FIN
When I roll over in my swag and hear a crackling noise? I realise there must've been one hell of a frost during the night.
Either that or it's my body. Voicing complaints over the punishment it's received over the last four days on muster.
Turns out....it's both.
Throwing back the canvas my breath erupts steamily into the frigid, pre-dawn air. Groaning softly, I unfold myself from the blanket layers. Very cautiously stand up and stretch.
It's probably only about three degrees celsius right now. But once the sun comes up it'll steadily....and rapidly climb to around thirty-five.
That's the extremes of the outback for you.
Shivers immediately set in as I quietly shake my boots out. Put them on and roll up my bedding. Best to do it now, before a snake decides to take advantage of the warmth still trapped within.
"Shhhh, baby" I whisper softly to Alinta, who starts to nicker when I approach the bush pen holding the stock horses.
This big, beautiful redhead was my seventeenth birthday present.
Shammy passed a couple of months before that. Having fallen victim to the deadly bite of a King Brown. Bloody things had been scarce during the long years of drought. Yet my dopey boofhead still managed to find one and step on it.
His luck never lived up to his name 😔
When I remove her blanket she nods her head happily. Gives herself a dusty shake off then steps daintily through the opening.
Fluffy however, bestowed a foul look upon me when I rapidly close it behind us. Stopping him from charging out after his sweetheart.
"Girl time, no boys allowed" My finger wagged at him.
He gave a disgusted snort. Then stomped his hooves in a hissy fit when I leapt onto her back.
Twenty minutes later, she's slurping water out of a gnamma hole that's filled after recent rains. While I dangle my legs over the edge of the escarpment....with my eyes tightly shut.
I bit into the apple I'd grabbed from a box in the camp kitchen. Hearing its crunch, she clomped over and blew into my ear before nuzzling it.
"Go on then" Linty consumed the rest in a flash.
I've held out until now. It's as if some deep-seated survival instinct has stopped me from doing this every other morning. So I can deny him his pound of flesh for as long as humanly possible.
When my lids peel apart? The first brilliant orange ray of sunrise bursts over the vast scrub-filled horizon. Sweeps aside the shadows bathing me on the outside.
And slowly evaporates the whirlpool of unspeakable longing. The one that's been sucking away at my insides for what feels like an eternity now.
'I'm home now....I'm finally home' I chant to myself in overwhelming relief.
But my solace is short-lived. Just as I knew it would be.
***
Attention: Finleigh Yindi Killara Reedus
Under instruction from and on behalf of my client Norman Mark Reedus, I do hereby serve you....
He was leaning in wait on a white saloon. Dressed in a three-piece suit and pulling the manila envelope from a briefcase. Not exactly the courier or package I was envisaging?
YOU ARE READING
A Convenient Wife - A Norman Reedus Fanfic Romance
FanfictionSemi-mature. Completed. There is such a thing as being too 'eligible' a bachelor and Norman is finding the price of fame a high one. He thought having a wife would give him some protection. But this is one trip down the aisle that could end up with...
