‘Um…’ She hesitated and put the rambutan down. ‘That’s up to you. I’m happy to go along with whatever you want to talk about.’
‘So.’ His lips twisted. ‘Are we on again?’
Holly looked down and felt a strong pull towards taking the safe path—the one that would get her away from the dangerous elements of this man. From the undoubted attraction she felt towards him—her fascination with the mystique behind him. But at the same time her feeling was that Brett Wyndham could not be a long=term prospect for her.
She thought briefly of the dinner party she’d witnessed last night and it struck her that, while the man himself embodied the kind of life she found fascinating, there had to be a dimension to his life that occupied another stratum—one she did not belong to—that of ultra-glamorous, gorgeously groomed, sleek and glossy women. Last night they’d all looked like models or film stars.
Should that not make her feel safe with him, however? The fact that she patently didn’t look like a model or a film star…?
She shrugged at last. ‘On. Again.’
They exchanged a long, probing glance until finally he said, ‘I see. We’re still in the same boat.’
She looked perplexed. ‘Boat?’
‘We can’t quite make each other out.’ He smiled, but a shade dryly. ‘All right. Are you ready to fly out shortly?’
Holly hesitated momentarily, then nodded. She went away to change and collect her things.
As she changed into her jeans, a sunshine-yellow singlet top, her denim jacket and her boots, she stared at her image in the mirror a couple of times and realized she looked and felt tense, and didn’t know how to deal with it.
Here she was about to step out into the wide blue yonder with a man she hardly knew—a man she’d clashed with but at the same time felt attracted to—and her emotions were, accordingly, in a bit of a tangle.
How was she going to revert to Holly Harding, journalist, on a very important mission?
She was still preoccupied with this question as she drove down the Bruce Highway with Brett Wyndham, between sugar cane fields, towards the city of Cairns in its circle of hills and the airport.
Brett piloted his own plane, she discovered later, still not quite able to believe what was happening to her. The plane was a trim little six-seater with a W on the tail.
She was still pinching herself metaphorically as the nose of the plane rose and the speeding runway fell away. She was also trying to decide how to handle things between them. Common sense told her a matter-of-fact approach was the only way to go, but even that wasn’t going to be easy.
She waited until they reached their cruising altitude then asked him how long the flight would be.
He told her briefly.
‘Can you talk?’
‘Of course,’ he replied.
‘Could you give me a run-down on the country we’re flying over and our destination?’
He did so. They were flying west over the old mining towns of the Tablelands towards volcanic country famous for its lava tubes; then the great, grassy lands of the savannah/gulf country, as in the Gulf of Carpentaria, where their destination lay.
‘Haywire?’ she repeated with a grin. ‘Where did it get its name?
He grimaced. ‘No-one seems to know.’
Holly glanced across at him. He looked thoroughly professional in a khaki bush-shirt and jeans, with his headphones on and his beautiful hands checking instruments.
Professional and withdrawn from her, she contemplated as her gaze was drawn to her own hands clasped rather forlornly in her lap.
Who was she to quibble about ‘professional and withdrawn’ being the order of the day? It was what she’d almost stipulated, wasn’t it? The only problem was she needed to get him to open up if she was going to get full value out of this trip. But—big but—there was a fine line between getting him to talk easily and naturally from a professional point of view and not finding herself loving his company at the same time.
She shook her head and realized he was watching her.
She coloured a little.
‘Some internal debate?’ he suggested.
‘You could say so. Where are we now?’ She looked out at the panorama of red sandy earth below them, with its sage-green vegetation, at the undulations and the space.
‘About halfway between Georgetown and Croydon. If you follow the Savannah Way it takes you on to Normanton and Karumba, on the gulf. Over that way,’ he pointed, ‘is Forsayth and Cobbold Gorge; it’s quite amazing. And those are the Newcastle Ranges to the east, and the sandstone escarpment to the west.’
‘It’s very remote,’ she said in awe. ‘And empty.’
‘Remote,’ he agreed. ‘Hot as hell in summer, but with quite a history, not only of cattle but gold rushes and gem fields. Georgetown has a gem museum and Croydon has a recreation of the life and times of the gold rush there.’
‘They look so small, though—Georgetown and Croydon,’ she ventured.
He shrugged. ‘They are now. Last count, Georgetown had under three-hundred residents, but it’s the heart of a huge shire, and they’re both on the road to Karumba and the gulf, renowned for its fishing. With the army of grey nomads out and about these days, they get a lot of passing traffic.’
Holly grinned. ‘Grey nomads’ was the term given to retired Australians who travelled the continent in caravans or camper vans or just with tents. It could almost be said it was the national retiree-pastime.
Half an hour later they started to lose altitude and Brett pointed out the Haywire homestead. All Holly could see was a huddle of roofs and a grassy airstrip between white-painted wooden fences in a sea of scrub.
Then he spoke into his VHF radio, and over some static a female voice said she’d walked the strip and it was in good order.
‘Romeo, coming in,’ he responded.
Ten minutes later they made a slightly bumpy landing and rolled to a stop adjacent to the huddle of roofs Holly had seen from the air.
A girl and a dog came through the gate in the airstrip fence to meet them.
‘Holly,’ Brett said, ‘This is Sarah. And this—’ he bent down to pat the red cattle-dog who accepted his ministrations with every sign of ecstasy ‘—is Bella.’
‘Welcome to Haywire, Holly,’ Sarah said in a very English accent.
Holly blinked in surprise, and Brett and Sarah exchanged grins. ‘Sarah is backpacking her way around the world,’ Brett said. ‘How long have you been with us now?’ he asked the English girl.
‘Three months. I can’t seem to tear myself away!’ Sarah said ruefully. ‘Brett, since you’re here, I’m a bit worried about one of the mares in the holding paddock—she’s lame. Would you mind having a look at her? I could show Holly around a bit in the meantime.’
‘Sure. I’ll leave you to it.’
Haywire homestead was a revelation to Holly in as much as it wasn’t a homestead at all in the accepted sense of the word. All the accommodation was in separate cabins set out on green lawns and inside a fence designed to keep wallabies, emus and other wildlife out, according to Sarah.
All the other facilities were under one huge roof: lounge area, dining area, a small library-cum-games room et cetera. But the