His Miracle Bride

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE morning they left the castle was heartbreaking. The kids were up at dawn for a last swim. Then they wandered the castle saying their private goodbyes to everything in the place. Pumpkins and suits of armour included.

Pierce said his own goodbye to Queen Vic.

‘Okay, large families are fun,’ he admitted. ‘But they didn’t make you smile after you lost your Albert.’

Was it his imagination, or had her expression changed? She looked…somehow more pitying than disapproving.

Weird.

‘Look after the aspidistra,’ he told her, and made his way down to the breakfast room. Susie’s pancake making was well under way. They’d have to learn how to make their own pancakes back at the farm.

Shanni would have made a mean pancake.

Cut it out.

He sat and ate, and the kids chattered, and Taffy begged a piece of pancake from everyone.

‘She’s going on a diet the minute you guys leave,’ Susie said sternly. ‘Just lucky she’s stretchy and there’s lots of her to fill.’

He’d miss Taffy. She nuzzled his hand under the table.

Maybe he could get the kids a dog.

He met Susie’s eyes over the plate of pancakes, and she beamed.

‘That’s a wonderful idea.’

‘What’s a wonderful idea?’ asked Wendy.

‘What your father is thinking. Now, there’s one more treat…’

‘Treat?’ The kids’ eyes lit up. Every morning there’d been some little thing to look forward to. A sand-castle competition. A trip to the local aquarium. Kite flying. Two days ago they’d all trooped into Dolphin Bay cottage hospital to check out the new Angus. He was jaundiced, so was spending the first few days of his life under lamps. The kids had been enchanted. A new little life…

Pierce had thought of the work Bessy had been, and cringed. But a puppy was a lot less work than a new baby. Maybe.

‘You’ll cope,’ Susie said with understanding, and he blinked. She read him like Shanni did. Dratted women.

‘Your today treat is dolphin watching,’ Susie said, and he stopped thinking about Shanni. For a moment.

‘We didn’t think we’d get a treat today,’ Donald said. He was the calculator of the family. The mind. ‘It took three hours to drive here. We have to be home by dark.’

‘And it’s nine o’clock now. You’re all packed. Mr Ross who runs Dolphin Bay Charters is picking you all up in half an hour, with your luggage. Mrs Ross will look after Bessy. You guys get to see the dolphins, then Mrs Ross will give you a picnic on the beach, and you get in the car by one. You’ll be home by four. All sorted.’

‘You won’t be coming?’ Wendy asked. The kids had learned to love bouncy Susie. They loved her smiley husband and her cute tot of a daughter. They’d miss everything about this place.

‘We have to get the place ready for a new lot of kids,’ Susie explained, and Wendy’s face fell.

‘Special kids?’

‘Not as special as you,’ Susie told her and smiled. ‘Kids come in and I look at them and they’re just kids. And by the time they go…’ Her eyes glimmered for a moment. ‘I’ll miss you all. You guys come back soon.’

She turned to her pancake batter and stirred with sudden violence. She sniffed.

Here was another one, Pierce thought. Tossing her heart at whoever needed it…

Like Ruby.

Like Shanni.

Didn’t they know…?

What?

The thought was suddenly unclear. The argument as to why he couldn’t be like that, too.

Bessy tossed a toast crust. It hit him right in the face, leaving a smear of jam over his left eyebrow.

The kids looked shocked-and then they giggled. They wouldn’t have giggled two weeks ago. This place was a gift.

Women like Ruby and Susie and…Shanni were a gift.

Enough. He had to move on.

‘Okay. Dolphins and then home,’ he told the kids, mock-severe. ‘And there’ll be no more toast tossing.’

Bessy chortled. Pleased with the reaction from the first piece, she tossed again.

Bull’s eye!

‘Will the balloons stay up until they get here?’

‘The instructions say they’ll stay up for twenty-four hours.’ Ruby was fitting red and gold balloons over the helium cylinder while Shanni tied ribbons. ‘I’ll sue if they don’t last that long.’

‘That one’s going down already.’

‘That’s cos you didn’t tie it tightly enough. Do you think we have enough sausage rolls?’

‘Dwayne’s mother’s organizing the food.’

‘I’m not keen on Dwayne as a boy’s name. Do you like my boys’ names?’

‘I do.’ Shanni frowned. ‘Did you choose them for their names?’

‘Just luck for four of them,’ Ruby said. ‘But then it got to be sort of a joke. My manly little boys with heroic names. So when I got Connor, Darcy and Dominic as unnamed babies I went straight to my favourite romance novels and found their names there.’

Shanni choked. ‘Your babies were named from romance novels?’

‘Can you think of a better way?’

‘Um…no.’

‘And at least they’re original. Not like two women fighting over one baby name. Eh, Susie? Eh, Kirsty?’

‘Don’t bring it up,’ Susie said darkly. ‘Kirsty, stop gooing over Angus and hand me those streamers.’

There were balloons on the gate.

‘There are balloons on our front gate,’ Bryce said.

‘Look at the balloons,’ Abby said.

‘Do you think someone’s pleased we’re home?’ Wendy asked. She’d been quiet all the way home. Coming back to the farm wasn’t unalloyed pleasure. The kids would have to start school again, and Pierce was aware they’d been given a tough time by the local kids. But what could he do?

‘Maybe Ruby’s housekeeper is here,’ he said cautiously, driving in through a gate that was already open.

‘I miss Shanni,’ Abby said.

‘She was never a housekeeper.’

‘She was better than a housekeeper,’ Bryce said.

Yeah. Pierce agreed with that.

‘There’s a car parked around the back of the shed,’ Donald piped up. ‘It’s not Shanni’s car,’ he added.

It looked like…it was! A police car.

What the…?

If he was in for another inquisition…

It didn’t fit with the balloons on the gate.

He took a deep breath. ‘Okay,’ he said, suppressing the urge to turn the car round and head back to the castle. ‘We need to find out what’s going on.’

‘Do you think it might be scary?’ Abby asked.

‘Not scary,’ he said, though when he glanced across at Wendy’s set face he wasn’t so sure. ‘Balloons aren’t scary.’

‘Housekeepers might be,’ Wendy whispered.

‘There’s only one way to find out,’ Pierce said stoutly. ‘Let’s go and see.

He parked the car. Silence. Not a sound.

They walked forward to the back door. Maybe the balloons had been left as a message of sorts. Maybe.

He went to unlock the back door but it swung open at his touch.

People.

If he’d have to describe that day later on in life, the only word he would find to fit was ‘chaos’.

He swung open the door and the place erupted.

There was a cacophony of noise. Bagpipes-someone was playing the bagpipes. Hooters. Whistles. Cheering. Someone was letting off streamer bombs. Someone? Lots of someones.

He backed away but people were tugging him in.

The kids were being picked up and carried into the room.

Susie had Abby. Susie!

Hamish had Donald.

Ruby was surging forward to lift Bessy from his arms.

Blake was there. His big brother! Blake was bending down, talking urgently to Bryce, then swinging him up on his shoulders.

Nikolai. Wasn’t Nik supposed to be in Mexico?

And Dwayne. The kid from the supermarket. And Dwayne’s mum. And the pharmacist. And the doctor. The cops as well. And numerous sun-worn couples he vaguely recognized as neighbours, and their kids, and…

Jake, the Dolphin Bay doctor from the castle was there from the castle as well, with Kirsty and their twins. Kirsty was laughing and holding a blue swathed bundle with pride. And Jodie and Nick. The whole castle team.

Shanni was elbowing her way through the mass, until she reached Wendy.

‘Wendy,’ she said in satisfaction. She hugged the little girl, who was clinging to Pierce. ‘You’re with me.’ Pierce felt her lifted away, but he felt like hanging on. Wendy might need him.

He might need Wendy.

Dwayne was holding a cake on a tray before him.

Dwayne?

The cake was massive. Vast and chocolate-coated, surrounded by strawberries, it had great red lettering on the top.

Welcome Home from All of Us.

From all of them.

Pierce stared round the crowded room. There were so many people that they didn’t fit. They were squeezing themselves in from out in the corridor. There were people on the back veranda with their heads in the window.

It sounded like there were people on the roof.

Dwayne’s mother gave Dwayne a poke in the small of the back. He gulped.

‘We wanted to welcome your family home,’ the boy managed, talking like he was strangled. ‘Um…Mum said…’

‘His mum said we’ve treated you like the pits,’ his mother said stoutly from behind him. ‘All of us have. We had five orphans in our midst and…Well, we were cruel, and it won’t happen again. The freezer’s got so many casseroles in it now that we’ve had to borrow Enid Murrihy’s second freezer and put it in the back shed. She says you can keep it,’ she added. ‘As long as she can put things in when her second daughter’s due home. Her daughter’s allergic, you understand, so she brings new-fangled food from the city. Enid freezes it and then buries it when Brenda goes home. She’s buried tons and tons of wheat-free bread-you wouldn’t believe.’

‘Mum…’

‘Anyway, we just wanted to say welcome,’ Dwayne’s mother said, getting back on track. ‘We’ve met your Olga and we think she’s lovely. Not that Shanni wasn’t lovely, but Olga’s much more suitable as a housekeeper. She’ll always get a discount at our supermarket, and you can’t say fairer than that.’

Olga.

To say he was hornswoggled was an understatement. He gazed across the crowd to Shanni. She was dressed as he’d never seen her dressed before-in a gorgeous soft pastel dress with scooped neckline and flowing skirt that reached mid-calf. She looked happy, he thought.

Well, why wouldn’t she be happy? She had her money back. She had her life back. She’d go back to London…

Shanni was motioning to a middle-aged lady standing beside Ruby. Olga?

If it was indeed their housekeeper then Olga was different. She was stout and rosy-cheeked. She was dressed in jeans that were a wee bit too tight for her. She was wearing an oversized gingham shirt and boots that came straight out of the Wild West.

‘Hi,’ she said.

‘You’re Olga? You’re our new housekeeper?’

‘I might not be your housekeeper,’ she said, smiling nervously as everyone else in the room grinned at Pierce’s confusion. ‘It’s up to you. Ruby knows I’ve been at a loose end. I used to foster, but then I got done for shoplifting-chocolate, you know?-it was one of the kids’ birthdays and my ex-husband had just broken in and taken all the housekeeping money-and I got a conviction and now I’m not allowed to foster, but I’ll never shoplift again. I swear.’

There was a moment’s stunned silence from the assemblage. Dwayne’s mother drew in her breath on an audible gasp.

‘I know you won’t,’ Ruby said clearly into the silence. ‘That’s why I said you might be suitable for Pierce.’

‘Ruby’s the best judge of character I know,’ Shanni added.

For some reason all eyes turned back to Dwayne’s mother. She took a deep breath. Recovered.

‘That’s fine, then,’ she said gamely. ‘If Shanni vouches for you, then it’s fine by me. It’s still ten-percent discount, and if ever there’s a birthday and you’re broke then you come to me before you return to a life of crime.’

General laughter. General cheering.

Hey, he hadn’t even interviewed the lady yet, Pierce thought, yet the whole community had seemingly accepted her as a done deal.

‘Give it up, mate,’ Dwayne said softly, still holding the cake. ‘It’s the women that rule.’

They certainly did. His eyes went again to Shanni. She was watching him. She was laughing, but even so…Her eyes said that she knew what he was feeling.

She’d given him a replacement for her.

‘Cut the cake, cut the cake,’ people were saying.

‘Right.’

‘Speech,’ someone else said.

‘In your dreams.’

More laughter. The cake was set on the table. They cut it as a family, Pierce’s broad hand holding the knife, and Bryce, Donald, Wendy and Abby’s hands on top.

Someone brought Bessy forward to encourage her to put her hand down, too.

‘Da,’ Bessy said, and put her fist squarely into the middle of the cake. And then into her mouth.

The party had officially begun.

It wasn’t just a party. It was almost a fair, without the profit making. There were donkey rides, apple bobbing, face painting. There were egg-and-spoon and sack races, and toss-the-caber competitions. There was more food than anyone could possibly eat. Pierce moved through the rest of the day as if in a dream, watching the kids-his kids-being embraced by the locals. Being welcomed. Receiving apologies, and promises of largesse from so many people.

For a man who was used to walking alone-who’d spent a lifetime perfecting the art-it was almost overwhelming.

Two of his brothers-Blake and Nik-were here, clapping him on the shoulder, laughing at him, but looking at him with some small concern. His foster brothers had all been raised in the school of hard knocks themselves. Their isolation was an art they valued. Pierce seemed to be tossing it away, and it troubled them.

It troubled him. But…

But he didn’t know what.

The kids finally wilted. He took them up to bed and came down again to find clearing up had begun. There was still a party happening outside but inside a team was washing, scrubbing, wiping, gossiping-the farm was alive.

Ruby was in the middle of it, having a ball. She saw him come down the stairs. She laid down her dish cloth and came across to him, and before he knew what she was about she’d enveloped him in a huge hug. Her small, bosomy person held him close, and he felt about six again.

He’d never let himself get too close to Ruby, but she’d always hugged him regardless. Did she know how much those childhood hugs had meant to him?

‘Thank you,’ he said gruffly as she finally released him.

‘It’s Shanni you have to thank, not me.’

‘You found Olga.’

‘She’s a treasure. She’s as desperate for a family as you were.’

‘I’m not.’

‘Not any more,’ she beamed. ‘Oh, Pierce, this is absolute joy.’

‘I’m not-’

‘Of course you’re not,’ she said, deliberately cutting across a denial she maybe guessed he was about to make. ‘We’re cleaning up. You go and find Shanni.’

‘Did Shanni organize this?’

‘Shanni and Susie. The world’s bossiest women. Go find her.’

‘Where is she?’

‘She said she was going out to talk to a bull.’

‘Shanni said…?’

‘She said it was a nice bull.’

Hell. He was out of the kitchen before she could say another word, striding through the bunches of people congregated on the veranda, seeking only one person.

He rounded the veranda and stepped down into the garden. Over to the gate to the bull paddock…

She was sitting on the gate post.

Clyde was right beside her.

She wasn’t in the actual bull paddock. If Clyde turned nasty she could simply swing herself off the post. Even so, the sight of her beside the great bull made him feel ill.

‘Shanni.’

‘Hi,’ she said without turning round. It was like she was expecting him. ‘I’ve just been explaining to Clyde that I’ve forgiven him. It wasn’t his fault. Dwayne told me what happened. Local kids being stupid. Cruel. Listening to their parents’ accounts of wanting you gone and taking matters into their own hands.’ She sighed. ‘It can happen so fast. To turn you into the local pariah…’

‘They never did that.’

‘Oh, yes they did. You were lucky they didn’t run you out of town with the odd bit of tarring and feathering to go with it.’

‘But you changed all that.’

‘I just told them the truth. It wasn’t so hard. If you’d told them yourself…’

‘How could I tell them?’

‘Any number of ways,’ she snapped, sounding irritated. ‘Like for instance stopping to gossip to the ladies in the supermarket. Asking them for the right kind of laundry powder, and admitting you’d been landed with five kids and you didn’t know the first thing about laundry. If you’d done that you would have got them behind you, no questions asked, months ago.’

‘I couldn’t…’

‘Open yourself to people? Don’t I know it.’ She leaned down and scratched Clyde behind the left ear. ‘I’ve just been telling Clyde you’re a dodo.’

‘A dodo.’

‘A very clever dodo.’

‘Shanni…’

‘Mmm?’

‘Will you…?’ He hesitated.

She straightened and stared at him. ‘Will I what?’

There was another lengthy pause. Shanni had stopped scratching. The big bull tossed his head and nudged her legs. She gave a rueful smile and started scratching again.

‘I seem to have given myself a lifetime job,’ she whispered. ‘Will I what, Pierce?’

He couldn’t say. The words that were crowding into his head refused to be uttered.

He’d been sucked into a vortex that was terrifying. No matter what, it seemed he was going down.

His life was no longer self-contained. He had five kids. He had a convicted criminal of a housekeeper called Olga who he just knew was going to end up as dependent on him as the kids were. He had Ruby back on his case. Sometime during the afternoon she’d handed him a parcel-macramé sweaters times five.

And tonight as he’d put Donald to bed the little boy had hugged him. Donald. The last of the kids to accept him.

He’d hugged him back and, damn it he’d felt like crying. He’d let himself in for a lifetime of macramé. And domesticity. The whole catastrophe.

Did he mind?

Maybe not so much, he thought. It was as if he’d been hit by flood water but somehow he’d managed to float. Now he was being swept along, out of control, but somehow he was even managing to enjoy the ride.

But Shanni…She had what he could no longer have. Independence.

‘Will I what?’ she asked again, and the words that had half formed disappeared from view.

‘They’re taking orders for coffee,’ he said, and he felt her withdraw just a little.

‘You came to find me to see if I wanted coffee?’

‘Yes. I…And I was worried about you being with Clyde.’

‘You think I’d get in the bull paddock? I’m not so dumb.’

‘I don’t want you taking any risks.’

There was a moment’s silence. ‘You think I’m a risk taker,’ she said at last.

‘Yes.’

‘I’m not.’

‘You throw your heart into the ring.’

‘That’s risk taking?’

‘Yes.’

‘But there’s good things that can happen because of it,’ she said, so softly he had to lean forward to hear. ‘I got to toss ice water over naked people, and that has to count as one of life’s great pluses. I got my money back, thanks to Blake, the sweetie. You have the most gorgeous foster brothers. Nik has asked me out.’

That was a kick in the gut. Nik. You bastard… ‘You’re not going?’

‘I’m busy,’ she said with dignity. ‘I’m starting a new gallery.’

‘In London?’

In Sydney. I’m going to be wildly fashionable, and I’m buying a dog.’

‘A dog.’

‘Like Taffy. I want one just like Taffy.’

‘You deserve something better.’

‘Yeah?’ She turned to him then, puzzled. ‘What could be better than Taffy?’

‘I-’

‘Having five kids?’ She was teasing, smiling down at him in the moonlight. ‘And an Olga and a Ruby and a community like this?’

‘Shanni…’

‘Coffee,’ she said and jumped off the post, so suddenly that she caught him unawares. His hands came out instinctively and caught her. Steadied her. Held her close.

She smelled wonderful, he thought. She felt wonderful.

He wanted to…

Shanni…

She didn’t move. She stared up at him, seemingly bewildered.

And then she recovered. He saw her face change, as if coming to some sort of conclusion. She gave the tiniest of nods.

She tilted her chin and looked mockingly up at him. She put her hands on either side of his face, and she drew his head down so her mouth could meet his.

For the third time she kissed him.

It wasn’t a kiss. It was a dare.

She held him tight against her. She kissed him, like it or not, and who was he to argue? He should, but he couldn’t. Any argument was simply kissed out of him.

He didn’t move. He didn’t respond. Her kiss deepened and deepened some more. Then she was drawing away, just a little, but still holding his face in her hands.

‘Coward,’ she teased, and kissed him again.

What was a man to say to that? He’d been thrown a challenge. What was a man to do, but kiss back?

One kiss, he promised himself. This night and then it was over. She’d retreat to her life and he’d stay with his.

But meanwhile…

He kissed her as if he’d never let her go. He kissed her as he’d never kissed a woman before, letting go, releasing all his pent-up longing, his aching to be loved, his need to be a part of something that wasn’t just him…

She must feel what he was feeling. She must know…

She was the other half of his whole. She was the partner he’d never hoped to find-the woman he hadn’t known existed. Shanni…

The kiss went on and on, achingly, heartbreakingly wonderful. He couldn’t release her. He mustn’t. Shanni…

‘Coffee!’ The yell was loud enough to wake the dead. It was Dwayne, yelling into the darkness, straining to see beyond the pool of light cast by the lanterns on the veranda.

‘Hey, guys, come and get coffee. And Shanni, Ruby says are you going to drive her home, cos if you don’t come soon she’s sleeping off the champagne here and now. And Mum says everyone can stay for breakfast if they want, but there’s not enough eggs.’

And that was that.

They broke apart. Rational thought prevailed. Sort of.

Shanni took a step back and gazed up at him in the moonlight. She looked bruised, he thought. Confused.

Frightened?

Yeah, frightened. He couldn’t bear it. He put a hand on her cheek lightly, a feather touch.

If he was falling for someone with the encumbrances he had, he’d be terrified as well.

‘Hey, don’t look like that. I’m not asking anything of you.’

‘No?’

‘It doesn’t mean anything.’

‘What doesn’t?’

‘Kissing.’ He had to say it. Dwayne was still staring down into the darkness. Any minute now he’d get sick of staring and jump down and make certain it was them.

‘It’s just…kissing?’ she whispered.

‘Of course it is. What else could it be?’

‘You don’t want…?’

‘Hey, I have enough encumbrances,’ he said, trying to keep his voice steady. ‘I’m not in the market for more.’

The fear he’d seen-or had he imagined it?-faded. It was replaced by bleakness. And maybe a little anger.

‘I guess I’m not either,’ she managed.

‘You’re setting up an art gallery in Sydney.’

‘So I am.’

‘It’d never-’ He paused. ‘No.’

‘It might,’ Shanni said urgently. ‘Pierce, it might.’

‘I don’t do relationships.’

‘No?’

‘No,’ he said flatly and then again as if it needed accentuating. ‘No.’

‘But you’re father to five…’

‘Yeah, so isn’t that enough?’ He hesitated, but it had to be said. He might be falling in out of his depth, but he was damned if he was dragging her down with him. ‘Get out of here, Shanni,’ he said gently. ‘While the going’s good.’

‘You mean cut and run?’

‘Yes.’

‘As you’d like to do?’

‘Yes.’

‘Would you really like that? To be free again?’

‘Of course.’

There was a moment’s silence. ‘Coffee?’ Dwayne called again from the veranda, sounding unsure. He’d assumed they were out there but he couldn’t hear them.

‘I don’t-’ Shanni said, and then she stopped. ‘Pierce…’

‘No,’ he said, so forcefully that Dwayne heard.

‘It is you,’ he said from the veranda. ‘Everyone’s looking for you. Mum says do you want her to come back at breakfast time and bring eggs?’

‘No,’ Pierce said again.

‘No?’ Dwayne sounded confused.

‘Everyone’s going home,’ Pierce said, but his eyes didn’t leave Shanni’s.

‘Everyone?’ Dwayne asked.

‘Olga can stay,’ he said.

‘That’s magnanimous of you,’ Shanni muttered. ‘Your brothers have come from overseas.’

‘You sent for them.’

‘Ruby did. She said she was worried about you, and before we could blink they were in the country.’ She hesitated. ‘Blake’s been magnificent. And…’ She took a deep breath. ‘Nik is cute.’

‘Don’t you dare go out with him.’

‘Why not?’

‘He’ll break your heart.’

‘Not possible.’

‘Of course. Mike’s already broken it.’

She flinched. Then, ‘You know, I thought for a bit that he might have,’ she said. ‘But I didn’t know the first thing about loving. And I sure as heck didn’t know the first thing about broken hearts. It’s taken an expert to teach me.’

‘Shanni…’

‘If you really don’t want me, then I’ll go,’ she said, and she broke away. ‘I’m coming, Dwayne,’ she called. ‘And your mum doesn’t need to worry about eggs. There’s enough food in the kitchen to feed Pierce’s immediate family and he has no intention of expanding it.’

She left soon after. She helped Ruby into the car, and the two of them headed off, with only Ruby looking back.

‘I hate to leave,’ Ruby whispered as the lights from the farm faded from view. ‘It seems wrong.’

It did seem wrong. Shanni’s face was set. Ruby glanced at her cautiously and then looked away.

‘I’m sorry, dear.’

‘It’s not your fault he’s a pig-headed, independent, bottom-feeding maw worm.’

‘You’ve got it bad,’ Ruby whispered.

‘I have,’ Shanni agreed and didn’t say anything.

‘You love him very much?’ Ruby murmured after a while.

‘More than life itself. Almost more than I love his kids.’

‘Oh, Shanni…’

‘But I’ll get over it,’ Shanni muttered. ‘I have to. And Mum and Dad get home tomorrow. Yay, I’ll get my bedroom back. I’m in extraordinary need of Susie Belle.’

‘Pierce?’

He was back standing against the post where Shanni had sat. Even Clyde had deserted him. Behind him, the house was in silence. The partygoers had gone. Blake and Nik were still here, as was Olga, but he’d said goodnight and left them. He’d assumed they were asleep.

But not Blake. Blake was two years older than Pierce, and he’d taken on the role of eldest sibling.

‘There’s a beer back here on the veranda,’ he called.

‘I don’t need a beer.’

‘Yeah, you do,’ Blake said easily. ‘You’ve hardly had a drink all night. You’ve looked like you were being chased by demons. Everyone else has had a ball, and you’ve looked like you were being chained and tossed into a dungeon.’

‘Hell, I didn’t…?’

‘Oh, you smiled,’ Blake said. ‘No one who didn’t know you well could guess.’

Should he say he hadn’t guessed himself until Ruby had grabbed him on the way to the car? ‘Talk to your brother. He’s in love with Shanni and he won’t admit it,’ she’d said.

Talking personal stuff didn’t come easy to any of them, but for Ruby’s sake-and for Pierce’s-he guessed he’d try.

So Blake tugged a couple of ring pulls and they drank beer and stared into the night for a while. Pierce had turned off all the outside lights and Blake hadn’t turned them on again. There was only the moonlight. And silence.

‘Ruby says you’re in love with Shanni,’ Blake said at last, and Pierce almost choked on his beer.

‘What the hell?’

‘She says you’ve got it bad. But you’re being stubborn.’

‘What does she know?’

‘Of all the people in the world, maybe it’s Ruby who knows us best,’ Blake says. ‘She’s seen us at our worst. She took us in and loved us, regardless.’

‘She’s great.’

‘Shanni says we have to toss out the stipulations on her apartment. She says it’s cruel.’

‘Shanni’s right.’

‘She’s quite a girl,’ Blake said cautiously. ‘Mind, she’s Ruby’s niece, so she has a head start. Nik is really taken with her.’

‘Tell Nik to leave her alone.’

‘Tell him yourself, little brother. And, if you don’t want her, what’s the problem?’

‘She deserves better…than us.’

‘What’s wrong with Nik? He scrubs up quite well. You’ve seen him in a suit. He earns a fortune. Some women would describe him as a catch.’

‘Yeah, but you know us. We don’t do…the love bit.’

‘I’m seeing you come pretty close,’ Blake said cautiously. ‘Five kids. What the hell were you thinking?’

‘If you’d met Maureen you wouldn’t ask. There was no choice.’

‘No.’ He hesitated. ‘I guess there wasn’t. But after it was a done deal, you could have packed them all back to Sydney. You’d get housekeepers there. You could have organized a crèche and after-school care. You could have stayed almost as independent as you once were. But you stayed here, boyo. Something inside must have seen what these kids needed.’

‘That’s Ruby talking.’

‘Yeah, it is,’ Blake agreed ruefully. ‘She said your independence is shot to hell and you’re in love with Shanni, and why don’t you ask her to marry you and be done with it.’

‘Because she’d say yes.’

Hmm.

Blake concentrated on his beer for a moment. Pierce stared out into the darkness, listening to his words echo in his head. He’d said it. The unthinkable.

‘You think she might love you back?’ Blake asked, and Pierce thought, he’s not asking if I love Shanni. He’s assuming it. Was it that obvious?

‘She might,’ Pierce said at last. ‘She’s a soft touch.’

‘She’s a nice kid.’

‘She feels sorry for me.’

‘Hey, I saw her watching you when you carried the kids up to bed,’ Blake said. ‘I’m pretty impervious to sentiment, but what I saw on her face wasn’t pity.’

‘No?’

‘Pure unadulterated lust, mate,’ Blake said with satisfaction. ‘Should be more of it. You think she’s hot? She’s besotted. So…You’re stuck here with five kids. One wife’s not going to make much difference, and it might make both of you happier. Come on, bro. It’s happy families. You’ve got the babies. Now you need the bride.’

‘You think I’d lay that on her?’ he snapped, revolted.

‘Why the hell not?’

‘Because she’s generous to a fault. She feels desperately sorry for the kids. She knows just how they feel-she has Ruby’s sixth sense. She’s just like Ruby. She tosses her heart into the ring without thinking of the consequences. She’s a brilliant art curator. To ask her to marry me and be saddled with five kids and their associated baggage…’

‘She can always refuse.’

‘She wouldn’t. She couldn’t. She’s too dammed soft-hearted.’

‘So you’re going to protect her like we tried to protect Ruby,’ Blake said. ‘Yeah, like that worked. We made Ruby miserable. It was Shanni who made us see. Surely you could give her the benefit of the doubt-that she’s an intelligent woman who knows you’re set up with a housekeeper and that you’re not asking her to scrub and bake?’

‘But she would scrub and bake. I know Shanni.’

‘Then surely she should be allowed to?’

‘Hell, Blake, if you were me would you ask her to marry you? I’m under a huge debt to her as it is. I won’t be obligated to her any more.’

‘You think she’d be doing you a favour, marrying you?’

‘Of course she would.’

‘Ask her and see what her reaction is.’

‘No.’

‘You want me to ask her?’

‘Don’t be daft.’

‘No, I mean it. I could just have dinner with her and run the idea past her…As sort of a hypothetical…“Would you ever consider marrying a man with five kids and a chip on his shoulder the size of Ayer’s Rock?”’

‘No.’

‘Or Nik could ask.’

‘No!’

‘Then ask her yourself.’

‘No to that, too,’ Pierce said bleakly. ‘What sort of life would I be asking her to share?’

‘A chaotic one, I’d agree,’ Blake said, finishing his beer and standing up. ‘But surely she has the right of refusal?’

‘I’m not asking.’

‘Have it your own way,’ Blake said, holding out a hand and hauling him to his feet. ‘Ruby asked me to say all this, so my job here is done. But the way I see it you’re in love with her. And if you don’t ask her to marry you, someone else will.’

‘Someone else is welcome to.’

‘Nik?’

‘I’d kill him.’

‘Yeah, well, she’ll marry someone,’ Blake said. ‘If you won’t let me intervene, talk to Ruby.’

‘No.’

‘You don’t want to marry her?’

‘Of course I do. But I’m not asking. She has a life.’

Silence. The old house seemed to slumber.

But upstairs on the box seat, under the girls’ bedroom window, Wendy sat in her nightdress hugging her knees. Her bedroom window was wide open. Right over the place where Blake and Pierce had shared their beer.

‘If you don’t ask her to marry you, someone else will…’

‘I’m not asking.’

She hugged her knees some more. Then she climbed back into bed and tried to close her eyes.

‘If you don’t ask her to marry you, someone else will…’

‘I’m not asking.’

The night stretched out before her.

‘If you don’t ask her to marry you, someone else will…’

Who?