‘They’ve never been to Australia, and the outback sounds a very strange place to them. They were worried about the fact that William and Daisy will be isolated, and that as a bachelor I wouldn’t be able to look after them properly, but they were all right when I told them that I was engaged, and that the twins would grow up in a family. I said that the next time I came I’d bring my fiancée with me so that they could meet her too.’
There was a pause. ‘I didn’t know you were engaged,’ said Prue after a moment, and wondered why her voice sounded so hollow all of a sudden.
Or why she was even surprised.
There was no reason why Nat shouldn’t be engaged, just as there had been no reason why he shouldn’t have a wife and children. It was just that, having established that he wasn’t married, she had somehow assumed that he never would be. And if he had a fiancée, why did he need her to help him with William and Daisy?
‘I was then,’ said Nat, answering one of her unspoken questions as she stole a puzzled look at him. His voice had no inflexion whatsoever and it was impossible to tell how he felt about the fact that his engagement apparently belonged to the past.
‘I’m not any more,’ he added when Prue continued to look blank.
In one way, it made it easier for Nat that she knew nothing about Kathryn, but a perverse part of him couldn’t help wishing that she hadn’t made it quite so obvious that she had never taken the slightest interest in him. He was surprised that she had even known his name.
‘You obviously didn’t know that either,’ he commented dryly.
‘No.’ Prue shook her head. ‘The Grangers don’t go in much for gossip,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry,’ she added, and then realised that she sounded as if she regretted not knowing about the break-up of his engagement. ‘I mean, I’m sorry about your engagement.’
‘Don’t be,’ said Nat. They were driving past the airport now, where he had said goodbye to Kathryn before she’d got on the plane back to Perth. He remembered the softness of her kiss, the swing of her hair as she’d turned, the unmistakable relief in the way she’d walked away.
‘It was a mutual decision,’ he told Prue. ‘Kathryn and I have known each other a long time. She’s got a good job in Perth, and we’d deliberately decided on a long engagement so that she could concentrate on a big project she’s working on at the moment. When I got back from London I realised that it wasn’t fair to ask her to give everything up to look after two small children, so we talked about it and agreed to…postpone…the idea of marriage for the time being. It’s better this way for both of us.’
He didn’t sound bitter, but Prue had the impression that he was picking his words carefully, editing as he went along. He could say what he liked about it being a mutual decision, but he was obviously still besotted by her, she decided, unsure why she felt slightly peeved at the idea. Why else would make excuses for her?
She found herself disliking the unknown Kathryn intensely, and feeling obscurely cross with Nat at the same time. He ought to mind that his fiancée had chosen her job over him.
‘It’s not really better for you, though, is it?’ she said, more sharply than she had intended. ‘How are you going to look after the twins on your own?’
If Nat was surprised at her tone, he didn’t show it. ‘I’ll have to hire a nanny,’ he said. ‘I asked Eve if she would think about coming out to Australia with William and Daisy, even if only for the first few weeks, but I’ve just had a letter from her saying that she’s getting married and doesn’t want to leave England.’
Prue couldn’t imagine anyone turning down the chance to travel to Australia, marriage or no marriage. Ahead, the heat beat down on the road, creating a wavering mirage that blurred the horizon between the crushing blue sky and the sparse scrub that stretched off as far as the eye could see and beyond. It was like being in a different dimension altogether—so much space and so much light that Prue would sometimes feel dizzy and disembodied.
How could anyone not want to be here? Prue shook her head pityingly.
She brought her attention back to Nat, who was talking about the arrangements he would have to make. ‘I’ve contacted a couple of agencies here to see if anyone would be prepared to travel to London with me and help bring William and Daisy back. Ideally, it would be someone who wanted to stay at Mack River on a permanent basis, but they haven’t come up with anyone yet. That’s why I thought of you,’ he said, glancing at Prue. ‘When you said how much you wanted to come back to Australia, it seemed you could be just the person I need. I know you wouldn’t want to stay permanently, but it might take me some time to find someone suitable. You could stay at Mack River while you looked for another job in the area, if that’s what you want. You’d only be gone about a month. The Grangers might even keep your job open for you.’
Prue sat up straighter, fired up by the mere possibility. ‘I could ask them,’ she agreed excitedly. ‘They’ll need to replace me while I’m away, but maybe they’ll get someone who doesn’t want to stay.’
‘More than likely,’ said Nat. ‘There’s always a high turnover of staff during the dry season. It’s too hot, or too isolated, or too boring, or too much like hard work.
‘There aren’t many people like you,’ he told Prue with a slight smile, and she found herself wishing that he’d smile the way he had smiled before.
It wouldn’t take much, just a deepening of the creases on either side of his mouth, just a parting of the lips, just a crinkling of his eyes. She remembered how startled she had been, the way her heart had jolted, that odd sensation of suddenly finding herself face to face with a stranger.
For some reason, Prue’s cheeks were tingling, and when she put up a hand to feel her skin she realised that she was actually blushing! Embarrassed, without knowing why, she dragged her eyes away from Nat’s mouth, which had lifted into something that was almost—but not quite—a proper smile, and forced her mind back to what they had been talking about.
For a terrible moment her mind was blank, before memory kicked in. Going back to Cowen Creek…how could she possibly have forgotten?
Giving herself a mental shake, Prue let herself picture the situation. If she went back, Ross would know that she was serious about wanting to live in the outback. He would realise that she meant what she said, and wasn’t just amusing herself for a few months, the way the girls who saw a stint on a cattle station as part of travelling around Australia did.
Nat’s offer would mean that she would only be gone for a month or so. Surely even Ross couldn’t forget her in that time? He might even miss her. The thought flickered into life, grew stronger. Didn’t they say that absence made the heart grow fonder?
Prue slid a sideways glance at Nat from under her lashes. He was a bit older, of course, and not in Ross’s league when it came to looks, but he wasn’t unattractive. What would Ross think when he found out that she was going to spend a month with Nat? Might he even be jealous? Prue wondered hopefully.
Remembering how miserable she had been less than an hour ago, Prue smiled to herself. ‘I’m beginning to think that forgetting to check the fuel today was the best thing that ever happened to me,’ she said slowly.
‘Does that mean you’ll take the job?’
‘I’d love it,’ said Prue honestly, ‘but…well, I don’t have that much experience of babies. Wouldn’t you rather have someone more qualified?’ She grimaced, thinking of the catalogue of stupid mistakes she