Outback Bachelor (15 page)

Skye remained staring into Rachelle’s brimming eyes. At last she said, “I do believe you, Rachelle. I’m very sorry if we’ve upset you. We’re tremendously worried about Dad.”

“You can’t find him anywhere?” Relieved, Rachelle dashed her tears away with the back of her hand.

“I’m afraid not.”

“So there are places I can search,” Rachelle offered.

“Thank you for that.” Skye started to turn away, her mind crowded with fears for her father’s safety.

“The best thing you can do, Rachelle, is go keep Gran company,” Keefe said. “She’s as distressed as the rest of us. I’m taking the chopper up. I’m confident we’ll find Jack in the desert. But I need to conduct the search before nightfall.”

“All the luck in the world!” Rachelle called, feeling chastened.

When they were gone, she lowered her head for a moment, biting her lip and thinking back hard…
Had
Scott been there all the time? She wasn’t one hundred per cent sure. What
was
it Keefe and Gran had been discussing? Whatever it was, it had a bearing on Jack McCory’s disappearance. Rachelle began to murmur a little prayer for his safety.

Please, God, please protect Jack McCory
.

They had two hours before darkness. The men on the ground had searched steadily without finding any trace of the overseer. He let the search go on even though Jack had written he was heading into the desert. He could have been laying down a false trail.

From the air they looked down on an infinite landscape of savage splendour without sign of human habitation. A man in a moving vehicle would be easily exposed in this trackless wilderness. Without a good supply of water, that man could easily die. Many had lost their lives in the country’s vast interior; great deserts covered almost half the continent. Fiery red sand dunes rose up from the plains, peaking and curling like the waves of the inland sea of pre-history. Between the giant swells the troughs were clothed in the ubiquitous spinifex and thick clumps of hardy grasses, stunted trees of mulga and mallee. There was very little protection from a blazing sun out here. On the gibber plains in the distance, the large boulders, rocks, stones and pebbles glittered like some incredible mosaic. Above them the mirage shimmered in silvery glass whirlpools.

It was in its way fantastically beautiful—especially to Skye with her photographer’s eye—only she had no mind to admire it. Her father could be dead or dying down there.

Eyes peeled, they scoured the vast empty expanses, with their dried-up red clay pans and ancient watercourses that appeared like white veins amid the red. They had been flying for approximately thirty minutes when Skye, who had her head turned in the opposite direction to Keefe, tapped him urgently on the shoulder.

“Down there. Could that be the station Jeep?”

“If it is, Jack has used dead branches and bleached grasses to screen it from view.” Immediately Keefe brought the chopper down low…They weren’t all that far off being earthbound. Both of them had picked up the image of a vehicle now.

Feet from landing, the downdraft of the rotor flattened the tall spears of the spinifex grass and churned up a mini-dust-storm. Skye struggled to free herself from her seat. She was so agitated Keefe had to take over. “Try to keep calm, Skye,” he told her. “We need to keep calm, okay?”

“I’ll try.” She was having difficulty just swallowing. Her heart seemed to be occupying her entire mouth How much of a lie was her life? It didn’t seem to matter now. All that mattered was finding the man she called her father alive. Nothing could destroy the love they had for each other. She was desperate to tell him. How many bereaved families had missed just such a chance to tell their loved ones how greatly they were loved and needed?

Feet dug into the desert sand, with the red whirlpool slowly abating, Keefe lowered a hand to her shoulder. “I want you to wait here.” He spoke with habitual authority. “Promise me you’ll do that. Wait until I give the signal. You have to trust me, Skye, to know what’s best.”

“You think he’s killed himself, don’t you?” She could hear the panic and grief in her voice.

“I think Jack’s got more guts than that,” Keefe clipped off. “Maybe he’s just plain drunk and sleeping it off. Give me a minute and I’ll find out.”

It was the longest minute of her life.

I’ll do anything, God. I’ll give up Keefe, the man I love with all my heart, if I have to. I’ll tear out my own heart. Don’t do this to me, Dad!

What she was offering was self-sacrifice.

Keefe stepped out of the makeshift shelter, waving his arm in an all-clear. “Right, Skye,” he yelled. “You can come now.”

Gasping for breath, the heat scorching her neck, she covered the distance as quickly as she had covered any distance in her life, powered by sheer desperation to check on her father’s condition. The loose sand and the unforgiving heat coming off it was making the going tough, but she was tougher. As she reached Keefe, she half stumbled and he caught her up, hauling her into his arms. “Stop tearing yourself to pieces, Skye. I can’t bear it. Jack’s in a bit of a mess, but he’s going to be all right.”

It was moderate rather than severe dehydration Keefe had diagnosed quite accurately, though that situation could have swiftly changed. It didn’t take long for even a physically fit man to succumb to killer dehydration in the desert. Especially a man who had polished off a bottle of whisky.

With her head bent low to clear the overhang of branches, Skye entered the shelter. Her father was sitting on the sand, a man at rock bottom. His head and his torso were soaked from the contents of a canvas water bottle Keefe had poured over him. Unlike her, Keefe had had the presence of mind to take it out of the chopper and bring it with him.

“Dad?” Realising she was shouting with relief and gratitude, Skye reined herself in. “Dad, Dad!” Love shone from her face and her voice. “What an awful fright you gave us. Don’t you dare ever do it again. Don’t you
dare
. You hear me?”

Jack, conscious but weak and dehydrated, somehow managed a smile. “What are you doing here, love?” His look of desolation was pitiful, yet his blue eyes flickered with sudden light.

“Where else would I be?” Skye felt the tears roll down her cheeks. The sight of her father so reduced, plus the reek of alcohol, was almost more than she could bear. She threw herself down alongside him, swooped on him, gathering him close and raining kisses on his cheek covered with harsh stubble. “We’ve found you. Now we’re going to take you home. It’s all right, Dad. Everything is going to be all right.”

“I’ll go get the other water-bottle,” Keefe said, getting up off his haunches to make the return trip to the chopper. He turned away, hiding a face white with fury.

He
knew
now what had happened. He just
knew
who had gone to Jack to fill his ears with black bile. He aimed to take action.

Even so, payback time never felt so bad.

B
ACK
on Djinjara it wasn’t easy to get Jack to take to his bed. But it was heartening to see that slow, increased water intake, plus a cooling shower, had brought about a positive result.

“That’s an order, Jack,” Keefe told him firmly, long used to men obeying him. “Stay in bed. I’ve called in Joe McPherson to check you out, just to be on the safe side. You’re BP is a bit low. Probably your body will need days for the cells to plump up again. But you’re looking better.”

“Do as Keefe tells you, Dad,” Skye urged, taking her father’s hand to offer comfort.

“Unless I’m
not
your dad,” Jack murmured, in a very distressed voice.

Skye’s blue eyes flashed up at Keefe, then back to her father “What are you saying?” she quavered.

“You
know
, sweetheart.” He stared at the white sheet that covered him, not her.

“I know nothing of the kind.” Skye stoutly maintained the lie. It was
white
, wasn’t it? Well, she wasn’t a saint.

“But you
want
to know?”

Skye’s helpless shrug signalled her defeat. Another long look passed between herself and Keefe, who was standing on the opposite side of her father’s narrow bed.

“Tell us what you
think
you know, Jack.” Keefe drew up a chair, speaking quietly, persuasively to his overseer.

“I know precious little,” Jack admitted with a tortured smile. “God knows, I never did ask questions. I adored Cathy, Katrina, whatever her real name. I loved her. I know I’m just an ordinary bloke, but I was sure she loved me. She told me I was the loveliest, kindest man in the world.” His voice broke.

“Of course she loved you,” Skye maintained hotly, taking her father’s hand. “And so you are a lovely kind man. Who told you all this, Dad?” She was convinced it was Rachelle, who had appeared genuinely upset by her father’s disappearance, but that alone didn’t ensure Rachelle was innocent. She was such a devious person.

“It wasn’t Rachelle.” Keefe looked across at her, reading her mind. This was no time to push Jack.

Skye was aware he was giving off signals. But she felt compelled to ignore them. She had to get to the bottom of this. “Was it Scott?” Scott, who had long desired her, now hated her. It had to be Scott. That was his nature.

Keefe spoke gently. “Will you confirm that, Jack?”

Jack subsided miserably into the pillows. “Leave it for a little while, will you, Keefe?” he quietly begged. “I feel a bit under the weather at the moment.”

“Of course.” Keefe pushed back his chair and stood up resolutely. “It doesn’t matter anyway, Jack. I know it was my brother.” His handsome face was set like granite. “Rest easy, Jack. I’ll take care of this. McPherson will be here shortly to take a look at you. When you’re feeling better we’ll arrange a short holiday for you. Be assured, your job is as safe as ever.”

As Keefe strode from the room, Skye hurried after him, reaching out to grasp his arm in an effort to detain him. “What are you going to do, Keefe?”

He turned back, studying her beautiful, agonised face. “Leave it to me, Skye,” he said, not about to accept interference, even from her. “We both know it
was
Scott. He meant to hurt you through your father. He didn’t give a damn what happened to Jack. Jack will confirm it in his own good time.”

“Yes.” She sighed with deep regret. “Scott’s aim has always been to destroy what we have.”

“Except revenge is a double-edged sword. Now the sword is going to fall on him.”

Keefe turned away. She felt compelled to run after him. He looked so angry, so menacing and he was a very strong man. Superbly fit. Scott would be no match for him. “He’s your brother, Keefe.” She gripped his arm, feeling the anger and bitter disillusionment that raged through him. “Tell me what you’re going to do. If you love me, you’ll tell me.”

“
If
I love you?” He caught her up so powerfully she was momentarily off her feet. His brilliant eyes slashed incredulously over her face. “How can you even
say
it?”

She was shaking right through her body. “I’m frightened, that’s why. Please tell me, Keefe. I couldn’t bear for
you
to get injured. Scott wouldn’t play fair. He can’t seem to help himself.”

“I told you to leave it to me,” he repeated harshly. “Believe me, he won’t stand a chance. Then I’m going to banish him. Next, I’m going to order Rachelle to find herself a job. Any job, just so long as she gets up off her pampered backside.”

Skye strangled a laugh. “Wouldn’t that be something?”

“This could have ended very badly, Skye. You know that.”

“Dad would never have taken his own life.” She had to convince herself of that. “He just wanted time to think.”

“Only time was running out.” Keefe’s retort was grim.

She stared up into his darkly disturbed face. “We’re no further than we were before. I can’t possibly ask dad for a DNA sample. Not now.”

“The plan goes ahead.” He bent to press a hard kiss onto her mouth. It burned like a brand. Just as he had intended.

“If you can be patient, you’ll find Jack is prepared to give it. He’s a good man. Doing what
you
need is part of Jack’s goodness. I’d strongly advise you to let him bring up the subject himself. Now, don’t try to detain me. I’m going in search of my brother.” He released her so quickly she staggered a little. “There’s absolutely
nowhere
Scott can hide. Nowhere I can’t find him.”

Dr Joe McPherson of the Royal Flying Doctor Service flew in an hour later, and carefully checked Jack over. No questions were asked apart from those about Jack’s symptoms. Dr McPherson handed Skye a list of things to do to help her father recover quickly. Hospitalisation wasn’t called for. Maybe a bit of counselling later. No reference was made as to what the counselling might be for, but obviously Joe McPherson knew. He tended to know everything about the people in his vast practice.

Afterwards Jack slept. When he awoke it was to find Skye by his bedside, quietly reading a book of poetry. “Feeling better, Dad?” She closed the book—she hadn’t been taking all that much in—setting it down on the bedside table. “Anything I can get you? A cup of tea?”

“Tea would be lovely,” he said. “My throat is so dry.”

In a matter of minutes Skye was back, allowing her father to sip the tea in silence before taking the empty cup from him.

“That was good,” Jack sighed, allowing her to plump up the pillows. “It’s dark.’

“Eight o’clock, Dad.”

“Has Keefe come in again?” Urgency was in his hoarsened voice.

“Not as yet.” She shook her head. “But he will. You don’t have to talk, Dad, if you don’t want to. Not
ever
!”

“Only it’s my plain duty to talk,” he said with a wry grimace. “I don’t know
what
I intended to do, darling girl, out there in the desert. I was temporarily off my head. But the desert makes a man feel as small and unimportant in the scheme of things as a grain of sand. My excuse is I was in a terrible state of shock.”

“I know that, Dad.” Skye covered one rough calloused hand with her own.

“I didn’t deserve Cathy,” Jack said. “I don’t deserve you.”

Skye held back tears. “Now you’re being way too modest.” She smiled.

“Maybe just plain stupid,” Jack answered brusquely. “Just a naïve old cowhand. You want to know for sure, don’t you?”

Skye held his blue eyes. “I’m sure you’re my dad. That’s all that matters.” She pressed his hand tightly.

“I don’t think so.” Jack’s answer was uncharacteristically grim. “You love Keefe?”

“With all my heart. Minus the part you’ve got.” She tried for another smile. “We want to marry, Dad. Keefe is insistent. But I can’t see to a future with a cloud hanging over our heads. First, we get
you
right. I couldn’t have borne to lose you, Dad. Remember that when you’re feeling low. Behind you, there’s
me
. Never forget you have to answer to
me
.”

“That’s my girl!” For the first time Jack gave a big open smile. “I knew Cathy had a bit of a crush on Jonty,” he revealed, gently scratching his chest. “God, he was handsome and so full of life. A McGovern. Only Jonty was more or less spoken for. He was involved with one of the Corbett girls. Louise, as I recall. A pretty girl, a very suitable young lady, but not a patch on your mother, who was a genuine beauty. As you are. I was sure Cathy understood that.”

“So it was accepted that Jonty McGovern and Louise Corbett belonged together?”

“That was the word. At any rate, Louise had a nervous breakdown after Jonty was killed. He always was a bit of a daredevil, taking unnecessary risks, yet a tragic accident all the same. Cathy, too, was tremendously upset. Everyone was. Jonty was so young to be taken like that.”

Skye gave his cheek an encouraging stroke. “How did you get to know my mother so well?”

“Like I’ve always told you, sweetheart. For me it was love at first sight. How it happened was like this, something of a miracle for me, I can tell you. Lady McGovern charged me of all people to take Cathy out on trips around the station. I was always considered to be very trustworthy and responsible. Personally I always believed she sent me out with Cathy so Cathy couldn’t be with Jonty.”

“That could certainly have been true,” Skye said, with a lick of bitterness. She still hadn’t forgiven Lady McGovern. Perhaps she never would. “So on these trips you got to know one another very well?”

“Darned right!” Jack replied with conviction. “We hit it off from the beginning. I want you to know I behaved like a true gentleman all the time. Dozens of times I wanted to kiss her. The urge got more and more powerful every time we were together. But I never laid a finger on my Cathy except to assist her in some way. Getting in and out of vehicles. Dismounting. That sort of thing. In a short space of time we became really good mates. I was always skilful in the bush, a good bushman. I’ve always been close to the aboriginal people. They showed me lots. I, in turn, showed Cathy lots. She loved this place. She never wanted to leave. She didn’t talk about her past. I accepted her background must have been painful. I never pried. She would tell me when she was good and ready, I reckoned. Only I lost her. Maybe I was
meant
to lose her,” he said in one of the saddest voices Skye had ever heard.

“Don’t say that, Dad.” She let her head rest against his, listening to him draw in a ragged breath.

“There are jealous gods up there, Skye. Believe it. One shouldn’t love anyone too much. Love and loss go hand in hand. If you lose the person you love, your heart is ripped from your body.”

“I believe that.” She spoke from the depths of her deep, passionate and abiding love for Keefe.

“Now, let’s see about this DNA test,” Jack said briskly, as though they had been discussing it all along.

“Not necessary, Dad.” She looked him directly in the eyes. She was aware of the DNA profiles for close relationships such as first cousins. She was also aware that the results were inconclusive. It was her father’s DNA that was needed.

“We’ll do it!” he said firmly. “I’m certain in my heart you’re
my
child, Skye. I refuse to dishonour your mother and her memory. Cathy would never have done that to me. At first I was shocked out of my mind by what Scott told me. He has such a dark streak. But I’ve been over and over it out there in the desert. She wouldn’t have done it. That wasn’t my girl, my Cathy. If it was Jonty McGovern’s child she carried, she would have told me. She knew I would have helped her in any way I could. I would have been shocked but, God, I loved her. I saw myself as her protector.”

“I believe you about everything, Dad” Skye tried to fill up the raw aching spots in her with trust.

“And I believed in Cathy,” Jack said. “Lady McGovern got it all wrong. The thing is, love, and you have to take it into account, she never for one moment considered me as a likely suitor for Cathy. God forbid! Cathy was a lady. Say what you like, the old lady is a snob. Can’t help it, you see. To her I simply didn’t count. It
had
to be Jonty. Jonty was the father of Cathy’s child. Let’s prove it to her once and for all that she was wrong.”

Keefe called at the bungalow an hour later.

“How’s Jack now?” Voice pitched low, he walked into the comfortable living room, his height and physical magnificence making the adequate space seem claustrophobically small.

“Sleeping peacefully,” she said, picking up on his deep distress. “You spoke to Scott?”

Keefe nodded, putting out his arm and drawing her to him. “Among other things,” he said bluntly. “He’s up at the house now. Packing. He’ll go to wherever I send him. It was going to be Moolaki. It’s now Emerald Waters in the Gulf. He’ll be up close and personal with the crocs.”

“Oh, Lord! How did he take it?” Skye stared up at his taut face, seeing the underlying distress.

“He was absolutely
delighted
. What else?”

“You’re upset.”

“Of course I’m upset!” His silver eyes flashed. “Scott is my brother. He can fill me with a black rage—he’s such a liar—full of bitterness and resentment. He has always wanted to be me, even though he has no real insight into what that entails. He’s a terrible disappointment, but he’s still my brother.”

“I understand that, Keefe.” She did. “I know you’re suffering. But I need to know this. Are you blaming me in some way?”

“Good God, what are you talking about?” He stared down at her with a knotted frown.

She broke away, going to the door that shut the living room off from the hallway and closing it. “Remember years ago when Scott came after me?” she questioned, a searching look in her eyes.

He cut her off at once. “I’ll never forget it.”

Something in his manner set off a perverse spark of anger. It had been an extremely stressful day. Both of them were nearing the end of their tethers yet—or perhaps because of it—she couldn’t stop. “You may deny it now, Keefe, but you practically accused me
then
of being the catalyst in the whole episode. I was the innocent victim yet didn’t you say at the time that Scott wasn’t such a monster. Remember?” she challenged. “What was I again?
Temptation on legs
, according to Scott. You appeared to agree. I’ve had a lot of trouble with that one,” she said.