He was so rich, he thought as they lit the candles on Nancy’s ninth birthday cake. He had the bush and the warm house and books and conversation and the rear ends of who knew how many thousand sheep to watch from horseback or to dag for flies. He had the finest grandchildren in the land, and probably the world: a grandson strong enough to make his way despite the colour of his skin though, like Nancy’s, that colour could be taken for a tan instead of heritage, until you saw the family together.

Some time in those years, under the influence of the sturdy Miss Mattingale perhaps, Rose had taken to wearing dresses all the time, even sometimes when she was in the saddle: white ones that so defiantly showed off her dark skin, sometimes patterned with roses or polka dots or stripes. And every time he looked at her he saw the child, the girl, as well as the older woman. Riding with his Rose was like being an eagle, flying across the plains. Rose was the land, the sky and the rain to him, all the years of their marriage.

The last thing his old eyes ever saw, at the age of eighty-nine, were the faces of his Nancy and his Rose, holding him in their arms after he had slid from his horse, suddenly dizzy, all at once knowing that his body would go no further, but that his soul would wait until they joined him, there where the river sang to him and he knew the depths between the everlasting stars. His soul would be part of the land, as it had been for so long, as he waited for the heart of his life to join him, his Rose of Overflow.

Chapter 60

Chapter 60

No-bake Chocolate Ginger Slices

Mix 1pk plain biscuits like shortbread or wheatmeal, crumbed, 125g melted butter, 1 heaped tbsp powdered ginger, 210g brown sugar, 1 heaped tbsp cocoa, 150 to 300g sultanas, 125 to 250g walnuts or macadamias or sliced almonds.

Cover with icing. Press into a pan to set. Cut into squares the next day.

Icing

260g icing sugar, 4tbsp water, 1 tbsp cocoa, 1 tbsp powdered ginger. Add a little more water if needed. Scatter on more nuts while the icing is soft.

DRIBBLE, 1988

SAM

Sam McAlpine put the last nail into the new chook house — insulated, and with a sloping floor that meant the chook droppings washed down to holding ponds, where they’d be diluted to feed the passive solar greenhouse that now grew tomatoes year-round — and knew that his work was good.

Jed had taken Mattie over to Overflow. She had almost finished her book, though he had lived with Jed through enough books now to know that ‘finished’ meant long phone calls and weekend visits with Julieanne where the entire book would be demolished and reconstructed at least once, and possibly several times.