The Outback Marriage Ransom

Amazing that she could be concerned for him and his friends when her own survival was on the line. ‘There are times when a stand must be made, Lara,’ he said quietly. ‘And we are lesser people if we don’t do it.’

There were so many injustices in the world. For years he had shown them through his camera, but the shots he had taken hadn’t made any difference. They were simply a record of man’s inhumanity to man. Maybe that was part of what was driving him today—the need to make a difference, if only to Lara’s life.

He drove into the basement car park, using his office passcard to lift the barrier. ‘Gary’s guy can’t follow us in here by car. We have time to make the swap. We’ll both have to hunker down in Kathryn’s car so he won’t see us going out. You okay with that?’

‘Yes.’

Kathryn was waiting.

The escape ran smoothly. No hitches anywhere along the line. By midafternoon they were in Bourke. Ric set up an account in a local bank, made Lara a signatory to it, withdrew several thousand dollars, gave the money to her and sent her shopping by herself. He also gave her the keys to the car he’d hired at the airport, now parked in Oxford Street. She could load her shopping bags in it whenever she wanted to.

‘What will I need, Ric?’ she asked anxiously. ‘This is foreign territory for me. I want to fit in.’

Good positive attitude.

Ric was glad she had accepted the challenge of a year in the Outback, showing no traces of being a spoiled rich bitch who’d continually kick against the life. He wondered how she’d cope with the isolation, whether she’d welcome it or hate it. Only time would tell.

‘Shorts, jeans, shirts, good walking shoes, sandals,’ he rolled out. ‘You’ll need a warm jacket. A couple of sweaters. It can get cold at night out here. Think casual. Nothing too classy.’ He shrugged. ‘Look around you. See what the local people are wearing.’

Not that she’d be seeing any of them for the next couple of months. It was the end of February, still the wet season, and the road to Gundamurra would be washed out, impassable. The only way in and out was by plane. Even if Gary Chappel discovered where she was, he’d find it impossible to get to her. Patrick Maguire would see to that.

‘You’ll have to be quick, Lara,’ he warned. ‘We need to leave here by five o’clock if we’re to land at Gundamurra before sunset.’

‘I’ll be quick,’ she promised, then suddenly grinned. ‘No one’s going to care what I look like, are they?’

It was her first carefree expression. Ric felt his own heart lift with pleasure. ‘No one will give a damn. You’re not judged by clothes in the Outback. It’s the person you are that counts, Lara.’

‘The person…’ She sobered, grimaced. ‘I lost the girl you once knew, Ric.’

He nodded. Impossible to go back. They’d both grown beyond what they’d been as teenagers. ‘This is a chance to find out who you are now,’ he said, waving her on to do her shopping. ‘I’ll meet you at the car at five.’

He watched her quick jaunty walk up the street, knew she was revelling in the first taste of freedom. It was good, seeing her without the fear, seeing the difference. Reward enough for what he’d done.

The next step was to warn Patrick of their imminent arrival. He went to the post office to use the public telephone, wary of any record of the call being traced through his mobile. Luckily Patrick was in his home office not out in the paddocks.

‘It’s Ric,’ he announced. ‘I’m in Bourke. I’ll be flying in to Gundamurra before sunset.’

‘Great! I’ll meet you at the airstrip.’ Warm pleasure in his voice.

‘Patrick, I’m bringing someone with me and I’ve promised she can be your house guest for a year.’

‘A year?’ Startled by the length of time.

Ric quickly explained the circumstances. Patrick listened, making no comment until everything had been told.

‘This is your Lara, Ric?’ he asked. ‘The girl you stole the car for?’

His Lara. She’d never been his. Wasn’t now. Yet…‘I had to rescue her, Patrick. Will you keep her safe for me? She needs the time to put her marriage behind her.’

‘It may not work out the way you want, son,’ came the serious warning. ‘No good her walking out of one prison into another, if that’s how she feels about Gundamurra. But she’s welcome here for as long as she’s happy to stay.’

‘That’s all I ask.’ The choice was Lara’s. He couldn’t—didn’t want to—make her do anything against her will.

‘Fair enough.’

‘Thanks, Patrick.’

‘I look forward to meeting her.’

It may not work out the way you want… Ric pondered those words as he strolled down the street to the Gecko Café where he could buy a coffee while he waited for Lara.

What did he want from this?

He knew what he didn’t want—Lara being a battered wife.

But beyond setting her free from Gary Chappel…he wanted to see joy in her eyes…to recapture something of the girl that had once made every moment spent with her unbelievably special.

Magic.

Or was that a youthful dream, reaching for stars that were unreachable?

He shook his head, accepting Patrick’s dictum that it may not work out how he wanted.

But it didn’t kill the latent hope in his heart.

CHAPTER FOUR

RIC was leaning against the hood of the hire car, arms folded in a posture of relaxed patience. He’d left his suitcoat and tie in the plane. His shirt collar was open, sleeves rolled up his forearms.

Lara paused in her rush to the car. Seeing him like this, at a slight distance, she realised he had a more powerfully built physique than Gary. His arms were very muscular and his shoulders were still broad without any clever tailoring to make them seem so. He’d filled out quite a lot from the boy she remembered.

She’d never thought of a photographer as leading a hard physical life, but of course it could hardly have been a picnic in war zones. And if Ric had also worked on an Outback sheep station…

Though how had he come to Gundamurra in the first place?

An odd choice for a city boy.

He might be very wealthy now but he was certainly a different breed to the men she knew. That hadn’t changed about Ric Donato. He was different and she still liked the difference. She’d never been afraid of it. It was attractive, exciting. But more than that, she knew instinctively he would never knowingly hurt her.

Was that because of seeing his mother hurt and hating it?

Even as a teenager he’d treated her as though she were some precious being to be handled with care, given every courtesy. Like a princess…

Well, she was little more than a beggar maid now, and what’s more, she never wanted to be viewed as a princess again. She resumed walking, happy with the clothes she’d bought. No artifice about them. No stylish elegance. Now that she was free of Gary, she was going to be a person, not a clothes horse to be shown off as a man’s possession.

Ric caught sight of her and snapped upright, ready to move. Action man, she thought with almost giddy joy, still amazed at how he had so personally effected her escape, even to flying her away in a private plane. Though they hadn’t yet arrived at their final destination, she hastily reminded herself. Even so, she no longer cared where it was or what it was. Ric said it would be safe there and she believed him.

She believed him even more as they approached the landing strip at Gundamurra. The Australian expression—out the back of Bourke—took on real meaning as she gazed down at a vast flat landscape, seemingly endless inland plains, far from civilisation.

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