‘I’m happy to come to the market with you,’ Bluey told her deferentially. ‘But His Highness says you know cattle better’n anyone in the country and I’m not wanting to step on your toes. And he said you had the funds for a great herd.’
She did. When she checked her bank account she couldn’t believe the figures. She had enough and more to get this place back to what it should be.
She should be deliriously happy. To have enough money to restore Munwannay to its former glory was a dream come true. But…
But for a start she didn’t have Deefer. As a pup bred for possible international sale, Deefer had been given all the appropriate vaccinations from the breeder so he could travel anywhere, but still he had to endure his four weeks’ quarantine. Rocket was great but he wasn’t Deefer.
And of course the biggie.
She didn’t have Andreas.
And that was a stupid thing to be pining for, she thought savagely as the days wore on. If she hadn’t left then she’d be pining for Andreas back at Aristo, while she endured stupid lessons in decorum. At least here she could get her hands dirty. She could go wherever she wanted.
For out in the stables she found another example of her husband’s organization. Whippy, grandson of Merryweather. Merry had died two years back of old age, a note from Andreas had told her, but his investigators had found her Whippy-who looked and worked so like his grandmother it was love at first sight.
So now she could ride as she loved to ride. She could work side by side with Bluey, pushing herself so hard she fell into her bed at night physically spent. She could make plans for her cattle station. She could go back to teaching if she wanted.
She could start her life again.
So she shouldn’t lie awake night after night thinking of Andreas. Thinking if she’d stayed at the palace then maybe every couple of weeks he’d have come to her bed. Thinking maybe that could have been enough.
Thinking she was mad to come home.
When Deefer came it’d be better, she told herself desperately, but she knew it wouldn’t be. She’d ached for Andreas for years and these last weeks had turned that ache into a piercing physical pain.
A week after she arrived he telephoned. She’d just walked in after an afternoon riding Whippy round the northern reaches of the property, checking her magnificent new bores and talking fencing with Bluey. She was hot, dusty and exhausted. She walked up the steps of the veranda, and Honey was holding out the phone and beaming.
‘It’s your husband.’
Your husband. Honey was smiling as if this was completely normal. Her husband was phoning from where he lived to where she lived.
It felt…wrong.
It was a sham marriage, but if it was sham then surely she shouldn’t think of him as her husband. Surely no one should refer to him as her husband.
‘H…hi,’ she managed, and there was silence on the end of the phone for so long she thought the connection must have died.
‘Hi, yourself,’ he said at last. He sounded tired and strained. ‘How are things?’
‘Good. I mean…great.’ She fought for composure. ‘I can’t believe you found Whippy.’
‘I wished I could have found Merry,’ he said softly. ‘I loved her, too.’
By the sound of his voice she knew he spoke nothing but the truth. She swallowed, thinking of the young Andreas, riding side by side with her all those years ago, loving this place, loving this work. If he could only come…
No. He was royal. Husband in name only.
‘The people you employed are fantastic, too,’ she managed. ‘I don’t know how you found them.’
‘I’m good at finding fantastic people,’ he growled. ‘Or…a fantastic person. One wife, for instance.’
‘Don’t,’ she whispered. She shook herself, trying to get rid of the wash of unreality. He was half a world away. No. He was of another world.
‘Andreas, this money…There’s so much.’
‘I hope it’s enough,’ he said, ‘to tide you over until the place is self-supporting. Bluey says you should be able to do it, but ask if you need more.’
‘You can’t give me this.’
‘You’re the mother of my son,’ he growled. ‘I love Munwannay as much as you do and I want it restored. I can give you what I damned well want, and you’ll take it.’
‘Ooh, the arrogance,’ she said before she could stop herself, and there was a pause. When he spoke again the tension had eased a little. She could hear a smile in his voice.
‘As disrespectful as ever, then?’
‘Who, me?’
‘Yes, you,’ he said and she knew he was smiling. ‘My outback girl. My Cinderella princess.’
‘I’m not your anything, Andreas,’ she said softly and she heard the smile disappear.
‘No.’
‘You’re home in Aristo?’
‘Briefly.’
‘You’re still diamond hunting?’
There was a sharp intake of breath. ‘Holly, that stays with you. If it got out-’
‘I’m talking to you-on this phone line you’ve organized that’s encrypted. Honestly, Andreas-’
‘It’s necessary,’ he snapped. ‘If you’re going to be indiscreet-’
‘I have an encrypted phone. I can be as indiscreet as I want.’
‘Holly…’
‘Yes?’ She sounded angry, she thought, but she couldn’t stop herself. This was crazy. A prince calling her his Cinderella princess. Encrypted phones. Money to spare.
‘Are you happy?’
The question caught her off guard. ‘Of course I’m not happy,’ she snapped before she could stop herself.
‘Why not?’
Because I love you, you big oaf, she thought, but she couldn’t say it. ‘I’m missing Deefer,’ she said at last.
‘When can you get him?’
‘Three weeks. I need to collect him at the quarantine station in Perth.’ She swallowed. ‘We have cattle arriving on the same day he’s due for release. He’ll have to wait an extra twenty-four hours until I can fetch him. I know it’s crazy but I got upset when I found out.’
‘Pay someone to collect him for you.’
‘I’ll collect him myself,’ she said, trying really hard not to sound choked up. ‘I…Was there anything else you wanted?’