Chapter 5
When Claire had been in hospital, her and Alex had lost a lot of business with the horse training and needed to get more. They decided to spend a couple of days in town, with an all terrier motive, and do just that. They booked two rooms in town for three nights. Through the day they went about getting business and on the first night, Alex snuck along to Claire's room were they slept together. The second night Claire went along to Alex's room but on the third night, Alex got drunk at the bar. Claire was fuming. She'd gone up to her room to wait for him and she ended up falling asleep. He never showed up. Alex had got so drunk and started talking about this girl he'd been seeing. The blokes ended carrying him up to his room. Claire woke up the next morning, alone. She went down for breakfast. A couple of blokes who had been drinking with Alex went over to Claire. "Hi Claire, you're friends with Alex right?" "Yes" she said, contemplating the answer to that while showing a confused look to where this was leading to. "Who's this woman he's seeing?" Claire was furious with Alex. He'd obviously spent the evening talking about her, but what did he actually say? Did they know the truth? "I don't know, why? What did he say?" was her response "Alex said he was in love!" everyone laughed and another man said "Alex Ryan, in love? I don't believe it" "How's he feeling this morning Claire? He was pissed out of his head last night" "how would I know? What else did he say?" Claire was thinking. Alex would rather drink all night with these blokes, rather then spend their last night together, but he did say how he loved her, but then, he'd spent the whole night getting drunk. "Not much, he wasn't making much sense by then; we had to carry him to his room" Claire decided Alex needed to be left alone, especially if he was feeling so bad. She packed her bag quickly, checked out and went home. Claire was angry and everybody noticed. "Claire, what happened? Didn't you have a good time? What's he done to you?" Tess asked when she followed Claire upstairs. "Alex didn't do anything to me; he was too busy getting drunk!" Claire said as she flung her clothes into the drawer. She didn't want to talk so she rushed off and started working. Tess was left to wonder what had happened. She had tried, but if Claire didn't want to talk, there was no way she could try to get it out of her.
Alex woke up with a blinding headache. He felt awful. He tried to remember what happened the night before. Claire had gone upstairs and he was going to follow but somebody made a comment about him going to bed early and without a lady. He didn't want anyone to get suspicious so he stayed for a drink, and then another and another. He didn't remember anything else after that. He managed to get up and walk along to Claire's room to apologise, but there was no answer. He went downstairs and they told him that she'd left already. He wondered why. His head hurt too much and so just put it down to the fact that she had to sheer all the sheep within three days and had left to get on with it. Alex drove back to Killarney and slept off his hangover.
Claire didn't know what to do. She was thinking hard. She hadn't heard from Alex all day. Was he ok? Of course he was, this was Alex, and she wasn't going to waste her thoughts on that when she knew fairly well that he was perfectly fine minus a hangover. But why hadn't he come over, or at least called? Why would he though? Nobody knew they were seeing each other, let alone engaged, and if he did come over, what was she going to do? She couldn't exactly have a go at him, because everyone would probably find out about them then. This was pointless! He wasn't there, and it didn't look like he was going to show up any time soon either. She just got on with her work.
The next morning the phone rang as everybody was about to leave. Claire just stared at it, but Tess picked it up. "Hello? ... Hang on.Claire it's for you" "who is it?" she said trying to not care "Alex" "I'm busy" and with that she stormed out.
The sheep had to be sheared so they got to work. Claire was on a roll and doing really well until Alex popped into her head and she cut her hand. "Aghh" "Claire what's wrong?" Meg asked "nothing, I'm fine!" "Claire that looks pretty bad. Why don't you go and fix it up and we can finish off her, I'd say we just about done for the day anyway." Claire thanked her and went into the house. She ran her hand under the tap, and bandaged it up. She was tired so decided to have a shower. She went upstairs and before she went in the bathroom she thought she heard somebody downstairs. She shouted down but got no reply. She assumed it was Tess. "Tess, if that's you, I'm getting in the shower" still no reply. She went in the bathroom and got undressed when there was a knock on the door. She placed a small towel around her and opened the door slightly. Alex pushed it open further and walked in, pinning Claire against the wall. She looked hot in that towel. Claire was still mad at him though and tried to pull away. "Get off me" she said. He just kissed her. "I said get off me" he smelt so good. He pulled away slightly but didn't let her go. "What's up with you McLeod?" he asked. "Me, you're the one who'd rather spend your time getting drunk then in bed with me, your fiancé!" Alex couldn't believe that "No, why on earth would I want that?" "you tell me, you're the one that didn't show the other night" "oh, well what was I supposed to do, the blokes thought I was off to bed early and you know that's not like me unless I gotta girl, but I couldn't tell them I did because they'd know it was you." Claire felt stupid now. She kissed him and apologised. He moved in closer again as Claire started to undress him. They both got in the shower together, barely coming up for breath.
By the time everybody else had come in, Alex and Claire were in the office sorting out arrangements to collect a horse after the sheering had been done. They were also arranging for Alex to go around that night, which he did. They had a fantastic time. It was great to be in love they both thought. They had never been happier. Claire loved waking up in Alex's arms as much as Alex loved waking up holding Claire close to him. He would watch her sleep and pull the hair from her face. He thought of their future and how they would have kids and he would play with them and show them how to run a farm and Claire would show them how to ride and train the horses. He would love and take care of Claire. He would kiss and cuddle Claire and make her so happy. He would take the kids up in the chopper and spend Sundays round his parents. They'd all go swimming and he and Claire could go to, minus the clothes though. He'd take Claire away on romantic weekends while aunty Tess and Uncle nick looked after all the children and he would carry Claire over the thresh hold once they were married, no matter how much she struggled. He didn't even want to be with another woman anymore. He was completely a one woman man now and he was the happiest he had ever been and he wanted everyone to know. Teasing Claire was great and he had loved the sneaking around at the start but now he wanted everybody to know she was his and he wanted to be able to be with her whenever he wanted and not come up with an excuse anymore.
The sheering of the sheep had been done and Alex and Claire were stopping off in Gungellan after collecting a horse so Alex could pick something up. Claire waited in the truck for him. She sat there with a smile on her face as she watched Alex run off. He was so handsome. They had just been talking before they stopped. Alex said how he wanted to tell everybody about them. Claire had been feeling the same way. She couldn't bear to be without him and not be able to have a go at him when she was angry. She was glad they'd been able to spend the time alone together but that's not what she wanted anymore. They decided to tell everybody soon. Alec had also said how everyone at Drovers was invited to spend Christmas dinner at Killarney. Liz wanted to cook a big dinner and Alex had encouraged her. He wanted to spend Christmas with Claire. Nick could spend it with Tess and it would be great fun. Claire was pleased. Christmas day had been the day Claire and her father would spend most of the day alone, not worry about the farm but having a good time. Last Christmas was hard enough as it was without him, but she had been able to throw herself into her work. This year wouldn't be so easy to do as Tess knew how things were and she'd found out how Claire had used to spend Christmas and wouldn't let her get away with it this time. She couldn't believe Christmas was only a week away now.
Claire's thought were interrupted by the man that had walked up to Claire's window. It was Peter. "Hello Claire" she couldn't believe it, she wanted to hit him and scream at him but just stared at him in shock. "Claire, I want to now if the babies mine!" he couldn't see her stomach so didn't know she'd lost the baby. She had recovered from the shock now. "Go away Peter, your not welcome around here, how you can show you face around here I don't know. You nearly killed me." "That was not my fault Claire" "not your fault, you got in my way and nearly killed me, the person you were supposed to love, yet was blackmailing. I don't know how you can live with yourself." "I just want to know if the babies mine or not" "Peter go away" "I cant, I love you and I want to have this child with you" Claire had not thought about the baby in a long time and a cheek came running down her cheek. Peter tried to comfort her and hold her arm, but she pushed him away and shouted at him to go. "I don't love you. You killed my baby!" she was crying now. It was at that point Alex had appeared furious and punched him. Claire got out of the Ute and started to run away. She couldn't bare the sight of Peter. If it wasn't for him, she might still be pregnant, yet she didn't want to have his baby. She just had to get out of there. Alex chased after her. Tears were running down her cheek. Her eyes were red and she didn't know what she was doing or where she was going. He grabbed her and shook her to make her pay attention to him. She couldn't see though all of the tears. He pulled her close and held her tightly. She started to feel better straight away. She knew it was Alex and he would never let Peter hurt her again. Becky drove along at that point and stopped as she saw who was there and the state Claire was in. She ran over to Alex and Claire. Alex sat Claire down and told Becky to take her home. HE went over to peter and punched him again. He was so angry! He told Peter to piss off. He had no right to be there and no reason. Peter left for good that time. Alex went into the pub and had a drink, then another. He was so angry at Peter and couldn't bear to think about the state poor Claire was in. she was unrecognisable. Claire had completely broken down. He didn't know what to do. He had another drink. It was Nick who was called to get him. He wasn't surprised. He had been at drovers when Becky showed up with Claire. Claire had stopped crying and just had a dazed look on her face. Nobody knew what had happened, only that Peter had been there and Alex was furious. Claire went to her room and lay on her bed. Tess went up to her room. She hated seeing Claire like this as much as Alex did. She just laid there next to her sister. Claire eventually started to talk. She explained what had happened, how all these feelings of hate appeared. She was so shocked to see peter. It was a part of her life she thought shed never have to deal with again. Having said all of that and had Tess listen to her. She felt so muck better. The fact that she had seen Peter again had sunken in. it was more of the shock than anything that had got her upset. She was ok now though. She just needed a good nights sleep and she would be fine, which she was. Claire was strong. She had just been really emotional.
The next day Claire went to see Alex. She was better and had gotten over it. She actually felt stupid more than anything. Alex looked worse off. He had a hangover. They were alone when Claire arrived so the first thing she did was kiss him. "Thank you for sticking up for me" Alex was waiting for the bit about how she could handle herself though, but it never came. He just held her close "are you alright, I don't think we'll be seeing him again" "I'm fine; I don't know what happened to me. I was just so shocked to see him and was full of rage and I just completely lost it" he touched her face and Claire was so relieved she was with him. No more was said about it. They did talk about telling everyone about the two of them getting married, but decided to wait a bit longer, at least until this whole Peter thing was forgotten about.
When Claire had been in hospital, her and Alex had lost a lot of business with the horse training and needed to get more. They decided to spend a couple of days in town, with an all terrier motive, and do just that. They booked two rooms in town for three nights. Through the day they went about getting business and on the first night, Alex snuck along to Claire's room were they slept together. The second night Claire went along to Alex's room but on the third night, Alex got drunk at the bar. Claire was fuming. She'd gone up to her room to wait for him and she ended up falling asleep. He never showed up. Alex had got so drunk and started talking about this girl he'd been seeing. The blokes ended carrying him up to his room. Claire woke up the next morning, alone. She went down for breakfast. A couple of blokes who had been drinking with Alex went over to Claire. "Hi Claire, you're friends with Alex right?" "Yes" she said, contemplating the answer to that while showing a confused look to where this was leading to. "Who's this woman he's seeing?" Claire was furious with Alex. He'd obviously spent the evening talking about her, but what did he actually say? Did they know the truth? "I don't know, why? What did he say?" was her response "Alex said he was in love!" everyone laughed and another man said "Alex Ryan, in love? I don't believe it" "How's he feeling this morning Claire? He was pissed out of his head last night" "how would I know? What else did he say?" Claire was thinking. Alex would rather drink all night with these blokes, rather then spend their last night together, but he did say how he loved her, but then, he'd spent the whole night getting drunk. "Not much, he wasn't making much sense by then; we had to carry him to his room" Claire decided Alex needed to be left alone, especially if he was feeling so bad. She packed her bag quickly, checked out and went home. Claire was angry and everybody noticed. "Claire, what happened? Didn't you have a good time? What's he done to you?" Tess asked when she followed Claire upstairs. "Alex didn't do anything to me; he was too busy getting drunk!" Claire said as she flung her clothes into the drawer. She didn't want to talk so she rushed off and started working. Tess was left to wonder what had happened. She had tried, but if Claire didn't want to talk, there was no way she could try to get it out of her.
Alex woke up with a blinding headache. He felt awful. He tried to remember what happened the night before. Claire had gone upstairs and he was going to follow but somebody made a comment about him going to bed early and without a lady. He didn't want anyone to get suspicious so he stayed for a drink, and then another and another. He didn't remember anything else after that. He managed to get up and walk along to Claire's room to apologise, but there was no answer. He went downstairs and they told him that she'd left already. He wondered why. His head hurt too much and so just put it down to the fact that she had to sheer all the sheep within three days and had left to get on with it. Alex drove back to Killarney and slept off his hangover.
Claire didn't know what to do. She was thinking hard. She hadn't heard from Alex all day. Was he ok? Of course he was, this was Alex, and she wasn't going to waste her thoughts on that when she knew fairly well that he was perfectly fine minus a hangover. But why hadn't he come over, or at least called? Why would he though? Nobody knew they were seeing each other, let alone engaged, and if he did come over, what was she going to do? She couldn't exactly have a go at him, because everyone would probably find out about them then. This was pointless! He wasn't there, and it didn't look like he was going to show up any time soon either. She just got on with her work.
The next morning the phone rang as everybody was about to leave. Claire just stared at it, but Tess picked it up. "Hello? ... Hang on.Claire it's for you" "who is it?" she said trying to not care "Alex" "I'm busy" and with that she stormed out.
The sheep had to be sheared so they got to work. Claire was on a roll and doing really well until Alex popped into her head and she cut her hand. "Aghh" "Claire what's wrong?" Meg asked "nothing, I'm fine!" "Claire that looks pretty bad. Why don't you go and fix it up and we can finish off her, I'd say we just about done for the day anyway." Claire thanked her and went into the house. She ran her hand under the tap, and bandaged it up. She was tired so decided to have a shower. She went upstairs and before she went in the bathroom she thought she heard somebody downstairs. She shouted down but got no reply. She assumed it was Tess. "Tess, if that's you, I'm getting in the shower" still no reply. She went in the bathroom and got undressed when there was a knock on the door. She placed a small towel around her and opened the door slightly. Alex pushed it open further and walked in, pinning Claire against the wall. She looked hot in that towel. Claire was still mad at him though and tried to pull away. "Get off me" she said. He just kissed her. "I said get off me" he smelt so good. He pulled away slightly but didn't let her go. "What's up with you McLeod?" he asked. "Me, you're the one who'd rather spend your time getting drunk then in bed with me, your fiancé!" Alex couldn't believe that "No, why on earth would I want that?" "you tell me, you're the one that didn't show the other night" "oh, well what was I supposed to do, the blokes thought I was off to bed early and you know that's not like me unless I gotta girl, but I couldn't tell them I did because they'd know it was you." Claire felt stupid now. She kissed him and apologised. He moved in closer again as Claire started to undress him. They both got in the shower together, barely coming up for breath.
By the time everybody else had come in, Alex and Claire were in the office sorting out arrangements to collect a horse after the sheering had been done. They were also arranging for Alex to go around that night, which he did. They had a fantastic time. It was great to be in love they both thought. They had never been happier. Claire loved waking up in Alex's arms as much as Alex loved waking up holding Claire close to him. He would watch her sleep and pull the hair from her face. He thought of their future and how they would have kids and he would play with them and show them how to run a farm and Claire would show them how to ride and train the horses. He would love and take care of Claire. He would kiss and cuddle Claire and make her so happy. He would take the kids up in the chopper and spend Sundays round his parents. They'd all go swimming and he and Claire could go to, minus the clothes though. He'd take Claire away on romantic weekends while aunty Tess and Uncle nick looked after all the children and he would carry Claire over the thresh hold once they were married, no matter how much she struggled. He didn't even want to be with another woman anymore. He was completely a one woman man now and he was the happiest he had ever been and he wanted everyone to know. Teasing Claire was great and he had loved the sneaking around at the start but now he wanted everybody to know she was his and he wanted to be able to be with her whenever he wanted and not come up with an excuse anymore.
The sheering of the sheep had been done and Alex and Claire were stopping off in Gungellan after collecting a horse so Alex could pick something up. Claire waited in the truck for him. She sat there with a smile on her face as she watched Alex run off. He was so handsome. They had just been talking before they stopped. Alex said how he wanted to tell everybody about them. Claire had been feeling the same way. She couldn't bear to be without him and not be able to have a go at him when she was angry. She was glad they'd been able to spend the time alone together but that's not what she wanted anymore. They decided to tell everybody soon. Alec had also said how everyone at Drovers was invited to spend Christmas dinner at Killarney. Liz wanted to cook a big dinner and Alex had encouraged her. He wanted to spend Christmas with Claire. Nick could spend it with Tess and it would be great fun. Claire was pleased. Christmas day had been the day Claire and her father would spend most of the day alone, not worry about the farm but having a good time. Last Christmas was hard enough as it was without him, but she had been able to throw herself into her work. This year wouldn't be so easy to do as Tess knew how things were and she'd found out how Claire had used to spend Christmas and wouldn't let her get away with it this time. She couldn't believe Christmas was only a week away now.
Claire's thought were interrupted by the man that had walked up to Claire's window. It was Peter. "Hello Claire" she couldn't believe it, she wanted to hit him and scream at him but just stared at him in shock. "Claire, I want to now if the babies mine!" he couldn't see her stomach so didn't know she'd lost the baby. She had recovered from the shock now. "Go away Peter, your not welcome around here, how you can show you face around here I don't know. You nearly killed me." "That was not my fault Claire" "not your fault, you got in my way and nearly killed me, the person you were supposed to love, yet was blackmailing. I don't know how you can live with yourself." "I just want to know if the babies mine or not" "Peter go away" "I cant, I love you and I want to have this child with you" Claire had not thought about the baby in a long time and a cheek came running down her cheek. Peter tried to comfort her and hold her arm, but she pushed him away and shouted at him to go. "I don't love you. You killed my baby!" she was crying now. It was at that point Alex had appeared furious and punched him. Claire got out of the Ute and started to run away. She couldn't bare the sight of Peter. If it wasn't for him, she might still be pregnant, yet she didn't want to have his baby. She just had to get out of there. Alex chased after her. Tears were running down her cheek. Her eyes were red and she didn't know what she was doing or where she was going. He grabbed her and shook her to make her pay attention to him. She couldn't see though all of the tears. He pulled her close and held her tightly. She started to feel better straight away. She knew it was Alex and he would never let Peter hurt her again. Becky drove along at that point and stopped as she saw who was there and the state Claire was in. She ran over to Alex and Claire. Alex sat Claire down and told Becky to take her home. HE went over to peter and punched him again. He was so angry! He told Peter to piss off. He had no right to be there and no reason. Peter left for good that time. Alex went into the pub and had a drink, then another. He was so angry at Peter and couldn't bear to think about the state poor Claire was in. she was unrecognisable. Claire had completely broken down. He didn't know what to do. He had another drink. It was Nick who was called to get him. He wasn't surprised. He had been at drovers when Becky showed up with Claire. Claire had stopped crying and just had a dazed look on her face. Nobody knew what had happened, only that Peter had been there and Alex was furious. Claire went to her room and lay on her bed. Tess went up to her room. She hated seeing Claire like this as much as Alex did. She just laid there next to her sister. Claire eventually started to talk. She explained what had happened, how all these feelings of hate appeared. She was so shocked to see peter. It was a part of her life she thought shed never have to deal with again. Having said all of that and had Tess listen to her. She felt so muck better. The fact that she had seen Peter again had sunken in. it was more of the shock than anything that had got her upset. She was ok now though. She just needed a good nights sleep and she would be fine, which she was. Claire was strong. She had just been really emotional.
The next day Claire went to see Alex. She was better and had gotten over it. She actually felt stupid more than anything. Alex looked worse off. He had a hangover. They were alone when Claire arrived so the first thing she did was kiss him. "Thank you for sticking up for me" Alex was waiting for the bit about how she could handle herself though, but it never came. He just held her close "are you alright, I don't think we'll be seeing him again" "I'm fine; I don't know what happened to me. I was just so shocked to see him and was full of rage and I just completely lost it" he touched her face and Claire was so relieved she was with him. No more was said about it. They did talk about telling everyone about the two of them getting married, but decided to wait a bit longer, at least until this whole Peter thing was forgotten about.