The next morning he felt like he’d worked four days on a sheep station with no breaks and no water. At the hot breakfast the farmer put on he sipped black tea and marvelled at the weakness of his limbs. A young rider trotted into camp. He’d been sent across to the island at dawn to check on the herd’s condition. They were grazing with gusto, he said. All were healthy, except the one that had tried to escape, which had died in the night. The young rider didn’t know if it was due to the rope-wound in her neck, or from having swallowed too much seawater, or through sheer exhaustion. Just that she was dead.

After breakfast, the workers packed up their gear and made ready to leave. The farmer walked around the group, handing out envelopes. He came to Ned last. Ned wondered what the price of a cow was, how much would be deducted from his pay. If he’d receive anything at all. He imagined a rope sawing into the soft skin of his flank. The hot cut of its fibres.

The farmer looked him in the eye and handed over the envelope. ‘I saw some of what happened. And I spoke to Wendy.’ Ned took Wendy to be the rider who’d come to his aid. ‘It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again. There’s no teaching these animals. Mind of their own. I don’t consider you at fault. And I’m grateful for the effort you put in to saving the damn thing. Lots of men would’ve let it drown.’ He put a hand on Ned’s shoulder, then walked on.

As he took the long drive home, Ned told himself to be happy with the pay. It was a good whack of money. But for the whole trip, through forest and pasture and red soil and valley, his mind wouldn’t settle. Why couldn’t he have turned the cow before it broke free? He thought of Bill sitting tall and alert astride a horse. Of Toby racing fast and hard on another. These memories were old, and brought him throbs of sorrow, yet he could still picture them. How could he have been so careless? Even Jackbird, who had recently taken over his own family’s orchard, knew when to pay attention to things. He’d recently found a way to sell apples into Japan. Had done it with a shrewdness that nobody saw coming.