Daring Masquerade by Margaret Tanner Read Free Book Online

still between the shafts, munched lazily from a nosebag, flicking the flies away with his tail.
    Once they had loaded the wagon, Gil wandered off to chat with old Hughie. Harry leaned with her back against a tree, pulled her hat down over her eyes and chewed on a blade of grass.
    "What do you think you're doing, you lazy young devil?" Ross nudged her with his foot. "I don't pay you to sit on your bum all day."
    She jumped to her feet. "I've unloaded the wagon. What more do you want?"
    "Don't be insolent. Where's Gilbert?"
    "In there." She jerked her finger towards the stables. "With Hughie."
    He strode off.
    What was wrong with the man? Moody, always treating her more harshly than any of the others. He looked positively ferocious with taut cheekbones and thin lips. What had she done to annoy him this time?
    With the supplies stacked around her she waited in the back of the wagon until the men appeared.
    "Are you sure?" Gil exclaimed, his voice rising. "So many?"
    Ross' features were fixed, as if they had been hewn from stone, a pulse convulsing in his jaw was the only sign of movement in his face. Gil's whole body shook and his face was white and stricken.
    She attacked straight away. "What did you say to my brother?"
    "Nothing." Ross ground the word out.
    “Yes you did. He's upset."
    "Shut up. You're like a vicious little mongrel dog," he snarled, "snapping at my heels all the time. Any more of your abuse and I'll fire you."
    "Harry, please." Gil sounded sad and drained. "Ross was telling me about how bad things are going at the war. The newspaper said the French were slaughtered at Verdun, four hundred guns opened up on them. There have been over eighty thousand casualties in less than a month."
    "You've done your share, both of you."
    "My shoulder is healing up. If the Australians start taking heavy casualties they'll be needing field officers."
    Ross' statement shocked her. "You can't be thinking of going back." Her heart turned to stone and the weight of it dragged her shoulders down. She didn't want him to risk being wounded again. Worse still, dying on some French battlefield.
    "I might not have a choice if the army wants me and I pass the Medical Board. If I'm fit enough to fight, I'd be a coward not to go."
    What could she say to that? An honorable man like him would not sit back and let other men fight his battles. If his country needed him again, he would answer the call. She hated herself for feeling relieved that Gil, with only one hand, would never be fit for active service again.
    They arrived at the outstation to find it empty, lonely and brooding.
    "Get a brew going, Harry, we'll have a drink before joining the other men, eh, Gilbert?"
    "Let me come," she pleaded.
    "No, you're here for the cooking, nothing else."
    "That's not fair. I'm as good as any man in the saddle."
    Ross glared at her. "You're a cheeky kid, who'll end up getting a backhander from me before much longer."
    She grabbed a handful of tea leaves, flung them into the boiling billycan and stirred them with a stick.
    "What meat will I use? The meat safe is empty."
    "Can you make parrot pie?"
    "I can damn well make anything."
    "All right, I'll try and bag us a few parrots tomorrow. The fishing is pretty good around here; you can catch a few trout and fry them. Something quiet and peaceful like fishing might cool down that nasty temper of yours."
    She bit back on an angry retort. Once again his taunts had goaded her into losing her temper.
    When the men left, she put the stores away. The stove still smoldered from the morning, so she raked it and stoked it up. Fish, eggs and vegetables, followed by custard and stewed fruit. Not a bad menu. Ross had bought bread from the bakery in town so they could use that also.
    Grabbing a fishing rod she wandered the couple of hundred yards to the river. Sitting on the sandy bank with her back pressed against a huge red gum, she cast her line into the clear water and closed her eyes. Peace and serenity reigned