“Just as well. It was a titanic struggle,” Ava said, resisting the impulse to call Bluey the derogatory galah. “Common sense goes a long way. If I find you’ve used up eight lives …?” She paused significantly.
“Please don’t tell the boss, miss,” Bluey begged. “One more sin and he’ll kick me out.”
“And there goes your big adventure.” Ava shrugged, thinking admonition might well fall on deaf ears. “It could be later than you think, Bluey. Now, let’s get you cleaned up.”
CHAPTER THREE
WHEN they arrived back at the homestead, Varo sent the jackeroo off to the first-aid room.
“Let me have a word with this young man.” He inclined his head towards Ava.
“You think you can talk some sense into him?” she asked sceptically. “I remember now—he once put Amelia in danger with one of his ill-conceived stunts.”
“I think I can make him see sense,” he answered with quiet authority. “He knows there’s a strong possibility he will be sent home if Dev hears about this.”
“Maybe we should tell Dev?” she suggested with utter seriousness. “In rescuing Bluey you put yourself at considerable risk.”
“One doesn’t think of that at such a time.” He dismissed the risk factor, looking deeply into her eyes.
“All right,” she consented, trying not to appear flustered. “I’ll see to lunch. This afternoon I thought I might show you the hill country. It’s not all low-rise on Kooraki. The hills reach a fair height. A good climb, anyway—and there’s so much to see. Aboriginal rock paintings. And there really was an inland sea—but we’re talking pre-history. There are drawings of crocodiles on the rock walls. X-ray depictions of fish. We even have a waterfall of sorts at the moment. It plunges downhill into the rock pool beneath it. Not even a trickle in the Dry, of course.”
She knew the rock pool would be a great place for a dip. The waters were fairly deep, and crystal-clear, but Juan-Varo de Montalvo made her feel far too aware of herself as a woman to risk donning a bathing suit.
“We will ride there?” he asked, already filled with fascination for the fabled Outback.
She shook her blonde head. “We’ll take the Jeep. I’ll even let you drive.” She gave him a quick smile which he thought as alluring as any water nymph. “There’s no wrong side of the road.”
“Gracias, Señora,” His black eyes glittered as he acknowledged her marital status.
It was quite a job to keep her expression composed. Infatuation was the last thing she had seen coming.
From the passenger window Ava eyed the Wetlands, home to thousands upon thousands of waterbirds. The vast expanse of water had joined up with the lignum swamps to the extent one didn’t know where the lignum swamps ended and the Wetlands started up.
“In times of drought this great expanse of water will dry up,” she told Varo, who drove like he did everything else. With absolute skill and confidence. “The parched surface becomes crisscrossed by cracks and the footprints of the wildlife—kangaroos, emus, camels, wild pigs, snakes, or any human walking across the dry ochre sand.”
“Camels I have to see,” he said, giving her a quick sidelong smile.
“You will,” she promised. “The Afghan traders brought them in the early days. 1840, to be precise. They thrived here. We even export them to Arab countries. They’re part of the landscape now, but they can be very destructive. Not as much as hoofed animals, however. Their feet are adapted for deserts. They have soft pads, but they eat everything in sight, depleting the food supply for our indigenous species. They’re very dangerous too, when the male goes on heat.”
“The male?” One black eyebrow shot up.
“Bizarre, but true. At the last count there were over a million feral camels scattered over the desert areas of the Territory, Western Australian, South Australia and Queensland’s desert fringe. The introduced water buffalo of the Territory do tremendous damage to the environment and the ecosystem. Even our dingoes were introduced.”
“But I thought they were native Australian animals?” He glanced back at her. She had taken her beautiful hair out of its plait. Now it was sliding over her shoulders and down her back in shining, deep sensuous waves. She had changed for lunch, as had he. Now she was wearing a blue T-shirt with a silver designer logo on the front. The clingy fabric drew his eyes to the delicate shape of her high breasts.
“They’ve been here for thousands of years,” she was saying, snapping him back to attention, “but they came from South East Asia originally, where they must have been domestic dogs. Over the four or five thousand years they’ve been here, they’ve established themselves in the wilds. They’re our number-one predator. They can attack, even kill—especially if the victim is small, like a child.”
“One doesn’t like to think of that,” he said gravely. “What about sheep? Mature cattle would be able to fend them off, surely?” He was frowning slightly.
“Not the calves. The alpha male is especially dangerous. So is the alpha female. They hunt in packs. We don’t have the Great Wall of China, but we do have the longest man-made fence in the world.”
He was quick to reply. “I have heard of the famous Dingo Fence.”
“We’ll take you to see Kooraki’s section of it before you go home,” she offered.
Even thinking of his departure gave her a distinct wrench. That only added to her sense of unreality. Who could expect to be so susceptible in such a very short time? She had to be aware her sense of trepidation was spiced with undeniable excitement. She only hoped he wasn’t witness to it.
“The Dingo Fence is close to six thousand kilometres long,” she carried on, her tone rather clipped. “It was shortened from well over eight thousand kilometres in 1980 because of the high repair costs. Six feet of wire mesh with steel and timber posts. It’s a never-ending job maintaining it, but it protects over twenty-six million hectares of sheep and cattle grazing country. You’re in trouble big-time if you forget to shut a gate.”
“Who would know out here?” He waved a hand at the empty miles that ran for as far as the eye could see.
“You’d be surprised. Everyone keeps an eye out. Everyone knows if there are tourists or strangers in the area. Cattle-and-sheep men would never be guilty of such an offence.”
He could see the jagged shape of the hills off to the north-west, their broken peaks and domes silhouetted against the cobalt-blue sky. The furnace-red of the earth made a wonderful contrast to the cloudless blue sky and the amazingly green trees and vegetation. The most beautiful tree he had seen along their route Ava had told him was the Outback’s iconic Ghost Gum. It was easy to understand why. The tall upright tree with pendulous dark green leaves had a smooth, near blindingly white trunk and branches that made it glow in the sunlight. Even the distant hills were changing colour from brown to an orange that deepened into the red of the earth.
“You can stop here,” Ava said as they arrived near the foot of a tumbling white waterfall.
Once out of the Jeep they could hear the loud murmur of the waters and their splash into the circular pool. A surprising amount of water was falling into it.
Varo moved closer, looking down into the depths. The silvered mirror-like surface threw back his own reflection. That too of the beautiful blonde Ava, who stood at his shoulder like an ethereal vision.
“It’s so hot. A swim would be most welcome.” He turned to her, the movement of his wide shoulders causing a flutter of air to cross the pool and form ripples.
“Bathing suits optional?” The coolness of her voice was intended not to give her inner turmoil away.
“You