Cattle Baron: Nanny Needed (12 page)

Janis snorted. “Trying to get rid of me?”

Leave the coast free? Amber shook her head. “I just thought you might be finding the isolation tough going. A lot
of women would. Especially one who has had a successful city career. I had the idea that you and Eliot intended living in Melbourne.”

“Here’s the problem,” Janis said savagely. “Eliot brought me back
here
.”

“Are you saying he reneged on his word?” Amber was shocked. Had Eliot deliberately put his wife into a situation she couldn’t handle?

“We had a very short courtship.” Janis presented a bitter face. “I never met Cal until the day of the wedding.”

Here it was. Cause and effect. Janis meets Cal. Janis is instantly infatuated with Cal. Husband and baby bear the brunt of wife and mother’s unrequited love.

Janis stood up abruptly, angry she might have given an insight into her real problem. “I’ve endured your company as long as I can, Ms Wyatt. You’re nothing more than an ambitious hustler, even if you are beautiful in a way I don’t admire. If you’re hoping to land Cal, you’d better think again. He and Brooke Rowlands have a
long
history. Brooke may have stuffed up but she’s looking for an opening to get back into his good graces. Very persistent lady is Brooke. Once she finds out
you’re
here, she’ll come calling. Mark my words.”

“Sorry, is that supposed to affect me?” Amber sat back, a model of calm outside, upset within. “It doesn’t. I understood from Cal that Ms Rowlands isn’t all that welcome.” How she was succeeding in maintaining a level tone, Amber didn’t know. She put it down to her training and withstanding the likes of Jack Matthews.

“That’s what he
says
!” Janis pronounced bitterly, as though no man on earth was to be trusted. “The last time she stayed—which wasn’t all that long ago—she managed to share his bed. There, shocked you, didn’t I?”

“You look more shocked than I do,” Amber pointed out quietly, even though the woman was right. She
was
shocked.
“If I were you, Mrs MacFarlane, I’d start counting my blessings. The closest man in the world to you is your
husband
. Your most precious possession is your baby son. If you keep that in mind, you might start to feel better. By the way, unless you intend to take over the management of Marcus, you’ll allow me, Dee and young Mina, who is the gentlest little soul in the world, to give you a hand. I can see Cal’s opinion is important to you. You must realise Cal has had enough of your issues with the staff.”

“Oh, how splendid!” Janis clapped her hands. “A crusader for staff rights!”

“Unlike you,” Amber returned quietly.

Janis MacFarlane gave her a furious stare. “And you can go to hell, Ms Wyatt. I begin to see why your fiancé dropped you for the Erskine girl. This conversation is over. It bores me. I’m going to get a little air.” She headed towards the front door, mistress to servant.

“Doesn’t that leave us holding the baby?” Amber called ironically. The woman’s failure to assume responsibility was incomprehensible. Janis MacFarlane appeared to have written her baby off, as though he didn’t exist.

Now she swung back with such a strange smile that Amber’s heart sank. “You can have him if you want him,” she said.

Could there be anything worse than that?

Cal and Eliot came back at lunchtime with their regular vet, an amiable man with a mop of sandy hair that might at one stage have been ginger, the countless freckles his skin had thrown up for protection forming a pseudo tan. Pleasant though he was, he nevertheless managed to stir the cauldron by asking Janis, albeit very kindly, if she was getting on any better with her baby.

Janis let her face show her extreme resentment. “I’m beginning to think he should be taken into care until he settles,”
she said as though she had just come up with the solution to her problems. “That’s if he
ever
does.”

“But of course he will, poor little fella!” Fitz Fitzgerald, grandfather of eight, protested, staring from Eliot to his young wife in astonishment. “Where is he now?”

“Ask Ms Wyatt,” Janis suggested tightly. “She seems to have taken over the running of the household.”

Beneath the starched white tablecloth Amber clamped her hand down hard on the Cattle Baron’s knee. She knew he was longing to intervene. But she could fight her own battles. She offered the vet a smile. “Marcus is coming along just fine. Mina is watching him at the moment. She’s good with children. She has little brothers and sisters.”

Janis’s cheeks flushed as she spluttered, “This is not
my
idea, Mr Fitzgerald. Next thing we know, Ms Wyatt will have the girl taking Marcus walkabout.”

“I think we’ll take it more gradually than that, Janis,” Cal said, feeling yet another uncontrollable wave of dislike for his uncle’s wife. Was there ever a time her manner with people wasn’t freezing? Oddly enough, he seemed to get the lion’s share of her better moments. “Mina is a sweet, respectful, responsible girl. You should be grateful to her for the help.”

“Grateful is the
last
thing I am,” Janis huffed.

Somehow they got through lunch, with Janis throwing Amber malevolent looks across the table. Obviously she had moved up to the top of Janis’s hit list. She had to keep telling herself that Janis had problems. But it seemed that at least some of her problems were by choice. Afterwards, Eliot took his wife by the elbow, moving her away with a polite, “Excuse us.” It looked very much like Janis was digging in her heels, refusing to go. Women had been strangled for less.

Amber found herself asking Cal quietly if Janis had found him earlier on.

He eyed her with nagging worry. “I know this sounds weird, but I swear Janis could find me anywhere!”

To him it obviously presented a great mystery. Amber moved closer in, to whisper low, “And why is that, do you suppose?”

“How the hell should I know?”

Later Fitz offered a comment. “Poor lady! It’s the PND then, is it?”

“I thought the condition was more civil than that.” Cal was so mortified by Janis’s behaviour that he skipped any excuses. He put his hand on the vet’s shoulder, deliberately changing the subject. “By the way, I forgot to ask you, Is Charlie Morrissey recovering okay?”

Fitz shook his head. “No, he’s still pretty crook.”

“Crook in the head as well.” Cal tapped his forehead. “That was a fool thing he did, trying to pick up a taipan by the tail.”

Fitz gave a snort of laughter. “Drunk at the time. Drink always fuels stupidity.” He turned to Amber, who was standing quietly. “I must say it’s been a great treat to meet you, Amber. I don’t need to tell you to watch that skin of yours in the sun.”

Amber had to ask herself, why hadn’t he?

“We’ll look after her, Fitz,” Cal assured him. “There’s a ton of sun block on tap. I tell you that every time I see you.”

“Too late, m’boy!”

“Wrong attitude, Fitzy,” Cal pointed out, half turning his shoulder. “Ah, here’s Eliot back again. You two can go off. I’ll meet you a little later on. I want to fix Amber up with a horse to ride. She tells me she’s good.”

“Which means she is.” Fitz gave Amber another warm, approving smile. This was a young lady who mightily impressed him. He had never known what to make of Eliot’s second wife. The first one had been an angel, gone to God. This one might have strayed from the other place. Even before the little fellow
had arrived no one could have called Janis MacFarlane pleasant. It wasn’t a marriage that had been planned in heaven.

Almost immediately, Amber settled on her choice. She picked out a handsome coal-black gelding called Horatio, a seven-year-old ex-racehorse that had won handsomely for Cal’s grandfather, Clive Erskine, only to be told that the gelding was too strong for her. Too mercurial by temperament.

“You haven’t seen me ride yet,” she said, affronted. The big gelding stood some seventeen hands high, but she was convinced she could ride him.

“We’ll fix you up with something else.” He ignored her tone. “What about this one now?” They moved down the line of stalls. “Star Belle. Isn’t she beautiful? A bright chestnut almost the colour of your hair. Star Belle is another ex-racehorse. She’s a little bit skittish with a new rider, but if you can handle her she’ll settle down nicely.”

“Sure you can trust me to have a go?” she challenged dryly, showing the mare her hand.

“I’d like nothing better than to trust you, Amber.” He smiled, but the expression in his eyes was oceans deep.

“We’ve got issues, haven’t we? They pop up all the time.”

“It takes time to build back eroded confidence and trust.”

“Loss of trust is a fact of life, Cal.” She shrugged, still petting the responsive mare. “It’s hard at first, but I don’t think we really have an option but to reach out again. If we do everything in our power to avoid getting hurt, we’ll never get to know what real love means.”

“And you
really
loved him?” he mocked, when he was hurting with the desire to touch her. Pull her into his arms. Cover the beautiful creamy skin of her face with kisses, before settling ecstatically on her mouth—full, luscious, made to be kissed. If he had to describe his picture of the perfect woman it would be Amber Wyatt.

“I might ask, did you really love Brooke?” Amber countered, unnerved by the quality of his glance. It was like a mirror giving back her own desire. Stupid to allow a flash of jealousy for his ex-fiancée to mar it. But human enough, she supposed.

“I must have been in love with her at some stage. That’s all you need to know.”

“Ditto with Sean. I don’t hate him. Maybe that’s a telling thing. I despise him. That’s entirely different. At any rate, his marriage to your cousin is no longer causing me grief.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” In fact it was a big relief. “But doesn’t it prove you never really loved him?”

She gave him a defeated look. “I’m afraid you could be right. It’s a little hard getting used to the idea I was such a rotten judge.”

“Maybe we only have an
idea
of the people we love,” he mused.

“Very likely. But what you see is what you get with me, MacFarlane. Now, why don’t I show you how good a rider I am?”

He laughed. How could he not? She entertained him. “I’m telling you I can’t wait. You look great in tight jodhpurs at any rate.”

Despite herself she blushed. “They’re not too tight, are they?” She didn’t think she had put on weight.

“On the contrary, they’re
perfect
! They need to be tight. If I were a better adjusted man I could really fancy you, Ms Wyatt.”

“I think the fancying got out of hand at the wedding, don’t you?”

“One of those instant inexplicable bondings,” he suggested very dryly.

“Or a pretty powerful chemical reaction.”

“Either way, it was great.” He rested a hand lightly on her
silk-covered shoulder. Just a gesture but it sent a series of shock waves through her very receptive body. She couldn’t recall a touch like it.

In the end, he made her parade round and round the exercise yard before he was satisfied, making her finish with a working gallop.

“You’ll do!” Afterwards he lifted his arms so she had to slip down between him and the chestnut mare.

Her breasts were grazing his chest. She pulled back before she went to pieces. Behind her the mare whinnied. “I knew I would!” She tried for a cheeky smile, not easy when she was beset by desires she mightn’t get the chance to fulfil.

He had to be feeling the same because he muttered, “I want to kiss you.”

“Okay.” She took a deep preparatory breath. The two of them were taking big risks, but the temptation was too powerful to resist.

His mouth came over hers as though he knew just what she wanted. At first it was soft and easy, a sort of learning experience, then she heard the groan in his throat before he pulled her in closer. The kiss deepened, changed character. His hand sought and found her breast, moving over it in an exquisite caress. Their lower bodies were pressed together, as if yearning to fuse as nature intended. This was what it meant to play with fire.

“Cal…” Her voice sounded unnaturally shaky. “This is so…”

“I know.” He lifted his head, his hands dropping to her hips. “Just reaching out. Don’t move. Not for a minute.”

“I don’t think I can.” It was the solemn truth.

He continued to hold her. “Do you want this to come to anything, Amber?” He lifted her chin so he could stare into her eyes.

“I don’t know what you’re offering,” she said. “I didn’t see this coming.”

“And you think I did?”

“So is it a good feeling or a scary feeling?”

For answer he bent his dark head and kissed her again. “Both. But let’s say you make me feel more than I’ve ever felt before.”

It was some admission coming from him.

Weeks sped by in a dazzle of excitement. Janis had been more or less forced into accepting the new regime that, thankfully, was getting encouraging results. Amber had taken to giving little Marcus a soothing massage after his nightly bath—something she had once seen demonstrated by a close friend, a mother of two, and to her delight he loved it. Marcus was getting much more sleep, as were his sleep-deprived parents. The entire household was hoping and praying that Janis’s tensions would ease. But, if they did, she didn’t show it. Truth be told, Janis seemed to get meaner, even if she was less vocal about it. That had to be a plus.

She did, however, do everything in her power to avoid Amber, who was getting a little tired of it. When it came right down to it, Amber had effected the changes. But no thanks there. Amber might have been a highly paid mother’s helper. Disturbingly, she had the feeling that Janis hated her. Or maybe it wasn’t her personally. Janis would hate any woman who took Cal MacFarlane’s eye. Both Cal and his uncle appeared to be misreading the situation. Much as she wanted to give Janis the benefit of the doubt, Amber couldn’t help thinking that Janis was simply hiding behind the label of PND and, in doing so, missing out on one of the greatest gifts in life—the bottomless well of love a mother had for her child.