Appointment At The Altar

‘I grew out of that particular fantasy,’ he pointed out. ‘About…oooh…eighteen years ago.’

‘And have you never had a fantasy since?’

As soon as the words were out, Lucy wished that she had phrased it differently. She saw the corner of Guy’s mouth twitch, and she felt a flush creeping up her cheeks at the unwitting suggestiveness of her question. ‘You know what I mean,’ she snapped. ‘A dream. You’re not going to tell me that you don’t dream any more, are you?’

‘No.’

Lucy half turned in her seat, suddenly curious. Guy might give the impression of being very open and friendly, but behind that lazily good-humoured expression it was hard to know what he really felt about anything. ‘So what do you dream about now, if it’s not rodeo riding?’ she asked.

Guy’s smile gleamed. ‘I don’t think I know you well enough to tell you that, Lucy,’ he said. ‘I’m with your sister on that one, I have to admit. Some fantasies are best kept to oneself!’

Lucy gripped her tongue between her teeth as she smeared chocolate icing over the top of the cake. Ostensibly it was for afternoon smoko, but really she had made it for Kevin. Chocolate cake was his favourite, so she made it as often as she could.

She was feeling very happy today. Kevin had actually said that he had missed her at the party after the rodeo, and Lucy hugged the memory of his laconic comment to her as if it had been the most passionate declaration of love. A man like Kevin wasn’t going to rush into anything, she reminded herself frequently, so admitting that he had missed her was a big step.

It was a start, anyway.

Even better, Guy Dangerfield was leaving at last. His mother was having a double hip replacement, he had explained, and he needed to fly back to London the next day so that he could be around to help her after the operation.

Lucy would be relieved to see him go. It wasn’t that he had been about the place that much. If anything, she had seen less of him since that drive back from the rodeo, but she had been uncomfortably aware of him at meals, when his smile kept snagging at the edge of her vision, and his voice with its undercurrent of laughter was somehow impossible to ignore, even if he was talking at the other end of the table.

She wished she hadn’t told him quite so much about herself, although Guy had never mentioned their conversation again. At odd times, Lucy would find herself thinking about how he had looked on that drive, and remembering things that she hadn’t even been aware of noticing at the time.

Like his hands, strong and square on the steering wheel, or the line of his jaw. Like the texture of his skin, his throat brown above the white collar. Like the curl of his mouth and the gleam of his smile.

And then she would remember how easily he had swung on to that horse and a strange feeling would uncurl in the pit of her stomach.

It all made her feel very unsettled. Lucy tried reminding herself how irritating he had been, and the annoying way he would insist on calling her Cinderella, and she told herself she was glad that he didn’t come into the kitchen to chat any more, but she couldn’t help feeling just a little piqued when he just waved a greeting on his way past and left her alone.

Wondering why she should care at all just made her more unsettled. It was a very good thing that Guy was going, she decided as she put the finishing touches to the cake. Tomorrow she would be able to relax at last, without the constant distraction of Guy’s presence, and maybe there would be a chance to spend more time with Kevin.

Not that there was any time to spend on building a quality relationship at the moment. Hal’s sister had brought her children, Emma and Mickey, to stay before flying out to join her husband on a two-month business tour, and they were having a hard time adjusting.

Lucy felt sorry for them. She knew what it was like to be homesick, having been sent to boarding school at seven, but she had had her big sister, Meredith, to look after her. Emma, at nine, didn’t seem nearly as practical as Meredith, or as devoted to looking after her younger brother, so Lucy was doing her best to keep them entertained in between making sure there were meals on the table three times a day.

Right now, the two of them were on the front veranda, playing some computer game, but she would go and suggest they play a game of cards or something as soon as she had cleared up the kitchen.

Brushing cocoa from her jeans, she glanced at the kitchen clock. Hal should be back soon. He had driven into Whyman’s Creek earlier that morning and she had given him a whole list of ingredients to pick up from the store.

Lucy put the cake to one side and regarded the mess she had made with a sigh. She was an exuberant cook and she had never got the hang of washing up as she went along. She always put off the moment of tidying up as long as she could.

‘Uncle Hal’s here!’

Emma’s cry from the front veranda made Lucy brighten at the perfect excuse to avoid tackling the mess for a while. Wiping her hands on a tea towel, she hurried along the corridor to help Hal unload.

The front door stood open, but a screen door kept out the insects. It fell into place with a clatter after Lucy exited and made for the steps leading down to where Hal had parked the truck. She saw his tall figure first, and then noticed with surprise that he had brought someone with him. He hadn’t said anything about a visitor when he left that morning.

Lucy’s blue gaze was on its way back to Hal when it stopped and returned to the stranger in a ludicrous double take. Surely not? It couldn’t be…?

But it was. Her sister, so dearly familiar and yet so utterly unexpected out here that for a long, long moment, Lucy could only stare.

Meredith?

Meredith looked up at her. ‘Hi, Lucy,’ she said.

It was her! Lucy’s heart swelled with astonished delight. She hadn’t realised how much she had missed her no-nonsense sister until now. Hurrying down the steps, she swept Meredith into a hug.

‘I can’t believe it’s really you!’ she cried excitedly. ‘It’s so good to see you!’ Then she pulled back to look into her sister’s face. ‘But what on earth are you doing here?’

‘Your sister?’ Guy’s brows rose. He had been out all day and had only just come back to discover that Hal had brought an unexpected visitor back from Whyman’s Creek. ‘Has she come out to visit you?’

‘Not exactly.’ Lucy was distracted as she turned the potatoes in the hot fat.

They needed more cold meat for lunchtime sandwiches, so she had planned to roast another huge joint tonight and now she was glad. She could cook roast beef in her sleep these days, and she had too much on her mind to concentrate on anything more complicated.

‘She wants me to go home with her,’ she told Guy. ‘A friend of ours has been in an accident. He’s in a coma, and they think that my voice might help him to come round.’

Guy sat on the kitchen table and regarded Lucy’s downcast face thoughtfully. ‘That’s bad news.’

Lucy sighed, too miserable even to resent Guy’s presence. ‘I know.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘I think I’m going to have to go,’ she said. ‘It would mean breaking my contract—you know how insistent Hal was that I was here to look after Emma and Mickey—but Meredith’s talking to him now and we’re hoping that he’ll agree to her taking my place while I go back to London and see Richard.’

Guy frowned slightly. ‘Will it really make such a difference if you’re there?’

‘Meredith seems to think that it will.’ Lucy put the potatoes back into the oven and straightened, smoothing some stray hairs from her forehead with the back of her arm. ‘To be honest, I don’t want to go, but I owe Meredith a lot and if this is what she wants, then I’ll do what I can. I spoke to Richard’s mother on the phone, too. She sounded desperate, as if they’ve pinned all their hopes on me going back. How can I refuse when it means so much to them?’

Guy hesitated. ‘What about Kevin?’

‘He’ll wait for me, I hope,’ she said, her eyes sliding away from his. ‘Even if Hal doesn’t agree to keep the job open for me if Meredith stays, then I’ll get back to the outback somehow. I’m not going to just give up on my dream.’

But Hal had agreed, Meredith told her, when she came into the kitchen a little later and was introduced to Guy.

‘Now we just need to get you to Darwin,’ she told Lucy.

‘I can help you there,’ said Guy. ‘As it happens, your timing couldn’t be better.’ He told Meredith about his mother’s hip operation. ‘I need to be there,’ he said, ‘not that Ma will appreciate it! She’ll probably just tell me that I’m in the way, but I’ve chartered a plane to pick me up from the airstrip here tomorrow morning anyway. The pilot will fly me directly to Darwin, and I can pick up the London flight there. Lucy might as well come with me.’

Lucy had been listening to him with growing dismay, but Meredith’s face lightened. ‘That would be great,’ she said gratefully. ‘It means she can get home much sooner.’

‘I’m sure we can find a local flight,’ Lucy cut across her. ‘We don’t need to put Guy to any trouble.’

‘It’s no trouble,’ said Guy. ‘There’s room for another person on the plane and, as I’ve chartered it, it won’t cost any extra.’ He glanced at Lucy’s mutinous face. ‘Of course, the alternative is for Hal to drive you into Whyman’s Creek,’ he said mildly. ‘There’s a local flight to Darwin and you might be able to get a seat on it, but as Hal’s just got back from town today, he’d probably be glad not to have to drive you in again tomorrow morning.’

This was so patently true that Lucy was left with nothing to say, as Guy was no doubt perfectly aware. She could hardly insist on Hal going to all the effort of driving her into town on the off chance she would get a seat on the next flight when it had taken all Meredith’s persuasive powers to get him to agree to her leaving at all.

Raging inwardly at the workings of fate, Lucy threw her things into her rucksack the next morning. She had so been looking forward to Guy going, and to spending some time alone with Kevin—well, without Guy’s smile lurking distractingly in the background, anyway—and now here she was, leaving with him instead of waving him off with a bright smile. Spending an hour and a half alone with him on the drive back from the rodeo had been bad enough. How was she going to manage going all the way to Darwin?