Outback Bride

‘Can I show you the surprise now?’

‘I thought the surprise was you being bathed and ready for bed?’ he teased, but Megan shook her head solemnly.

‘No, this is a proper surprise.’

Mal lifted his brows in silent enquiry at Copper, but she just smiled blandly. She was saving the real surprise until later.

Megan dragged her father into the kitchen. Through the screen, Copper could hear the counterpoint between the two voices, one high and excited, the other calm and deep, and she smiled to herself as she listened, content for once to sit quietly and watch the sunset. It had been a long day and tiredness was buzzing along her bones.

It was some time before Mal reappeared, carrying two bottles of beer. He handed one to Copper and the wicker creaked as he sat down on the chair next to hers. The beer was so cold that condensation ran down the outside and Copper had to keep shifting it from hand to hand.

‘Where’s Megan?’ she asked.

‘In bed.’

‘And Brett?’

‘Having a shower.’ Mal had showered too. His hair was damp and she could smell the soap on his clean skin as he leant forward, resting his arms on his knees, and turning the beer bottle thoughtfully between his hands.

Copper found herself watching them as if mesmerised. She had loved Mal’s hands. They were strong and brown, with long, deft fingers that had traced slow patterns of fire over her skin. They had curved around her breast and smoothed the long length of her thigh, possessing her with a sureness and a hunger that had left her gasping his name.

Wrenching her eyes away, Copper took a desperate pull of beer and forced the memories back into that box labelled ‘Forgotten’. She was not going to think about his hands or his mouth or anything about him at all. She was going to think business.

It had grown dark while Mal had been inside, and the only light came from the blue lamp that was set below the verandah to attract flying insects. At regular intervals it would fizz and crackle as one got too close and was zapped out of existence. Copper watched it in silence and tried to think how to bring the conversation round to her new proposal.

In the end it was Mal who spoke first. ‘You’ve been busy,’ he said. ‘It must have taken you a long time to clean that kitchen.’

Copper shrugged. ‘Megan helped me.’ In fact, Megan had been more of a hindrance than a help, but she had been so thrilled to be in on the surprise that Copper hadn’t had the heart to discourage her. Together they had tidied the clutter off the table and washed the huge pile of dishes. Then they had swept the floor and wiped the surfaces until everything gleamed. There had been no time to clean the fridge or sort out the cupboards, but Copper felt that the contrast with the earlier mess would be enough to make an impact.

Mal was still turning the bottle slowly between his hands. ‘I don’t want you to think I don’t appreciate it,’ he said, ‘but a clean kitchen isn’t enough to make me change my mind.’

‘I’m not asking you to,’ said Copper, and his gaze narrowed as he looked at her.

‘You’re not expecting me to believe that you did all that out of the goodness of your heart? You must want something!’

‘I do,’ she said evenly. ‘I want you to give me a job.’

Mal’s fingers stilled abruptly and he sat up in surprise. ‘What kind of job?’

‘You need a housekeeper, don’t you? I’m suggesting that you let me take over until this girl from the agency turns up.’

Copper was pleased with how cool and business-like she sounded, but Mal didn’t seem particularly impressed. ‘What do you know about being a housekeeper?’ he asked suspiciously.

He could have sounded a bit more grateful! ‘What is there to know?’ said Copper. ‘You don’t need any qualifications to clean a house—or do you only take girls with higher degrees in vacuuming and washing dishes?’

Mal ignored her sarcasm. ‘Perhaps I should have asked why you suddenly want to be a housekeeper,’ he said. ‘You looked pretty offended at being mistaken for one earlier on.’

‘I don’t want to be a housekeeper,’ she said, ‘but I do want to stay at Birraminda. And if it means spending a few days working as hard as I did this afternoon, then I’m prepared to do that.’

‘And in return I have to agree to let you and your father set up this mad scheme of yours?’ Mal set his beer on the floor and shook his head. ‘I can’t deny I need a housekeeper, but I don’t want one badly enough to commit Birraminda to an enterprise that could involve us in a lot of disruption and hassle. Even if it’s a wild success, the financial return isn’t likely to be enough to make it worth our while.’

Copper took a steadying breath. This was not the time to prove to Mal that he had quite the wrong idea about the project. ‘I’m not asking you to agree,’ she said. ‘At least, not yet. All I’m asking is for you to put aside some time to just listen to our proposals before I leave. I’m sure that if I showed you our plans I’d be able to convince you that they could be good for you as well as for us, but I’d rather wait until you can give them your full attention. In the meantime, I’ll keep house for you.’

She glanced at him, wishing that she could read the expression on his face. ‘It’s a good offer,’ she assured him. ‘An hour of your time in return for free housekeeping.’

‘You mean you wouldn’t expect any payment?’ Mal raised his brows in disbelief.

‘All I’d ask is a chance to see a bit more of Birraminda. There are still a lot of practical details we have to sort out and I really need to see the sites my father chose for myself.’

There was a pause. Mal picked up his beer again and took a pull, his eyes on the crackling blue light. ‘This eagerness to stay wouldn’t be anything to do with my brother, would it?’ he asked at last.

‘With Brett?’ Copper stared at him. ‘What would it have to do with him?’

Mal shrugged. ‘He can be very charming.’

‘I realise that, but if you think I’d be prepared to spend my days cooking and cleaning just to be near him. you must be out of your mind!’

‘You wouldn’t say that if you’d seen as many girls make fools of themselves over him as I have.’ Mal rubbed a weary hand over his face. ‘Brett, as you’ve probably gathered, is physically incapable of being in the same room as a woman without flirting with her. He doesn’t take it seriously—Brett doesn’t take anything seriously—but the agency keeps sending us girls who think they’re the only one he’s ever kissed. They fall madly in love with him, he gets bored after a week or so, and it all ends in tears. The next thing I know, they’re on the bus back to Brisbane. Once the passionate affair is over, there isn’t any way of avoiding each other out here,’ he added in a dry voice.

Was that some kind of hint? Copper looked at him sharply. She had the best of reasons for knowing that it was true, but did Mal realise? Not for the first time, she cursed the impossibility of ever knowing just what he was thinking.

‘I can imagine it’s rather difficult,’ she said after a moment. Her voice held a slight chill. If Mal remembered their own passionate affair, he could come right out and say so. She certainly wasn’t going to mention it! ‘Why don’t you ask the agency to send an older woman?’

‘Do you think I haven’t thought of that?’ Mal sighed. ‘It isn’t that easy. There aren’t many middle-aged women who are prepared to give up comfortable lives to come and live somewhere like this. It’s not exactly a career opportunity. Even the younger girls will only come out on short contracts. There isn’t anything for them to do and they get bored, so none of them are going to stay permanently, but they might stay a bit longer if it wasn’t for Brett.’

‘Can’t you ask him to leave them alone?’

Mal smiled but there was no humour in it. ‘Sure—and I could ask him to stop breathing while I’m at it!’

‘It must make it very difficult for Megan with all these girls coming and going,’ said Copper, and he frowned.

‘I know, but what can I do?’

‘If Brett won’t stop flirting, you could always tell him to leave,’ she suggested.

‘And go where?’ Mal got irritably to his feet and walked over to lean against the rail. ‘Brett grew up at Birraminda and it’s part of his inheritance. Oh, I know he can be absolutely infuriating at times, but I can’t just turn him off. He’s my brother.’

‘Doesn’t he realise how difficult he’s making things for you?’ asked Copper curiously.

At the rail, Mal shrugged. ‘He’s always sorry when I explain why yet another housekeeper has left, but you’ve seen what he’s like. Criticism just runs off his back, and somehow it’s impossible to stay cross with him for very long. He’s nearly ten years younger than me, so he was always the baby of the family. That’s probably why he’s never learnt any responsibility.’

Turning round to face Copper once more, he leant back against the rail and crossed his ankles. ‘It doesn’t help that I run things here at Birraminda. Brett would soon learn responsibility if he had his own property to run, but property doesn’t come cheap, and we’ve been working flat out to make enough to invest in more land. That’s one of the reasons I was prepared to listen to your father when he was here. I’d hoped that there might be some money for us in his project, but once I heard what he was planning I soon gave that idea up!’

‘Well, maybe I’ll be able to change your mind about that,’ said Copper with a tight smile. ‘I won’t try and persuade you now, though. I’ll wait until you let me have that hour—if you accept my offer, of course.’ She lifted her chin at him. ‘I think I can safely promise you that I won’t fall in love with Brett!’

‘You seem very sure of that,’ said Mal, eyeing her speculatively.

‘I am. I like your brother very much, but he’s really not my type. Besides,’ she hurried on, before Mal decided to ask her just what her type was, ‘I happen to already be in love with someone else.’