Page 12 of Return of the Outback Billionaire

He crossed to a painting of wolfhounds racing across a field of green and lifted the painting from its hook to reveal a safe—one of several in the house, but this one housed some of the family’s older, finer jewels. Or, given his father’s gambling habit, maybe it now held the paste equivalent.

‘You need a ring. Come and look.’ He gestured her over and opened velvet box after velvet box of jewellery. The diamond and emerald tennis bracelet looked sparkly enough and he opened the clasp. ‘Give me your wrist.’

Bridie held out her wrist and he fastened it and thought of the zip ties they used on prisoners and hoped to hell she didn’t feel similarly tied down. At least her wrists weren’t bound together. ‘My grandmother had a diamond and emerald ring that should be in here somewhere. The emerald is the centre stone with two diamonds either side and she had slender hands like you.’

A dozen different rings of various shapes and sizes later, he found the one he was looking for and eased it from its snowy velvet cradle.

There was something timeless about it. The emerald a rich and vivid green that held its own against the diamonds that flanked it, all of it set in filigree white gold.

‘Oh, wow,’ she said. ‘Art deco.’

‘Yes or no?’

‘Oh, yes.’

She held out her hand. He slid the ring on her finger and it fit as if it had been made for her.

She watched it sparkle for a time and then nodded. ‘Beautiful. I’ll give it back when we’re done.’

‘Keep it. When we finish up you should keep it.’

She looked startled. ‘I couldn’t. It’s a family ring, isn’t it?’

Why was she so surprised by his generosity when hers had humbled and shamed him? ‘And now it’s yours.’

Their re-entry into the ballroom brought on a torrent of congratulations and well wishes.

What would he do next, people with bright smiles wanted to know, and then didn’t know what to do when he said give back to his community, restore his family name and preserve the land in his care.

Congratulations on your engagement, they said. What a fairy-tale ending for you both.

Let me know when you want to do business, they said, as if he were a goose fat with golden eggs.

Bridie too had to weather a swollen river of effusive comments.

‘Look at you, all grown up and so beautiful.’ That seemed to be the general verdict and she wore the comment awkwardly.

‘I can’t help the way I look,’ she murmured to him after one such comment. ‘It’s not exactly a skill.’

‘What a catch you’ve made,’ others said to her in his presence. ‘A lord of the realm, fiercely protective and money to burn. Lucky you.’

Her hands had begun to shake again.

Maybe it was his turn to rescue her. ‘Time’s up,’ he told her. ‘Let’s find your father and get you out of here.’

She didn’t protest. She did lean over and press her lips to the edge of his mouth in farewell, and it would have taken only the tiniest turn of his head to light a fire he’d have no hope of ever putting out.

‘Talk soon,’ she said, and he gave the tiniest nod because her scent was in the air and words were beyond him again. ‘I want to know which photos of mine you liked best. Make me a pile and once all your visitors have gone I’ll show you where I took every one of them. A welcome home trip.’

‘You’d do that?’

‘Of course I will.’ She stood too close. It had been so long since he’d held a woman in his arms, any woman, let alone one who could make his head swim. His control was stretched so very thin. ‘It’s just kindness.’

Judah returned to his guests and followed his original plan for the evening to make himself available. He drank sparingly and listened to business plans and politicking. He took note of relationships and the levers that sustained them. He filed away every last sniff of information he collected and made no promises whatsoever when it came to what he intended to do with his money. He was back in touch with the movers and shakers of this world and he fully intended to carve out his place in it, but it would be on his terms, not theirs. By the end of the evening the smarter ones had figured as much, and the rest...they’d learn.

When the party wound down and people went back to their luxury planes and had their pilots take them away, or slept in their planes, or stayed on in his guest rooms, Judah took a farm ute and headed north, away from all the people, until he reached a stand of old red river gums with their distinctive bark peeling back to a smooth and ghostly white.

He spread out his swag in the bed of the ute, with the tailgate down and the vast sky above. Thin mattress, canvas cover, and a pillow so soft he could hardly bear the comparison to the prison lump he was used to. He wondered if his brother would suggest he get therapy if he made this his bed for the foreseeable future.

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