rose, too, but in a more dignified manner. She swallowed nervously. ‘I don’t understand my uncle’s decision. I’m as shocked as anyone else. But it might be easier for you to discuss this complication if I wait outside.’
Liane glared at her suspiciously.
Noah looked as if he might have spoken, but Kate gestured to the small figure in the doorway. ‘The little girl.’
Noah’s head whipped round and, when he saw her, his face morphed into a mix of delight and despair.
Liane snapped at the child. ‘I told you to wait outside!’
The girl’s eyes grew huge. Her mouth trembled, and she looked very much as if she was about to burst into tears.
‘I could wait with her,’ Kate volunteered.
Noah sent her a look of immense gratitude, while Liane gave a little annoyed huff and shrugged her shoulders impatiently. ‘Whatever.’
Relieved to escape, Kate shut the office door behind her and drew a deep breath. She wished, rather recklessly given the circumstances, that the ownership of Radnor could be settled by the time this door opened again.
She smiled at the little girl. ‘Hello,’ she said warmly as she held out her hand. ‘We haven’t met, but I’ve heard about you, Olivia. I’m Kate. I’m a friend of your—of your father’s.’
‘Hello.’ Olivia did not offer her hand and she didn’t return Kate’s smile. She looked again at the closed door separating her from her parents.
The voices on the other side were mostly muffled, except for Liane’s high-pitched, angry demands.
‘Why are they fighting?’ Olivia asked. ‘What’s happening in there?’
‘It’s a business discussion. And I’m afraid business can get rather complicated at times.’
Kate nodded towards a long, pew-like seat against the opposite wall. ‘Shall we wait there?’
Olivia shook her head. ‘I’m tired of sitting. I’ve been sitting for ages ’n’ ages.’
A quick flick through the reading material on the coffee table showed Kate that none of it was suitable for children. She wondered if she should try to tell the little girl a story, but story telling wasn’t really her forte.
Olivia pointed to the open door leading out to the sunlit street. ‘Can we go outside?’
‘Well…’ Aware of the heated discussion on the other side of the door, Kate made a snap decision. ‘Why not? I don’t suppose anyone will mind.’ After all, Jindabilla was a very tiny country town, hardly more than one wide, dusty main street. No chance of getting lost.
The little girl was already skipping towards the door. ‘There’s a beautiful pig out there.’ Her eyes were shining suddenly.
‘A pig?’ Good grief. What a quantum leap, to come from discussing wills and inheritances to pigs.
On the footpath, Kate shaded her gaze against the sun’s glare. ‘Where is this pig?’
‘In the back of that blue ute outside the pub.’
Even if Olivia hadn’t described the utility truck so accurately, Kate could hardly miss the stream of snuffling oinks and squeals.
Her head was whirling. She was still stunned by her uncle’s will, still feeling Noah’s shock. She glanced back to the solicitor’s office. What was going on in there? What had they decided?
‘Can’t you hear him?’ Olivia cried, giving Kate’s hand a tug.
‘Of course I can.’ Kate smiled. ‘And I can see him.’ A distinctly piggy snout and a dirty pink trotter appeared over the ute’s tray back.
‘He’s so cute! Lift me up! I want to see him properly.’
The little girl’s reticence was a thing of the past, and she held her arms up to Kate as if they’d been best friends for ever.
Kate couldn’t help suspecting that Liane would object to her daughter being lifted up to admire a pig, but she was charmed by the child’s eagerness—so different from the worry in her eyes a few moments earlier. She hoisted Olivia onto her hip and together they peered at the small pink pig that looked up at them with pale, expectant eyes.
‘Isn’t he gorgeous?’
‘He is rather cute,’ Kate admitted.
Olivia’s face was a picture of enraptured adoration. With one skinny arm around Kate’s neck, she reached out with the other to pat the top of the little pig’s head. ‘Daddy says that pigs are terribly clever. They’re much cleverer than cows, and they’re even cleverer than dogs.’
‘I didn’t know that. But I’ve heard they make great pets.’
Olivia beamed at her joyously. ‘This one’s so handsome; I want to call him Baby Prince Charming.’
Kate laughed. ‘Why not? I couldn’t imagine a better name for him.’
The pig squealed and snuffled, and Olivia made oinking noises back at him. But eventually she grew heavy, and Kate set her back on the footpath.
She half-expected the child to protest, but Olivia took her hand in a gesture of such innocent trust that Kate felt a lump in her throat. ‘Are— are pigs your favourite animal?’ she asked.
‘Probably.’ A wistful expression came over her little face. ‘When I lived with Daddy, we had lots and lots of animals—piglets and chickens and ducklings and calves.’
‘And puppies?’
‘Lots of puppies.’ Her bottom lip drooped. ‘I can’t have pets any more.’
‘Because you live in the city?’
She nodded. ‘Mummy said we’re not allowed to have any pets in our apartment. Not even a goldfish.’
Kate understood Olivia’s disappointment. Her own mother had never been fond of animals, and she felt a rush of sympathy for the child. After the rustic casualness of life in an Outback homestead, where sticky fingers posed no threat and a puppy on the couch were the norm, it would be very hard to get used to a slick and shiny city apartment.
‘But you must have all kinds of exciting things to do in the city,’ she suggested diplomatically.
‘Not really. Sydney’s boring.’
Before Kate could respond, Liane’s voice sounded shrilly behind them. She turned to see the child’s mother and James Calloway charging down the footpath.
Completely ignoring Kate, Liane thrust her hand towards her daughter. ‘Come along now,’ she ordered with an imperious tilt of her chin.
A fleeting expression that might have been fear flickered over the little girl’s face, but it was gone so quickly Kate decided that she must have imagined it.
‘We’ve
