Читать книгу: «Look-Alike Fiancee»

CHAPTER ONE

IT WAS wonderfully cool and peaceful in the pine forest. The only sounds were the clear flute-like calls of the bellbirds and the swish of dry pine needles beneath Ginger’s hooves. Taryn sat back in the saddle with a contented sigh, letting her fingers relax on the reins.

It was a mistake.

A kangaroo hopped out of the pines, causing Ginger to rear in fright. It happened so abruptly, so unexpectedly that it was too late for Taryn to grab hold of the reins, too late to save herself. She was already hurtling backward out of the saddle.

She landed flat on her back in a cushion of prickly pine needles.

For a second she lay with her eyes closed, trying to gather her scattered wits. She’d suffered no injury, she was sure of it. Nothing hurt. Nothing was broken. And yet...

Why did she have the feeling that she was floating...drifting away on a cloud of euphoria...dreaming a beautiful dream? Dreaming that firm, warm lips were pressing against hers...tasting...lingering...relishing...

Her eyes fluttered open.

She was dreaming. Or, if not dreaming, drowning. Drowning in a tropical blue-green sea, stabbed with pinpricks of gold.

‘Well...it worked,’ said a deep velvet-soft voice.

Her lips parted, her eyes slowly focusing on the deeply bronzed face above her. She must be dreaming. Or else she’d died and gone to heaven. Could any mortal male be this good-looking? Firm-jawed, straight-nosed, suntanned... a very masculine face, full of strength and character. And breath-stopping sex appeal.

And those eyes! She felt herself drowning in them all over again, swallowed in a swirl of turquoise and jade.

‘What worked?’ Her lips formed the question, barely more than a husky whisper. He’d woven some kind of magic spell...was that what he meant?

‘Kissing you awake. It worked for Sleeping Beauty. I thought it might work for you.’ He brushed her hair away from her face, before idly winding a glossy black strand round his finger.

She blushed. Which was a first. Taryn Conway, blushing.

The realisation that she was passively lying on the ground blushing—reacting to a man she didn’t even know, a man who shouldn’t even be there—shattered the spell.

The dream disintegrated. She wriggled away and sat up abruptly, jerking her hair from his fingers.

‘Who are you?’ She assumed her most withering tone. Not just to cover her blushes, but to cover the stark awareness that she was alone in a shadowy, deserted forest, deep in Victoria’s Strzelecki Ranges, with a complete stranger. What was he doing, skulking around in a privately owned forest, jumping out at people?

‘I might ask you the same question.’ He leaned back on his haunches, his glinting aqua eyes steady on hers. He was wearing faded jeans stretched tight over solid thighs, heavy leather boots, and a blue bush shirt with rolled-up sleeves, slashed open at the front. She averted her eyes from the skin-prickling glimpse of deeply tanned flesh and hard muscle.

‘You do realise you’re trespassing?’ She bravely eye-balled him, hoping her crisp, quelling tone would have its usual effect. She’d used it a hundred times before to crush men who deserved to be crushed. Men who were only attracted to her, she suspected, because of her family name and her father’s wealth.

He lifted a dark, taunting eyebrow. No sign of any crumbling in this man. She was the one who had to steel herself against the impact of those startling eyes. Not that she showed any reaction...not by so much as a flicker.

Now that they were at eye-level, a metre or so apart—she was still sitting, her hands curled round knees drawn up defensively in front of her—she had the chance to examine him more closely. More clinically. If it was possible to be clinical about a man with eyes that could stop a girl’s heartbeat.

She noted the powerful shoulders, the strong brown arms, the way his dark hair fell in unruly waves over his brow and ears—he was in dire need of both a comb and a haircut—and the hint of raw strength in the man’s well-muscled, super-fit frame.

She felt her heart give a disconcerting jump, and wasn’t sure if it was a flutter of fear—or admiration. At arm’s length he looked tougher, rougher, more dangerous...the blue-green eyes appearing sharper, bolder, more unnerving...nowhere near as mesmerising or as dreamlike as they’d been up close. The thick eyebrows seemed even thicker and fiercer, and there was a steely ruggedness about the stranger’s strong jaw that suggested he would be a formidable foe in any fight.

What hope would she have against him? She might be able to handle a horse—although she had doubts about even that after her ignominious tumble a moment ago—but she had grave misgivings about her hopes of fighting off this man in a struggle.

She felt her bones dissolving at the thought of him overpowering her. But it wasn’t so much fear making her weak as a devilish, heart-racing excitement...the kind of excitement she felt when she urged her mount towards a seemingly impossible jump...the thrill of facing a danger that was truly challenging, and worth facing.

It was a feeling new to her. Dangerously new.

‘Trespassing?’ he repeated, his tone more sardonic, she noted edgily, than defensive. ‘I’ve been riding up in this forest for years, and this is the first time anyone’s accused me of trespassing.’

‘Riding?’ she echoed, glancing round. ‘I don’t see your horse anywhere.’ Even Ginger had deserted her, she realised in alarm. Where was he? Not that Fernlea was all that far away. She could always walk back if necessary. If this wild-haired stranger gave her the chance...

A shivery sensation brushed down her spine.

‘I left Caesar in the orchard. You do know about the orchard?’ he enquired coolly.

She lifted her chin, feeling her control slipping and this brazen trespasser gaining the upper hand. What did he mean, he’d been riding up here for years? Not in the past year he hadn’t. Who was he?

‘I know there’s an old fruit orchard in the forest—yes.’ She scrambled to her feet, deciding she was at a disadvantage sitting on the ground. ‘What were you doing there? Stealing fruit?’

‘Stealing fruit?’ Scorn spiked his voice as he rose to his feet too, causing her to step back, her hand fluttering to her throat ‘I’ve been picking fruit up here for as long as I’ve been riding up here. The powers-that-be at the paper company don’t mind. They’re happy for the residents around here to keep an eye on the forest and help maintain the fire breaks. If they weren’t, they’d have fenced it all off.’

‘The residents?’ she echoed weakly, feeling doubly weak now that he was towering over her. She took another step back, assuming her quelling tone again to bite out, ‘You don’t live around here!’ She’d met all the locals who did. ‘Do you?’ she added uncertainly, noting the mocking curve of his lips.

‘I haven’t lived here for a while, no, but my home’s here and my father’s a long-time resident. Who are you?’ he rapped without enlightening her further. ‘An over-zealous forest ranger? An employee of the paper company? If not, then you—if you wish to quibble about it—are trespassing yourself!’

She drew herself up to her full height of five feet six inches. Which was still several inches below the square jaw above her.

‘I own this forest,’ she said imperiously. ‘At least, my family does.’

His eyes turned to glinting aqua slits. ‘You’re saying Gippsland Paper has sold this pine forest? To your family?’

‘That’s right. My father made them an offer and they accepted.’ She felt a momentary qualm as something dark and dangerous flared in his eyes. ‘They’ve been selling off some of their smaller plantations, and this one wasn’t of much use to them anyway—it’s never been thinned out. Access would have been difficult too, with all those heavily timbered hills behind and no roads. They were happy to get rid of it, I think.’

‘Your father bought it, you said.’ Now there was pure ice in his eyes. ‘Your father wouldn’t happen to be Hugh Conway, the city big shot who bought Fernlea a year ago, by any chance?’ He waved a hand in the general direction of the hill opposite, across the sweeping green valley.

She shivered at the biting contempt in his voice. ‘My father did buy Fernlea...yes.’ From here, deep in the pine forest, the gabled two-storey house on the high side of the opposite hill wasn’t visible, though there was a clear view of the pine forest from the house. ‘You have some problem with that?’

He gave a mirthless smile. ‘I knew it was too good to be true. A fairy-tale beauty with raven hair and stunning black eyes and a face and figure you only see in your dreams... There had to be a catch.’

‘A catch?’ She heard the huskiness in her voice, and winced. Normally comments on her looks left her unmoved. She’d been fêted and fawned over all her life—either for her looks or her father’s money—and had come to mistrust extravagant compliments. She was never sure if they were genuine or merely empty flattery because of who she was.

But this man, she had a feeling, wouldn’t be the type to indulge in meaningless flattery. Back-handed compliments would be more his style.

‘If you’re Hugh Conway’s daughter, you can’t be the girl of my dreams,’ he said flatly, cynicism hardening his voice. ‘The girl of my dreams would never be a pampered city socialite, with a doting daddy who lavishes more money and worldly possessions on his daughter than she needs or is good for her.’

She seared him with a glance, anger hiding a quick flare of hurt. A pampered socialite? How her mother would laugh at that! Her horse-mad, country-loving daughter preferring the high life in the city? That would be the day! As for pampered, she’d always been determined not to let her father’s wealth or the privileges that came with it go to her head...vowing never to become the spoilt, superficial creature this man obviously thought she was. It had made her rather cool and aloof instead, except with friends she trusted.

Only now her coolness had deserted her.

‘My you do have a chip on your shoulder,’ she bit back. ‘Do you always leap to conclusions about the people you meet?’

‘Only when their name is Conway.’ He tilted his head at her, his lips taking on a sardonic curl. ‘I should have guessed who you were from the toffy accent. Not many people around here speak with a Toorak twang.’

She seethed inwardly, unable to refute the fact that she’d lived all her life in Melbourne’s exclusive Toorak. There were, she knew, some snooty, social-climbing Toorak types who put on a studied, syrupy ‘twang’ purely for effect, but her own clipped, polished accent was as natural to her as breathing...she hadn’t carefully cultivated it.

‘What do you have against the Conways?’ she hissed at him. He had a chip on his shoulder all right. A sizable one. ‘Who are you?’

‘The name’s O’Malley. My father owns the dairy farm across the river from Fernlea.’

‘You’re Patrick O’Malley’s son?’ Her eyes gleamed as she saw her chance to turn the tables on him. ‘You’re the son who turned up his nose at dairy farming, thinking it too lowly and commonplace for him—’ she felt a stab of satisfaction as she said it ‘—and walked out, leaving his poor widowed father in the lurch?’

The icy glitter in his own eyes showed the shaft had hit home. ‘Is that what my father told you? That I walked out and left him in the lurch?’

‘Your father and mine aren’t exactly on speaking terms—as I’m sure you must be aware.’ But she didn’t want to dwell on that. ‘No...it’s common talk around here. How your father wanted his only son—you—to help him run the family dairy farm once you’d qualified as a vet, but you chucked your course to join a chemical company and study engineering instead.’

‘Chemical engineering,’ he corrected her. ‘And I didn’t chuck vet school...I’m a qualified vet. I just didn’t practise...except as a part-time emergency vet for a while.’

‘Whatever.’ She shrugged, not feeling he deserved an apology. ‘And since then,’ she ploughed on, ‘you’ve been roaming round Australia, making money selling some kind of parasite-killing chemical...forcing your father to hire a local to help him. You broke his heart, everyone says,’ she added for good measure.

The heavy brows lowered, making her wish she hadn’t repeated the gossip. But he deserved it. The way he’d reviled her and her family—so unfairly—had made her want to lash back at him.

‘My father may have been disappointed,’ O’Malley conceded, his deep voice roughening, ‘but the only time he’s been heartbroken was when my mother died. He’s backed me all the way. You shouldn’t listen to idle gossip.’

‘Neither should you,’ she flashed back. ‘You’ve obviously made up your mind about me—about my family—without even bothering to get to know us.’

‘From what I’ve heard about the Conways since I came home a couple of days ago, I’m not sure I’d want to be bothered.’

‘Oh?’ She was dismayed at the stab of hurt she felt. Not so much at what he might have heard—there was always envious gossip about the Conways—but at the derision in his voice. It was a new sensation, being scorned by a man. She tossed her head, not showing her hurt. ‘And just what have you heard?’

‘Let’s head back to the orchard, shall we, and I’ll enlighten you? Hopefully we’ll find our wayward mounts there.’

She swallowed a flare of pique that he’d been the one to think of the horses first, not herself. Honestly, what was wrong with her? She was usually so cool and in command of any situation she faced. But with this man she felt as if she were floundering in an uncharted sea.

Not sure she wanted to be enlightened, she swept past him, determined not to fall casually into step beside him. But she could hear him close behind her, his heavy boots scrunching through the pine needles.

It had become darker in the forest, she realised. Much darker. Where before there’d been fleecy white clouds above with occasional bursts of sunlight, now there was a heavy blanket of ominously dark grey above and no sign of the sun. Not that it was cold. It had been hot and humid all week, with bouts of unusually heavy early-summer rain, and it was still sultry. Not that she minded the heat. She loved everything about her rustic home-away-from-home. She had everything here...peace, spectacular beauty, fresh air...and freedom.

As she headed for the old fruit orchard around which the pine forest had been planted well over a decade ago, she heard O’Malley’s voice curling around her, answering the question she wished she’d never asked. Any gossip he’d picked up about the Conways was bound to be twisted, if not totally wrong.

‘The story going around,’ he drawled, ‘is that Hugh Conway—well-known member of the Melbourne Establishment and head of the famous Conway stockbroking firm—bought Fernlea, with its thousand-odd acres, historic Federation mansion, and old English garden, to indulge his only daughter...you, Miss Conway.’

She shot a virulent glance over her shoulder, but she couldn’t deny it. Her father had bought Fernlea, basically, for her.

‘You wanted more room for your horses, it seems.’ The lazy voice wafted after her. ‘The family’s previous weekend farm closer to Melbourne didn’t provide enough space for your riding and jumping pursuits. Your father’s prize Angus cattle were beginning to overrun the available space, so a bigger and better property had to be found.’

When she made no comment, he added languidly, ‘Not that you or your parents have been living down here permanently, I gather. You’ve been flitting between Fernlea and the palatial family home back in Toorak...with jaunts to the luxury beach-house at Portsea and the odd trip to Paris and London and New York in between. You’ve spent time at international horse shows.’ He paused, then drawled silkily, ‘I’m sure you sit a horse beautifully, Miss Conway.’

‘I thought it was only women who lapped up gossip,’ she snapped over her shoulder. ‘You’ve been back home for barely two days and you think you know all there is to know about us! Well, you’ve told me more than I’ll ever want to know about you, Mr O’Malley. You should do something about that chip on your shoulder. It’s most unattractive!’

‘If I have one, it’s with good reason.’

Her step faltered. ‘Meaning?’

‘Forget it. Are Mummy and Daddy down here with you?’ he asked blandly.

She gritted her teeth and answered levelly, ‘My parents had to go back to town this morning, but they’ll be down again on Friday for a few days.’

‘Well...so for now you’re lady of the manor? Literally.’

Her eyes wavered. ‘What do you mean—literally?’ ‘Fernlea—as I’m sure you already know—was once one of the grand old homes of Gippsland. Some of the old English oaks and elms in the garden are over a hundred years old. You must have great fun swanning around your grand estate, throwing house parties for your socialite pals!’

‘It might have been a grand old home once,’ she flashed back, ‘but it was badly in need of repair when we bought it.’ A fractious frown creased her brow. He made it sound as if her father had bought Fernlea simply to indulge a spoilt daughter’s whim...as if it were no more to her than a diverting hobby farm or weekend retreat. How wrong he was! ‘We’ve been gradually repairing and renovating the place over time...’

‘Sparing no expense, I’m sure.’

‘Meanwhile,’ she said, ignoring his comment, ‘it’s quite livable. Peeling paint and frayed curtains and a sagging, rusty roof are not things that greatly bother me,’ she assured him tartly. ‘There were lots of other more urgent things that needed doing first. Like mending fences and clearing away the choking blackberries and fixing up the run-down stables and levelling off an area for a jumping course and—’

‘And buying up old Henderson’s property, Plane Tree Flats, to add to your domain...even though it’s on our side of the river and of more use to us.’ The contempt was back in his voice.

Her head jerked round. ‘You’re saying that you—the O’Malleys—wanted to buy that piece of land?’

‘That’s right. It used to belong to my family—until a bushfire and drought nearly wiped us out when I was a boy, forcing my father to sell off that chunk of land. Dad’s been wanting to buy it back for years. When the chance came,’ he ground out, ‘Hugh Conway swanned in with a higher offer and we lost out.’

‘So that’s why you hate us,’ Taryn breathed. She stopped and swung round, planting her hands on her hips. As she raised her eyes to his face, she swallowed. Hard. It was so dark in the forest by now that the granite-hard face under the mass of dark hair looked positively frightening, causing her heart to skip in sudden panic. If he hated her so much...

‘We were trying to help Charley Henderson,’ she offered in her father’s defence, aware that her voice sounded annoyingly husky. ‘The old man was badly in debt and in very poor health. He needed to be closer to town and hospital care. Now he’ll be able to live comfortably for the rest of his life, with the best of medical care at his fingertips.’

‘Oh, I’m sure your father was acting out of the goodness of his heart when he bought that prime piece of land over our heads,’ O’Malley bit back with scorn. ‘What good is it to you? It’s on the other side of the river, with no access from your property!’

‘There will be. We’re building a bridge across the river.’

‘Of course. Naturally. And I’m sure it will be a state-of-the-art concrete bridge too, not a rickety old thing like the one between your property and ours. Which is likely to wash away, incidentally, if we get any more heavy rain. The river normally fades to a trickle once the hot weather starts, but this year it’s flowing like crazy.’

She jerked a careless shoulder. She knew about the old timber bridge over the river, where it ran between the O’Malleys’ property and theirs, but with the ill feeling between the two families it would hardly matter if it did wash away. It was unlikely that either family would want to use it anyway.

‘Talking of heavy rain... ’ O’Malley glanced up at the sky ’...I’d say that’s just what we’re about to get.’

She glanced up too, and stifled a groan. The sky looked even more threatening now, and she could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. She quickened her steps.

‘You didn’t answer my question,’ O’Malley growled from behind. ‘What do you want with Charley Henderson’s land? Do you intend to run cattle there? Horses? Will you be pulling down Henderson’s old house?’

‘My father will be running cattle there. It’s extremely fertile land on Plane Tree Flats, as you must know...in that wide loop of the river. And no, we won’t be pulling down the old house—if it’s any of your business. The young couple we hired to help us run Fernlea will be living there. They’ve been coming from Leongatha every day, but we want them to live here on the property so they can keep a closer eye on the place when we’re not here. Like Smudge does...your father’s right-hand man, who lives on your property.’

She flicked a glance round to add sweetly, ‘I heard about Smudge from the young couple who work for us, not from your father. Your father hasn’t been particularly neighbourly.’ She paused, then asked idly, ‘Does he dislike us because we made a higher offer for Charley Henderson’s old farm? Or does he have a chip on his shoulder about the Conways too...no matter what we do?’

‘Put it this way,’ O’Malley said, his tone curt. ‘Neither of us cares overmuch for weekend hobby farmers. And now you tell me that the Conways, not content with owning Fernlea and Plane Tree Flats, have bought this pine forest as well!’

‘You’re saying that you O’Malleys wanted the pine forest as well as Plane Tree Flats?’

‘If we’d known the Conways were after it,’ came the grating response, ‘we might have tried to prevent the sale. You’re aware, I hope, that it’s an environmental gem in these parts? The residents around here have enjoyed the use of this forest and the old fruit orchard for years. What do you intend to do with it? Raze it to the ground?’

‘Of course not! We want to keep it just the way it is...that’s precisely why we bought it. Our property overlooks the forest. We had no wish to see it logged one day.’

‘Ah! So you bought it so that your pleasant view wouldn’t be spoiled. Of course...why didn’t I guess? Next you’ll be fencing it all off, with padlocked gates, so that nobody else can get near the forest or the orchard. Right?’

‘Wrong!’ She could feel her cheeks burning. Her father had suggested fencing the forest. To protect it, not to keep the neighbours out. ‘The farmers who live around here will be welcome to keep coming up here,’ she spelt out, ‘so long as they’re careful and don’t light fires or drop cigarettes around.’

‘The farmers around here don’t light fires. They protect against fires. They help to maintain the fire breaks around the forest and they watch out for lightning strikes that might start a fire...or for people who shouldn’t be here. That’s why I left my horse in the orchard and followed you. To see what you were up to. Only to find that you Conways have bought the forest and want to keep it to yourselves!’

‘You can still ride up here,’ she protested in a muffled voice. Each word he uttered flayed a sensitive part of her that she’d never realised existed. It had never particularly bothered her before what people thought of her. But for some odd reason—some stupid reason, in light of his attitude—she cared what this man thought.

Because he was a close neighbour? Was that the only reason she cared? All she knew was that, despite his abrasive manner and the giant chip on his shoulder and his obvious loathing of people with money, she didn’t want him to loathe her.

‘You told me I was trespassing,’ he reminded her. She swallowed. ‘I didn’t know who you were then. You—you could have been a firebug, for all I knew.’

They were in the overgrown orchard by now, weaving their way through the old fruit trees...apples, pears, apricots, quinces... even a giant mulberry tree. She glimpsed Ginger ahead, nose to the ground, munching fallen apples. A whinnying sound snapped her head round. Standing nearby, pawing at the ground, was another horse. A magnificent creature with a shiny black coat and a flowing black mane. He seemed high-strung and nervous...spooked, perhaps, by the thunder.

‘No sudden movements,’ O’Malley hissed at her ear. ‘Caesar’s easily startled. He hates storms. Let’s approach nice and easy... You grab your horse first.’

As she approached Ginger, a flash of lightning lit up the pines. Just as she caught the gelding’s reins in her fingers, an explosive bang shook the earth, causing Ginger to jerk back in fright. But this time she had a tight grip on the reins and was able to control him within seconds, patting him and murmuring soothing words.

‘Hey! Come back here!’

Her head whipped round as O’Malley roared at Caesar and lunged forward. But he was too late. Caesar was bolting off down the hill, black mane flying, deaf to O’Malley’s shouts.

She bit her lip, repressing a giggle. She couldn’t help it. Served him right! Now he’d have to walk back...and to reach his father’s dairy farm from here would be a hike-and-a-half on foot!

A moment later her grin was wiped from her lips as the heavens opened and the rain came bucketing down, soaking her to the skin in seconds. Her hair, streaming with water, clung to her shoulders. Watery drops trickled down her neck and inside the collar of her shirt.

O’Malley, looking just as bedraggled, his wild hair now flattened to his head, hiding his heavy eyebrows, cursed audibly. ‘My father should have got rid of that damned horse years ago. Caesar never listens, never does what you want.’

‘You should be soulmates, then,’ she tossed back, unable to resist having another shot at him for ignoring his father’s wishes. ‘I’m sure your father would agree.’

He glowered at her. ‘My father and I—’ he began, and stopped abruptly. She saw an amazing change come over his face. The irate frown dissolved. The chilly eyes took on a soulfully pleading expression, the gruffness in his voice giving way to a playfully wheedling note.

‘You’re not going to make me walk all the way home in this filthy rain, are you?’