Summer Down Under (23 page)

“Oh, no,” Sam said once she was securely in
her saddle. She looked around the paddock to see the cattle
scattered all over again. “Just how long was I buried in your
chest.”

“Long enough,” Daniel murmured. “Long
enough.”

They rounded up the cattle, yet again, and
headed them in the right direction. It took another few hours
before they finally arrived at their destination. The cattle were
thirsty after their long journey and crowded around all four sides
of the watering hole, which was at least three acres in size.

The tired riders rode over to the gate once
all the cattle were safely delivered to the paddock. Daniel closed
the gate behind them and they left the cattle to their own devices.
This was to be their home for the next few months and they could
now wander around in the paddock to their heart’s content.

Sam was reluctant to ride back to the house
now that their job was done. She had enjoyed being on horseback
alongside Daniel, but it had turned out to be a very emotional day,
which left her feeling drained and exhausted. A long, hot shower
was just the remedy needed. Her head was starting to pound, too, as
it always did after a good cry.

After arriving at the corral, they un-tacked
the horses and let them go.

“Thanks Brolga,” Sam called as her horse
cantered off, kicking her back legs in the air as she did.

“Come on,” Daniel said, putting his arm
around her shoulders. “Let’s go and get showered and have some
dinner. We deserve it.”

***

As the two got closer to the house, they
noticed there were no lights on, which seemed odd since it was now
starting to get dark. When they entered, the house was cloaked with
an eerie blanket of silence.

“Something’s wrong.” Sam said in a hushed
voice, not wanting to break the silence. She couldn’t put her
finger on it, but the house just felt strange.

“You feel it, too?” Daniel whispered
back.

Sam realized a moment later what was missing.
There was no noise coming from the kitchen. Mrs. Miller was always
in the kitchen. It was approaching dinnertime, something must be
very wrong for her to be absent.

They wandered down the hall towards the
kitchen. The silence that shrouded Daniel’s home unnerved Sam. She
hadn’t heard the place be that quiet before, except in the dead of
night. They entered the kitchen. Not a soul was around and no
preparation had been started for dinner, either.

“Stay here.” Daniel said, “I’ll go and see
where everyone is.”

“Are you kidding me?” Sam gawked at him. “I’m
not staying here on my own. It’s spooky.”

Daniel gave her an incredulous look, shook
his head and laughed. “You really are a funny girl, you know that,
right?” He ruffled her hair, which garnered him a mock-hostile
glance as she tilted her head away from his hand.

“That’s as maybe, but I’m still coming with
you. I’ve watched one too many horror films to stay here by
myself.”

“They’re probably just in their room,” he
said, trying to make her feel at ease, but she could sense he had
an uneasy feeling about it, too.

Sam followed Daniel back down the hall and
through the formal dining room. The photos that made up the family
tree seemed to follow her with their eyes sending an involuntary
shudder down her spine. As the light faded outside, shadows loomed
within the four walls of the dining room. She clutched Daniel’s
arm. He put a reassuring hand over hers as they walked outside to
the deck that led to his parent’s room. As they drew closer, they
could hear voices. Sam puffed out a sigh of relief. A second later
she heard Daniel do the same.

Daniel knocked on his parent’s door. A moment
later his father opened it, his expression grave.

“What’s wrong?” Daniel asked. “Mum’s okay,
isn’t she?”

“Daniel,” Mr. Miller replied. “We’ve had some
bad news. Your Aunt in Brisbane has taken ill. The doctors don’t
think she has very long to live. I’m going to fly your mother over
there tonight so she can be with her sister. I’m going to have to
rely on you and Sam to carry on with the lamb marking until the
shearers arrive in just over a week.”

“Will you be back for shearing?” Daniel asked
through panic stricken vocal chords.

He had told Sam that shearing was a big deal.
It was the climax of the year. Keeping the shearing team happy was
a lot of work for the station owners, along with making sure they
had everything they needed. As far as she was aware, a team of
shearers would move into your home for a couple of weeks until
every last sheep was shorn. The shearers needed to be fed three
times a day. Not just small meals either. They would expect three
cooked meals a day to give them the energy needed to shear the
thousands of sheep the Millers had.

Sam’s heart quickened and she felt her hands
go clammy as the implications of what Mr. Miller was saying started
to sink in. If Mrs. Miller wasn’t back by then, it would be left to
her to cook for everyone. She didn’t even know how to cook for
herself, let alone a pack of hungry shearers, three times a day.
The only recipes she knew all started ‘take one can opener…’

“Son, I’ll do what I can to get back here,
but I’m not going to leave your mother if she needs me,” Mr. Miller
said with a compassion Sam would never have guessed the crotchety
man possessed.

“Well, I promise that Sam and I will do our
best.” Daniel responded reassuringly.

The young jillaroo gave him a sidelong
glance. Actually, Sam may well run for the hills and carry on with
her travels, she thought derisively, as the images swirled in her
head of being chased by a team of angry shearers after they had
tasted the gastronomic delights she had cooked up.

“Your mother’s packing right now. I’m afraid
you’ll have to fend for yourselves for a while,” Mr. Miller
said.

“No worries, Dad,” Daniel said, trying to
sound calm and in control. “We’ll be fine.” He turned to Sam. “Come
on, let’s go and see what we can come up with for dinner.”

Mr. Miller turned and closed the door with a
soft click. Daniel and Sam walked back to the kitchen in mild
shock. Once safely in the kitchen and out of earshot of Daniel’s
parents, the meltdown Sam had somehow kept suppressed in front of
Daniel’s father, came flooding out.

“I can’t do it, Daniel!” she cried. “I can’t
even cook for myself. How the hell am I supposed to cook three huge
meals a day for ten hungry men?” Her voice had taken on the
high-pitched squeaky tone it always did when she was in panic
mode.

“Calm down, Hun.” Daniel cooed, trying to
iron out her ruffled feathers. “We’ll figure something out. They’ll
probably be back by then.”

“Yeah, and they may not be. Your mum is not
going to leave her sister if she is deathly ill,” Sam pointed out
disparagingly. She ran both hands through her hair, despair oozing
out of every pore, then let her hands drop limply to her sides and
drew in a long calming breath.

“Oh, God. I’m going to let you down, I just
know I am,” she whimpered.

“Is that what this outburst is really all
about?” Daniel asked, cupping her face in his warm hands, which
sent frissons of excitement down her neck.

“Sam,” he murmured, looking into her panic
stricken eyes. “You could never let me down. Don’t you fret. Even
if I have to stand next to you with an apron on and a wooden spoon
in my hand, that’s what I’ll do. We’ll get through this together.
Trust me.”

“You think so?” Sam whimpered again. She
admitted she could be pretty pathetic at times.

“Yes, I think so.” He gave her a reassuring
smile.

A moment later, Daniel still had hold of
Sam’s face. Sam could hear her breathing grow ragged as the look he
gave her was transforming from reassurance to desire. He leaned
down and laid several tender kisses along her lips. Sam’s body
nearly went up in flames as his lips danced against her.

She wanted to touch him, taste him, feel his
body against hers. The control she was desperately trying to keep
hold of was slipping away with each feather light touch of his lips
on hers. Then it diminished completely when he softly ran his
tongue over her lips, asking for permission to enter.

The familiar feeling of fear started to creep
up on her. She told herself she could trust him and fought against
the feeling with every atom of her being. Sam softened her mouth
allowing him entry. With the powerful feeling of intimacy that
poured out of him and into her, she pushed the fear back down from
where it had raised its ugly head. Not this time, she thought. Not
ever again.

Sam let a mewl of pleasure escape. She was
tasting, for the first time, the man she knew without doubt she was
falling in love with. Her hands found themselves tangled in his
silken hair, her tongue was dancing with his, a romantic waltz in
her mouth. She had not ever felt anything that profound that
intimate before.

Daniel’s hands crept around to the back of
Sam’s neck sending shivers down her spine. He pulled back softly,
altering the angle of her head and sucked her lower lip into his
mouth, nibbling it gently for a few seconds, before letting her
have it back.

“Wow,” Sam breathed, passion still dancing
all over her skin. “I have never in my life been kissed like
that.”

Daniel smiled the smug smile of someone who
had just proved a point.

Footsteps echoing down the corridor broke the
silence and Sam quickly moved to stand beside Daniel. She prayed
she didn’t have ‘just been ravaged by your son’ written all over
her face as Mr. and Mrs. Miller appeared at the kitchen door. Mrs.
Miller was ashen faced, and obviously distressed.

“I’m really sorry to hear about your sister,”
Sam said with as much compassion as she could muster. She hated to
see people she cared about in pain, whether physical or emotional.
“I hope she pulls through.”

“Thanks, love.” Mrs. Miller gave her a weak
smile, and then turned to look at her son. “Look after her,” she
said poignantly.

“I will, Mum.” Daniel walked over and gave
his mum a hug and kissed her on the cheek. “Give Aunt Marge my
love. I hope she recovers.”

“We’d better be going, dear,” Mr. Miller
said, ushering Mrs. Miller out of the doorway and towards the front
door. “We’ll let you know what’s happening when we get there,” he
called over his shoulder; then they were gone.

A few minutes later, they heard the plane
engine. The engine got louder as it sped up before taking off.
Eventually, the engine noise ebbed as the plane flew off into the
distance.

“Got anything stronger than a soda in that
general store of yours?” Sam asked, flopping into one of the chairs
in the dining room.

“General store?” Daniel asked, quirking his
lips to one side.

“You know what I mean.”

“I’m sure I can dig something up,” he said
before wandering down the hall to the pantry that masqueraded as a
general store.

Sam folded her arms on the table and rested
her head on them. She closed her eyes for a moment to see if that
would do anything to dispel the horror she imaged was waiting for
her just around the corner. It didn’t, but she kept her eyes closed
anyway. A minute later, she heard Daniel’s footsteps walking back
up the hall towards the kitchen. She lifted her head when she heard
the clinking of glasses. Daniel entered the dining room carrying a
bottle of vodka and a couple of shot glasses.

“Will this do?”

Sam smiled and gave him a nod.

Daniel filled each glass and pushed one to
Sam.

“Down in one?” he asked.

“Is there any other way?”

Sam had almost forgotten what it felt like,
the warming sensation trickling down her throat until she could
feel it warm her stomach. She very rarely drank after what
happened. If she did, it was usually the odd glass of wine, nothing
this strong. She made a face and blew out a breath.

“Another?” Daniel asked, holding out the
bottle.

Sam hesitated. She looked at Daniel, then
down at her empty glass.

“Oh, go on, then.” She held up her glass for
Daniel. The warm feeling it gave her felt comforting, and her
instincts told her she was safe. The woozy feeling she had a few
minutes later reminded her that they hadn’t had anything to eat all
day, and this was going straight to her head.

“We need to eat something,” she stated before
getting up to see if she could find anything in the kitchen that
wouldn’t need to be cooked. Luckily, there was a piece of pie from
the day before in the fridge. Daniel rummaged around some more to
find some tinned vegetables that Sam opened and put in pots on the
Aga. That much she could manage.

Daniel looked over Sam’s shoulder as she
stirred the pots. Without realizing it, she leaned back, enjoying
the warmth of his chest against her back. He wrapped his arms
around her waist as she stirred the contents. The spicy scent that
was so unique to him wafted under her nostrils. She breathed it in,
wanting it to seep into every cell in her body.

About ten minutes later, they had prepared a
feast, albeit not haute cuisine, but edible, nonetheless. They
carried it through into the dining room. As usual, Daniel did his
Pride and Prejudice routine with her chair.

They chatted through dinner, careful to avoid
mentioning anything remotely to do with the shearing that would be
upon them in just a week. Before she knew it, they were laughing at
each other’s jokes. Sam suddenly felt a tad tipsy.

Realizing this, she tried to hold onto her
control with every fiber of her being. She got up with every
intention of getting her drunken butt to bed as quickly as
possible, but as soon as she stood up, she got a head rush and her
legs buckled underneath her. She unceremoniously flopped back down
in her chair.

“Oops,” she giggled, with the girlish laugh
you only acquired after one too many units of alcohol.