Read Online Walking to the Stars by Laney Cairo - Free Book Online Page B

the wide paddock, get them some decent feed."
    "Oats?” Nick asked around a mouthful of porridge. “Seeding today?"
    "Next week,” Josh said authoritatively. “We need some more rain, and I want the soil to warm up a little from the hail before I put anything else in. Your garden's ruined."
    Nick shrugged. “Frost would have killed it all if the hail hadn't. I'm going to have a bath then go to bed."
    He should've been exhausted, being up all night, but the sunlight of the clear still day shone around the edge of his faded curtains, and Nick found himself lying in bed, wide awake, listening to the quiet splash of Samuel washing in the hand basin.
    He heard the thud thud of the crutches, and the scuffle of Samuel's feet on the boards, then the creak of his bed.
    Nick rolled over, bunched up his pillow a little more and tried to ignore the niggling feeling of there being something fundamentally silly about the two of them sleeping in separate beds when they could have been together, sharing warmth, keeping each other company.
    Damn, he was horny.
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Chapter Five
    The Merc was a beautiful car, in atrocious condition but still beautiful, with enough space in the engine bay that Samuel could maneuver his way around it, despite his leg cast being in the way.
    She was a forgiving car, obviously, able to run with no brake fluid and with a clutch in bits. Samuel flushed the radiator, cleaned the air filter, and tightened the timing chain. Now it no longer sounded like whatever it was that Josh had said it sounded like.
    He'd done other things, too, repaired one of the engine mounts where it had shorn off with a strand of fence wire, and replaced the blown fuse for the headlights with one from the air conditioner unit. It wasn't likely that the air conditioner still worked anyway, and driving at night with no lights must have been exciting.
    The fuel gauge didn't work, possibly just because the oil in the tank had solidified with the cold night, but Samuel doubted it. The oil obviously solidified often, if the smoking and charring on the underside of the fuel tank was any indication that Talgerit lit fires under the fuel tank to melt the fuel. It probably was sheep fat, or tallow of some kind.
    He could have gone with Nick, back to the camp, to have another go at getting the generator to work, but Samuel had chosen to stay at the farm with the car. The seal on the repaired injector wasn't right, and he felt so jangled inside, more than a little strung out from the broken nights, and just plain frustrated, and some time alone seemed like a good idea.
    The van rattled back into the yard before sunset, and when Samuel looked out of the kitchen window, Talgerit was getting out of the passenger side of the van.
    Harold barked from the back verandah, and Samuel could hear the banging and thudding of boot cleaning and removal, then the kitchen was full of the sharp smell of unwashed male, and Talgerit slapped Samuel's back and bent over the fire.
    "How's the baby?” Samuel asked as Nick walked into the room, a chunk of meat in his hands.
    "Baby is just perfect, feeding well, and Girdagan is recovering smoothly,” Nick said, as he put the bundle of cloth-wrapped meat on the draining board. “Ed sent us some roo. Think I'll cook it up with some parsnips and potatoes, and some dried corn. Want a meal, Talgerit?"
    "Sounds good,” Talgerit said. “But I can't stay, I just came to get the car."
    "I fixed it a bit for you,” Samuel said. “Hope you don't mind."
    "Depends,” said Talgerit, grinning. “If I'm not happy, can you break it back the way it was before?"
    "Not a problem,” Samuel said, not quite willing to take his eyes off the hunk of meat yet. He had doubts about eating kangaroo.
    "We're going fishing,” Talgerit said. “Down to the coast. You all want to come? We'll catch fish, have a big feed, then sleep on the beach."
    "Samuel? You want to go?” Nick asked. “I won't, I really need to