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‘So you’d be quite happy to see her throw herself on the marriage market?’
Michael eyed him shrewdly. ‘Don’t you think it’s a good idea?’
Gabe shifted uneasily beneath the faded blue gaze. ‘I wouldn’t know what’s best for her. I’m not her grandfather.’
Leaning closer, Michael touched him on the arm so that he had to turn back, and when he did the old fellow winked. ‘I reckon there’s no harm in letting her look around. It’ll help her to see the lie of the land. Right now she can’t see the wood for the trees.’ He winked at Gabe. ‘You’ll keep an eye on her, won’t you, son?’
‘Surely you don’t want me snooping around like some kind of private eye?’
Michael lifted his shoulders in a helpless little shrug. ‘She’s a babe in the woods. There are wolves out there.’
‘I’ll cramp her style.’
But Michael had a trump card up his sleeve. ‘I’m a dying old man. Can’t you do this for me?’
Gabe’s eyes narrowed. He’d never realised Michael Delaney was such a crafty old beggar.
‘You’ll promise me this one thing, won’t you, boy?’
Gabe sighed. ‘I don’t know how long I’m going to be in the district—but OK, it’s a deal.’ Then he shot to his feet.
‘Something smells good,’ Michael said. ‘I’m sure our breakfast’s ready.’
But the conversation had curbed Gabe’s appetite. ‘I need to get back home,’ he said. ‘Jonno’s expecting me to give him a hand with some stockyard work today.’
In the kitchen, Piper was carrying toast and butter to the table when she caught sight of her reflection in a battered old mirror that hung near the hat pegs. She gasped at the sight of herself with her hair all wild and loose around her face like a silky halo.
With hardly a thought to where she dumped the toast, she drifted closer to the mirror. How different she looked. For a moment she forgot the embarrassment of her foolish behaviour last night. She was thinking instead of the gentle, caressing way Gabe had threaded his fingers through her hair and the way he’d stroked her skin.
A tide of pink rose from her neck to her cheeks and she looked happy and rosy. Almost glowing—like a computer-enhanced picture in a glossy magazine.
Idiot!
She had nothing to make her smile. Nothing to go all vain and gooey about. How could she have been so stupid as to ask Gabe to kiss her? Gabe, who’d been kissed and seduced by squillions of sexy women.
She swung away from the mirror. Last night had merely reinforced what she already knew. She had a long way to go before she worked out the finer points of catching a man.
Hurrying into the bathroom, she grabbed her hairbrush and set about flattening her hair, then pulled it back tightly with another elasticised band.
One thing was certain. Next time she practised flirting she’d make sure Gabe Rivers was nowhere near.
CHAPTER FOUR
‘IT’S not me. I’m not this sophisticated. I feel strange.’ Piper stood in her grandfather’s bedroom and stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror. What she saw was beyond anything she could have imagined.
‘You look fantastic, darlin’,’ Michael reassured her from the doorway. His smile was so bright it would have glowed in the dark. ‘You look like a princess.’
‘You don’t think I’ve gone too far? I’m showing so much bare skin.’
‘Nonsense. Anyway, your skin’s lovely. It should be seen. You’ll knock ’em dead tonight.’
She turned sideways to check her gown from a different angle and told herself it was too late to back out now; she’d taken the bull by the horns. She was going to the Mullinjim Spring Ball to start her husband-hunt. In earnest.
Knowing she desperately needed help in matters of make-up, hairstyles and ballgowns, she’d followed up an advertisement in the local paper and hired the services of a travelling beauty and grooming consultant. The whole process had been a steep learning curve!
April, the consultant, had been quite definite.
‘White,’ she said. ‘The dark vamp look is so last century. You should certainly wear white. It’s dramatic and it’s classy and you have the perfect youthful complexion for it. Not everyone can wear white successfully, you know.’
It crossed Piper’s mind that a white gown would scream virgin to the entire population, but she held her tongue.
‘And you’re slim and fit, so a tight, low-necked, low-backed gown will be best, to show off your figure and that beautiful pale skin,’ April continued with growing enthusiasm. ‘And your shoulders are so nicely defined you’ll only want the tiniest halterneck strap to hold everything up.’
‘What about…?’ With a grimace, Piper indicated her inadequacies in the chest department.
‘You wait till you see the dress I have in mind. Your curves will be shown off to their best advantage,’ April reassured her, and then she winked. ‘At least you should be grateful you have firm breasts that haven’t started heading south yet. Most women have the opposite problem.’
So the dress had been couriered out from a Cairns boutique, and this afternoon April had attended to the final details of hair and make-up.
‘You need after-dark glamour to bring out your eyes. They’re a pretty blue, but they could look a bit quiet at night, so I’ll apply shadow to define them. And then we’ll add false eyelashes.’
‘Oh, no, we won’t!’ Piper knew when enough was enough. ‘I couldn’t possibly wear false eyelashes.’
‘You wait till you see the way I do it, ducks. I’m a genius. I cut them and just apply a few extra lashes to your outer lid. It gives you a sexy, long-lash look, but I promise you won’t look like a drag queen.’
Pushing a host of doubts aside, Piper had bravely submitted to the superior knowledge of an expert. Now, as she viewed the results, she had to agree that April was indeed a genius. A very expensive genius, but she was definitely up there with fairy godmothers when it came to transforming tomboys into princesses.
The white gown was a silken dream. It seemed to give Piper’s body a sexy allure she’d never imagined possible. She’d expected to leave her hair down, the way Gabe had suggested, but April had done it in an elegant twist— ‘To show off your neck and shoulders.’
Her face looked amazing. She’d been worried that her eyes would look overly painted, but April’s artwork was subtle. She turned away from the mirror to see Michael regarding her tenderly.
‘I have one last thing that will add the finishing touch to make you look beyond perfect,’ he told her as he stood there with his hands behind his back.
‘What is it?’
With a little boy’s look-at-me-Mum smile, he brought his hands forward. ‘These were Bella’s.’
Piper’s heartbeats quickened. Michael had never before shown her anything that had belonged to her mother apart from photos. Now, sitting in the palm of his old callused hand, she saw elegant earrings—beautiful teardrop pearls suspended from tiny circles of diamonds.
‘Oh, Grandad, they’re gorgeous.’ She threw her arms around him, and the only thing that stopped her from crying was fear that her make-up would run. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered. ‘I never knew my mother had such lovely things. But I don’t suppose she was ever a rough and tumble tomboy like me.’
‘Oh, Bella was a tomboy all right,’ Michael said with a wistful smile. ‘Right up until the day Peter O’Malley arrived in our valley and swept her off her feet. Suddenly there was a flurry of buying dresses and fixing hair and you would have been pushed to recognise her. She turned from a sunburnt and dusty jillaroo into a beautiful princess overnight.’
Piper felt a twisting ache around her heart as she thought about her parents falling in love. Her glance darted to her reflection in the mirror.
‘Yes. You look just as suddenly grown-up and pretty as she did, sweetheart. I’ve always known that you’d steal hearts one day. Your sweet blue eyes are exactly like Bella’s and you have a beautiful, proud profile like my Mary’s…and your father’s yellow hair.’
He cupped his hand and tipped it from side to side so that the earrings caught the light and the diamonds sparkled. ‘Peter bought these for Bella to wear on her wedding day. They were married right here at Windaroo, under the jacaranda tree next to the front steps. It was the prettiest wedding you could ever imagine.’
‘Oh, Grandad, don’t make me cry.’
‘Sorry, Piper. I guess seeing you looking so lovely made me nostalgic.’ As he handed her the earrings he grinned. ‘I should warn you that I have a hankering to see another wedding on Windaroo some time soon.’
‘Don’t get your hopes up, old feller,’ she said, shooting him a warning glance.
He chuckled, and then, as if to change the subject, said, ‘Hey, that’s nice man-bait you’re wearing.’
‘Man-bait?’
‘Perfume.’
She turned away quickly and slipped the first earring in. ‘Do you think the scent is delicate enough?’
‘It smells better than bread in the oven.’
‘That’s very reassuring.’ She laughed and finished securing the second earring. Another glance in the mirror told her they were the perfect touch of elegance. ‘What do you think?’ she asked, turning back to him.
The old man’s eyes gleamed as he saw the jewellery in place. ‘You’re going to capture a whole battalion of hearts tonight, little girl.’
Arm in arm they walked out to the verandah.
Old Roy, who was keeping Michael company this evening, was there sitting in a squatter’s chair, and he jumped to his feet when he saw them. ‘Holy smoke!’ He stared at Piper.
Michael beamed at him. ‘What do you think of our princess?’
Roy ran his hand over his bald patch several times. ‘Holy smoke,’ he said again. ‘Strike me pink. Piper—geez, you look a bit of all right.’
‘Thanks, Roy,’ Piper said with a smile. What would she do without these two old darlings? They were certainly good for a girl’s ego.
She and Michael walked on to the ute, parked in the driveway. As he opened the door for her he patted the battered frame. ‘You should be heading off in a golden coach with six white horses, not this old rattletrap.’
With an exaggerated roll of her eyes she climbed behind the steering wheel and tossed her evening purse onto the passenger’s seat.
‘At any rate you should have a partner to take you to this ball,’ Michael added. ‘I’m not happy at the idea of you going by yourself. It’s not how we did things in my day.’
‘I’m safe to drive. I’ll limit myself to one glass of wine.’ She frowned at him. ‘Now, don’t you dare spend your night worrying about me.’ The doctor’s warning that his heart couldn’t take any more attacks hung over her like the sword of Damocles.
‘I’m not going to worry. Just the same, I wish you’d asked Gabe to take you to this ball.’
Piper released a weary sigh. Over the past fortnight they’d seen very little of Gabe, but he’d come into her grandfather’s conversations far too often. ‘You know jolly well that I’m trying to find a husband. Gabe would only get in the way.’
‘You reckon?’ he asked, looking crestfallen.
‘I’m sure of it.’
The old man dropped his gaze and shook his head slowly. Then his eyes sought hers again. ‘About this husband-hunt of yours…’
‘Yes?’
‘I know what’s driving you to do this, Piper, and I feel responsible, so I’d like to offer you a word of advice.’
Her heart gave a strange little jump. ‘What is it?’
‘You might think I’m just an old romantic fool,’ he said, ‘but no matter how eager you are to get yourself hitched, you should listen to your heart when you choose your husband, not your head.’
‘You are a romantic old fool,’ she told him. ‘But I love you and I’ll try to remember your advice.’
Leaning through the ute’s window, she blew him a kiss, then she accelerated down the drive. Tears threatened again as she watched him through her rear-vision mirror. He was standing at the foot of Windaroo’s steps, watching her with that dear smile of his, and the thought that one day he wouldn’t be there was unbearable.
She tried to cheer herself up by thinking of the exciting night ahead, and wondered why she didn’t feel more uplifted by the thought that Gabe wouldn’t be at the ball to see her all dolled up like this.
The Mullinjim Spring Ball was held in the Community Hall—a simple weatherboard building. Tonight its interior was decorated with potted palms, streamers, balloons and crêpe paper flowers. At one end of the hall a four-piece band was squeezed onto a tiny stage, and in the kitchen area, where the Country Women’s Association usually served tea and scones, the Social Committee had set up a makeshift bar.
In true outback style, the people of the surrounding districts overlooked the venue’s lack of sophistication and dressed as grandly as they would if they were attending the Sydney Opera House. The men wore stylish black dinner suits and the women were in long, formal gowns in a rainbow of pretty colours.
When Piper arrived she headed straight for the ringers and graziers she’d known all her life—the guys she’d always hung out with at parties until they found a girl they fancied. Tonight they were gathered around the bar.
It wasn’t till she was halfway across the hall that nerves struck. Suddenly the full impact of the task ahead hit her and almost sent her turning back and scampering off into the night. Oh, man! Tonight she had to tackle some serious flirting.
If only she’d watched more romance movies instead of cowboy flicks. Right now she would have felt more at ease sauntering into a western saloon full of mean-eyed baddies in black cowboy hats than facing this innocuous collection of cattlemen in dinner suits.
They might be husband material, but they were still blissfully unaware of their possible fate, and somehow she had to convince them to start thinking of her—tomboy Piper O’Malley—as a potential wife!
Yikes! Her knees were going on her. Get over this and start flirting! What was it Gabe had told her? Flirting and flattery go hand in hand.
OK.
Her palms were very damp as she ran them down her silk-covered thighs and she hoped they didn’t leave a snail trail. It’s like swimming in a freezing cold creek. You’ve just got to dive in.
Go!
Taking a deep breath, she flashed a bright smile and stepped closer to the bar. ‘Hi, dudes,’ she said. ‘You’re all looking very swish.’
Several heads turned her way.
Turned casually and then jerked to attention.
Mouths fell open. Eyes popped.
Jock Fleming from Jupiter Downs spilled his beer.
‘Blow me down,’ Steve Flaxton said at last. ‘Is it Piper?’
‘Of course it’s me!’ Panic exploded like a shotgun blast in her chest. ‘What’s the matter? What are you staring at?’
What had she done wrong? Left a zip undone? Was an eyelash dangling? Surely she hadn’t popped out of the top of her dress?
‘Is it my hair?’ she cried, her eyes frantically searching for a mirror. ‘What’s wrong with me?’
Jonno Rivers, Gabe’s brother, found his tongue first. ‘Sorry, Piper. It’s just we’ve never seen you looking like this.’
‘So?’ she cried. They were still staring at her as if they’d been frozen in shock mode. But her initial panic gave way to a flash of relief, quickly followed by anger. Fury. Disappointment! Surely these guys could do better than to stand there and gape like stupefied dolts?
Where were their admiring smiles? Their gallant gestures? One of these fools was supposed to sweep her off her feet and become her romantic soul mate.
Couldn’t one of them, at the very least, offer to get her a drink?
‘What’s wrong with you mob? Don’t you know how to treat a woman?’
Behind her, the band struck up a lively number and people began to move onto the dance floor. Jock, Steve, Jonno and the others looked nervously at one another. To her right, she heard some oaf mutter, ‘Since when has Piper had tits? Where’s she been hiding them?’
She whirled towards the voice. But before she could find words to make the toad squirm, she was aware of gazes shifting past her to the hall’s entrance, and she turned to see a tall, dark and commanding figure.
Gabe.
Oh, help.
He was standing in the doorway on the far side of the hall and she had the distinct impression he’d been watching them. Oh, Lord! Her insides seemed to collapse. Nosy Gabe!
He was the last person she wanted to witness this humiliation. He wasn’t supposed to be here! How could she relax enough to flirt successfully while her tutor watched from the sidelines?
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