Required: Three Outback Brides: Cattle Rancher, Convenient Wife / In the Heart of the Outback... / Single Dad, Outback Wife

‘Seems not,’ Chloe sighed and headed into a clump of brambles. ‘Mum and I really took to him. He’s so handsome and clever and rich and he worshipped her. It’s a bit weird isn’t it the way men worship beautiful women? I mean beauty’s only a tiny fraction of what a real woman is all about. I tell you when she left him Mum and I were gobsmacked. We even thought he might top himself.’

‘Surely not!’ Rory groaned before he could help himself. ‘Your father liked him, too?’ He wanted some perspective on the worshipping husband. Not that he exactly blamed him, tiny fraction or not.

Pretty Chloe scowled darkly. ‘Oh, as far as Dad was concerned no one was good enough for Allegra!’ she said, her voice betraying her intense jealousy. ‘You’ve no idea what it was like for me when we were growing up. Allegra always wanting the attention and getting it from Dad. Allegra could be an absolute pig!’ She paused a moment to cool down. She didn’t want Rory getting the wrong idea about her. ‘We’re half sisters, you know.’

‘Allegra did tell me,.’ Rory admitted, surprised they were any relation at all.

‘She would. No matter how much Mum and I tried she would never let us love her and Mum’s the sweetest woman who ever drew breath.’

Rory fought a wry smile.

‘I hesitate to say this,’ Chloe continued with some relish, ‘in fact it hurts me, but it might help you understand. My beautiful sister is pretty shallow. I don’t think there’s a man alive who could make her happy.’ To reinforce her opinion Chloe hit the steering wheel with her open palm.

Sibling rivalry could be absolutely deadly Rory thought. Potentially so could Chloe’s driving. ‘That’s your opinion, Chloe, is it? And what about you?’ Rory kept his eyes glued ahead for more likely obstacles. If he’d only known what going for a drive with Chloe held in store! ‘What are your plans if and when the station is sold?’

Chloe swung her head to beam at him. A woman just waiting to be hit by Cupid’s arrow. ‘I’m going to find myself a man,’ she confessed with a dimpled grin. ‘I’m going to have a Big White Wedding I’ll always remember. And I won’t have Allegra for my damned bridesmaid,’ she tacked on wrathfully, heading towards a solitary gum tree like it was a designated pit stop. ‘You can be sure of that!’.

Rory gently nudged the wheel. ‘Obviously a sore point?’ The reason wasn’t lost on him.

‘Well, I won’t want her upstaging me on the best day of my life.’ Inexplicably she braked hard as if they were coming to a set of traffic lights mysteriously erected in the bush. ‘Can you blame me?’ Satisfied about whatever it was—he didn’t have a clue—she picked up speed again. ‘I won’t even let her meet my husband until after we’re married just to be on the safe side. I won’t be like her, either. Sadly she could only stay married five minutes. Marriage is forever, Rory, don’t you think?’

He must have lost a layer of skin. Either that or it was the way Chloe was affecting him. ‘Absolutely,’ he said, ‘or I’d want my money back.’

They insisted he stay for a late lunch again prepared and served by Allegra who, as far as Rory could see, could get a job at a top restaurant.

‘Great meal, Allegra,’ he complimented her. In fact it was the best meal he’d had for quite a while, outside dinner with the Cunninghams.

Chloe blushed fiercely. ‘It’s only a chicken dish,’ she pointed out with a flick of the head, though she had not only overloaded her plate she had scoffed the lot.

‘The secret’s in the spices,’ Allegra told him, ignoring her sister, instead of giving her the thump on the back of the head she deserved. ‘I’d be glad to give you the recipe to hand on.’

‘Perfect,’ he said.

‘Hand on? Who to?’ Chloe looked baffled, staring from one to the other in an effort to get them to divulge the secret.

‘Rory is compiling a cookbook to hand over to his future wife,’ Allegra said.

‘Good heavens! Are you really?’ Chloe looked fascinated by such a thing. After all she had a glory box.

‘I hadn’t been thinking of it,’ Rory confessed. ‘Now I’m convinced I should do it.’

‘Anyone special in your life, Rory?’ Valerie asked, irritated beyond measure by the constant exchanges between their visitor and Allegra and trying none too successfully not to show it.

He shook his head. ‘No, not really, Mrs. Sanders.’ He gave her an easy smile.

‘What’s wrong with all the girls then?’ Valerie favoured him with a girlish one of her own. ‘I would have thought you’d be fighting them off?’

Chloe, mouth slightly open, looked like she felt exactly the same way.

‘A man doesn’t get to meet too many where I come from,’ Rory explained. ‘The desert is about as remote as one can get.’

‘Well then I’m sure you’ll do better here,’ Valerie said with great satisfaction, aiming a fond glance in her daughter’s direction.

Rory vowed there and then not to give Chloe the slightest encouragement.

He took his leave of them thirty minutes later saying he’d have to think things over before getting back to them.

‘Naturally’ Valerie smiled and touched him gently on the arm. ‘We have to put our heads together, too.’

‘Walk out to the car with me.’ Rory managed to get off a quick aside to Allegra as Valerie wheeled about to have a word—never mind what it was—with her daughter.

‘Very well.’ Allegra led the way down the front steps, fully expecting Chloe to seize the moment and race after them. All right, Chloe didn’t normally race, but there was always the first time. She had obviously taken a shine to Rory. Even Valerie had broken out into sunny smiles. One had to be a good looking young man to get one.

Strangely Chloe didn’t come after them. There was only one explanation. It was too hot. ‘So do you want to tell me your thoughts now?’ she asked as Rory fell in alongside her. She really liked the way she had to look up to him. In her high heels she and Mark had been fairly level.

‘Your stepmother made a huge tactical error sacking your overseer,’ he commented in a crisp voice.

‘Tell me something I don’t know,’ she sighed. ‘Jack got on with everybody.’ Except Valerie.

‘Obviously he found it pretty hard going with your stepmother.’

Not wanting to criticise Valerie, Allegra said nothing.

‘Surely you have a big stake in seeing the place is run properly?’ Rory prompted, looking down at her flaming head. For some reason—again beyond him—he felt he could talk to her like he’d known her for ever. She was tall for a woman, around five-eight but to him she felt small. Indeed he’d had extreme difficulty keeping the feel of her out of his dreams. But there was no way he could volunteer that.

‘That’s why I’m here.’ She showed a little flash of temper. ‘Losing Dad was a great blow for all of us. Dad was the one who held us all together. With him gone I’m very much afraid I’ll be minus what family I have left. Val and I never did get on.’

‘Actually I can understand that,’ he said laconically.

When Val had been on her best behaviour, Allegra thought. He should come on them unexpectedly. ‘The thing is I was fatally blemished in my stepmother’s eyes because I resemble my mother. Val suffered from the second wife syndrome. It’s a very hurtful and wounding situation.’

Rory nodded. ‘Skewed by the dagger of jealousy! Have you all come to some agreement on an asking price?’

‘Not as yet,’ she said.

‘You are going to be able to work it out, right?’ he asked dryly.

‘Don’t worry, we will. I take it you feel you can do something with the place?’

‘Not feel, know,’ he said, sounding utterly confident.

‘Ah, the arrogance of achievement!’ she said. ‘Word is you ran your family station?’

‘Jay and I.’ He put her straight. ‘I love my brother.’

‘But he’s not the cattleman in the family?’

‘Would you believe he wanted to be a doctor?’