Outback Wife and Mother

‘I—I’ve—Your cousin and I have brought your little godson—Connor.’ The words tumbled out of control like beads spilling from a broken necklace.

Fletcher scowled. ‘You came with Lucette?’

‘Yes. You’re his guardian now...’

‘I know damn well I’m his guardian, but what I still don’t understand is what you’ve got to do with it?’

‘Well, Lucette was looking for a nanny for Connor so that you...’

‘You’re sidetracking,’ Fletcher snapped. ‘Get to the Point.,

‘Well, the point is,’ resumed Ally, running her tongue nervously over parched lips. ‘I’m his nanny.’

‘What?’

Startled, Ally watched as the colour in Fletcher’s face deepened and then leached away while, with the worst sense of timing, a kookaburra broke into raucous laughter in a gum tree overhanging the track.

‘Hell, Ally! You can’t be!’

‘I’ve had some training as a nanny,’ she offered tentatively, then began to chew the inside of her cheek while her fingers nervously played with the horse’s mane.

‘Damn it to hell! Of all the crazy...!’ He studied her through narrowed eyes. ‘How much?’

‘How much what?’ she repeated lamely.

‘How much training have you done to be a nanny for heaven’s sake?’

‘That’s how I put myself through Art College—working as a nanny for...’

Interrupting her with a fierce curse, Fletcher tossed the reins back over Juno’s neck before striding across the track away from her, shaking his head, clearly unimpressed, quite obviously more angry than ever.