‘I think you had best go back to the house,’ said Clancy quietly.

No. Did she say it or just think it? Her whole body was reduced to the single word.

No.

Clancy slipped off his shirt and trousers — he did not even wear underwear these days, she realised — then slid into the pool. It was deeper than she’d realised, she saw when he ducked under the pads and water, disappearing entirely for a long moment until he came up spluttering. He took a deep breath and tried again.

‘No sign of her,’ he said on the fourth attempt.

She found breath again. Of course there was no sign, no small body motionless in the water. Bodies floated, didn’t they? Clementine could not be there!

‘Come on. Best get you back. We’ll make sure the whole area is searched.’ Clancy dressed himself and took her arm.

She walked. She let him help her climb. She walked again. She heard him say, ‘Send to Drinkwater urgently. Get Sampson here. He’s a good swimmer.’

Swim? There was no need to swim. Clementine could not have gone far in the water. She would have cried out for her properly if she had slipped in. That had just been a bird! No, Clementine was wandering in the bush, that was all, a small girl who was so inquisitive, who longed to know ‘why’, who would hear the calls already yelling all around the property. ‘Clementine! Clementine!’

Flora listened, but heard no reply.

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Receipt to calm a lady

Five drops of laudanum in half a cup of water. If sleep is not required, steep chamomile flowers in good sherry. Administer half a cup four times a day.

OVERFLOW, 1881

FLORA

Night blanketed Overflow, made the bush seem evil, impenetrable. But her daughter was out there, stranded in the horror of the dark.

Flora did not sleep. She sat on the veranda, still in her blue and white dress, the hem draggled with dust and sheep droppings. She called, ‘Clementine! Clementine!’ every half-hour, while the men snored in their quarters and even Clancy slept, for he said they had gone as far as was possible by lantern light, and surely Clementine would not keep walking in the dark.

Why didn’t she reply? A snake, she thought. One of the long browns, or the red and black ones she had thought so pretty, till Clancy had told her quietly how deadly they might be. Had Clementine fallen and hit her head? Yes, that was it. She was dazed, or even asleep, but tomorrow she would wake and call back when the men shouted.

But even now she cried into the blackness, ‘Clementine! Clementine!’

The dark trees were silent, the night animals scared by her cries. The moon floated like the lily flower on the pool, but brighter than anything there on the drought-faded earth.