Read Online A Wish and a Wedding by Margaret Way - Free Book Online Page B

over eons into glowing rounded minarets, rust-red in the blazing sunlight, purple in the shadowy canyons. Beyond the wing-tip she could see a vast ocean of red sand, with towering dunes running in parallel lines for all the world like ocean waves. Closer in to the homestead there were numerous long pools of water, surrounded by trees. Those were the billabongs, and there were also the five lagoons. Excitedly she counted them. One glinted like silver foil, another was an incredible light blue, like aqua-marine, two more had an opalescent milky-green sheen.
    It was unearthly, unreal!
    Chrissy considered herself the luckiest girl in the world. From the first day they had met and clicked, Vicki had shown her nothing but kindness. She would have to find some way to repay her.
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    Philippa stood, straight as an arrow, at the front door to greet them. She extended her arms to the full and Tori went into them.
    â€œDarling girl, I’ve missed you!” Philippa said, placing agentle hand on Tori’s luxuriant mane of hair, including Chrissy in her warm, welcoming smile.
    â€œI’ve missed you too, Pip.” Tori patted and rubbed her great-aunt’s thin back, all the while blinking back a few radiant tears. “I expect you know Haddo kidnapped me?”
    Philippa’s face broke into a smile. “Haddo has always had your best interests at heart, dear. Anyway, it’s so lovely to have you.”
    â€œThis is my friend Chrissy, Pip.” Tori turned to introduce them.
    Chrissy didn’t come unheralded—Philippa had been informed—so Chrissy too got a hug. Neither woman, young or old, faltered at going into an embrace. It was very difficult to resist Philippa who carried with her a natural air of authority that demanded deference, but a bred-in-the-bone kindness too.
    â€œNow, what say I show you to your rooms?” Philippa said. “You can settle in, then we’ll have some afternoon tea. Haddo, dear?” she called to Haddo, who was standing on the verandah, pointing to the suitcases—all Tori’s with the exception of one—for Bert, the station handyman, to bring in. “Are you going to stay for afternoon tea?”
    â€œSure,” Haddo responded. “But I have to have a word with Archie first.” Archie Reed was the station overseer. “Give me about twenty minutes.”
    â€œRight, dear. Now, come on, gels.” Philippa led the way up an imposing main staircase that had a central landing then branched off to either side. “I’ve put Chrissy across the hallway from you, Tori, so she won’t be lonely,” she explained. “It’s a big house.”
    Chrissy turned saucer eyes on Tori. “It’s humungous! ”
    â€œWon’t take you long to get used to it,” Tori said, companionably taking Chrissy’s arm and dismissing the ancestral home of one of the great landed families of Australia.
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    During that first week Haddo gave both girls time to settle. Chrissy, at first clearly overawed—it was all too much—sat silently and very shyly at the dinner table, but gradually beganto thaw under the influence of so much ease and kindness. She was getting to know the house, and becoming more used to its splendour, its size, the furnishings, and all those paintings and beautiful things. It literally took her breath away.
    Tori was the same as ever, though Chrissy couldn’t help being in awe of Haddo and his status—but he was so nice to her—and Philippa was lovely. Not a bit stiff and starchy, even if she did speak like the Queen. Yet still Chrissy felt extraordinarily out of place. She sometimes thought it was like stumbling on to a movie set with beautiful rich people who lived in their own kingdom. But they had their troubles like everyone else. Tori had confided in her that she didn’t much like her life as the Rushford heiress.
    â€œJust an accident of birth, Chrissy. You could have