Free A Wish and a Wedding by Margaret Way Page B

in the coolabahs on the opposite bank, looking for all the world like giant white flowers.
    â€œYou don’t have to consult me about whom you want to speak to, Chrissy. But just take it easy, okay?”
    â€œYeah, sure!” Chrissy gave her saviour a great big hug.
    So what have we here? Tori was left to wonder. Love at first sight? Her biggest regret was there hadn’t yet been time to get Chrissy’s front tooth fixed, but maybe someone like Shane would see past that to the sweetest of expressions and those big brown eyes?
    Chrissy had already confessed she would love to stay on Mallarinka if Haddo would only give her a job. She was willing to do anything—domestic work, or she could learn stock work. She would die to become a jillaroo, but that wasn’t on the cards. Mallarinka was a man’s world. School-teaching wasn’t in her repertoire either. Chrissy had paid little or no interest in schoolwork at the various homes she had been shunted around, and consequently her three Rs were pretty sketchy.
    That was something else Tori was set to fix. School would start up again tomorrow morning at nine o’clock sharp—a time Tori had come to think of as more or less daybreak.
    In the end Tori didn’t have the heart to refuse a damper scone smothered in lashings of wild plum jam. Wild plums grew in abundance right across the desert fringe, and they did make good jam—deliciously tart. The scone however, stuck in her chest. Maybe another mug of billy tea—which was good—would wash it down.
    She rose from the fallen log she and Chrissy were sitting on—Chrissy was tucking into the scones with gusto—to walk towards Lliam, the half-Irish, half-Chinese camp cook. She should have put her sunglasses back on. The sun was dazzling, making her squint. She put up a hand to protect her eyes, then in the next breath she was caught in a one-armed grab from behind, and swung aside so powerfully she thought she might crack a rib. As it was, she fell to her knees, her face white with shock.
    â€œLet go, yah bastard!”
    It was Snowy, the stockman, roaring a whole chain of obscenities, ladies present or not. At about the same time she heard Haddo let out a harsh rattle of pain.
    Oh, no! Instantly she realised what had happened. Like a fool, she had walked too close to the rear of the pack donkeys. They were standing together, four of them—bad-tempered at the best of times, not an affectionate one between them. These donkeys would just as soon greet you with a bite or a swift kick than with brays, snorts or snuffles, but they were intelligent, and could carry food and gear across the roughest terrain. Haddo must have seen she was in danger and come instantly to her rescue. The mule hadn’t taken a bite out of her, but it had certainly got a grip on Haddo’s arm.
    How could she have been so careless? she upbraided herself, wanting to sink through the bright red earth. Haddo was paying the price. To make it worse, she knew all about these mules—their stubbornness, their cleverness, and their disconcerting habit of trying to sink their big teeth and jaws into anyone who just so happened to annoy them. These weren’t animals suitable to be kept as pets. They weren’t at all calm, and they didn’t particularly like people. One always needed some protective weapon to hand just in case they played up.
    She bent over, gulping for air, aware that everyone was crowding around her.
    â€œJeepers, Vicki!” Chrissy was crouching beside her, aghast at what had happened with such lightning speed. Not familiarwith donkeys, Chrissy had imagined they would be very mild-tempered animals—not to say exceptionally docile.
    â€œTori? You’re okay?” Haddo demanded brusquely. He too went down on his haunches, his burning blue gaze moving steadily over her.
    For an instant she couldn’t speak. All the silly bravado had been knocked out of her. Then