Beresford's Bride

“I had nothing to fear. I cried a little when Zoe and Rolf split up. Zoe had already met Claude. He decided to convert her to a grand lady. She liked that.”

“Dear, dear.” He clicked his tongue. “How did you keep up with these dreadful affairs?”

“I’m infinitely older than my mother,” she said simply.

“Is that why you stayed? To protect her?” His eyes were shrewd.

“And all the time you thought I was raging back and forth. Into guys. Into parties. Into drugs.” She shot a mocking glance at the hard, handsome profile, which he caught.

“I saw your pals at the hotel.”

“What pals?” She blinked in confusion.

“The two who were anxious to get your address.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Oh, them! You get pleasure seeing me as an air head, don’t you?”

“I know perfectly well you’re not.” She had wit, intelligence, her own apparent strengths.

“Actually I was giving them some tourist destinations on the Barrier Reef. They’re Americans, heading that way.”

“They didn’t invite you?” Hell, he was going out of his way to taunt her.

“All right, they tried. It’s no big secret men are convinced blondes know how to enjoy life.”

“It sounds just about right to me.” He smiled, and it was like the proverbial ray of sunshine spreading radiance across his dark, daunting face.

“Didn’t you have a wild girlfriend at one time?” she countered, trying to fight the punch his smile delivered.

“I doubt it, Toni. Wild women aren’t my style.”

“Yet I seem to remember her. Hettie? Lettie? Tall, good-looking brunette, not shy about spouting off.”

“I think you mean Charlotte Reardon.” The silver-gray eyes sharpened.

“Yes, Lottie. Everyone said she was very fast.”

“What the hell are you up to, Toni?” He raised a brow.

“I just wanted to see if I could take the mickey out of you,” she joked.

“You’d better wait until you know me a little better.”

“I’ve known you all my life.” Not in this way, she thought. Not with all the flash and challenge.

“Not up close,” he told her, eyes narrowing. “Tell me why you really came home.”

As a question it was almost aggressive. “To be with Kerry, of course. To be one of Cate’s bridesmaids. I consider it an honour.”

“What will Zoe do without you?”

“Zoe has made her decision, Byrne. She’s going to marry Patrick. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“But you’ve got a problem with it?” He glanced at her, trying to pierce her guard.

“Maybe. Zoe loves weddings. All the excitement and glamour. That wonderful feeling of magic in the air. She doesn’t give a lot of thought to after.”

“Then you can count it a miracle she stayed so long with your father.”

“I promise you she did love him,” Toni said out of her deep knowledge of her mother. “And there were the two of us.”

“A daughter thirteen. A son seventeen. Problematic ages, one would have thought.”

“Zoe wasn’t qualified to give advice.”

He glanced at her with a sympathy he couldn’t suppress. “Does she ever show regret?”

Toni rubbed a finger between her arched brows. “One can’t judge Zoe by normal standards. She doesn’t look on broken marriages as failures. More as a way of breaking out of a bad situation. I should warn you, she could bring Patrick when she arrives.”

“So long as she doesn’t bring Akbar.” Amusement showed in his light-struck eyes.

“All right, I was joking about Akbar.”

“Some joke.”

“You believed me?”

He shrugged. “It must have something to do with the fact you’re Zoe’s daughter.”

“A real flake.” That was the general impression before they came to know her.

“The sort of woman to drive men wild.”

It was difficult suddenly to breathe. “I missed out on that talent.”

“I’ve seen nothing to indicate- that so far,” he drawled. “In fact I’m wondering how we’re going to prevent you from upstaging Cate.”

Toni flushed with hurt. “That’s what I call a bit of out-and-out malice.”

“Not at all.” His silver eyes sparkled. “Some weddings I’ve been to the bridesmaid has upstaged the bride.”

“That shouldn’t happen.”

“But it is a problem. I suppose you know Cate has three little flower girls lined up, as well as her four bridesmaids?”

Toni smiled. “She always did say she wanted a large wedding. I know Sally and Tara, of course—” she referred to the Beresford cousins “—but I don’t think I’ve met Andrea.”

“Andrea Benton.”

“Doesn’t ring a bell.” She looked at him inquiringly.

“You’ve been out of the country awhile. Andrea’s father has been making the news for the past couple of years. Corporate takeovers, that kind of thing.”

“It doesn’t sound as if you like him.”

“I can promise you I like Andrea.” He let his gaze skim over her. Thinking, She doesn’t miss a thing.

“Should I read something significant into that?”

“You’re welcome to, if you like.” He smiled. “I don’t know that it means anything.”

“Just a friend of the family?” She shifted position so she could look at him. He was the most marvelous-looking man she had ever seen. Supremely self-assured, and it showed.

“Don’t press too hard, Toni,” he warned without sounding riled.

“Why, are you scared of matrimony?”

“That’s right, ma’am,” he drawled.

“Shame on you, Byrne. And you don’t like to get yourself into critical situations?”

“You’d better believe it.” He took his eyes off the control panel to stare at her. “There are no scandals in the Beresford family.”

“None whatsoever?” She couldn’t resist it. “Didn’t your granduncle have a mistress called Dolly?”

He laughed all of a sudden, and the laughter stayed in his eyes. “Lord, yes, I’d forgotten all about Dolly.”

“It’s what’s called selective memory. But I suppose if we stuck Dolly into the cupboard you’d have been a very worthy family. Maybe a bit starchy.” What the heck was she doing, being so irreverent?

“Okay, Antoinette, you’ve had your little bit of fun.”

“Only because you’re being pretty mean to me.”

He gave her a glance that spangled. “I’m sorry.”

She felt a kind of heat spread in her. “Okay, apology accepted. Anyway, I can’t talk. I have no immediate plans to get married, either. I’m a bit like you. I’m runnin’ scared.”

She hoped she might have tweaked his ego, but he laughed. “I guess I asked for that. Was it so bad moving in your mother’s circle?” he asked with surprising sympathy.

“Awkward.”

“If you needed money to come home, you only had to ask.”

“Do you honestly think I’d have approached you, Byrne?”

“You had Kerry.”

She paused, reflecting. “I don’t think Kerry and I will ever get back to what we were.”

“That’s nonsense!” He gave her a disapproving look. “He loves you.”

“He did when we were growing up. But somehow when I wanted to join Zoe he came to believe the Zoe side of me would triumph. It is scary the way I look like her. I even talk like her sometimes.” She smiled wryly. “Kerry never did identify with Zoe. He’s a Streeton through and through. In some ways, too, Kerry left Zoe out in the cold. He was very critical of her and her be-haviour from an early age. I think he felt shamed when Zoe flirted with every man in sight. He didn’t understand. Flirting is natural to her. She can’t stop it. After Zoe divorced Dad, Kerry. turned against her completely. I’m not defending Zoe for what she did, but I can see some things from her point of view.”

“Of course,” he conceded. “I would expect you to be loyal to your mother.”

She nodded, dappled sunshine playing over her hair and face. “There is a strong bond between us. The silver cord that can’t be severed. There’s nothing nasty about Zoe. She might astonish us all with the things she does, but she just has to do them. She’s like a woman caught in a fantasy world.”

“And you’re talking about going back?” He sounded amazed. “There’s nothing more you can do for her, surely? Obviously she gave you no guidance. Do you need her for all the little extras? I realise neither you nor Kerry got much out of your father’s estate except the property.”

“I can look after myself, Byrne.” She pressed her soft lips together.

“Doing what? You never did tell me.”

“I was always in demand tutoring English. I gained my degree.”

He looked at her in quick surprise. “This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

“You can’t know everything, Byrne,” she said, not holding back on the sarcasm. “I’ve worked very hard.”

“Well, good for you.” His glance was full of approval. “I know you and Kerry did very well at school.”

“But you thought I was only enjoying myself?”

“Something like that,” he admitted dryly. Hell, they all had.

“Zoe didn’t want me to continue my studies. She thought, as a woman, I had no need of higher education, but I made my choice. I wasn’t going to bother Zoe with any demands for money.”

His eyes moved sharply to her face. “For the life of me I can’t figure out why. You were entitled. She got away with enough.” In fact, Zoe Streeton had taken her husband to the cleaners.

“I told you. Zoe made a few bad investments.” She didn’t say how bad they really were.

His handsome features tightened, but he remained silent.

“She hasn’t a head for business,” Toni said defensively. “Kerry didn’t write. And when I rang he sounded very remote.”

“That’s crazy,” he disagreed flatly. “All he wanted was for you to come home.”

“If he did, he never said so.” Toni had gotten the strong impression her brother preferred to cope alone. And then he had Cate.

Byrne’s scrutiny was intense, cutting through layers of her skin. “I’m not understanding this at all, Toni. Kerry was seriously concerned about you. He was under the impression you and your mother were leading a very giddy life.”

Toni shifted in her seat. Kerry hadn’t been wrong. It was an empty life Zoe had chosen for herself. A life involving self-indulgence, promiscuity, guile, suffering. A dreadful life, Toni thought, but she had tried very hard to protect Zoe and her interests while Zoe went around wondering aloud what was wrong with her daughter. It would have been funny, only the situations Zoe got herself into often landed her in trouble.

“All I can say is, I was there for my mother. What was I supposed to do, abandon her? I can’t renounce my responsibilities as her daughter. As I see it, it’s two-way traffic. She’s Kerry’s mother, as well, I might point out.”

His handsome features were thoughtful. “I should warn you he doesn’t want her at the wedding.”

“She’s coming anyway. It’s important to her.”

“Is she still as beautiful as ever?” he asked, getting a clear picture of Zoe with the prettiest little girl he had ever seen in her arms.

“Sometimes I think her beauty is indestructible.” Toni’s smile was soft. “She’s forty-seven but she looks thirty-five. She has wonderful skin.”

“Which you’ve inherited.” His eyes brushed her, triggering that telltale warmth.

“That part I like.”

They were quiet for a while, each seemingly lost in thought. He was such a competent, experienced pilot it was like riding a luxury limousine in the sky. Eventually he spoke. “I’ll be putting down on Nowra, as arranged. You’ll want time with Kerry to settle in. But we’re hoping you’ll both come to us for the weekend. My mother thought she’d throw a little party to welcome you back. We’ll be having a few houseguests, as well.”

“How very kind of her.” Toni was a little wary. “But I really don’t need a party, Byrne.”

“You’re dam well going to get it,” he drawled. “You’ll need to try on your gown. See if it’s just right.”

“I’m sure it will be lovely.”

He gave her a glance that, had she been standing, would have made her legs buckle. “In your case, an understatement. The gowns are in one of the upstairs rooms swathed in muslin, outrageously expensive.”

“Bridesmaids usually pay for their own gowns.”

“Who would put such a cost on you? No, it’s going to be Cate’s perfect day, and I’m delighted to make sure it will happen. I’m also delighted she’s marrying Kerry. Apart from the fact he loves her so much, our families have always been close. He’s a fine young man. Rock solid.”

“You’re making him sound the least bit dull,” Toni protested.

“He is a trifle earnest at the moment. Nothing Cate won’t put straight. Kerry’s had it hard. He felt his mother betrayed you all. He’s missing his father. Both as a parent and Nowra’s boss. Kerry’s young to take on so much responsibility.”

“No younger than you were when your father was killed,” she pointed out.

He frowned as if at some remembrance. “My father put me into training at a very early age. I knew what was ahead of me. I knew my obligations. I was mature enough.”

“And tough. Unless Kerry has changed a good deal he was never tough. He’s more sensitive than anyone knows, except Cate.”

“Well, Cate’s taking him on now.” He smiled at her, a smile that left her shaken. “They’ll be together for the rest of their lives. Kerry is now family.”

“And he can turn to you when he wants help?” she said quietly.

“I very much hope so. He comes to me now, as it happens.”

“I’m sure you’ll make a wonderful brother-in-law.” Toni couldn’t keep the irony from her tone.

“That help applies to you, too.”

“I’m not asking for it, Byrne,” she said with edgy defiance.

“No, you’re not, but it’s there all the same.”

CHAPTER TWO

THE farther west they flew the more emotional she became. She was home. Really home. She loved Paris with all its wonderful buildings, its bridges, the trees, the restaurants, galleries, museums, the fashion houses, the effortlessly chic women, the charming men, the whole atmosphere that made Paris the most beautiful and evocative city on earth, but this was something else again. Unique.

This was Australia, the great island continent of eight million square kilometres with vast areas of precious wilderness changed little in thousands of years. Here in a land separated for so long from the rest of a war-torn world, peace, freedom and a wonderful sense of the wide-open spaces were inherent in the landscape, in the people. They had passed over sheep country. Now they were heading into the southwest, the fabled home of the cattle kings, descendants of the pioneering fathers, hugely brave and enterprising men who had left their safe, settled homes in the British Isles to make their own fortunes and found their own dynasties.

Like the Beresfords.

It wasn’t until after the first World War, in which he had served, that her own great-grandfather took up his huge section. The Beresfords had arrived some sixty years before, every last one of them, despite family tragedies, with the Midas touch. It was the Beresfords who had diversified early, shoring up wealth against the hard times on the land. Where others had gone under despite the fact Australia was the biggest beef exporter in the world, the Beresfords had managed to ride out the storms. Toni knew their portfolio of interests was large. They also did a lucrative trade in polo ponies as the sport gained huge popularity.

Byrne’s voice brought her out of her reverie. “How’s it going?” he asked, aware of the intensity of her feelings.

She turned her head toward him, her eyes a deep hyacinth. “I love it all so much, the wilderness.”

“It’s where you were born. It’s where you come from. Didn’t you ever find even Paris just that bit claustrophobic?”

“On occasions, yes,” she admitted. “The noise used to get to me. But the thing I really missed was the smell of the bush, that characteristic scent from all the oils in the leaves and the stems of the eucalypts. I even burned a pile of eucalypt leaves once so I could inhale the fragrance of home.”

He glanced at her. “Hard to believe then you’re going back to Europe.”

“Zoe is expecting me. She relies on me for lots of things.” She looked at her linked hands.

“What is she, a child?”

The answer to that was yes. “What is there for me here?” she countered. “I may have a half share in Nowra, but I can’t live there. Cate will be mistress of Nowra.”

“Which puts you in an unfair position,” he commented. “The station wouldn’t be returning all that much at this time. You’ve never approached Kerry for your share?”

“Good-Lord, no. Nowra is Kerry’s life. He loves it with a passion. How could I possibly ask him to sell out our heritage?”

“He couldn’t do it now,” Byrne warned. “But it could be done.”

“Despite your earlier offer, I can’t accept any help from you, Byrne,” she said swiftly.

“You could have softened that a little.”

“You don’t pull any punches.”

“Perhaps not. But what I meant was, and this could be discussed with Kerry, he could take out a loan.”

“And you’d be guarantor?”

“It’s an idea.”

“Certainly. It’s also quite possible you want me out of Nowra altogether.”

He swung his handsome head. “Hang on, now,” he said crisply. “I was thinking of you.”

She thought about it a moment, reasoned it could be true. “Then I apologise. But the issue has to be faced. Nowra will be Kerry’s and Cate’s home. They’ll have an heir who will want to continue the family tradition. The fact I own half of Nowra complicates matters.”

“It does a little,” he conceded.

“So it’s just as I thought.”

“Have it your own way, Toni. You will. I can see it in your eyes.”

There was a brisk crosswind blowing when they touched down at Nowra. Despite that, they made a textbook landing. Kerry was waiting for them outside the silver hangar, waving at them, looking so utterly dear, Toni burst into tears.

“So you’ve missed him more than you think?” Byrne murmured, touched by her lovely tear-tracked face.

“Of course I have.” Her voice was shaky as she fought to level it. “This is my brother. My dearest friend.”

He saw it in her eyes.

As soon as her feet touched the ground Kerry was there, throwing out his arms, swinging her off her feet and hugging her tight. “Toni, Toni, it’s so good to see you.” He held her away from him. “You’ve grown even more beautiful.”

“So have you,” she said, and laughed shakily. “You’re so much like Dad. It’s wonderful to be home. To see you at long last. I’ve missed you terribly.”

“Then that makes two of us, poppet.” He used his childhood name for her, holding her around the waist while he turned to Byrne. “Thanks so much, Byrne, for bringing Toni home. I’m very grateful.”

Byrne shrugged it off. “It’s been a pleasure. I enjoyed it.”

Toni turned a radiant face to him, catching a long windblown skein of hair. “You’ll stay and have a cup of coffee, won’t you, Byrne?”

“I’d like to,” he said lightly, surprising himself by gently brushing the skein from her damp cheeks, “but I have a client flying in this afternoon. He wants to pick out a couple of polo ponies.”

“Well, he’s dealing with the best,” Kerry affirmed. “Everything set for the weekend?” He glanced from one to the other.

“Sure.” Byrne was relaxed. “I’ve spoken to Toni. There should be about twenty people in all, excluding family, which means you two. Nothing Toni can’t handle. She’s amazingly poised and chic.”

“She looks like one of those super models. The blonde,” Kerry said with a grin, his eyes moving over his sister’s slender figure. She was wearing a summery pink shirt and hipster pink jeans with a very fancy belt, and she looked terrific. “And she’s gone and got herself an accent. I don’t know how that’s going to go down with the locals.”

“A few weeks home and it’ll flatten out,” Toni promised. “I’ll call your mother to thank her, Byrne.”

He nodded, inclined his dark head. “She’ll be pleased.”

Toni wasn’t remotely fooled by that. Sonia Beresford had never approved of Zoe. Indeed, she had on several occasions yielded to the temptation to say so. Toni was uncomfortably aware most people believed she had followed in her mother’s footsteps. A case of blurred identity. Unfair, but a fact. She had her whole life in front of her. She intended to make a success of it, not leave a lot of damaged people in her wake.

. They had afternoon tea on the wide, cool veranda that looked out on the infinite rolling plains. Station horses grazed in a home paddock, a brilliant sun flashed off distant windmills, and a wedge-tail eagle soared buoyantly over the house, its great wings outstretched. It was almost like she had never been away. Nowra homestead wasn’t a grand colonial mansion like the Beresfords’ Castle Hill, but it was a very agreeable house indeed, with an English formality in the layout of the rooms. Two-storeyed, it was built of local stone bleached a lovely soft cream from the sun. The shutters on the top storey, the French doors on the veranda, the wooden bracketing valances and the railings were painted a pristine white. It was charming, the long three-mile drive lined with wonderful towering gums. The interior, however, was desperately in need of refurbishing. For all her skills at twisting their father around her little finger, Zoe had never been able to do much to change the decoration, essentially unchanged from their great-grandfather’s day. The heaviness, the dimness and the massive pieces of Victorian furniture remained. Toni would have dearly loved to do the refurbishing herself. She had come to realise she had a fine hand with decorating, but that was out of the question. Although she had an equal share in Nowra Station, it would be Cate’s home, and Cate would be a great deal more successful in effecting alterations than Zoe had been. Moreover, Cate came with a huge dowry, a definite asset if one wanted to transform what by today’s standards was a very large house.

What exactly is mine? Toni wondered, mulling over her conversation with Byrne. The station was only breaking even. There was little ready cash. Unlike Cate, she wasn’t an heiress, though her share of Nowra if she sold out would make her secure.

“You look so serious, poppet. What are you thinking about?” Kerry folded his hands behind his head.

Toni smiled, her face soft with affection. “I’m thinking it feels like I’ve never been away.”

He glanced across the garden, stripped back to low maintenance. “Why did you never come home, Toni?” he asked, old suffering in his eyes. “I’ve asked myself that question every day. I missed you so much. It was terrible without Dad. He needn’t have died. Septicemia. God! I told him about that gash, but he didn’t seem to think it was serious. Byrne got him into hospital. Flew him there himself, but Dad’s resistance was low—” He broke off, distressed. A tall, handsome young man, an all-over golden brown—hair, eyes, skin.

“Don’t, Kerry,” she begged. “I know how it was.”

“You can’t, Toni. You weren’t here.”

“For which I’ll always mourn. I was a victim of circumstance. So was Zoe. We never wanted the terrible mix-ups to happen.”

“Then why did she drop the name Streeton, for God’s sake?” he asked.

Toni closed her eyes, trying to contain an unwarranted sense of guilt. “It was all meant to be, Kerry.” She sighed fatalistically. “Zoe had started a new life. She’s into playacting. You know that. When the police finally worked out exactly who she was and where, it was all too late. She was shocked out of her mind. Overcome by remorse. She couldn’t even get her courage up to tell me for days. The funeral was over. She reasoned there was nothing we could do.”

“God!” Kerry rose abruptly and went to the balustrade, staring into infinity. “Isn’t that typical Zoe. She never could make the right decision.”

“She tries hard to, Kerry, but she never learned how.”

“You should have come home.”

“I’m so sorry,” Toni answered quietly.

“There’s more to this, isn’t there?” He turned to confront her. “You’re always protecting Zoe. You did when you were only a little girl and someone said something about her. She doesn’t deserve all this devotion, Toni.”