The Husband She'd Never Met. Barbara Hannay

ribbon, rolling out across pale grassland plains dotted with gum trees and grazing cattle. Above this, the sun was ablaze in an endless powder-blue sky.

      She looked again at her phone. Still no new message.

      ‘Carrie,’ Max said. ‘You can trust me, I promise. You’ll be OK.’

      To her surprise she believed him. There was something rather honest and open about his face. Perhaps it was country boy charm, or perhaps she just needed to believe him. The sad truth was she had little choice...she was in the Outback and she had to drive off with a total stranger.

      Max opened the door of a dusty four-wheel drive.

      He was nervous, too, she realised. Above the open neck of his shirt she could see the way the muscles in his throat worked, but his hand was warm and firm as he took her arm. Her skin reacted stupidly, flashing heat where he touched her as he helped her up into the passenger’s seat.

      A moment later, having dumped the holdall beside another pack in the back, he climbed into the driver’s seat beside her. Suddenly those wide shoulders and solid thighs and all that Outback guy toughness were mere inches away from her.

      ‘Just try to relax,’ he said as he started up the engine and backed out of the parking space. ‘Close your eyes. Go to sleep, if you like.’

      If only it was that easy.

       CHAPTER THREE

      THEY WERE ABOUT twenty kilometres down the road, with the small town of Jilljinda well and truly behind them when Carrie’s mother rang back.

      ‘It was such a relief to find your message and to hear your voice,’ her mum said.

      ‘It’s great to hear you, too, Mum.’ You. Have. No. Idea.

      ‘How are you, darling? Have you really lost your memory?’

      ‘Well, yes. Some of it, at least. The more recent things, apparently. I can remember all about Sydney, and about you and my friends, but I have no memory of meeting M-Max, or coming to Queensland.’

      ‘How very strange. It must be extremely upsetting, dear.’

      Carrie’s stomach took a dive. She’d been hoping her mother would tell her this was all a terrible mistake.

      Now, clearly, the impossible was not only possible, it was true. She was married to Max, an Outback cattleman.

      ‘Yeah, it’s very upsetting,’ she said. ‘It’s weird.’

      ‘And Max said this happened when you fell from a horse?’

      ‘Apparently.’ Carrie didn’t add that she had absolutely no memory of ever learning to ride a horse. The situation was bizarre enough, without giving her mum too much to worry about.

      Just the same, she heard her mother’s heavy sigh. ‘I always knew something dreadful like this would happen to you out there. I warned you right from the start that you should never marry a cattleman. The lifestyle is just too hard and dangerous, and now this accident proves it.’

      A cold wave of disappointment washed over Carrie. She’d been hanging out for maternal reassurance, or at the very least a few motherly words of comfort.

      ‘I don’t feel too bad,’ she felt compelled to add. ‘My headache’s just about gone. But I have to go to Townsville for more tests.’

      ‘Oh, dear.’

      Carrie sent a sideways glance to Max. Clearly her husband wasn’t in her mother’s good books and she wished she knew why. Was it something he’d done? Or was it merely because he lived in the Outback? She wondered if he’d guessed her parent’s negative response.

      ‘Are you in an ambulance?’ her mother asked next.

      ‘No.’ Carrie felt cautious now as she explained, ‘I’m with Max. He’s driving me to Townsville.’

      ‘Oh.’

      Carrie didn’t like the sound of that. Oh. It reinforced all the fears and doubts she’d been battling ever since Max had walked into her hospital room. Now she’d virtually handed herself over to a complete stranger, who was also apparently her life partner, her lover.

      In the car park he’d given his word. ‘Carrie, you can trust me, I promise. You’ll be OK.’

      She wanted to trust Max. All evidence pointed to the fact that he truly was her husband, so she needed to trust him. And as far as she could judge he had a very direct and honest face, although right now he shot her a sharp, frowning glance, almost as if he’d guessed the tenor of her mother’s message...

      ‘I suppose Max hasn’t said anything about—?’ Frustratingly, her mum stopped in mid-sentence.

      Carrie frowned. ‘Said anything about what?’

      ‘Oh... I—I—I’m sorry. Don’t worry, dear. I—I spoke without thinking.’

      Mum, for heaven’s sake.

      Beside Carrie, Max was very still, his eyes focused on the road ahead, his strong tanned hands steady on the steering wheel.

      ‘Is there’s something I should know, Mum? Just tell me.’

      ‘No, no, darling. Not now. You shouldn’t be stressed at a time like this. You should be trying to relax. Ring me again after you’re safely in Townsville. After you’ve finished with the tests.’

      Carrie hated being fobbed off. Her mum had been on the brink of telling her something important. ‘But what did you mean? What don’t I know?’

      Her mother, however, would not be coerced.

      ‘I’ll say goodbye for now. Take care, Carrie. I’ll be thinking of you and sending my love.’

      Then silence. She’d disconnected.

      Carrie gave a soft groan, dropped the phone back into her lap, and felt her uneasiness tighten another notch.

      * * *

      Here we go, thought Max. The Dragon has fired her first flare.

      He kept the thought to himself, clenching his teeth to hold back a comment. Carrie had enough to deal with right now.

      Beside him, she sighed. ‘Am I right in thinking that I often feel angry or frustrated after a phone conversation with my mother?’

      He sent her a sympathetic smile, but she looked so tired and confused he wanted to do a hell of a lot more than smile. His instincts urged him to pull over to the side of the road and take her in his arms. He wanted to ease that furrow between her fine brows, press a gentle kiss to her forehead, then another on the tip of her neat pointy nose, before finally settling on her sweet lush lips.

      Yeah, right. Like that would solve anything.

      Instead, he gave a shrug. ‘I guess you realise I’m not Sylvia’s dream son-in-law?’

      ‘Mum claims she warned me about life in the bush.’

      Max nodded. ‘That started from the moment we met.’ He’d never meant to think of his mother-in-law as The Dragon, but three years of poorly veiled hostility could stuff with a man’s good intentions.

      Carrie’s eyes were wide. ‘So my mum was against it, but I married you anyway?’

      He chanced a quick grin. ‘You were stubborn.’

      Then he quickly sobered. He’d only told Carrie half the story, of course. Right now she innocently assumed that all was rosy in Max-and-Carrie Land—the nickname they’d given their marriage in happier times. And this morning he’d assured her she could trust him. Which was true, but her accident had left him walking a fine line between the truth and the way he wished things could be. The way they should be.

      Now, as he drove