Out of the Ashes Page 2

  "Step back, please," he said with no additional greeting.

  Alexis moved to one side, taking Jody with her. "He's still alive," Jody said, wriggling out of her mother's grasp to peer over the ranger's shoulder as he squatted to get a closer look at the koala.

  Then he moved even closer. He began to speak reassuringly to the little animal.

  Alexis was stunned by the warmth, the sympathy, in his voice. It was hard to believe this was the same man who had almost shut his door in their faces.

  "That's right, mate, we'll take care of you. There's nothing for it, though. We're going to have to bundle you up in this bag until I can put you in a cage for the trip back to the park. No worries, though. You might be a bit crook now, but we'll have you climbing trees again in no time." Mathew reached out to touch the koala, frowning when it didn't try to escape.

  Jody couldn't see the frown, but she explained the koala's lack of response anyway. "He knows you're trying to help," she told Matthew. "He'll let you."

  Matthew could feel the little girl right behind him. She was almost leaning against his back. He wanted to snap at her and tell her to stand clear, but he couldn't make himself do it. She was so concerned, and he couldn't make himself add to her unhappiness. He sat back on his heels and opened the sack, reaching in for a pair of thick leather gloves. "I'm going to have to take him back to the Chase. We can care for him there and see what his problem is. He won't want me to move him, and koalas can be quite nasty when they're disturbed. You'd both better wait on the porch.''

  "But he knows me," Jody said. "He'll feel better if I'm here."

  Alexis reached for the little girl's hand and tugged her toward an opening in the scrub. "Come on, honey. You'll need to do as Mr. Haley says."

  "But he knows me!"

  Alexis did the only thing possible under the circumstances. She picked Jody up and started toward the house. Matthew turned to watch her go, reluctantly admiring the way she had taken charge of the situation. She seemed almost too slight to bear the burden of the little girl's weight, but she managed without complaint, like a woman who had always managed alone. For the first time he wondered what circumstances had brought her here, and why she was making her home in this godforsaken spot on an isolated island in the Southern Hemisphere.

  Then he turned back to the koala, all thoughts forgotten except how he was going to rescue the animal.

  On the porch, Jody tried to wriggle out of her mother's arms. "But I didn't want to leave," she said for the fourteenth time.

  "Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to." Alexis set her daughter down but wisely didn't take her hands off her. "You know that. Sometimes you have to do what other people tell you because you're not always right."

  "I almost always am."

  "You almost always think you are," Alexis corrected. "Now, can I trust you to stay here without disturbing Mr. Haley?"

  Jody's expression was rebellion incarnate, but she nodded, and Alexis knew she'd stay. "I'm going inside to start breakfast. Call me when Mr. Haley is finished." She cupped her hand under Jody's chin. "Come on. Smile."

  "Is that one of those things I have to do?"

  "Tis."

  The smile was reluctant and brief. Alexis bent to kiss the heart shaped face so like her own, then went inside to set the table. It was only minutes until she heard Jody's call. When she emerged from the house, Jody was in the drive, watching the unsmiling ranger transfer the koala from the burlap sack to a wooden cage in the back of his truck.

  "What's wrong with him? Do you know? Will he be all right?"

  Alexis hurried off the porch to rescue the ranger from Jody's questions, but he was already answering them.

  "I'm guessing he'll be fine. You don't need to worry."

  "Can I come see him?"

  Alexis reached Jody just as the little girl noticed a bandage on the koala's shoulder. "What's the bandage for?" she asked accusingly.

  Matthew fastened the lock on the cage before he turned. His eyes sought Alexis's, and she knew he was trying to phrase his answer carefully. "He was bleeding," he said finally, turning his gaze to Jody.

  "What from?"

  "A bullet hole."

  Alexis drew in a sharp breath, and she instinctively reached for the little girl. But Jody had already figured the worst. "Poachers?" she asked, her high childish voice at odds with the adult word. "Was it poachers?"

  Matthew frowned, puzzled. "How did you know that?"

  "Koalas are protected. Only a poacher would shoot one."

  He looked to Alexis for explanation. "She reads everything," Alexis told him, shrugging. "Is she right?"

  He nodded, and concern broke through his carefully neutral expression. "I'm afraid so. This isn't the first koala that's been shot at, and I doubt it will be the last. It takes a ruthless man to kill one. Until we find out who's behind it, you may want to reconsider living way out here by yourself."

  "Why? It's koala skins he wants, isn't it?"

  "Right. But you might as well be a koala if you get between one and the man who wants it. A poacher's bullet could be as deadly to a woman or child as to an animal. And next time our poaching friend might do more than injure his target."

  Chapter 2

  ALEXIS HADN'T ZIGZAGGED her way around the globe to this remote island only to pack and move once more. Somewhere on the long journey between Michigan and Australia, she had made a decision. She was tired of running. She had spent more of her adult years running than standing still.

  Sometimes she had run without moving an inch. Every time she had suffered Charles's abuse she had run to a safe place, a serene haven in her imagination where no one touched her, no one threatened her life.

  Then, later, she would wake up and discover that running hadn't saved anything except her sanity. And sometimes she had questioned even that.

  So somewhere, in some remote Pacific port—the place was no longer important to her—she had decided not to run anymore. She would go to Kangaroo Island, to the Bartow property where no one would know her and no one would threaten her again, and she would stay. She would give Jody the home she deserved, and she would write her next book in solitude and peace.

  "No." Alexis was surprised how good the word felt as she said it. "I'm not leaving."

  The concern was erased from Matthew's face, replaced once more by a chilling blankness. "I'm not certain you understand—"

  "I understand that you're telling me I should leave because one animal has been shot at. I don't think that's enough reason to fear for our lives."

  "You can take my word for it."

  A cool breeze swept through the yard, and Alexis felt it raise chills on her exposed arms. In her month on the island she had discovered that days here seemed to have no relation to each other. One could be warm, the next a reminder of their proximity to the Antarctic. This promised to be one of the latter. The cold air braced her, strengthening her resolve. She ignored the ranger's answer.

  "I've put out some things for breakfast. I'm sure we caught you before you had time to eat. Would you join us, please?"

  The thought of eating with this woman and child gave Matthew no pleasure, but at the moment, responsibility weighed heavier than his own comfort. Alexis had already started toward the house. Angrily he realized he had no choice but to follow.

  "Will the koala be all right in the cage?" Jody asked the two retreating adults.

  Matthew knew the koala was all the excuse he needed to leave. He also knew the excuse wasn't good enough. Not until he had convinced Miss America to take her daughter and go back where she had come from. "There's not much we'll be able to do for him except watch the wound for infection and make sure he eats. Right now he just needs to rest, and he can do that in the cage."

  "I'm going to stay here and talk to him."

  "You need to eat your breakfast," Alexis called behind her.

  "I don't want to eat now."

  Alexis had learned long ago to save her strength for th
e arguments that really mattered. Jody would eat when she was hungry; stubborn as she was, she was incapable of starving herself for any issue. "I hope something will be left when you're ready, then. But if there's not, there's always lunch," she said philosophically.

  There was a snort from the man behind her. Curiously, Alexis glanced over her shoulder. The lanky ranger was closing in on her, his mouth twisted in what almost passed for a smile. For one heart stopping moment everything about him coalesced into a magnificently masculine whole. She had assessed him, body part by body part, facial feature by facial feature. She had even been drawn to the pain behind the cold mask he wore. But she had not seen the entire man, and she had not measured that man's effect.

  The effect sent a slow warmth flushing through her body.

  Facing forward again she sped toward the steps, appalled at her reaction. She waited for the jolt of fear that always followed attraction to a man. She waited in vain.

  "She's an unusual child."

  Alexis had the front door open before she answered. The ranger was right behind her, and she could feel him take the door's weight from her hands. "She's quite bright," she said, not looking at him.

  Matthew imagined that Alexis Whitham was used to questions about her daughter. He also imagined that she had finally settled on the term "quite bright" as a suitably vague explanation of the child's intelligence. He suspected it was a polite understatement, but he didn't intend to stay around long enough to find out. "Mrs. Whitham," he began.

  "Not Mrs.—Miss. But call me Alexis, please, Mr. Haley." Alexis walked down the narrow hallway leading to the sun flooded kitchen that was her favorite part of the old house. She suspected the ranger was following her, although she hadn't looked at him since that one rusty twist of his mouth had warmed her blood.

  Matthew didn't want to call her Alexis, but there was no way to avoid it without being rude. And rudeness wouldn't plead his case. "My name's Matthew," he said, and even to his own ears the words were a coldly issued formality. He might as well have told her bluntly that he'd prefer to be called Mr. Haley.

  Alexis stopped at the round wooden table that stood in the center of the kitchen, breaking up the vast space where once a large family must have crowded at mealtimes. There had been moments in the last month, when she had stood alone washing the few dishes she and Jody had used for dinner, that she had heard echoes of that family's laughter. The farmhouse sitting on the edge of Hanson Bay wasn't haunted by ghosts but by the joys and passions of the people who had once loved and lived here. Sometimes at night, when Jody was in bed and Alexis was all alone, she felt the residues of that human warmth give her the strength to face the next day.

  Now she could feel a different sort of warmth, the physical warmth of a man whose body was alive and throbbing with vitality but whose soul and heart were not. She understood men with hearts of ice; she had known one intimately, and she had barely survived it. Whatever Matthew's reasons for becoming the man he was, there was no place in her life for him.

  Matthew came to stand behind her, speaking as he did. "I appreciate the invitation for breakfast, but I don't want to eat. I wanted to speak to you, and I'm glad the child isn't here to hear it."

  Alexis faced him for the first time since entering the house. She felt the impact immediately. Her muscles tensed, and her chin lifted. "Then at least let me get you something to drink."

  Matthew knew her answer was polite defiance. She was going to structure this conversation to suit herself. "Nothing, thanks. I've had my tea, and I do want to get the koala back to the park."

  "You won't mind if I have something then, will you?" Alexis gestured to a chair. "Please sit down."

  He sat unwillingly, stretching long legs to the side instead of beneath the table. There was nothing casual about the posture, however. His arms were folded across his chest like a man who was holding everything inside, especially anger.

  Alexis wondered how long he would contain that anger before he vented it on her.

  Once again she waited for the fear to come. It didn't.

  Matthew began his persuasion. "Outside you said that one shot wouldn't make you leave."

  Alexis busied herself with the coffeemaker. It was the only truly modern appliance in the kitchen. The stove and refrigerator were both ancient, although they still worked perfectly, manufactured, obviously, before the concept of planned obsolescence. There was no dishwasher, no trash compactor, no food processor or electric can opener. But there were thick slabs of Kangaroo Island gray slate under her feet and enough windows to feel as if the brilliant blue water of Hanson Bay was lapping at the table legs. And there were residues of laughter.

  She spoke finally, wishing she didn't have to hear what he was going to say. "That's right. One injured koala is no reason to turn tail and run."

  He changed tactics. "Do you know how the koalas were introduced to the island?"

  "I haven't been here long enough to know much of anything."

  Matthew felt an unwelcome tug of admiration. Her voice was sweetly feminine, but there was a calm note of determination in everything she said. Jeannie had possessed the same combination of sweetness and unswerving conviction. He knew intimately what he was up against.

  "The koalas aren't native to the island. They were brought here in the twenties. There was a fear they'd be wiped out by hunters on the mainland, a fear that turned out to be nearly realized. Some farseeing individuals brought them here to breed them in pens. Eventually they set them loose in the park to live in the manna gum trees. And that's where they've stayed until recently."

  "They're spreading?" Alexis took a mug down from the cabinet, then turned to Matthew, holding it out in question. "Sure you won't change your mind? I grind the beans myself. Jamaican Blue Mountain."

  The coffee smelled wonderful, so wonderful, in fact, that his resistance wavered. "One cup, then I'll need to go."

  She nodded. No one could resist her coffee, not even this man who obviously wanted badly not to accept anything from her. She filled his cup, then poured one for herself and brought them both to the table on a tray with milk and sugar, choosing a seat across from him.

  Matthew added milk, nodding curtly in thanks before he continued. "Koalas have a very specialized diet. They prefer the manna gum leaves, but they'll also eat pink gum and sometimes mallee or wattle. They drink little or nothing, absorbing the water they need from dew on the leaves."

  "They must need a lot of trees."

  "They do, which is why, even though they're now protected by law, they don't flourish in other parts of Australia. We've destroyed much of our bush land, and with it their habitat." Matthew swirled his cup, inhaling the rich aroma appreciatively before he took his first sip.

  Alexis watched, surprised. For a man with so little emotion in his voice and his features, the frank, sensual appreciation of the coffee was a revelation. Her immediate response was a revelation, too. An unwelcome one.

  She ignored it, refusing to become flustered. "But there are enough trees to maintain the population here?"

  "The park can plant new trees and protect old ones to keep them from being stripped completely until they regenerate. We've had no problem keeping the koalas in the park until a drought last year killed off some of the trees. Unfortunately it was a good year for koalas, and it seems that all the females bred. They began to disperse, a few at a time, to find new feeding grounds."

  "And you couldn't stop them?"

  "Koalas rarely leave their trees except at night. We would wake up in the morning, and there'd be fewer of them. An accurate count was impossible, but we knew we were losing them to nearby areas because we got reports. The decision was made not to retrieve or contain them. We had hoped. . . "

  He thought of all the things they had hoped. That the koalas would be safe, that they would breed and roam free as nature had intended, that man, for once, would favor the needs of another species before his own.

  "You had hoped no one would poach them," Alex
is finished.

  "Koala fur makes a stunning coat. There are people in this world who think it's even more stunning because the animals are protected."

  "Bastards!"

  Matthew's head snapped up. The word—a word he wouldn't have believed she knew how to say—had been spat out like the vilest poison. "Too right."

  Eyes of the palest blue gleamed back at him, fury dotting them with ice. "Then you're sure it is poachers, not just farmers chasing them from their land? Not just hunters who've made mistakes?"

  "A bullet's a bullet, no matter the reasoning that aimed the gun and pulled the trigger. But no, we know there are poachers. There have been reports of gunshots at night, and the screams of the bears as they fall." He hardened himself against the distress that crossed her face. "And in the morning there've been pools of blood. . . "

  He let his voice trail off, purposely letting the image of the slaughtered koalas do its own work.

  "So you see," he said at last, when he guessed the silence had stretched as thin as her nerves, "the poachers are real, and they're hardhearted men. And hardhearted men are a threat to a woman and child alone. If you or your little girl—"

  "Jody. Her name is Jody."

  "If you or she gets in the way of what they want, even by accident, you could be hurt. . . or killed. We're doing what we can to stop them, but there's no way of telling when we'll catch them."

  Alexis had finished half her coffee before she spoke again. "What makes you think they'll be back on this property? We've seen no koalas, certainly none near the house until this morning. And we've heard no gunshots."

  "You border the park. It only makes sense that if the koalas are leaving the Chase, they're moving through your land. They're not easy to see if you're not looking for them. I imagine I could take you on a tour of this property and turn up half a dozen." He forgave himself for exaggerating. It was worth it if he could get her to leave.