Claiming the Cattleman's Heart. Barbara Hannay

eyes twinkled. ‘So Daniel brought out your mothering instincts, did he?’

      ‘No.’

      A second later, she regretted her hasty reply. Her denial had been an automatic defence, because she hated to be teased. But it wasn’t the truth. And, for some reason she couldn’t quite name, she felt that Daniel deserved the truth.

      ‘I take that back,’ she said softly. ‘I’m not sure that mothering’s the right word. But he did make me feel—he did awaken my—er—sympathy.’

      He frowned then, and his jaw seemed to lock into a jutting grimace as he stared thoughtfully ahead through the windscreen. Lily wondered what she’d said to make him look so serious.

      Eventually his face relaxed and he turned to her, and she had the distinct impression that he’d made some kind of decision.

      ‘Daniel deserves some well-directed sympathy,’ he said.

      She remembered the way she’d behaved when Daniel had dropped her off on the outskirts of Gidgee Springs. He hadn’t offered any real explanation as to why he couldn’t accompany her any further, and she’d been short with him, almost rude, and now she felt guilty. She felt impossibly curious, too.

      ‘Why?’ she asked, suddenly impatient to get to the bottom of this. ‘What happened to him?’