The Wedding Challenge. Jessica Hart

and wrenched off the top before belatedly remembering to offer Bea one. She shook her head and he sat down at the table, turning the bottle between his hands. It went against the grain to pass on Nick and Georgie’s private business, but she and Emily really needed to know the situation so that they didn’t upset Chloe unnecessarily.

      ‘Nick’s gone to try and persuade Georgie to come home,’ he said.

      To his relief, Bea didn’t offer sympathy or sit down next to him and encourage him to tell her the whole story. Instead she swept the carrots off the board into a saucepan and picked up an onion.

      ‘Why has…Georgie?…gone to America? Is she really working?’

      ‘Oh, yes, she’s working all right. That’s part of the problem. Georgie’s an actress. She’s making a movie somewhere in Texas, and she’s got a starring role.’

      Bea froze and put down her knife very carefully. ‘We’re not talking about Georgie Grainger by any chance, are we?’

      ‘You’ve heard of her?’ Chase took a pull of his beer. ‘Georgie would be pleased.’

      Bea opened her mouth and then closed it again. Georgie Grainger was not yet in Nicole Kidman’s league, but comparisons were already being made. She had had a small part in a film that had turned into the unexpected success of the previous year, breaking all box office records, and for a while the media couldn’t get enough of her.

      Bea remembered seeing her being interviewed on a television chat show, and how envious she had been of her creamy skin and swinging chestnut hair and spectacular green eyes.

      ‘She’s gorgeous, isn’t she?’ she had said to Phil, but he had only grunted and said that he preferred blondes.

      That should have been a warning.

      CHAPTER THREE

      ‘I DIDN’T realise that she was married,’ she said after a moment. Georgie Grainger had seemed so young and so glamorous that it was hard to imagine her as a wife and mother, let alone in a place like Calulla Downs!

      ‘Not many people did. She was told to keep it quiet. Apparently a husband and a baby aren’t the right image for an up and coming star.’ There was a bitter edge to Chase’s voice. ‘Once you’ve made it, a baby is the ultimate accessory, I understand, but when you’re still trying to hit the big time…no, much better to hide them away. They kept telling Georgie that she had a great future. They talked about Hollywood and dazzled her with hints of multimillion-dollar deals. You can see why cooking a roast for the stockmen would lose appeal, can’t you?’

      Only too well, thought Bea, but it didn’t seem tactful to say so. She had never wanted to be a movie star, but she could certainly understand the lure of Los Angeles after Calulla Downs. She’d been here less than half a day and already she couldn’t wait to head back to the bright lights.

      On the other hand, she didn’t have a husband and a small child to think about.

      She went back to chopping onions. ‘Why did Georgie marry your brother if she wanted to be an actress?’ she asked. ‘She must have known there wouldn’t be much scope for her career out here.’

      For a moment she thought Chase wasn’t going to reply. He was brooding over his beer, frowning down into it as if it held the answer to her question.

      ‘She was very young when she met Nick,’ he said eventually. ‘She was just out of drama school and the play she was in folded after a couple of weeks. It seemed then that her career wasn’t going anywhere, and Nick can be very persuasive. He swept her off her feet.’

      When Bea glanced at him under her lashes, his face was stern and set. He obviously disapproved of his brother’s romance. It was hard to imagine Chase sweeping a girl off her feet, she thought. Tapping his watch and telling her to make up her mind would be more his style.

      Unaware of her thoughts, Chase was still talking about his sister-in-law. ‘I think marriage for Georgie was just another role she could play. She saw herself as mistress of a famous cattle station, and was carried away by the romance of it all. She should have known better,’ he added drily. ‘She grew up on a property down south, but I guess she thought it would be different here. It wasn’t, of course. It was just more isolated.’

      He looked at Bea, but she was busy chopping onions and it was impossible to tell what she thought.

      ‘Georgie did try,’ he went on, almost as if he had to convince her. ‘She used to love having parties, and the homestead was always full of her friends, but then we had a bad drought and things were a bit tight for while. Georgie decided that we should get into the tourist business, and spent a fortune we couldn’t afford on all this.’ He waved a hand at the gleaming array of kitchen equipment.

      ‘She redecorated the homestead, built a new wing with extra bedrooms, and insisted on employing a chef, all with the idea of taking paying guests who wanted to experience life on a station, but without getting their hands dirty or sacrificing home comforts.

      ‘It’s been popular, too,’ Chase had to acknowledge. ‘We’ve never advertised, but Georgie had so many friends that word of mouth was more than enough. And then a friend of a friend from her acting days turned up. He’d made it big in Hollywood and he decided Georgie was just the fresh face they needed. Before we quite knew what was happening, he’d persuaded her to fly out to LA and audition for a small part and the whole circus took off from there.’

      ‘Didn’t Nick want her to go?’

      ‘Have you ever seen a picture of Georgie?’ Chase countered.

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Then you’ll know how beautiful she is.’

      His voice softened imperceptibly, and Bea sent him a sharp look. He had sounded as if he disapproved of Georgie before, but now she wondered how he really felt about his beautiful sister-in-law.

      ‘Nick was jealous?’

      ‘Of course he was. Any man would have felt the same.’

      Including him? Bea wondered.

      ‘He could see that she was getting bored out here, though,’ Chase was saying, unaware of her mental interruption. ‘He encouraged her to go back to acting at first, but none of us expected that her career would take off the way it has. Suddenly Georgie’s a star, and everything’s changed. When this new part came up, Nick didn’t want her to take it, and he told her she would have to choose between him and the movie.’

      ‘Oh, dear,’ said Bea. She could just imagine how that had gone down.

      ‘Quite. Georgie’s not the kind of person to give in to an ultimatum like that, and of course they had a huge argument which ended up with her demanding a divorce. She wanted to take Chloe with her, but Nick said that she wouldn’t be able to look after her properly while she was filming, and I think Georgie knew herself that she’d be better here until everything was sorted out.’

      ‘Is that why Nick’s gone to the States? To arrange the divorce?’

      ‘No, he wants Georgie back. He was devastated when she left, but a lot of hard things were said on both sides, and it won’t be easy. He didn’t even tell Georgie he was coming. I’m not sure he even knows exactly where to find her, but he was determined to track her down and persuade her to give him another chance.

      ‘He asked me if I would keep an eye on Chloe while he was gone, but it’s a busy time on the station, so I said I’d do it if he found someone to replace the cook and the governess who’d both left in a huff. They couldn’t cope with the rows. I told Nick we’d had enough prima donnas around here and to make sure that he got someone suitable.’

      Chase looked at Bea. ‘So he gave the job to you and Emily,’ he said drily.

      Bea bridled. ‘Is that what you think we are? Prima donnas?’

      ‘I