Outback Wife and Mother

Barbara Hannay

Литагент HarperCollins EUR

A suitable bride?Cattleman Fletcher Hardy welcomed a diversion like Ally Fraser during his tedious business trip in Melbourne. Until he found himself falling for her!He'd learned that city women were unsuited to Outback life when his Parisian mother fled their cattle station. Ever since, he'd vowed his bride had to be born and bred in the bush. So when news came that he'd become the guardian of his four-year-old godson, he returned to Wallaroo, intending to forget Ally for good.He hadn't bargained on Ally turning up at the homestead as little Connor's nanny, determined to prove she could survive the Outback–and make the perfect wife and mother!DADDY BOOMWho says bachelors and babies don't mix?

“Alexandra? What are you doing here?” (#u4e0885a1-bb41-5514-9865-b4907bb7f071)About the Author (#ua1cdd6fc-4992-5909-8304-e111aa6c752d)Title Page (#u1641f136-5b09-575f-beef-4d013e5d43fa)Dedication (#ubd044545-bf13-55c7-8920-8bc5f8235046)PROLOGUE (#u9e4e1d0d-4762-541e-a2a9-02bce33be1dd)CHAPTER ONE (#u73b0bb33-2687-5496-bac0-a97ff179103e)CHAPTER TWO (#u6137d4c1-da0e-538b-9e85-6f875cd1ffba)CHAPTER THREE (#u5637dbe8-7ccf-5722-8671-d8a4dde1cee6)CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

“Alexandra? What are you doing here?”

Clearly Fletcher regarded her as an intruder. How could this happen? He had come to the city and made exquisite love to her and changed her life forever. “You’re surprised to see me,” Ally whispered.

“Surprise is one word I could choose, I guess,” Fletcher drawled, his deep voice rumbling with sarcasm. His eyes traveled—very deliberately—over her slim frame. ”What are you doing here?” he repeated, his voice less harsh this time, as if he had run out of breath suddenly.

“I have brought your little godson, Connor. You’re his guardian now....”

“I know damn well I’m his guardian, but what have you got to do with it?”

“Well, the point is,” resumed Ally, “I’m his nanny.”

The color in Fletcher’s face deepened while, with the worst sense of timing, a kookaburra broke into raucous laughter in a gum tree overhanging the track. “Ally! You can’t be!”

Barbara Hannay was born in Sydney, educated in Brisbane and has spent most of her adult life living in tropical North Queensland, where she and her husband have raised four children. While she has enjoyed many happy times camping and canoeing in the Australian bush, she also delights in an urban life-style-chamber music, contemporary dance, movies and dining out. An English teacher, she has always loved writing and now, by having her stories published, she is living her most cherished fantasy.

Outback Wife and Mother is Barbara’s outstanding debut title for Harlequin Romance

-we just know you’ll love her heartwarming style, so look out for more from her in the future!

Outback Wife and Mother

Barbara Hannay

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

For John Dow,

who was my father and my first hero

PROLOGUE

MUMMY was crying again.

Lying in his bed, the boy could hear her muffled sobs and his father’s pleading voice in the next room. ‘But, Vivienne, you mustn’t go. You can’t leave us.’

He could see the friendly silhouette of his teddy bear on the pillow beside him, but not even his favourite toy could help him feel safe or happy. Not when he could hear the desperate sadness in his mother’s voice.

‘I feel so—so stifled here in the outback,’ she sobbed. ‘I think I’ll go mad.’

Eventually, he pulled the pillow over his head to shut out the frightening voices...

Then with the first creamy fingers of dawn, his mother crept into the ro