The blue eyes, so like her own, twinkled at her. ‘I shall be the soul of discretion,’ Elaine promised. ‘No wonder you look so much better. I didn’t think it was a good idea for you to stay out here, but Sophie was right all along. I shall have to tell her so. But she probably knows that already. Even when we were self-absorbed teenagers, very little got past her.’

Chapter Twenty-seven

If Elaine’s words did nothing to calm her daughter, Sophie was, in any case, far too preoccupied with excited plans to worry about Tilly’s love life.

She and Luke would head back to Sandstone first thing tomorrow, she said. They had to decide where best to site the new ranger’s quarters, and to choose a layout for the projected camp. Gordon had calculated that his own assessment, which involved pegging the route the boardwalk would take, should occupy him for a week, even with his mate Adam’s help. Luke was scratching out a rough map from memory, talking all the while: the water table was going to be a problem for the builders; they would need height as the valley was a floodway in the Wet; the station itself would probably be a small kit-home, certainly the most affordable when it came to freight and the labour of erecting it . . .

Tilly listened, bemused by the speed of it all, though she doubted they’d see much progress beyond the planning and perhaps ordering of supplies this season. The monsoon took a big chunk out of the year and no contractor would risk being wetted in for months at a time. Still, ‘It’s really going to happen,’ she said.

Sophie beamed at her. ‘Yes. Do you mind hanging on here tomorrow and seeing to the customers? I need Luke out there with me. We’ll have to service the camp on the way – unless Matt could fill in? That would free you up.’ She turned to him but he was shaking his head.

‘Sorry. My towbar’s cracked and needs welding. I gotta get it to the station.’

‘Why, are we out of oxy?’ Luke asked.

Matt cast him a pitying look. ‘Oxy weld won’t do the job. Needs arc. I’ll run the coastal road on the way back,’ he offered.

‘Yes, that’s an idea.’ Sophie nodded. ‘Sorry, Till. Looks like you’re stuck with the washing up.’

‘That’s okay.’ She had been hoping to pull camp duties, which would give her a chance to see Connor and perhaps learn the outcome of his Darwin trip, but it would have to wait. ‘We’ll cook, Mum. Get a few meals in the freezer so you can have a day or two out. Maybe see Sandstone Springs for yourself. It’s an amazing sight, the ferns and flowers. Like an exotic garden with the waterfall trickling down the cliff.’