I was going to fob him off with the easy answer, a perfume built around the smell of the orchard and the sweet briar on the hillside, but instead I said slowly, ‘A signature scent. I’m trying to finish a perfume that summons up my identity. A perfume that explains who I am, that captures my personality and makes me feel whole.’

I inhaled, and the residue of the long day entered my nose: ripe apricots, earth and dust, warm grass, sun lotion, sweat, the poplars, the faintly dank air rising up from the dam, and the fresher water from the sprinklers.

‘You don’t feel whole?’ asked Rosemary. ‘How is it possible not to feel whole when you have this?’

SCENTED

Base Notes:

Oakmoss

Benzoin

Ambergris

Heart Notes:

Willow

Ivy

Tarata

Top Notes:

Osmanthus

Apple

Briar rose

Dilute in jojoba oil

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to everyone who gave up their time and shared their knowledge with me: Janice Lord, Emma Burns, Peter Johnson, Martin Collett, Vincent Micotti, Serena and Harold Jones, Frances Nelson, Gaynor Bradfield, Robin Krug and the NST community, Rhian Gallagher, Alison Ballance, Pip Adam and Sue Wootton.

Thank you to the Glasgow Street Arts Centre Artist in Residence Programme, Whanganui; Mark Rayner, Paul Rayner and Lauren Lysaght for providing a place to write and a warm welcome in October 2018.

Grateful thanks for assistance and funding from the 2016 NZSA Auckland Museum National Research Grant and the 2016 NZSA Janet Frame Memorial Award. Thank you to Jan, Tania and Frankie for making room for me at the Michael King Writers’ Centre during August 2017.

Thank you to everyone at Penguin Random House and my publisher Harriet Allan for continued support. Anna Rogers is a sensitive and gifted editor and once again I owe her a debt of thanks for turning my manuscript into a finished novel. Thank you to Louisa Kasza, Rebecca Lal and Maggie Trapp for guiding the manuscript through its final stages. Keely O’Shannessy designed a beautiful cover and Katrina Duncan made it all look good. Thank you.

Thanks to my family: Wendy, Dave and Jan for good company and especially Alex and Harry for their ongoing love and encouragement. Lastly, thanks to Sprocket and Patch, who taught me most about sniffing and never turned down a walk.

It was more beautiful than anything I had ever seen and I didn’t have the words to describe it. I felt it though. I let out an incredible whoop of joy and skipped into the air, laughing and laughing; there was so much joy inside me. For the first time in all my memory, I could not contain myself.