Page 60 of Where She Is
“You are most welcome, my lady,” he says with an exaggerated bow and his arms all a flourish, but our good mood is interrupted by the unwelcome tone of her sarcasm.
“How sweet. Aren’t you two just the perfect pair? Being together twenty-four seven obviously suits you.”
The more I’m around her, the nastier she gets. She will not beat me. I’m not putting up with her pathetic snide comments. I take a deep breath, roll my shoulders back and say in the happiest voice I can muster, “Yes, it does. We are ecstatically happy, thank you, Freya.” I squint and overstretch my lips to a forced state of happiness. “And how are you?”
She sees my fake smile and raises it with her pursed mouth, “Good. Great, in fact.”
I don’t give her a chance to elaborate because I don’t want to spend a second longer in her presence than I have to. “Excellent. See you later, no doubt.”
I turn towards Daniel, take his hand and we make our way to the main house. We leave Freya glued to the spot, watching us walk away, much like she did the first day I met her. She would have to get used to this. She would have to get used to me.
Chapter Nineteen
Saturday morning arrives,and we’re summoned to the house. Diana would like to talk to us both.
“Really Mum? A dinner dance? I thought we were coming home to relax.”
“Yes, darling, but it is for charity and it could be fun, don’t you think Hannah?”
I reply with only a smile. I’ll go with the flow, but Daniel isn’t particularly overjoyed. His wide-eyed, tight-lipped exasperation says it all. This has been sprung on us and it might have been better if there was time to talk about it first. Poor Daniel. He was nervous enough about coming home to the farm and he doesn’t need the added stress of a social event. He wanted to chill out. We stay silent, not knowing what to say. I want them both to be happy, but whatever we do, one of them will be disappointed.
“Your father and I would like you to go.”
Her expression is one of pure sympathy when she says, “I understand this is hard for you, my darling, I really do, but you have to move on now. You’ve got a life to live. You can’t let them hold you back.”
I snuggle up to Daniel on the sofa and loop my arm into his. I whisper in his ear, “What do you think?”
It has to be his decision, and he needs to be comfortable with it. He looks deep into my eyes and gives me a half-smile. “Okay, but only because it will make my mum happy. You know I couldn’t do this without you with me.”
His attention turns back to Diana. “All right, we’ll go although I don’t want a huge fuss made and we’re not staying long.”
“Wonderful!” She brims with excitement. “Thank you, Hannah. There’s no way he would agree to it if you weren’t here. Now, we need to be there for eight o’clock, so be ready by seven-thirty.”
We have hours before we have to leave so we take a walk to clear our minds. I love it here, although I could do with less buzzing in my ear. The flies in this part of the country are persistent, but the weather and beautiful countryside make up for this minor annoyance. The warm sun beats down in the late afternoon, which I still find a little strange, but welcoming. This is what autumn feels like in Australia. As we tour around the stables, I sense just how much Daniel misses the horses and his daily trek across the estate.
“It looks as if he’s pleased to see you,” I say while Daniel laughs at the huge black animal nuzzling at his shoulder. I can’t be sure, but I guess he is the same horse that made me jump into Daniel’s life.
“Good boy, it’s all right” he soothes with long strokes to his neck.
“Is this who I think it is?” I ask, trying to seem interested although I’m not a horsey girl. They give me the heebie-jeebies.
“Yep, this is Storm and I don’t need to tell you he has one hell of a temper on him.”
I laugh at Daniel’s little joke and attempt to stroke the majestic creature. His ears lay flat against his head and I’mspooked by the look in his eye. I snatch my hand away in a panic, but Daniel has such a smile on his beautiful face, I can’t get angry. He gestures to his four-legged friend, “I reckon he remembers your first visit and we both know how that ended.”
“Then he should play nice. My arse was killing me for days after our little clash.”
“He probably won’t. I’m certain he knows you’re the reason I haven’t been to see him. He’s jealous.” As if the current competition wasn’t enough. Still, I don’t like keeping Daniel away from something he loves. “Maybe we should make more of an effort to visit. There’s got to be a way to get around the whole Freya problem.”
He mumbles, “There is, but it’s probably not legal.”
“Daniel, be serious. We should come back to the farm whenever we can and who knows, Freya might run out of ways to make your life a misery.”
“Don’t count on it,” he says as he offers out his hand. “But yeah, I’d like that.”
Our fingers entwine as we walk away, and behind us, I hear a disgruntled horse. He’s not happy we’re leaving.
“Settle down, Storm. We’ll be back later,” Daniel shouts over his shoulder. He looks to me and sighs, “There’s so much I miss about this place. I lived here for a long time and I used to ride every day.”
