Beresford's Bride

“Indeed I am. Joel was only a kid when I left. We always got on, but there was no great rapport, like you and Cate.”

“The thing is, you’re all grown up now. So’s he.”

“This has nothing to do with matchmaking, has it?” she challenged him, astonished.

Kerry thought. “Something has to keep you home,” he said finally.

Toni looked at her brother directly, holding his eyes. “I’m not ready for marriage, Kerry. Much less to a Beresford.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I wouldn’t care to have to dance to Byrne’s tune,” she said, with a slight flush. “He has a lot of power and influence over his entire family.”

“So? He’s the best guy in the world, Toni. I know he can be pretty formidable at times. Believe me, he has to be, but you couldn’t ask for a better friend and supporter.

Toni shook her head ruefully. “You haven’t had to ask him for money, have you? I know times have been tough.”

Kerry sighed. “Mostly he gives advice. I have Jock, Drew and the boys to help me. They’re good cattlemen, and they’ve been with us forever, but they don’t have Byrne’s experience or business expertise.”

“So he did loan you money?”

“He’s helped out, yes.”

“To the tune of what?”

“A hundred thousand or so,” Kerry said, as casually as he could. “A drop in the ocean, really. He’ll get it back. Unlike us, the Beresfords don’t rely solely on the beef chain. They’re into everything. Byrne’s positively brilliant when it comes to making money. He’s way ahead of the field.”

“I daresay, and it’s not at all unusual. They seem to pass the talent along, but it puts us under an obligation to him, doesn’t it?”

“Toni, you heard him yourself. We’re family.”

“You’re family. I’m not. I’ve been given the role of outsider. I suppose, as you’re getting married, we should talk about our affairs,” she said simply.

“You don’t want me to pay you out, do you, Toni?” Kerry looked worried. “I understand the funny position you’re in, but right now it’s out of the question.”

“No, that’s not it at all.” Toni shook her head. “But I’m thinking the Beresfords have a way of taking over. Byrne has already touched on the subject.”

“In what way?” The look of anxiety remained in Kerry’s eyes.

“Maybe you’d prefer to discuss it with him yourself. He suggested it, as a matter of fact.”

“No. You tell me.”

Toni studied her brother’s face. “He was thinking it might be possible for you to get a loan.”

Kerry reacted swiftly. “Not the kind of money you’re entitled to. Not unless I had—”

“A guarantor?”

“Aha!” Kerry looked at his strong hands.

“Byrne would want his sister to be sole mistress of Nowra. You do see that?”

Kerry shifted in his chair. “Cate’s never said anything.”

“I imagine she has plans to refurbish the house,” Toni said reasonably.

“I’m not marrying her for her money.” Kerry brushed back his thick curly hair.

“Good Lord, you don’t have to tell me that. I’m only saying that Cate is a very confident person. She’s coming from a very secure place. She’ll want to run her own home.”

“I do know she wants to make certain changes,” Kerry admitted.

“That’s okay by me. It could only be for the better. I know you like familiar things around you, Kerry—you’re a lot like Dad—but the house will be lovely lightened up. I never did go along with all the Victoriana. Neither did Zoe.”

“She couldn’t change Dad there,” Kerry said almost with satisfaction.

“I hope you’re not thinking of putting a brake on Cate,” Toni warned.

“She wouldn’t let me.” He looked at her and grinned. “I make no bones about it. Cate’s the boss.”

Which was probably true, Toni thought. Cate was a strong, positive individual who liked to take charge.-It was part of her attraction for Kerry. As he turned away from his mother, he reached out for a strong female figure. One who valued hard work, loyalty, love- Cate was a mother figure in a disguised form. Even as a girl she had been a very capable person, springing instantly to Kerry’s defense on any occasion even if he was only mildly under attack. There were four years between her and her brother. She and Cate had never been close, but there had never been the slightest friction between them. Cate had asked her to be her chief bridesmaid, but Toni had the feeling Sonia Beresford wouldn’t have wanted to go along with that idea. Probably not Byrne, either. He had all but told her her defection to Zoe had reduced her standing in everyone’s eyes.

Byrne picked them up in the Castle Hill helicopter at nine-thirty sharp Saturday morning. Kerry was all smiles at the prospect of spending the weekend with his beloved, but Toni, despite her varied and sometimes downright distressing experiences over the past years, felt a flutter of nerves. Arriving at Castle Hill wasn’t exactly like flying into the lion’s den, but she couldn’t help feeling she’d be under the microscope. A polo match, a final between amateur teams from all over the Outback, was due to start at three.

“Two matches even,” Kerry told her, a proud member of Byrne’s team, which comprised the two Beresford brothers, Kerry and Sandy Donaldson, a big-shot player from Emu Downs, a sheep and cattle property in Central Queensland.

“It’ll be a great game, Toni,” Kerry promised. “Plenty of drama with Byrne on the field.”

“Just so long as you don’t come a cropper.” Byrne gave him a lazy smile. “You have to walk down the aisle in a month’s time.”

“I know how to hold my own.” Kerry grinned. “You’re the player. Hell, you won our first match at a canter.”

“The supreme man’s man!” Toni widened her eyes in mock admiration.

Once they were airborne, Toni saw the infinite blue sky without a single speck of cloud stretched from horizon to horizon. She felt her heart racing as she looked. Castle Hill was the flagship of the Beresford chain. It had been built up and enlarged with steely determination from generation to generation, its history a larger-than-life saga that really needed recording. It was full of high drama, of danger and tragedy, of drought and flood and one terrible fire in the early 1920s when an entire wing of the homestead had been destroyed and a Beresford son had lost his life. The station took its name from a monolithic sandstone hill that towered behind the homestead and that resembled an ancient ruined castle. There were many of these extraordinary castle-like formations scattered throughout the Outback, but Castle Hill, or Korrunda Koorun, as the aborigines called it, was one of the most spectacular. Over the years Toni had seen it in all its manifestations. Glowing fiercely against the cobalt sky, larkspur at dawn and at dusk, impossible to describe at sunset when it flashed gold and rose, ominous when the great electrical storms blew and it glinted silver, lurid green and black. The aborigines looked on Korrunda Koorun as a sacred site, spirit-haunted, not fantasy but closely associated with many a scary tale family and staff kept locked away in their hearts. Usually Castle Hill was benign, a truly wonderful natural feature to be admired, but all of them had felt its occasional menace.

Today it looked spectacular, standing like a great fortress with the homestead at its feet. Byrne landed them on the front lawn of the grand colonial set so incongruously in a million wild acres, but for all the grandness of the mansion, it was the unique setting that filled the visitor with the greatest shock of excitement.

“That’s not your hand trembling, is it?” Byrne asked as he helped her descend onto the ground.

“Don’t tease.” Nervous, she forced herself to speak lightly.

“What are you afraid of?” His vibrant voice was surprisingly gentle.

“You might eat me for dinner.”

“I’d be more interested in kissing you.”