There were warrior shields, spears and shrunken heads from Africa; wooden carvings from India and the South Sea Islands; an elephant tusk, a rhino horn, stone figures from Egypt, and a thousand and one books, magazines, old maps and diaries. Drawers and boxes were stuffed with a plethora of meaningless souvenirs, and his desk remained as cluttered today as it had been on that morning seven years ago when he’d sat back in his old leather chair and fallen asleep for the last time.

Gwyneth wound her way through it all into the kitchen. The range was lit, making the little room like a furnace, and she opened the shutters in the hope there might be a bit of a breeze to cool the place down. As the light poured in she discovered to her dismay that Wally had found his way into her larder and was happily snuffling through her last sack of sugar.

‘You’re a naughty boy,’ she scolded, avoiding his lethal claws and grabbing him by the scruff. ‘No wonder you’re getting so fat.’ She couldn’t help but grin as he eyed her solemnly and continued to lick the sugar from his nose and paws with relish. She carried him to the back door and dumped him on the veranda. ‘Shoo,’ she hissed.

Wally eyed her mournfully and then wandered off in a huff, his bandy legs so pigeon-toed it was a wonder he didn’t trip himself up.

‘Right,’ she said forcefully. ‘Now, perhaps I can get on.’

She returned to the kitchen, her mind busy with plans for the birthday cake. Danny was her delight, and when he was away at school she missed his cheeky smile and his endless questions. But a part of her did wish he was more like John Blake’s boy, for George was a quiet, unquestioning child, who had easily accepted the truth about his father’s demise.

Gwyneth sighed as she weighed out the cake ingredients. She could only hope that Danny’s long absences from Morgan’s Reach, and his friendship with George, would eventually make him see sense, but after the scene Rebecca had described to her earlier she was beginning to have serious doubts – and that worried her deeply.

2

Ben Freeman’s thoughts and emotions were confused as he drove out of Morgan’s Reach and steered the utility along the dirt track that would lead through the bush and up to the house he’d built on the tablelands.