AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He gave her an unreadable glance before turning onto the side road leading to the back paddock. The turn off to the Koongarra main residence was a few miles farther along the main road. That interior road went much deeper into the station, while their old outstation was in the middle of the property, leaving a good twenty miles between them and Bryan’s place. The community was situated farther north again, and could be accessed from either Commonage Road, that ran along the top boundary of the Koongarra station, between the small townships of Nychum and Mareeba, or via the same road that led to Bryan’s residence, taking a left-hand fork about halfway to the main homestead. River had found a much more direct route to the community, by taking a disused trail that’d been cut through the woodland savannah, which joined up with the main interior road right before it forked. Which meant that Bryan never had to know when River visited the community.
But it wasn’t Bryan that was worrying her. It was River. Specifically, how he was going to react to seeing her and Dale arrive. She had no way of knowing how he’d coped over the past two days without her; worrying if she was all right. He’d probably be upset, and rightly so. She crossed her fingers and hoped he remembered to stick to their story.
This road was already in bad repair, but after the heavy rain, large potholes had opened up, and some of the road edges had washed away. It’d be tricky getting her Corolla down here now.
“Wow, you need to get Bryan onto grading this road for you.” Dale’s hands were tightly clamped around the steering wheel as he negotiated their bumpy path toward the outstation. Daisy rolled her eyes. Bryan certainly wouldn’t see this as any sort of priority.
She stared through the sparse scrubland which opened up as they came over a small rise. Tall, spindly eucalyptus trees were scattered randomly across an open Savanah of brown tussock grassland, with a rotund bottle tree breaking the monotony here and there. River’s mate from the community, Yindari, had told them that this was called the back paddock, and when the station was running fully stocked, there’d be cattle running in the area. But it was being spelled at the moment. And it seemed to be thriving, especially after the rain. The brown grasses were showing tinges of green, and the trees seemed to stand straighter, reaching upward toward the sun. Puddles of standing water left over from the storm glinted like scattered sequins in between the trees.
Squinting, she thought she could make out a flash of dull red through the trees. Yes, there it was, the faded, red metal side of one of the shipping containers. They were nearly there. She grasped her hands tighter together in her lap.
“Over there,” she tipped her chin toward the buildings.
“I see it.” Dale followed the road through a thick copse of trees, and then they emerged into the cleared area around the buildings. Dale pulled up in the middle of the gravel clearing. Daisy tried to take everything in in one glance, checking for damage. A large puddle of muddy water stood at one end of the clearing, where the ground was slightly lower. The shade cloth that’d been strung between two of the containers now flapped feebly in the breeze, hanging by one corner. But everything else seemed to have withstood the storm. There were no trees down nearby, just a few small branches and lots of leaf debris scattered around; the slight elevation of the containers seemed to have saved them from any flooding damage.
The door to the main building burst open and River leaped down the two small steps toward the truck.
“Dinnarri, where you bin? I was worried out of my mind, man.”
Dale flashed her a bemused look, his hand resting on the door handle. Shit, River had used her proper name. Daisy plastered a smile on her face and hopped lightly down from the truck.
“Ryan, I’m so glad to see you.” Her use of his cover name and the professional tone in her voice stopped him in his tracks. Which was good, because she knew he’d been about to scoop her up in an enormous bear hug; one thing she loved about River was the way he had no problem showing emotion. “Have I got a story to tell you,” she continued, hastening to her brother, who was clearly trying to calculate what was going on by the shocked frown on his face. She pulled him into a quick embrace, that she hoped looked more like two work colleagues who’d been worried about each other than a sister who was terribly glad to see her bother in one piece. But she needed to make sure for herself that River was alive and well. To feel his solid body beside her. He was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, not the professional clothing that was supposed to support his new persona, but Daisy couldn’t really blame him; he wouldn’t have been expecting company.
“I’m glad to see you, too, Daisy,” River replied, finally comprehending that he needed to carry on the charade.
“This is Dale,” Daisy said, gesturing toward him as he alighted from the driver’s side. “He rescued me from the creek when my car got stuck in the flood.”
River narrowed his eyes at her. “You tried to cross the flooded creek?”
She ignored the censure in his gaze, and said, “And then he let me stay at Stormcloud Station to wait out the storm.” His eyebrows flew up to meet his hairline at this statement.
“Stormcloud Station, huh?” River pursed his lips, and she wanted to roll her eyes at him. Why couldn’t he just stay cool about the whole thing? She’d explain it all to him later. “Nice to meet you.” He extended his hand and stepped toward Dale. “And thanks for saving my…colleague. She can be so reckless sometimes.”
Daisy nearly snorted in scorn. She was hardly the reckless one of the two.
“Hm, yes, I guess she was being a little reckless that day. But I think she was mainly worried about getting home to you,” Dale replied, flashing his dimples. His gaze raked over her and Daisy felt abruptly hot. Was he flirting with her? “So, I’m not sure I’d class her as reckless. More like someone who was doing what needed to be done.” Dale realigned his broad shoulders and took a small step closer to River. What the hell was he doing? Was he protecting her honor or something? That was the last thing she needed, Dale and her brother squaring off against each other.
“The food and the spare part are in the back of Dale’s truck,” Daisy squeaked. “Do you want to give me a hand to bring them inside?” she prompted, when River stood staring between her and Dale, lips pursed in consideration, a dark edge appearing in his gaze. “Dale was kind enough to let me store the food in their cool room, so it should all still be good to eat.” The quicker they got rid of Dale, the better. She didn’t want either of the men doing anything stupid. And she didn’t need anyone protecting her honor, either.
“Sure thing,” River said belatedly, the scowl not leaving his face. He pulled a box out of the rear seat of the truck as Dale held the door open, but continued to glance backward as he ferried it into the building.
Daisy went to grab the second box, but Dale beat her to it. “I’ve got it.”
She let him do his chivalrous thing with a quiet sigh, snagging her backpack and the bag with the spare part from the front seat and following him across the bare ground. All she really wanted was for him to leave, but it looked as if he was coming inside, whether she liked it or not.
It took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the dim light inside, after the bright morning sunlight. River was already storing the fresh food in the small refrigerator. It was slightly cooler inside, but not by a lot. River had already turned on the two fans standing in opposite corners, but all they were really doing was moving the tepid air around.
This temporary homestead consisted of two shipping containers, adjoined end-to-end to make one long, thin room, and a third at right angles, forming a wing that jutted out behind the main room, which had been divided into two small bedrooms. A kitchenette took up most of the far wall directly ahead as you stepped inside, with a small round table and four chairs to sit and eat. Farther down the long room was a musty old couch, two winged chairs that’d definitely seen better days, a television that was straight out of the seventies mounted on the wall, and a stereo set that might have come from the same era as the TV. Scuffed linoleum lined the metal floor; Daisy had tried scrubbing it with soap and water when they first arrived, but no amount of washing was going to get rid of the holes and burn marks.
All their electricity came from a bunch of solar panels on the roof, which stored the power in a small cluster of batteries. If they ever needed to supplement the power, they could fire up a generator, but it was loud and smelled of diesel fumes, and they hardly ever used it.
For a fleeting second, Daisy felt a spike of shame. This place certainly came nowhere near the majestic Stormcloud lodge. What would Dale think of her living in this hovel? Then she remembered it didn’t matter what he thought. She tilted her chin up and pretended to ignore him as he did a slow perusal of the place.
“I would’ve thought the university might’ve found you some nicer accommodation,” Dale quipped.
But she wasn’t taking the bait. “Thank you for your help,” she said in clipped tones, hoping he’d get the message he was no longer needed.
“Sure, no probs.”
