Her Outback Commander

Her eyes flashed. “That sounds remarkably like an accusation of sorts.” Her response was just as terse as his question. “I was deeply shocked and saddened, of course, but I was glad I was there. Amanda needed me.” Amanda was one of the neediest young women in the world. But no need to tell him that either.

His eyes lingered on her beautiful face, now flushed with colour. He had angered her. But it couldn’t be avoided. “You do know I’m here to arrange for Mark’s body to be shipped home? I also want to invite Amanda to return with me. She must want to attend Mark’s funeral, surely? And she can finally meet the family. We will, of course, meet all her costs. Do you think she would do that?”

Sienna had to take time before she could answer. “Blaine,” she said in a subdued voice, “Amanda is rather a fragile person.”

“And you’re her anchor?”

“I’ve always looked out for her,” she admitted. “We’ve all deemed it important to look out for Amanda. She lost both her parents at such an early age. I must tell you she couldn’t have found better foster parents than my mother and father. There were and remain kindness itself.”

“I’m sure of that,” he said. “Hilary said your father sounded very kind and compassionate. But you don’t think Amanda will meet me, let alone come back to Australia with me?”

She stopped him by placing the tips of her fingers very briefly over his. It was a totally spontaneous action born of compassion. “I’m so sorry,” she said.

Her skin was warm and as soft as silk, yet it sent tremors shooting down his spine. “I don’t want to go back without her.” His expression tautened. “She should want to attend Mark’s funeral, surely? She did agree to our taking his body home. And as Mark’s widow she stands to inherit money. I administer the Kilcullen Family Trust now my father has gone. I can make it easy for Amanda to access her inheritance or difficult for her to gain control of the funds. I don’t think she should escape meeting her late husband’s family at long last. Hilary will welcome her. So will Marcia, Mark’s twin.” He was far from sure in Marcia’s case. Both Mark and Marcia had inherited difficult natures. Not from Hilary, herself but Hilary’s family.

Mark had left them right out of the loop, Sienna inwardly lamented. “Mark never once said he had a twin. He could only be drawn on you.”

Blaine shrugged an impeccably tailored shoulder. His tone was ironic. “I expect there’s an avalanche of things you don’t know. Do you think the trip back to Australia would be made easier if you accompanied your cousin?”

His suggestion rocked her. It also gave her a totally unprepared for thrill.

“That’s if you could possibly spare the time?” he said. “I could hang on for a day or two. As an artist, I think you’ll find our Channel Country has a lot to offer. At the moment it’s boom time. We’ve had record rains over the past couple of years. The desert dunes are thickly clothed in green. There are wild flowers as far as the eye can see. Flood waters have even rolled into Lake Eyre, turning it into the fabled inland sea of pre-history. A number of Australian landscape artists have stayed with us on the station of recent times. And Hilary and Marcia love company.”

“You’ve quite astonished me.” She was unable to free herself from his gaze. It was downright mesmerizing.

“But the idea isn’t entirely unacceptable to you?” Brackets framed his mouth. Amusement? Triumph? She couldn’t tell. He was a man of contradictions.

“Perhaps …” She found herself admitting, “But you don’t know me! I’m a stranger.”

“Oddly enough, you don’t seem like a stranger to me.” The remark was delivered without his thinking, yet it had sprung from deep inside him. More than one switch had been turned on, he thought with a degree of self mockery. He had more than enough problems, yet he wanted this woman to come. He wanted to see her on his own land. He had never remotely expected this. being exploited, perhaps, by a beautiful woman wasn’t on his agenda.

Sienna, ever perceptive, had caught the subtle nuance.

The level of intensity between them had gone up several notches. She dropped her eyes, startled to discover she was powerfully attracted to Mark’s ‘Lucifer’. Attraction was beyond anyone’s control, she excused herself. It simply happened. Often when one least needed it to happen.

“So many things we’ve lived with without knowing,” she said ruefully.

“There are things that you need to know. Amanda, you, your family who raised her. Surely you all thought it extremely odd that Mark didn’t reach out and at least invite his mother and his twin to his wedding?”

There was a fraught pause. Sienna stared back at the beautiful flower arrangement, seeking a moment of calm. “Of course we did!” Her tone showed more upset than she’d intended. “Especially in relation to his mother. We didn’t know about Mark’s twin. But it was Mark’s decision. Amanda did everything he asked of her. She fell blindly in love with him. As you’ve guessed, things changed.”

“And they’ve changed even more drastically now Mark’s dead,” he said, his expression sombre. “He can no longer dictate his widow’s actions. She’ll be given an opportunity to find out what Mark’s family is really like. As you’re so close, I’m hoping you’ll be able to persuade her, Sienna. And there is the money,” he added somewhat dryly. “What exactly does Amanda do? I’m assuming as she and Mark were childless she has a career?”

She could hardly say, as was actually the case, that Amanda shared Mark’s aversion to work. “Mark didn’t want Amanda to take a job during their marriage. She had to be there for him at all times.”

“I see.” He didn’t look surprised. “And what did Mark work at?”

She took a deep breath. “This and that,” she said evasively. “He found jobs easily in the hospitality industry.

That seemed to suit him. What does it matter now? Mark always had money. We assumed he had private means.”

“He had a bottomless well,” Blaine announced in a very crisp voice. “His mother. The mother he didn’t want to see. But he was quite happy to take her money. As far as I’m aware—I could be wrong—my stepmother kept in fairly constant touch with Mark.”

“She would have wanted to, as his mother. The whole situation defies belief! But it’s really none of my business.”

He made a jeering sound. “Oh, I think it is. You’re here, aren’t you? You’re standing in for your cousin. You obviously protect her. If Amanda needs to be talked into coming back with me, I would say you’re the one to do it. You’d be very welcome to come too—as in Amanda’s case, with all expenses paid. You would be doing us a huge favour. The past has to be washed clean. All the things that were kept secret brought out into the open. Much healthier that way.”

“I can’t work miracles,” she said, averting her head.

Her profile was exquisite. She was a very beautiful woman. But there was nothing threatening in her style of beauty. She had been born with natural charm. “So much for the migraine!” he returned, very coolly.

She felt hot blood flushing through her. “She’s in pain,” she burst out. “She did love him, you know.”

He responded bluntly. “Only—very sadly for Amanda—he fell out of love with her. If indeed he was ever in love with her. Mark lost interest in most things very fast. He left behind him a young woman who believed he loved her. They were engaged to be married. Mark’s mother was convinced Joanne would be the ideal young woman to lend Mark much needed strength and support. He rejected it from the rest of us. Joanne is a fine young woman. Our pioneering families have always been close.”

“So chances are Joanne will hate Amanda? If she comes to the funeral they will come face to face.”

“Time has passed, Sienna,” he offered, with a spread of his elegant tanned hands.

“Not enough time, I would think. A wounded heart can’t heal overnight.”

He studied her wonderfully expressive face. “You sound very sure. Has anyone wounded your heart?”

“Of course. A little,” she said lightly. “I’m twenty-six, but no real heartache to speak of. I’m prepared to wait for the right man to come along. And what about you, Blaine? You’re good with the questions. What about a few answers? You’re not married?”

“Finding the right wife would be a whole lot easier if I had more time,” he said. “If you visit the station you’ll realize I have a big job on my hands. We all thought my father was going to live for ever. He was such a force! So strong and powerful. It was unbearable to see him struck down. It changed my life. It changed all our lives.”

“Can you speak about it?” she asked gently.

“Mark never did?”

His light eyes really did glitter. He must have inherited those remarkable eyes from someone. Father? Or the mother who had died so young? “Not beyond the fact your father had died. He wasn’t forthcoming about how.”

“I imagine not,” he said grimly. “It was Mark who found him lying crippled and unconscious out in the desert.” The vibrancy of his voice had been damped right down. “It was the big muster. Somehow Dad and Mark became separated from our group. We all thought Mark had packed it in. He had a habit of doing that. Dad had probably gone after him, to pull him back into line. Anyway, Mark galloped frenziedly into the lignum swamps, where we were flushing out unbranded cattle, yelling near incoherently that Dad was dead. Duchess, my father’s very special mare, had thrown him and then trampled him into the ground. Mark had taken his rifle and shot the mare in a fit of grief and rage.”

He remembered how wave after wave of waterfowl had risen in fright and outrage at the racket Mark was making. How every last man had stood in a devastated gut-wrenching silence at the drastic news. Everyone had confidently expected Desmond Kilcullen to live for many more years, liked and respected by the entire Outback community.

His pain was so palpable it stabbed at her. “How horrendous!” Sienna was about able to visualize the tragic scene.

“Horrendous, indeed.” He underscored her comment. “I damn nearly dropped dead myself from shock. According to Mark, Duchess had kicked Dad in the head. Accidents always will happen around horses, but my father was a consummate horseman. And Duchess was a wonderful one man horse. Something unexplained must have freaked the mare out. If terrified she would have reacted convulsively, throwing my unprepared father. Mark shot the mare on the spot. Dad spent the few remaining years of his life in a wheelchair, his memory of that terrible day blasted from his mind.” He didn’t add that any semblance of family life had been shattered.

Sienna sat horrified. “I’m so sorry Mark mistook your father’s condition.”

“I don’t know how, but he did,” he told her bleakly. “He was in a massive panic.”

“It’s such a terrible story.” She considered a moment. “Do you think it could have caused Mark’s subsequent behaviour? Could he have felt some measure of guilt? I mean in the sense that he was the one to find your father.

He had to shoot the mare. Was the mare a very temperamental animal?”