Her Cattleman Boss

Grim faced, the solicitor held out the sheet of paper, pointing with his finger to the appropriate words, but they swam before Kate’s eyes. She felt vague and confused, as if this was happening to someone else.

‘Ms Brodie,’ Alan said. ‘In the revised will, your uncle’s intention was quite clear. In fact, his insistence that you be included as a beneficiary is the reason the will was changed.’

Stunned, Kate looked from the solicitor to Noah’s stony face. This didn’t make sense. She couldn’t possibly own half of an Australian cattle property. Why on earth would her uncle do that?

Why would he do it to Noah?

Before she could find the words to frame a question, Noah’s ex-wife leapt to her feet.

‘James, you told me you could get me half of everything Noah inherited. How can this little biddy from England sneak though the back door and take my share?’

Hands on hips, Liane darted fiery sneers at them all. ‘I’m entitled to a half-share of that property. I wasted the best years of my life in that ghastly place, living under the same roof as that awful old man.’

Calloway reached for her hand and tried to pull her back down into her chair, but she shook him away.

‘Noah owes me, and he knows it. They can’t do this to me. It’s ridiculous. I want my money.’

Noah, darkly furious, refused to respond.

Kate watched from her seat, mortified. She felt responsible for this fiasco. But utterly helpless. She hadn’t asked for an inheritance. What had Uncle Angus been thinking?

As she sat, wondering what on earth she should say or do, the door from the outer office began to open. Just a crack at first, and then wider, and one half of a small face appeared.

The door inched open wider and Kate saw a little girl aged about seven or eight. She was fair-skinned and petite, with freckles across her nose and wavy, light brown hair that almost reached her shoulders. Her eyes were the exact shade of grey as Noah’s eyes, but right now they were round with worry and fixed on Liane.

Kate wondered if she was Olivia, Noah and Liane’s daughter. Perhaps she’d been told to wait outside. Had she been upset by the high-pitched agitation in her mother’s voice?

Liane hadn’t noticed the child and she continued to rant. ‘On your feet, James! You’ll have to start calling your people in Sydney. I want this matter settled right now.’

With that, Calloway was hauled unceremoniously out of his chair.

Kate rose, too, but in a more dignified manner. She swallowed nervously. ‘I don’t understand my uncle’s decision. I’m as shocked as anyone else. But it might be easier for you to discuss this complication if I wait outside.’

Liane glared at her suspiciously.

Noah looked as if he might have spoken, but Kate gestured to the small figure in the doorway. ‘The little girl.’

Noah’s head whipped round and, when he saw her, his face morphed into a mix of delight and despair.

Liane snapped at the child. ‘I told you to wait outside!’

The girl’s eyes grew huge. Her mouth trembled, and she looked very much as if she was about to burst into tears.

‘I could wait with her,’ Kate volunteered.

Noah sent her a look of immense gratitude, while Liane gave a little annoyed huff and shrugged her shoulders impatiently. ‘Whatever.’

Relieved to escape, Kate shut the office door behind her and drew a deep breath. She wished, rather recklessly given the circumstances, that the ownership of Radnor could be settled by the time this door opened again.

She smiled at the little girl. ‘Hello,’ she said warmly as she held out her hand. ‘We haven’t met, but I’ve heard about you, Olivia. I’m Kate. I’m a friend of your—of your father’s.’

‘Hello.’ Olivia did not offer her hand and she didn’t return Kate’s smile. She looked again at the closed door separating her from her parents.

The voices on the other side were mostly muffled, except for Liane’s high-pitched, angry demands.

‘Why are they fighting?’ Olivia asked. ‘What’s happening in there?’

‘It’s a business discussion. And I’m afraid business can get rather complicated at times.’

Kate nodded towards a long, pew-like seat against the opposite wall. ‘Shall we wait there?’

Olivia shook her head. ‘I’m tired of sitting. I’ve been sitting for ages ’n’ ages.’

A quick flick through the reading material on the coffee table showed Kate that none of it was suitable for children. She wondered if she should try to tell the little girl a story, but story telling wasn’t really her forte.

Olivia pointed to the open door leading out to the sunlit street. ‘Can we go outside?’

‘Well…’ Aware of the heated discussion on the other side of the door, Kate made a snap decision. ‘Why not? I don’t suppose anyone will mind.’ After all, Jindabilla was a very tiny country town, hardly more than one wide, dusty main street. No chance of getting lost.

The little girl was already skipping towards the door. ‘There’s a beautiful pig out there.’ Her eyes were shining suddenly.

‘A pig?’ Good grief. What a quantum leap, to come from discussing wills and inheritances to pigs.

On the footpath, Kate shaded her gaze against the sun’s glare. ‘Where is this pig?’

‘In the back of that blue ute outside the pub.’

Even if Olivia hadn’t described the utility truck so accurately, Kate could hardly miss the stream of snuffling oinks and squeals.

Her head was whirling. She was still stunned by her uncle’s will, still feeling Noah’s shock. She glanced back to the solicitor’s office. What was going on in there? What had they decided?

‘Can’t you hear him?’ Olivia cried, giving Kate’s hand a tug.

‘Of course I can.’ Kate smiled. ‘And I can see him.’ A distinctly piggy snout and a dirty pink trotter appeared over the ute’s tray back.

‘He’s so cute! Lift me up! I want to see him properly.’

The little girl’s reticence was a thing of the past, and she held her arms up to Kate as if they’d been best friends for ever.

Kate couldn’t help suspecting that Liane would object to her daughter being lifted up to admire a pig, but she was charmed by the child’s eagerness—so different from the worry in her eyes a few moments earlier. She hoisted Olivia onto her hip and together they peered at the small pink pig that looked up at them with pale, expectant eyes.

‘Isn’t he gorgeous?’

‘He is rather cute,’ Kate admitted.

Olivia’s face was a picture of enraptured adoration. With one skinny arm around Kate’s neck, she reached out with the other to pat the top of the little pig’s head. ‘Daddy says that pigs are terribly clever. They’re much cleverer than cows, and they’re even cleverer than dogs.’

‘I didn’t know that. But I’ve heard they make great pets.’