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Mrs Templeton smiled broadly, ‘Far from it. He’s getting married—next month! He and Andrea have decided to take the plunge.’
‘I didn’t even know they were contemplating getting engaged,’ said Storm. ‘Although I suppose we ought to have guessed. After all, his letters are always full of her.’
‘Umm. I did wonder if they might get engaged this Christmas,’ Storm’s mother agreed. ‘But it seems that John has been offered promotion, but the new job is in Perth, so they had to decide between a long courtship or marriage more or less straight away.’
‘John married, eh?’ Mr Templeton smiled. ‘Well, this calls for a celebration. We’ll go in the lounge and have a drink and you can tell us exactly what he said,’ he told his wife.
Ten minutes later Storm was still trying to come to terms with her mother’s news. John married!
‘And that’s not all.’ There was a shade of anxiety in Mrs Templeton’s voice, and Storm frowned.
‘What else could there be? You’re not worried about John marrying Andrea, are you, Mum?’
She was quickly reassured. ‘Of course not. She sounds charming. No, the problem is that Andrea’s parents have asked your father and me to fly out to Sydney and stay with them until after the wedding. I spoke to Andrea’s mother and they seem to have been caught on the hop too. They suspected that an engagement might be in the offing, but they’d no idea that they planned to marry so quickly. However, as this job’s come up they realise that Andrea will want to go to Perth with John. They’ve actually been out there for a weekend already and they both loved the city. John says it’s beautiful, and they’ve managed to find a house.’
’It all sounds idyllic,’ Storm broke in, ‘so what’s the problem?’
‘Well, John wants us to fly out as soon as possible, so that he and Andrea can spend some time with us before they get married. And then there’s the wedding, and Andrea’s mother says we must see something of the country while we’re out there, and John wants us to fly up to Perth to see the house. They’re spending
their honeymoon on the Barrier Reef.’ She looked first at her husband and then at Storm. ‘I know you’ll be able to get time off, Richard, because you were only saying the other day that you could afford to take a few weeks’ holiday now that your assistant is settling down so well, but what about you, Storm?’
Storm’s heart sank. It was quite out of the question for her to go with her parents. In normal circumstances she might have contemplated asking David for unpaid leave, but if she asked Jago for a month off now he was bound to think she was trying to desert the station. Following in David’s footsteps.
‘I can’t go, Mum,’ she said quietly.
Mrs Templeton sighed. ‘That’s what I thought you’d say,’ she admitted. ‘If this was just a normal holiday… but I don’t like the thought of leaving you alone here for so long, Storm, and to miss John’s wedding.’
Storm’s eyes closed. ‘I wish I could go, but I can’t. You must, though,’ she said firmly. ‘John would never forgive me if you refused on my account, and he’d have every right. This is a big day for him, and he’ll need you there.’
She tried to quell her feeling of disappointment. She would have loved to attend her brother’s wedding and meet the girl who was going to be her sister-in-law, but there was just no way that this could be.
Richard Templeton put an arm round his daughter’s shoulders. ‘Don’t worry about it, love,’ he told her. ‘John will understand. Has he been able to get in touch with Ian?’ he asked his wife, across Storm’s bowed shoulders.
Mrs Templeton shook her head.
‘No. I haven’t had a letter from him myself for weeks. The last time he wrote he said he was just about to fly out to Africa to investigate the possibility of some new oilfields out there. I suppose he must still be there.’
The Templeton’s were used to long silences from their second son when he was out in the field and had learned not to be worried by them.
‘Well, he must have quite a lot of leave due to him,’ Richard Templeton commented. ‘It’s a pity we can’t get in touch with him. It looks as though our side of the family is going to be very scantily represented at the wedding!’
* * *
Naturally John’s marriage was the sole topic of conversation during the evening. Mrs Templeton was torn between excitement and dismay.
‘We shall miss your birthday,’ she said to Storm at one point. ‘And Christmas, unless we fly home right after the wedding.’
‘You’ll do no such thing,’ Storm told her firmly. ‘Although I shall expect an extra special present, for my forbearance!’
It was a pity that John’s promotion meant the wedding had to be arranged so hurriedly, she decided as she prepared for bed, but she wasn’t going to have her mother spoil the occasion for herself by worrying about her. She was twenty-two, after all, and more than capable of looking after herself for four weeks. Against her will her eyes were drawn to Jago’s house. A light shone in one of the upstairs rooms and she felt the heat rise on her skin as she thought of him in bed.
This was crazy, she told herself, feeling the increased thud of her heart and the ache that spread slowly upwards. Physical desire, that’s all it was, she told herself fiercely. She loved David, for God’s sake. Safe, protective David!
But when she fell asleep it was of Jago that she dreamed, small heated moans falling from her lips as she thrashed feverishly from side to side.
‘Are you sure you won’t mind being left on your own, Storm?’ her mother asked anxiously in the morning.
In the middle of her coffee Storm shook her head. She heard the powerful purr of Jago’s car outside and grabbed for her coat, putting her cup down.
