Читать книгу: «Falling For Jack»

CHAPTER ONE

JACK MORGAN was a farmer who had spent six years trying to remove emotion from his life.

He had failed. Maddy was watching from the ringside, and the love he felt for her was almost overwhelming. And in the ring there was Jessica—and who wouldn’t fall for Jessica?

It had to end. Perfection couldn’t continue for ever. There was a lump rising in Jack’s throat as he prepared to give the last command.

The sheep were bunched neatly outside the final gate. Jack lifted his fingers to his mouth and gave a piercing whistle. It didn’t have the effect Jack intended.

A small grey dog raced from under the stands. This wasn’t a sheepdog like Jessica. This dog was squat and stocky, with white tufts on his chest, bristly black eyebrows and a wiry grey moustache and beard. The dog galumphed rather than raced, his pudding frame pounding up a dust storm. He yapped. Jack gave another frantic whistle.

‘Get them in, Jess. Now! One more minute and you’ll have them penned and be Australian champion.’

Jess wouldn’t be Australian champion. The strange dog launched himself straight into the mob. Sheep sprayed outward as if a bomb were exploding, and there was nothing Jessica or Jack or any power on earth could do to stop them. The sheep headed for the fence. The mutt headed after them—and Jessica followed. Jack stood alone in the ring. Stunned.

‘Harry!’ A woman was calling frantically from somewhere in the crowd.

Jack couldn’t see who was yelling. All he could see was chaos. For a bunch of farmers, what was happening was crazy. People parted to make way for escaping sheep. No one moved to stop them. The first sheep to hit the fence ducked under the bar. Then the mutt raised his yap rate and the last few took the fence as a hurdle.

The fence wasn’t designed to keep sheep in. This was a trialling ground for sheepdogs, and sheepdogs knew their stuff. Young or badly trained dogs mightn’t control a mob as they ought, but the most ill-trained dog could at least hold them together.

But not now. Even if Jessica was still interested in sheepdog work—which she wasn’t—the sheep had scattered too widely to stop them.

Bryony Lester stared around her with dismay. To put it mildly, this was terrible! Myrna had told Bryony that to bring Harry to the show was a great way to introduce herself to the locals. Well, the locals would know her now. They’d probably tar and feather her and run her out of town.

‘Good one, Myrna!’

As Bryony muttered invective to her absent friend, a fat and frantic sheep thumped into her legs, veered sideways, and headed for the horizon.

‘I’ll kill you, Harry,’ Bryony said out loud. ‘Mutton’s off the menu and schnauzer’s on!’ She cupped her hands and yelled again for her stupid dog, but she just knew it wasn’t going to work.

Spectators were scattering in all directions. Some were making a token effort to catch sheep, but others simply stared open-mouthed, stunned that, for the first time in years, Jack Morgan had missed out on first prize. The dogs disappeared completely before Jack Morgan recovered enough to yell for his dog to return.

‘Jessica!’

Jack’s best sheepdog-training voice boomed out over the general chaos. Nothing happened. No black and white dog appeared from the crowd. No Jessica.

What appeared was a woman. Bryony. And Bryony Lester was some woman!

Bryony was tall and willow slim. She had on white leggings and boots and a vast cream sweater that almost reached her knees. The only colour about her was her huge green eyes and a blaze of red curls tumbling to her shoulders.

Oh, and maybe her cheeks. Her face was chagrin-pink, turning fast to mortification-scarlet!

‘Oh, help... Harry, where on earth...?’

Bryony stopped mid-sentence as she came face to face with Jack. And Jack knew... Jack just knew that this woman and disaster walked hand in hand. She was behind this. She had to be. The absent Harry she was calling and the sheep-chasing mutt must be one and the same.

So Jack stepped over the fence—no problem for the departing sheep and even less for the six-foot-two-inch Jack—and he met her head-on.

‘Is that mutt yours?’

Jack’s voice—raised a minute ago to yell for Jessica—now lowered to whisper-quiet, but his clipped words carried.

‘Harry’s a small grey dog?’ he demanded as Bryony failed to answer. His solid frame blocked her path.

Bryony stopped short. Oh, heck... This man had been in the ring with the sheepdog. She’d seen him. In fact, maybe it was because she’d been too intent on looking at him—well, who wouldn’t look at a man like this?—that Harry had been able to wriggle free.

A man had no business to be as good-looking as this.

‘I’m... Yes, that’s Harry.’ Bryony took three deep breaths and fought for calm. The farmer was standing right before her, his muscled frame blocking everything else. Making it hard for her to think of anything else! ‘Were they...are they your sheep?’

‘They’re not my sheep,’ Jack told her. His one-syllable words were spoken slowly so even the stupid could understand, and he was glaring as if she were some faintly repellent insect. ‘They’re owned by the agricultural committee. They’re here for the dog trials.’

Bryony looked wildly around.

‘Oh, no... And now they’ve gone. And they’ll take ages to round up.’

Faint grinding of teeth.

‘I imagine they will.’

Jack’s voice was now so low, Jack’s dogs would have recognised danger and headed straight under the shearing shed. And stayed there.

Bryony gulped. This man wasn’t helping her mortification level one bit. She tried again. ‘I’m so sorry. Can you...? Could you please tell me where to go, then?’

Jack thought of all the places he’d like to tell her to go. His manners won the day, but only just.

‘What for?’

Bryony stared at her boots for a long moment—and then tilted her chin and looked at him, face to face.

Bryony Lester did have courage.

‘To apologise.’

Silence.

From all around, there were yells and whoops as the local kids launched themselves at sheep. The sounds suggested the sheep were winning, no sweat. But the man and woman stood staring at each other. In silence.

It went on and on.

In another situation this pair could have been classed as a lovely couple. Bryony was five feet eight or so. Jack was about six inches taller and a few years older. Jack looked mid-thirties. In fact, Jack was thirty-four to Bryony’s twenty-eight. But... Maybe they looked too much as if they came from different backgrounds to be classed as a couple.

Jack was wind-burned, lithe and muscular, and looked as if he was straight off the land. His cropped black curls held a layer of dust from the showground under his broad-brimmed hat, and his moleskins and open-neck shirt looked as if they’d seen years of hard work. The crinkling of his deep-set eyes, as if they were permanently shielded against a too harsh sun, augmented the impression of a man who worked the land for a living.

In contrast, Bryony looked pretty and flustered, and as if she’d never seen a sheep or a farm in her life.

‘If you want to apologise, you might try me,’ Jack said at last.

‘Pardon?’ Jack’s voice was cutting right through to her now. Bryony didn’t need Jessica to tell her that Jack’s tone was dangerous. If there’d been a shearing shed handy, she’d have crawled under it herself.

‘You might try apologising to me.’ Jack’s strongly boned jaw clamped into a long line of disapproval. ‘That mutt—’

‘He’s not a mutt. He’s a schnauzer!’

‘What kind of dog is that?’

Bryony’s green eyes flashed. Nobody criticised her Harry. ‘He’s a great dog. Schnauzers are bred in Germany as guard dogs.’

‘Then why didn’t you leave him in Germany?’

Bryony flushed some more. She ran a hand through her flaming hair, tumbling the curls back from her face. And tried again.

‘Look, I did apologise to you, but I’ll say it again. I’m really sorry. Mr...?’

She stopped and waited, expectant

‘Morgan,’ Jack said grudgingly. ‘Jack Morgan.’

‘And I’m Bryony Lester.’ Bryony held out a slim hand and smiled up at him—a smile that in days past might have knocked the stuffing right out of Jack. It was an absolutely stunning smile.

But, for Jack Morgan, women’s smiles were a thing of the past.

‘Yeah, right.’ He looked down at Bryony’s hand, and chose to ignore it. ‘Get your dog back,’ he said flatly.

Bryony’s smile faded, and her hand dropped. She stared up at the man before her and saw nothing but anger in his face.

Which was a shame. The creases around the man’s eyes looked as if they should be laughter lines. His face was open and honest. A man like this—a man as good-looking as he was and with a dog like his—ought to be smiling for the sheer pleasure of being alive.

Especially here, Bryony thought. The showgrounds were set in the lee of the Garriwerd mountain range. Bryony had been told this was the best grazing country in all of Southern Australia, and she could believe it. Rich, undulating pastures were dotted with vast river red gums. It was spring and the sun had enough warmth to soothe and caress. The showgrounds were set by a river that was as broad as it was beautiful.

All in all, it was a setting and a season to make you glad to be alive. Unless you were this man.

This man wasn’t going to smile. No way.

‘I don’t know whether I can get Harry back,’ Bryony confessed doubtfully. ‘I think he’s fallen for your dog—and he’s not very obedient.’

‘I can see that.’

‘Can you make your dog come? Harry might come with her.’

It was a forlorn hope. There were so many fantastic smells in this place. Hot dogs. Doughnuts. Cow dung...

Jack didn’t answer. Instead he put a finger to each side of his mouth and whisded—and Bryony jumped about a foot. Jack’s whistle could have woken the dead two states away. And ten seconds later Jessica slunk through the legs of the crowd and sidled apologetically back to her master.

Bryony was just plain astounded. With the smells of hot dogs, cows and all, Jessie had come back. No matter how Bryony whistled, Harry never came for her.

Then she stared down in concern as the black and white collie pressed herself close to Jack’s leg. The collie clearly knew that she’d messed things up. Her tail was tucked between her legs, her ears were flattened and her huge brown eyes looked beseechingly up at Jack in abject apology.

And Bryony knew exactly what her disreputable Harry had seen in her.

‘Oh, you darling...’ Bryony gave a delighted chuckle and sank down onto the dust—white leggings and all. ‘You’re gorgeous. Don’t look like that. It wasn’t your fault. Your Jack’s not going to blame you. Not when it was Harry’s fault...’

‘Don’t touch my dog.’

Jack’s voice was a growl and Bryony looked up in amazement

‘Why on earth not?’

‘She’s been taught not to let strangers touch her.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. She knows I won’t hurt her.’ And Bryony put her arms around Jess and gave her a hug.

The dog’s ears lifted. Jessica stopped looking up at Jack, and her tail gave a tiny, questioning wag. And then a stronger one. This was okay, her tail said. Jessie nuzzled into Bryony’s cream sweater, decided she liked the sensation very much, and gave Bryony a long, loving kiss from neck to eyebrows.

So much for Jack’s training that she should growl and withdraw if anyone but family touched her. Jack stared down in stunned amazement. And, to his horror, he felt a totally stupid surge of something that felt very like jealousy.

Jealousy for a dog? He caught himself sharply and tried once more.

‘Will you leave my dog alone?’

Bryony chuckled again—a soft, melodic sound that rang out over the trial ground as a sound of happiness. Irrationally, it set Jack’s teeth on edge. Luckily, this time Bryony obeyed his command. She rose and brushed the dust from her leggings. They were some leggings. Bryony’s legs seemed to go on for ever, and her clinging pants left little to the imagination. She had curves just where a woman ought to have curves...

Cut it out, Jack! Jack caught himself staring, and hauled himself back to anger with an almost visible effort.

‘Your dog’s still chasing the sheep,’ he said harshly. ‘Get him back.’

Bryony moistened her lips.

‘Like...how?’

‘Like I got my dog back. Call him.’

‘Well, short of borrowing a bugle, I can’t get a sound as loud as yours. And he’ll be halfway across the showground by now.’ Bryony paused and gave Jack a small, placating smile. ‘Actually, even if I’m six feet away Harry doesn’t come when I call. Unless I’m eating. Then he does a back flip to get to me.’

‘You feed your dog what you eat yourself—?’ Jack broke off in disgust. ‘Oh, for Pete’s sake... Look, just get your dog and clear out of here, Miss...Miss Whatever-your-name-is.’

‘I’m Bryony,’ she said again, and this time she forced him to take her hand by simply reaching out and grasping his. ‘I knew you weren’t listening last time.’ She took his fingers between hers and shook, regardless. ‘Bryony Lester.’

Jack did a mental back flip. Bryony’s hand was firm yet soft, and she smelled of something fragrant... Something really good.

‘Bryony...’ Jack said her name automatically—as if he was saying it despite himself.

‘I’ll go and find Harry,’ Bryony said apologetically, disengaging her fingers. ‘I guess he’ll have sheep up trees by now. But don’t worry, Mr Morgan. He won’t hurt them. He brought me one of Myrna’s ducklings last week and when he put it down the little thing waddled straight back to its mother. Wasn’t that clever of him to be so gentle?’

‘Brilliant.’ Jack had recovered a smidgen of his equilibrium—and his bad temper. His voice said Harry was anything but brilliant.

Bryony sighed and turned away. Hopeless. This man was so good-looking he could make her toes curl, but hopeless!

‘Jack!’

A shout from the sidelines made her hesitate. A middle-aged man in a suit—incongruous in a land of denim jeans and moleskins—was heading straight for them. A large badge proclaimed him: Brian McKenzie. Judge-Working Dog Trials. He looked brimful of self-importance, and despite the discomfiture Jack Morgan was making her feel Bryony waited to hear what he had to say.

‘Jack, I’m sorry, mate, but we’ve had to disqualify you,’ the man told Jack. He directed a lingering look at Bryony and then turned his attention reluctantly back to Jack. ‘It’s rules,’ he said shortly. ‘Your dog should be able to cope with distractions.’

Jack’s look, stormy before, turned to thunder.

‘Another dog launching himself into the mob while Jess works is hardly just a distraction.’

‘The rule book doesn’t say anything about that,’ the man told him. ‘We checked. Sorry, mate.’

‘Hell...’

‘There’s always next month,’ the man assured him, not meeting his eyes. ‘And Tom Higgins will enjoy getting first prize for a change.’

Then the man cast one last appreciative look at Bryony—and headed for his judges’ stand before Jack could argue.

‘Oh,’ Bryony said in a small voice, watching Jack’s face. ‘That doesn’t seem fair.’

‘No.’ Jack’s voice was stretched like fencing wire, almost to breaking point. ‘It’s not.’

‘Do you think if I went and explained...apologised...?’

‘It wouldn’t make any difference. I can appeal, but it’ll be fought every inch of the way and it’s just not worth it. That man is Tom Higgins’ father-in-law.’

‘Tom Higgins... The competitor who’ll win now?’

‘That’s the one.’

‘I see.’ Bryony looked doubtfully up at Jack. Then her face cleared a little. ‘Well, I guess it’s not like it’s money or anything. Harry and I were watching you and I thought your Jessica was gorgeous. The best. Harry thought so too. That’s why he tried to meet her. So you still have the best dog, with or without first prize.’

And then, as Jack’s expression still stayed stormy, she tried again. ‘Actually. Harry and I didn’t win first prize either. In fact, we didn’t win any prize. Harry cocked his leg on the judge’s lovely shoes. Edna McKenzie. Do you know her? The poor lady nearly had kittens.’

Jack’s eyes widened. Edna McKenzie...wife of Brian. It couldn’t have happened to a more satisfactory person.

A tiny muscle at the side of Jack’s mouth quivered—so slightly that Bryony thought she might have imagined it. His jaw clamped back down straight away, though. Clearly Jack Morgan was intent on nursing his grievance.

‘You weren’t here for obedience trials?’ Jack’s voice was frankly incredulous.

‘Well, no.’ Bryony smiled up at him, refusing to be daunted by his grouchiness. ‘We were trying for champion schnauzer. Harry’s a pedigree. Myrna said I should show him and maybe someone would pay a stud fee for his services.’ She chuckled. ‘Harry would love that. At the moment he practises on cushions and on my leg and on anything else he can find. It’d be nice to channel his interest into a more natural direction.’

Once more, there was that almost imperceptible twitch.

This man was really something, Bryony thought. If she could only get him to smile...

And then she paused as a child materialised at Jack’s side. The child was about six years old, and she was thin to the point of emaciation. Her fair hair was dragged off her face in two long, uneven pigtails and her denim dungarees hung loose on her body. She looked like an escapee from an Orphan Annie movie.

‘Jack, Jessie didn’t win.’

A thin, reedy voice. Flat. Intensely disappointed. And, for the first time, Bryony felt a surge of real guilt. It hadn’t been too bad up until now. Bryony had reasoned that she hadn’t meant to let Harry slip his collar and, even if Jack Morgan had missed out on first prize, it couldn’t be so important. This was a small country show and everyone knew Jessica was far and away the best dog.

But this little one had wanted Jess to win. The loss was aching in her voice, and Bryony felt just dreadful, so she dropped to her knees again, her leggings making two cups in the dust. She had supreme disregard for her white leggings.

As well she might, Jack thought. Even coated six inches thick in dust, Bryony’s leggings would look wonderful on Bryony.

‘I’m afraid that was all my dog’s fault,’ Bryony confessed to the little girl, oblivious of Jack watching her. ‘He chased Jessica’s sheep. Did you see him? Harry’s a bad dog and I don’t know what I’m going to do with him.’

‘Jessie won’t be Australian champion now.’

The child’s voice wasn’t accusing. She was just telling the facts.

‘How do you mean?’ Bryony looked up at Jack. ‘I... This is only a small show. I mean, surely it’s not like it’s the Australian championships or anything.’

‘It is,’ the child said sadly. ‘You get points for every show you win, but you have to get all your points in a year. Jack said Jess only needed one more show and this was it. And we were going to put Jessie’s trophy in my room because Jack lets Jessie sleep on my bed...’

She stopped, her huge brown eyes filled with tears, and Bryony felt about two inches tall.

‘I’m so sorry.’ Bryony’s voice fell uselessly away. One look at this little girl told Bryony there was more at stake here than a trophy. The child had every appearance of a waif—a waif who’d wanted a trophy so much it hurt.

‘Hey, Maddy, there’s one more show. One more show before we run out of time.’ Ignoring Bryony, Jack stooped to lift the child into his arms, but the little girl refused to be comforted. She held herself ramrod-stiff, refusing to sink into his hold.

‘But it’ll be her last chance,’ she whispered. ‘What if something happens then?’ Maddy hardly seemed to be speaking to the man who was holding her. It was a conversation with herself. She was pushing all her distress inward.

‘Do you think something like this could happen a second time?’ Jack hugged the child and smiled into her troubled eyes, and it was the smile Bryony had expected and more. It was a smile that could turn a heart right over. Gorgeous white teeth flashed out in his weathered face, transforming it to laughter, and his deep brown eyes crinkled as if they were accustomed to smiling. There was humour in Jack’s face, and there was kindness and there was sympathy.

There was love for this little one written all over him, and it was a smile to make hearts stand still. Whew! But Maddy held herself aloof.

‘If Miss Lester promises to leave her dog at home, we’ll win next time,’ Jack promised the child. Jack cast a doubtful look across at Bryony. ‘And I don’t think she’ll be here again. She’s not local.’

Of course she isn’t local, his look said. No one this dumb could be a local.

‘Well, I am local,’ Bryony said, hauling herself upright again to meet his look with defiance. ‘I’ve just moved here.’

The child stared at her from Jack’s arms.

‘What’s your name?’ she asked cautiously.

‘Bryony.’

The child considered. ‘Bryony’s pretty,’ she pronounced. ‘Mine’s Madelaine but my... People call me Maddy.’

‘I’m pleased to meet you, Maddy.’ Bryony didn’t put her hand out to greet her. There was something about this child that said she wasn’t into being touched. Not even by the man who was holding her.

‘I’ve just moved here, too,’ the child said. ‘Where did you come from?’

‘Well, this time I’ve moved from New York.’

‘But...New York’s in America.’

‘Hey, that’s right.’ Bryony beamed her approval and Maddy gave her a shy smile.

‘My grandma lived in America,’ Maddy confided. ‘I don’t expect you knew her. We lived in California.’

‘You’re American?’ Bryony had already guessed. It was obvious when Maddy spoke. The man was broadly Australian, but the child definitely wasn’t. ‘Wow. I’m very pleased to meet you, Maddy. I spent the last few years in the States and I’m homesick. It was Thanksgiving last week and no one here knew about it but me. I had to eat my turkey all by myself. Are you homesick?’

Maddy cast a doubtful look at Jack.

‘Y-yes.’

‘Have your family moved here?’

‘No.’ The child’s face clamped down. Her lips pressed together and there was a look of pain in her face that told Bryony to ask that question had been really dumb. The child took a deep breath, as if she was about to confess something shameful. And she did.

‘My mom doesn’t want me,’ she said bleakly. ‘My grandma did, but she’s dead. I have to live with my father now.’

Oh.

‘I see.’ Bryony looked doubtfully at Jack, her heart sinking.

Jack. This must be the father, then, in the ‘I have to live with my father...’ There was definitely a resemblance. The eyes were the same. And the firmness of the set mouth.

“This is your daddy?’

‘My mom says Jack’s my father.’ The child’s voice said she didn’t believe a word of such a stupid statement. Maddy gave an uncompromising wriggle in Jack’s arms. ‘I want to get down.’ She was set on the ground by a silent Jack, and she stared up at Bryony with interest. Her father was discarded. ‘Where’s your bad dog gone to now?’

‘I don’t know.’ Bryony hesitated. There were things going on here she didn’t understand in the least, but maybe they weren’t her business. ‘I guess I’d better go find him.’

Should she, though? What were her priorities here? Bryony looked dubiously over at the stands. One sheep was right up at the top of the seating, trying to figure whether jumping down into the Haunted House was worth the risk. That was the only sheep in sight. Heaven knew where the rest were. ‘Maybe I’d best help catch the sheep first.’

‘At the risk of giving offence, Miss Lester,’ Jack told her dryly, ‘you’d be more help just catching your dog. Jessica and I will round up the sheep. You concentrate on getting your dog under control.’

‘Harry could help find them!’

‘And then he’d keep chasing them.’ Jack shoved his wide hat down further over his eyes, forming a barrier of shadow. ‘They’d end up in Queensland. Just find your dog and keep him out of trouble. That’s all I ask.’ He held out his hand to his daughter. ‘Come on, Maddy.’

Maddy considered Jack’s hand and shook her head, firmly. Instead, to Bryony’s surprise, she reached out and tucked her hand into Bryony’s.

‘I’ll help Bryony find Harry.’

‘Maddy...’ Jack’s voice took on a tone of exasperation, and the child froze, and cringed, looking up at Jack as if she expected to be struck.

‘Hell!’ Jack swore, and then he knelt so his eyes were level with the child’s. He sighed as the fear in the child’s eyes didn’t fade a bit. ‘It’s okay, Maddy.’ His voice softened, but there was defeat in his tone. ‘You go hunt for bad dogs with Miss Lester.’ He looked up at Bryony. ‘Can I trust you to bring her back here when you’ve found him?’

‘Of course.’ Bryony glared. Jack Morgan might look like an absolute hunk, but there was no denying his temper—or that Maddy was afraid of him. Jack saw the thought, for Bryony didn’t attempt to hide it and this man was astute. He flinched.

‘I don’t hurt her,’ he said, and there was pain behind his words. ‘I never have and I never would. I promise you. Things aren’t what they seem.’

Bryony looked into his eyes—and believed him.

‘Yeah, well...’

Who knew what was happening here? Certainly not Bryony. She nicked her hair back from her face and tried for nonchalance. ‘We’ll leave you to your sheep, then, Mr Morgan,’ she managed. ‘Let’s go find Harry, Maddy Morgan.’