An Outback Affair/Runaway Wife/Outback Bridegroom/Outback Surrender/Home To Eden (10 page)

“Come closer to me.” He snuggled her supple, yielding body against him, everything that was tender in him aroused by the delicacy of her limbs.

“Evan?”

“It's only me.”

If only she had never met Colin. But she had, and he had harmed her. She'd come a long way since then.

I can't let it go on like this with Evan. She spoke silently to herself. I must do something about it. I have to tell him the truth.

W
UNNAMURRA
Station was an island of civilisation in an ocean of Spinifex scorched to a bright gold. On their near two-hour journey from the town they had passed through an extraordinary landscape, making the trip to Wunnamurra for Ruth McQueen's funeral almost an adventure for the city-bred Laura.

“This is like being a million miles from anywhere,” she said to Evan, who was doing the driving. “I thought I'd be looking at one of the world's harshest environments but this is more like a wonderland. All the fiery colours! Namatjira really did capture them.” She gazed out of the window at the flying miles.

“These unique landscapes made him famous,” Evan remarked of the famous aboriginal artist. “Even when he became a celebrity he always wanted to go home to the desert. So far as I'm concerned no one has been able to match him for capturing the essence of the Outback.”

“And to think I used to consider the palette he used too vivid to be true,” Laura confessed, “which shows my ignorance of the Outback. Just look at the red rocks, the red plains and dunes, the distant violet ranges all under the deepest blue sky I've ever seen. Not a single cloud. I love the ghost gums.”

“Namatjira's ‘ghostly gums' made his name. The silver-grey leaves, the crisp white branches and trunks. They're beautiful. Even the dead trees are marvelous, with their extraordinary gnarled shapes.”

“What's that one over there?” Laura twisted her head around. “It's not a ghost gum.” She pointed at a huge bare tree, its branches twisted into fantastic curves and angles.

“Desert Oak.” Evan identified the species for her. “Casuarina decaisneana. How's that for a botany lesson?”

“Pretty good.” She smiled. “I hope I'm not being a nuisance, asking all these questions, but what's the glitter in the distance?”

Evan eased the speed of his four-wheel drive so she could look her fill. “An area of gibber. Pebbles and stones, even boulders. They're rounded and polished by the windblown sand until they look like gems. That accounts for the glimmer. East of Lake Eyre is Sturt's Stony Desert. Now, that's a remarkable place. The surrounding plains are literally covered in colourful polished pebbles. The total effect is one of a never-ending mosaic.”

How she was cherishing the trip, cherishing being with him, though half melancholy because she couldn't be indifferent to the fact she was still legally tied to Colin. She couldn't stop to analyse the exact feelings for Evan, especially since he'd kissed her. That would be like stepping off a cliff.

“Speaking of colour, you've had a colourful life?” She glanced at his bold sculptured face in profile, the strong column of his brown throat.

“I've seen a lot, Laura.” He gave her back a glance. “A lot good. A lot bad. Australia is good. The Australian Outback is better. It's the heart and soul of the country. A healthy, healing environment—unless you're a complete fool and do the wrong thing, like heading off without telling anyone where you're going or travelling without water. Water is a very precious commodity out here.”

“Even with all those interlocking watercourses, the lagoons and billabongs, the water running off all the rocks and gullies?” she asked.

“Providing one is near them,” he pointed out dryly. “You've only seen the town. The bush is so vast you could have a thirty-kilometre walk in scorching sun. It doesn't take long to become severely dehydrated.”

“One wonders why Mrs McQueen decided to venture out,” Laura mused. “I understand she was an elderly woman.”

“You'd never have known to look at her. She was all style.
An extraordinarily glamorous woman. Very black intelligent eyes. A powerful woman too, but far from likeable as a lot of powerful people are.” he added dryly.

“Have you ever been anywhere there was a chance you'd be killed?” Laura startled him by asking.

He flicked a glance at her, very aware of how close she was to him, inhaling her fragrance. “What a question.”

“Do you think you could answer it, oh, man of mystery?”

“I have to tell you I've been close to an active volcano.” He gave her a half-smile. He could never tell her about his perilous times in the Balkans.

“You're joking!”

“Not to mention all the poisonous gases in the air.”

“Where? Please do tell me?”

He smiled at the imploring note in her voice. “I was twenty-five years old. In those days I thought nothing of taking risks. A friend of mine from my university days was a geologist. Both of us were on holiday in Italy, fascinated with volcanic eruptions. We decided to take off for Mount Etna. The Viper, as the Italians call it.”

“What a scary thing to do!”

“You bet!” he agreed mockingly. “In those days we thought of it more an awe-inspiring adventure, and it was. Small wonder some societies worship active volcanos.”

“And you actually stood on the edge of the crater?” she asked, fascinated.

“We did. But if you really want to see the earth's most unique crater it's right here in the Red Centre. Actually, not all that far away by charter flight. It's called Gosse's Bluff. Spinifex plains just like these.” He waved a hand at the rugged landscape. “The pound roughly twenty, twenty-five kilometres across, surrounded by what appears to be a massive circular range of mountains—which is, of course, the pink sandstone wall of the crater. No one knows what caused the mighty impact, comet or meteorite, but it must have been felt all over earth. A cataclysmic explosion probably a couple of hundred thousand times greater than the explosion that destroyed Hiroshima. Mercifully our scientists tell us huge
comet or meteorite falls like the one that created Gosse's Bluff occur only once in a million years.”

“That's good to know,” she shuddered wryly. “I saw a movie about a meteorite about to destroy earth not that long ago. It was bad enough. Have you been to Gosse's Bluff as well?”

In his other life he'd spent years globe-trotting, ready to take off for an assignment at twenty-four hours' notice. “No.” His charismatic voice deepened. “But if you'll come with me I don't see any reason why we can't go. Vehicle access is probably difficult. A helicopter could land.”

Laura felt her own cataclysmic jolt. “Are you serious?” Oh, let him be!

“Of course I'm serious. Would you like to go?”

The thought thrilled her unbearably. “I'd love to go.”

“Well, then, the trip's on.” He drank in her lovely face, her excited response.

She'd told him the day before she didn't have a single black outfit in her wardrobe to wear, but she'd found a very stylish little navy suit which she wore with a white navy-trimmed silk blouse beneath. It didn't take an experienced eye to know it was top quality, very expensive. Her hair was drawn back with a navy ribbon.

So young, so absolutely beautiful, so gifted. So why did he think she was weeping inside? He realized his feelings for her were growing into a private torment. What could come of it? He didn't know where his life was heading. She was clearly running from a serious situation. Now he had gone and dreamed up this trip. Unsharable nights together under the Outback stars. He had to be raving mad. Nevertheless, he got himself in even deeper.

“We might as well take in Uluru,” he added compulsively. “Forget calling it Ayers Rock—Uluru is the only name that calls up its mystery and magic. And twenty miles on are the magnificent domes of Kata Tjuta.”

“The Olgas.” She gave him a little smile.

“Both great monuments are sublime. Have you seen them?”

“I haven't done anything much,” she confessed. “I've never been further off-shore than New Zealand, Fiji, Bali. Once to Bangkok.”

“Where did you stay?” He gripped the wheel as the four-wheel drive bounced over a very rough patch of low scrub.

“The Oriental.”

“One of the great hotels of the world. So you weren't slumming it?” he observed dryly.

“Far from it.” She dreaded saying the trip to Bangkok had been her honeymoon destination.

“You don't sound as though it was a wonderful experience. Surely the food alone is superb?”

“Of course it is. I loved the dazzlingly beautiful arrangements of flowers in the lobby. Great fish bowls on spectacular stands, filled with enough orchids or flowers in season to fill a great florist shop, the enormous temple bells that serve as chandeliers, the gilded wooden elephants caparisoned with a blanket made from woven flowers. The Thai people have a genius for turning floral arrangements into living works of art.”

“Better include the way they carve fruit and vegetables into exquisite shapes.”

“The ice sculptures too.”

“Did you fly on to Phuket?”

“No.”

He was alerted all at once. “You don't sound like you had any fun at all. Phuket is a great attraction in that part of the world. Phangnga Bay is famous for its profusion of limestone peaks rising out of the milky green water. There are countless caves as well. I'm not sure how many James Bond movies have used the bay as a location. And who was your companion in all this luxury?”

Her green eyes went dark. “Someone I fell very fast out of love with.”

“Ah…your lover!” Despite himself his voice took on a dark edge. He hated the idea of her with her doctor lover. Knew he had no right. “Are we allowed to use the D word?”

“What's the D word?” she near whispered.

His gaze pinned her. “As in doctor?”

“We went home early.”

“Weren't enjoying yourselves?” he asked sardonically.

“I wasn't enjoying myself,” she corrected. “May we get off the D word?”

“Certainly.” He bit off what he wanted to say. He didn't want to cheapen the extraordinary bond he had formed with her. “I don't like the sound of the D word either.”

“Neither do I.”

He was baffled. “Forgive me, Laura, but why spend any time at all with a man who only offered you trouble?”

“Try because he wouldn't leave me alone.”

“All right, you're still in love with him even if you can't see a future?” He had a sensation of extreme anger directed towards her doctor, who sounded very much like a control freak..

“I'm not so involved I didn't love being kissed by you,” Laura freely admitted.

He whistled softly beneath his breath. “The lady admits it.”

“I couldn't hide it,” she said simply.

“But I'm not the only man in your life?” He kept his tone deliberately light.

“Unfortunately, no. Not at this point in time.”

“Be that as it may, Laura, it's not going to stop me from kissing you again,” he warned. “I'd say you're in need of lots of love and kisses.”

“The right kind,” she murmured.

He took his eye off the track to study her face, a frown between his strongly marked black brows. “What do you know about violence?” A terrible suspicion opened up, although she looked as inviolate as a white orchid.

So difficult to answer—particularly because she couldn't bear anything to jeopardise their blossoming relationship. “It's everywhere, isn't it? One only has to watch the television or read the papers.”

“Personal violence, Laura,” he said, his expression very serious.

“I don't understand?” She couldn't meet that piercing gaze. She hated to lie, but lies at this stage seemed to be her only protection.

“I think you do.” There was a flicker of something like anger or deep disappointment in the dark depths of his eyes.

“Evan, you're exhausting me with your questions.” She tried to change the subject. “That's it, really.” What had happened to her during her short marriage was so demeaning she couldn't bring herself to tell him about it and remain outwardly calm. Even with Sarah she'd been reduced to tears.

“So we get off the subject?”

“Please. But I'm grateful for your concern.”

The truth was the shame crippled her. How could she involve Evan in her personal dramas? The best thing she had ever done was leave Colin. The next thing, the all-important thing, was to get legally free of him.

 

It was amazing to see light aircraft dotting the plain surrounding Wunnamurra's huge silver hangar, with its logo emblazoned on the roof. Even then it was a long way from the airstrip to the main compound where inside vehicles of all kinds, four-wheel drives, buses, trucks, vans—were parked all over.

Laura looked about her with open curiosity and amazement. “This is like a private kingdom,” she murmured. There were outbuildings on all sides, staff bungalows, and what looked like a huge hall. As yet the legendary Wunnamurra homestead hadn't come into sight. They had arrived in good time. The funeral was set for eleven a.m., allowing plenty of time for visitors to attend the wake afterwards at the homestead before flying or driving out in full daylight.

“Homestead coming up,” Evan said. “It's very grand.”

“Obviously the McQueens are doing well,” Laura observed dryly. “This is a small settlement in itself.”

“The Outback homestead is the equivalent of the Englishman's stately home to these people,” Evan said. “The pioneering families were and had to be pretty extraordinary. Those days seem a very romantic period in our short history,
but hardship danger and death were facts of everyday life. The McQueens are a major pioneering family. From all accounts the late Mrs Ruth McQueen worked very hard to keep the station going after she lost her husband, Ewan. She was apparently a wonderful horsewoman, though they said she tended to be a bit ruthless with her horses.”

“As she was with people?” Laura asked quietly, remembering what she'd been told. “Sarah sounded very upset, but underneath I thought I detected some measure of release. It would be very daunting having to contend with family antagonism.”