LITMIR.BIZ

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silently, then she looked back to the beautiful house, the terraced gardens, the dark forest of trees. She thought about the hundreds of hectares beyond this, all of which had belonged to Bella’s father.

      ‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘Seeing this place has certainly opened my eyes. It’s nothing like I expected. I suppose you have to be wary of people turning up out of the blue and claiming some kind of connection. Like land rights. But that’s not why I’ve come here, Seth. I simply wanted to find Bella’s…family. Her roots.’

      ‘I know,’ he said quietly. ‘And for my part, I’m very happy to have found Bella. I need family too and she’s incredibly important to me. My relatives are rather thin on the ground.’

      He flashed Amy a lopsided smile and her bones threatened to melt.

      He said, ‘Some time in the future, you’ll be able to tell Bella all about this place.’

       Some time in the future…

      She thought about going back to Melbourne and resuming her old life…

      Before she’d left the city, she’d wanted nothing more than to hurry back there as soon as this mission was accomplished. But from the moment she’d first set eyes on Seth in Tamundra, she’d been foolishly losing her sense of direction.

      Even if they hadn’t shared that sensational kiss last night, she’d still be in danger of swooning whenever he was near. Every moment she spent with him she was falling a little more deeply under his spell.

       Newsflash, Amy. The enchantment is one sided.

      Seth’s kiss might have bowled her over, but it was a mere blip on his radar. He’d shown no interest in an encore.

      It was time to be sensible. She had to stick to the original plan, which meant finding out as much as she could about Bella’s father, then heading straight for home.

      ‘There’s something down here that I should show you while we’re talking,’ Seth said, and he began to descend the stone steps.

      Amy kept pace beside him. ‘Can you tell me more about your uncle and Rachel?’

      His hesitation was momentary. ‘I can tell you that he loved her. I didn’t realise it straight away, but he was head over heels.’

      Amy nodded, recognising the familiar story. Guys were often falling head over heels for Rachel—except that this time, Rachel hadn’t remained immune.

      ‘Apparently, this was the first time my uncle had been so deeply in love since he met my mother,’ Seth said.

      They’d reached the bottom of the steps and she saw a track winding through the untamed scrub. Seth slowed his pace.

      ‘I think Rachel felt the same way,’ Amy told him. ‘For ages, she wouldn’t talk about her baby’s father, and that was highly unusual for her. Finally she admitted that she loved him, but she didn’t think she could live here. Do you think your uncle tried to persuade her to stay?’

      ‘I’m sure he must have. He certainly didn’t want her to leave.’

      ‘But he didn’t try to come after her either.’

      Seth stopped walking. His mouth was a pensive downward curve and he stood with his thumbs hooked through the belt loops of his jeans, not quite meeting Amy’s gaze. ‘I know he was worried that he couldn’t make the relationship work, but he still wanted to jump on a plane and fly down to Rachel.’

      His mouth twisted unhappily. ‘I’m afraid I persuaded him that he shouldn’t try to follow her.’

      ‘Why?’

      Her abrupt question seemed to anger him. ‘Seth was a fifty-year-old man chasing after a girl almost half his age.’

      ‘Stranger things have happened in the name of love.’

      ‘Love?’ He sent her a sharp glance.

      ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’

      ‘I don’t want to bad-mouth your friend…’

      He left the sentence dangling and now it was Amy who was angry. ‘What?’ she demanded. ‘What are you not telling me?’

      ‘I—I wasn’t convinced that Rachel really cared for my uncle.’ He looked away, eyes squinted against the bright morning sun. ‘She was a flirt. A girl on the lookout for a holiday fling.’

      Telltale wariness flickered in his eyes.

      Amy gasped. ‘Don’t tell me she flirted with you, too?’

      Seth sighed heavily.

      ‘Seth?’

      ‘She made it pretty obvious she was interested.’

       Oh.

      It was pathetic, but Amy couldn’t hold back her next question. ‘But you didn’t sleep with her, did you?’

      ‘I told you, no.’

      With a pained grimace he kicked at a stone and sent it tumbling down the track. ‘Rachel arrived here full of flirtatious smiles and ready for fun, but I must admit she changed her tune after she met my uncle. But I still didn’t recognise how deeply he was involved. I kept trying to downplay the romance. We went through this weird kind of role reversal, where he was the reckless, love struck kid and I was the cautioning adult.’

      Cords of tension stood out on Seth’s neck, and when he shoved tightly fisted hands into his jeans’ pockets, knotted veins showed in his forearms.

      ‘Seth, I didn’t mean to pry. You don’t have to—’

      He kept talking as if he hadn’t heard her. ‘He came to me one morning in the middle of the wet season. We’d had really heavy rain and the roads were cut and he demanded that I fly him to Cairns. Come hell or high water, he was going to Melbourne. He still hadn’t heard from Rachel—no phone calls, letters, or emails.’

      Seth gave a despairing shake of his head. ‘I told him he was a hot-headed fool, that he hadn’t thought everything through. I said he should wait till the wet season was over. If he still felt the same way about her then, he should go.’

      Again, Seth looked unhappily out to the distant green islands. ‘I forgot how stubborn and independent he could be, and there’s no fool like an old fool. He took off alone in the flaming tinny to go to Cairns by sea—’

      ‘What’s a tinny?’

      ‘An aluminium dinghy. We used it for fishing around the islands, but my uncle was planning to take it all the way to Cairns.’ Seth’s throat worked. ‘A damn storm came up out of nowhere.’

      Amy stared at him in dawning horror, guessing what would come next.

      Grim-faced, Seth told her. ‘A fishing trawler found the wreck three days later.’

      The news rocked Amy. She’d never dreamed…

      ‘I’m sure Rachel didn’t know,’ she whispered.

      Appalled, she recognised Seth’s grief, and felt his pain. It was there in the way he held himself stiffly, so stiffly, and his hurting was a live thing, reaching out to her and squeezing her heart.

      ‘I blame myself,’ Seth said softly. ‘My uncle asked me to do one simple thing for him and I turned him down. After everything he’d done for me.’

      Again, he kicked at a stone and, with a gruff, anguished growl, he began to stride away from Amy. She hurried down the track to catch up.

      ‘You mustn’t blame yourself,’ she said.

      He whirled around. ‘Why not? I should have seen how desperate he was. If I’d had any idea he’d take that bloody boat, I’d have flown him to Cairns in a heartbeat.’

      Tears stung her eyes.

      ‘I

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