The Wedding Challenge

“Chloe seems to think that being a cook here automatically confers on me the position of your girlfriend.”

To Bea’s annoyance, Chase looked amused, rather than embarrassed.

“And you’re basing all your assumptions on the word of a five-year-old?”

Bea’s lips tightened. She hated the way Chase always made her feel stupid. “Is it true?”

“That you’re my girlfriend?” Chase lifted a mocking eyebrow. “Don’t you think you’d know if you were?”

“It might be such a horrible thought that I’ve blocked it out,” snapped Bea, but to her fury, he only laughed. And that made him look disconcertingly attractive, which made her even crosser.

Jessica Hart had a haphazard career before she began writing to finance a degree in history. Her experience ranged from waitress, theater production assistant and outback cook to newsdesk secretary, expedition P.A. and English teacher, and she has worked in countries as different as France and Indonesia, Australia and Cameroon. She now lives in the north of England, where her hobbies are limited to eating and drinking and traveling when she can, preferably to places where she’ll find good food or desert or tropical rain.

If you’d like to find out more about Jessica Hart, you can visit her Web site www.jessicahart.co.uk

Books by Jessica Hart

HARLEQUIN ROMANCE®

3638—BABY AT BUSHMAN’S CREEK*

3646—WEDDING AT WAVERLEY CREEK*

3654—A BRIDE FOR BARRA CREEK*

3688—ASSIGNMENT: BABY

3701—INHERITED: TWINS!

3713—THE HONEYMOON PRIZE

The Wedding Challenge

Jessica Hart

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ONE

‘GO AND work in the outback?’ Bea stared blankly at her friend. ‘Why would we want to do that?’

‘Why?’ Emily echoed, equally uncomprehending. ‘How can you even ask that, Bea? Everybody wants to work in the outback. It’s beautiful!’

‘It’s not beautiful, it’s brown.’

‘It’s full of hunky men riding around in hats and dusty boots.’

‘It’s full of flies,’ said Bea, unimpressed.

‘Don’t be like that, Bea.’ Emily abandoned her customers and pulled out a chair so that she could sit down opposite her friend. ‘This is the chance of a lifetime! I’ve always wanted to go and work on a cattle station.’

‘What on earth for?’

‘Because it’s different and romantic and wonderful,’ enthused Emily, gesticulating wildly. ‘Besides,’ she went on, clearly grasping at straws by now, ‘it’s part of my heritage.’

Bea goggled at her. To her certain knowledge, Emily had been born and brought up in London, about as far from the outback as you could get. ‘Since when?’

‘My mother’s Australian,’ said Emily loftily.

‘From Melbourne. It’s not exactly the red heart of Australia, is it?’

‘Well, her mother grew up on a cattle station,’ Emily conceded with an edge of defiance.

‘My grandmother grew up in Leamington Spa, but it doesn’t mean I want to go and work there!’

‘Leamington Spa isn’t chock-a-block with men who know how to throw a lasso and wrestle bulls to the ground single-handed, though, is it? Real men, Bea, not like this lot here!’

Emily glanced disparagingly around the bar where she was a waitress. She was wearing a long, white apron, and ignoring customers on nearby tables who were trying to catch her eye.

Bea followed her friend’s gaze. It was a Sunday night, and the bar was buzzing, packed with young people enjoying the end of another great Sydney weekend. As far as Bea could see, every single man there seemed to be tall, broad-shouldered and eminently fanciable. That’s if you weren’t still recovering from being dumped from a very great height and therefore not inclined to fancy any of them.

‘What’s wrong with them?’ she asked.

‘They’re all city boys,’ grumbled Emily. ‘We might as well be in London.’

Through the plate glass window, Bea could see the Opera House, its famous roof lit up against the night sky, and the harbour clustered with yachts bobbing at anchor.

Like London? Bea didn’t think so.

‘You’ve changed your tune, haven’t you?’ she said. ‘It’s only a week or so since all you could talk about was Marcus, and he was as smooth as they come.’

‘Too smooth,’ said Emily, remembering Marcus with a scowl. ‘And I’ve learnt my lesson! I’m sick of guys like him. I want a man with a bit more grit to him.’

‘Well, if it’s grit you want, maybe the outback is the right place for you.’ Bea grinned as she picked up her drink. She wasn’t on duty. ‘I hear it’s very dusty out there!’

‘I’m serious, Bea.’ Emily leant forward persuasively. ‘It’s not as if this is just a whim. Even before we left London, I said I wanted to see the outback while we were over here, didn’t I?’

‘I thought you meant a trip to Alice Springs and a quick whiz round Ayers Rock or Uluru or whatever it’s called now, not stuck on a cattle station!’

‘I don’t want to be a tourist,’ said Emily, lower lip sticking out stubbornly. ‘I want to experience real life in the outback, and what could be better than spending a few weeks on a cattle station?’

Bea could think of quite a few things. In fact, just about anything.

‘Em, we haven’t got long before we have to go home,’ she said reasonably. ‘There’s still so much to see, I really don’t want to spend the rest of my time stuck out in the middle of nowhere. You go if you want to, and I’ll meet up with you later. We did agree that we wouldn’t have to stick together all the time.’

‘I know, but I won’t get the job if you won’t come too,’ Emily wailed. ‘They want two girls, and if you won’t come with me, I won’t even have a chance.’

‘Why can’t they give you a job and find someone else?’ Bea objected.

‘Because the station is a squillion acres and so isolated that they don’t want to risk having two girls who might not get on. Apparently it’s a very famous property in Australia.’ Emily perked up, remembering what she’d been told. ‘Someone told me it was the size of Belgium—or was it Wales? Anyway, it’s big, and it’s got a beautiful old homestead…it’s like your perfect outback property. They’re used to people not staying very long, though, but this time Nick says that they’ve decided to take two friends.’

‘Who’s Nick?’

‘Nick Sutherland. He’s the owner—very attractive,’ said Emily with a dreamy sigh. ‘All blonde and rugged and square-chinned…just my type! And if you won’t come with me, he’ll just find another two girls—I know loads of people who’d jump at the chance of working in a place like Calulla Downs,’ she added with a resentful glance that bounced off Bea, unnoticed. She was used to Emily.

‘Maybe they’ll find two girls who would actually be some use in the outback,’ she pointed out. ‘I can’t see that we’d be much good to them, anyway. We don’t know the first thing about riding or cows or whatever else it is they do out there!’

‘They don’t want jillaroos. They’ve got stockmen to do all that kind of stuff. They need a cook and a governess.’

‘A governess?’ Bea laughed. ‘You’re kidding! I thought governesses went out with Jane Eyre!’

‘Well, I thought it was a bit odd, too,’ Emily confessed, ‘but I gather it just means a nanny really. The little girl’s only five, so it’s not like she’s going to need intensive coaching. I think it’s more a question of looking after her and keeping her amused.’

Bea began to look alarmed. ‘We don’t know the first thing about children!’

‘It can’t be that hard.’ Emily gave an airy wave of her hand. ‘Read her a few stories, make sure she doesn’t lose her teddy bear…it’ll be a doddle.’

‘Well, I don’t want anything to do with her,’ said Bea firmly. ‘Children make me nervous.’

‘It’s all right, I’ll deal with the kid,’ Emily soothed her. ‘You just have to be the cook. You know I can’t cook to save my life, and you’re brilliant,’ she went on, laying on the flattery with a trowel. ‘When I told Nick that you were working for a catering company, he sounded really keen. He said they hardly ever get a qualified cook and—oh, please say you’ll come, Bea! It’s sounds so perfect, and I can’t do it without you. It’ll be fun!’

‘But we’re having fun in Sydney,’ Bea objected. ‘We’ve got jobs, friends, somewhere to stay…you can’t help but have an excellent time here. It won’t be like that in the outback. We’d be stuck in a house with a small child. It’ll be boiling hot and there’ll be nowhere to go and nothing to do. We don’t even know how to ride!’ She shook her head. ‘You’d hate it. I’d certainly hate it.’

‘Just like you were going to hate Australia?’ countered Emily unfairly. ‘You said you didn’t want to come and that you’d be miserable, and now you’re talking about emigrating! I said you would love it, and I was right, wasn’t I?’

Bea had to concede that. ‘Yes,’ she said.

‘So why won’t you believe me when I say you’ll love the outback too? You know what your trouble is?’ Emily went on, and Bea sighed. She knew that an answer wasn’t required, and that Emily was about to tell her anyway.

Sure enough, Emily was leaning forward, all earnest amateur psychologist. ‘I blame Phil,’ she said. ‘He hurt you so badly that now you’re afraid to try anything new.’

‘That’s not true,’ Bea tried to protest, but Emily was on a roll and refused to be interrupted.

‘You’ve got no self-confidence any more. As soon as anyone suggests doing something a bit different, you start making excuses. You wouldn’t even buy that dress the other day because it was a tiny bit shorter than you usually buy.’

‘It made me look fat.’

‘You looked fantastic in it, but you couldn’t have that, could you? Because if you looked fantastic, some bloke might get interested in you and you’d have to risk getting involved again.’

Bea took a defiant slug of wine. ‘Rubbish!’

‘And now I’m offering you the chance of excitement and adventure, and all you want to do is stay safely where you are.’

‘I’ve done adventure,’ Bea said, glad that Emily had got off the subject of her ex-fiancé. ‘I went trekking, didn’t I? Adventure means no loos and no showers and no hair-dryers, and you know I have to wash my hair every morning.’

‘And that means Calulla Downs will be just perfect for you,’ said Emily, seizing the advantage. ‘It’ll be a lot more luxurious than where we’re living now, I can tell you. It’s supposed to be a fabulous old homestead—people pay through the nose to go and stay there—so there’ll be adventure in just being somewhere so isolated, but with the added bonus of hot water and somewhere to plug in your hair-dryer. What more could you ask for?’

‘Shops, bars, clubs, theatres, lights, music…’

‘You can have those any time. This might be our only chance to go to a place like Calulla Downs. You can’t just throw away opportunities when they come your way. Seize the day, and all that.’

‘I don’t know…’

‘It’s not as if it’s for ever,’ Emily wheedled. ‘I’m sure Nick would agree if we said we could just do a month, and then we can spend the rest of the time travelling, the way we’d planned. We could go straight on to the Barrier Reef. What do you say?’

Bea hesitated, aware that she was running out of arguments. This was typical of Emily. She just went on and on and on until it was easier just to give in and do what she wanted.

Sensing that Bea was weakening, Emily pressed home her advantage. ‘Please, Bea,’ she said again. ‘I really, really want to go, and I can’t do it without you. I need you…and I was there for you when you needed me, wasn’t I?’

It was true. She had been. It had been Emily who had come straight round when Phil had told her that he was leaving, and who he was leaving her for. Emily who had dealt with everything while she was too numb to do anything more than lie curled up on the sofa, too wretched even to cry.

Bea sighed. ‘Come on, Emily, you can do better emotional blackmail than that,’ she said. ‘Why not wring out a few tears while you’re at it and accuse me of ruining your life if I don’t agree?’

‘That’s my fall back position,’ said Emily, grinning.

Bea gave in. ‘For a month,’ she said, a warning note in her voice. ‘But I’m not staying a moment longer!’

Emily gave a whoop of delight. ‘You’re a star!’ she said, jumping up to hug her. ‘I knew I could rely on you. I’ll go and ring Nick right now—and yes, I promise I’ll tell him we can only stay a month. But I bet you anything that by the end of that time, you’re going to want to stay for ever!’

‘It looks like being a very long month,’ grumbled Bea, dragging her suitcase across to where a row of orange plastic chairs were ranged uncompromisingly against the wall in what passed for a terminal at Mackinnon airport. ‘I’m bored already, and we’ve only been here ten minutes.’

Ten minutes was all it had taken for the plane to land, to let off six passengers and pick up two, and to take off again. The other four passengers had departed for town, the man who had pushed out the steps, unloaded their cases and checked the joining passengers onto the plane had disappeared, and Bea and Emily had been left alone to watch the plane climb up into the glaring blue sky until it vanished into the distance.

Bea slumped into one of the chairs and put her feet up on her suitcase. ‘I suppose you did tell this Nick Sutherland person when we were arriving?’

‘Of course I did,’ said Emily. ‘I told him when the plane got in, and he said he’d send somebody called Chase to pick us up.’

‘Chase? What kind of name is that?’

‘I think it must be his surname. Nick said that he was the one who ran the station anyway, so I guess he’s some kind of manager.’

Bea sniffed. ‘Not a very efficient one if he’s forgotten that we’re coming.’

‘He won’t have done that. Reliability is these guys’ middle name,’ said Emily confidently. ‘He just won’t be rushing.’

‘Evidently!’

Emily ignored her sarcasm. ‘The strong, silent types don’t bother with clock-watching. That’s what makes them so attractive. They’ve got all the time in the world, so they never hurry or get flustered. Bet you anything this guy rolls up in a checked shirt and a battered hat and says g’day in a slow drawl that’ll go with his slow smile and his slow hands—’

Starting to hyperventilate, she broke off and fanned herself with her plane ticket. ‘I can’t wait! He’ll be all brown and rangy, and his eyes will be crinkled at the edges from all that time he spends squinting at the far horizon.’ Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. ‘He might be a bit shy, but he’ll be famous for his way with horses and don’t get me started on the things he can do with a lasso…! He can rope me in any day!’

Bea couldn’t help laughing at her friend’s famously rich fantasy life. ‘Aren’t you thinking of cowboys?’ she said. ‘In which case, you’re in the wrong country.’

‘Same man, different hat,’ Emily declared authoritatively. ‘In the States, cowboys wear those hats which curl up at the sides, but an Australian stockman will wear an Akubra.’

‘A what?’

‘It’s like a cowboy hat, but not so curly.’

Bea was pretty sure that Emily didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, but she knew from bitter experience that there was no point in arguing with her.

‘I’m surprised you haven’t got a hat of your own to go with your outfit,’ she said instead, eyeing Emily’s pristine jeans, blue checked shirt (clearly specially selected to match her eyes) and the red and white spotted neckerchief. ‘I didn’t realise we had to come in fancy dress. If you’d told me, I’d have brought along a Stetson and a fringed jacket!’

Emily tossed her blonde curls. ‘You can mock, but at least I’m appropriately dressed, unlike some people I could mention! I can’t believe you’re wearing a dress and those stupid shoes!’

‘You love these shoes,’ Bea pointed out, twirling her ankle so that she could admire them properly. They couldn’t really be called shoes. Shoes was much too prosaic a word for fantasy on heels. ‘You were furious when they told you they didn’t have any in your size.’

‘That was in Sydney. I’m prepared to admit that in their right context, they’re fab, but they look absolutely ridiculous out here. I don’t know why you couldn’t wear jeans at least,’ Emily grumbled. ‘It’s going to look as if you don’t know the first thing about the outback, and I’ll be associated with you.’

‘I don’t like travelling in jeans. Anyway, this Nick of yours didn’t specify a uniform, did he? He’s employing me to cook, not to sit around on fences looking like something out of a cowboy film.’

‘Well, don’t blame me when this Chase turns out to be a gorgeous hunk who dismisses you as a real city girl,’ said Emily with the air of one washing her hands of the matter. ‘You’ll be left gnashing your teeth and cursing your kitten heels while I’m out learning just how good he is with his hands!’

‘I don’t care how attractive he is, I wish he’d just turn up.’

Swinging her legs off her suitcase, Bea got up to prowl impatiently around the terminal.

It didn’t take long. The terminal wasn’t much more than a hut with glass doors looking out onto the runway. A couple of single-engine planes were parked to one side near a water tank, and a windsock hung limply against its pole. The sky was a relentless blue, and even cocooned in the air-conditioned comfort of the terminal, Bea could practically feel the heat beating down outside.

Beyond the runway, there was nothing, just an expanse of flat, brown earth covered with sparse spinifex grass stretching out to where the horizon shimmered hazily. It seemed to go on forever. Bea had been appalled flying over hundreds of miles of the same, unchanging scenery that morning. For a boring landscape, it was hard to beat. She couldn’t understand why Emily was so thrilled with it.

A fly buzzed against the glass, but apart from that the silence was crushing. Bea sighed and looked at her watch again.

‘Perhaps Nick Whatsisname has changed his mind and employed someone else,’ she suggested hopefully.

‘It’s Nick Sutherland, and I’m sure he wouldn’t do anything like that.’ Emily leapt to his defence. ‘He sounded really pleased when I rang and told him that you’d be coming with me. I wish you’d met him,’ she went on. ‘He was gorgeous, and nice with it—and we know what a rare combination that is!’

‘If he’s so nice, why isn’t he coming to pick us up himself?’

‘He’s not here.’ Emily sounded distinctly regretful. ‘His wife’s working overseas, and he’s gone to be with her. That’s why they need someone to look after the kids on the station.’

‘Wife?’ Bea shook her head in mock sympathy. ‘It must have been a bit of a blow when you heard about her!’

Emily sighed. ‘I know…but I suppose he was a bit old for me. And he did say something about a brother,’ she added airily.

‘Younger brother?’

‘I think so.’

‘Married?’

‘No. I’m pretty sure Nick said he wasn’t.’

All was now becoming clear to Bea.

‘Name?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know,’ said Emily regretfully. ‘I couldn’t ask too many questions. I didn’t want to look too obvious, and Nick didn’t say very much, just that he would be keeping an eye on things. I got the impression he might have his own property.’

‘Shame. Bit of a waste of your country-girl outfit if he’s not even going to be there!’

‘Oh, well, there’s always this Chase person. I know a manager isn’t quite the same but I bet he’s to die for.’

‘He might be married.’

‘I shouldn’t think so. These guys don’t get out much,’ said Emily hopefully. ‘I’ve always fancied having a wild affair with a strong, silent farmer type. Anyway, with any luck we’ll have the brother and the manager, so we can have one each!’

‘Thanks, but I’ve always thought the appeal of the strong, silent type was overrated. I like a man who can talk about something more than cows. I’m going outside to see if there’s any sign of him.’

Retrieving the sunglasses from the top of her head, Bea settled them on her nose and pushed open the door. The heat hit her like a blow, and even behind her glasses she had to screw up her eyes against the glare.

At least there was no chance of missing anyone on a road like this, she thought, squinting first one way and then another along an absolutely straight, absolutely empty, road. She hoped one of Emily’s fantasy figures would turn up soon, as the only alternative was clearly going to be to walk into town, and it looked like a very long way.

It was a relief to get back into the air-conditioning, but both girls were soon thoroughly bored and fed up. They took it in turns to go outside and check on the traffic, but in an hour and a half counted only three road trains rumbling past.

Eventually Bea remembered a copy of Cosmopolitan in her suitcase, and she had just lost herself in an article about the joys of city living when a dull drone overhead made them both look up.

A tiny plane with wings that seemed to be propped up on long poles dropped lightly onto the runway and taxied towards the terminal, its propeller still blurring. As the girls watched, the plane came to a stop, the propeller faltered and slowed, and a man jumped out and set off towards the terminal at a brisk pace.

‘Do you think this is him?’

Emily sounded disappointed, presumably because of the absence of a checked shirt. He wasn’t giving a very good impression of being unhurried either. In fact, even from a distance, he looked distinctly impatient.

On the other hand, he was definitely tall and rangy, thought Bea. Nice broad shoulders, too, she couldn’t help noticing. As far as build went, he was everything Emily could want.

‘Can’t be,’ she said. ‘He’s not wearing a hat.’

Emily was obviously struggling to make the best of things. ‘He can fly a plane,’ she said. ‘That’s good.’

If the man noticed the two girls studying him through the big plate glass windows, he gave no sign of it. Instead, he stiff-armed the swing door in a manner worthy of the most harried city executive and strode into the terminal.

Bea gave Emily a sympathetic glance. His body might be good—actually, it was even more impressive at close quarters—but the rest of him was a distinct disappointment. He was just a very ordinary-looking man, with an irritated expression.

She judged him to be in his early thirties, but something about him made him seem older than that. Obviously ignorant of the sartorial codes Emily found so romantic, he was wearing jeans and a dull brown shirt. In fact, dull brown seemed to be something of a theme. He had a brown face and dull brown hair, and Bea fully expected to meet dull brown eyes too but, as his gaze swept over them, she was taken aback to discover that they weren’t brown at all, but an icy, almost startling, blue, and very unfriendly.