Anne Hampson Coolibah Creek [MB 1540] (pdf)

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She was helped roughly to her feet and propelled along towards the
aeroplane. But half way there she was overcome with dizziness and
although she fought to hold on to her senses, blackness descended
upon her and she lost consciousness.
Ralph was above her when she opened her eyes. Memory was not
long delayed and she heard herself say,
'I'm very sorry, Mr Douglas--'
'Be quiet!' he ordered roughly.
'You've bandaged my head.' She put a hand to it and added swiftly,
scarcely aware of what she was saying, 'I hope you haven't cut any of
my hair off.'
'I've had to cut a little off,' he told her ruthlessly. And he added, just as
if he had to, 'It would have served you right if I'd cut off the lot! I'll
not deny that it would have afforded me a great deal of satisfaction to
have done so!'
Her lip quivered. She said tautly, 'Well, thank you for bandaging it
up, anyway.'
A silence followed, and then to her astonishment the glimmer of an
amused smile touched his lips and was reflected in his eyes.
'You're very sorry for yourself, aren't you?' he said, 'Let it teach you a
lesson in obedience. When I give an order I expect it to be carried out,
understand?'
She said meekly,
'Yes, Mr Douglas, I understand.'
'How is the pain?' he asked then, his tone just a little bit softer than
before.
'It isn't too bad at all.' She tried to sit up but was pushed down again.
'Is it a very big wound?'
'Too big for my liking. It could prove troublesome.'
She bit her lip.
'It was foolish of me,' she quivered.
'Exceedingly foolish!'
'The flowers looked so tempting--' She broke off and turned away.
She seemed to be saying one silly thing after another.
'I put them in the drinking-glass,' he said, staggering her by the
admission. She gaped at him disbelievingly, and said what was in her
mind.
'I could rather see you throwing them on to the fire.'
Again that glimmer of amusement before he spoke.
'My first impulse was to do just that, but then I thought: why take it
out on the flowers? So I gave them the drink they needed.'
What an unpredictable man! He'd have loved to cut off all her hair,
leaving her quite bald, but he was loath to destroy the flowers she had
picked. Perhaps, she mused, that was a reflection of his opinion of her
sex.
'Thank you for saving them,' she murmured at length, and craned
round to find them. 'They look lovely,' she commented. 'I knew they
would.'
'Could you do with a drink?' he asked, putting a finger beneath the
bandage to see if it was too tight. Satisfied, he withdrew his hand, but
accidentally brushed her cheek as he did so. Every nerve in her body
seemed to quiver at the contact. She said swiftly,
'Just water, please, Mr Douglas.'
He brought it, watched her drain the glass thirstily, then took it from
her.
'Feeling better?' His blue eyes regarded her with an unfathomable
expression.
'Yes, thank you, Mr Douglas.'
'I think we can dispense with the Mr Douglas under circumstances
such as these,' he said, surprising her yet again.
'Shall I call you Boss?' she asked with a touch of diffidence.
'While we're here you can call me Ralph. When we get back home it
will be different.'
'I can't call you that,' she returned, aware that her cheeks had
coloured a little.
He laughed lightly. ''Try,' he advised, 'because I don't happen to be in
the mood to allow any further flaunting of my orders.'
Soft the voice but inflexible. Lena felt she would avoid calling him
anything. She said after a small silence,
'I ought to be getting up.' She was on the makeshift bed in the
passenger cabin of the plane and she tried to rise from the cushion he
had put under her head.
Ralph pushed her back and told her to stay where she was.
'You'll get up when I say you can,' he added inexorably.
'But the wood for the fire--' She. could see it going out owing to the
neglect of the past hour or so.
'Don't be so damned silly. You're in no fit condition to go out
wood-gathering thanks to your stupidity, and to your disobedience.'
There was an impenetrable quality in his voice that puzzled her. She
had the strange feeling that his sternness was only a pose or, at
most, half-hearted. He seemed to be concerned in a different way
from what would be normal with anyone else in her position ...
concerned in a more personal way--
The fireglow was warm and bright, the smell of cooking fish
appetising, the atmosphere friendly,.. almost intimate.
Six days they had been together in the wilderness, six days when they
had had several 'alerts', when wood would be tossed speedily on to
the fire to send up a cloud of black smoke that might mean their
rescue.
But they were still here.
'Is the fish done?' Ralph was sitting with his back to a tree but not
leaning against it. He was doing something with a hook a
fish-hook but he had glanced up to look at Lena who was squatting
before the fire, the glow on her face and in her eyes. 'It smells as if it's
ready to start burning. You'll have to buck your ideas up if you're
going to marry Stephen.'
She looked at him across the firelight. He had six days' stubble on his
face; his shirt was torn and grubby, his trousers creased and dusty.
Her own clothes were not much better, although both she and Ralph
had managed to do some washing, mainly underwear.
'I'm not marrying Stephen,' she said decisively.
'Why?' [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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