Love in a Cloud

LUCY WALKER

Synopsis from Goodreads: Guardian...or sweetheart?

A mysterious, shadowy figure had paid for Sonia's schooling, and his kindness and mystery had kindled her romantic imagination. Now she thought she knew who her hidden benefactor was -- John Grant, whom she loved at her first sight of him. But her heart betrayed her into a torment of indecision...of clouded love.

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Beagle Books, 1971.

How acquired: From my mother.

First line: Sonia Merton was packing her new clothes with care.

My thoughts: Sonia is an orphan who has been attending a finishing school for young ladies, thanks to a wealthy benefactor. Orphaned at the age of four, she was adopted by George Grant (or so she believes), the owner of neighboring Dandonga Station, in Bulong district, which I Googled. In case you're interested, today, according to Wikipedia, it is an abandoned town in Western Australia. Mr. Grant took her to Sydney, where she was then raised by Mr. and Mrs. Varley. Mr. Grant writes to Sonia, and over the years provided her tuition, books, clothing, dolls, and whatever else she needed. But other than that trip to Sydney with him at the age of four, Sonia has never met him in person. Now she's completed her education at the finishing school, and Mr. Grant has sent her an invitation to come to Dandonga Station for a three month visit.

At the train station, she meets George Grant, who apparently goes by the name John, along with Mrs. Beckett, who runs the domestic side of the homestead, and John's cousin Nick. John spends his days in his office, taking care of the books, while Nick runs literally everything else about the station, including, to Sonia's consternation, John and Mrs. Beckett. She feels intensely loyal to John for all he's done for her, and she resents that Nick seems to give the orders and everyone seems to bow to his mastery.

And so the story takes off from there. Things aren't always what they seem, and we, the reader, are given inside information about what is really between John and Nick and the running of the homestead.

I loved Sonia. She's a very typical Lucy Walker heroine. Young, sweet, wide-eyed, somewhat naive, beloved by almost everyone who meets her. She's new to the life of a cattle and sheep station, but she quickly adapts and pitches in to help wherever she can. Mrs. Beckett is a gem. She took Nick in when he himself was orphaned as a young boy, and while she's not a Grant, she's as much a part of the family as John and Nick. And Nick. Much of the narrative is from his viewpoint. He's exasperating at times, especially to Sonia. But knowing what we, the reader, know about him that Sonia has yet to learn, he's also very good and noble. Sonia's friend Hilda also comes to visit, and she isn't always a true friend to Sonia. I wanted to slap her at times, and gently chide Sonia for being too trusting and ingenuous.

I love Lucy Walker's writing. She's descriptive, bringing the Australian Outback to vivid life. While I'm not sure it's a place I'd want to visit, thanks to Ms. Walker I've come to love reading about it. Her characters don't differ much from book to book - the heroines are all similar, as are the heroes. As are the basic plot lines, as the running theme seems to be young girl is transplanted from her city life to the Outback. But even so each story is unique, and enjoyable.

"We'll walk back there." He punctuated each word with a stab of his cigarette. "Then we'll take the horses and go up the cattle pad on the other side of the gully. I don't think it would be right for me to kiss you here, Sonia, where you can't escape me. But when we get to the top of that gully over there...and we're out on the open track...I'm going to kiss you."

A sweet, quaint, chaste romance (nothing more than a few kisses). 

Heaven is Here

LUCY WALKER

Synopsis from Goodreads: Spinster aunts and uncles, bachelor sons -- no wonder they were called the "non-marrying" Wilstacks. When Jean Bedford became the family's music teacher, she watched Hugh and Anthony Wilstack, the most eligible bachelors within hundreds of miles, fend off determined girls far more beautiful than she. Jean vowed she would not join the husband-hunting crowd that pursued them -- but she could not stop herself from falling in love... 

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback; Beagle Books, 1972.

How acquired: From my mother. 

First line: Jean stepped from the train, holding her case and handbag and hoping her face did not show the mixture of temerity and curiosity that burgeoned inside her. 

My thoughts: Jean Bedford has traveled from Perth to the middle of nowhere to give violin lessons to young Matt Wilstack. Matt’s mother and older brother, Hugh, are both musically inclined, often playing at gatherings and parties, and Mrs. Wilstack hopes that with Jean’s help, Matt will begin to take an interest in his own musical studies. 

Jean is just the violin teacher, and not meant to be household help, but she is unable to just lounge around and do nothing when not working with Matt. Good thing since, on the page at least, we rarely see any music lessons actually happening. Jean’s father is always traveling, and she has no mother, and the one thing she longs for more than anything else is a home full of people to love and be loved by. So she happily throws herself into the Wilstacks’ daily routines and helps out wherever she can. 

The other two occupants of the home are the area’s most eligible bachelors, the self-proclaimed non-marrying Wilstacks, Hugh and Anthony. Hugh, as the oldest brother, runs the homestead, often barking out orders that everyone instantly follows with no hesitation. In fact Jean often fumes to herself that he never says please or thank you, and that everyone waits on him hand and foot, which he seems to accept as his right. For instance, he leaves his clothes on the bathroom floor, and she resolutely tells herself she will not pick them up, she’ll leave them until he picks them up himself, but then, realizing that Mrs. Wilstack will end up picking them up instead, she gives in and picks them up because she wants to do everything she can to make life easier for his mother. 

Lucy Walker’s books are always delightful (except Girl Alone, which I found somewhat boring and disappointing). They are always quaint, sweet romances, and I quite love her writing. They’re a bit old-fashioned (this one was first published in 1957), with passages like this:

So contrary is the heart of woman that now that Hugh had offered to help, Jean no longer wanted him to do it. It was true…the men worked terribly hard outside in the paddocks all day and at night Hugh came in and sat all hours doing the book management of the estate. Perhaps after all it had only been the “willingness” that she had wanted and not the actual “doing”. 

Moreover, she had the woman’s natural instinct to help the man. She understood Mrs. Wilstack’s anxiety to do all for her sons. It satisfied a need within herself. 

Despite that, Jean is a strong and modern feeling heroine, and I don’t think Lucy Walker’s books will ever get old. 

For another good Walker book, I recommend Follow Your Star. 

Girl Alone

LUCY WALKER

Synopsis: Mardie was a stranger to the lonely Outback, but she was determined to live in the general store that was her inheritance. However, she fell in love with her very first customer - a handsome taciturn geologist - and was immediately involved in his life. His problems were now hers - and that included two mineral-exploration spies and one troublesome woman...

I adore Lucy Walker. I love her romances as much as I love brownies or chocolate chip cookies. I have a bunch of them in my TBR pile, and I ration them out, cuz I know when I finish the last one I'll be very sad.

Girl Alone, however, did not quite live up to what I've become accustomed to. It was a little - dare I say it? - boring. Mardie is a great heroine, like all of Walker's heroines. I can't really say much about Jard, the hero, as I really did not get to know him, at all.

Mardie is quite taken with Jard from the moment she sees him, even though she only gets a fleeting glimpse of him. Unlike all the other customers in the area, he doesn't eagerly come in to meet the new owner of the store but just goes about his business. His hat shades his face so she doesn't even really know what he looks like.

For most of the book, Mardie and Jard are in different locations and rarely interact with each other. At one point, when they run into each other while taking animals to see the vet, they do finally have a conversation, and Jard invites her for a ride in his plane. But then they crash, and Jard is unconscious until help arrives and he's taken off with the medics while she goes home.

The immediate aftermath of the crash is the best scene in the book. Their night together in the cold outback later causes a mild scandal, and I was a bit surprised by Mardie's daring action, simply because Walker's books are always so tame and quaint.  As with all her books, there is no sex, nothing more than some chaste kisses. But one character does say "bitch" one time, which was another shocker for a Walker book.

I just wish the beginning and ending of the book had been as good as that plane crash chapter.

(I was given this book by my mother.)

Follow Your Star

LUCY WALKER

Around October 2002, my mother gave me a box of Lucy Walker romances – 16 slim, yellowed paperbacks, that she had held onto for years and years because she loved them so much. She had decided it was finally time to let them go.

The first one I read was The Gone-Away Man, and I enjoyed it, describing it as “A little more sophisticated than some of the romance novels I've read”. I then, unfortunately, gave two or three of them away to someone else who liked the author. And then I read another one, and was hooked. Nine years later I still haven't read all of them, and have purchased a few more on Amazon (where they are sometimes ridiculously priced for used books), and am savoring them here and there.

This weekend I read Follow Your Star, which was first published in 1963. Like all of Walker's books I've read so far, it was set in the Australian Outback.

Rosemary Bentley is a young girl left homeless and penniless after her guardian, an uncle, dies. Her aunt died several years ago, and Rosemary has lived more or less as a servant, waiting on her uncle, not allowed to go out or have friends over or really even have friends. Now she's learned that her aunt and uncle never legally adopted her, and that her legal name is still Kylie Brown – her aunt called her Rosemary, and Bentley was their last name.

When she sees Brad Coulsell through a window, she is intrigued by him. He's come to the home to discuss business with her uncle's executor, as he and her uncle had some investments together. She does not meet him that day, but through the executor he offers Rosemary Bentley a position as companion to his mother at Rock Hill Cattle Station. Kylie decides to shed her old life, and going to the hiring agent's office, she applies for the position as Kylie Brown. Next thing she knows, she is traveling to the station and settling in with the family, who are unaware of her identity. But unbeknownst to her, Brad is trying to find Rosemary Bentley.

Lucy Walker's books are all sweet and quaint and fun to read. The writing is just fantastic, with passages like this:

Everything else was tidy except Kylie's shoes which stood at an angle to one another, the toes touching and the heels not playing neighbours, like two naughty children caught unawares playing truant from the cupboard.

I love a lot of the stuff that is being written today, but they just don't write 'em like this anymore.

(I purchased this book through Amazon.com.)