Summer Down Under (21 page)

***

Morning couldn’t have come soon enough for
Sam. She hardly slept a wink all night, she was so excited. Mr.
Miller had told them the night before at dinner that the cattle
were to be delivered around sunrise the next morning.

Mrs. Miller didn’t even need to make the
wakeup call. The matronly woman knocked on the bedroom door and
poked her head inside. Sam was already dressed and just about to
head to the kitchen. Mrs. Miller smiled at the young jillaroo’s
excited expression and carried on up the hall. It was still pitch
dark outside. It felt like the middle of the night, even though it
was about five in the morning.

Sam was already seated by the time Daniel
crawled into the dining room rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“Morning,” she greeted him, just a little too
brightly.

“Urgh,” he groaned. “You’re far too chipper
for this time in the morning.”

“Your dad has already had his breakfast and
is outside getting the horses ready. Does he ever sleep?”

“Not that I know of,” Daniel said, running a
hand through a shock of mussed hair. Was it possible that he could
look any sexier? Sam stared at him and decided it wasn’t.

Hearing Mrs. Miller enter the dining room,
she averted her gaze, feigning interest in Lucrecia, who was
squawking in the corner. Daniel’s mum was carrying a couple of
plates piled high with steaming eggs, bacon, and a slice of toast
on the side. Sam hardly tasted it, she threw it down so fast.

“Come on, hurry up.” Sam nudged Daniel as he
looked in dismay at her empty plate and saw that his was still half
full.

“Hold your horses,” he said with a smile
“I’ll be done in a minute.”

“That’s what I want to do,” she retorted.
“Hold my horse.”

Daniel looked to the heavens. “Oh, good Lord.
We’ve created a monster.” He shoved the last forkful of breakfast
into his mouth and got up, his cheeks stuffed like a chipmunk. Sam
chuckled. Daniel looked down at her with a glint in his eye. He
took hold of her hand and pulled her out of her seat and around the
table.

“Come on then, missy. Let’s get you saddled
up before you drive me crazy.”

With an excited squeak, she followed him
around the table.

“See you later, Lucrecia,” she said as she
passed her sitting on the cage.

The pretty bird responded with a squawk and
her obligatory head bob.

A few minutes later, they were out at the
corral. Mr. Miller had gotten the saddles and bridles out of the
tack room and had each of their horses tied to the rail next to the
corral.

Sam hefted her saddle onto Brolga’s back. She
took hold of the girth, and various other leather straps, and
looked from one to the other in confusion. Seeing the baffled look
on Sam’s face, Daniel wandered over to her rescue.

“Here,” he said running his hand over Sam’s
to take the buckle from her. “Let me.”

Sam glanced up, the look in Daniel’s eyes
making her stomach flip flop. She allowed her hand to linger under
his for a second before letting it slip from under his palm. She
brushed the back of her hand across her forehead. “Thanks.”

After her horse was correctly tacked up, Sam
gave Brolga a pat on the neck and whispered a quiet word in her
ear. “Look after me today, girl, won’t you?”

To Sam’s surprise, the horse nodded her head.
Sam smiled, realizing it was probably more to do with the fact that
she had just breathed warm breath in her ear while whispering to
her. It made her feel good all the same.

When the horses were ready, Daniel gave Sam a
leg up and she mounted Brolga. She watched Daniel mount Humphrey
with ease, tall as his horse was. Mr. Miller was already on his
mount and waiting impatiently for the both of them.

By this time, the sun was starting to wake up
and make its appearance for the day. The sunrise that morning was
almost as spectacular as the sunset the night before. They walked
their horses towards the shearing shed and holding pen where the
cattle would be delivered. There was no access for the road trains
to get close enough to drop the cattle near the watering hole, that
was why they had to be driven there by the horses from the shearing
shed.

As they got closer to the shearing shed, Sam
began to hear a rumble in the distance. As the sun rose in the sky,
she could make out a cloud of dust a long way in the distance.

“That’ll be them,” Mr. Miller stated before
turning back to address his team. “Now, when they off load the
cattle, I want you to herd them over to that side of the holding
pen. We won’t open the gates to the paddock until they are all off
loaded. Sam, you follow Daniel’s lead; he will show you what to
do.”

Sam nodded.

They were using the same holding pen that the
sheep were in the first day she worked there. It was big enough to
hold several thousand sheep at one time so she assumed it must be
big enough to hold nine hundred head of cattle. Although, the
enormity of it all didn’t hit her for a few more minutes.

She didn’t really have any comprehension of
why a road train was actually called a road train. She just assumed
it was the Aussie way of saying ‘lorry’, as you would in England,
or ‘semi-trailer’ in America. She couldn’t have been more
inaccurate.

These colossi of the roads pulled onto the
property and slowly lined up one by one next to each other as they
crawled to a stop in front of the horses. Yet again, Sam was found
staring. Sam was also surprised that the horses didn’t flinch. They
stood solid and calm before the giant machines that now towered
above them. This was not a sight they saw every day, but she was
guessing from their demeanor, it was a sight they had seen more
than once during their careers on this station.

Laid out in front of the three riders, were
four Mack type trucks. Two of them were each towing four
double-decker cattle trailers. The other two were each towing two
double-decker trailers. Sam gawped at them, never having seen
anything quite that big on the road before.

Within minutes, the drivers had gotten out of
their cabs and were off loading the cattle in droves.

“Ready?” Daniel asked, snapping Sam from her
awe-struck stupor.

“Hmm?” she responded.

“Earth calling Samantha.”

“What? Oh, yes, sorry. All present and
correct.”

Daniel had given her some pointers on driving
cattle on their ride over to greet the trucks. It was much like
mustering sheep. Only cattle moved a lot slower, so it sounded like
a breeze.

They moved around each batch of cattle that
were being unloaded, herding them to the side of the pen they were
to exit from. It took a good couple of hours to off load them all.
Daniel and Sam worked well as a team, sending the cattle over to
join the herd. Mr. Miller sat at the other side of the trailers to
catch any stragglers that accidentally went in the wrong direction.
He would push them towards the main herd if they did.

Eventually, the last cow was off loaded and
ran towards its buddies. The drivers closed up the trailers, turned
their trucks around and drove off down the road, much lighter than
when they had arrived.

A large, dark brown moving mass lay before
the three riders, mooing and calling. Sheep could make some noise,
but, Sam realized, they had nothing on cattle. Mr. Miller
dismounted and climbed over the other side of the holding pen to
open the gate. The cattle spilled through it like a knocked over
bottle of cola.

By the time they were all through, he had
climbed back and mounted his horse again. The cattle were spreading
as they moved through the gate, wandering in all directions. To the
untrained eye, it would seem unlikely that the three of them on
horseback would be able to get the heaving mass under any kind of
control. They followed patiently behind the brown mass, pushing the
last stragglers on until they were all through the gate.

Once on the other side, Mr. Miller told Sam
to stay at the back, pushing the cattle forward, while he and
Daniel would split to either side of her and round up the strays,
pushing them back to the bulk of the herd. Sam watched in awe as
her two co-horts maneuvered their horses with ease. Zigzagging to
and fro, bringing all the cattle back to the herd.

Daniel looked especially masterful on the
back of his horse. She had no idea he knew how to ride so well. In
what seemed like minutes, they were both back at her side.

“We are going to drive them to the fence line
and then you two can push them forward on your own after that.” Mr.
Miller told them. “I want to go up in the plane and see what this
looks like from the air.”

That was perfectly fine with Sam. Being out
in the middle of nowhere, on horseback, behind a load of cattle
with Daniel. She could think of nowhere else she would rather be. A
smile curved her lips at the thought.

The brown mass eventually resembled an
organized herd and a while later they had the cattle moving along
the fence line.

“Right, then,” Mr. Miller announced. “I’m
off. You two can handle it from here. I’ll see you at dinner.” With
that, he kicked his horse on and cantered across the paddock
towards the house.

Sam was mesmerized by the sheer volume of
cattle that stretched ahead of her and Daniel. After a few minutes,
though, she became aware that she was being watched. She looked
over to where Daniel was riding beside her, relaxed and totally at
ease on the back of his horse. He was eyeing her intently. Probably
just checking to make sure she was comfortable on her horse.

The slow rocking movement of Brolga
underneath her as she moved had made Sam relax, also. She did feel
very comfortable on the horse. Daniel didn’t need to worry on that
score. Sam’s horse hadn’t given her any reason, so far, to think
she may do anything silly.

“I can’t believe I’m actually doing this,”
Sam blurted after a length of silence. She was grinning from ear to
ear. “I’ve wanted to do this for as long as I can remember. You
don’t get much call for cattle drives in England.”

“No, I can’t imagine you do,” Daniel replied
with a smile, getting caught up in Sam’s excitement.

Several minutes passed them by before they
heard the sound of the plane engine. A few minutes later, they
could see the plane taking off in the distance and circle around
behind them.

They both looked up and waved as Mr. Miller
flew overhead. He did a few circles over them. Sam waved, keeping
her fingers crossed that he had kept his promise and was taking
some pictures with her camera. Otherwise, no one back home was
going to believe her. After a couple more fly overs, the plane made
its way back to the airstrip.

Daniel and Sam kept the herd moving forwards.
It turned out to be quite easy. The cattle did most of the work.
They just had to push them on from behind and, occasionally,
persuade the odd straggler that broke ranks that it was a much
better idea for them to stay with the herd.

Daniel made sure they added the odd whooping
noise now and again for

good measure, and to make Sam feel like she
was on an honest to goodness cattle drive. As they relaxed into the
steady pace the cattle were setting in front of them, Daniel let
his reins hang loose and rested the hand holding them on the horn
of his saddle. His other arm hung loosely by his side.

Once again, they fell into easy conversation.
It was hard to imagine that in a split second everything could turn
into turmoil. Sam’s eyes widened with fear as Humphrey reared and
then spun around. Out of nowhere, Daniel’s horse did a perfect
one-eighty. Its rider didn’t stand a chance, especially, as he was
not really holding onto the reins. Humphrey caught him off guard
and threw him off balance. A second later, Daniel fell to the
ground with a resounding oomph. Sam cringed and watched helplessly
as Humphrey galloped off down the field, stirrups and reins
flailing in the wind.

“Daniel!” Sam cried jumping off Brolga’s back
without hesitation. Daniel groaned. He started to push himself up
onto his elbows as Sam ran over to where he lay. Not looking where
she was going, she tripped on a rock and landed squarely on top of
him, pushing him back to the ground, her nose hovering a fraction
above his.

“Sorry,” Sam muttered, shooting him a bashful
smile for good measure.

“Sam, you really are the clumsiest person I
have ever met,” Daniel stated.

Sam dropped her eyes, feeling ashamed and
stupid. A feeling to which she had become accustomed. A feeling she
hated.

After a heartbeat, Daniel started to chuckle.
Sam returned her gaze to see his eyes sparkling with amusement. Her
smile returned.

“You have ‘disaster waiting to happen’
written all over your face,” Daniel said, his body vibrating
underneath her as his laughter grew.

Sam rolled her eyes. “I know,” she agreed.
“My mum used to call me a fairy elephant.”

That made him laugh even more. He brought his
hands up and cupped her face.

“What am I going to do with you?” he
asked.

“Love me?” The words escaped before she even
knew she had thought them. Sam felt her face flush as the gorgeous
man lying beneath her stilled.

There was a pause. It was probably only a few
seconds, but seemed like an eternity. Daniel didn’t move his hands
away and push her off, as she was expecting. Instead, he kept them
there, reading the unspoken words in Sam’s eyes with an intensity
she couldn’t pull away from.

“Do you mean that?” he whispered.

Sam gave a noncommittal shrug. She’d taken
herself by surprise and had no idea how to react to her own
revelation. Daniel pulled her face down and kissed her. It was
tender at first, almost hesitant. When Sam didn’t pull away and
flee on her horse down the paddock, Daniel deepened his kiss. The
desire his kiss provoked inside of Sam started her heart pounding.
She could feel Daniel’s heart thudding in tandem beneath hers. A
second later, Daniel pushed her face up, gently lifting her lips
from his. He scrunched his eyebrows.