘You’ve saved my life twice now.’

He grinned, then sobered. ‘Would this fall into that category, by any chance?’

‘Definitely. How about you?’ she teased.

‘If only you knew. Uh—well, a full inspection is certainly called for. That’s basic SAS training, incidentally. Assess the situation thoroughly.’

‘Oh, I’m all in favour of basic SAS training,’ she said with a dreamy little smile. ‘When do you plan to begin the assessment?’

‘I could kiss you again first,’ he offered, but they were both laughing and they came together in love and a mental unity that was breathtaking.

Several days later when they were back on Kin Can, Jo showed Gavin his portrait for the first time, his second portrait.

He stared at it. ‘But this—this is different.’

‘I know. This is the one I’ve worked on ever since you asked me to marry you, the first time.’

He studied it soberly. The inside of the old boundary hut was almost alive with the glow of firelight, and he was seated at the table, with a gun in his hands and naked to the waist.

‘Jo—why?’ he queried.

‘I told you once, bone structure, muscles—all that is grist to my mill and you’re a particularly fine specimen.’

‘Is that all?’

‘Well, no,’ she conceded gravely. ‘I wanted a reminder of my very own bushranger.’

He lifted an eyebrow. ‘Even one who accused you of being a gangster’s moll?’

She nodded.

‘Do you plan to exhibit this?’

‘Oh, no. Mind you, that’s a pity. Even if I say so myself, it’s some of my best work.’

‘What do you plan to do with it?’

‘Hang it up in our bedroom so even when you’re away from me I can fantasize about you.’

He took a sudden breath. ‘Do you have any idea what that will do to me?’

‘Bring you home to me PDQ?’ she suggested.

He put the picture down carefully and shook his head. ‘You may find you have to prise me away with a crowbar, my lovely Jo.’

‘Even better.’ She moved into his arms. ‘You haven’t told me what you think of it.’

He looked across at the portrait. ‘Well, I’m actually extremely taken with it.’

‘Think you come across as a good-looking guy, or artistically?’

He wrapped his hands around her hips. ‘Both.’

‘You don’t have to humour me.’

‘Then—’ his eyes softened ‘—artistically, it’s so—I don’t know how to put it into words—but it took me right back to the old hut. I could smell the wood smoke for a moment.’

She smiled. ‘Thanks.’

‘On the other hand, I don’t know about the good-looking guy bit, but so long as I’m the guy you fantasize about—I really, truly, madly, deeply—appreciate that.’

Deep satisfaction filled Jo and she raised her mouth for his kiss.