The Falls Read online

Ness replied with an enigmatic smile and indicated the verandah. Teagan followed and was reminded again of her friend, Emily. Although her aunt was far more voluptuous, Ness and Em had that same innate class that saw them look stylish no matter what they wore. Today, Ness was dressed in tight navy capri pants with zips at the legs, a pair of pink strappy platform sandals and a stretchy pink twin-set that hugged her breasts and defined her tiny waist, and clashed spectacularly with her red hair.

  Teagan wandered over to the top of the stairs to survey the land while her aunt eased down into a wicker chair and lounged back to put her feet up. Yesterday had been a blur of exhaustion, misery and margaritas. The long drive had given Teagan too much time to think. Too much time to alternate between festering in anger and sobbing with self-pitying misery.

  Too much time to let the dark oily slick in.

  The morning was one of those crunchy-cool ones, so crisp, fresh and sweet it was like biting into a new season’s apple. The sky was gorgeous, an endless expanse of pristine azure, the air bush-scented and musical with bird chimes. Saffy lay on the flowery lawn asleep with her head on her paws. To the left, protected by a wire and timber cage, a couple of guinea pigs – one white, one black, tan and white – munched at a healthy pile of vegetables, their cheeks bulging cutely. Behind the hutch, body lowered and still like a stalking cheetah, crouched Blanche, watching them with cold, covetous eyes.

  Teagan thought about chucking something at the cat but the verandah was devoid of suitable missiles. Figuring the guinea pigs were safe enough in their cage, she took a sip of coffee. ‘How many acres did you say you had?’

  ‘Originally it was two hundred and thirty but now it’s just over a hundred and eighty. I sold off the smaller title last year.’ Ness smiled. ‘I didn’t particularly want to but who am I to deny a wealthy man his Pitt Street farmer urges? The downside is that we have to put up with my new neighbour, Callum Albright, choppering in each weekend. Apparently he intends to immerse himself in village life, starting with the cricket club. That should make for some fun. Mark Dunkerton, the club president and team captain, is a complete obsessive. He won’t take kindly to a blowhard like Callum throwing his weight around.’

  ‘Sounds like you won’t be short of entertainment come summer then.’

  ‘We’re never short of entertainment in The Falls, darling. You’ll see that if you stay long enough.’

  Pretending avid interest in the view, Teagan turned her back on her aunt and the elephant-sized opening she’d left.

  What to do with her life? What a question. Teagan had no idea. She hadn’t thought beyond getting the hell away from Pinehaven and the parents who’d betrayed her so badly. A few times during her escape she’d considered cutting across to the Newell Highway to keep heading north and even further away, but self-doubt and the need for a safe haven had kept her following the Hume towards Sydney.

  The pause continued. Teagan could hear Ness shifting in her seat and bit her lip. The future she’d dreamed of was gone. She didn’t have the heart to envision a new one.

  ‘You’re welcome to stay here for as long as you want, Teagan. You need time to rest and recover after all you’ve been through.’

  The sympathy in her aunt’s voice made Teagan’s eyes fill. ‘I’ll pay board and rent.’

  Ness waved the suggestion aside. ‘You’ll do no such thing.’

  ‘I have to do something.’

  ‘No. You don’t.’ Ness rose from her chair and came to tuck a limp strand of damp hair behind Teagan’s ear. The gesture was so maternal and caring, such a reminder of another thing she’d lost, it made Teagan’s throat turn gravelly. ‘It’s okay to be looked after, you know.’

  ‘It’s been so shit, Ness.’

  ‘I know. But we’ll make it better, I promise.’

  ‘How?’ Teagan let the tears fall properly now. ‘Everything I loved is gone.’

  ‘I know, darling,’ said Ness as she enveloped Teagan into a soft, scented embrace. ‘I know. But that doesn’t mean you won’t find new things to love.’ She stroked her soothingly. ‘Stay here and heal. The Falls worked for me. Let it work for you.’

  Teagan was relaxing on the verandah in a half-doze when a ute pulled into the yard and continued past the house.

  She frowned as it crossed towards the dirt track that led down the side of the house and wondered who felt they had the right to drive around Falls Farm as if they owned it. She thought she caught a wave from the driver, but the side windows were too tinted to see more than vague movement inside. The ute’s back tray had been modified with two triangular-shaped galvanised steel bins, the pair forming a tent-like structure across the back, the steel so shiny it hurt the eyes to look at it.

  Sitting up, Teagan followed its progress until it disappeared down the slope. She glanced at the house and at the main gate, unsure what to do. Ness had headed into the village with a newly washed and extremely petulant Saffy for a vet’s appointment. Thanks to her penchant for raiding bins for food and digging up dead things, the labradoodle had torn a toenail and was walking with a painful limp. Teagan had offered to tie the stinky dog to the back of the ute and cart her in but Ness had refused. The local vet was a good friend who would enjoy a gossip, and Saffy would be fine in the Alfa after a good scrub.

  Teagan regarded Blanche. The cat seemed to have taken an unnerving liking to her. ‘Okay, ugly, who’s that?’

  In answer, Blanche formed her sinewy body into a question mark and began licking her genitals.

  ‘God.’ With a last, disgusted grimace, Teagan headed for the boots she’d put out to dry in the sun on the verandah steps. Bathing Saffy had left her soaked head to foot, while somehow, miraculously, Ness had remained without a splash on her.

  She tugged on her boots and followed the ute’s trail, poking her tongue out at Merlin as she passed his yard. The ram bleated and headbutted the gate. Teagan grinned at his temper. The ram should thank his lucky stars. If she had her way he’d be lamenting a loss far greater than his freedom.

  The red clay track was scarred with deep fissures and Teagan kept to the grassy edges to save her ankles. Past a disused, dilapidated chook shed and a pile of old fence posts that was no doubt home to a dozen highly venomous snakes, the road rose to a crest. Each step opened up more of the western landscape to view. The distance was pretty – lush hills and verdant forest – but closer the bordering old barbed wire fence sagged in messy decline. The paddock behind was high with rank kikuyu and a nasty-looking woody weed with fat, hairy leaves that Teagan didn’t recognise. Suspecting a noxious species, she made a mental note to find out what it was and how to kill it.

  At the top of the slope she halted. The ute was parked near another run-down fence, this one timber. Both galvanised bin lids were up, making the ute appear like a silvery beetle about to launch into flight.

  A man with golden blond hair tied back into a ponytail and wearing what looked to be a leather necklace with a pendant hanging from it was leading a fat piebald horse across the paddock using only a rope thrown around its neck. He wore jeans and a long-sleeved button-necked T-shirt that clung to a chest and arms muscled in a way she’d only ever seen in pictures of elite sportsmen. For a moment Teagan’s breath suspended, caught in the absolute glory of him, then she pursed her lips and continued on. Vain, she judged. Vain and a hippy. A shame because even from a distance he was stunning.

  His voice carried on the soft breeze, too low for Teagan to make out the words, but she recognised the soothing manner of a person used to being around horses. The horse’s ears were twitching with interest, its walk stiff but calm and trusting. This must be the rescue horse, Claudia, that Ness had mentioned.

  He was almost at the fence when he spied her. Immediately she was flashed with a starlight white-toothed grin that brought to mind an old toilet cleaner commercial where the loo blazed sparkling light each time someone opened the lid.

  ‘Hi.’ Somehow he managed to give the word an enticing deep drawl.


  Teagan kept her own response cool. ‘Hello.’

  He patted the horse’s woolly neck, unwound the rope and climbed through the fence. Close up he was even bigger and more muscled. Any wonder he fitted through the timber rails.

  He passed her, eyes flicking up and down her body, the too-white grin still in place, and rummaged in one of the bins. ‘Where the hell . . .’

  Teagan crossed to pat Claudia and then wished she hadn’t as a sudden ache for her pretty filly, Astra, pulsed in her chest. She’d sold her darling show horse to her friend Emily for far less than the animal was worth. Em would have readily paid more, but that was all the cash she’d had on hand, and Teagan had refused more anyway. Em had done enough, taking her horse on, looking after the sale of Teagan’s float and equestrian gear. Letting her howl on her shoulder when the awful truth about Pinehaven finally came out, even though she had plenty of worries of her own.

  The visitor stepped back and scratched his head in puzzlement. ‘Sure it was there earlier.’ He glanced her way. ‘Don’t suppose you have a halter handy?’

  ‘There’s probably one somewhere but I don’t know where Ness keeps everything.’

  ‘Doesn’t matter.’ He threw her the rope. ‘She’s a quiet old thing. This’ll hold her.’

  Teagan caught the rope. She looked at it and back to him, and propped on one hip. She had a fair idea who he was now, but the way he was acting had her hackles up. ‘And you are?’

  He grinned another annoyingly bright smile. How did anyone get teeth like that? Teagan brushed and flossed regularly, had kept regular check-ups since childhood, and her teeth had never once looked like his.

  Bleached. Had to be. The big pendant-wearing ponce.

  ‘I could ask the same of you,’ he said.

  She kept her chin high and her gaze unimpressed. ‘You first.’

  He tilted his head to one side. The glint in his clear blue eyes displayed his amusement, which annoyed her even further. ‘Red hair. Pale skin. Blue eyes.’ He scanned up and down, a quirk to his mouth as if he knew how much this was irritating her. ‘Pretty.’ He drew the words out slowly. ‘I’m guessing a relative.’

  Teagan crossed her arms. At the twitch of his lips she dropped them again. Teeth gritted, she settled for twirling the rope like a small lasso. ‘And?’

  He returned to rummaging in the bin. ‘And too skinny.’

  Her ego, which had been floating a little thanks to his ‘pretty’ remark, collapsed.

  He pulled out what looked like a pair of lederhosen but was, she recognised, a farrier’s apron, and began fixing velcro strips. When the thick leather protective pads were strapped snug around his hips and thighs to the knees, he turned his back and walked around to the other side of the ute. The view from behind, and the way the apron sat, reminded Teagan of a cowboy stripper. Even with his jeans covering his bum there was no mistaking its tightness.

  ‘So you’re a farrier.’

  ‘I am. A very good one.’

  ‘Who goes by the name of . . .’

  He sauntered lazily towards her, pushing up his sleeves. The sun caught his skin and made it gleam. Teagan’s lip began to curl. Ponytail, necklace, bleached teeth and now body oil. What a wanker.

  ‘Lucas Knight.’ He held out a large hand.

  She hesitated before taking, her grip as firm as his. He had man’s hands, strong and work-roughened. ‘Teagan Bliss.’

  He grinned again. ‘I bet you are.’

  She snatched her hand back. ‘Yeah, like I haven’t heard that before.’

  ‘Sorry,’ he said, not sounding even remotely contrite. ‘Couldn’t help myself.’ His gaze swept her hair. ‘I have a thing for redheads.’

  The compliment, if it was one, did nothing to improve her impression of him. All she could think was here stood another member of Vanessa’s fan club. Her aunt was a complete testosterone magnet. Not that Teagan was remotely interested in Lucas or anyone else, but it was pretty deflating to know that a woman twenty years her elder could capture the attention of a man of this age and hotness.

  ‘My aunt’s not here right now.’

  ‘Aunt? So I was right. Doesn’t matter.’ He studied her for a moment before indicating the horse. ‘Have you met Claudia?’

  Teagan shook her head.

  He tousled the horse’s forelock. ‘Sweet old thing. Came from a hobby farm up the mountains. Owners bought her for their daughter to ride, but she lost interest after a while and poor Claudia was left to go to seed. When she broke down with laminitis they didn’t want to pay the vet bills. Claudia was going to the knackers when your aunt heard about her and came to the rescue.’

  Teagan leaned on the fence to study Claudia’s hooves. Despite not being tied up, the horse seemed content to stand in the sunshine while they talked about her, tail swishing, eyes sleepy-lidded.

  ‘Do you know anything about horses?’ he asked.

  ‘A bit.’

  ‘So you know what laminitis is?’

  She threw him a look and then softened it. How was he to know she’d been around horses since childhood? ‘How far had her pedal bone descended?’

  If he was surprised, Lucas didn’t show it. ‘Not too far. She still had plenty of sole depth left. She was in specially buttressed shoes for a while. We’re past that now and it’s a matter of keeping the hoof trimmed properly to make sure the structure keeps growing the right way.’

  Teagan stroked Claudia’s cheek. The pain the animal must have gone through was horrible to think about. She’d never seen a foundered horse herself but had read and heard enough about the disease to know it was agony for them. Laminitis occurred when the laminae of tissue connecting the pedal bone to the hoof became inflamed. Left untreated the bone could shift so much it penetrated the horse’s hoof. Usually it was a side effect of severe obesity, but injury and poisoning could also be the cause.

  ‘Must’ve cost Ness a fortune in vet bills.’

  ‘I doubt it. Bunny would’ve done it as a favour, like I did.’

  ‘Bunny?’

  ‘Yeah. Local vet Bunny James. She’s great.’

  Teagan regarded him, suspicion curdling. ‘So you looked after Claudia for free?’

  He shrugged. ‘I don’t like to see anything in pain.’

  Teagan returned her gaze to Claudia’s hooves. Interesting. Perhaps he wasn’t as big a wanker as she’d thought. When it came to animals anyway. Then again, he could have been trying to impress Ness.

  ‘I just need to give her a quick trim.’ He glanced at the sky. ‘Do you have time to hold her for me? She probably won’t move, but I don’t want to have to chase her around if I can help it. I’m meant to be on another job.’

  ‘So why are you here then?’

  ‘Passing by.’ He winked. ‘And Tony de Vitis mentioned there was a gorgeous new redhead in town. Thought I’d better take a look.’

  The cheeky sod had known who she was all along. She added another label to her list of first impressions. Game player. Teagan hated people like that, even when they came as exquisitely packaged as Lucas Knight.

  Still, the day was fine and she had nothing else to do, and she could think of worse ways to spend half an hour. He might have a long list of dubious characteristics, but a good perve was a good perve. And Lucas Knight was exceptional.

  Vanessa stroked Saffy’s head as the labradoodle began to whine.

  ‘Don’t be such a sook,’ admonished the vet before addressing Vanessa. ‘It’s not too severe. I’ll clip it off and clean it up. I won’t put her on antibiotics at this point, but if there’s any sign of infection bring her back in.’ She ruffled the dog’s ears and cupped her jaw to stare at Saffy’s face. ‘Are you going to behave or will we need to muzzle you?’

  ‘She’ll be fine. I’ll hold her.’

  Bunny James nodded and rummaged for antiseptic and nail clippers. At a metre eighty in height, with short, spiked platinum hair, swimmer’s shoulders and legs like a gazelle, the only rabbity thing about Bunny was her s
mall turned-up nose. The rest of her was pure glamazon. Vanessa could only assume that her parents had had no inkling of how their daughter would turn out when they’d named her.

  ‘How’s Claudia?’ asked Bunny as she set to work.

  Vanessa cuddled Saffy’s head as the dog whinged. ‘Putting on weight again. I’ll have to start locking her up. Which reminds me, I forgot to tell Teagan that Lucas said he’d try to call in today.’

  ‘She arrived safe then?’

  Saffy gave a sharp yelp as her damaged toenail was removed. ‘Shh. You’ll feel better now. Safe in body, if you ignore how thin she is, but definitely not in mind. The poor darling’s a wreck. Graham has a lot to answer for, I tell you. As for my sister . . .’ Vanessa shook her head in disgust. The next time she saw Penny it wasn’t going to be pretty. It was bad enough that Penny had done her best to keep Vanessa out of her niece’s and nephew’s lives, but to know she’d allowed this mess to happen . . .

  ‘What are you going to do with her?’

  ‘I don’t know. Feed her up, mostly. Find something for her to feel passionate about again. She’d put all her energy into Pinehaven and now it’s gone she’s completely lost.’

  Bunny straightened and patted Saffy. ‘There, all done. You could put her to work on Falls Farm. God knows the place needs it.’

  ‘No thanks. Teagan has had quite enough of being treated like a slave. Did I mention that they hadn’t paid her in months? She admitted this morning she’d even loaned them money. Eighty grand all up. Every dollar she’d ever saved. I could throttle Graham.’ She sighed. What was done was done. Her role now was to make things better. ‘She’ll need a job eventually. For her own self-esteem, if not for money.’

  ‘You could always try marrying her off to some rich idiot. Callum might be a good start. He’s an idiot but he’s still a loaded idiot.’ Bunny scooped up Saffy and lowered her from the examination table as though she was a chihuahua instead of a twenty-five-kilogram labradoodle. ‘Worked for you. Twice.’ She grinned and put her finger to her bottom lip, cocking her head. ‘Or was it three times? You’ve always been a bit vague about Mr Italy.’