The Rouseabout Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

looks,’ he grated, ‘and it’s nothing to do with me!’
    He shot her a glance and her soft lips Armed. She wasn’t done with him yet, she vowed silently. He deserved something in the way of retaliation, the way he was treating her.
    ‘Thanks for picking up the range for me,’ she murmured sweetly.
    His lips twitched at the corners, but not with humour. ‘All part of the service, not my idea. There’s nothing wrong with the electric stove at home that I can see. Of all the crazy ideas! First time I ever came across a cook who carted her stove around the country with her!’
    ‘Maybe you haven’t met many of the species,’ she murmured. ‘Anyway, what else could I do with it?’
    ‘Sell the damned thing. Give it away!’
    At least, she thought, she had provoked him into speech. She affected a hurt note in her voice. ‘Oh, I couldn’t do that! It’s the only prize I’ve ever won in my life!’
    ‘Dad put me in the picture about it.’ His voice was deadpan. ‘According to him, you’re Miss Supercook — quite a reputation to have. Let’s hope,’ he drawled, ‘you’ll be able to live up to it!’
    The beast, she fumed inwardly, the hateful sarcastic beast! She would need to disillusion him on that score or she would really find herself in difficulties. She took a deep breath. ‘Actually, I’m not really — ’
    ‘Three hundred miles to go! I take it you’ve never been down to our part of the country, Lanie?’ Sandy’s voice, louder than she had previously heard it, cut across her soft tones.
    ‘Never.’
    ‘It will be all new territory to you, then. A change of scenery as well as work?’
    ‘I guess so,’ she agreed. ‘A kind of holiday,’ and out of a corner of her eye caught Jard’s satirical glance. What was the matter with the man? A gorgeous-looking male like that must have been utterly spoiled by women, she mused. In view of the cooking situation on the farm, he was unmarried. Small wonder! No girl of today would put up with his autocratic ways. This particular girl loathed him, and that was just what he was in need of by the look of things, a level-headed girl like herself who happened to be immune to his forceful domination.
    The odd thing was that, hating him as she did, she had this awareness of his nearness, and she had to admit that his attraction was breathtaking. So lithe and muscular, with eyes that said more than his lips (unfortunately for her). And whoever started that mistaken idea that only dark men were attractive? She stole a sideways glance towards him as he swung the vehicle into a long line of city traffic. The clinging fabric of his cream body-shirt revealed the rippling muscles of broad shoulders and his strong profile was worth looking at (that was, of course, if you didn’t happen to know the man!) Oh yes, he was good-looking enough to be any girl’s dream, but not this girl! She admitted he had something, a male charisma that was shattering. Even she could fee l it, but fortunately she was forewarned against that particular snare.
    Swept by conflicting emotions, she had been all but oblivious of her surroundings. Now, however, she realised they were taking a motorway leading out of the city and bright with its centre strip of flowering shrubs, scarlet bottle-brush and delicately tinted blossoms of oleanders. Presently the suburban homes of pastel shadings clustered on either side of the toi-toi -bordered road gave way to sundried paddocks with grazing sheep and cattle, and soon they had left the motorway to take the main road south.
    Lanie made no effort to break the silence that had fallen as they left the city boundaries behind. Why should she bother to talk to a man who was so definitely antagonistic towards her? After a while she became aware of Sandy’s enthusiastic tones.
    ‘You’ll en j oy the climate down our way, Lanie. No clouds in the sky, just the clear sunshine day after day. Once you’ve tried our air up in the hills you’ll never want to