His Miracle Bride

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

HE WOKE and there was a deputation standing around his bed.

Abby. Donald. Bryce.

He winced. He glanced at the bedside clock and winced again. It was just after six. It was two when he’d finally got to bed, and he’d been up once with Bessy, who’d wanted to be entertained.

Bessy was now sleeping. With luck she’d sleep for a couple more hours.

‘It’s really early, guys,’ he muttered, but without conviction, already knowing his night was over.

‘We can’t find Wendy,’ Abby said.

‘And she’s made her bed and left a note,’ Donald added.

He sat up. Wide awake.

‘Here’s the note,’ Donald said and handed it over. His small face looked terrified. ‘It’s three hundred and twenty nine kilometres to Sydney.’

What the hell…?

He stared at Donald. And then he stared at the note.

I’ve gone to see Shanni. I have something really important to ask her-stuff I can’t tell Pierce. She gave me her address so I know where I’m going. I’ll ask Shanni to phone you when I get there.

‘When did she go?’ he whispered.

‘We don’t know,’ Abby whispered back. ‘I woke up and her bed was made so I went to see the boys.’

‘I felt her sheets,’ Donald said. ‘They’re cold.’

Dear God. The bottom seemed to sink out of his stomach. He stared at the surrounding children and saw his reaction mirrored in their eyes.

Wendy. The reliable one.

Walking to Sydney?

He dropped the note and reached for his jeans. ‘Blake! Nik!’ He erupted from the bedroom, bellowing for his brothers. Behind him, Bessy stirred into instant wakefulness and started to roar.

He couldn’t pay her heed. What were brothers for?

‘Get the hell up. Blake. Nik. Olga!’ By the time he reached the foot of the stairs, he’d hauled his windcheater over his head. He was groping in the pile of shoes habitually left in the porch as his brothers stuck sleepy heads out of the rooms where they’d been sleeping. Olga appeared from down the hall, wreathed in curlers.

‘Is it a fire?’ Nik demanded. Then a worse thought struck. ‘You’re not heading out to milk cows, are you? Cos if you are, there’s limits to brotherly love.’

‘I’m going to find Wendy,’ Pierce said, and he was already heading for the door. ‘She’s trying to get to Sydney. Hell, it’s impossible. Look after the kids. Kids, I’ll be back the minute I find her. I promise.’

‘Do you have your phone with you?’ Blake was awake enough now to lurch forward and grab his brother by the windcheater. ‘Where’s your mobile phone?’

‘He doesn’t carry it cos work rings up when Bessy’s crying,’ Donald said from the top of the stairs. ‘It’s in the charger. I’ll get it.’

‘She’s out there…’

‘Yeah, and if someone finds her and brings her home we need to be able to tell you,’ Blake said. ‘Nik, go with him.’

Nik was wearing boxer shorts, a stunned expression and nothing else. ‘I’m not waiting,’ Pierce snapped.

‘Okay, tell Nik where to look. Do we know where she was heading?’

‘Shanni’s.’

‘Does Shanni have a phone?’

Did Shanni carry a phone? Hell, how would he know? She’d still be with…Jules. Or Ruby? ‘Maybe…’

‘I’ll ring Ruby and find out,’ Blake snapped. Donald hurtled down the stairs and handed him the phone. He tossed it to Pierce, who took off towards the car as if he’d just been handed the Olympic baton.

‘Where will you look?’ Blake yelled.

‘She’ll be out on the highway. This is a dead-end lane. If she’s out there…’

‘Okay, bro, go. Head for the highway towards town. Nik will double check the lane and we’ll search here. And answer your phone when it rings.’

‘Will do,’ Pierce yelled. ‘Bessy needs changing.’

He was gone.

The drive from the farm into town was one of the longest journeys of Pierce’s life. There was no other way to get to Sydney-Wendy would know that. She’d have to walk into town to reach the highway. It would take her hours to get there.

Had she had hours?

And then what? There were buses, but she didn’t know the timetable. She didn’t have any money. Or did she? Surely she wouldn’t have taken…? He pulled over and rang home.

‘Check my wallet,’ he demanded.

‘Where?’

‘Bedside table.’

‘It’s full,’ Blake reported seconds later. ‘A hundred and fifty bucks in notes.’

It hadn’t been touched. So she was broke. Pierce drove on, feeling desperate. The closer to town he got, the sicker he felt. She couldn’t have walked this far. She couldn’t have called a cab-there were no cabs out here anyway.

Maybe she was hiding, but this was open country. Huge red gums in undulating paddocks. Clear verges. Nowhere a child could duck to hide from a passing car.

By the town boundary he was feeling just about as bad as it was possible to feel. And then some.

His phone rang.

He stared at it. Almost afraid to answer.

He pulled over and picked it up like it was poisonous.

‘She’s safe,’ Blake said, and the air in Pierce’s chest whooshed out like he’d been hit in the small of the back.

‘Safe.’

‘She’s at the police station, boyo,’ Blake said. ‘A milk tanker driver saw her with her thumb in the air. Hitch-hiking. He’s a family man, and he had enough sense to take her straight to the cops. She’s waiting for you there. She’s safe.’

‘Shanni?’

Shanni was sound asleep in Ruby’s spare room. She was asleep because she’d paced until five a.m. It took more than half a dozen rings before she realized her mobile phone was ringing.

‘Hi,’ she said, still half asleep.

‘Shanni?’ A deep male voice she didn’t recognise.

‘Yes?’

‘It’s Constable Bob Lester here, from the Craggyburn Police. You remember you gave me your number a few weeks ago?’

‘Yes,’ she said, trying to focus. Oh, great. A policeman waking her at dawn to ask her for a date. ‘Um…what can I do for you?’

‘I have someone here who’d like to talk to you,’ the policeman said gently. ‘Here you go, Wendy. She’s all yours.’

Wendy was sitting in the back of the police station, in a lounge the officers used during breaks. She was drinking hot chocolate, her eyes enormous over her mug.

The constable opened the door and she cringed.

Pierce thought his heart would break, right then and there.

‘Wendy,’ he whispered, and she put her mug very carefully on the table and lifted her chin. Defiant. Only it didn’t quite work. Her chin wobbled and sank again. She was still a very little girl.

‘Are you mad at me?’ she whispered, and it was enough.

He was over at the table, kicking a chair aside as if it was presumptuous enough to get in his way. He was hugging her, holding her tight against him, burying his face in her lovely short curls. Damn it he was weeping.

‘She’s okay,’ the police constable said from behind him, and he fought a bit for composure, hugged Wendy a bit more and then managed to put Wendy far enough away from him so he could see her face.

It was as tear stained as…well, as his must be.

‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.

‘There’s no need to be sorry. We have you safe.’

‘She’d been walking for hours,’ the constable said with a hint of reproof. ‘No one uses that road at that hour of night. The milk tanker starts at six and he found her on the first run. She had her thumb up like a real hitch-hiker. Then, when he stopped, she ran away.’

‘He…I was…’ Wendy tried to make her voice work, but failed. She was terrified. Her whole body was shaking. This child had learned the hard way that men weren’t to be trusted.

‘He didn’t know what to do,’ the policeman said. ‘But he thought, well, he chased her and caught her and brought her here. By the time he brought her in he had her calmed down a little-apparently he has a kid in her class at school-but she was scared witless.’

‘Hell, Wendy…’

‘I wanted to go to Shanni.’

‘I organized that at least,’ the cop said. ‘Before I rang your place I let her ring Shanni.’

Pierce was having trouble taking it all in. ‘You rang Shanni?’

‘If she’d gone to all that trouble, and we’d stopped her running away, the least I could do was let her phone.’

‘Did Shanni give you her number?’ Pierce asked Wendy, and Wendy shook her head and buried her face in Pierce’s shoulder again.

‘It was me,’ the cop said, a bit shamefaced. He motioned to a bit of art paper lying on the desk. ‘Shanni gave me her number a couple of weeks back. I was going to use it, too,’ he muttered. ‘But she was so caught up with all those kids. I’m not a family man.’

Pierce took Wendy home. She said little, huddled into the passenger seat as if still frightened, looking far younger than her years.

He couldn’t figure out the why, and she wouldn’t say.

‘I just had to ask her something,’ she whispered and that was all she’d say. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Wendy, if you ever want to ask anyone anything-if you ever want to visit anyone-just ask me. I swear I’ll take you.’

‘I know. But I needed to talk to her by myself.’

Even at home she wouldn’t talk. Olga took one look and showed her true colours-born mum.

‘The rest of you leave her alone. She’s had a nasty shock-anyone can see that. And look at those feet…walking all that way in sandals. Even though they are pretty. Into the bath with you, sweetheart, and Abby you come and sit beside her while I wash her. You.’ She turned on Pierce. ‘You make her a lovely soft egg with toast soldiers. We’ll feed it to her in the bath.’

‘Toast soldiers,’ Pierce said blankly.

‘Hey, even I know that one,’ Nik said, grinning. They were all grinning. ‘Hell, bro, you have a way to go in the parenting stakes.’

Wendy soaked in her bath. She ate her toast fingers and then Olga popped her to sleep on the ancient divan in the corner of the kitchen.

‘For you don’t want to be alone upstairs,’ she said. ‘The rest of you, shoo outside while I do some baking.’

‘Abby,’ Wendy whispered.

‘I’ll lie down with her,’ Abby volunteered, and Pierce thought his heart would break all over again.

‘There’s naught for you to do here,’ Olga told him, the way her words softened on the order telling him she understood a little of what he must be going through. ‘Go round up some cows, or whatever you do with cows.’

‘Hey, teach us,’ Nik said.

‘Aren’t you two going back to wherever you come from?’ Pierce demanded.

‘Hell, no,’ Blake said. ‘We’re waiting for the next instalment.’

Which happened approximately two minutes after they’d cleared the main course of Olga’s delicious roast lunch, and just as she was cutting and serving the apple pie.

Wendy was deeply asleep in the corner. Bessy was tossing food indiscriminately round her high chair. Everyone else was at the table

Shanni walked in. She looked like Pierce had that morning-jeans and windcheater-and she hadn’t taken time to brush her hair.

Dazed.

‘Hi,’ she said.

There was an awed silence.

‘Shanni,’ Pierce said stupidly.

‘Shanni,’ Abby yelled, as if she hadn’t seen her for a year. ‘Shanni’s here. Wendy, wake up, Shanni’s here.’

‘Why are you here?’ Pierce asked, trying to get his voice to work.

‘I’m here to ask if you’ll marry me.’

Pierce had been spooning creamed apple into Bessy’s mouth. His hand had locked, spoon halfway to Bessy’s mouth.

Around the table everyone else stayed frozen. But they all recovered before Pierce did.

‘Goody, I want to be flower girl,’ Abby said in a voice of profound satisfaction. ‘Donald, you’re not allowed to take all the cream.’

‘Cool,’ said Nik, shifting along the bench seat to make room. ‘You want some lunch?’

‘I bet you haven’t eaten.’ Olga rose and moved ponderously to the stove. She was still in her curlers and an amazing oriental housecoat, purple and black shimmering silk with deep pink tassles. ‘There’s still some roast. Or do you want to move straight to apple pie?’

‘Let the boy answer first,’ Blake said, and they fell silent again.

‘I don’t…’ He stared at Shanni. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘Wendy said you want to marry me,’ Shanni said. She hadn’t moved into the room. She was standing in the doorway, looking only at Pierce.

In the corner Wendy was waking. She didn’t move, curled into a warm little ball under the feather eiderdown Olga had spread over her. But her eyes were suddenly wary.

‘Wendy says the only reason you won’t ask me to marry you is that you don’t think I want the children,’ Shanni said. ‘But Wendy says she’d look after the kids. She’s offered for them all to go into a care home-but please will we visit.’

There was an almost audible gasp. All eyes moved to Wendy.

‘It’s…it’s true,’ Wendy whispered from the sidelines. ‘The child welfare officers say there’s houses for families as big as ours. We get care workers. And I thought…maybe we could come here at weekends. Sometimes.’

‘How about you stay here?’ Shanni said, suddenly sounding fierce, and blinking a bit. ‘How about if I just move in and we keep on like it is now? Me and Pierce and Olga and Wendy and Donald and Bryce and Abby and Bessy. And anyone else we can think of.’

‘You can’t,’ Pierce managed.

‘Why can’t I?’

‘Your career.’

‘Stuff my career,’ she retorted. But then she grinned. ‘But, in case you hadn’t noticed, this is a tourist district. It’s very, very trendy to come for a Sunday drive and visit art galleries. There are gallery owners in Paddington or The Rocks in Sydney who are moving to the country because they get more clientele that way.’

‘It’s not so much of a tourist district,’ Nik said, thoughtful.

‘It will be,’ Shanni said, and tilted her chin. ‘When people hear about the fantastic art gallery I’m going to open.’

‘Dolphin Bay would be better,’ Blake said.

‘Sorry?’ Distracted from Pierce, Shanni looked to his brothers.

‘It’d be better at Dolphin Bay,’ Blake said. ‘It’s screaming for a bit of culture. Money’s not a problem. Nor is commuting for Pierce. There’s a train, and he mostly works from home anyway. But you’d get many more tourists in Dolphin Bay. You could buy a big home there and open the world’s best gallery while Pierce keeps on with his architecture. And you could use this place for holidays.’

‘Sorry?’

‘Hey, it could be more than that.’ Nik was putting in his oar again. ‘I was talking to Hamish at the opening of Loganaich Castle. And Ruby. They had this vision of there being a network of places that could be used for disadvantaged kids. Or more, for families in crisis. Single mothers who are having a dreadful time. We could set this farm up to do the same thing. Us guys. The seven of Ruby’s boys. We could put in enough to make it work. We could call it Ruby’s Farm. She’d love it.’

‘What the hell…?’ Pierce was having trouble getting a word in edgeways.

‘We’ll do it.’ Nik said enthusiastically. ‘We’ll get you out of here and then we’ll change a few things. We might have to shift Clyde further from the house and put in a few more kid-friendly animals. Ponies. A couple of nice cats and a fat old dog. And get some lovely kid-friendly housekeeper, and a couple of kid-friendly helpers.’

‘I could be that,’ Olga said breathlessly. But then she looked at Pierce. ‘But no. I want to stay with you in Dolphin Bay. I have a friend, Maybeline, and she could come here. She had a farm before her husband took off with another woman and made them both bankrupt. She loves kids.’

‘And Ruby wants to move to Dolphin Bay,’ Blake added. ‘She told me. Apparently there’s a really good macramé club there. So all you need to do is find a big house there and you’re home and hosed.’

‘I think Ruby should have her own home, though,’ Nik said. ‘A cottage.’

‘Near your house, though,’ Blake added.

‘Excuse me,’ Pierce said and stood up.

‘Don’t you want to marry Shanni?’ Abby said in a small voice, and everybody hushed.

Shanni looked at him.

He looked at Shanni.

‘Yes,’ he said, and the collective breath was let out in a collective sigh.

‘But I need to ask her,’ he said.

‘No need,’ Blake said. ‘Job’s done. Olga, can you pass the pie down here, please?’

Pierce was in the middle of the table. Olga handed him the pie. He handed it on to Blake without thinking.

Shanni was looking confused. The rest of them had moved on, distracted by what looked a truly excellent pie.

It was a great pie.

‘Leave some for us or you’re dead meat,’ Pierce growled.

‘If you’re going to propose, then hurry up and do it,’ Olga urged. ‘Blake, that slice is too big. Nine equal portions. You cut and the rest of us choose.’

He took her out to Clyde’s paddock. The big bull was on the far side looking longingly at the cows beyond his boundary. Here at last was privacy.

Pierce had Shanni by the hand. He marched Shanni out to the gate and stopped.

‘You seem…angry,’ Shanni said tentatively, and he turned and faced her.

‘Exasperated, more like.’

‘Why?’

‘I like a bit of control.’

‘Me, too,’ she said.

‘So we have something in common.’

‘Something more than love for five kids?’

‘You love the kids?’

‘Of course I do,’ she said. ‘What’s not to love?’

‘Do you know how many times I get to sleep right through the night?’

‘Sleeping’s boring.’

‘Do you know what you’re letting yourself in for?’

‘It’d be okay,’ she whispered. ‘If…’

‘If what?’

‘If you loved me.’

The world stilled.

‘What makes you think I don’t love you?’ he said at last.

‘You’ve never said.’

‘I don’t know how.’

‘How to love?

‘No.’

‘It’s easy,’ she said, and it was her turn to sound exasperated. She linked her arms around his neck. She stood on tiptoe. She kissed him, ever so lightly on the lips, and then pulled away a little before he could respond.

‘This is how,’ she whispered. ‘Pierce MacLachlan, I love you. I love you from the tip of my toes to the top of my head. I love you more than I ever thought I could love anyone. I love you even more than I love Susie Belle.’

‘Susie Belle?’

‘You haven’t met her. You will. She’s about to make our Wendy very happy.’

‘Our Wendy.’

‘She is our Wendy,’ she whispered. ‘Our gorgeous little girl. The bravest kid. I love her so much.’

‘How much love have you got?’ he demanded, and she chuckled.

‘It just keeps on oozing out. I blame the ice water. It was sort of a cathartic experience. It released the inner me.’

‘Shanni…’

‘Yes, my love?’ She was still on tiptoes, still within kissing distance, still holding him.

‘I don’t know about the love thing.’

‘You don’t think you can love me?’

‘It seems I can,’ he said, sounding dazed. ‘It seems I do.’

‘But?’

‘I didn’t think I could do it. I’m still not sure.’

‘Okay, here’s a test,’ she said, kissing him again. ‘I’m moving in here anyway. I love these kids to bits. Ruby’s met them for one night and she loves them. So does Olga. You’ve just reclaimed a whole lot of money for me-so I can rent a great big house at Dolphin Bay, have an art gallery at the side and Olga and Ruby and I can take these kids off your hands and love them for ever. We can be one huge family. And you can slope off back to your independent life in Sydney, being the world’s best architect.’

‘I…’

‘I’m serious, Pierce,’ she said, and she sounded serious. The laughter had gone from her voice. ‘Wendy told me you wouldn’t ask me to marry you because you thought I’d hate being tied to the kids. Is that true for you? For I’m making you an offer, and I mean it. You can go back to your old life and we’ll live happily ever after without you.’

She took his breath away. What she was offering was so immense that he felt dizzy.

His old life back. Independence.

Wendy, Donald, Bryce, Abby, Bessy, Shanni, Ruby and Olga living in a glorious muddle of happy-ever-after in Dolphin Bay.

Without him.

The choice was a no-brainer.

The thought of being without them was suddenly so bleak he couldn’t bear it.

‘No.’

‘No? Then the next alternative is the same thing only without me in the equation,’ she said. ‘If you really don’t want me, then I can visit.’

‘No.’

‘I can’t visit?’

‘No, I don’t not want you.’

‘I’m having a little bit of trouble here,’ she said.

But suddenly it was crystal clear. A man had to do what a man had to do. She’d done the proposing. She’d thrown her heart into the ring. She’d told him she loved him. The abyss she’d put before him-life without any of them-made him see what he hadn’t been able to see until now.

He was deeply, madly, wildly in love with each and every one of them. Even Olga’s curlers.

But most of all…

He dropped to one knee.

‘Shanni.’

‘Ooh,’ she said.

He took her hands in his. ‘Shanni, I love you.’

‘Really?’ She looked pleased.

‘If you make any wisecracks I’m stopping.’

‘I’m not making any wisecracks. Though there’s a cow pat right to your left.’

‘Shut up.’

‘Yes, dear.’

‘I love you and I want you to marry me,’ he said, and suddenly the laughter was behind them. She was still smiling, but her eyes were misting with tears.

‘Pierce, are you sure?’

‘I’ve never been so certain of anything in my life. I love you so much I can’t bear to think of you giving up anything. I want you to have the perfect life, and here I’m saddling you with all of us.’

‘If you weren’t attached you wouldn’t be half as sexy.’

‘Really?’

‘Well, no,’ she admitted. ‘There’s jam on your collar.’

‘Shanni…’

‘Yes?’

‘Will you marry me?’

She gazed down at him for a long minute. She smiled and smiled and smiled.

Then she dropped to her knees to join him. She tugged him into her arms and she held him

The world shifted. For Pierce the world had been hauled out of kilter, somewhere about the time he’d been born. Ruby had tried her best to right it, but it had taken this woman, this glorious red-headed wood sprite, to finally teach him how the world should be. His Shanni. His miracle. His miracle bride.

And it seemed she was. ‘Of course I’ll marry you,’ she whispered. ‘Of course I will. Oh, my love. My Pierce. Welcome home.’

It was a honeymoon haven.

No person under the age of eighteen may visit Paradise, the brochure had said. Visitors to this island can be assured of a tranquil, tropical idyll, without the intrusion of children and their associated noise. Pristine beaches, magnificent rainforest, luxurious chalets and most of all…privacy.

Shanni and Pierce had been there for three days. Their honeymoon. Three days of married bliss, with not a child in sight.

‘For, much as I love our kids, I’ll be damned if I’m taking them on my honeymoon,’ Pierce had decreed, and he’d been masterly in his ultimatum, taking charge, a man who’d had to do what a man had to do.

And by the time her parents, Ruby, Olga and Susie had had their way with their Dolphin Bay wedding-two flower girls, two page boys, six groomsmen, one gorgeous, beaming seventy-year-old matron of honour and so many friends and relations that even Shanni had felt overwhelmed-she’d meekly agreed.

They lay now in a sheltered cove, their own idyllic place. No more than six couples at a time came to Paradise and there were beaches to spare. Shanni lay in Pierce’s arms. The sun was shining softly on her face. She was sated with love and with happiness…

‘Anchors ahoy, look lively, avast ye swabs…’

The peace of their morning was shattered. They looked up and saw a huge inflatable dinghy being paddled their way. Two men on paddles. Four kids within.

Blake and Nik and Wendy and Bryce and Donald and Abby.

Pierce scrambled to his feet, tugging a dazed Shanni with him. They were coated in sand. They’d been tumbling in the shallows. They’d been…

Well, some things were best left unexplained. Suffice to say Shanni was blushing as Pierce tugged her down to the water’s edge to meet the incoming dinghy.

‘You haven’t rowed all the way from the mainland, have you?’ Pierce demanded as the dinghy beached and the kids tumbled out, whooping, splashing, surrounding them with laughter.

‘We hired a yacht,’ Nik said proudly. ‘Ruby and Olga and Bessy are still on board.’

‘Ruby’s the captain,’ Wendy said, and giggled. ‘But Sam’s helping.’

Sam. Another brother.

‘You’re not allowed here,’ Pierce said, trying to sound stern, and failing.

‘We know that,’ Wendy said. ‘We rowed into two beaches before we found you, and the people told us. But we’re just checking.’

‘To make sure you aren’t missing us too much,’ Abby explained. ‘Are you?’

‘Yes,’ Shanni said, laughing so much she felt like crying. She swept Abby into her arms and hugged her.

‘You want to come home with us?’ Bryce asked.

‘No,’ Pierce said, and his brothers grinned.

‘Hey, bro, you really telling us, your family, that you don’t want us?’ Nik sounded wounded.

‘For two weeks I don’t want you,’ Pierce growled. ‘Then I’ve got you for the rest of our lives.’

‘You can have another honeymoon,’ Abby said. ‘When you really, really need one.’

‘Are you sure you’re not sick of this one?’ Wendy said. ‘It looks lonely to me.’

‘It’s not so lonely as you’d notice,’ Pierce said and then, as her face fell, he grinned and lifted her with the same ease Shanni had lifted Abby. ‘You’re having fun on your holiday. We’re having fun on ours.’

‘We’ve got lunch,’ Abby said. ‘Sandwiches. Do you want to have lunch with us?’

‘Yes,’ Shanni said, and giggled.

‘You can start your honeymoon again after lunch,’ Nik said, grinning at her.

‘Don’t grin at my wife,’ Pierce said.

‘He can grin all he likes at me,’ Shanni declared. ‘He’s family. Uncle Nik. Where are the sandwiches?’

‘You’ll be arrested,’ Pierce said.

‘Then we’ll all be locked up together,’ Shanni retorted, put Wendy down and grabbed Pierce’s hand. ‘Which is as it should be. This is perfect. Little bits of honeymoon interspersed with little bits of family.’

‘Lots of family,’ Pierce said.

‘You love it and you know it,’ she said serenely. ‘Little bits of honeymoon interspersed with lots and lots of family. For the rest of our lives.’