She did not pull back. Her lips were soft and tasted of peppermint cachous. Her hair smelled of roses.

‘Welcome to Australia, Flora.’

‘It is beautiful,’ she said impulsively, her gloved hand warm in his. ‘This extraordinary harbour, the fine houses overlooking their own small beaches, so many flowers in the gardens. I had not expected . . .’

. . . it to be so civilised. Both knew the words were best not said.

He spoke the words closest to his heart. ‘I know it’s not London, or Paris. But anything you want — anything at all that will make you happy here — the ships can bring.’

‘I think I already have all I will ever need,’ she said quietly, gazing up to look into his eyes. This time it was she who stood on tiptoe to kiss him.

‘Look at the camera and count to sixty, Your Ladyship, Mr Clancy.’ The photographer from the Illustrated Sydney News arranged his tripod for the lithograph that would appear on the next day’s front page: Lady Flora McPherson Arrives to Wed Grazier’s Son.

The Honourable Flora would be Lady Flora forever now, in the minds of Sydney society.

Chapter 2

Raspberry Spiders

Place 1 dash raspberry syrup in a tall glass; add 2 scoops vanilla ice cream. Top with lemonade. Serve with a long spoon and a straw.

GIBBER’S CREEK, APRIL 1979

JED

The drought-stained air outside the hospital smelled of dust and snakes, coiled under hot rocks in sun-seared paddocks, lucky to have eaten enough spring frogs to keep the reptiles alive for a further year of drought before summer drank the pools. But Sam’s room was cool, the air sharp with disinfectant and the faint scent of tubing as he breathed in, then out, his eyes shut, his body as still as it had been since his accident seven months before.

Nancy sat in the room’s only armchair, while Jed perched on the bed, her warm hand holding her husband’s cold one. She shook her head. ‘Nancy, that’s balderdash. Love at first sight! Who believes in that rubbish?’

‘Me,’ said Nancy mildly. ‘I fell in love with Michael at first sight.’ She smiled reminiscently. ‘Nearly forty years ago now.’

‘But you’d known him all your life!’

‘And not seen him for three years. I fell in love with him the moment I saw him again.’

‘I’m not writing a book about you and Michael.’

‘You certainly are not,’ agreed Nancy. ‘I don’t mind telling you about Grandpa Clancy and Gran, but Michael and I are off limits.’

‘But this Flora woman wasn’t your grandmother. Tell me about Rose!’ Jed put Sam’s hand down carefully, then picked up her notebook again. And Sam breathed in, breathed out, the heart of her life forever, even if this was all he did until he died.

He was her Sam, whose last words from his broken body had been, ‘I know your name now. It’s Darling.’ And so part of her day, every day, and their daughter’s day too, was lived here.