If you walked to the door now and called him back he’d come.
Until dawn.
‘Oh, Deef.’ She was crying, stupid helpless tears slipping down her cheeks, one after another. She hated crying. She never cried.
Andreas made her cry.
‘Which is as good a reason as any to leave,’ she told her dog. ‘I have to go. I must.’
It’d break her heart.
No. Her heart had broken years ago and the pieces were still apart. For a few short days the pieces had made a tentative effort to heal. But it hadn’t worked. Of course it hadn’t. Cinderella was for fairy tales.
She had to go…home.
He walked outside, into the palace forecourt. The sun was blazing down on the marble columns, the shining granite steps radiating heat. The white pebbles of the paved surfaces shimmered in the sun, and the vast ornate fountain gave no sense of relief. This was formality at its finest. Formality at its worst.
He lived here. It was his life.
He thought of where Holly was heading-to a vast outback wilderness, a place where nature couldn’t help but win over any attempt to tame it, and a wave of longing swept over him so strongly that it felt as if he had to physically brace himself against its force.
Munwannay and Holly.
Holly.
He couldn’t keep her here. Her place was in Munwannay. How he’d ever thought he could hold her this long…
He’d brought her here against her will and he would not keep her. Despite Sebastian. Despite his mother. They were wrong. Holly was wild and beautiful and free and he would not tame her.
His fingers were clenched so hard into his palms that they hurt. He stared down and saw he’d pierced the skin on one palm. It hurt, but compared to the gut-wrenching pain inside it was nothing. To let her go…
He had to let her go.
There was a stir behind him. He turned to find two servants pushing the door wide, and Sebastian striding out towards him.
‘I told you I wanted to see you the minute you arrived,’ he snapped.
‘Holly needed me.’
‘I have no interest in what Holly needs. You know this matter’s urgent. I want your report and I want it now. For me to have to come and find you…’
‘Unforgivable,’ Andreas said dryly. ‘You want my head off at dawn?’
‘Don’t be facetious. You know how much is at stake. I need you to be focused.’
‘Of course.’
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. ‘I mean it, Andreas.’
‘Of course you do,’ Andreas said wearily. ‘And, yes, I know how urgent it is. Yes, I know how much our country is depending on me staying focused. It’ll happen. Holly’s leaving tomorrow for Australia.’
‘What?’ Sebastian snapped, his features darkening in displeasure. ‘I told you, I wanted the marriage to last.’
‘And I’m telling you the marriage is over,’ Andreas replied, and his voice sounded strong and sure, two emotions that were surely as far from the truth as it was possible to get. ‘Short of locking us in a dungeon there’s nothing you can do about it, brother. So set your public relations department to make as good a job of it as they can, but the thing’s not negotiable. Holly goes home tomorrow. End of story.’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
I T WAS amazing. First there was a journey to Greece on a fishing boat with friends of Andreas. That was the part of the trip where Sebastian could have intervened, she was told, so she had to stay with men Andreas trusted. Then she and Deefer were whisked to the airport. What followed was first-class air travel, with personal attention all the way. Before she knew it, she landed in Perth where she bade a tearful farewell to Deef. Her pup had to face thirty days in quarantine before he could become an Australian. As she came out of the customs building she was met by a pilot upset that she’d got this far without him finding her. It seemed a private helicopter had already been chartered to take her on to Munwannay.
Her financial circumstances only a month ago might have seen her hitch-hiking. This was a turnaround indeed.
She should feel flattered and indulged. Instead she felt miserable.
And as soon as they arrived at Munwannay she saw more signs of change. From the air she could see people moving about, a couple of shiny new vehicles, two men on horseback.
It seemed that Andreas’s promised money had reached Munwannay before she had.
They landed and a lean, weathered man in his late fifties came striding across the dusty paddock to greet her. There was a rangy blue-heeler at his side. A dog, back on Munwannay.
‘Afternoon, ma’am,’ he said with a slow, lazy smile that told her more than anything else that he’d been bred in the bush. ‘I’m Bluey Crammond.’ He motioned to the dog. ‘This here’s Rocket. Your husband’s sent me here to help set the place up as it ought to be set up. If you and Rocket and I get on, your husband’s thinking I could stay on as your overseer, but that’s up to you. Rocket and I are here on three months’ probation-if you think we’re suitable and I think the place is a goer then we’ll stay. But I’m telling you now, this place is fantastic. Your husband says you have ideas and I’m just waiting to hear them.’
He smiled, a slow, farmer’s grin. Rocket extended a paw on command and Holly was smitten.
As she was with the housekeeper waiting for her in the homestead. Margaret Honeywell was a lovely, plump lady who reminded Holly forcibly of Sophia.
‘Your husband says I’m here for a trial period only, and if you find the idea of staff intrusive then I’ll go,’ she told her. ‘Bluey and I have been paid well to come here for the trial period, so you’re not to think we’ll mind if you let us go. But I’m hoping you won’t.’
Holly was already sure that she wouldn’t. Somehow Andreas had picked staff whose credentials-and personalities-were wonderful.
He must have started organizing almost before they were married, she thought, dazed, for Bluey and Mrs Honeywell-‘call me Honey, love, everyone else does’-had been employed through an agency in Perth and had been at Munwannay for a week before she’d arrived.
Their work was stunning. The homestead was gleaming under Honey’s industrious enthusiasm. Fencing contractors had been hired, repairing the ravages of years of neglect. Outbuildings were being repaired. Skilled mechanics were checking bores, repairing and replacing machinery that was well past its use-by date and making sure there was water for cattle that could be bought any time she said the word.