Luckily her work could be done at a bedside, writing another book to equal Matilda’s Last Waltz, released only two months back, and on the bestseller list — only halfway up, to be sure — for three weeks.
She looked at Nancy, exasperated. ‘This is supposed to be one of Australia’s great love stories. Clancy of the Overflow and the Indigenous girl he gave up everything for.’
Nancy grinned and took another forkful of passionfruit sponge. It did not need the endowment of the new Ben Clancy Rehabilitation Wing to make sure that Nancy of the Overflow received tea and the best cake in the kitchen each time she visited the hospital. Sam McAlpine was loved, as Jed was too, to her slight astonishment, as well as the fourteen-month-old girl currently crawling under her father’s bed to investigate the levers that made it go up and down.
‘Mattie, come out of there.’ Jed hauled her daughter out.
‘Here, give her to me.’ Nancy fed Mattie two forkfuls of passionfruit sponge, wiped the cream off the small hands and mouth, then carried the toddler to the open window. ‘Clancy! Take Mattie to the seesaw for a while.’
The boy balanced on a gum-tree branch, holding his camera at a ridiculous angle. Clancy Thompson did not realise that cameras were to take proper photos of relatives lined up saying cheese for the camera, or portraits of people dressed in their best for birthday or weddings, not of twisted gum-tree limbs or sheep dogs grinning after they’d got every single sheep into the yard. ‘Mum, do I have to? I’m just . . .’
‘Now,’ ordered Nancy. She waited till the boy held up his arms for Mattie before adding, ‘And I’ll buy you another three rolls of film on Saturday.’
‘And pay for their developing?’ bargained Clancy. He was tall as a sapling now, all legs and freckles, his camera strung almost permanently around his neck, taken off only to shower, swim or sleep.
‘And pay for the developing,’ agreed Nancy.
‘Cool bananas!’ Clancy settled Mattie on his hip, his camera carefully out of her reach. He headed towards the playground that had been added when the children’s rehab wing was opened.
Nancy sat back with her cake. ‘You were saying?’
‘Your grandfather married Rose! She was the love of his life. Not this Honourable what’s-her-name.’
‘The Honourable Flora.’ Nancy looked at Jed patiently. ‘People can fall in love more than once. Granddad was more than twenty years older than Gran. Did you think he waited till he was middle-aged to fall in love?’
‘But that’s not the story I want.’
‘What do you want?’
Jed absently held Sam’s cold hand against her heart again and stared out the window. Dusty banksia bush planted by the Hospital Board Garden Committee (President A. Sampson) wilted under a sky unendingly blue with a red tinge of the outback slowly blowing away to the sea. Mattie shrieked with joy as Clancy used a foot to make the merry-go-round spin faster for her while he held her safely on the seat.