‘It’ll only take minutes to mop, but the troops were hungry,’ she told her.

‘Well, I guess it was in a good cause,’ Charlotte said reluctantly. ‘As long as you do intend mopping, Erin. I don’t see that Matt has the time. We’re leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow.’

‘You’re leaving?’ It was Henry, his eyes swivelling toward Matt. His face was horrified.

‘I’m taking Cecil to the show,’ Matt told him. ‘It’s a two-day affair so I’ll only be away for one night.’ His brow creased. ‘I didn’t think you were coming, Charlotte?’

‘I’ve managed to find a place at the hotel,’ she told him. ‘The Royal’s very expensive, but it still has places.’ She gave her tinkling laugh, the laugh that made Erin shudder. ‘I thought…now that we’re engaged we should do things together.’

Urk. The boys winced, and inwardly Erin winced along with them. Charlotte’s sweetness was almost repelling.

And it seemed Matt found it almost as distasteful. He dredged up a smile and rose, carrying his plate across to the sink.

‘Well, that’s great.’ Then he turned back to Erin, and his face was under control again. ‘Erin, now that Charlotte’s here, I want you to hop it. Go into town and do your shopping.’

‘But what for?’ Charlotte looked from Erin to Matt and back to Erin. ‘I did all the shopping you could possibly want yesterday.’

‘And it was wonderful,’ Erin told her, but Matt shook his head.

‘Charlotte, if everything you owned in the world was destroyed by fire, could you imagine another woman supplying you with everything you need on one shopping trip? Without even discussing it with you first? You don’t think that Erin might just want to buy a couple of things herself?’

‘I guess…’ Charlotte faltered at Matt’s logic, but she obviously didn’t. In her view, Erin was a charity case, and charity cases deserved what they got.

But Matt was no longer listening. ‘Go, Erin.’

‘I’ll just clean up-and the boys can come with me.’

‘No.’ Matt’s voice was implacable. He took her shoulders, steered her to the door and forcibly propelled her out. ‘Charlotte and the boys and I will clear up, and then we’ll take hay around the cattle. We’ll be so busy we’ll hardly miss you. I don’t expect you back here before four o’clock. So go.’

She cast one worried look at the twins, but Matt wasn’t taking no for an answer.

‘If you’re sure…’

‘I’m sure. And so’s Charlotte. Aren’t you, sweetheart?’

Charlotte was stumped. There was nothing for a well brought-up young woman to say to that but yes, and she rose to the occasion with fortitude.

‘Of course.’ Charlotte gave them all her very sweetest smile. ‘You go and do your shopping, Erin. I’ll look after your responsibilities.’


Drat the woman!

Erin’s hands clenched on the steering wheel all the way into town, and by the time she got there she was still having trouble calming down. What Matt saw in that cold-blooded barracuda… Couldn’t he see what she really was? She was so nice to Matt, but so darned nasty to those she didn’t consider important.

It was nothing to do with her, she told herself, as she drove into Bay Beach. Matt’s love life was Matt’s business, and that was that.

She was here to shop.

And then she saw Shanni emerge from the greengrocer. Her face brightened. Shanni was a really good friend. Like Erin, she was a local girl from a farm where money wasn’t in oversupply and so, like Erin, she’d been given the cold shoulder by Charlotte from a very early age. What Erin needed now was a coffee, a chat with her friend and a very long whinge.

‘Where are the kids?’ she called, and Shanni beamed as she dumped her shopping in her car and headed across the car-park to her friend.

‘They’re at Mum’s. Oh, great. I was just going to head out to see you. You want a coffee and a chat?’

‘Do I ever,’ Erin told her. ‘If you don’t mind a bit of bitchiness thrown into the gossip.’

‘That’s my very favourite kind of gossip,’ Shanni said, and tucked Erin’s arm into hers. ‘What gives?’


Back at the farm it was Matt’s temper that was giving. He’d loaded the trailer with hay, the twins had helped cheerfully enough but when they headed out to the paddocks Charlotte decided she was coming, too.

Then, as William heaved his first bale off the trailer-no mean feat for one so small-she told him how to do it right.

‘The cattle trample it if you put it down in full bales,’ she told William sharply. ‘Wait until Matt cuts the twine and then throw it off a quarter at a time.’

William’s small face fell, he dropped behind the trailer and Henry, after looking at his twin, decided to do likewise.

They stumped along unwillingly, waiting to go home. Charlotte scolded. Matt tried to make things right but the more that was said the more the twins turned stubborn and mute.

‘You’ll be glad to get away tomorrow,’ Charlotte told him. ‘Kids are okay in small doses-in very small doses.’

‘They’re good kids.’

‘If they were good kids they’d have been adopted long before this.’

‘Hush!’ Charlotte’s voice was carrying. Matt cast a glance behind him. He didn’t think the twins had heard, but… ‘Be a bit careful of what you’re saying.’

‘I’m only telling the truth,’ Charlotte said stubbornly. ‘For heaven’s sake, they actually burned down a whole house. They should be a bit grateful for what you’re doing instead of grumping along like two spoiled brats.’

Yeah. Right. But they didn’t look like spoiled brats, Matt thought as he tried to cheer them up. They just looked like kids who knew they were hopeless and expected to be told that at every available opportunity.

‘Come and help me brush Cecil,’ he told them as they finally fed out the last of the hay. ‘He’ll be dry by now, and he needs to be brushed like he’s never been brushed before if he’s to win.’

‘Oh, Matt, really…’ Charlotte again, unable to resist putting in her oar. ‘As if they know the right way to brush a bull. I’ll help.’

‘Boys…’

‘I want to watch TV,’ Henry said, and William chewed his bottom lip and said nothing.

‘I’d really appreciate it if you could help me.’

Silence.


Erin arrived back at the farm feeling very much better. There was nothing like venting a little spleen with a friend, she thought cheerfully as she turned into the gate. That, a couple of bolts of material, a really gorgeous ready-made dress, new shoes and a bottle of her favourite perfume supplied by Shanni had made her feel she was ready to face the world again.

Or ready to face Charlotte.

They were in the kitchen. Erin pushed wide the door and knew they’d been talking about her. The conversation stopped dead as she entered, and Matt bit his lip.

It wasn’t anything good, Erin thought, but then, when had Charlotte ever said anything nice about her? Or anyone who had less money and influence than Charlotte?

‘Hi,’ she said brightly, determined to be cheerful. ‘I had to come home. Bay Beach ran out of things I could buy.’

‘Did the insurance money run to all this?’ Charlotte asked incredulously, looking at Erin’s parcels. She sniffed. ‘That’s the same perfume as Sally wears. It costs a mint. And you’ve never bought a dress from Della’s!’

‘I do get paid,’ Erin said gently. ‘I’m not exactly a welfare case, Charlotte.’ She dumped her parcels and somehow kept right on smiling. Then, because she knew it’d cut right to the bone, she couldn’t resist. ‘I even had money left over for lacy knickers. Because a girl just never knows…’ And that was enough of that! ‘Where are the boys?’

‘They’re watching television,’ Charlotte snapped, watching Matt’s face and not being reassured at all. He’d definitely heard what Erin said, and there was definitely a level of interest there. ‘They’ve been distinctly unhelpful.’

‘I expect they’re tired,’ Matt threw in, trying to appease-and trying not to think of Erin in lacy knickers-but Erin was no longer listening. She left them to each other.

If Matt was stupid enough to believe he loved Charlotte, then they deserved each other.

The twins weren’t watching television.

Erin went from there to the bedrooms. Then she searched the house, but there were no twins. Finally she returned to the kitchen.

‘They’re not in the house,’ she told Matt, and watched as his eyes widened. ‘Where else could they be?’

‘They’re watching television.’ He walked forward as if he thought she just wasn’t looking hard enough, and flung open the sitting room door. The television was blaring, but there were no twins.

They looked at each other-and they started to run.


She checked the river first.

It was Erin’s golden rule. Check out worst-case scenarios and work backward. The most dangerous places for the twins to be were the machinery shed and the river, so while Matt checked the sheds, she ran down along the track they’d used to go swimming.

They weren’t there, but something else was there that made her suck in her breath in dismay.

Oh no!

She looked back up at the house, and her fears were confirmed. There was Matt, emerging from the shed where Cecil had been groomed. He was holding a twin by each hand. Erin couldn’t see his face, but she could guess it’d look like thunder.

Because as soon as he saw the empty stall, he’d have guessed.

She turned around again and she sighed.

The river flowed on golden sand, and then curved away inland. As it did, the sand turned to mud.

That was where Cecil was. He was no longer confined, brushed and beautiful in the shed, ready for tomorrow’s show. He was rolling full length in the mud, doing what every self-respecting bull would do, given all the peculiar odours they’d put on his body.

He was getting it all off.

And he was now disgusting!