The Cattleman, The Baby and Me
4th May, Newarra Cattle Station, the Outback…Dear Diary I came to the Outback to fulfil my sister’s wishes and find my little nephew’s father. But poor Harry no longer has a daddy, and I’m staying with his uncle. Liam’s an Outback cattleman through and through, and doesn’t seem happy about us landing on his doorstep.But, oh, my, he’s indescribably gorgeous! I’ve seen his tough edges soften when he’s seen adorable Harry smile…maybe I can make his heart melt too? Sapphie x
Читать The Cattleman, The Baby and Me онлайн беплатно
OUTBACK BABY TALES
Newborns, new arrivals, newlyweds
In a beautiful but isolated landscape, three sisters follow three very different routes to parenthood against all odds and find love with brooding menâ¦
Discover the soft side of three rugged Outback cattlemen as they win over these feisty women and a handful of adorable babies!
Your journey through the tears and triumphs began last month:
ONE SMALL MIRACLEMelissa James
The pitter-patter of tiny feet continues this month with:
THE CATTLEMAN, THE BABY AND MEMichelle Douglas
And next month thereâs a motherhood miracle in:
THEIR NEWBORN GIFTNikki Logan
The Cattleman, The Baby and Me
By
At the age of eight, Michelle Douglas was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up. She answered, âA writer.â Years later she read an article about romance-writing and thought, Ooh, thatâll be fun. She was right. When sheâs not writing she can usually be found with her nose buried in a book. She is currently enrolled in an English Masterâs programme for the sole purpose of indulging her reading and writing habits further. She lives in a leafy suburb of Newcastle, on Australiaâs east coast, with her own romantic heroâhusband Greg, who is the inspiration behind all her happy endings. Michelle would love you to visit her at her website www.michelle-douglas.com
Recent titles by this author:
BACHELOR DAD ON HER DOORSTEP
THE ARISTOCRAT AND THE SINGLE MUM
To Mum, with love.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
âTHATâS the Jarndirri out station down there.â
At the pilotâs words Sapphie Thomas turned from the baby sleeping beside her to stare out of the mail planeâs window. Anna and Lea Curranâher best friendsâhad grown up on Jarndirri. Sapphie had spent a lot of time there herself. Sheâd deftly fed that piece of information to Sid, the pilot, earlier. Sapphie didnât get into small planes with strange men without them knowing she had friends in high placesâfriends who could come to her aid in a flash if the need arose.
She stared down at the out station and longing and pain hit her in equal measure. Her chest tightened. âYouâre not going to land, are you?â
Her chest tightened even more. She didnât want Sid to land. She didnât want to step foot on Jarndirri at the moment. For lots of reasonsânot least being the letter sheâd received two days ago.
She pushed that thought away. She didnât have time to dwell on it. Instead, she thought how a landing might wake Harry, and she didnât want that. Her twelve-month old nephew, it seemed, hated flying. He hated landings and take-offs. He hated the dust and the heat and the flies. He hated the glare of the sun in its cloudless sky, and hated Sapphie trying to change his nappy in the close confines of the plane. He hated it allâwith a capital Hâand he had the lungs to prove it. Sapphie had wanted to wail right alongside him.
Sheâd wanted to wail because Harry hated her too.
During the long, hot five hours theyâd so far endured on the plane heâd only stopped crying when sheâd given him his bottleâmost of the contents of which he had then thrown up all over her shirt. Finally, through sheer exhaustion, heâd fallen asleep. She didnât want him woken for any reason whatsoever. So not landing at Jarndirri would suit her perfectly. She waited for Sidâs answer.
âNah,â Sid drawled. âThey radioed through earlier. They donât have anything for me to collect. And as I donât have anything for themâ¦â
Sapphie gulped back a sigh of relief. In the next instant her shoulders went all tight again. âWhat about the main Jarndirri station? Will you be landing there?â The Jarndirri homestead was several hundred kilometres northeast of the out station, but that didnât mean it wasnât on Sidâs mail route.
Donât be an idiot, she chided herself. Youâre not going to accidentally bump into Anna or Lea out here. Neither was currently in residence at Jarndirri. Anna was in Broome with Jared, and Lea was at Yurrajiâthe property in the far north that her grandfather had left her.
And Bryce had died six years ago. She wasnât going to run into him.
The plane bounced as it hit a pocket of turbulence. Sapphieâs stomach churned and bile rose up to burn her throat. Normally she was a good flyer.
Normally? Ha! Normally she wouldnât be flying over the northwestern corner of the Australian continentâone of the most remote regions in the worldâwithout any form of invitation. And if she did it would be to see Anna or Lea, not to track down some man sheâd never met in her life before.
There was nothing normal about the turn her life had taken in the last two days.
âThe main Jarndirri station is on a different mail run,â Sid said. âMail delivery to this part of the Kimberleyâs on a Thursday. Mail delivery to
