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A hand gripped her, and Georgina only just stopped a scream. Girls scream, men don’t, she was thinking automatically as she faced the mighty Roper.

‘What in heaven do you think you’re at, Brown?’ He sounded quite frighteningly angry. ‘Are you sleepwalking?’

‘No,’ she stumbled, ‘I mean, I don’t think so. I mean, I left something up here.’

‘Wouldn’t it wait till the morning?’

‘I didn’t think so, but I do now. I—I’ll come back later, sir.’

‘Not so fast.’ He put a hand on Georgina’s arm, quite a light touch, but there was an intention there.

‘Y-yes, sir?’

‘I’ll walk down with you,’ Roper said. ‘In fact,’ as they started off, ‘I was coming hours ago. When you didn’t turn up for dinner I put your absence down to being dog-tired. You worked like a hero this week.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ she answered stiffly.

‘I decided not to disturb you, not even with a food hamper, not for an hour or so. I decided to let you relax, then I would see how you were. At least’—a shrug—‘that’s what I
intended
, Brown.’

‘Sir?’ She looked up at him.

‘Does your stepsister always—does she –'

‘Yes, sir?’

'Is she always such a talker? Oh, she’s charming, George, don’t misunderstand me, but I’ve been trying to get down to see if you were all right all night.’

‘You have, sir?’ Her heart glowed. They were approaching the hut now.

‘You’ll find a hamper on the table,’ Roper told Georgina. ‘I must have got here just after you left. I came through the scrub.’

‘Thank you, sir.’ Georgina opened the door.

She had expected Roper to leave her, and she didn’t mind any more if he did. It wasn’t just the fact of the food, it was the fact that he hadn’t forgotten her after all. All the time they had been playing records ... or it might have been all the time that Joanne had been talking ... he had been remembering her down here. It was a nice feeling, she found.

But Roper had come in and he was lighting the lamp, and when he finished that he lit the primus.

‘Put out the nosh, Brown,’ he tossed at her.

‘I thought you’d eaten, sir.’

‘Yes, by candlelight. But the fact is, George, I’ve become used to a different light. Lamplight.’

Georgina said: ‘It was lantern light out there.’

‘I’ve become used to—well, basics. I’ve become used to ’ He stopped.

‘Used to brisket on bread?’ Georgina felt she had to break something up, though what was to be broken up she wasn’t sure, but it mustn’t go any further.

‘No, I’ll do without that brisket,’ he grinned. Then all at once he wasn't grinning, he was looking at her.

‘I guess you could say, George,’ he said, ‘I’ve got used to you.’

The hamper held chicken, fresh butter, salad, bread and cheese. They ate together, but they said very little. There seemed nothing to be needed to be said. There was nothing at all to make Georgina happy, yet she knew she could have reached up and plucked every star out of the sky. She knew she had never felt so wonderful in all her life.

They finished the last crumb and drank the last drop of tea, then Roper went up to the homestead and Georgina went back to bed. She slept, and she slept happily ... happily ...

The next day she knew it had all been a fantasy, for Joanne strolled down, and the happiness lay as limp as a balloon with a hole.

‘How did the midnight feast go?’ Joanne began slyly. ‘I mean your side of it, George. Larry’s already told me his.' She started to laugh. ‘Hilarious,’ she said between spasms.

‘He told you?’

‘Of course. Did you think I didn’t know he was coming? It was my idea. We were sitting in the lounge and I said: “Larry, why don’t you take something down to my poor stepbrother, after all we’ve had a wonderful night, yet poor George ” ’

‘Well, as you know now, he went. He told me all about it.’ Joanne laughed again. ‘You two sitting in this ugly little room having your midnight feast just like two naughty school boarders tucking into a forbidden hamper! Larry was convulsed. Oh, I’m sorry, George!'

‘Sorry?’

‘Larry did mention that you seemed to be very serious over it all. You must forgive me, but I can’t help it. We laughed and laughed.’ Joanne dabbed at her eyes now.

‘Yes,’ said Georgina, ‘I’m sure.’

After a few minutes Joanne, still giggling at the memory, appealed: ‘Forgotten, George?’

‘Of course. Joanne—Joanne, I’ll be leaving soon.’

‘You’ll what?’ Joanne looked startled.

‘You heard me.’ Georgina spoke sharply. ‘I’ll be leaving here.’

‘Why?’

‘I’ve had enough:’

‘You really mean you don’t want to stay on now I’m here—you mean you can see no future in it. Was there any before?’

‘I am leaving, Joanne,’ Georgina repeated.

‘Oh, no, you’re not. If you leave, there’s nothing, nothing ostensible, I mean, to keep me here. And I intend to stay.’

‘Won’t Mr Roper keep you here?’ asked Georgina dully. ‘Eventually, most certainly, but I can’t move too quickly, he’s not that kind of man.’

‘Then don’t think that I could do the trick for you. Why, he doesn’t even believe we’re related, not really.’

‘I’ve told him we are,’ corrected Joanne. ‘He believes me.’

‘Nice for you.’

‘Very nice.’ Joanne studied her hands. ‘No, George, you’re staying on, otherwise I tell him the trick you’ve played.’

‘That won’t affect me,’ Georgina said.

‘I wouldn’t be certain. Anyway, I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes when he found out that you’d taken him for a fool. He is’... a little smile ... ‘a very authoritative kind of man.’

‘My word for him is arrogant.’

‘I like some arrogance.’ Joanne smiled again.

‘Well, it still doesn’t keep me here. You don’t.’

‘But lack of money would, and you don’t have any money, do you? Also, your next pay is already earmarked for me.’

Georgina stiffened. ‘Joanne '

‘That van You might have thought you were clever giving it to that storekeeper for food, but you won’t think you’re so clever when you get a summons. And I’d do it, you know me.’

‘Oh, yes, I know you.’

‘And why not?’ Joanne continued hotly. 'I got nothing from Father, absolutely nothing. You in your sly way bagged it all.’

‘I didn’t! You know I didn’t.’ Georgina was almost crying.

‘I don’t know, and I’ll see to it that other people also “don’t know”; that’s unless you conform, and by conforming I mean staying on until I say you can go.’ A pause. ‘Larry and I are going out today. He intends to show me around. No doubt he’ll feel obliged to invite his so-called geo, after all you are the only non-cattle employee on the station, but no doubt,’ with significance, ‘you will say no.’

‘I will say no,’ Georgina concurred. She said it quite docilely, for something had occurred to her. With Joanne and Roper away for the day there was nothing to stop her from leaving, really leaving. She was fully aware that everything that Joanne had said she could do to her she could do, and aware that Larry Roper would be terribly angry; but she, thought Georgina, would not be here. Let them sort it out between themselves when they get back from their outing. .

As Joanne had anticipated, Roper same down later and invited Georgina to accompany them.

‘Not an exploration, not anything really,’ he smiled.

‘No, thank you, I have some notes to write up.’

‘I suppose so. Well, please yourself, Brown.’ He gave a little wave and went off.

Once more Georgina packed her bags and put them by the door, filled the haversack to stow at the back of the bike seat. It was becoming a routine, she thought, but this time it would happen. She tidied the hut, finished the data Roper would need on the rocks they had brought in from the safari and left them on the table for him. After lunch, when Mrs Willmott was resting and the stockmen flat on their backs, when even the dogs were asleep, she would take off on the bike. She did not think how she would get the bike back to Roper’s; that would come later.

It all went as she planned. In the inertia of midday Georgina drove off, and did not go quietly by the homestead. If Willy did see her she would only think that George was taking a spin.

Out on the road at last, the road she had come up with Craig, Georgina turned north, wondering how far the Brydens were, how they would react to her, how long it would be before Craig called at his property and took her with him.

The road was as straight as an arrow, not a bend anywhere, but there were detours as always, round rock outcrops, ditches, sticky patches.

Coming out of one of these, Georgina saw a car bearing down on her from the opposite direction, and she laughed with delight. She would have recognised that car anywhere. Why not? Hadn’t she slept in it?

Craig saw her an instant after she saw him, and he applied his brakes.

‘Of all the sights for sore eyes! ’ he greeted, and he leapt out and kissed her warmly.

‘Oh, Craig! ’ Georgina greeted him.

‘Where are you bound?’ he asked.

‘The Brydens’. For you to pick me up. You said you would, remember?’

‘Of course, but I don’t know now, Georgina. I’m not a popular man there, so naturally you wouldn’t be a popular girl. Or,’ a grin, ‘whatever you are now.’

‘But why are you unpopular, Craig? What have you done?’ she asked.

‘Nothing. I always do nothing, but, like the rest of this wretched district, it’s nothing but the mighty Roper on everybody’s lips, and seeing that Roper despises me, I guess the disease has spread.’

‘Poor Craig! But not to worry, I’ll just come with you as I am and leave out the Brydens.’

‘Then welcome, kid.
Not
a Roper devotee, I take it. Has it been that bad?’ he inquired.

‘Worse.’ She made a face.

‘And yet there’s been talk about you. I even got quite jealous.’

‘Jealous?’

‘There was a beautiful girl at Roper’s, the talk went.’

‘Then you should have known it wasn’t me,’ Georgina grimaced.

‘Of course it was you,’ he argued, ‘who else?’

‘My stepsister,’ said Georgina, ‘has arrived.
She’s
a beauty.’

Craig looked thoughtful. ‘Interesting, but alas not for me, Roper would see to that. Talk of the devil, here comes the Roper car now.’

Georgina blinked into the distance and saw a car a long distance away. It might be Roper’s, she said doubtfully, but still it mightn’t be.

‘It’s his. It’s the only model of that sort in these parts. Hi, what are you doing?’ For Georgina was wheeling the bike behind the car, getting into the car and lying down.

Before Craig could say any more, Roper’s car was abreast of them, and then it had gone on.

‘Safe?’ called Georgina.

Craig did not answer.

‘Safe?’ Georgina peered out for herself and saw that it was. She got out of the car and came to the man who was following the Roper blob of dust with a rather stunned expression.

‘How can I get the bike back when I come with you?’ Georgina asked.

There was no answer.

‘Wake up, Craig, I’m asking you a question! How can we get the bike back to Roper’s now I’m coming with you?’

‘Simple, sweetheart.’ Craig looked down on Georgina. ‘You’re not coming with me. You’re getting back on the bike and going home at once, and making believe you never left. Now I know why they spoke of a beautiful girl—why, she’s fantastic! And you’re staying on to introduce her to me.’

‘I’m not!’ Georgina exclaimed hotly.

‘But Georgina ’

‘No!’

‘Then’ ... a sigh ... ‘it was just a lovely idea of mine. Goodbye, Georgina.’ He looked significantly at her, and she gasped.

‘Craig, you promised to help me, take me away.’

‘And I will, in return for my meeting that beauty. I’ll take you back to Sydney whenever you like, but you have to let us meet first.’

‘I’m beginning to understand,’ Georgina said slowly, ‘why Larry Roper despises you and the Brydens dislike you. I think I hate you myself.’

He grinned. ‘Yet you need me, pet, as I need you. I must meet—what’s her name?’

‘Joanne. And why must you, Craig?’ As he didn’t answer Georgina went on: ‘Another string to your bow? Like Elva?’

‘Darling, no girl is ever like the one before, and please don’t believe all you hear. And now home with you, Georgina, for I’ve another sales call, to make down the track. If you don’t go back, frankly I don’t know what you’ll do. There won’t be another car through today. Think it over.’ He blew her a kiss, got into the car and left.

For a while Georgina just stood there, then she got back on the bike.

She reached the hut and just had time to put back her stacked belongings before Joanne strolled down.

‘A boring day,’ Joanne pronounced feelingly. ‘I must say I find rocks as interesting as cattle, and they’re the most uninteresting things in the world. But I did see one interesting thing—a very good-looking man on the road. Evidently Larry recognised and disliked him, for he accelerated as we went past. He was a real winner, George; he didn’t seem the stodgy station type, he looked smarter, more cityfied. Do they have travellers up here?’

‘Yes.’

‘Would you know this one?’ Joanne persisted.

‘Yes. Yes, Joanne, I do.’

‘Then see to it that we meet. Nothing to it, of course, but I must have something, some diversion, or I’ll die of boredom before ’

‘Before?’ Georgina asked sharply.

But Joanne only smiled.

‘See to it,’ she said again as she went out.

It seemed, Georgina thought, that the interest was mutual on both sides, on Joanne’s and on Craig’s.

And why not? Why not do as they asked? It appeared the only way she would ever
really
leave this place.

Joanne
settled herself gracefully into the homestead life, a source of joy for the cattlemen, who found numerous excuses to present themselves at the verandah steps, ostensibly to ask the boss something but really to gaze on the beautiful creature that had come among them. Since she enjoyed their admiration, and since it cost her nothing, Joanne rewarded them with a dazzling smile.