Hearing the vehicle labouring up the track to their isolated farm, Grace detached the dozing toddler. He seemed contented enough. If he needed more, he could certainly wait until after John left. Hank rarely ventured through the front door, so a single button would suffice to close her blouse.
Lifting Sam to her hip, the slender young woman walked to the screen door. "I'll get it, John," she called on the way. "It'll be Hank, right on time as usual. You just finish getting ready."
She pushed the screen door open with her free hip and stood there. It was indeed Hank's truck pulling up in their driveway. As the dust clouds subsided, the driver's rusty side door creaked open and their wiry neighbour climbed out. Leaning his tanned forearms on the car door, he exchanged a wave with the petite good-looking girl in the doorway jiggling the sleepy toddler. They both knew John would come bustling out any second now.
Both sets of curious eyes swung behind Hank at once. A dusty yellow four wheel drive vehicle towing a huge empty horse trailer was following in Hank's dusty wake. It pulled up abruptly behind his truck.
After a flurry of activity in the front seat, a tall elegant woman in her late thirties in a brief halter-neck top, shorts and sandals climbed out. Clutching a flat wicker basket and a glass jar, she quickly approached Hank. "Please. Can I use phone?" Grace heard her call on the run. The urgency was apparent, and her eastern European accent quite thick.
He shrugged his shoulders and let two leathery fingers indicate Grace. As the woman turned and hastened to the porch steps, he ran his eyes up and down her long bare legs approvingly.
As the woman reached the top of the steps, Grace felt her attention being eerily commanded. The stranger was a classically beautiful European dark blonde with high cheekbones and the pale mesmerising blue eyes that were locking onto hers. It was almost like she alone was party to some silent, intense beckoning that sang to her very soul. She felt an utter sense of fascination start to well up.
The spell was broken when John swore loudly inside. Snapping her head around, Grace saw he had dropped his carton of cold beer. When she turned back, the woman's alluring eyes were once again staring into hers, almost serenading her.
"I need vet. Soon," came the pleading words. A captivated Grace could only meekly run her round brown eyes around the striking face.
"Who on earth is that, Grace?" boomed the deep voice inside, making her again jump back to reality.
"Eva," she repeated the distraught woman's prompt. She kept her eyes inside the house while listening intently to the limited smattering of English.
"I drive all day. My puppy, he stop drinking. Is doctor near? Puppy's mother die. I don't want puppy die," she heard.
Grace quietly relayed the message to John. She lowered her head, trying to avert the striking blue eyes as she added. "Come inside, Eva. Let's see if we can help." The thin lips of the stately woman grimaced as she squeezed past with her basket and jar.
Before turning, Grace looked upwards at the sky. It was still so warm out, considering it was a half hour to dusk. There wasn't a cloud above. The thought struck her that it would be such a lovely and warm night outside tonight. With a parting wave to Hank, she followed her in and gestured her towards the lounge. John's voice yelled from the kitchen.
"Grace, the nearest vet's at Derbyville," the bad news came. "But being Saturday, I reckon it's probably closed. Try calling them if you want, but I make it six thirty now. Plus they're over seventy kilometres away of course."
The tall, sturdy farmer strode noisily into the room and used a nod to acknowledge the haughty stranger. A quick stoop of his hefty fair-haired frame and he was kissing his beautiful young wife and son goodbye. Halfway out the front doorway, he paused. "Hank may drop me back late tonight. But if we go on too late or drink too much, we may bunk down at Roger's all night. If so, I'll get a lift back first thing tomorrow morning. Okay?"
"Fine by me," Grace replied. Tonight was his reward. He had worked a hard couple of days installing the French doors in their master bedroom. They were the new means of access to their newly-created area of paradise - a large, newly grassed courtyard bordered by a post and wire fence. Twenty metres square, an open gate provided access to a trail into the nearby forest she loved so much. Proudly sitting right in the middle was their only piece of outdoor furniture - a new outdoor sun-bed with a thin mattress base.
Grace had also felt glad John was taking time off to mix with mates on the neighbouring remote properties. She loved the comments he brought home from them, about how lucky he was to land such a beautiful-looking city girl. Somehow though, she was starting to feel a surge of impatience that only disappeared when she finally heard the rattle of Hank's truck moving off. Returning from the door to the intriguing woman, she felt herself again marvelling at how physically attractive she was.
"Eva, sorry. We're alone now. It's finally quiet," she murmured, caught up by the woman's allure. Despite the brief casual attire, Eva had the air of a countess about her. Her short blonde hair was neatly combed off her high forehead, and her bare flawless skin was a light golden brown. A good twelve inches taller than Grace's four foot ten, she had an almost hourglass figure.
The toddler stirred from his sleep, rubbing his eyes wearily on her hip, Grace glanced down. "Oh Eva, this is Sam incidentally. And I'm Grace," she offered as introduction.
"Grace, my English not good," Grace heard the broken reply. "Please. I show you."
Eva pulled back the cloth on the basket supported on her long legs. Lying on its side was a small puppy the size of a mobile phone, obviously weak and not moving. Grace watched her open the glass jar and fill the eyedropper inside with some of the milky contents. Forcing the tip into the tiny mouth, she squirted a minute amount inside. It all weakly flowed straight back out.
"I see," Grace softly empathised, sitting next to her as she watched. She ignored the sleepy tot onto her lap, jiggling him to encourage him to stay asleep. The tiny animal's eyes were closed. "Oh, look at it," she added. "So cute! But it'll die if it doesn't drink something soon. We should try something with a teat. I have a small baby bottle somewhere in the kitchen."
The woman gave her a polite but confused look. Grace realised her lack of English had meant Eva had probably picked up precious little of what she had just said.
"Let me look for a bottle," Grace slowly summarised instead. "I'll also ring the vet."
"Thank you," the woman replied, her eyes almost mesmerising Grace's for a few seconds before they re-focused on the tiny creature. Weary child on her hip, the barefoot young woman padded off to the kitchen.
Emerging with the toddler fast asleep a short time later, she passed over a doll-size bottle. "I tried the vet. There's no answer," she announced solemnly.
"Thank you. So kind," Grace heard the grave thanks as she let her dark brown eyes become captured by the icy pale blue ones staring. She was only able to break away when Eva's gaze lowered to transfer some of the jar's milky contents into the bottle.
