Summer Down Under (24 page)

“Okay, missy,” Daniel chortled. “It’s off to
bed with you.” With that he scooped her up in a very gentleman-like
manner.

Sam nuzzled his neck, he smelled so good.
Daniel carried her up the hall and kicked open the door to her
room. Once inside, he laid her on the bed and pulled off her
boots.

He sat down beside her on the bed and pushed
an errant lock of hair behind her ear. He pulled a blanket over the
tipsy jillaroo and kissed her on the forehead. His lips lingered
for a moment before he pulled away.

“Good night, beautiful,” he whispered.

Sam was asleep before he left the room.

Sam awoke the next morning to the sound of
pots clanking in the kitchen. She wondered if Mrs. Miller really
did leave the night before, or if that was a figment of her
imagination.

She pushed her blanket aside and saw that she
was still fully dressed. A smile crept across her face as she
remembered what had happened the previous evening. Her heart
swelled with happiness when she realized that Daniel had every
chance to take advantage of her, tipsy as she was, which, she
admitted was a stupid loss of control on her part. Instead, he had
seen her safely to bed and tucked her in.

That action alone showed Sam that he could be
trusted, he had proved it last night. She drew her arms above her
head and stretched out languidly, enjoying a long yawn as she
did.

Luckily, Sam did not have the hangover from
hell she was expecting. Rather, she felt refreshed and at peace
with the world. She hopped out of bed and took a quick shower.
After towel drying her hair, she left it damp, hanging in soft
ringlets down her back and rushed down the hall to the kitchen.

What she saw when she appeared in the doorway
made her stop dead in her tracks. Daniel was wearing his mother’s
apron and was cooking bacon and eggs. The smell was delicious. Sam
was ravenous. If she were completely honest with herself, it was
not just for the bacon and eggs, either.

He obviously didn’t notice Sam watching him
from the doorway, he made no move to turn and acknowledge her. Her
estimation of him was growing by the second. Not only was he the
kindest, most caring individual she’d ever had the pleasure to
meet, but he could cook, too. What a concept, especially in a man.
She continued watching for a few more moments as he deftly handled
the cooking utensils to whip up a wonderful breakfast.

Eventually, he sensed Sam’s presence and
turned around. A big smile crept across his lips.

“G’day, gorgeous.”

Sam couldn’t help herself. She ran across the
kitchen and launched herself at him, nearly knocking him backwards.
Her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs around his waist. She
kissed him within an inch of his life. After Daniel got over his
surprise, he reciprocated the attention her lips and tongue were
giving his.

He moved them over to the wall and leaned her
against it. A little shudder ran through her as she felt her
breasts being pushed against his chest.

She took his lower lip between her teeth,
remembering from the day before how good it had felt when he had
done it to her. She nibbled on it for a moment before easing off
and pulling away so she could catch her breath and admire the
beauty of his features. His eyes shone so bright she could swear
they had been replaced by precious stones.

“What was that for?” he whispered, turning so
he could balance her on the counter top. His breathing was ragged
and Sam felt a distinct bulge on the part of his anatomy where men
are prone to bulge, if given the right encouragement.

“Last night,” Sam replied, cupping his jaw in
her hands and planting feather light kisses on his lips.

Daniel’s eyebrows creased. “But I didn’t do
anything last night.”

“Exactly,” Sam stated and kissed him again.
“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He smiled. “I think?”

Daniel took hold of either side of her waist
and lowered her to the ground.

“Breakfast is ready,” he announced.

“Excellent. I’m starving.”

He divided up the eggs and bacon and handed
Sam her plate. They wandered through to the dining table.

“Morning, Lucrecia,” Sam quipped as she
walked past. Lucricia gave Sam her usual greeting.

“So, what’s the plan today then, boss?” Sam
asked.

“Oh, don’t give me that,” Daniel laughed. “I
am not your boss. But, since you ask, we have to muster the sheep
in
House paddock
and get them ready for lamb marking. There
aren’t as many sheep in that paddock, and we have the pens already
over there. It shouldn’t take us too long.”

Sam nodded.

After they’d finished their breakfast. They
gathered up the empty plates, carried them to the kitchen sink and
put them in to soak.

“We can do that later,” Sam said. Daniel
agreed, and they headed out to the bikes. As they strolled down the
path, Daniel’s hand sought Sam’s and took it in his. As soon as his
fingers laced through hers, she felt little tingles climb up her
arm. She liked the feeling. It felt good there, entwined between
strong fingers. Like it belonged.

“Daniel?”

“Hmm?”

“Can you teach me how to ride a proper
bike?”

“You want to learn?”

“Absolutely. You maneuver about on that thing
much easier than I can on the four-wheeler. I think I would be
better with the sheep if I could ride an ordinary bike instead,”
Sam explained.

Daniel glanced down at Sam with the look of a
parent whose child had just got an A on their report card. He
started up the bike next to his. “Hop on,” he said.

Sam did as he asked, watching intently as he
showed her where the clutch and the gears were, and how to use
them. The throttle was the same as on the four-wheeler so the whole
process was a little easier.

“Ready to give it a try?” he asked. “Ride up
and down the airstrip a few times, until you get the hang of
it.”

“Okay.”

Sam cranked the bike into first gear like he
had shown her. She was a bit jerky with the gears at first, but
after her second turn up and down the airstrip, she had gotten used
to them. Changing gears was becoming a breeze. When she was
satisfied she knew what she was doing, Sam rode back to where
Daniel was watching her.

“Good job,” he said and planted a kiss on her
nose. “You got the hang of that quickly.”

Sam smiled back at him. She reveled in the
praise she received for little accomplishments like that. She was
so used to being made to look like a fool, it was a refreshing
change.

“Follow me, then.” Daniel instructed.

“Wait,” Sam said. “Can we take Jess with
us?”

Daniel let out a small groan.

“Oh, go on. Please? I’ve been working with
her and I think she deserves another chance.”

Daniel paused, then a look of defeat washed
over his features.

“Oh, alright then. But she’s your
responsibility.”

“Yes.” Sam pulled a fist down in triumph as
she put the kickstand down and swung her leg over the bike.
“Thanks, you won’t regret this,” she called over her shoulder as
she ran towards the kennels.

Daniel pushed his hat up to scratch he head.
His mouth quirked to one side, and he gave a little shake of his
head as he watched Sam round the house to where the kennels
were.

Jess got up from where she was laying and
started wagging her tail as she saw the young English girl
approach. When Sam reached her, she bent down to unclip her from
the leash.

Sam held the young dog’s face in her hands
just inches from her face. “Don’t let me down, girl,” Sam
whispered. “You know what to do.”

The excited sheepdog licked Sam’s face and
careened off in the direction of the bikes. No sooner had Sam
gotten on her bike, did Jess jump on the back. Sam kicked it into
gear and followed Daniel across the paddock until they got to their
destination.

The human and hound team found the sheep
pretty quickly. The paddock they were in was much smaller than the
first one Sam had helped muster. It was only a couple of thousand
acres this time, instead of ten thousand. It was closer to the
homestead, too. She could still see the house in the distance.

Jess jumped off the back of Sam’s bike before
they had even slowed down. She started running around the sheep,
herding them into a manageable flock. Sam watched with pride as the
young dog moved the flock towards them without making a single
mistake.

Daniel looked over at Sam and raised his
eyebrows. “Wow. You did that?”

Sam huffed a breath on her fingernails and
rubbed them against her shirt. She had to admit at that point, she
was feeling just a tad pleased with herself. The rest of the
rounding up continued without consequence. Jess kept the flock
tight and stopped any stragglers from breaking ranks. There were
fewer sheep in this paddock, and Sam was becoming quite adept at
working with them now. Once they had all the sheep in the pen,
Jess’s job was complete and she went to lie down by the bikes to
rest for a while. If Sam didn’t know any better, she would say the
young dog looked like she was pleased with herself, too.

Sam got to the job at hand and started
lifting the lambs into the cradle. Daniel did the more gruesome
tasks, leaving Sam to pierce their ears with a station
identification tag. That way if they ever crossed boundaries
because of a broken fence, the neighboring station owners would
know who the sheep belonged to. All the stations had their own
tags. There was also a different color for each year so anyone
could easily see how old the sheep was. It was a simple but
effective way of identifying them.

Sam didn’t mind doing her task because humans
got their ears pierced all the time. She remembered having hers
done when she was younger. It was relatively quick and painless,
the same was true for the sheep. What the poor little creatures had
to go through for the rest of the ritual was quite another matter.
It made Sam glad she wasn't one. Sam winced, as she always did, for
the first few times Daniel cut the tail off a lamb.

When Sam was first shown what lamb marking
was all about, she had protested most vehemently on the lamb’s
behalf. After she’d calmed down enough to listen to reason, Daniel
had explained to her that it was actually necessary for their
health and well-being. A little pain now, he told her, was nothing
compared to the pain they would go through at the hands of the
blowflies.

Apparently, if you didn’t cut their tails
off, it made the perfect breeding ground for blowflies, huge
metallic blue colored flies that lay their eggs around the sheep’s
backside. When the eggs hatch into maggots, the maggots feed on the
sheep, literally, eating them alive. After having witnessed a
flyblown sheep first hand, Sam conceded to the fact that it was
hideously gruesome. She acknowledged that it was probably better to
cut their tails off while they were still young enough to forget
the pain quickly.

The two had gotten about half way through the
flock when the landscape around them grew dark. Sam looked up to
see clouds had moved in and covered the sun. In the distance, the
clouds that loomed were an ominous shade of dark gray. They both
kept an eye on the sky while they continued with the lamb marking.
As each moment passed, they noticed the storm clouds moving closer
and closer, until, eventually, they were almost overhead. Out of
the blue, a loud crack of lightning lit up the sky before hitting
the ground a few miles ahead. It sounded like it had literally torn
a rift in the sky.

Sam jumped out of her skin and let out a
shriek. She looked up at the sky, certain that the lightning had
torn a gaping slash through it.

“Flippin’ heck,” she gasped. “That was
brilliant.” Sam loved watching lightning. She didn’t get many
thunderstorms to watch in England. Where she lived there wasn’t
much of a horizon either, so to experience lightning strike the
ground in such a powerful display was awe inspiring. The thunder
then took its turn and roared so loudly it shook the ground.

Daniel raised an eyebrow at her exclamation.
“Sam, it’s dangerous for us to be out here. We need to get back to
the house. Fast.”

They lifted the lambs out of the cradle and
placed them on the ground, then undid the gate to the holding pen
and let all of the sheep free.

“We can finish this tomorrow,” Daniel shouted
above the roar of another thunder clap.

He ran over to his bike just as another bolt
of lightning hit the ground a short way ahead of them. Sam froze to
the spot, mesmerized by the beauty of the lightning display.

“Sam!” Daniel cried. “Come on, we need to get
out of here.”

“But it’s so pretty,” Sam said in dismay as
Daniel ran back to her, grabbed her by the arm and tugged her
towards her bike.

It started to rain, the odd splat at first.
Then the raindrops grew in quick succession, until, after just a
moment, they were hammering down on the two of them so hard it was
painful. Within seconds, they were soaked to the skin.

Sam looked at Daniel, recognizing the worry
in his beautiful eyes. She realized then the precarious situation
they were in and looked around her. They were out in the middle of
an open plain, making them the tallest object for quite a distance,
and now they were soaking wet. They made great lightning
conductors.

Sam’s eyes widened. She ran over to her bike,
the ground becoming slippery under her feet with every step she
took. The sheep had eaten the paddock almost down to the ground and
the exposed dirt was turning to slippery mud with every raindrop
that fell.

“Jess! Up!” Sam cried. Jess ran over and
jumped onto the back of Sam’s bike.

Kicking her bike into gear, Sam carefully
followed Daniel as he picked his way through the paddock and headed
for the house. It had turned very dark, almost like nighttime. As
each minute passed, the thunder and lightning increased in
regularity, and the ground became boggy with mud.