He would have loved Matilda O’Halloran if he had met her twenty years before, for other than Rose she was the most magnificent woman he had ever met.

He met his wife’s eyes and saw that, as so often happened, she had guessed what he was thinking. His love for her was as secure as the rock heart of the hills, but a Matilda O’Halloran was what might have been, for Clancy of the Overflow.

And for this lonely woman of Drinkwater, Clancy of the Overflow would have been the perfect match — far better for her than the arrogant cockerel she had once been engaged to. A much younger Clancy, of course . . . but as a young man he had never truly known the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended. He had never been himself, not fully, until his life with Rose. He reached over and took her hand in his. And tonight, riding home, the horses finding their way through moonlit shadows, they would be together underneath the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars.

Chapter 57

Chapter 57

Possibly the Best Cake in the Universe: Lemon Syrup Pound Cake

Beat 250g butter with 210g brown sugar; then beat in 4 eggs. Add 300g plain flour and 125mL cream. Bake at 180˚C for 1 hour. As soon as you take it out, pour on the hot syrup. Leave in pan to cool and absorb the syrup.

Syrup

Bring 125mL lemon or lime juice with 105g caster sugar to the boil, stirring. As soon as it boils, pour over the hot cake slowly.

DRINKWATER, 1987

JED

It was Book Week at Gibber’s Creek Central School and Mattie, being Mattie, had determined she would dress as Matilda.

‘But she was a real person, darling. Book Week is supposed to be about characters in books.’

‘She’s in your book.’

‘Yes, but fictionalised. She wasn’t quite the same as the real person.’

Mattie looked at her mother with tolerance. It was amazing how quickly your child’s gaze turned from uncritical love to amused tolerance. ‘OF COURSE Matilda wasn’t the same as in your book. But she would have worn the same clothes.’

‘You want one of Matilda’s dresses?’

‘Yes, please. One you haven’t worn. And stockings and shoes and gloves and a hat.’

‘Gloves?’

‘Matilda would have worn gloves,’ said Mattie patiently. ‘Almost all the time. You can see it in the photos. And hats except when the photo was indoors. Clancy says you can tell a lot about a time and a person just in a single photo.’

‘Does he now?’ Jed was just a little tired of ‘Clancy says . . .’ ‘What is he dressing up as? Tommy?’

‘Of course not. He’s too old for Book Week! Anyway, he was always Clancy of the Overflow.’ Mattie considered. ‘Which is probably why he never won the prize. Though Clancy is a fictional person too, as well as a real one, because he’s in that poem.’