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Then she wrapped her arms around Keri in a hug which drove the breath out of her.
    Ben's eyebrows arched upwards. 'Somehow, I think she likes the idea.'
    Releasing Keri, Robyn typed on her keyboard. 'How? When? Where?'
    'Steady on, all in good time,' Ben said good- humouredly, and dropped into a chair so that he was at his sister's level. Then he told her the story he had concocted, about seeing Keri in Darwin on his business trips there.
    'You dark horses,' Robyn typed, adding, 'but I'm thrilled.'
    Which made one of them, Keri thought darkly as she excused herself to go to her room and unpack. Robyn's reaction had made her feel ten times as bad about the deception. It was all very well for Ben to dream up a fake engagement to keep Rick's eyes from wandering, but Robyn would be hurt when she found out the truth. Couldn't Ben see the damage his scheme could do to his sister?
    Despairingly, she looked around the bedroom, but there was no solace there. Ben had given her the white bedroom, a romantic confection of lace-edged pillows and embroidered cotton and lace swathing the bed. A cane sofa was massed with white- embossed cotton cushions. Curtains in the same material added to the romantic effect. It was the sort of room a bride-to-be would feel at home in, and it made Keri feel even more of a fraud. She thrust her few clothes into the nearest drawers and went out on to the veranda through a door opening off her room.
    Gripping the hardwood railing, she stared unseeingly at the garden which separated the main house from the other buildings. She knew that Ben had joined her when her senses began to quiver, and she turned to him, her eyes dark with concern. 'I can't go through with it, Ben. Can't you see?'
    He looked troubled, too, but shook his head. 'It's too late to back out now. Rob is already planning our engagement party.'
    'Oh, no. That makes me feel even worse.'
    He hooked a boot over the bottom rail of the veranda and propped his elbows on the top one. 'If it's any consolation, I feel just as bad. I should have known that Rob would go overboard once she heard the news. She's always thought of you as a sister, so this merely confirms your role.'
    'I suppose we should be glad that it's doing her so much good,' she said dourly.
    He sighed. 'It's an ill wind . . .'
    She turned to face him, her temper flaring. 'That's all very well, but what about when the truth comes out? How will she feel then, knowing we lied to her?'
    'The truth doesn't have to come out,' he said stonily.
    'What do you mean?'.
    'I mean we could make it a real engagement.' He turned towards the garden, seemingly thinking aloud. 'I need a wife. There should be an heir to all this. You love this country and your work is here. It could suit us both very well.'
    'You make it sound so businesslike,' she observed, adding the question which was uppermost in her mind but not, it seemed, in his. 'What about love?'
    At her softly voiced question, he turned the full force of his velvety gaze on her, caressing her with his look until her heart began to hammer in her chest. 'There could be love,' he said. 'I could love you as you've never been loved before.'
    As she realised what kind of love he meant, she shuddered. 'I didn't mean sexual love. The kind of love I meant starts with caring, sharing and respect.'
    His expression became cold. 'I'm afraid they have to be earned.'
    She opened her mouth to argue but a cloud of dust along the driveway announced the arrival of another car. It screeched to a halt outside the main homestead and a man got out. Her spirits sank even lower as the man approached them. 'G'day, little brother. You should have told me we were expecting company.'
    He moved closer and Keri became aware of tension radiating from Ben's lithe body. 'She isn't here to see you, Rick,' he said coldly. 'Keri is my guest.'
    'Keri? My God, is that really you? You've blossomed into a beauty. How about a kiss for Rick?'
    As her stomach muscles clenched in protest at