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Katriona put Jordan down carefully on the seat and got out of the car. ‘We’ll be friends. I know where your house is ... I’ll see you at seven.’

‘You’re mad at me, redheaded mad.’ Amber laughed wickedly. ‘Why did you reject the obvious? For Morgan’s honour? For mine? For Tay’s?’ The green eyes were soft and tender. 'You fool, to let yourself love him like that.’

‘You should be burned at the stake for being a green-eyed witch,’ Katriona said flatly. She stalked up the path, passing Morgan without speaking. She grabbed her towel and dressing-gown from her room and hurried to the bathroom to shower and wash her hair. She wasn’t used to the heat. She chose a lilac silk dress to put on later and lay down on her bed. She was drained of all emotion, yet over-full of emotion. She wanted quiet and peace just for a short while. She was not even angry that both Tay and Amber had guessed her secret; they were perceptive, and she knew she could trust them.

‘Lunch-time! ’ Morgan shouted, and rapped on the door.

Katriona’s eyes flicked open wide. How awful! She must have dropped off to sleep as soon as she lay down. Then she saw by her watch that it had only been for half an hour and was relieved. Quickly she brushed her hair into its natural free-flowing waves and slipped on her dress and sandals, then hurried to the dining-room.

‘Sorry for being late, Mrs Niven. May I do anything to help?’ Katriona avoided looking at Morgan who was seated at the table.

Mrs Niven smiled, ‘Call me Nivvy, they all do. And sit down. We only have a light lunch, salad and cold meat, usually about twelve, but Morgan had some office work to do, so we decided to let you have forty winks. Do you feel better?’

‘Like a giant refreshed.’ She sat by Morgan, telling herself that she would get used to sitting close to him. And it was only a matter of time before this feeling that her bones were melting would disappear. She turned from him to gaze out the sliding doors to the garden and beyond to the Hope River and to her special mountain, incredibly beautiful in the afternoon heat.

'Your tea, Katriona, and pass this one on to Morgan. Help yourself to sauce, pickles or whatever. You must be hungry, you’ve had nothing all day. The sauce is really good this year, I’m very pleased with it.’

Katriona placed Morgan’s cup of tea carefully beside him, unexpectedly touching his arm after she had put it down. She flinched as if she had touched a live electric wire. She knew he was just sitting there watching her, but she would not look at him. It was an outright lie that she would ever get used to sitting beside him ... it would not matter if he sat at the other side of the table, or twenty feet away from her. He was one of those men who had such magnetic maleness that you were conscious of it a
mile away.

‘Enjoyed your morning, Katriona?’ Morgan asked with a
hint of amusement behind the words.

She made herself meet his gaze directly, and ignored the laughter there. ‘Fine. It was a
grand morning, and the trip with Tay was well worth the whole flight to New Zealand.’ Nivvy chatted on, completely unaware of the tension at the other end of the table. ‘Tay is nice, really nice, and a
good head shepherd. Isn’t that so, Morgan?’

‘Certainly is, Nivvy. Good at his job, and other things.’ His words were casual, but his eyes were wickedly telling Katriona that he knew exactly the effect he was having on her and that he was enjoying every minute of it.

Katriona forced herself to hold his eyes coolly and levelly for one second longer, then thankfully switched her attention to Mrs Niven. ‘Did you make all the sauces and pickles yourself, Nivvy?’

‘Yes. You must come out to the store room, it’s brim full of preserves, nearly three hundred bottles.’

‘We’ll never get through three hundred bottles of tomato sauce, Nivvy,’ Morgan teased her.

‘Ah, Morgan, you know better than that. Take no notice of him, Katriona, he loves to tease.’

‘Torment,’ Katriona snapped, then bit her lip, angry that she had given him that much evidence of his success. ‘How long does it take for an airmail letter to get here from Scotland, please, Nivvy?’

'Oh, about a week, I would say.’

‘Yes, you should hear from the faithful Donald within a
week,’ Morgan offered.

‘I hope so,’ Katriona replied fervently. ‘He said he would write as soon as I left, and it seems a long time since I was with him.’

‘A friend of yours?’ Nivvy asked with real interest.

‘A very close friend of Katriona’s.’ Morgan’s voice was mocking. ‘I met him when I was over there—a pleasant fellow. He wasn’t happy at losing her to New Zealand even for a short time. He wants to marry her and she could hardly tear herself from his side.’

Katriona threw him a withering look and concentrated on her lunch.

‘That’s lovely. Still, I’m glad you came. Ross needed to see you.’

Katriona smiled at Nivvy. ‘And I needed to see him. It’s a pity that he has to be away this week.’

‘Never mind, Morgan will take you about with him. He knows this place almost as well as Ross. You’re not wearing an engagement ring, Katriona?’

‘I don’t believe in them, neither does Donald. A wide gold wedding ring is sufficient.’ That should hold Morgan Grant, she thought viciously, as she took another careful mouthful.

‘He should be able to afford a really pricey one when Ross coughs up.’ The silky sarcastic whisper did not reach Nivvy, but it hit Katriona like a slap on the face and she choked. She knew Morgan enjoyed slapping her on the back with unnecessary force.

She stood up, still coughing. The tears in her eyes were not from choking but from pure unadulterated temper. ‘I’ll get a glass of water.’

She went round the room divider and took a glass from the cupboard and slowly filled it with water. She wondered how long you had to spend in jail in New Zealand for cold-blooded murder.

An open sports car roared up the hill and braked directly in front of the wrought iron gate, and Katriona saw Carla swing her long shapely legs over the low door without bothering to open it. Dressed in white short shorts, a white swathed scarf for a top and white sandals, she drew every eye. Her long blonde hair fell like a golden river down her back and her superbly shaped body, tanned a glorious even brown, was worth a second look.

She stopped by the gate, flung her hair back arrogantly, and posed casually, almost as if to let everyone look their fill and dare to find fault, then she sauntered up the path.

‘The devil! ’ Morgan slapped the table and went to meet her.

‘Not quite, but close,’ Nivvy remarked crisply. She joined Katriona by the kitchen window for a moment. ‘It was too much to hope she would leave us in peace. Oh, well, coffee for one coming up.’

Katriona’s eyes narrowed as she watched Morgan meet Carla, and thought bitterly that they were made for each other. A pair of superb animals—whoops, human beings— well, specimens was closer maybe. Morgan was standing there, tall, incredibly good-looking, his dark head slightly bent to hear what Carla was saying, a half smile on his face. And Carla, in high-heeled sandals almost as tall as he, her exquisite face turned to his, taking the full afternoon sunshine square on her face without fear, talking fast to him with the ease of a long acquaintance, made Katriona wince and turn away. Amber was right... it was foolish of her to love Morgan, and worse to be so weak that she could not stop herself from loving him.

‘Shall I get some meat out, and more bread for Carla?’ she asked Nivvy.

‘Huh! That one has only a
coffee for breakfast, coffee for lunch because she has to be so careful of the figure divine. She’d put weight on if she so much as smelled a slice of bread. Do you have to watch what you eat?’

‘No. It doesn’t seem to matter what I eat, I still look like a broomstick,’ Katriona told her with a rueful grin.

'Thought so,’ Nivvy said with satisfaction. ‘The way you downed that meal last night did my soul good. It would have slowed up a
good shearer and you never blinked. What’s the use of good cooking if people will only gnaw on a
carrot and munch a
lettuce leaf? As for being a
broom-handle, fiddlesticks. You’ve all the slender grace of a
hind and all the necessary equipment to stand any man on his ear, if only you’d learn to use it. Why don’t you practise on Morgan? Give him something else to think of besides Carla’s overblown, over-cultivated charm.’

Katriona stood stock still, her lips parted in silent protest and honest bewilderment.

Nivvy yelled unceremoniously through the window, ‘Coffee poured, Carla!’ then turned abruptly on Katriona. ‘That one would make a down payment of a million dollars to have a shape like yours. Believe me, I know what I’m talking about. Go to it! Shake Morgan out of his senses, you can do it.’

‘You’re crazy!’ Katriona’s voice wobbled and she half laughed at the absurdity of the suggestion. ‘I don’t want to, even if I could, which I couldn’t. Donald loves me.’

Nivvy sniffed. ‘Sorry, I forgot about him. What a pity! Mustn’t be up to much, though, if he didn’t tell you you were beautiful.’

Katriona blushed scarlet.

‘Oh, he did, and you didn’t believe him ... what a silly child you are! ’

Carla swept into the room and faced Katriona. ‘Sorry about last night. Came as a bit of a shock, it really did.’ She turned her back and sat down with studied grace, patting the seat beside her. ‘Come and sit beside me, Morgan, while I have my coffee.’

‘Sorry, I can’t. I’m late, Carla. I have to get over to the woolshed.’ He was already half out of the door.

She was on her feet in an instant and caught him as he went down the path. ‘May I borrow the Mustang? My car has a tiny, tiny squeak in it. Be a pet?’

Katriona craned her head to see Morgan’s face. He was not pleased. He hesitated a minute. ‘Okay, the keys are in the study.’

‘Could you get what’s-his-name to check my car out?’ Carla called as he got to the gate.

‘No, I could not. What’s-his-name is too busy on farm work showering sheep at present and he has a ton of farm machinery to keep moving. His name is Tim and it’s time you learnt it. Get your garage to check your car, or buy a new one.’ He walked away.

Nivvy winked at Katriona and licked her finger chalking an imaginary mark on the wall.

Carla wore a petulant expression on her face when she returned, but it cleared as she finished her coffee. ‘I’m going into Hanmer, Katriona. Would you like a trip with me?’

‘No, thank you. I would rather just wander around the station,’ Katriona answered politely, trying to disguise her surprise.

‘You can do that any time. It’s less than half an hour each way, and you should know where your nearest village is. Quite apart from that, it’s a lovely day and Hanmer is perfect at this time of the year. Do come! It will make me feel you’ve forgiven me for my bad manners last night.’

‘There’s nothing to forgive,’ Katriona said, still not wanting to go, but feeling it was churlish to refuse.

Nivvy spoke quickly, ‘Oh, Carla, if you’re going into Hanmer, could you get me some pears? Mandy rang to say the wind had shaken her pear tree and the ground is covered. They’ll rot if no one takes them. Take two cases with you when you go. Thank you.’

Carla frowned, then her face changed to a charming smile. ‘You’ll get your pears if Katriona comes with me. She can pick them while I dash about the shops. That’s settled, then.’ She picked up her bag and left the room, calling over her shoulder, ‘I’ll be staying the night, of course.’

‘Of course,’ Nivvy repeated with a different inflection in her voice. ‘Sorry about that, Katriona. Mandy is my friend and she works, so there’ll be no one there to help you. The children will be away at school. When Carla drops you off, just pick up the pears from the ground, don’t take any bruised ones, and top the box up from the tree if there’s not enough fallen. It should only take you about ten minutes.’

‘What if they come home while I’m there? They’ll think I’m stealing them.’

‘Just say you came from Evangeline and you are picking them for me.’ Nivvy looked sympathetic, ‘You’d better get used to the idea that Carla usually gets her own way, although it bothers me why she wants to take you ... she rarely offers to take me or any of the other women. I wish Morgan was here ...’ her voice trailed away nervously.

‘Think she’ll do me an injury?’ Katriona suggested with a giggle. ‘Bang me on the head and railroad me home to Scotland?’

‘Oh, no. She might get blood on her clothes ... or break a fingernail.’ Nivvy hurried to answer the phone ringing out in the study, and came back moments later. ‘Ross wants to talk to you, Katriona.’

Colour washed over her face, leaving it pale as she hurried through to take the call. She still was not used to having a father, let alone talking to him. She picked up the phone gingerly. ‘Hello! ’

‘That you, Katriona? Your father here. I have a few spare minutes and thought I’d call you with an idea I had. I’m missing a quarter of your visit, so if I ring you each night and we have a
chat we’ll be part way along the path of getting to know each other by the time I get back. Just a
few minutes, and you can tell me what you’ve been doing so I can follow your progress. What do you think of that for an idea? Be honest.’

‘I’m always honest,’ Katriona answered. 'I like your idea just fine. I appreciate your kindness, but won’t it be very expensive?’

‘Not so expensive as ringing you in Scotland if I want to chat with you next month. So what have you done this morning and what do you plan for this afternoon?’

‘I went with Tay to bring in the sheep from the clover paddock and saw turkeys and geese that were allowed to ... er ... range free. And I saw a
tiny lake and Maid, Tay’s dog, working the sheep and a
mountain called Skiddaw which Tay called a hill. Carla is taking me to Hanmer now and I’m to pick some pears for Nivvy while I’m there.’

‘Great, that’s what I want to hear, that you’re getting about, seeing things, learning things. What about Morgan? Didn’t you see him today? Doesn’t he rate a mention?'