Twelve #2
‘I can’t see any of Reggie’s stuff,’ Rowena murmured as they walked by their second-last table.
‘They’re over there.’ He pointed to the row of tables running in a horizontal line just in front of the poles that formed the aisle at the back of the pavilion. ‘The blue ribbon tables.’
‘Ah.’ She smiled. ‘Of course.’
Once they’d shuffled past the last entries, they headed to the winners’ tables. Reggie’s scones, her fruitcake and her Christmas marmalade were sitting pretty with their fat blue rosettes.
‘Wow, they look impressive,’ Rowena said as she grabbed her phone out of the back pocket of her jeans and snapped off some pics. ‘Here.’ She picked up the marmalade and shoved it in his hand. ‘Smile and say cheese. It’s for Reggie.’
Lachlan did as she asked, chuffed not only by the fact Rowena had taken a keen interest in his grandmother’s cooking endeavours but that she obviously liked Reggie enough to do something so thoughtful.
‘I see all the red ribbons belong to Madge,’ Rowena murmured, a small smile on her mouth as she quickly texted the photo to Reggie, who was surprisingly adept at technology for her age.
‘Yep.’ Lachlan pressed his lips together to keep himself from also smiling. ‘My grandmother is on a high.’
Rowena laughed as she pocketed her phone. ‘Poor Madge.’
‘Oh god, speaking of …’ Lachlan straightened and whispered, ‘Incoming.’
Her eyes went a little large but she plastered a smile on her face as Lachlan greeted his grandmother’s greatest rival. She was a little stooped, had frizzy white hair and walked with a slight limp.
‘Afternoon, Mrs Smyth.’
‘Hello, Lachy, love.
Despite the competition between Madge and Reggie—which was usually only confined to the peak show-cooking season—Lachlan had always had a soft spot for the other woman.
She was made from the same mould of tough, resilient outback women from which his grandmother had sprung, but she was more softly spoken and well … ladylike.
She also had a very kind heart.
Madge smiled at Rowena. ‘Is this your girlfriend?’
‘Oh, no,’ he hastened to assure her as Rowena went very still beside him. ‘This is Ro, the new nurse at the hospital. She’s staying at Blairgowrie for a while.’
‘Yes, right. How lovely.’ Madge smiled again, extending her hand to Rowena, who took it and shook. ‘You’re the girl that saved Silvano.’
‘Yes!’ Lachlan jumped on that subject quick as flies on a sheep’s bum to distract from the girlfriend gaffe.
‘Oh, it’s so lovely to see a young woman of your capability and talent moving to the outback and setting up house here. We need more young women, Lachy.’ Her gaze implored him for a few seconds before returning to Rowena. ‘We need more babies.’
Lachlan could see Rowena blinking like an owl on steroids in his peripheral vision. Jesus, there was an entire minefield of gaffes in that sentence. ‘I see you took out first prize in the chocolate muffins this year.’
She gave him a kindly if somewhat aggrieved look, but it had veered the subject into safer territory as Madge took the bait. ‘Only because your grandmother didn’t enter, I suspect.’ And she laughed good-naturedly.
‘Nonsense, you give Reggie a run for her money every year, and that blue for the marmalade was yours last year.’
‘Hers was definitely better this year, though,’ she said, as scrupulously fair as ever. ‘But—’ She leaned in conspiratorially and stage whispered, ‘Don’t tell her I said that.’
Lachlan laughed. ‘My lips are sealed.’
Madge nodded approvingly, her eyes sparkling. ‘Bring this one around to mine for a bite to eat one day.’ Her gaze zeroed in on Rowena. ‘I know Reggie’s lamb is second to none, my dear, but I’m no slouch in that department either, and I’d love to cook you a meal.’
‘I’d be delighted to, Mrs Smyth,’ Rowena confirmed. ‘Thank you for the invitation.’ She smiled then and earned a full ten-watter in return.
‘Good.’ Madge patted Rowena’s arm. ‘Gotta go, my great-great-granddaughter’s baby goat won a blue ribbon and she wants to show me.’
They watched Madge shuffle off, her body swaying a little from side to side, compensating for her arthritic hips. She hadn’t got far when Lachlan felt Rowena practically vibrating beside him. Alarmed, he turned to find her trying to suppress laughter, a hand clamped over her mouth.
She looked so comical, he laughed. ‘What?’
‘I thought she must have been some horrible, scheming troll the way Reggie’s been muttering about her and cursing her name, hell bent on defeating her.’ She did laugh then, and it was so lovely and light it wound its way around Lachlan’s middle. ‘But … she’s such a sweet old thing.’
‘She is a very sweet old thing,’ he confirmed. ‘But Reggie loses all rationality when it comes to these blue ribbons. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there where show cooking is concerned.’
‘Oh god.’ Her hand slid to her stomach. ‘After all this food, I’m starving. You fancy a dagwood dog?’
Lachlan’s stomach growled again in response. ‘You’re speaking my language.’
‘Then the Chair-O-Plane.’
‘Fine by me. You ride, I’ll watch.’
Flapping her arms, she made chicken noises, but Lachlan just grinned. ‘C’mon. The best place for dogs is at the southern end of sideshow alley.’
*
Twenty minutes later, Lachlan laughed as an unsteady Rowena stepped down from the Chair-O-Plane platform and held onto the railing as she took the four steps to the ground. She followed her fellow riders out the gate and crossed to him. His laughter petered out when he saw her paleness.
‘That doesn’t look like it was fun,’ he said as she stopped in front of him.
She shook her head, her swing-ruffled hair bouncing a little at the movement. ‘Actually, it wasn’t. I feel a little queasy.’
‘You look it. I thought you loved this kind of thing?’
‘I do. I do …’
Which wasn’t very convincing. Lachlan looked around him, plotting the quickest route to the toilets should the sudden urge to lose her dagwood dog arise. ‘Are you going to puke?’
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s not bad, just so … weird for me.’
‘Maybe you’re out of practice? How long has it been since you’ve been on any rides?’
She squinted and he could practically see her mental calculations as she tried to pinpoint a date. ‘Probably five or so years, I guess.’