Lily's Leap (6 page)

Lily and Bonnie followed him out of the holding yard to the slab hut. The shingled roof leaned at an alarming angle and was supported by corner posts that were no more than insect ridden props. Bonnie grasped her hand and Lily squeezed it, as he led them to their accommodation. Visions of darkened cellars and the chain links her father had used to restrain his assigned convicts flitted through her mind.

Surely not
.

The timbers on the makeshift veranda protested as they followed him up the crooked steps. He threw open the door and she sighed with relief. Calico lined the ceilings and the wooden butt jointed floorboards were clean and swept. A huge stone fireplace took up one whole wall and a stew was bubbling on the fire. Lily couldn’t remember when she had last eaten a hot meal. She had an overwhelming desire to sink into the battered armchair in front of the fire and rest her feet on the stone hearth. It looked as though old Pete had been expecting their arrival.

“How did he know when we’d get here?” She turned to Tom.

“Bush telegraph’s pretty efficient.” He threw her a conspiratorial wink and she couldn't help but grin back.

As if to prove his words, Pete appeared, took his hat off and nodded to her. “That was a fine ride and it’s a mighty fine horse you have there. Lucky you didn’t do him any harm.”

Mystified Lily turned to Bonnie who shrugged her shoulders, her eyebrows raised in surprise. Everyone spoke of the famous unofficial chain of communication that spread news, information and rumors throughout the colony, but she had never seen it in action.

“Your accommodation is through there, you’ll have to share.” Pete tipped his head toward the back of the room where a calico curtain hung looped across a low doorway, “And the washroom’s out the back. We won’t disturb you if you want to clean up a bit before we eat.”

“We’ll be eating outside on the veranda,” Tom added with the grin back on his face.

With a restrained nod of her head, Lily parted the curtain, and dragged a bemused Bonnie after her, relieved their journey was over for the time being.

****

It was good to see a woman who enjoyed her food, although it must be days since she’d had a decent meal. The juices from the mutton tracked down Lily’s chin were highlighted by the candlelight slanting across her cheeks. He ran his tongue over his lips. The very cheeks and chin he had trailed kisses across only a day ago.

He hadn’t intended to even touch her, let alone drag her into his arms. What was the matter with him? Nothing seemed to be going the way he had intended it. In three short days she had turned his life upside down.

Losing interest in the food in front of him, Tom rested his elbows on the table and gazed across the table at Lily. Just the sight of her face in the reflected candlelight tempted him. She lifted her hand and wiped her face. The sleeve of her shirt brushed her lips. Delicious. His body quickened, another appetite roused. He shook his head in disbelief; she was unlike any woman he had ever known.

The long split timber table and benches created a strange isolation. Bonnie gravitated toward the other end of the table with Will and Jem leaving him in the half-light with Lily. Not something he minded. It gave him the opportunity to study her and he did with increasing interest; her hair was untied and streamed down her back in a wild profusion of curls with fragile spirals loose around her face. In the fading light, her sun-kissed skin had taken on the warm glow of amber and her slim lithe body was graced with seductive curves in just the right places.

What was she doing out on the road with only a companion, horses and a couple of disreputable laborers? Dungarven might have a reputation as a breeder of horseflesh but obviously the care and attention he lavished on his stock didn’t extend to his offspring. He racked his mind trying to remember Dungarven’s wife. Had they ever met socially? He couldn’t remember meeting them in Sydney social circles. Not that he had spent much time in those circles himself. He sat up as a hazy memory of the gaming tables flashed before his eyes. Whitened knuckles and despair on a ravaged face. Was he remembering Dungarven? What of Lily’s mother? Did she condone her daughter gallivanting around the country?

“Tell me how did you learn to ride like a boy?”

She looked up when he spoke and once more wiped her hand across her tantalizing lips. “I didn’t learn to ride like a boy. I learned to ride a horse.”

He shook his head. “I beg your pardon.” The last thing he wanted to do was to break the mood of the evening. He wanted, needed to know more about this woman. She was unlike anyone he had ever met before, and there was her smile again lighting the darkness and filling his world with promise. She was provoking him, goading him. She had to be.

“Dominique, my husband, and I took lessons together, not only in the schoolroom, but outside as well. His father engaged a tutor for him and I was invited to join them.” She leaned back on the wide bench and clasped her arms around her knees. He watched with fascination as she rocked slowly backward and forward, in and out of the candlelight, and her loosened hair framed her face and curled around her sensuous breasts.

Just where I would like my hands to be.

“We shared our lives, our lessons. Dom had what my father described as unmanly passions. He was interested in drawing and music, but he was no different to me. I could have been said to have unwomanly passions because I wanted to learn to ride a horse, to jump and to hunt. Dom was handsome, talented and gifted, but so very troubled.” She lifted her shoulders and turned her palms upward in a gesture of mystification. “When he died his parents held me responsible. They said I had pushed him over the edge, metaphorically not literally. That I had pandered to what they called his ridiculous fantasies. I suspect our tutor had more to do with it than anyone imagined, because it was only after he left Dom became so troubled. I didn’t want to burden his parents with my suspicions; I believe his life became meaningless after our tutor left. He left a gaping hole I couldn’t ever fill.”

Tom listened carefully and his heart went out to her. She was so young to have so much responsibility resting on those eloquent shoulders. He might be estranged from his family but at least knew they were safe and presumably happy.

“After Dom died his parents wanted nothing to do with me. He had money. Money left to him by his godmother and I inherited it. His parents were angry and I had to return to Wordsworth. To my father’s house.”

Her flat statement punctuated the darkness –their conversation was over. He had the impression her father hadn’t been overjoyed to see her arrive home. Something told him she had said more than she intended, lulled by a feeling of security, a full belly and the candlelight.

With a sudden lithe move he was coming to recognize, she sprang to her feet. Hands on her hips and determination flashing in her violet eyes. “I need to check on the horses and get some sleep.”

He stood and led the way through the darkness toward the fenced paddock behind the house. Their footsteps rustled in the dried leaves and a possum growled, disturbed by their intrusion.

She stretched out her hand groping in the darkness for the fence line, and with a will of its own his hand reached for hers and their fingers interlaced turning the touch to a caress. His senses reeled at the sound of her frantic intake of breath and it was too late. His hands found her shoulders and he pushed her back hard against the fence. His lips and tongue claimed hers and she pressed closer to him offering her open mouth with an abandon he had only dreamed of.

His control slipped, he deepened his kiss, running his hands down her back and pressing her to his aching body where he needed her most. She rocked against him and he ran his tongue along her full bottom lip then sank into the moist welcome of her mouth. The soft sounds she made sending him into a frenzy of need.

“No. Stop. You’re hurting me.”

He dropped his hands and stepped away her words bringing him back to reality as he gasped to steady his breathing. A flash of shame flickered through him. “I forgot myself. I had no right. I beg your pardon.”

****

“Tom, I…” The tense muscles of his back rippled as he strode purposefully to the veranda, his footfall harsh on the dried leaves.

Why had she pushed him away?
It hadn’t been what she intended. She’d let the perfect opportunity slip through her fingers. She shook her head trying to clear the jumble of emotions clouding her mind. She must accept his advances and make sure he believed them, otherwise she would never be able to convince him to help her get the horses to Sydney.

After a few moments she came to the conclusion it wouldn’t be as difficult as she imagined, and straightened her shirt. She had no intention of admitting it aloud, but where bushrangers were concerned she seemed to lack a certain control and decency. It surely couldn’t be too difficult to bend him to her will. Tomorrow was another day and after a decent night’s sleep she was sure she would be able to convince him his advances were welcome.

Chapter 4

“Can I help you?”
 

Lily turned toward his voice and her heart hitched as she smiled a welcome.

“I thought I’d take Nero for a ride across the Common. He’s used to being ridden every day and if he is going to stay in peak condition…” Her voice tapered off as she realized that now probably wasn’t the time to broach the Windsor Races but if she got her way and she did race Nero, she couldn’t afford to have him feeling sluggish.

“I’ll join you.”

As he ambled across to the tack shed Lily’s heart leaped; he was playing right into her hands. A ride together would give her the opportunity to make up for last night and begin forging a bond between them. She might even raise the suggestion of an alternative to her father’s ransom.

“Can’t have you displaying your riding skills without an audience.” His raised eyebrow and ironic tone made her want to turn away, but she bit her tongue. She knew he was still worried about her escaping, but that wasn’t going to happen. She now had other plans. After tightening the girth on Nero’s saddle, she walked him to the slip rails.

“Is there another paddock we can put the remounts in when we get back? It would be good if they had a bit of space to graze and kick up their heels. They’re like me, not used to being contained.” Lily lifted the first of the slips rails as if to accentuate her words and waited for his response. Willy wagtails swooped and flitted on the fence posts offering their assistance, their black and white feathers contrasting sharply with the discolored timber.

“I think we can manage that.” He tapped a small stick absently against his thigh as he considered her proposition. “Let’s give you a bit of freedom before you slip your chains and then we’ll sort out the horses.” She noticed a hint of a smile on his full lips and she had a sneaking suspicion he was teasing her. A nervous thrill unfurled deep in her stomach.

****

Was it possible that she could look lovelier in the bright morning sun than she had in the candlelight? Her hair hung loose and the tightness of her breeches outlined her luscious hips and thighs. He forced himself to ignore thoughts of what lay beneath the soft cotton shirt she wore.

She mounted in a flash, like a boy leaping into the saddle and she gave the fiery black stallion his head. Tom swung himself up onto the gray and it needed no urging to follow the fleeing pair. He finally caught up with them, something he suspected she’d allowed to happen, and they rode side by side across the Common in an easy canter toward the river flats until she dug her heels in once more.

“Race.” The words flew over her shoulder as she spurred Nero into a gallop and Tom took up her challenge. They galloped across the river flats neck and neck. Never had he seen a woman ride so hard or so perfectly. The faultless harmony between horse and rider filled him with admiration. She held her head high and his eyes traced her long straight spine to the full curve of her buttocks. The rhythmic pounding of the hooves on hard packed dirt reverberated in his chest and his breath caught as she rose in her stirrups and urged Nero on, her thighs clenched. The exhilaration on her face and her grace and style mesmerized him.

Finally she slowed as they neared a majestic gum tree guarding a bend in the river and she pulled up letting out a victorious whoop when he rode up beside her.

“I won.” At her smug satisfaction and grin of glowing exuberance, Tom’s chest tightened painfully. “That was wonderful.”

The sides of their horses were flecked with sweat and they turned and followed the riverbank, walking slowly side by side. An unfamiliar feeling of contentment enveloped him. The dark shadows haunting him lifted for a moment. Perhaps it was a happiness he didn’t deserve, but he intended to grasp it with both hands and make the most of it while he had the chance. Too much in his life had been fleeting. He wanted this time to last forever. Closing the distance between them he leaned over in the saddle and wrapped one hand around her neck, pulling her close and pressed a warm kiss against her lips. Her lavender eyes darkened to indigo as she laughed up at him. He wanted to ask her to stay with him; to forget her father, the ransom money and her life and stay with him here at the Common, but the cold realization of the futility of his dream settled on him. She was a lady, and he was nothing more than a wanted man with no prospects. No woman would want him, not even one who could ride like the wind and relished freedom and adventure.