Her Outback Commander

She gave him a sparkling glance. He knew the sparkle was unconscious, but a man could find it powerfully seductive. “I’ve had four showings up to date. Each time they become more successful. I specialize in landscapes, the occasional still-life. My father’s speciality is portraiture, though he can paint anything. Many of his subjects have been very important people, and of course very beautiful women. My father worships a woman’s beauty. I’m not in his league—” she smiled “—but Lucien is wonderfully supportive. Which is not to say he isn’t highly critical when he feels the need. My brother loves Dad but he took off to New York to make his own way in the world. When Emile is home it’s like being around twins—Dad and Emile are so much alike.” She changed the subject, although she could see his interest was unfeigned. “Did you know Amanda and Mark actually met in Paris, not here in Vancouver?”

He gritted fine white teeth. “Sienna, it was Mark’s plan to vanish into thin air. At that time he was a very disturbed young man.” No need to add that he’d had chips as big as desert boulders on both shoulders.

“You don’t want me to press you about Mark?” At her question he gave her a searching look. It was as though he wanted to know everything that went on inside her.

“I think I have summed it up,” he said in a clipped voice.

“Perhaps you should know what he thought of you?” Unforgivably, she was returning his brusqueness.

“Not right now,” he said. “Mark was family. His death matters.”

He had turned the tables on her. She felt ashamed of herself. “Of course it matters. Please forgive me. I only thought it would explain so much about Amanda if I could tell you—”

“That Mark hated me?” His black brows rose. “Sienna, I know. It was a very bad case of sibling rivalry. We all live in isolation on a vast Outback station, yet Mark and I never really connected. We never did things together. It’s hard to explain.”

Not to me, she thought. It was almost exactly her experience with Amanda.

“I was my father’s heir. His firstborn. Mark grew up knowing I was the one who would inherit Katajannga. That’s the name of our cattle station. Not that he had any interest in being or becoming a cattle man.”

Her interest had soared. “That’s the name of your station? Katajannga? How extraordinary Mark never mentioned that.”

“Mark kept a lot of things locked up,” he said sombrely. “There’s a long story attached to the name. It more or less means ‘revelation’, or sometimes ‘many lagoons’ when translated from the aboriginal. One can understand why. After good rains the desert is indeed a revelation.”

Her beautiful eyes, fixed on his, revealed her fascination. “I’m here to listen.”

“When Mark’s wife is not?”

She sat back abruptly, trying to interpret the question. “You said that as though you’re trying to catch me out?”

“Did I?” He didn’t back down.

“I can’t be held responsible for Amanda, you know.”

“Of course not. But I have the feeling you’re covering for her now.”

She released the breath she’d been holding. “Amanda just can’t deal with this now, Mr Kilcullen. Surely you understand?”

Heightened feelings were contagious. “How well did you know Mark?”

A flash of temper put fire in her deep golden eyes. “As well as anyone knew him.”

“An odd answer, surely? Or do you mean his wife aside?”

“Please don’t hassle me, Mr Kilcullen,” she said, sitting straighter.

“God forbid!” A smile tugged at his mouth. “And I insist you call me Blaine. After all, you invited me to call you Sienna. I’m not a monster, you know.”

“Aren’t you?” Mark had really hated him.

He read her mind. “Probably Mark’s exact word. Monster. Should I be offended?”

Colour rose beneath her lovely creamy skin. “I’m just seeking the truth.”

He lifted his brandy balloon, took a mouthful, savouring it before responding. “Sienna, Mark may have seen me that way,” he said tersely, “but I’d like you to keep an open mind. You won’t find anyone from where I come from to hang a label like that on me. In fact anyone who tried to would be in for a hard time. My father was a greatly respected man. ‘The Kilcullen’ he was always called, as his father, his grandfather and great-grandfather before him. He was my role model. I could never let him down.”

Had that made less room for Mark? “I would think your father regarded you as the perfect son. Would you say Mark let him down?” Mark, being Mark, would have done just that. He had certainly let his wife down. “You would have been your father’s golden boy.” She pinned that silvery gaze, knowing she was acting out of character but she couldn’t seem to help herself. He was a very provoking man.

“Wrong colouring, surely?” His handsome face relaxed into another half-smile. “Golden boy fitted Mark much better.”

He should smile more often, she thought. It was a stunning illumination. “This has to be confusing.” She focused on a beautiful arrangement of flowers nearby. They would all have to rethink everything damning Mark had uttered about his family.

“It will be confusing when one feels compelled to change one’s opinion. I have a fair idea of what Mark told his wife. And you. He would have told you, of course.”

She took a full minute to answer, not ready for this. “Why ‘of course’? What could you be implying?” She hoped to God she hadn’t flushed. She wanted to keep her explosive memories of Mark private—especially from his half-brother.

“Let’s call it a desire to know what happened to my half-brother. As far as my family is aware you were the one person outside Amanda that Mark didn’t hate or resent in some way. Mark fed on resentment.”

That was her own judgement, yet she felt as if she was being dragged into a deep, murky pond. “Let’s get this straight,” she said. “When exactly did Mark talk about me? More to the point, why? I didn’t see Mark all that much.” Made sure I didn’t.

He tossed back the remainder of his cognac. “Don’t let me upset you, Sienna. None of this is easy. I only mean Mark obviously thought very highly of you. He wrote about you to his mother. That’s if you were Amanda’s bridesmaid and her best friend?”

“I was my cousin’s bridesmaid.” She frowned in perplexity.

“As I thought. Only Mark failed to mention you and Amanda were related. Knowing Mark, I would say it was a deliberate oversight. Hilary insisted on showing me his letter, although I didn’t particularly want to read it or even know what Mark had to say at the time.”

“Well, you could tell me now.” She settled her gaze on him. “The notion that he bothered to write about me at all doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. What did he say? Mark had good-looks, and an easy charm when the mood took him. That would be no surprise to you. But to be painfully honest we didn’t get to be friends.”

“Except Mark didn’t see it that way.” His shapely hand gently rocked his empty brandy balloon. “Not so surprising when one thinks about it. Mark believed what he wanted to believe.”

“Which, in my case, was what?” she asked, with more than a touch of asperity.

“Well, you are a very beautiful woman. And you seem to have been important to Mark.”

She gave an exasperated groan. “If I was, he didn’t share that with me.” She had no alternative but to lie. “What has that got to do with anything anyway?” she asked. “Mark fell in love with Amanda. Mark married Amanda. End of story.”

“Only you know the story, Sienna. We don’t. But I’m more than prepared to listen to anything you want to tell me. The marriage was happy?”

“Why wouldn’t it have been?” she parried. She wasn’t about to tell him there had been lots of crises, rows, Amanda in floods of tears. What good would it do?

He studied her. “The simple answer. I knew Mark.”

She had known him too. “It was happy enough,” she answered, caught up in a swirl of emotion. Even the air seemed charged.

“You were there when he had his fatal accident?”

Memory swept over her. She lowered her head, unaware the light was bouncing off her rose-gold hair. “Yes. Amanda had invited me along.” She had only relented and gone because Amanda had seemed desperate she join them at the ski resort. She still didn’t know why Amanda had appeared so distraught. “I don’t need to tell you Mark had a reckless streak. Amanda and I are experienced skiers. We’ve been skiing all our lives. Mark, very tragically, thought he was a lot better than he actually was. It was a terrible day. Amanda went totally to pieces.”

“But you didn’t?”