Father Shaunassey wore a priest’s cassock and a crucifix; otherwise, Maggie would have asked to see his credentials. As it was, she simply stood beside Reeve in the hotel dining room, her face still flushed from the prenuptial episode upstairs, while the holy words were recited.

Cora served as a witness, Eleanor as a grudging wedding guest, and Elisabeth as a delighted one.

The priest pronounced Maggie and Reeve to be man and wife, and Reeve availed himself of the groom’s prerogative: a kiss.

Lips still moist from that, Maggie shook her dazed head in an effort to clear it and marched over to Eleanor.

“We won’t be requiring your services after today,” she said bluntly. “Your passage home to Sydney will be paid and, of course, you’ll be given any wages due you.”

“But I’ve another month!” Eleanor sputtered. Maggie smiled broadly. “Then you shall have leisure time. How wonderful for you!”

Eleanor turned in a sweep of skirts and outrage and left the room, nearly colliding with Duncan in the doorway.

“My heartiest congratulations,” he said, kissing Maggie on the cheek before she could fully take in the fact that he’d had the gall to show up.

“I knew you’d be happy for us,” Reeve said dryly, standing behind Maggie and slipping his arms around her waist. She felt his hard length and sighed, resigned to the wonders of the night to come.

“You’ll be traveling to the property tomorrow, I presume?” Duncan asked.

Reeve’s breath was warm on the nape of Maggie’s neck. It set her tingling. “Maybe,” he answered gruffly.

Even though Duncan’s face was gray with suppressed rage, he smiled. “You’ll want to look out for the bushrangers, of course. Lots of lonely stretches along that road.”

Maggie gulped. “Bushrangers?” she echoed.

“At home we call them outlaws,” Duncan was helpful enough to point out. His eyes, fiery in his pale face, slipped to Reeve. “I hope you’re strong enough to protect your womenfolk, McKenna.”

“I expect I’ll manage.”

Duncan shrugged, though the expression on his face was anything but nonchalant. “I have quite a company of men with me. If you’d like, we can escort you as far as your place.”

“Thanks,” Reeve answered tightly, “but no thanks.”

Duncan turned and walked away and Maggie remembered the maps the Kirk boys had drawn when she was still their governess. The place they’d marked as being their father’s land couldn’t be far from Reeve’s.

“He lives near you?” Maggie asked, inexplicably frightened.

“On the plantation next to mine,” Reeve replied. And then, as unconcerned as a child, he began cutting the small cake provided by the hotel’s kitchen staff.

He gave a piece to Maggie and then to Elisabeth, setting his own aside. Though it couldn’t have been later than four o’clock in the afternoon, he gave an exaggerated yawn.