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‘Morning, Morgan.’

‘Morning, Tay. Come and meet Katriona Carmichael, Ross’s daughter. I presume the news had already reached you? Katriona, this is Taylor Young, Head Shepherd of Evangeline.’

Katriona had been so preoccupied with her own thoughts that she had not heard the truck drive up. She stood up, and found herself dwarfed between the two men, both well over six foot. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr Young.’

‘It’s a great pleasure to meet you, Miss Carmichael. By the way, Tay will do just fine.’ He put his hand out.

‘And my name is Katriona,’ she responded as she took his hand. She could really like this fair-haired giant with his warm easy smile and deep brown eyes.

Tay, you’re more fortunate than I was with my first meeting with Katriona. I don’t seem to recall you saying it was a pleasure to meet me ..

‘I didn’t, and it wasn’t,’ Katriona glared at him.

‘Gave you a hard time, did he, Katriona?’ Tay looked sympathetic. ‘He can be pretty mean to handle.’

‘He was,’ Katriona agreed wholeheartedly.

Tay gave Morgan a lazy grin. ‘I hear via the cookhouse that you fared better at a subsequent meeting. That should console you.’

Morgan smiled at Katriona with mischief in his eyes. ‘Oh, I think it would be fair to say our relationship is improving rapidly.’

‘It is not! You took an unfair advantage ...’

Morgan shouted with laughter. ‘An unfair advantage of the situation. Did I ever! What man wouldn’t?’

‘A gentleman,’ Katriona retorted.

‘Chalk that one up to you, Katriona,’ Tay commented. ‘From what I hear you must have been doing okay yesterday in many ways. The gorgeous Carla as well! ’

Something in Tay’s voice made Katriona glance hastily at Morgan. His smile had disappeared and his eyes were chill and cold. 'I should mention that Katriona is here for only one month. Ross wants her to learn as much as possible about Evangeline in that time.’

‘Tall order for a small girl,’ Tay smiled down at Katriona. ‘I’ll be happy to help you any way that I can. Starting from now if you like. I’m just going up to the clover paddock for a mob of ewes. I’ll talk to you On the way.’

Katriona did not need a second invitation. There was something strange going on between these two men, and she wanted out. Even before Tay had arrived she had been needing some respite from Morgan’s perceptive eyes. As she climbed into the truck and slammed the door, Tay took his place beside her, and she saw Morgan move as if he was going to protest her decision. Then he changed his mind as they drove off and gave them a wave before striding towards the woolshed.

‘You can chalk that one up to me,’ Tay said cheerfully, giving Katriona a wink as he circled round through the iron gate and turned towards the plantation. He stopped in front of the gate.

Katriona sat and looked at him questioningly.

‘The passenger always opens and shuts the gate,’ Tay told her quietly.

‘Sorry.’ Katriona half jumped, half fell from the truck in her anxiety to get the gate open. She could just imagine Morgan’s sarcasm if he had been driving. As the truck drove through she saw about six dog crates were on the deck. Evangeline was really fully mechanised, even the dogs did not have to walk. She saw Morgan watching her from beside the woolshed, and she knew he was angry, although she did not know why. She gave him a cheeky wave as she ran for the truck and climbed in without looking back.

As the truck climbed the hill Katriona looked about her with delight. ‘It’s so beautiful here. Do you know the names of the trees?’

‘The big one by the gate is a sequoia, a Canadian redwood; there are ash and elm, wild cherry, wild plum, and of course the Scotch firs of the plantation. They were planted by the original owner of Evangeline, a Frenchman, Count de la Pasteur, way back in 1864. Sounds a romantic start for a good old New Zealand station, don’t you think, Katriona?’

‘Yes, yes, it does. I like the idea.’

‘You do like a little romance in your life, Katriona?’

‘If you’re getting at me about that kiss Morgan gave me, you can forget it! ’ Katriona flared, then stopped and looked at Tay and smiled. He had not been teasing her. He was just interested in her reply, and his brown eyes were kind. ‘Sorry,’ she offered swiftly.

'I'm sorry too,’ Tay grinned lazily at her. ‘I should have realised that any girl who’s spent an hour with Morgan straight after breakfast...’

‘I didn’t have any breakfast,’ Katriona giggled ruefully.

‘Oh, it would be much worse on an empty stomach ... where was I? Oh yes, a girl would definitely be on the defensive, and slightly hair-triggered ..

‘What’s hair-triggered?’

‘Umm! Finely tuned temper-wise, if I could put it nicely, or ready to shoot at the slightest provocation. And you do have red hair.’

Katriona laughed. ‘That’s something I can’t deny.’

Tay laughed with her. ‘You and I are going to be friends, I can feel it in my bones.’

‘So do I. Oh, look down there!’ Katriona squirmed around to look out of the back window of the truck. ‘From here I can see the woolshed and yards, and the homestead, the cookhouse and men’s quarters, and the deer in the park, and a house ... your house, Tay?’

‘You’re not doing badly—yes, that’s my house. And talking of romance, I think I’ve almost cornered the market as far as love and romance go on Evangeline. You’ll have to meet my wife and kids, then you’ll know what I mean. They’ll love you.’

‘If they do, I’ll just love them right back, and you too.’ Was she going crazy? Saying things like that to a man she hardly knew? Why, he could take it any number of ways. She looked across at Tay nervously and then relaxed as she met his pleasant smile. She pulled her thick sweater off, hoping that a little action might cool the sudden swinging happiness that threatened to make a
shambles out of her regulated and confined emotions. She drew a deep breath, but it was no use. It must be the high country air, intoxicating, heady like wine, which was making her say things completely out of character. She felt the air beautiful about her, and the fantastic heat of the morning sun streaming through the window was making her expand and grow like a hothouse plant, making her throw caution to the wind and say what she really felt. After a
lifetime of being restrained and regimented and cautious, it was exhilarating to be completely natural with someone—a fabulous, unexpected luxury.

‘May I go out with you a
lot? You could teach me so much. Morgan treats me as if I’m intellectually handicapped. Oh, look down there, Tay, a tiny wee lake ... oh, it’s perfect, just perfect! I just love it here.’

‘I can see that. And yes to your other question, you can come with me whenever you like.’ He stopped in front of a gate and Katriona did not have to be told twice. She was out of the truck in an instant, swinging the gate wide open. ‘Hop in. We’ll bring the sheep back this way so we’ll leave it open.’ He waved to a man on a tractor. That’s Phil, the second tractor driver. You would see him go by on the bike this morning.’

‘Yes, I did. What’s he doing? Where does he live?’

‘He’s giant discing the barley stubble, working it up, then it will lie fallow for the winter before being planted again in the early spring. He’s a single man, so lives in the men’s quarters and takes his meals at the cookhouse.’ Katriona watched the golden stubble change to the rich dark soil colour as the tractor passed, and they drove on through the next paddock. Suddenly the tremendous sweep of the land overwhelmed her, the immensity of the station, the grassed pasture lands, the tussock hills and the mountains simply seemed too much for her to comprehend. She would never learn about it in a week, a month or a lifetime. But she must try.

‘Your wife won’t mind me?’

‘Amber? No, she won’t mind. She’ll encourage you, she loves this place as much as I do.’

‘I’ve never met anyone named Amber,’ said Katriona.

Tay agreed. ‘Her mother had a
most peculiar sense of humour, but somehow it suits her. Wait till you meet her, you’ll know instantly that she couldn’t be anything else but Amber.’

‘You sound like a very lucky man,’ Katriona said with a smile.

‘Don’t I know it! And she tells me every day just in case I should forget.’

A shadow chased across Katriona’s attractive face as she thought of the messed-up marriages and the unhappiness her mother had caused. She asked a trifle anxiously, ‘Are you ever likely to forget?’

As if sensing her mood and her need for an honest answer he replied seriously, ‘Never. When you meet her you’ll know what I mean; green eyes, black hair, beautiful, crazy, five foot nothing, a child one moment and all woman the next, a real power pack, and I love her very much. I’m a one-woman man.’

‘She’s a very lucky woman.’ Katriona’s voice was husky as she fought back the threatening tears. What was
wrong
with her? She was not an emotional person, rarely resorted to tears, and yet here she was ready to weep bucketsful of tears because this tall fair mountain man had declared his love for his wife so openly. This Evangeline must be getting to her. Perhaps she was suffering from jet-lag; it had to be something.

They were travelling through a paddock of yellow stubble where sheep were feeding when a flock of geese flew up and winged their way past the truck.

‘Wild geese?’

'No. Domesticated. Although there are a flock of Canadian geese about.’

‘But they fly like wild geese.’ Katriona’s voice was incredulous. ‘Domesticated, away up here, miles from the homestead.’

‘They sort of range free. You’re not far from home in a direct line. You’ll meet them up here, down by the lake, in the deer park. They go where they please. Even the pet pig, a Captain Cooker, visits each house to get the choice bits, but as he wanders down on the main road sometimes we had to paint the word PET on his side in case someone shot him thinking he was a wild pig.’ Tay grinned as he went round to release a small alert brown dog from its crate.

Katriona watched it make a sweeping run across the field and disappear behind a hill. She thought dreamily that to range free in this wild lonely land would be all she’d ever ask for. To feel the wind in her hair, the hot sun on her face, to go where she pleased, and to be part of this beauty, to belong here for ever in these sunlight mountains would be heaven indeed. Was that why she was so emotional, so vibrant with feeling? Because there was no place for her here, no one to love her as Amber was loved. She knew that she was a one-man woman and knew just as surely that Morgan Grant was that man. How he would laugh if he knew!

She forced herself to take an interest in what Tay was doing and became intrigued with the cleverness of the small foxlike dog away up on the hillside bringing the sheep down to the flat. Implicitly it followed Tay’s whistled commands, even though it rarely saw the sheep, and soon had the paddock mustered. Also gathered up were some very portly turkeys who had been feeding on the barley, and they were indignant as they hoisted their fat bodies up on the fence, gobbling in protest at their interrupted breakfast. ‘Wayleggo, Maid! Wayleggo! ’

Katriona heard again that unusual command and watched Maid come racing to heel. Tay let two more dogs go.

‘Can you do all that? Work several dogs at a time just by whistling them?’ Katriona asked.

‘You can if you’re a
shepherd. In fact you have to if you’re a shepherd. Some are good, some are bad. If there are any dog trials on while you’re here we’ll take you along, then you can see what the best in the country are like.’

'Can Morgan do it?’

‘He’s good, real good, and he’s got some great dogs.’

'He would be,’ Katriona retorted a little bitterly. 'I suppose he does everything well.’

‘I
wouldn’t say that,’ Tay replied with a
grin. 'He hasn’t made much of a job of charming the boss’s daughter.’

‘You’re very young to be a
head shepherd,’ Katriona hurried to change the subject.

'Twenty-eight. A year older than Morgan. How old would you like me to be? Fifty?’ He gave her a slow lazy smile. ‘You’ve got to be young in this game, and fit, to walk the tops.’ He waved his hand in the direction of the mountains.

'What are the tops?’ Katriona demanded.

‘The tops of the hills.’

‘They’re not hills, they’re mountains,’ she protested.

‘Hills to me, mountains to you, same difference. I’ll take you up there one day, that’ll be a real experience for you ... that’s unless Morgan objects.’

‘Why should Morgan object?’

‘Why should he indeed? Just a gut feeling I have,’ Tay smiled at her. ‘Tell him I’m taking you to the tops, I think his reaction might surprise you.’

‘Nothing he does would surprise me,’ Katriona snorted.

‘I wouldn’t bet on that one, Katriona.’ Tay’s grin was even broader. ‘Let’s get these old dears back to the yards.’

‘Are you and Morgan good friends?’ she asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

‘Closer than blood brothers ... most of the time, but we do have the odd disagreement.’ He was smiling broadly at some secret thought which he was obviously not going to share with Katriona.

It puzzled her for a few minutes, then she gave it away and sat quietly drinking in the beauty of the morning, and luxuriating in the heat of the sun. As she climbed back in the truck after shutting the gate she asked, ‘Is all the land I can see Evangeline? Are all the fields named?’

‘It’s all Evangeline except the hills across the river. They’re on the Hope Valley Station. Yes, for convenience, most paddocks are named. From here, Clover Paddock, Racecourse, Grandstand, over there Round Hill, Mount Skiddaw, Top Organs.’

Katriona followed his pointing hand, which dropped swiftly to bang on the truck door making the sheep move a bit faster to catch the main mob. ‘I’ll never learn all their names,’ she wailed. ‘I suppose this is only a tiny part of it.’

‘You’re correct there, but it’s not all divided up with fencing as well as this place. See; there’s Summerdale ... it was once a station on its own: nineteen thousand acres ...’ Tay stopped talking as he caught up on some stragglers and braked the truck. He leapt down from the seat and in a flash had grabbed two miserable-looking sheep up and deposited them in the empty dog crates, and rejoined her. ‘See, that’s where modern mechanisation has it all over the musterer on horseback. We’ll pick up quite a few on the way down and they’ll ride in style, whereas years ago they would have slowed up the whole drive.’