Hidden Fire (19 page)

“The opal? Yeah, I know. But you have to know I'll try. Too many people, um, things, depend on me finding it.”

Should she tell him about the threat to her parents now? Oh, she wanted to, so badly, but she couldn't take the risk he'd think she was manipulating him. Not yet, anyway. Not until she knew her parents were safe. Somehow, she had to find a way to get in touch with them. She just prayed they were somewhere Jeremy couldn't find them.

“You'll try and I'll stop you,” Morgan said. “But for today we declare a truce, okay?” He slapped her on the top of her thigh. “Now out of bed, woman. I'm hungry.”

“One last thing, Morgan. Despite what that bastard Jeremy told you, I wasn't the one who set up that scenario in Iran. Whether you believe me or not, I knew nothing about it.”

He took her hand and helped her to her feet. “I've been having some second thoughts about that. I'm beginning to think I might have made a slight miscalculation there.”

As Morgan turned and strode from the mine, Gili's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in shock. “Well, how about that?” she whispered.

“Missy Gili, over here. Come sit with me.”

Gili glanced across the clearing in the center of the village to see Piri jiggling up and down on a log he'd appropriated as a seat. The Aboriginal settlement swarmed with children, their high-pitched voices vying for supremacy amid the deeper tones of the adults. It looked like a scene of total confusion, but even Gili could see the controlled organization among the chaos.

The mass of juvenile humanity appeared to be broken into groups of maybe seven or eight children, with an adult helper, whether parent or teacher, overseeing their conduct. Other adults milled about, carrying sleeping bags and camping paraphernalia into the gunyahs. In amongst it all stood Morgan, tall, rugged, the man on the land. The person who knew the best and the worst this harsh land could offer.

“Piri, are you listening to me?” Morgan dragged the child's attention back to him.

The little boy hung his head. “Sorry, Morgan.” Then, as if he couldn't help himself, he flashed a wide smile. “But I wanted Gili to sit with me.”

Gili chuckled as she joined Piri. The kid would be a heartbreaker when he grew up. She focused on Morgan, surprised to see him staring at her. The corners of his lips tilted up in the beginnings of a smile, almost as if he wanted to reiterate Piri's words. Warmth blossomed in her belly and spread throughout her body. She hugged Morgan's look to her. She'd agonized about how he'd react this morning after their night together, but it looked like she'd worried for nothing. It was a good start. Who knew where this adventure would end, but for now, she'd take what was on offer.

“Okay, everyone, listen up.” Morgan waited until the children focused on him before going on. “We're not only here to experience how the Aboriginal people of Australia lived in the past, but also to try our hand at a little noodling. Can anyone tell me what noodling is?”

Piri jumped up and waved his hand in the air, his little face alight with excitement. “I can, I can. It's when we go over what the other miners have left behind in the mullock heaps.”

“Very good, Piri.”

Gili nudged her small friend in the ribs. “Hey, Piri, what's a mullock heap?” she whispered so she wouldn't interrupt the flow of Morgan's lesson.

Piri pointed to the soil dumps that rose like sentinels around the campsite. “The leftover dirt from the mine workings. They're called mullock heaps.”

Gili smiled.
Learn something new every day
.

Actually, it was all very interesting. She'd researched the
Dreamtime Fire
before she'd arrived, but not so much the process to get the opal out of the ground. Now she wished she had. With a shake of her head, she silently admonished herself for the oversight. She turned her attention back to Morgan.

“It's against the law to fossick for gem stones unless you have a Fossickers' License. Did you all remember to bring your license with you?”

“Yes, Morgan,” the children parroted as a whole.

Morgan walked across to Gili and handed her a plastic-coated square suspended from a cord. Inside was a Fossickers' License made out in Gili's name. “I thought you might like to have a go with the kids. I had one of the parents pick it up before coming out here.”

He winked at her before turning back to the children. “Now, you all know the rules of the outback. No wandering off on your own. Sunscreen and hats on at all times, and don't forget to take your canteen with you. We don't want anyone getting dehydrated. Sunstroke's a serious thing out here.”

The kids scampered off, herded by their adult minders. A smile flitted across Morgan's face as he watched them. His jaw softened and his eyes gleamed. Gili had no trouble working out that he enjoyed his time with the children. It was there on his face.

She loved seeing him like this—open, friendly, full of laughter. He was a different person when he was interacting with the kids.

“Come on, Gili,” Piri cried out, jumping up in front of her. “Let's go find a really big opal.”

Another little palm slid against her hand. She glanced down to see a tiny girl with a froth of blonde curls framing a pale, heart-shaped face, and an exquisite set of deep blue eyes.

“Can I come with you, too?” the child asked.

Piri grabbed Gili's free hand and pulled her down to his height. Then he put his mouth close to her ear and whispered, “That's Jen. The other kids say she's slow, but I just reckon she thinks a lot. She's smart when she wants to be.”

Gili felt her heart turn over at the ingenuity of Piri's words. How did he get so smart so young? The excitement on his face made her smile. She grabbed the tiny miner's pick he shoved at her and tucked it under her arm before she bent to pick up the metal sieve from the pile near the log.

With a smile, she tightened her hold on Jen's hand. “Okay, kids, show me where this really big opal is. Who's the adult supervisor for our group?”

“I am.” Morgan appeared behind her.

A shiver slid down Gili's back. She hadn't heard him move, although the prickling of her skin should have warned her. She could be blind and still sense when Morgan was near. Something about him sparked off a chain reaction inside her.

“Okay, everyone, gather up your gear and let's go noodling.” Morgan slung the backpack he held onto his shoulder and pointed to a mullock heap that sat at the opposite end of the gully from where the mine entrance was. “How about we try that one? I can see plenty of ironstone rocks there. Who knows? We might find some boulder opal.”

Chattering and laughing, the children trooped across the camping area, pausing when they reached the edge of the gully. Then they dropped to their backsides and slid down the loose dirt of a conveniently placed mullock heap until they landed in the dust at the bottom of the gully. Morgan whooped and ran down the old mine workings to join the children.

Jen had chosen to stay with Gili. Gili bent over and stared under the brim of the child's hat. “You ready, Jen?”

“I don't want to slide,” Jen said with a decided wobble to her lower lip. She dropped her voice and whispered, “It hurts my bottom.”

“I'm not surprised. I don't think I want to trust my rear end to that either.” Gili chuckled. “You want to run down with me?”

Jen nodded, although a sense of apprehension still clung to the little girl's face. Gili tucked the pick and sieve tighter under her arm, and took a firmer grip on Jen's hand. On the point of cracking a joke to make Jen smile, Gili suddenly snapped her mouth closed.

A shiver trickled down her spine. The hairs on her arms stood up. Heat burst to life on her right shoulder and the feeling of pins and needles flowed across her pelican tattoo again.

Someone was watching her.

Who?

Where?

She twisted her head and stared back at the Aboriginal village. Adults, mainly parents, still carted the children's luggage into the gunyahs. Some were tending the fire in the center of the village, preparing for lunch. Nothing seemed out of place. So why was she so spooked?

Movement beside the gunyah closest to her and Jen drew Gili's attention. A man, his back to her, pushed another male behind the shelter. She heard the rustling of bark and leaves as if someone brushed against the gunyah, and then silence. Neither person was visible, but two dark shadows coated the red dust and angled out from the bush building.

One of the sun-cast shadows rippled as if alive. An elongated strip of the deepest black sheared off it and floated above the gunyah before subsiding again, disappearing behind the shelter.

Jen tugged at Gili's hand as if to urge her on, but Gili held still, the breath caught in her throat. Something about the back view of that man teased at her memories. The dark hair, and lean build. Not as tall as Morgan.

She frowned as something else teased at her senses. An odor. Rank and stale with overtones of burning. That's when the penny dropped and her mind engaged.
Cigar smoke
.

Oh God. Did that mean…

Jeremy Grissom?

She fell back a pace, tottering on the edge of the mullock heap. Her mouth dried. Her heart pounded so hard she was sure it would crash through the wall of her chest. Last night she thought she'd seen someone who
looked
like Whitey Grissom, but had treated it as nothing but her imagination.

But this? The pungent smell of Jeremy's trademark cigar? She shook her head. Forget it. This was more than coincidence. Jeremy was here in Opalton and one bet who the second person hiding behind the gunyah was.

Whitey Grissom, damn it.

Fear sliced through her, followed by an immediate rush of adrenaline, driving out the worry and infusing her with determination. Her heartbeat accelerated even more and her respiration sped up. Sweat slicked her forehead and ran down the sides of her face.

To hell with it, she was tired of this. She was sick of worrying, about her parents, about Morgan and about her own honor, because something told her that doing what Jeremy Grissom wanted was going to be far more difficult than she'd first envisaged.

She pushed the though aside to be dealt with later. Right now, she meant to confront Jeremy and Whitey and tell them to get their asses out of here.

Bending down, she pulled Jen close. “Honey, I need to do something. If you just sit here, I'll take you down to the others in a minute. Okay?”

The little girl nodded. Gili dumped her fossicking equipment beside the child, and after making certain Jen was safe, turned to face the gunyah. Adrenalin riding her, she started towards it.

The smell of cigar smoke wafted from behind the gunyah and the breeze drove it to her. It caught in the back of her throat and set up an immediate tickle. Nerves in Gili's throat protested the presence of the smoke passing through their habitat, and although she slammed her palm over her mouth, nothing could disguise the harsh cough that bubbled up and spewed out.

A sudden rustling of leaves and branches from the back of the gunyah caught her attention. A sibilant male whisper floated amid the red dust and grated on Gili's hearing. Then she saw two long shadows break free from the elongated dome-shaped shadow that represented the native shelter.

She quickened her pace. Closed her mind to the sounds the other adults made while they worked about the village, and focused only on the movement of the dark outlines painted on the red ground. She rounded the gunyah to see two men disappear around the back of the bus that had ferried the children from Winton.

She was right. Jeremy, and Whitey Grissom. She didn't need to see their faces. Jeremy's crop of white hair and the dark suit he habitually wore, despite the Australian heat, confirmed what she already knew. She hung her head, knowing she had no choice now. She had to talk to Morgan. Warn him the Grissoms were here in Opalton. And she'd have to tell him about her father's accident and the threat to her mom. Would this destroy the sense of peace they'd managed to find over the last twenty-four hours? She prayed not.

“Miss? Missy Gili? Are you coming?”

Jen's high-pitched voice cut through the sombre thoughts filling Gili's mind. With a shake of her head, she looked at the little girl. “Sorry, sweetie. I was daydreaming.”

She made her way back to Jen and gathered up the mining equipment. “Come on, munchkin, let's go find that opal.”

Jen in tow, Gili took the slope of the mullock heap at a run, the little girl slipping and sliding with her. Jen's childish laughter lightened the feeling of dread in Gili's heart. So much so, she was able to give at least a semblance of a smile by the time they reached Morgan and the rest of the children.

“You okay?” Morgan moved up beside Gili, relieving her of the pick and sieve. “Look, if you don't want to take part in the noodling, you don't have to.”

“Hey, I'm looking forward to it. Why would you think otherwise?”

“You looked less than eager when you came down that dirt heap. Is anything wrong?” He titled his hat back and stared at her, a frown pulling at his brow. “In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say you looked as if someone, or something, had spooked you.”

“Miss?” Jen pulled at her hand.

Gili gave Jen a quick smile before slanting a glance at Morgan. “Can we talk later?” she whispered. “It's important.”

“Does this have anything to do with the opal?” He lowered his voice so Jen couldn't hear. When she nodded, he said, “Okay, later on when the kids aren't around.”

Gili's mouth twisted in a grimace at the thought of Morgan's reaction. She watched as Charlie and Narri joined the group, squatting down in the dust with the children. Charlie glanced at her and flashed a smile that rivalled the sun for brilliance.

Without meaning to, she'd put these people in danger. Charlie and Narri had accepted her, despite her quest for something they held sacred. The opal.
The Dreamtime Fire.
Charlie knew her intention to take it away, but still he'd opened his heart to her.