The Other Girl: An Australian Outback Romance by Lucy Walker

Author:Lucy Walker [Walker, Lucy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: small town and rural, outback romance, clean romance, clean and wholesome, australian romance, autstralian rural romance, australian author, australian rural novels
Publisher: Wyndham Books (Small Town & Rural Romance)
Published: 2021-08-05T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

An hour later Dan Grayson came, riding up on one of the sixteen-hand broncos. It was clear, even to Leura, why the bloodstock on Palari was the bronco type. Only mountains of horse-flesh could pound its way through that sand.

Dust-storms weren’t such rare things to Palari, that was for sure.

He came right up to the car, now sunk eighteen inches in sand, and swung off the horse. Leura remained sitting, watching him. There was nothing she could say. Absolutely nothing.

Had she been afraid?

She didn’t know. She had been cracking funnies to herself about the wild turkeys, the kangaroos and the iguana for an hour. Perhaps it was because she was afraid but had been afraid to face it.

Dan let the rein of his horse dangle to the ground and, stooping a little, opened the car door.

Leura simply looked at him. She still had nothing to say. There weren’t any words any more.

His eyes slid over her quickly, then he smiled … that easy, unconcerned smile that meant it was a pleasant way to look at people but meant absolutely nothing else. It hid what he thought.

‘Move over,’ he said. ‘I’m coming in. That is, if you could stand a little more dust.’

He was dusty enough, that was true. His face was a red-brown mask, but then Leura knew her own was that way too, and she didn’t care any more.

She eased across into the passenger seat as Dan slid in behind the wheel.

‘Is Allison all right?’ she asked.

He looked at Leura, surprised. ‘Why not? Why are you concerned about Allison?’

‘I came out to look for her. She didn’t come home. I thought she was lost ‒ perhaps had had an accident …’

Dan’s hands were on the steering-wheel and he grasped it, almost as if he would shake it loose.

‘For crying out loud!’ he said. ‘Allison and young Rafferty spent the night at the homestead. Eve ran into them on the lake track and invited them up. Someone was supposed to ring through to you.’

Leura closed her eyes and slid down a little in her seat. After a minute’s silence she opened them.

‘I’m glad of that,’ she said quietly.

Dan took his hat off and turning flung it on the back seat; then he sat, his arm along the back of Leura’s seat, and stared at her.

‘So you’re glad of that, are you?’ he said. ‘Do you have any feelings inside that body of yours, Miss Barton, or do you merely go on a wild goose chase following someone who is not even lost, cause an entire station and shearing-shed to stop work and comb a million acres in a sandstorm for you, and then have no comment to make except that? Would you like me to pass the ice-cream, or something?’

‘Tea or coffee would do,’ Leura said, without looking at him. She had been almost happy with the kangaroos, the iguana and several thousand bush turkeys. Now she had to have no feelings in order to ignore unkind Fate for being unkinder Fate in sending Dan Grayson to find her.

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