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trees to where Ralph was sitting on the bank of another rock pool, trying to catch a fish. They had been here for just over a fortnight and although they had several times thought they heard aircraft overhead no one up there had noticed the smoke that would invariably rise. Her mind was often in confusion because one moment she would want above all else to be rescued, while the next moment she would tell herself that she could stay here for ever. Did Ralph love her? When they were together at night she felt sure of it and her optimism was high. But during the daytime he was often brusque, impatient at times, and her heart would be so heavy that she would wander off on her own to cry a little, and allow her thoughts to drift to the future, such an unpredictable future which could be heaven or hell, depending on how Ralph would feel once they were back to civilisation. This was undoubtedly an artificial situation, one that was bound in the end to have the result it had now, whether she had held out or not, because she knew she would never have been able to hold out indefinitely. An artificial situation--Another sigh escaped her as she came from the pool and used the one small hand-towel that they possessed. Her clothes had been washed but were not quite dry. However, she put them on because with the sun as hot as it was they would be dry within minutes. She combed her hair and went to join Ralph, standing for a long moment staring at his bearded face. How different he looked with the beard! What would everyone say when they saw him? He glanced up and frowned at her. 'No luck,' he said testily. 'If we go on like this we shall soon be starving.' 'You've always managed to catch something in the end,' she said soothingly, not daring to sit beside him as she wanted to because this was one of those times when she knew instinctively that she was not wanted. 'We still have a few biscuits--' 'A few! How many? Three or four?' She swallowed, nodding her head. 'Four,' she answered, and heard the exasperated little sound he made. Something beyond her control made her say, 'Ralph ... are you regretting what's happened between us?' He drew a sharp breath which seemed an answer in itself and tears sprang to her eyes. 'You have no need to say anything,' she began, and turned away. But he was after her, taking her arm and swinging her round to face him. He bent his head; she felt the strong wiry hair of the beard on her cheek, then her mouth, and she strained against him and put her arms around his neck. His kisses were hard, demanding, his whole attitude one of mastery. 'You're too darned tempting,' he said in a voice suddenly hoarse. 'No, you idiot, I'm not regretting what's happened between us!' And he swung her right off her feet, carrying her as if she were a baby, making for the plane. His lovemaking was almost brutal, masterfully compelling; he gave a little laugh of triumph at her swift and easy surrender. 'Just you dare suggest again that I've any regrets and I'll give you the spanking of your life,' he was saying some while later as they lay together, bodies close, hands clasped together. 'Sometimes, Ralph, I do feel that you wish it had never happened.' 'Naturally I wish we had never had to make the forced landing, but as we did have to well, what's done is done and there isn't any profit in regrets, is there?' Lena looked at him and suddenly her heart was cold. He was so casual--And if he was casual now, when he had just made love to her, what was he going to be like when they were back at home, and his life was once again centred on the routine business of running his estate? It was only two days later that they were spotted by an aircraft of the Flying Doctor Service and less than ten hours later they were back at Coolibah Creek, neither looking much the worse for their adventure. Ralph had little time for explanations, merely giving his grandmother a quick resume of what had happened and telling her that the plane was undamaged structurally and that it would be repaired and flown in to Coolibah Creek with the least possible delay. He went off then, to bathe and shave and clean up generally, after which he disappeared and Lena, looking from her bedroom window, saw him riding towards one of the bore-troughs as if nothing unusual had ever happened to him. Copper was full of questions, and Mrs Douglas was as coldly impersonal as before, the only difference in her attitude being one of troubled uncertainty, as if she were wondering just what that seventeen days had done to her grandson. Lena, sitting on the verandah the following day, overheard the old woman saying to Corinne, who had driven over in her father's huge overlanding car, 'She's attractive, Corinne, and they were all alone out there. I hope the wretched girl isn't pregnant. It would be a disaster, because he'd feel in honour bound to marry her!' Lena froze. She got up instantly and moved away, so she missed whatever response Corrine made to that. But the girl happened to come into the garden a quarter of an hour later and spotted Lena sitting in a shady arbour some distance from the homestead, and she said without preamble, 'Tell me about that adventure, Miss Grafton. It must have been quite frightening for you.' Suave and milky-smooth the voice as Corinne [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |