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‘When the ring is found, I’ll marry you any day
you
choose.’

‘Great, let’s drink to that.’ He walked through to the lounge and came back with glasses and wine. ‘I’m glad that’s settled.’

‘But you don’t know if it will be found?’ Serenity protested with flushed cheeks.

‘It will be found,’ he answered confidently, touching his glass to hers. ‘To our future, Serenity.’

‘You’re impossible,’ she exclaimed, but she drank the toast.

He laughed jubilantly. ‘Exactly what my mother calls my father, a good omen, because they’ve always been very happy. Talking of my parents, they’ll want to be here for the wedding, so I’ll ring them tonight. My father will want to make the arrangements and he has a special flair for organising splendid occasions, so be assured that your wedding will be like no other. ’ He bent his head and kissed her. ‘Now that is the last kiss I will give you until the ring is found. Who would you like to have as guests for the wedding?’

‘You're going too fast,’ Serenity spluttered. ‘Find the ring first.’

He pulled a notebook from his pocket. ‘Names and addresses, please, phone numbers if you have them, because when this ring is found they will have to be flown in. I will brook no delays.’

Somehow Serenity found herself giving Barbie’s and Robbie’s names, then Dr Saveny and his wife, and the Matron, and several others.

‘Now off to bed. Paleface, I’ve got a lot of work to do and hours on the telephone.’

She left him writing in his notebook. Didn’t he want to kiss her goodnight? Apparently not. At the door she turned. ‘Thank you for making it so easy, Hudson.’

‘Speak for yourself, it’s not easy for me.’ But his smile had all the old charm. Then he started writing again.

She went to bed, her mind in a turmoil, excited and scared in equal parts. Cam had prayed that the ring would be returned, so that if it came back her marriage would be blessed, if it didn’t. . . no, she wouldn’t think about that. It was out of her hands now.

Hudson didn’t kiss her the next morning either—and she wanted to be kissed. He had said not till the ring was found, so when was it going to be found?

‘My parents are flying home, they'll be here at the weekend,’ he informed her as she put his breakfast in front of him. ‘We’ve got a lot to get through this week. We start the muster this morning; the calves must be marked and weaned over the next few days. A bullock must be chosen for the barbecue, and the wood got ready. My father was very specific in his instructions, only
matai,
that is black pine, to be used for cooking the steaks; the coals retain the heat and give the meat a subtle flavour. And he wants the famous Kokatahi Band—they played for the Queen when she came to the West Coast. He wants nothing but the best for the wedding.’

‘They’re pleased with the news?’ she asked nervously.

‘Delighted.’

‘You told them about the ring? No ring, no wedding.’

‘Yes, I told them. Now we’ve got a big day on cattle work, let’s get at it.’

They didn't only have one big day; they had four big days working with the cattle, mustering the riverbed, drafting and marking and weaning the calves, and she hardly saw Hudson alone all week, and he never kissed her, not
once.
He seemed preoccupied, obsessed with the work, remote from her, and spent every spare minute on the phone.

On Friday night he announced he was off to Christchurch for the weekend and dressed in his city best he seemed a suave and sophisticated stranger.

She stood by his car to say goodbye, hoping he would say why he was going, or that he would miss her. If he was meeting his parents, why didn’t he take her?

‘Cam’s spending the day with you tomorrow. Your first day on Milo. Be careful and have a good time.’

He drove off leaving her forlorn and depressed, and unkissed. Apart from his conversation at breakfast on Monday he had not mentioned the wedding, nor even that he was doing anything extra to find the ring. Was he just waiting for someone to drop it into his lap? Or maybe he didn’t care any more. Was he bored already? Was he driving to spend the weekend with Madeline? Some previous engagement he had with her?

She walked slowly down to Sarah Tarrant’s house, ignoring Bambi’s attempts to play with her. She was too miserable. She had promised Tessa to babysit the children and it was nice to feel she could repay a little of the kindness Tessa had given her. Oh, was she just a
gullible
fool? Was Hudson the hunting type of male and the conquest less important than the chase? She had been such a push-over.

She loved her time at the old house but when Tessa and Lee came home she refused to stay the night, and hurried back to fling herself on her bed in floods of tears. How could she ever have expected to hold the love of a man like Hudson Grey? He was an experienced man of the world. Had he been just amusing himself with her? If so, she had been a
pathetic
lump, being so honest with him, sharing thoughts she had never expressed to anyone before. Had he been laughing all the time, amused by her naive ideas on love and sex and marriage?

Saturday was spent with Cam. Serenity had so looked forward to her first long ride on Milo, picturing herself riding with Hudson, but now she was glad that he was miles away on the other side of the mountains. Milo was a fantastic horse, full of fire and spirit and she was glad, too, that she had to concentrate her whole attention on him, as she galloped beside Cam towards Fisher’s Gorge where they were to have their picnic.

‘Glad to see the colour back in your face, Serenity. You looked a bit woebegone when I arrived. Missing Hudson?’

‘No, I’m not,’ Serenity said staunchly gathering her pride about her.

‘Along here’s the hot springs,’ Cam announced as he swung down from his saddle. ‘You can enjoy sitting with one foot in hot water and the other in the ice-cold Haupiri. There was a time when they discussed turning it into a tourist attraction, but I’m glad it didn’t come off. Imagine this place filled with hoards of litterbugs.’

‘Awful,’ Serenity agreed, looking at the steep-sided mountain gorge and the towering Mt Elizabeth soaring above them.

‘Are things well between you and Hudson? Sorry I haven’t been able to catch up on you this week.’

Serenity hesitated, then it all came spilling out, about the marriage proposal, about being Sarah’s granddaughter. ‘I said I’d marry him if the ring was found, Cam. Was that an awful thing to say, like tossing a coin?’

‘Not at all like tossing a coin, you’re just handing the decision over to a higher authority.’ His bright blue eyes smiled warmly at her.

‘But what about his parents?’ she cried anxiously. ‘I’m terrified. What if they are like the Bellamys?’

‘They are not in the least like the Bellamys. They will accept you for what you are, a darling girl. They will respect Hudson’s judgment, and his choice of wife. Make him happy and you’ll make them happy.’

‘You make it all sound so easy,’ she said doubtfully, wanting reassurance.

'I
t is easy,’ he told her. ‘Remember you’re Sarah Tarrant’s granddaughter. She was highly respected in this district. Don’t be scared of his father, he’s got an excellent sense of humour and a splendid sense of the ridiculous. You’ll like him, that’s a promise. Anyone who meets him is richer for that experience, and better yet, no one is ever the poorer for it. Does that make you feel better?’

‘You always make me feel better,’ Serenity smiled. ‘You know I used to be so sure of myself and confident, but since I’ve arrived at the Haupiri, I’ve been so silly, not knowing whether to go or whether to stay, and then hesitating about accepting Hudson when I need him so much. I hope I’m not going to become permanently dithery.’

Cam laughed, ‘You’re not the type. You’ve been through a tough time, that’s all. Go and change and soak all your cares away in the hot springs.’

Next morning she wandered about the house restless and unsettled. It was so lonely without Hudson, unbearable. She caught Milo and saddled up. She would ride down the Seven Hundred and look at the huge project Hudson and his father had undertaken to bring hundreds of acres of swamp land into healthy pastureland. She’d read about it in a farming magazine and they had described it as real ‘tiger country’, and she wanted to see how they had tamed and cultivated it.

Hours later, heading for home, she saw Lee galloping towards her. Reining in beside her he said, ‘I didn’t think of you riding in this direction on a newly broken horse. We’ve been scouring the countryside for you. Hudson is furious that you were out on your own on Milo.’

‘Huh! He’s home is he? He needn’t have worried about me, Milo has been a perfect angel.’

Lee turned to ride with her. ‘No, he’s not home, he’s been ringing from Christchurch at least a dozen times. He’s been stirring things along over there, setting up a plan to find your ring. I'm to pick up the boys and take you over the hill. I’ll say this for Hudson, when he gets activated he’s hard to stop, and the impossible only takes him a little longer.’

‘What do you mean?’ Her eyes were sparkling.

‘The wool, he’s going to search the wool clip tomorrow. I bet he’s been driving them bananas over there. The insurance company has given him permission to hire some pro’s to scan the wool, and the stock and station agents have given him one day to use the woolstore, you’ve never heard the likes of it. He says he knows it’s there and he’ll find it tomorrow.’

Milo, as if sensing her urgency, broke into a gallop and outdistanced Dicer up the last long stretch to the stables.

With a glowing face she flung herself from the saddle, and hugged the horse. ‘I love him, I love him, and he loves me, Milo.’

‘Throw a few things in a case; we’ll be staying overnight. I’ll go and put Hudson out of his misery. He’s been picturing you dragged by the stirrup, or drowned in the Haupiri. Never known him to lose his cool before, became quite abusive when we couldn’t find you.’

All the way over the alpine pass her heart was singing. She was going to Hudson.

Lee commented, ‘That ring must be worth a mint, we’ve had full staff on it twice. When costing is done, I’ll bet it would have been cheaper for Hudson to have bought you a new one.’

They went to the enormous woolstore in the morning, and Serenity’s eyes widened at the thousands upon thousands of bales of wool in orderly lines. She stood watching them set up the sheets of hardboard on wool- bales and waited with nerve ends tingling for the bleep of a scanner to announce the ring had been found. All day the team worked on the tables, pulling the wool across, waiting for it to be scanned, then piling it into bins for the wool storemen to rebale. They had to be out by five o’clock when the security alarms would be reset, and although Hudson had narrowed the choice down to fifteen bales it looked like being a close thing.

Strangely, as the afternoon wore away, everyone got more hopeful rather than less. When Hudson’s friend from the DSIR came in about four with the largest scanner ever imported, all work stopped and the excitement was intense.

‘Glad to see you, Alan,’ Hudson grasped his hand and shook it vigorously. ‘We’re counting on you, time’s running out.’

‘I warned you, we’re still testing its capacity. I don’t know if it will work on wool. Glad to have the opportunity to test it,’ Alan warned him. ‘Now, we’ll run over the outsides of these unopened bales first, and see if we can get hold of something.’

Everyone waited breathlessly as the first bale was scanned, then the next, also with no result. Only one to go. On the very last side the scanner went mad and so did the team.

‘Keep calm till we get in there. It could be anything. Rip it open Hudson,’ Alan ordered, his eyes bright with excitement.

As the wool spewed out the bleeper kept echoing and Serenity, with pulses racing, thought she had never heard a sweeter sound.

Exultantly, Hudson handed her the ring and kissed her while everyone cheered. ‘Your wedding is Wednesday, the day of the barbecue. It’s all arranged.’

‘That’s the day after tomorrow,’ Serenity gasped. ‘How did you know you’d find it?’

‘I knew,’ he grinned wickedly. ‘I said there’d be no delay, and why was I so sure? Hold out your hand, Serenity.’

As she thrust out her hand with the ring on it, Hudson took a box from his pocket and flicked the lid open, ‘Snap.’

She stared down at the two identical rings, then looked at him. ‘You were going to cheat if you didn’t find it,’ she accused.

‘Of course,’ he smiled triumphantly. ‘Did you think I’d let anything get in the way of making you my bride? Nothing will spoil our wedding day, nothing will spoil our marriage, certainly not a little tuppenny ring.’

She couldn’t help laughing with him, yet her heart was overwhelmed by his gesture . . . not counting the cost.

Wednesday dawned cloudless and fair, a perfect day for her wedding. The huge marquee was erected on the lawn, and the Canadians arrived by bus, friends and relations by plane and cars, and Barbie was there to help her dress.

‘Oh, Serenity, you look divine, a real dreamy bride, just exquisite. And that Hudson of yours, a real man, just what the doctor ordered ... my doctor.’

‘Oh, you and Robbie,’ Serenity smiled at her. ‘How wonderful to have you here. I still can’t believe it.’

‘You’d better believe it. I wouldn’t have missed it for worlds. I’ve never put in a morning like it, watching the sheep dogs working and the agility of the horses, and those cattle, they shook the ground when they thundered past. The Canadians are tickled pink at being included in such an occasion. They’re just loving it, the best day of the whole tour, they’re all saying, and that’s only the morning. Well, everyone’s so relaxed and friendly—they can’t help smiling, me too.’

‘Some days are diamonds,’ said Serenity, smiling too.

As Serenity came out on the steps on the arm of Robert Blair, who had claimed the privilege of giving the bride away, she heard the chatter and the laughter die away. She looked away to where the lake sparkled blue like a jewel in the sunshine, that’s where they had met, early one morning. She walked confidently forward to take her place by Hudson, where the sun filtered down through the giant trees and the chime of the bell-birds filled the air.