Summer Down Under (10 page)

Sam stepped out of the plane, looking in
amazement at the single story house that lay out in front of her.
It looked even more impressive from the ground, and it was now
possible to see what some of the outbuildings were. There were
caged runs filled with turkeys, chickens, and ducks to the right of
the house. Next to where they had pulled up, there was a fuel pump,
with three motor-cross motorbikes and a four-wheeler standing to
attention beside it.

“Do you use your plane a lot?” she asked Mr.
Miller.

“Yes,” he replied. “We’ll be going up in her
tomorrow to find where the sheep are.”

Her mind toyed with what he had just said,
and, finally, the size of this place started to sink in. Their
property was so big that they needed a plane to search for the
sheep. Realizing she was holding her breath, she slowly
exhaled.

“Come on, Sam.” Daniel said brightly “I’ll
show you to your room, and then we can wash up for dinner. After
dinner, I’ll give you a tour of the house if you like?”

“Yes, I think I would like that very
much.”

He took her bags once more, and she followed
him up into the entrance of his home. The door was not locked, but
then, she thought, it would have to be a pretty desperate thief to
come all this way to steal stuff.

Daniel led her down the length of the
screened deck and through a door at the end. Her room was the first
door on the right, after that.

“We share this bathroom and toilet,” he
announced, pointing them out to her as they passed. “My room is the
next one down on the right. So if you need me, you know where to
find me.”

Sam poked her head in the room he had pointed
to. It was the bathroom, fairly small but functional. The toilet
was in a separate room next to the bathroom.

He placed Sam’s bags on her bed and turned to
face her, looking around as he did. He stepped closer and she could
feel her body tense, but tried to hide the fact that she was
feeling uncomfortable. Sam glanced up as he caught her chin in his
hand and looked down at her. Her body wanted to sink into his
caress, wanted to know how it would feel, but she stood firm.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” he whispered.
“I thought I would never see you again.”

She allowed a sheepish smile. “Neither did
I,” she replied.

The familiar awkward feeling that was her
constant companion started to coil around her. She pulled away.
What was she thinking? She should have never agreed to work there
when she found out it was Daniel’s parent’s place. Who was she
kidding? She’ll never pull off trying to convince his father there
was nothing between them when all she wanted to do at that moment
was kiss the smile right off his face. But she needed to know she
was more to him than just an imagined fling. That he thought more
of her than that. To do that, she resigned herself to the fact that
she would have to stick around a bit longer.

“Thank you for showing me to my room,” she
muttered to her feet. “I better get unpacked and have a shower
before dinner.” With that, she turned and got to work unpacking her
backpack.

Daniel let out a small sigh and quietly
clicked the door shut behind him. Sam closed her eyes. This was not
going to be easy. How on earth was she going to be able to work so
closely with him when every muscle in her body was screaming out to
touch him, but every rational thought in her brain was terrified of
the consequences if she did? She straightened.
Oh, pull yourself
together, woman,
she cursed at herself.
You are not going to
let another man have that much power over you.

Sam pulled her thoughts together and did a
closer inspection of her room. It was small but clean. Just big
enough to hold a single bed, a closet, and a dresser. Then she
noticed something odd. There were two doors. The one she just came
in through and another one on the opposite wall next to the closet.
Curiosity got the better of her and she wandered over to the other
door, quietly opened it, and stepped outside. She found herself
standing at the end of a long corridor that continued to her right.
Muffled voices and the clanging of pots were coming from the end
the corridor. It was no great leap to assume that must be where the
kitchen was.

To her left, the corridor opened up into what
looked like a formal dining room that backed up against her bedroom
wall, and, she guessed, Daniel’s room, too. Off to the right of the
open plan dining room, was a beautiful, almost stately living room.
It was decorated very formally with plenty of antiques and what
looked like family heirlooms. It didn’t look like it regularly
accepted visitors, though. To be honest, she thought it looked more
like a museum piece than a ‘living’ room.

Two of the walls had floor to ceiling
bookshelves filled to brimming with books. There was an immense
fireplace that took center stage on the main wall, with a russet
and cream-colored cowhide in front of it. But the thing that
grabbed her attention the most was the wall filled with framed
photos, most of them sepia or black and white.

She crept over and stood in front of the wall
of photos. Some of the people in the portraits were dressed in
Victorian clothing. In fact, there were generations of different
fashions being worn by the people in the pictures. Right in the
center of them were two large portraits, one of Mrs. Miller and one
of Mr. Miller.

“That’s our family tree,” a familiar voice
said behind her.

She nearly jumped out of her skin and took in
a sharp breath in response. Being so engrossed in the pictures, she
hadn’t heard Daniel come in and stand behind her.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you jump,”
he apologized.

“No worries. This is an amazing collection of
pictures. How far back do they go?”

“Mum and Dad’s ancestors were actually some
of the first people to be shipped here as prisoners from England,”
Daniel explained. “That wasn’t anything to be proud of back in the
day, but being able to say your family were some of the original
white settlers to this country is quite a feat nowadays. This sheep
station has been in our family for generations. It will be mine one
day.”

“Wow.”

They stood side by side for a few more
minutes while Daniel explained who a few of the people were, then
realizing the shower was beckoning, she politely excused herself.
Dragged herself away would have been a more accurate
description.

Just as she was about to step back into her
room, she noticed a door directly opposite hers. It was open so she
peeked inside. It was about the same size as her bedroom but was
filled floor to ceiling with shelves full of provisions of all
kinds: food, toiletries, drinks, produce. It was like a mini
grocery store inside.

Sam stepped quietly back into her room and
continued unpacking, not that there was much to unpack from her
compact backpack. After undressing, she pulled on her robe, grabbed
some toiletries, and headed out the other door towards the
bathroom. Poking her head out first, she looked both ways to make
sure the coast was clear. It was, so she dashed across the hall and
darted into the bathroom closing the door behind her.

There was no lock on the door, but she didn’t
think much of it, there didn’t seem to be locks on anything. The
owners must have thought they weren’t necessary.

Sam turned on the shower and waited for the
water to heat up. She was travel weary and couldn’t wait for the
warm water to envelop her tired body. Once in the shower, she was
not disappointed. The water rained down, covering every inch of
her, and it felt heavenly. She felt so at ease in the shower; it
was one of her favorite things to do. Her muscles started to relax,
and she stood for the longest time just enjoying the sensation of
being wrapped in warmth.

She was pulled from her trance by a knocking
on the door.

“Sam? It’s Daniel,” came Daniel’s muffled
voice though the door, “Mum said dinner will be ready in half an
hour.”

“Thanks,” she called back. “I’m nearly
finished. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” She could hear his
footsteps growing fainter and turned off the shower.

Sam felt much better. Showers seemed to have
the ability to revive like nothing else did. Peeking outside the
bathroom again, she saw no one and made a dash back into her
bedroom, quickly shutting the door behind her.

Twenty minutes later she followed the voices
down the hallway and found the kitchen. Once again, she stared.
Like everything else in this house, except her bedroom, the kitchen
was vast; the size of a small house! There were two huge stoves,
one was an old-fashioned looking Aga that stood in the corner. The
other looked like a normal gas stove, albeit twice the size of any
gas stove she had ever seen. The rest of the kitchen was lined with
cabinets, workspace, appliances, and an enormous sink with a
draining board.

Mrs. Miller was coordinating the meal with
what looked like military precision. It was obvious to Sam that
this lady felt very at home in the kitchen. This was resoundingly
her
territory.

“Can I help with anything?” Sam asked, hoping
Mrs. Miller would not take her up on the offer and see the painful
truth that she didn’t know a frying pan from a dish mop.

“No, no,” Mrs. Miller replied. “You go and
sit down in the dining room, and I’ll be there in a minute. Dinner
is almost ready.”

Sam nodded and looked over in the direction
of where Mrs. Miller was pointing. She could see another dining
room off to the right of the kitchen. Only this one looked a lot
less formal. She could hear Daniel’s familiar voice talking to his
Father. They were both seated at the table chatting about the
chores that needed doing. She crept in not wanting to disturb them,
but, as soon as they saw her enter, they thrust their chairs back
and stood up.

Their reaction to her entrance took her by
surprise and she took a step back and held her breath, wondering
what she had done wrong. She caught Daniel’s gaze and creased her
brow. Just at that moment, Mrs. Miller bustled in behind her, saw
her surprised expression and chuckled.

“Not used to chivalry are you, my dear?” It
was more of a statement than a question. “I always bring my
children up to be chivalrous to ladies. There’s no excuse for bad
manners,” she continued, then gestured for Sam to take the seat
next to Daniel on the other side of the table.

Obligingly, Sam made her way around the table
and, by the time she got to her seat, Daniel was standing behind
it, a coy smile plastered across his face.

He pushed her chair in gently as she lowered
herself to sit down. She had never in her life had a man stand up
from the table when she entered, let alone push her chair in for
her. Sam was instantly transported to a scene from Pride and
Prejudice, thinking what a remarkably handsome “Mr. Darcy” Daniel
would make.

Just then, her thoughts were shattered by a
loud squawk coming from the corner of the room; she turned around
to see who had made it. Sitting on top of an ornate birdcage sat a
beautiful bird. She had a gray body and a pink head, and was
bobbing up and down like some insane nodding dog that you sometimes
see adorning people’s dashboards in their cars.

“Who’s that?” Sam asked, looking back at Mrs.
Miller.

“Her name’s Lucrecia,” the portly woman
replied. “She’s a Galah. We rescued her when she was a chick. She
fell out of a nest, and her mother rejected her. We never expected
her to live, but Daniel took it upon himself to care for her, and
here she is ten years later, still happy and
loud.”
The last
word was aimed directly at Lucrecia.

“She’s beautiful.” Sam said, with a touch of
admiration in her voice.

“She’s also stuck with us,” retorted Mr.
Miller somewhat sourly. “When she fell out of the nest as a chick,
she broke her wing, so she can’t fly.”

“She is definitely part of the family,”
continued Mrs. Miller.

“Does she sit on your shoulder?”

“Oh, yes. She’ll not leave you alone if you
are around the house and invite her to ride on you. She loves to
get on board and go for a ride. She can’t get very far walking by
herself, and she can’t see much at floor level. One of her favorite
things to do is hang on your front while you are washing up.
Sprinkle some water on her and she is in heaven.”

Sam could understand that, showers had that
effect on her, too.

Dinner was superb. Mrs. Miller, it turned
out, was a wonderful cook. The rest of the meal was spent
discussing chores and the timetable of events for the season.

Sam found out that her job included feeding
the poultry every morning and afternoon. She listened as Daniel and
his father went over the timetable of events for the upcoming
months until they hit the final crescendo of the
season…shearing.

After they finished their meal, it was
Daniel’s and Sam’s responsibility to clear up and wash the dishes.
Sam walked over to Lucrecia. As she did, the bird started bobbing
her head excitedly as Sam got closer.

“Hop aboard,” she said, holding out her arm
for the bird. Lucrecia didn’t hesitate. The little bird climbed on
Sam’s wrist, then crab-walked her way up Sam’s arm and settled down
next to her right ear. Sam’s grin nearly stretched from ear to ear.
She loved birds and now had made a friend with one who sat happily
on her shoulder.

Daniel and Sam cleared the plates and made
their way to the bath sized sink in the kitchen. To Sam’s dismay,
there was no dishwasher included in the array of appliances.

“I’ll wash if you dry?” she asked Daniel. He
nodded his agreement. No sooner had the sink filled up with hot
soapy water, Lucrecia was climbing down Sam’s shoulder and hanging
onto her sweatshirt just below the neckline.