Outback bride - Hart Jessica (читать книги без регистрации полные TXT) 📗

There was a tiny pause. Was Mal remembering that kiss at the airport this morning? Or was he thinking of the contract, with its brisk specification that they should both behave in an appropriate manner whenever they were with other people?

‘I suppose we must be,’ he said at last.

The wine waiter was hovering, opening the champagne with a flourish. Copper could see the other diners smiling at the scene, obviously thinking that they were lovers, and she wanted to stand up and shout at them that it wasn’t true, Mal didn’t love her, it was all just for show and it meant nothing, nothing!

But she couldn’t do that. She watched the bubbles fizzing in her glass and reminded herself about the successful business she would run and how happy her father was to know that his beloved project was going ahead. Her mind skittered to Mal, to the warmth of his mouth and the hardness of his hands, before she forced it back to the agreement they had made.

‘Well

‘ She smiled bravely and lifted her glass. ‘To our deal!’

Mal hesitated a moment, then touched his glass to hers. ‘To our deal,’ he said evenly.

There was a jarring silence as their eyes met and held, and then Copper managed to look away. She put her glass down on the white tablecloth rather unsteadily and tried desperately to think of something to say, but all she wanted to do was to snatch up those contracts lying there so mockingly and tear them into tiny pieces.

It was Mal who spoke first, anyway. ‘So,’ he said, ‘how’s it been going?’

‘Not too badly.’ Copper seized on the subject. Anything was better than that awful, jangling silence. ‘I’m afraid the wedding’s going to be bigger than we wanted, though. My mother’s spent the last twenty-seven years looking forward to my wedding, and she’s not going to be done out of it now.’ She sighed. ‘I kept telling her that we both wanted the ceremony to be simple, with just a quiet party afterwards, but every time I turn round she’s invited someone else and the celebrations are getting more and more elaborate.’

‘I’d have thought all the organisation would have appealed to someone with your business instincts,’ said Mal indifferently. Nobody would guess that they were discussing his own wedding, Copper thought with a flash of resentment.

She turned the stem of her glass between her fingers. A couple were strolling along the riverbank opposite, hand in hand, absorbed in each other. Copper watched them with wistful green eyes. It had been a difficult two weeks. The strain of trying to keep her mother’s plans under control had been bad enough, but far worse had been the effort of acting the part of the happiest girl in the world the whole time.

‘I wouldn’t have minded if it had been for a real wedding,’ she said. ‘But all the pretence gets tiring after a while, and it seems stupid to go to so much effort when you and I know the whole thing’s just a charade.’

Mal’s eyes were shuttered, expressionless. ‘It’ll soon be over,’ was all he said.

‘It won’t be over for another three years,’ said Copper bleakly, and he put down his glass.

‘Are you trying to tell me that you’re having second thoughts?’

She looked deliberately down at the contracts. ‘It’s too late for that now, isn’t it? We’ve signed on the dotted line.’

‘We’re not married yet,’ Mal pointed out impassively. ‘It’s not too late for you to change your mind.’

‘And find somewhere else to set up the project? No.’ Copper shook her head, avoiding his eye. How could she change her mind now, when her father was better, when Megan was thrilled at the prospect of being a bridesmaid? When cancelling the wedding would mean saying goodbye to Mal and never seeing Birraminda again? She smoothed the cloth over the table. ‘No, don’t take any notice of me. I’m just

‘

‘Nervous?’ he suggested.

‘Nervous?’ she tried to scoff. ‘Of course I’m not nervous!’ She picked up her glass and made to drain it, only to discover that it was empty. Feeling foolish, she set it back on the table and tried to meet Mal’s gaze confidently, but her defiance collapsed at one look from those shrewd brown eyes. ‘Oh, all right, I am nervous!’ she admitted crossly. ‘If you must know, I’m absolutely terrified!’

‘About the wedding?’

‘About everything! We hardly know each other and yet in two days’ time we’re going to be married.’ She flicked the white envelopes with her hand. ‘It’s all very well to talk about contracts, but a piece of paper isn’t going to help us live together, is it?’

‘At least you know what to expect out of the marriage,’ said Mal, watching her over the rim of his glass.

‘I know which jobs you’ll expect me to do every day, yes, but I don’t know how we’re going to get on, or whether I’ll be able to cope living in the outback, or what it will be like suddenly becoming mother to a four-year-old

or anything!’ Copper finished despairingly.

‘You’ve been living in the outback with Megan for nearly two months,’ said Mal reasonably. ‘And as for us getting on

well, we’ve got on in the past and I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t do the same again-particularly as neither of us has any illusions about the other or any false expectations about what the other one really wants. And if it’s a disaster at least you’ll know that you’re not trapped and that your life isn’t going to change for ever. When three years is up, you’ll have established your new business. You’ll be able to come home to Adelaide, sit back and reap the benefits, and simply carry on as you were before.’

Copper tried to imagine walking away from Birraminda, from Megan, from Mal, and trying to pretend that they had never existed. She couldn’t do it now. How would she be able to do it in three years’ time? ‘Somehow I don’t think things will be the same,’ she said sadly.

The first course arrived just then, immaculately presented on huge white plates, and as if at a signal the tension was broken. For the rest of the meal they kept the conversation carefully impersonal, and Copper was even able to relax slightly as she listened to the news from Birraminda and told Mal in her turn how excited Megan had been with everything she had seen and done.

It was only when they were drinking coffee that Mal brought the conversation back to their marriage. ‘By the way,’ he said casually, ‘I’ve booked a hotel in the hills for Saturday night.’

Copper put her cup down into its saucer and looked at him blankly. ‘What for?’

He raised an eyebrow. ‘For our honeymoon, of course.’

‘But

I thought we would be going straight back to Birraminda!’

“The wedding’s not until five o’clock,’ Mal pointed out patiently. ‘By the time we get away it’ll be much too late to fly back that night. We’ll pick up Megan and Brett in the morning and go then. It’s not a problem, is it?’

‘No,’ said Copper quickly. ‘No, of course not.’ Stupidly, she had never thought about a honeymoon. She had somehow assumed that they would spend their first night at Birraminda, where it would be so much easier to remember just why they were married. ‘I just thought

Aren’t you very busy at the moment?’

‘One night isn’t going to make much difference,’ said Mal with a dry look.

It might not make a difference to him, but Copper knew that it was going to make a big difference to her! It was the night she was going to share a bed with Mal for the first time, the night she had to decide whether to lie stiffly by his side or to swallow her pride and succumb to the desire that seeped through her body whenever she thought about it. Copper had no idea whether she would ever find the courage to ask him to make love to her. Perhaps Mal would make things easy for her, she thought hopefully. He might take her in his arms and let passion sweep them up to a place where pride counted for nothing and no words were necessary