Partner for Love. Jessica Hart

stay here yourself?’

      He made it sound such a ludicrous idea that Darcy, who hadn’t got as far as proposing anything other than proving to Cooper Anderson that she had no intention of meekly giving in to whatever he suggested, sat back in her chair and pushed the chinking bracelets defiantly up her arm.

      ‘Why not?’ she said.

      CHAPTER TWO

      ‘DON’T be ridiculous!’ said Cooper impatiently. ‘You can’t stay here.’

      ‘I don’t see why not.’ Darcy was looking mutinous. ‘It’s my house, isn’t it?’

      He sucked in his breath, obviously having trouble controlling his temper. ‘If this is a way of trying to get me to force up my price, you can forget it, Darcy...sorry, Miss Meadows.’

      ‘I’m not interested in the money,’ she said with a glare at his sarcastic reminder of the way she had mistaken him for an employee. ‘I’m interested in doing what Uncle Bill would have wanted, and that doesn’t include handing it over to you as soon as you wave a cheque-book under my nose!’

      ‘Are you sure you want to turn your back on that kind of money?’

      ‘I loved Uncle Bill,’ Darcy said fiercely. ‘That means far more to me than anything, and if you thought I came out here just to bump up the price of some crummy little outback station you’ve got another think coming!’

      ‘Is that what you think Bindaburra is? A “crummy little outback station”?’

      Darcy shifted a little uncomfortably at the sting in his voice. ‘I know it didn’t seem like that to Uncle Bill,’ she admitted sulkily. ‘I only meant that the property isn’t likely to be of any interest to me financially.’

      ‘Bindaburra covers over ten thousand square kilometres,’ said Cooper coldly. ‘It’s a very valuable property,’ he went on, ignoring Darcy’s dropped jaw. ‘You should consider that before you claim not to have any financial interest. Personally, I think you would be mad not to accept my offer to buy your share from you. You’re unlikely to be able to sell it as easily with a hostile partner already in place.’

      ‘I had no idea it was that big,’ said Darcy, struggling to convert kilometres into miles to try and work out just how big ‘big’ was. Not that she needed to bother. The answer was obviously huge.

      ‘Perhaps now you’ll realise how impossible it would be for you to stay!’

      Darcy lifted her chin stubbornly. ‘No.’

      ‘Bindaburra can’t support someone who just sits around looking decorative,’ said Cooper with a scathing look, and she bristled.

      ‘I don’t just sit around! I’m used to working.’

      ‘Oh, yes?’ He didn’t even bother to hide his disbelief. ‘Doing what?’

      ‘I’m an actress.’

      ‘Oh, an actress ... that’ll be handy!’ Cooper was predictably sarcastic. ‘I’m talking about real work.’

      ‘Acting is work,’ she protested. ‘It’s much harder work than most people realise. It only looks easy.’

      ‘It’s still not exactly relevant experience for running a cattle station, is it?’

      Darcy took a defiant sip of her tea. ‘I could learn.’

      ‘We’re not talking about a part in some play!’ A muscle hammered in Cooper’s lean jaw. ‘Bill worked hard all his life to build up Bindaburra into one of the finest properties in this part of Australia. I’m not going to let you throw it all away. Quite apart from anything else, I’ve got my investment to consider. That’s why I am now running Bindaburra, and I’m more than capable of running it without assistance from you!’

      ‘And I’ve got my inheritance to consider,’ she retorted. ‘What about all these other properties you said you owned? How do I know that you won’t be so busy that you’ll end up neglecting Bindaburra?’

      Cooper clenched his teeth together. ‘There’s no question of that. I have managers who deal with problems on a day-to-day basis, and I’ve already made arrangements to come and live here permanently.’

      ‘That was a bit premature, wasn’t it? You could at least have waited to see what I wanted to do!’

      ‘It never occurred to me that you would want to do anything other than sell,’ he snapped. ‘I certainly didn’t think you would drop everything and hotfoot it out from England to see exactly what the old man had left you!’

      ‘It wasn’t like that,’ Darcy protested, stung.

      ‘It looks like that from where I’m standing. You and your family ignored Bill for forty years. It was only when he went over to England and looked you up that you suddenly discovered that he owned a cattle station and you started making a fuss of him. Oh, there have been plenty of letters since then but it’s funny how you’ve only kept in touch since you thought you might get something out of him—as you have.’

      Darcy banged her mug down on the table so hard that tea slopped over the edge. ‘I’ve told you, I had no idea that Bindaburra was worth anything!’

      ‘So you say. I’ve only got your word for that.’

      ‘Well, you’ll just have to take it, then, won’t you?’

      ‘I will if you’ll take my word that Bill intended to leave Bindaburra to me,’ said Cooper in a hard voice.

      There was a hostile silence as they glared stubbornly at each other. It was Darcy who spoke first. ‘It sounds as if you’ve got other properties. Why do I have to sell up just so that you can have another one?’

      He hesitated. ‘Bindaburra’s special,’ he said after a moment. ‘I’ve waited for this property a long time. I want all of Bindaburra, and I don’t care what I have to do to get it. If that means paying you a fair and generous price for something that’s rightfully mine, then that’s what I’ll have to do, but I’m not prepared to play silly games with you about it.’

      ‘I’ve got no intention of playing games,’ said Darcy, angrily shaking back her dark hair. ‘What makes Bindaburra rightfully yours? If Uncle Bill had wanted you to have Bindaburra, then he would have left it to you, but he didn’t. I came out here not because I wanted to see what I’d “got out of him”, as you put it, but because I felt I owed it to Uncle Bill to come. If he left Bindaburra to me, it’s because he wanted me to have it, not you, and I’m not going to casually hand it over on your say-so, no matter how fair and generous you think your offer is!’

      Cooper crunched his empty beer can in his hand with an angry exclamation. ‘Fine words, but why don’t you face facts? A cattle station is no place for someone like you. It’s a hard, uncomfortable life, and you wouldn’t last five minutes out here on your own.’

      ‘Perhaps, but I’m still not going to be bullied into selling,’ said Darcy, draining her tea and pushing back her chair to stand up. ‘You’ve made it very plain that you don’t want me here, but you’re not going to get rid of me that easily. I may well decide to sell, but I’ll make up my own mind in my own time, and until I do I’m going to stay, so you’ll just have to lump it, won’t you?’

      

      In spite of her brave words, Darcy lay awake wondering what on earth she had got herself into. It was wet and miserable, the house was cold and dingy and she was stuck in the middle of nowhere with a man who apparently both disliked and distrusted her. If she had any sense, she would take whatever Cooper Anderson was offering and head back for civilisation as soon as she could.

      No, Darcy corrected herself gloomily. If she had any sense she wouldn’t have come at all.

      Cooper was right—there was nothing for her here. She was an actress—she