conspiratorial look, like he was…some sort of hunk on the front of a romance novel?
Good grief. He had to get out of here, he thought desperately. Any minute now he’d start to blush.
But Ally was moving on. ‘I’ll show you where you’re sleeping,’ she said to Lorraine, breaking a silence which suddenly seemed to Darcy to be almost unbearable. ‘Do you think you’ll sleep?’
‘Of course I’ll sleep,’ the woman told her. ‘And you don’t need to show me. I’ve already seen. You know, there’s an electric blanket on my bed? Oh, the warmth.’ Lorraine rose on legs that were a little shaky. She’d turned from admiring Darcy-much to Darcy’s relief-and now she gripped Ally’s hands. ‘I don’t know how to thank you.’
‘I only did what you would have done yourselves in a day or two,’ Ally told her, and Darcy thought that, no, she was wrong there, but maybe it was a way of giving the woman’s pride back to her. ‘Things just came to a head when I was there. Now, you’re not to worry. You know the kids are safe. The future will be taken care of. Elsa’s coming back in the morning to talk practicalities with all of you, but everything’s going to be better. I promise.’
‘Oh, my dear.’
‘Go to bed, Lorraine,’ Ally said softly. ‘Go to sleep. For as long as you want.’
They were left alone.
The marine refuge had been built by the harbour, and the long living room was used by the fishermen as a meeting place when the pub was unsuitable-when they needed clear heads to make decisions. It was filled with big, squashy armchairs, the fire was set in a vast stone fireplace, and the windows looked over the bluff to the lighthouse beyond.
From here they could hear the waves crashing on the shore. The sound of the sea, the crackle of the fire and the fact that the overhead lights were low…it lent the place an intimacy that seemed almost overwhelming.
Darcy stared across at Ally, trying to adjust to what was happening. She was much as he’d met her on the doorstep a few hours ago, but now she’d been in the bush, pushed aside a few chooks, bathed a few kids, hugged some adults. Maybe she’d even wept a bit.
She looked bedraggled, he thought. She looked exhausted and battered and worn. But still she looked…lovely?
‘Can I drive you home?’
‘That’d be great,’ she said faintly, then hesitated. ‘How’s Jody? Were you telling the truth to Lorraine-that she’s settling?’
‘It appears so.’ For some stupid reason he was having trouble with his voice. She was throwing him off balance and he didn’t know why. Jody. Concentrate on Jody. ‘Her obs are settling a little. The fluid is starting to take effect. But, hell, Ally, if we hadn’t got her out of there she’d have been dead by this time tomorrow.’
‘You would have taken her anyway,’ she said slowly. ‘You were planning on picking her up and carting her down here, whatever the consequences.’
The only way to answer that was with the truth. ‘Yes.’
‘I guessed you were. But the fuss… You could have been sued for abduction.’
‘Maybe.’
‘So I saved you from going to prison.’ Her irrepressible smile peeped out. ‘How nice. Does that rate another sandwich?’
That took him aback. ‘You can’t possibly be hungry?’
‘Are you kidding?’ She glanced at her watch. ‘It’s five hours since I last ate and that was a mere snack.’
He thought about the food she’d put away and he grinned. ‘Yeah. An appetiser. Didn’t you eat here?’
‘I was bathing kids when the adults were fed, and I was hugging adults when the kids were fed. The lady who runs this place-Cornelia, is it?-didn’t think of feeding me.’
‘I’ll take you home now.’
‘Fat lot of good that’ll do.’ She dug into her pocket and produced two banknotes. ‘These are a real mockery at ten at night when every store in the place is closed. And I so wanted a steak.’ She sounded mournful.
‘You don’t have anything at home?’ he asked, startled.
‘I have my grocery money right here,’ she said with dignity. ‘I was planning on shopping when you picked me up.’
Hey! ‘I did not pick you up.’
‘What else do you call it? You ruined my plans. You interfered with my shopping.’
‘Surely you have an egg or something.’
She glowered. ‘I have tea bags.’
He choked. ‘Yum.’
‘Yeah. So take me home. My tea bags are waiting.’ She managed a martyr’s groan. ‘But who am I to complain? After all, I have my satisfaction to keep me warm.’
‘You really enjoyed sending Jerry to jail?’
Her smile this time was genuine. ‘You don’t know how much. It’s worth every tummy rumble.’
‘Are you going to tell me about Jerry?’
‘You know about Jerry.’
‘Only what he’s done here. That won’t get him put in jail.’
‘No.’ She smiled again, and her smile was suddenly tinged with sadness. ‘And it’s so hard to get a conviction. But they won’t let him go. Not with what I’ve told them. He won’t even get out on bail with his previous record for absconding.’
‘So how do you know him?’ he asked curiously. They were standing before the open fire in a strange setting of forced intimacy and he thought she might tell him things now that she otherwise wouldn’t. And suddenly he badly wanted to know.
‘My parents were mixed up with him,’ she told him.
‘Yeah?’
‘Yeah,’ she said flatly. The fire spat behind her and a log rolled forward onto the grate. She walked forward to push it back with the poker and he frowned.
‘You’re limping.’
‘I’m not limping.’
‘You’re limping.’
‘You’re imagining it.’
He stared down at her feet-to the inappropriate flip-flops. And he remembered something that had been pushed into the background amongst the drama up on the ridge.
Jerry kicking a pile of firewood. A branch swinging forward with a resounding thump against Ally’s foot.
‘He hurt you.’
‘Jerry can’t hurt me.’
‘Sit down, Ally,’ he told her.
‘I’m not-’
He put his hands on her shoulders and propelled her backward into the chair Lorraine had just vacated. He flicked on the reading light beside the chair and a pool of light illuminated her slight frame.
She looked really young, he thought suddenly. And really…scared?
‘Hey, I won’t hurt you.’
‘I know you won’t hurt me,’ she said with some indignation. ‘Let me up.’ She tried to rise but his hands gripped her again and held.
‘Stay.’
‘Like a dog.’ She glowered.
‘If you like. Behave. Let me see your foot.’
‘There’s nothing wrong.’
But he was kneeling before her, flicking the flip-flop from her foot and raising it to the light.
‘Ouch.’
‘That’s my line,’ she told him.
‘Well, why aren’t you using it?’ He shifted her foot a little so the light was better, grimacing. ‘Hell, Ally, there’s a massive splinter in here.’
‘Gee, that makes me feel better,’ she retorted. ‘I know I have a splinter. I’ll dig it out when I have a
