Mail-order Bridegroom Part 43

Roslyn sat back, meeting the twinkling gaze."Come off it. Lucky!You're seeing me through rose-coloured dust. ""I'll be d.a.m.ned if I am." Lucky grinned.They were all relaxing over their second cup of tea when Marsh drove the Jeep into camp. He had someone with him.

"Well, if it ain't the high-and-mighty Miss Petersen!" Lucky muttered beneath his breath.

"Just watcher give us the big ignore."

In fact Kim condescended to give them all a regal wave, but chose to remain

within the safe confines of the Jeep.

"Who does she think she is, the b.l.o.o.d.y Queen?" Lucky groaned, and struggled to his feet.

"You couldn't ask for a better wave than that, Lucky," Roslyn teased.

Marsh was crossing the short distance between them, easy and nonchalant, the most graceful male. He had swept the sides of his pearl-grey Akubra up but the front was tilted down rakishly over his eyes.

"Rosa, I thought I might find you here," he said. "How's it going.

Lucky? " He lifted an arm in salute to the rest of the men who responded inkind."I've been watching the chase," Roslyn told him."It was quite exciting!""I'll bet! The only thing that surprises me is you didn't join in.""I can't ride the bike yet.""And you're not going to," he said."So don't let me catch you trying. Hear, Lucky?""Sure, Boss, but she's the gamest girl I ever came across.""Just think of your own injuries. Lucky. How's the leg?"Lucky looked down and grimaced."I'm always amazed it's holdin' me up.""You really ought to get out of the business." Marsh was frowning, looking towards the railed enclosure."I will when I'm thirty," Lucky promised."Think you could find a job for me?""No problem." Marsh looked back."We could do with another rail. I don't think it's high enough to accommodate the stallion. He's enormous for a brumby and too d.a.m.ned restless

for my liking. It's astonishing

what an animal like that can do. Some of them even love fences. Get onto it. Lucky.""Sure, Boss!" Lucky limped away, yelling at his mate Blackie at the sametime.

"I'll be d.a.m.ned if Lucky's not going deaf," Marsh said.

"Blackie, as well," Roslyn said ruefully.

"You're right about that extra rail. Will you just look at the glare in the

stallion's eye!

"Think you've beaten me! The devil you have!" Come to think of it, he's got

a look of Blazer. " She referred to a magnificent hunter Sir Charles hadkept."You've got keen eyes, Rosa." Marsh nodded approvingly."I was just thinking the same thing myself. Blazer got away once for at least half a day. This fellow could well be the produce of a bush mating.

He's got Blazer's distinctive mark. Go and talk to Kim until we get the railup. ""Could be she doesn't want to talk to me?"Marsh smiled."I've got to tell you she doesn't know what she's missing. Come back in the Jeep with us. One of the men can bring the mare in."Roslyn took off her hat and let the breeze ruffle her neatly coiled hair."Need protection?""One thing I've learned. Never, ever, trust a woman.""Not when they've been flinging themselves at you since you were fourteen years old."

"Rosa, darling, more like fifteen," he said.

Kim's eyes surveyed her coolly as she approached the Jeep.

"Do you think it's wise being one of the boys?"

"Why not? I find them chivalrous and friendly like most men in the bush."

"My father always says it's a mistake to come down to that level."

"But then, he was raised as an old feudal baron. Most of them have got out of the habit."

Kim shrugged.

"Well, what you do with your time has nothing to do with me. I was just trying to give you a piece of advice, that's all.

You're always trying to aim higher. "Roslyn looked at the other young woman thoughtfully."Why are you always so rude to me? I mean, you really want to hurt.""And you're the perfect target. I figure you're a threat." Kim smiled tightly."I'm not telling you that to get your hopes up. It's more a warning."Roslyn sighed."Not another one!""You haven't had any for a while. I'm glad you decided to come over.I've been waiting to have a word with you. It's so difficult in front of Dianne and Jus- tine. ""What is?" Roslyn swatted at a flying insect.Kim stared at her with hard eyes."What you think you're getting up to," she said finally."Any clues?" Roslyn's topaz eyes were shining in her spirited face."Don't waste time trying to be smart," Kim answered in an infuriated voice."But I am smart, Kim. I heard you never got your degree.""I couldn't be bothered going on with it, that's why. I didn't'need to go out and find myself a job.""What a pity!" Roslyn said lightly."You might have been all the better for a little struggle."Kim laughed harshly, narrowing her eyes."Look, this kind of banter leaves me cold. You say you're smart? Well, be smart enough not to interfere with my plans."

"You still won't give me any clues."

"So help me!" Kim pleaded to no one at all."You know exactly what I'm talking about. I daresay Marsh isn't averse totumbling you in the hay. You seem to have the patent on that femme fatale stuff. But you'll no more get him to marry you than you were able to in thepast. All I can say is, you must really love punishment.""And it seems to make you happy doling it out. Can't you come up with something better than a tumble in the hay? Marsh is as fastidious as h.e.l.l."

"Oh, I know," Kim said softly.

"So it's still going on between you two?"

Roslyn glanced up as two brilliantly enamelled parrots landed in a tree.

"I don't think it ever stopped."

A ripple pa.s.sed along Kim's long throat.

"And you're happy in the role of a little bit on the side?"

"Actually it's a role I wouldn't consider."

Kim pushed forward sharply in her seat, giving Roslyn the impression Kim

would have liked to strike her. Sad, but not impossible. She even braced herself.

"My dear, that's how he treats you." Kim sneered."You could say that's how he's treated us both. Lift a finger and we comerunning. Not that he isn't one splendid prize, but I refuse to do itanymore."

"You surely can't think you can get him to marry you?" Kim challenged, atthe same time turning a little white."I'm working on it." Roslyn shrugged."Then you're mad" Kim said with a violent hiss."I mean, who would accept you? You'd be snubbed at every turn."

"Hey, what's with you and the sn.o.bbery?" Roslyn's own voice sharpened."Only a fool would play that game. Who'd take the risk of insulting MarshFaulkner's wife7 Why would they want to? I may not have been born into the

establishment, but I'm a long way from unacceptable.

I'm young, well-educated, presentable. I don't look like a camel in disguise, which has been said of your friend Suzanne Crawley. "

"Suzanne is a sweet girl," Kill. said shortly.

"She certainly wouldn't bother with someone like you. Isn't it enough foryou Lady Faulkner hated you?""It was rare for Lady Faulkner to like anyone. She wasn't over fussed on her own daughters."

"I think she was disappointed they're so plain." Kim permitted herself theremark, then looked like she wished she hadn't said it."Anyway, she liked me. She approved of me.""Well it's doubtful she would have looked at someone who was dest.i.tute. It's possible she put you and your mother on the wrong track, too. You've put alot of years and a lot of heartache into trying to land Marsh. It doesn'tlook like he wants to marry you, though, does it?"

"Look here, how dare you challenge me!" Kim said in a hard, angry voice."Marsh and I are deeply involved. There are a lot of things you don't know.""I know you might have been lovers at one time, but unfortunately for you, the allure wore off.""Boy, have you got that wrong!" Kim retaliated, eyes flashing outrage."I don't think so," Roslyn said quietly."This is a go-nowhere conversation. Why don't we wind it up?""On the contrary, I want to get to the bottom of this" -- Kim broke off, startled as there was a loud crash close at hand. Roslyn, too, turned herhead in alarm, pulling up her bandana against the spiralling cloud of thickdust. When it settled she saw the two stock men making a desperate attemptto reposition the final top rail. The rest of the men were making a variety of calls, whistles, threats, trying to calm the horses, but it was obvious the stallion with its superior intelligence saw this as its chance for freedom.

It reared wildly, making a weird, screaming sound like a battle cry.

The harem moved back respectfully at this spectacle of rearing male pride.

Powerful hooves flailed the air then came down thunderously on the red sand.

The wild horse backed up, then, while the men dived for cover, flew at the fence, soaring fully extended for a moment before it came down on the other side, unable momentarily to galv anise itself into a gallop.

With a frenzied, "Dear heavens!" Kim threw herself into the driver's seat, hitting the ignition and putting the Jeep into reverse. The swift violence of the action pitched Roslyn, who had been leaning against the Jeep, off balance. She went down hard, thinking fatalistically, I'm going to die. No time now to get out of harm's way. It was all happening in seconds. A warm body threw itself over her. Lucky.

"G.o.d Almighty, what a b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" he moaned, trying to drag them to some kind of safety, while his boots kept slipping in the sand.

"This is it, luv!"

And it might have been only Marsh in his lightning way had sized up the situation putting himself right where he should be, in the saddle, spinning out a la.s.so that fell unerringly, miraculously, over the fleeting stallion's neck. It came up with a mighty jolt, in turn almost jerking Marsh out of the saddle. While they all looked on, helpless, he managed to right himself, adhering to the quiet, powerful quarter horse while the brumby reared and bucked frantically, h.e.l.l-bent on unseating him and mauling the station workhorse.

"If that's not the most brilliant throw of the century, I'll eat my gloves!"

Lucky yelled in Roslyn's ear. The brumby was careering madly in circles now, unable to break Marsh's domination.

Had it been the time to appreciate it instead of lying half stunned with herheart in her mouth Roslyn would have found it a marvelous exhibition of skilland control. Finally the stallion was brought to stand with nothing morethan a neck rope, man's authority and iron nerve.

"That's a cla.s.sic!" Lucky whooped like a fan at a rodeo."Ya not gunna see any better!""You're pretty fearless yourself. Lucky." Roslyn sat up gingerly."I'm sorry you had to take a tumble trying to save me.""You and me are mates," he told her cheerfully. "Besides, it was the boss who saved us. He's one daring guy. Rumour has it he'd put his life on the line for you anytime."

Roslyn looked at him in astonishment.

"Where did you hear thatT' " Here and there! " Lucky answered with a grin."He stopped that horse for ya. No mess, no fuss. Love's what me mum wouldcall it. Here, let me help you up. What Miss Petersen done could be calledall sorts of things, but love ain't one o'them."

"Self-preservation?" On her feet, Roslyn began to dust herself off.

"I think I'd use something stronger. Speak of the lady and here she comes.No doubt to explain the dastardly deed.""I hope not." Roslyn didn't want to hear a word from Kim.If Kim's sickly pallor was any indication, she wasn't altogether happy with her own actions.

"Roslyn, are you all right?" she called, her voice full of anxiety anddistress."There was so little time. I just had to move the Jeep. You understand?"Roslyn swung around nursing a skinned elbow. "Words fail me.""I'm so shocked. I got such a fright.""Couldn't you have yelled stand clearV " There wasn't time. We would have been trapped between a maddened wild animal and its freedom. "

"I was trapped, Kim," Roslyn said simply.

"In fact, Lucky and I would have been mush without Marsh's intervention."

"He's astonishing," Kim said tearfully.

"He threw himself into terrible danger for us."

"Except you managed to get the Jeep thirty feet away. I think you would have

kept on going only you backed yourself into a tree.""At least credit me with quick thinking," Kim pleaded."There was simply nothing I could do about you. I'm so dreadfully sorry.""Bunk.u.m!" Roslyn said pleasantly."I think I'll get Marsh to take me back to the house." Kim fished out a handkerchief from her pant's pocket and dabbed at her brow."Horses can be such frightening animals. Especially those brutish brumbies.If I had my way they'd all be sent off to the abattoirs. They're nothing but a nuisance to station owners. "' "The stallion doesn't remind you of Blazer?" Roslyn asked curiously."Blazer?" Kim's straight brows drew together in a frown."You surely don't mean Sir Charles's old hunter?""Yes.""Oh, don't be absurd!" Kim said in her brittle voice. "And you're supposed to have a good eye."

"Not only supposed to. Have Marsh thinks the same. Here he comes now looking like Chief Thundercloud."

In fact Marsh was striding towards them, his whole aura radiating a dazzlingauthority. He had pitched his hat away in a fit of aggravation and onecoal-black wave fell onto his dark copper forehead adding to the impressionof rugged vitality.