The Ultimate Choice

CHAPTER TWELVE

It began as a small wisp of uncertainty, the nagging knowledge that something had been forgotten. Kelly lay in Justin's arms, reluctant to admit anything that might intrude on their wonderful intimacy.

All the barriers Justin had tried to erect between them had disintegrated in the heat of their passion for each other. He seemed to delight in holding her close to him, caressing her softly with his fingertips. It gave her the feeling that she was infinitely precious to him, a possession he would cherish forever. As she would cherish him.

She basked in that thought for many long, satisfying moments. The memory of what had initially prompted her visit to Marian Park filtered into her consciousness. It jolted Kelly out of her delicious languor.

Octavian Augustus the Fourth! That had been the real reason for her coming to Justin. Kelly was swamped by a terrible wave of confusion.

'When do you want to be married?'

Justin's voice was a murmur of deep satisfaction, thrilling Kelly on one level, but raising panic on another. She had to tell him about the ram, but if he misunderstood…

Her arms convulsively tightened around him. Her mind darted in all directions, driven by the need to hold Justin's confidence in her love. She had fought so hard. He had surrendered. Nothing must shake their understanding now.

'Justin…' Her mouth had gone so dry, she had to work some moisture into it. 'I want…I want you to come down and meet Grandpa,' she said, frantically postponing the moment of truth.

He kissed her hair. 'Is it so necessary to tell him straight away that we're getting married?' he murmured, no more inclined to interrupt the magic of their togetherness than she was.

Kelly's brain skimmed over the responses. She could say that they had found Octavian Augustus the Fourth wandering around Grandpa's property, that they had picked him up and were keeping him safe in the kitchen. That…

But she couldn't and wouldn't start her marriage to Justin by telling a lie! That was no foundation for trust and understanding.

Kelly braced herself with all the courage she could muster. 'Grandpa… Judge Moffat… they have a confession they want to make to you,' she said, desperately trying to slide into the sensitive subject as tactfully as possible.

It was not only her and Justin's relationship at stake, but also the future relationship between him and Grandpa and the judge and probably the whole community of Crooked Creek.

Justin lifted his head to look into her eyes with a softly quizzical expression. 'A confession? I don't understand. Does it have something to do with us?'

The hands running over her hips ceased their movement as he waited for her answer. Kelly's heart seemed to thump right up to her mouth. She held him a bit tighter.

'Justin, you're not going to believe this…' There was no good way of putting it. 'I think they will have to tell you themselves,' she said weakly.

His eyes sharpened with a flash of enlightenment. 'They wouldn't have--' The incredulous words clipped off with a dark frown. His chest heaved and fell. 'No! They couldn't! Kelly…' It was clear that he had leapt to the truth and didn't like the taste of it one bit.

'They didn't really steal him,' she rushed out. 'You mustn't think that, Justin.'

'But they've got him. Octavian Augustus the Fourth!' he stated grimly. 'Why?'

'It wasn't really stealing,' Kelly pleaded. 'Grandpa and Judge Moffat took him because of your deal with the Russians. They were going to ransom him back to you…well, not exactly ransom him… but kind of like Rasputin. Make you see reason…'

Justin's mouth thinned and Kelly plunged further into explanation, frantic to appease his wrath. 'Grandpa and the judge have been in the sheep business all their lives. They thought you were being very unpatriotic to sell our best bloodline to the Russians through the ewes. They're old men, Justin. They didn't think straight. And when all the fuss started, they didn't know what to do. Their pride wouldn't let them back down. And they couldn't get Octavian Augustus away with the search going on…'

'So they sent you up here.'

The words were a stinging indictment and a murderous rage suffused his face. He wrenched himself away from her and was off the bed before Kelly could utter a protest. He towered over her, emanating all the ruthless power that Kelly had sensed in him on their first meeting. And it paralysed her, strangling any word she might have said, thwarting any move she might have made.

'Get your clothes on, Kelly,' he commanded with icy, blistering authority.

'No,' she croaked, driven out of her shock by the dire necessity to fight his judgement. 'You don't understand…'

He dragged her out of his bed and set her on her feet. 'I was right when I said I was a fool this afternoon,' he grated, his eyes mincing her into contemptible little pieces. 'Let's not labour the point.'

'But that's not how it is!' Kelly cried in desperate denial.

His face tightened against any plea. 'Don't waste your breath. Or any more time. Get dressed.'

He turned away from her, snatched up the telephone, and punched out some buttons. His curt order for his car to be brought up to the house forced Kelly into action. She gathered up her clothes and took them into the bathroom, momentarily defeated by his pointed admonition not to waste any more time.

Guilt weighed heavily upon her. She should have told him about Octavian Augustus the Fourth sooner… had the search called off…disposed of the problem that was costing so much time and effort and anxiety. It had been crowded out of her mind by other more urgent, more important matters. She had to make Justin understand that. But it was painfully obvious that he was not prepared to listen.

The probability was that, the more she tried to say, the worse the situation would become. The assumption he had leapt to seemed all too credible in the circumstances. She could only hope that Justin would not be able to reject the truth of what they had shared when he had more time to reflect on it.

Meanwhile, there was one thing she had to make clear so that he would not expend his fury on her grandfather and Judge Moffat.

He was dressed when she emerged from the bathroom. A mixture of antagonism and intense bitterness glared at her. Kelly's stomach heaved with nervous apprehension. No way would he let her near him again. Not in his present mood. How she was going to soften him she didn't know…

'Grandpa and Judge Moffat didn't send me up here, Justin,' she said as steadily as she could. 'I came because I… because I wanted to. They didn't think it was a good idea at all.'

'But you knew better,' he lashed at her. 'I give you full marks for persistence, Kelly. You stop at nothing when you want to win.'

The sting of his words goaded her into another appeal. 'Justin, I love you…'

His mouth twisted in savage mockery. 'Don't worry. I'll serve your purpose. And then you can serve mine.'

Kelly flinched at the hard contempt in his voice. 'I never…'

'The car is waiting. And so is your grandfather. Not to mention everyone else who is engaged on a futile and misleading search. We'll have time for more words later. The rest of our lives together.'

He opened the bedroom door and waved her out.

Kelly moved, aware that any more argument was useless. Whatever Justin thought now, at least he was granting her some intercession for her grandfather and Judge Moffat. And that gave her another chance to prove the sincerity of her feelings for him.

The car was waiting for them at the front steps. Kelly tensed as Justin spoke to Roy Farley, but he merely announced his intention to take her home. He did not even mention Octavian Augustus the Fourth. But, to Kelly's leaping apprehension, Justin's face was as pale and immobile as marble when he turned back to her and performed the courtesy of seeing her into the car.

The drive down to her grandfather's house was short in distance but long in dreadful silence. Kelly wanted to ask Justin his intentions, but the expression he wore was too forbidding. He had shut himself off from her before, but this time she felt there was a solid, unbreachable wall around him.

He parked the car beside Judge Moffat's. Anxious to get the worst over, Kelly leapt out and led the way up the veranda steps, down the hallway and into the kitchen. Justin St John followed in her footsteps. As they entered the room, her grandfather and Judge Moffat hastily pushed themselves to their feet. Their faces underwent a wild spectrum of expressions from startled surprise to embarrassed guilt, before settling into stubborn righteousness.

Octavian Augustus the Fourth looked up in mild interest at the sudden bustle of activity around him.

'Justin, I would like you to meet my grandfather…' Kelly began shakily.

Justin nodded curtly, not offering his hand.

'…and his good friend, Judge Moffat,' Kelly finished, shrivelling inside at Justin's unforgiving manner.

The judge cleared his throat, but Justin cut off any speech he might have made. 'It doesn't look as if Octavian Augustus the Fourth has come to any harm. I'll have something to say to you two gentlemen in due course.' His voice was dry and bitter, and didn't brook any argument. He turned to Kelly. 'The search must be called off immediately. Where is your telephone?'

'Just behind you.' She pointed to the wall beside the door where the instrument hung above a handy cupboard surface where messages could be written.

They all watched him lift the receiver down, fearfully wondering what explanation he would give for the ram's presence in Michael O'Reilly's kitchen.

He dialled the number with sharp, incisive movements. It gave the impression he would gladly have jabbed the telephone through the wall. He rapped out instructions with machine-gun rapidity. He made no elaboration on the flat statement that Octavian Augustus the Fourth had been found. The ram would be held at Michael O'Reilly's home until collection could be arranged. The whys and wherefores were not entered into.

He put down the telephone and turned around, a cold, merciless pride stamped on his face. His eyes sliced at all three of them. 'Well, it's a fine conspiracy we have here,' he said in a biting tone. 'Two old men hiding behind a girl.'

The judge's face went red. 'That's preposterous…' he blustered.

'Kelly didn't know a thing about it until she came home from Dapto,' her grandfather interrupted strongly. 'What we did, we did for ourselves. Because what you were doing was wrong. So don't you take it out on her. That ram belongs to this country. So does its progeny. Just because you own it…'

'The reason I'm involved with the foreign sheep breeding programme is entirely on humanitarian grounds,' Justin said with steely emphasis. 'It has the support of our government…'

'I'm against them, too.'

'Grandpa… please,' Kelly begged, recognising the truculent look on his face and desperate to stop him from stubbornly digging his own grave.

'Reckon we've done enough interfering, Michael,' the judge put in with hasty wisdom. ' If Mr St John takes back Octavian Augustus the Fourth, and that is the end of the matter…' he shot a hard, meaningful look at his friend '… I'm ready to forgive and forget.'

'Ah…yes,' Michael O'Reilly murmured, and his face visibly brightened.

The hairs on the back of Kelly's neck prickled. She knew her grandfather and Judge Moffat too well not to sense some hidden understanding behind their words. Had they committed some other crazy mischief as well?

'I wouldn't be wanting to upset Kelly any more,' her grandfather said decisively. 'So I'll say no more. Even though there's a lot more I could say.'

'Thank you.' Justin sliced a mocking look at Kelly. 'I trust my future wife will keep you to your word.'

'Wife?' Judge Moffat echoed in bewilderment. Then his jaw dropped open as Justin slid his arm possessively around Kelly's shoulders.

To her intense mortification, Kelly blushed to the roots of her hair. In her emotional confusion at Justin's blunt announcement, she forgot all about her suspicion that the judge and her grandfather had been up to something else besides taking the ram.

'Kelly!' her grandfather squawked in horror. 'You can't marry a man for a sheep! Not even one like Octavian Augustus…'

'I'm not doing that, Grandpa,' she denied hotly.

He looked confused. 'You're not marrying him?'

'Yes, I am,' she corrected. 'I want to,' she added hurriedly as his face stormed into disapproval.

'I won't have it! I don't care what he does or who he is! I won't have you… you…' He glared at Justin St John as if he were the purveyor of all evil. Before more words came to mind, his expression of rank condemnation changed to one of searching suspicion. 'I know you. I never forget a face. I'm not too good at remembering names any more, but I've met you somewhere before. Where was it?'

'Sixteen years ago you accompanied Henry Lloyd to a hospital room,' Justin acknowledged, a bitter irony threading his voice. 'You came to thank me for saving your granddaughter's life.'

Michael O'Reilly looked thunderstruck. Judge Moffat shook his head as if the whole situation had got completely beyond him.

The charged silence was broken by the sound of vehicles arriving, doors slamming, footsteps pounding up the veranda steps.

'I'll handle this,' Justin stated with calm authority. 'It will be much better if you say nothing at all. Any of you.'

No one questioned his command. All three of them stood dumbly by as Justin effected Octavian Augustus the Fourth's recovery with a minimum of fuss. The ram was taken away. The men who had come departed. Whatever Justin told them apparently satisfied them. The case of the missing ram was closed.

'Well… uh…' the judge rumbled when Justin returned to the kitchen. 'I think I'd better be getting home. All's well that ends well. We must be philosophical about these matters. Leave these young people to their… uh… more private affairs.'

He shot a beetling look at his old friend. 'I'll come around on Monday night, Michael. For our chess game. You can keep me fully informed then.'

Michael O'Reilly's gaze flitted from Justin St John to Kelly and back again, his brow creased with worry. 'Yes. You go on, Judge,' he answered, too distracted to think about chess or anything else. The bombshell that Justin St John had thrown him was set to blow his world to smithereens.

Judge Moffat turned to the erstwhile enemy and swallowed some pride. 'I appreciate your…uh…forbearance, Mr St John. From your point of view, it must have been somewhat galling.'

'When next we meet, I hope it's under more auspicious circumstances,' Justin said drily.

'Certainly, certainly,' the judge concurred, and took his leave without more ado.

Her grandfather broke the silence that followed Judge Moffat's departure. 'Kelly…' His eyes probed hers with deep anxiety. 'Do you really want to marry this man?'

She looked at Justin, who stared back at her with hard intensity, challenging the love she had declared for him.

'Yes. Yes, I do, Grandpa,' she said firmly. 'More than I've ever wanted anything.'

'Kelly…!'

Her grandfather's distraught cry drew her gaze back to him. He was shaking his head in despair. He heaved a deep sigh and turned to Justin.

'I'm an old man. I'd like to see my granddaughter settled happily before I die. Will you make her happy?'

'If it's within my power. I'll give her what I can, Mr O'Reilly. But only Kelly can tell you if her happiness truly lies with me,' Justin answered circumspectly, then slowly added, 'I will never deliberately hurt her. It's far more likely that she will hurt me.'

'You loved Noni Lloyd,' her grandfather shot at him accusingly.

Justin's face tightened into cold hauteur. 'That's true.' He swept them both with a look of glittering bitterness. 'I'll leave you to dissect me in private. Goodnight.'

He was out of the kitchen and down the hallway before Kelly recovered enough from his exit line to fly after him.

'Justin…'

He halted on the veranda. 'You can give up the charade now, Kelly,' he said wearily. 'You've got what you want. Your grandfather won't come to any harm at my hand. Now be a good girl, and leave me alone.'