Morgan's Law (8 page)

‘I beg your pardon?'

‘How do we know you aren't making all this up just so you can stake a claim on Burrapine?'

Sarah didn't usually shock easily, but since arriving in this damn town, that's all everyone seemed to be doing to her. ‘I didn't come here to make trouble. All I want to do is find out what happened to my gran.'

‘Yeah, well, I hope you're happy because you've got my grandfather worked into a frenzy about all this Rose Morgan crap you fed him.'

‘Is he okay? He seemed fine when I left.'

‘How do you think he is? Some stranger knocks on the door and tells him his sister, who he thought was dead, has been alive and well for the last sixty-odd years but conveniently died six months ago.'

Outrage ignited inside her at his callous words and Sarah felt her hands begin to tremble. ‘I can assure you there was nothing
convenient
about my grandmother dying, you insensitive jerk. I happened to love her very much. I apologise that I didn't warn your grandfather in advance, but I honestly wasn't sure that my gran was Rose Morgan until he confirmed it.'

‘So suddenly some random photo you've come across is supposed to prove you're related to us?'

‘Look, I didn't even know the Morgans existed until a few days ago. I have no interest in staking a claim in anything and certainly not in Burrapine Station.'

He snorted in disbelief.

Sarah gritted her teeth and counted to ten before she spoke again. She didn't appreciate being the target of this man's animosity, although she supposed she could understand his suspicion. ‘I didn't come here expecting to find anyone still alive who was related to my gran. I was hoping someone might remember her, but because she never spoke of this place, I wasn't counting on it. I know it was a shock to your grandfather, but he seemed relieved to finally have some answers about Rose.'

‘Well, you may have convinced my grandfather you're his dead sister reincarnated,' he said sarcastically, ‘but it's going to take a little more than that to convince me.'

‘I don't have to convince
you
of anything. I came here to do something for my gran, and once it's done, I'll be gone.' She didn't want to let this man intimidate her, but his bullish stance and puffed-up chest were making her more than a little nervous.

‘Is there a problem here?' came a voice from behind her, and she saw Trent's scowl deepen.

‘This doesn't concern you, Buchanan. Butt out,' he said angrily to the newcomer she couldn't quite see.

Sarah slid off her stool and edged away, the movement giving her a better look at this Buchanan fellow who'd intervened. With a small jolt of surprise, she realised it was the man who'd had to rescue her a few days earlier from the side of the road.

‘Maybe you need to back off and cool down a bit, Morgan.'

‘Maybe you need to piss off and mind your own business,' Trent shot back.

‘Hey!' said Tash. ‘Don't even think about it, you two. Trent, unless you want to order a drink, you better get out of here.'

Trent's cold gaze hit Sarah full force.

‘Get going, Trent,' Tash warned.

With one final glare at Buchanan, now silent by Sarah's side, Trent Morgan turned away and crossed the room, giving the front doors a savage shove before disappearing through them.

Six

Sarah let out a slow breath and sat back down on her stool.

‘You okay?' asked Tash.

Sarah gave a nod, waving off Tash's concern.

‘All I seem to do is get you out of trouble,' said Buchanan, flashing her a grin before taking a nearby stool and ordering a beer.

‘And yet both times, I don't recall asking you to,' Sarah said, glad her hands had stopped trembling as she took a sip of her wine. ‘But thank you . . . ?' She waited for him to supply his first name.

‘Adam,' he said, giving a nod of thanks to Tash as she handed him his beer.

‘Thank you, Adam,' Sarah parroted politely.

‘And you would be?'

‘Sarah.'

It took a moment before she figured out why he looked slightly different this time—he didn't have a hat on. The eyes were still the vivid blue she recalled from their first meeting, but now she could see his hair was short and dark and he was much taller than she remembered.

‘So this is where you ended up?'

‘Yep.'

‘You two know each other then?' Tash asked, her curiosity clearly piqued.

‘His cattle were on the road the other day and nearly caused an accident,' said Sarah.

‘She couldn't read a simple road sign,' Adam clarified.

‘I . . . see.' Tash seemed about to launch into further questioning, but a call from the end of the bar saved the day.

‘So what was that all about with Morgan?'

Sarah took another hefty sip of wine. ‘I have no idea.'

‘He seemed pretty riled up.'

‘What are you doing here anyway?' she asked.

‘I live here.'

‘Here?'

‘Well, up the road a bit.'

‘I thought you were droving your cattle . . . or something,' she finished lamely. Who was she kidding? She had no idea what she thought he'd been doing. The closest she'd ever been to agriculture in her entire life had been a school excursion to the Royal Easter Show in Sydney in Year 9. The smell and the noise as she'd traipsed through the animal pavilions was not something she remembered with much fondness.

‘I was.'

‘Well, why were you doing that if you have a property around here? Where were you taking them?'

‘I wasn't taking them anywhere—I was feeding them.'

‘Why? What's wrong with the grass in your paddocks?'

‘There isn't enough. You really aren't from around here, are you?' he added, taking a sip of his beer.

‘I guess my car didn't give it away then?' she said.

‘Are you always this friendly?'

‘I'm friendly!' Damn it, she was! She'd been making progress with Edith, for goodness sake—how much more friendly could you get? She just wasn't used to complete strangers wanting to know everything about her.

‘You always seem to be snapping my head off.'

‘Well, you just . . . always seem to turn up at the wrong time.'
Like when I'm at my most incompetent.
The urge to let him know she had a high-powered, well-paid job she was very good at hovered on the tip of her tongue, but then that would sound as though she wanted to impress him, and she certainly didn't want or
need
to do that.

‘So what brings you to Negallan?'

‘I have family business to attend to.'

‘Ahh.' He nodded his head and took another sip of beer.

‘Your gran.'

‘Yeah,' she said, feeling awkward . . .
again
.

‘How did you get mixed up with Morgan?'

‘I . . . went out to his place to see his grandfather about something and it seemed to stir up a bit of trouble.'

‘So how long are you in town for?' he asked, changing the subject. Whether he'd accepted her explanation about Trent at face value or he'd simply lost interest in the line of conversation she wasn't sure, but Sarah was thankful that he hadn't pressed her on the issue.

‘I don't know yet . . . not long.'

‘That's a shame.'

Sarah looked him in the eye for a moment then quickly glanced away. She spotted Tiny sitting at a table among a group of the rail workers and she gave him a brief smile.

‘I actually thought I'd be gone by now, but things have got a little more complicated than I'd expected.'

He was silent, waiting for her to continue, and Sarah found herself telling him about the photo and her gran's identity crisis after all. It was a relief to talk about it really— she was tired of going over it inside her own head.

‘So you came all the way out here with just a name and a photo and nothing else?'

‘Well, there's a map of sorts, and Gran's letter.'

‘That's not much to go on. Do you often jump feet-first into things like this?' His tone was genuinely curious, not judgemental, and she bit back her defensive reaction.

‘Actually, no. I don't tend to do things like this. It just came at a time when I needed a . . . change of scenery.'

‘Do you have the map? Maybe there're some answers on that?'

‘It's just a rough sketch of the place she wants to be taken to. It's pretty old, and I can't read any names on it.'

‘I can take a look at it if you like.'

Her spirits rose at his suggestion. ‘It's upstairs in my room,' she said, then squirmed uncomfortably as she caught his mischievous grin. ‘I'm not asking you to come up there.'

‘I should hope not
—
what kind of a guy do you think I am? You might try and take advantage of me or something. I've heard about you city girls.'

‘You're hilarious,' said Sarah, deadpan.

‘Why don't you go up and get it and bring it back down here then?' he suggested.

Had the incident with Trent not just happened, that's probably exactly what she'd have done, but she really didn't feel like having an audience again tonight as she spread out the map on one of the small tables down here. The rest of the bar would probably think she was on some kind of weird treasure hunt or something. ‘No, it's all right. I'll show it to you another time.'

He gave an offhand shrug. ‘No worries. I'll be going away tomorrow for a week or so though.'

Great, she'd finally found someone who might know where the stupid tree was and he wouldn't be around to help. ‘Well, I guess if you haven't got anything better to do, you could come up and take a quick look.'

‘I must be losin' my touch. It never used to be this hard to get a woman to invite me upstairs.'

‘Don't push your luck, buddy.'

They ordered two more drinks and carried them up the wide staircase to her room. Unlocking the door, Sarah had a sudden attack of nerves and cursed herself silently. She was a grown woman, for Pete's sake! He was just here to help her track down Gran's tree and that was it. With a stern word to herself about acting like the adult she was, she took a calming breath and pushed open the door.

The pretty yellow wildflowers she'd picked earlier were on the table next to the urn in a glass of water. She caught Adam looking at them with a slightly perplexed expression and found herself offering him an explanation. ‘I had to stop and pick them this morning, they were just so pretty.' It still amazed her that the plant grew in such wild abundance out here.

‘Do you know what it's called?' he asked slowly.

‘No, but it's
everywhere
,' said Sarah as she touched the little flowers gently.

‘That's because it's fireweed,' he said.

When she raised an eyebrow at him, he gave a strangled grunt of disbelief before clarifying, ‘It's a noxious weed.'

Sarah glanced back at the daisy-like flowers in the glass and felt a sudden and inexplicable sense of betrayal.
A
weed?
But it looked so elegant and dainty. Weren't weeds supposed to be ugly and straggly? Sarah swallowed her disappointment as she turned away from the vase. Even the flowers out here were pretending to be something they weren't.

Pulling the blinds up, she pushed open the doors and led the way out onto the balcony, setting her drink down on the small table and inviting Adam to take a seat while she went back inside to get the map.

Coming back out, Sarah bit back a smile, finding Tiny had followed them upstairs and taken up a position further along the verandah.

‘You've got yourself a bodyguard,' Adam murmured as she took a seat.

‘Apparently some people don't consider you as trustworthy as you think.'

‘I'm not sure if I should feel offended or flattered that I could be considered a threat to your virtue.'

‘Don't let it go to your head.' Sarah placed the map on the table and watched as he studied the faded drawing carefully. ‘Do you recognise any of those places?'

‘Yeah, it's the boundaries of the local properties in the district.' He traced a line on the page and Sarah followed it with her eyes, noticing that his hands were calloused and toughened—a working man's hands. ‘This here is the old highway. It used to run through Negallan once.'

It was hard to picture traffic moving through the wide old streets below.

‘This is my place, Gwandalan.'

‘What does Gwandalan mean?'

‘It means “rest” or “peace”. My grandfather bought it sight unseen from a land agent just before the end of the war. I think it was his way of honouring his fallen mates.'

Sarah noted the quiet pride in Adam's voice as he spoke about his grandfather.

‘He never talks much about the war, but I know he had a rough time. He told me once that the dream of one day having his own place was the only thing that got him through the hell he saw in action.'

‘He certainly achieved what he set out to do. He's handed down a legacy. That must make you feel good.'

‘Yeah, it does. The place is part of me. It's like . . .' He shook his head helplessly. ‘I can't explain it—it's a way of life you have to live to understand.'

She envied that about him. What would it be like to have something so certain in your life? Something that glued you to a place? Somewhere you knew you belonged?

‘What about the place where that big circle is drawn?' she asked, looking back at the map.

‘That's the original Burrapine Station.'

The circle wasn't labelled but she assumed it was the place the wishing tree was located. If Adam was correct, that meant it was on Morgan land. ‘Great! That means going back out there and asking if I can search their land for a tree—there's no way Trent will allow me to do that. You saw him tonight—he'll probably have me arrested for trespassing if I set foot on that place ever again.'