The Wedding Challenge. Jessica Hart

talk me into these things?’ Bea threw back the sheet and climbed into bed. ‘“You’ll love it,” you said. “It’ll be an adventure,” you said.’

      ‘Well, it is,’ said Emily, still brushing her hair.

      ‘What’s adventurous about getting up at four-thirty tomorrow morning?’

      ‘Think of the romance, Bea! Feeding the men before they saddle up, waving them off to a hard day’s work as they ride into the dawn…it’ll be wonderful.’

      ‘If you think it’s so romantic, you can get up and cook breakfast for them!’

      ‘You know I can’t cook,’ said Emily, ‘and there’s no point in both of us getting up, is there?’

      She put down the hairbrush and began slathering moisturiser into her face and neck. She was always very strict about her beauty regime. Bea often thought it was the only area in which Emily had any discipline.

      ‘I’m so glad we came, aren’t you?’ she was saying, rather muffled. ‘It’s even better than I thought it would be! You can practically feel the possibilities of romance buzzing in the air!’

      Bea stared glumly at the ceiling. ‘The only possibility I can see is the chance of being heartily bored for the next month.’

      ‘You’re not looking in the right place.’

      ‘The stockmen’s quarters, I suppose?’

      ‘You’ve got to admit it looks promising!’

      ‘It?’

      ‘OK, he,’ Emily conceded with a grin. ‘Baz is to die for, isn’t he?’

      Bea considered the matter. ‘I can see he’s good-looking,’ she said slowly, ‘but he hasn’t got a lot to say for himself, has he?’

      Not that anyone round the table that night had had much to say much for themselves. Emily hadn’t given them a chance. Thrilled with everything, and especially with Baz, she had been on sparkling form, flashing her bright blue eyes at the shy young men who had trooped in at seven o’clock and stood around awkwardly, mumbling names. They had all been dazzled.

      All except Chase, thought Bea. She had a feeling that it would take a lot to dazzle him.

      ‘Baz doesn’t need all that superficial chatter,’ Emily was saying as she got into bed. ‘He just needs to sit there and I go all squirmy inside.’ She heaved a dreamy sigh.

      ‘I thought the governess always had a passionate affair with the master,’ said Bea. ‘What happened to your plan to be mistress of a million acres?’

      ‘Oh, well, Nick’s off the market if he’s steamed off to Hollywood to fetch his wife, and that just leaves Chase, and I can’t imagine having an affair with him, can you?’

      The worst thing was that Bea could. ‘Why not?’ was all she said.

      ‘He’s a bit of a cold fish, isn’t he?’ said Emily, settling herself in bed. ‘I tried to chat to him in the plane, but it was like trying to flirt with a brick wall. I don’t see him having a passionate affair with anyone. He doesn’t look like he knows what passion means!’

      ‘No,’ agreed Bea after the tiniest hesitation. She had thought much the same herself, but when she remembered his mouth, she wasn’t quite so sure.

      ‘He’s too dour for me,’ Emily went on. ‘You’d never guess he was related to Nick. With a name like Sutherland he must be a throwback to some Scottish ancestors. He could do with lightening up a bit, if you ask me. It might make him less intimidating.’

      ‘I wouldn’t say that he was intimidating,’ said Bea, thinking about the way Chase had sat at the kitchen table and told her about his brother’s marriage. He hadn’t been friendly exactly, but he hadn’t been quite as dismissive either.

      ‘That’s because you don’t intimidate easily,’ said Emily. ‘Anyway, I think he likes you.’

      Bea sat up and stared across at her friend. ‘How do you work that out?’

      ‘I noticed him watching you at dinner.’

      So Emily had noticed too. Bea had wondered if she was imagining it, or if it had just been chance that whenever she looked up her eyes had encountered Chase’s cool blue ones. His expression had been impossible to read, but she didn’t think it had been one of liking.

      ‘He was probably just wondering how soon he could get rid of us,’ she said with an unsuccessful laugh.

      ‘He’d better not have been,’ said Emily, reaching out to switch off the bedside light. ‘I’ve just found the man of my dreams. I’ve got no intention of leaving on Chase Sutherland’s say so!’

      When the alarm went off at four-thirty the next morning, Bea sat bolt upright. She had been sleeping uneasily, dreading the moment when it would go off, and now she groped for the clock and switched it off quickly.

      Rubbing her eyes, she switched on the little lamp by her bed. There had been no need to worry about waking Emily. She was sound asleep, one arm flung above her head. You could have conducted a rousing rendition of the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ under spotlights without her so much as stirring.

      It was pitch dark outside and the early morning air was unpleasantly chilly. Bea dressed, shivering. Nobody had told her it could be cold in the outback, and she hadn’t brought a jumper with her. The best she could do was a T-shirt and chinos. Hugging her arms together, Bea cast a last, longing glance at her warm bed and crept down the darkened corridor to the kitchen.

      The overhead lights were very bright when she switched them on and she had to screw up her eyes until she got used to them. It didn’t stop her feeling any less of a zombie, though. Her body kept insisting that it had missed out on a good four hours sleep to which it was accustomed, and refused to co-operate as Bea moved blearily around the kitchen, putting on the kettle, laying the table and setting out cereals, and jams for toast.

      Chase appeared just before five, and something about the sight of him jerked Bea abruptly awake. His presence seemed to fill the kitchen. Under the harsh overhead light, his features were stronger and more definite than she remembered, but his eyes were as cool and keen as ever.

      As they swept over her, Bea was suddenly acutely conscious that her hair was rioting uncontrollably around her head, that she hadn’t so much as washed her face and that she was bug-eyed from lack of sleep. She eyed him with resentment. He made it look as if it was perfectly normal to have breakfast in the middle of the night.

      Chase was glad to see that she was up and appeared to have breakfast under control, although she looked less than her usual immaculate self. There was a cross, tousled air to her this morning, and he had a sudden, disturbing awareness that she had just got out of bed.