‘No, they were with Laura’s parents so they’re fine.’ As fine as they could be when their world had been torn apart, Nat amended grimly to himself.
He was very grateful to Prue for not offering false comfort or asking him how he had felt, what he was still feeling. He didn’t want to talk about that.
‘Where are they now?’ asked Prue, almost as if she understood intuitively that he was happier sticking to the practicalities of the situation he had to deal with now.
‘They’re still with Laura’s parents in London,’ he said. ‘I went over as soon as I heard. Ed and Laura wanted William and Daisy to grow up as Australians, and they knew that her parents would be in no position to look after them, so they’d made a will appointing me as guardian. I don’t think they thought for a minute that anything would ever happen to them, that I would ever need to take responsibility for their children.’
‘But now that’s what you’ve got to do?’
‘Yes.’ His glance flickered over to Prue. She had turned slightly in her seat to face him as far as she could in the confines of her seatbelt, her expression warm and sympathetic. ‘There was no way I could bring William and Daisy back with me after the funeral,’ he told her, and he found himself hoping that she would understand and approve of what he had done. ‘I arranged for a nanny to look after them with the Ashcrofts—Laura’s parents—until I could sort things out here and make sure that I would be able to care for them properly, but I think it’s important for me to go and get them as soon as possible.’
Prue nodded understandingly. ‘The longer you leave them, the more attached they will become to the nanny and the harder it will be to take them away.’
‘Exactly.’ Nat looked at her gratefully. ‘The trouble is, I’m going to need help. I don’t know anything about babies. I’m not sure I would be able to cope with one baby on a plane, let alone two. That’s where you come in,’ he said. ‘I think we may be able to help each other. You want to come back to Australia; I want someone to help me look after William and Daisy. I’ll buy you a return ticket if you’ll fly back with me and the twins,’ he finished.
For a moment, Prue could only stare at him, unable to believe that he could sound so casual. ‘That’s…incredibly generous,’ she stammered, not entirely convinced that he knew what a generous offer it was.
‘Not if you think about how much I need you,’ said Nat with a wry glance. ‘I can put a mob of cattle through the yards, and do all those things that you said you wanted to be able to do earlier, but I don’t know where to begin with a baby! If you come, you’re going to have to teach me how to feed them and change them and bath them and do all the other things they need. Could you do that?’
‘Well, yes, I suppose so, but—’
‘It’s not just a question of the flight either. Eve, the nanny who’s looking after William and Daisy at the moment, thinks that it would be upsetting for them to be suddenly taken away from everything that’s familiar. They won’t remember Australia now. She suggested that I spend a few weeks getting to know them before bringing them back, and it would make sense for you to come along too.’
‘I can see that,’ said Prue, nodding. ‘They would need to get used to being with us.’
‘And then there’s the Ashcrofts,’ said Nat. ‘They were too distressed to talk much when I was there for the funeral, but they’ll probably want to see who’s going to be bringing their grandchildren up.’
‘How do they feel about you taking William and Daisy away?’ Prue tried to imagine her own parents in a similar situation. ‘Don’t they mind?’ she asked curiously.
Nat thought about it. ‘I think they know they can’t manage the twins on their own,’ he said at length. ‘Losing Laura was a terrible blow for them—she was their only child—and it’s hard enough for them to cope as it is, without the worry of bringing up children. That doesn’t mean they’re not concerned, of course,’ he added, noting with one part of his mind a plane’s wing glinting in the sun as it turned. The airport was just ahead, which meant that it wasn’t far to Mathison, and he wanted Prue to understand the situation before they got there.
‘They’ve never been to Australia, and the outback sounds a very strange place to them. They were worried about the fact that William and Daisy will be isolated, and that as a bachelor I wouldn’t be able to look after them properly, but they were all right when I told them that I was engaged, and that the twins would grow up in a family. I said that the next time I came I’d bring my fiancée with me so that they could meet her too.’
There was a pause. ‘I didn’t know you were engaged,’ said Prue after a moment, and wondered why her voice sounded so hollow all of a sudden.
Or why she was even surprised.
There was no reason why Nat shouldn’t be engaged, just as there had been no reason why he shouldn’t have a wife and children. It was just that, having established that he wasn’t married, she had somehow assumed that he never would be. And if he had a fiancée, why did he need her to help him with William and Daisy?
‘I was then,’ said Nat, answering one of her unspoken questions as she stole a puzzled look at him. His voice had no inflexion whatsoever and it was impossible to tell how he felt about the fact that his engagement apparently belonged to the past.
‘I’m not any more,’ he added when Prue continued to look blank.
In one way, it made it easier for Nat that she knew nothing about Kathryn, but a perverse part of him couldn’t help wishing that she hadn’t made it quite so obvious that she had never taken the slightest interest in him. He was surprised that she had even known his name.
‘You obviously didn’t know that either,’ he commented dryly.
‘No.’ Prue shook her head. ‘The Grangers don’t go in much for gossip,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry,’ she added, and then realised that she sounded as if she regretted not knowing about the break-up of his engagement. ‘I mean, I’m sorry about your engagement.’
‘Don’t be,’ said Nat. They were driving past the airport now, where he had said goodbye to Kathryn before she’d got on the plane back to Perth. He remembered the softness of her kiss, the swing of her hair as she’d turned, the unmistakable relief in the way she’d walked away.
‘It was a mutual decision,’ he told Prue. ‘Kathryn and I have known each other a long time. She’s got a good job in Perth, and we’d deliberately decided on a long engagement so that she could concentrate on a big project she’s working on at the moment. When I got back from London I realised that it wasn’t fair to ask her to give everything up to look after two small children, so we talked about it and agreed to…postpone…the idea of marriage for the time being. It’s better this way for both of us.’
He didn’t sound bitter, but Prue had the impression that he was picking his words carefully, editing as he went along. He could say what he liked about it being a mutual decision, but he was obviously still besotted by her, she decided, unsure why she felt slightly peeved at the idea. Why else would make excuses for her?
She found herself disliking the unknown Kathryn intensely, and feeling obscurely cross with Nat at the same time. He ought to mind that his fiancée had chosen her job over him.
‘It’s
