Adopted: Twins!

CHAPTER SIX

DESPITE the emotions of the day, Erin slept soundly. In fact, she slept more soundly than she remembered sleeping for years.

It was because Matt was here, she thought as she drifted toward unconsciousness. As House Mother she always slept on the brink of waking. There was always a child in need. And before that…

Her mother had died when Erin was just fourteen. Erin had been the oldest of the kids. Her father had crumpled with her mother’s death so she’d reared her siblings with love and also, she had to admit, with pleasure. When the last child left home she moved on to being an orphanage House Mother, but her choice of career meant that from the time she was fourteen there’d always been a child dependent on her.

There was no one else to share her load.

But here, at the other end of the house, slept Matt. She wasn’t totally in charge. The feeling was novel, and she shouldn’t indulge it, but in truth it was also wonderful.

She indulged it. The twins slept soundly and Erin totally relaxed. She slept on dreamlessly, and she couldn’t guess that at the other end of the house Matt stirred and tossed and fretted because he couldn’t get her out of his head.

Erin woke at dawn when Matt crept silently into the room next door.

She might have been sleeping soundly, but she was still a House Mother. Some things were instinctive, and protection was one of them. The moment the twins’ bedroom door opened, her eyes were wide and she was pushing herself up in bed wondering what was wrong.

She’d propped the bathroom doors open between the two rooms so she could see, and she could see clearly straight through. Matt was in his working clothes and he was tip-toeing towards the twins.

‘What’s wrong?’ It came out as a whispered croak of surprise.

He cast her a look of annoyance-annoyance with himself for waking her. ‘Hell, Erin, I’m sorry. You go back to sleep. I’m after the twins.’

She found her right voice. ‘What on earth for?’

‘The twins hurt my dog,’ he explained. ‘So I told them last night that they need to accept responsibility for what they’d done. Sadie needs to rest for a week, and therefore the twins need to take over Sadie’s workload.’ He reached the bed the boys were still sharing and touched two small shoulders. ‘Okay, guys. Wake up. It’s six a.m. You know what we need to do.’

And, amazingly, they did. They opened their eyes, they smiled shyly up at Matt as if this had been expected, and to Erin’s astonishment, they moved straight into dress mode.

‘What on earth are you doing?’

‘Tell her, boys.’ Matt smiled at her-and then he carefully diverted his attention elsewhere.

Hell! What was happening here?

Following orders, Erin was wearing one of the welfare shirts as sleepwear. It was buttoned to the neck and it was a man’s shirt to boot, but the sight of Erin fresh from sleep, tousled and rumpled, with her curls flying free and her gorgeous blue eyes wide with enquiry somehow had the power to make something inside him kick.

Hard.

Luckily a twin spoke, giving him time to gather his wits.

‘We’re rounding up the cows,’ Henry told Erin solemnly, hauling on the ill-fitting trousers he’d worn the day before. ‘You have new clothes to wear now,’ Erin told him, and then took on board what Henry had said. ‘Rounding up cows?’

‘The boys don’t need new clothes to do what they need to do,’ Matt told her, still carefully concentrating on the twins. ‘In fact, new clothes would be completely wasted. We’re cutting Cecil out from where he’s been serving the cows. He’s due at the Lassendale Cattle Show tomorrow.’

‘The Lassendale Show…’

‘You’re still half asleep,’ Matt told her kindly. ‘William, that windcheater’s inside out. Surely you know the Lassendale show, Erin? And you a farmer’s daughter and all.’

Right. Of course she did. The whole farming world knew the show he was talking about, but she’d never been there. Well, why would she? Lassendale was a show-case of the cream of the country’s pedigree cattle, and a prize from the Lassendale judges meant the making or breaking of a stud farmer. Of course Matt would be showing.

‘You’re putting Cecil in the show?’

‘I surely am.’

And then Erin started feeling strange, too. Matt was adjusting William’s windcheater and the sight of him dressing the little boy-a job she should be doing herself-did strange things to her insides. Things she didn’t understand in the least. She hauled her bedclothes up to her neck in an instinctive act of defence, but for the life of her she couldn’t think what she was defending.

‘And the boys?’ she managed.

‘I can’t cut a bull out of that herd without a good dog,’ he told her, his eyes twinkling. He’d overcome his unease in the face of her discomfort-or maybe it was because she’d hauled the sheet up so far. ‘Or, failing a dog, then two obedient twins. Which I have here, don’t I, boys?’

‘Yes.’ William said the word solemnly and Henry nodded his agreement.

‘Now there’s no need for you to get up,’ Matt told her. ‘I’ll give the boys some milk and a piece of toast each and we’ll have a proper breakfast when we’re finished. You go back to sleep.’

Back to sleep? Such a thing was unheard of. Go back to sleep when the twins were awake…

‘No!’

‘You’re not wanted,’ Matt told her, making his voice severe. ‘Is she, boys? Cutting out bulls is man’s work.’

‘But Matt,’ She was bewildered by the plan. ‘A bull-’

‘Cecil is a pussy cat,’ he told her, seeing what her major worry was. ‘Don’t fret yourself. You know I wouldn’t let the boys near anything I considered dangerous. With these two to help me, we’ll have him back to the yard in no time. Then we’ll scrub him down, make him beautiful and then we can introduce him to you personally.’

‘But-’

‘Stop arguing and go back to sleep.’

‘Matt-’

‘Sleep!’

Sleep? Ha!

Go back to sleep, he’d said, but it was just plain impossible. Erin lay in bed and listened to the sounds of the boys in the kitchen. She heard Matt talking, and she heard the boys giggling in response.

Giggling?

They sounded just like they did when they were plotting trouble, Erin thought, but the difference here was that Matt was plotting trouble for them. Excellent trouble. Cutting a bull from the herd was just the sort of adventure they craved, and to do it with such a wondrous person as Matt…

He was wondrous, Erin thought sleepily. He knew instinctively how to act with the boys.

Take responsibility for your actions…

She’d tried and tried to drum that into them, and here was Matt doing exactly that. Yesterday they’d hurt Sadie, so today they were doing Sadie’s job.

She desperately wanted to join them, but she knew that to do so would spoil it for them. This was men’s work, Matt had decreed, and for Erin to interfere… To have their House Mother hovering over them, fussing and bossing while they did it, would spoil it in a way she instinctively understood. So somehow she forced herself to lie still.

Then the bedroom door opened again and it was William, carefully balancing a cup of tea.

‘Matt said you’d like this.’

Behind him was Henry, carrying a plate of toast with marmalade. Erin blinked and blinked again. Breakfast in bed! Good grief!

And Matt was in the doorway behind them, watching his charges with pride as they wobbled their responsibilities to her bedside table-without a single spill.

‘Well done, boys,’ he told them. He looked at Erin and he winked. ‘Okay, lady. Wrap yourself around your breakfast, then put your head on the pillow and sleep-while we men go off and organise the world. Okay, men. Let’s go round us up some beef cattle.’

She couldn’t do it.

She physically couldn’t lie in bed and do nothing. It nearly killed her. She drank her tea and ate her toast, then lay and stared at the ceiling for all of half an hour. Then Sadie sidled in and put her nose on the bedcover, and Erin fondled the old dog’s ears and smiled in sympathy. She knew exactly what the dog was thinking.

‘We’ve been made redundant, girl,’ she said softly and Sadie waved her silky tail in agreement. ‘How does that make you feel?’

Sadie flopped down on the mat beside the bed, put her head on her forelegs and sighed.

‘It makes you feel funny, too?’

Another sigh.

‘I suppose I could just go see what they’re doing,’ she told the dog. ‘From a distance.’

Sadie looked up at her with hope, and Erin shook her head.

‘Not you, girl. You have a sore leg to look after.’ Then, at the look on Sadie’s face, she burst into laughter. ‘Oh, you fraud. You pulled a con and now you’re feeling like you’d like to change your mind.’ She leaned down and lightly touched Sadie’s bandaged leg. ‘I’m sorry, girl, but you’re going to have to put up with it. I have a feeling your leg might be more important than you know.’

There was another sigh at that, and Erin was starting to feel like the dog understood every word she said. Which was good, because Erin surely needed someone to talk to.

‘I know how you feel,’ she told her. ‘But for more reasons than one, you need to keep your nose out of it.’

But Erin wasn’t keeping her nose out.

If she stayed in that bed any longer she’d bust something.

If there was one thing being brought up on a farm with seven siblings had taught her, it was how to hide. Years of hide and seek had made her a master of the art. Erin washed and dressed with speed, and then made her way down the paddocks, moving from the concealment of one clump of river gums to another with the ease of a master.

The mustering team-Matt and his dog-cum-twins-were easy enough to find. The boys were whooping and yipping loud enough to wake the fishermen back in Bay Beach. Their targeted herd of cows was moving uneasily away from this unknown quantity, and by the time she reached the edge of the paddock where they were, Erin had a clear idea of what Matt was doing.

He was using the boys just like he’d use a working dog. Maybe they didn’t have as much finesse as Sadie possessed, but his team strategy was effective all the same.

It was simple, really. Matt would send the twins into the herd, whooping at the top of their lungs and effectively splitting it down the centre. Half the herd would move one way, and Matt would concentrate on keeping the half containing Cecil the bull packed tight into the fenced corner. Ignoring the rest, they then had a smaller herd to work with.

Once the herd was where Matt wanted, the twins moved in again to split a smaller herd. With each foray of yipping and yelling, they made the controlled group smaller.

And finally there was just Cecil, a confused-looking beast but a magnificent specimen of Hereford Bull all the same. He stood in his corner, a twin at each side and Matt before him. While Erin watched from her safe distance, Matt slipped a rope through the ring in the bull’s nose. The huge animal looked up at Matt in a resigned sort of way, and then he started plodding steadily toward the house before Matt so much as tugged on the rope.

He’d done this a thousand times before, his body language said, and while he might have tried his darndest to escape, now that he was cornered, like Matt had said, he was a real pussy cat.

So much so that Erin wasn’t surprised when Matt slipped the rope into Henry’s hand so he could lead him, and then scooped William up to ride on the bull’s broad back. The twins were so light the bull would hardly notice his burden.

He didn’t. Cecil plodded on without changing stride.

‘You ride halfway, and then swap with Henry,’ Matt told them, and from where she stood in the cluster of gums by the paddock’s boundary, Erin could see the twins’ collective shoulders expand a notch or six.

They’d be so proud of what they were doing!

All their attention was on the bull. Henry was leading the bull with the solemnity of an undertaker leading a funeral procession, and William was clinging on as if he expected Cecil to buck.

And, as she watched, Matt fell behind, then turned his head toward the trees where Erin was hiding, and he waved. And grinned.

Caught!

For a split second Erin hesitated, then she grinned and waved back. Drat the man, he had eyes in the back of his head.

She wasn’t wanted, though. She could see that. She left them to it, and went quietly back to the house.

She was a House Mother without charges, and it felt very peculiar indeed!

By the time they finished doing what they were doing, she was fed up with being a House Mother without charges. She desperately wanted to be part of it.

The urge to go out to the sheds was almost overwhelming. Instead somehow she made herself organise the boys’ clothing, make the beds, prepare another breakfast, talk to Sadie, talk to herself…

‘I’m going nuts,’ she told the dog. ‘I don’t think I’d be very good at living alone.’

She’d been alone for three hours and it felt weird.

‘What are they doing out there?’

She didn’t know, and Sadie couldn’t help her. So they sat in the kitchen and waited, and it was hard to know which of them was more frustrated.

Finally they reappeared.

They were filthy! The twins were mud splattered, soaking wet and they were beaming from ear to ear. They stood at the back door and fought for the rights to tell her everything. All at once.

‘We’ve cleaned him and soaped him all over and now he shines and shines.’

‘He’s beautiful.’

‘I rode on his back.’

‘William squirted Matt with the hose but he didn’t mean to, and Matt didn’t mind…’

Then Matt appeared behind them, and he was just as filthy as the twins were-and his grin said he was just as happy with his morning’s work. He smiled at Erin and then looked doubtfully down at himself.

‘We’re a bit dirty to come in,’ he told her.

She nodded, trying not to laugh. They were all so pleased with themselves, but that mud…

‘I think you should stay outside,’ she told them.

‘Aw, Erin…’ Both twins howled a protest and then saw she was laughing. Their small faces relaxed and they took a tentative step over the threshold.

‘Stop this minute!’ She stopped them in their tracks, in a voice that Charlotte or Matt’s dead mother would be proud of. ‘Go not one inch further.’ Matt blinked. He hadn’t thought it of her.

And he was right. She wasn’t worried about her kitchen floor. She was concerned about something else.

‘Do you have a camera?’ she asked, and when he nodded she made him tell her where to find it.

‘Because you’re not getting rid of one spot of that gorgeous mud until I’ve documented this moment,’ she told them. ‘I want a photograph of you guys standing next to a beautiful Cecil so I can remember this moment for the rest of my life.’

It wasn’t just a memory for Erin.

She took the photograph from three different angles, with Matt standing proudly, one hand on each twins’ shoulder, and all beside Matt’s magnificent, gleaming bull, and she knew this photograph would be precious for many reasons.

The boys had so few memories. So few possessions.

If she took copies of this and framed it, it’d become as valued as Tigger the Tiger, she thought, and she finished taking the shot and raised her eyes to Matt in gratitude.

‘Thank you,’ she said and her words held a whole wealth of meaning.

He got it in one.

‘My pleasure,’ he told her and if his voice wasn’t quite steady it wasn’t for the want of trying.

Then they trooped through the kitchen, showered, the boys inspected and accepted and donned their new clothes and they breakfasted properly. They sat at Matt’s big kitchen table and wrapped themselves around bacon and eggs, and toast and cereal, while Erin watched with amazement at what they were demolishing. The boys were normally picky eaters. Now they ate and talked and ate and talked like there was no tomorrow.

And all the time Matt watched, like a benevolent genie who’d wrought this change with a wave of a magic wand.

They were great kids! he was thinking. The best!

‘Do you like your new clothes?’ Erin asked, and they nodded over slices of watermelon. Matt had done a vast grocery shop the day before, and he’d done them proud. He’d had to do a few things since he’d granted Mrs Gregory her holiday, but he was finding that he didn’t mind in the least. The house was the cosier for it.

It was also messier. Matt looked ruefully down at the tracks he and the twins had made across the kitchen floor which Mrs Gregory wouldn’t have tolerated to stay while she cooked breakfast. But it was definitely cosier.

Nice.

‘But we don’t like your clothes,’ Henry was telling Erin, and Matt agreed entirely.

‘What’s wrong with mine?’ Erin looked down at her beautifully fitting jeans and long-sleeved shirt. ‘They’re great.’

‘You wear dresses,’ Henry said stubbornly and William tilted his chin in agreement.

And Matt found himself with the kids. Yep, Erin wore dresses. She looked great in dresses, even the crimplene.

‘Go into town and buy yourself something decent,’ he growled. ‘Now. Today. I can look after the twins.’

‘My dresses are home-made,’ she told him.

‘So? My mother’s sewing machine is still here. Buy yourself what you need and I’ll twin-sit while you sew.’

‘We’ll help,’ the twins announced, and Erin grinned at the thought that conjured up.

‘Oh, great. I can see a twin sewed into each side of the zipper-with Sadie’s nose at the bottom.’

They chuckled at that, but Matt wasn’t to be sidetracked. ‘Seriously, Erin…’

‘Mmm?’ It was time for her to tilt her chin.

He tilted his right back. He could be obstinate, too. ‘The clothes Charlotte bought were just to tide you over until you got a wardrobe you liked.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘The draper’s open on Saturday afternoon. You could go in now.’

‘But the twins-’

‘The twins and I have more work to do,’ he told her. ‘And I’m more than capable of looking after them by myself.’ Then he paused at the sound of a car pulling up outside. He knew that sound. ‘And maybe I don’t have to,’ he continued. ‘Here’s the help I need.’

It was Charlotte.

Of course it was Charlotte, and Erin schooled her face into an expression of pleasure. After all, Charlotte had shopped for her, and she was Matt’s affianced wife. The fact that Erin had never been able to stand the woman should be irrelevant. So as Charlotte walked into the kitchen-without knocking-she found Matt and Erin smiling a welcome, and the twins looking up from their bacon with expressions of distrust.

The distrust was nothing new or personal. The twins distrusted the world.

‘You’re still eating breakfast!’ Charlotte, as beautifully presented as ever in her smart slacks and blouse and beautifully arranged chignon, stopped on the threshold and stared at them all in amazement. Her eyes fluttered to the delicate silver watch on her wrist. ‘Matt, darling, it’s ten o’clock!’

And then she saw the mud on the floor, and her breath drew in horror. ‘What on earth has been going on?’

‘They’ve been cleaning Cecil,’ Erin told her, rising and crossing to the woman at the door. She kept her smile straight, took Charlotte’s hands in hers and kissed her lightly on the cheek before Charlotte could pull away. ‘I hear congratulations are in order. You’re engaged to be married! That’s lovely news, Charlotte. And you’re not to be disgusted with us. This is our second breakfast-and the mud is Cecil mud.’

‘Cecil…’ Charlotte thought this through and her face cleared. ‘Oh, the bull. Of course. You’ve been cleaning your wonderful bull for tomorrow’s show. But, Matt, you know you should have stripped at the door-or made the children do it at least.’

She regarded the twins as one might regard two interesting but slightly disgusting creatures from the sea, and it took an almost Herculean effort for Erin to keep her smile pinned on.

‘It’ll only take minutes to mop, but the troops were hungry,’ she told her.

‘Well, I guess it was in a good cause,’ Charlotte said reluctantly. ‘As long as you do intend mopping, Erin. I don’t see that Matt has the time. We’re leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow.’

‘You’re leaving?’ It was Henry, his eyes swivelling toward Matt. His face was horrified.

‘I’m taking Cecil to the show,’ Matt told him. ‘It’s a two-day affair so I’ll only be away for one night.’ His brow creased. ‘I didn’t think you were coming, Charlotte?’

‘I’ve managed to find a place at the hotel,’ she told him. ‘The Royal’s very expensive, but it still has places.’ She gave her tinkling laugh, the laugh that made Erin shudder. ‘I thought…now that we’re engaged we should do things together.’

Urk. The boys winced, and inwardly Erin winced along with them. Charlotte’s sweetness was almost repelling.

And it seemed Matt found it almost as distasteful. He dredged up a smile and rose, carrying his plate across to the sink.

‘Well, that’s great.’ Then he turned back to Erin, and his face was under control again. ‘Erin, now that Charlotte’s here, I want you to hop it. Go into town and do your shopping.’

‘But what for?’ Charlotte looked from Erin to Matt and back to Erin. ‘I did all the shopping you could possibly want yesterday.’

‘And it was wonderful,’ Erin told her, but Matt shook his head.

‘Charlotte, if everything you owned in the world was destroyed by fire, could you imagine another woman supplying you with everything you need on one shopping trip? Without even discussing it with you first? You don’t think that Erin might just want to buy a couple of things herself?’

‘I guess…’ Charlotte faltered at Matt’s logic, but she obviously didn’t. In her view, Erin was a charity case, and charity cases deserved what they got.

But Matt was no longer listening. ‘Go, Erin.’

‘I’ll just clean up-and the boys can come with me.’

‘No.’ Matt’s voice was implacable. He took her shoulders, steered her to the door and forcibly propelled her out. ‘Charlotte and the boys and I will clear up, and then we’ll take hay around the cattle. We’ll be so busy we’ll hardly miss you. I don’t expect you back here before four o’clock. So go.’

She cast one worried look at the twins, but Matt wasn’t taking no for an answer.

‘If you’re sure…’

‘I’m sure. And so’s Charlotte. Aren’t you, sweetheart?’

Charlotte was stumped. There was nothing for a well brought-up young woman to say to that but yes, and she rose to the occasion with fortitude.

‘Of course.’ Charlotte gave them all her very sweetest smile. ‘You go and do your shopping, Erin. I’ll look after your responsibilities.’

Drat the woman!

Erin’s hands clenched on the steering wheel all the way into town, and by the time she got there she was still having trouble calming down. What Matt saw in that cold-blooded barracuda… Couldn’t he see what she really was? She was so nice to Matt, but so darned nasty to those she didn’t consider important.

It was nothing to do with her, she told herself, as she drove into Bay Beach. Matt’s love life was Matt’s business, and that was that.

She was here to shop.

And then she saw Shanni emerge from the greengrocer. Her face brightened. Shanni was a really good friend. Like Erin, she was a local girl from a farm where money wasn’t in oversupply and so, like Erin, she’d been given the cold shoulder by Charlotte from a very early age. What Erin needed now was a coffee, a chat with her friend and a very long whinge.

‘Where are the kids?’ she called, and Shanni beamed as she dumped her shopping in her car and headed across the car-park to her friend.

‘They’re at Mum’s. Oh, great. I was just going to head out to see you. You want a coffee and a chat?’

‘Do I ever,’ Erin told her. ‘If you don’t mind a bit of bitchiness thrown into the gossip.’

‘That’s my very favourite kind of gossip,’ Shanni said, and tucked Erin’s arm into hers. ‘What gives?’

Back at the farm it was Matt’s temper that was giving. He’d loaded the trailer with hay, the twins had helped cheerfully enough but when they headed out to the paddocks Charlotte decided she was coming, too.

Then, as William heaved his first bale off the trailer-no mean feat for one so small-she told him how to do it right.

‘The cattle trample it if you put it down in full bales,’ she told William sharply. ‘Wait until Matt cuts the twine and then throw it off a quarter at a time.’

William’s small face fell, he dropped behind the trailer and Henry, after looking at his twin, decided to do likewise.

They stumped along unwillingly, waiting to go home. Charlotte scolded. Matt tried to make things right but the more that was said the more the twins turned stubborn and mute.

‘You’ll be glad to get away tomorrow,’ Charlotte told him. ‘Kids are okay in small doses-in very small doses.’

‘They’re good kids.’

‘If they were good kids they’d have been adopted long before this.’

‘Hush!’ Charlotte’s voice was carrying. Matt cast a glance behind him. He didn’t think the twins had heard, but… ‘Be a bit careful of what you’re saying.’

‘I’m only telling the truth,’ Charlotte said stubbornly. ‘For heaven’s sake, they actually burned down a whole house. They should be a bit grateful for what you’re doing instead of grumping along like two spoiled brats.’

Yeah. Right. But they didn’t look like spoiled brats, Matt thought as he tried to cheer them up. They just looked like kids who knew they were hopeless and expected to be told that at every available opportunity.

‘Come and help me brush Cecil,’ he told them as they finally fed out the last of the hay. ‘He’ll be dry by now, and he needs to be brushed like he’s never been brushed before if he’s to win.’

‘Oh, Matt, really…’ Charlotte again, unable to resist putting in her oar. ‘As if they know the right way to brush a bull. I’ll help.’

‘Boys…’

‘I want to watch TV,’ Henry said, and William chewed his bottom lip and said nothing.

‘I’d really appreciate it if you could help me.’

Silence.

Erin arrived back at the farm feeling very much better. There was nothing like venting a little spleen with a friend, she thought cheerfully as she turned into the gate. That, a couple of bolts of material, a really gorgeous ready-made dress, new shoes and a bottle of her favourite perfume supplied by Shanni had made her feel she was ready to face the world again.

Or ready to face Charlotte.

They were in the kitchen. Erin pushed wide the door and knew they’d been talking about her. The conversation stopped dead as she entered, and Matt bit his lip.

It wasn’t anything good, Erin thought, but then, when had Charlotte ever said anything nice about her? Or anyone who had less money and influence than Charlotte?

‘Hi,’ she said brightly, determined to be cheerful. ‘I had to come home. Bay Beach ran out of things I could buy.’

‘Did the insurance money run to all this?’ Charlotte asked incredulously, looking at Erin’s parcels. She sniffed. ‘That’s the same perfume as Sally wears. It costs a mint. And you’ve never bought a dress from Della’s!’

‘I do get paid,’ Erin said gently. ‘I’m not exactly a welfare case, Charlotte.’ She dumped her parcels and somehow kept right on smiling. Then, because she knew it’d cut right to the bone, she couldn’t resist. ‘I even had money left over for lacy knickers. Because a girl just never knows…’ And that was enough of that! ‘Where are the boys?’

‘They’re watching television,’ Charlotte snapped, watching Matt’s face and not being reassured at all. He’d definitely heard what Erin said, and there was definitely a level of interest there. ‘They’ve been distinctly unhelpful.’

‘I expect they’re tired,’ Matt threw in, trying to appease-and trying not to think of Erin in lacy knickers-but Erin was no longer listening. She left them to each other.

If Matt was stupid enough to believe he loved Charlotte, then they deserved each other.

The twins weren’t watching television.

Erin went from there to the bedrooms. Then she searched the house, but there were no twins. Finally she returned to the kitchen.

‘They’re not in the house,’ she told Matt, and watched as his eyes widened. ‘Where else could they be?’

‘They’re watching television.’ He walked forward as if he thought she just wasn’t looking hard enough, and flung open the sitting room door. The television was blaring, but there were no twins.

They looked at each other-and they started to run.

She checked the river first.

It was Erin’s golden rule. Check out worst-case scenarios and work backward. The most dangerous places for the twins to be were the machinery shed and the river, so while Matt checked the sheds, she ran down along the track they’d used to go swimming.

They weren’t there, but something else was there that made her suck in her breath in dismay.

Oh no!

She looked back up at the house, and her fears were confirmed. There was Matt, emerging from the shed where Cecil had been groomed. He was holding a twin by each hand. Erin couldn’t see his face, but she could guess it’d look like thunder.

Because as soon as he saw the empty stall, he’d have guessed.

She turned around again and she sighed.

The river flowed on golden sand, and then curved away inland. As it did, the sand turned to mud.

That was where Cecil was. He was no longer confined, brushed and beautiful in the shed, ready for tomorrow’s show. He was rolling full length in the mud, doing what every self-respecting bull would do, given all the peculiar odours they’d put on his body.

He was getting it all off.

And he was now disgusting!