“We’ve stacked the boxes in the packing shed for now.” Hugh continued to stand by the door, a concerned look on his face.

“Is there something else?” Euan asked.

“I’ve just heard there’s been a bit of trouble over at River Dynasty.”

“Oh?” Euan studied his long-time head man. It wasn’t like Hugh to listen to gossip.

“Someone has poisoned four rows of their semillon vines.”

“Poisoned! Are you sure?”

“I went and had a look for myself. It’s right on our boundary.”

Euan scraped his fingers through his hair. “Theo has upset a few people in his time but who would do something like that?”

“Evidently they think they may have had downy mildew there as well.”

“Downy mildew! The news just gets better. You mean there’s an outbreak right on my boundary?”

“Not any more. The vines are definitely dead.”

Euan snatched up his hat. “I think we’d better go and check this out.” His precious sauvignon blanc vines edged that boundary. If Theo had done anything to jeopardise them, he would damn well pay.

* * *

“You’ve got the idea.” Flynn stood next to Keely as she turned the handle and rolled another label onto a bottle.

“It’s not that difficult.”

“Just repetitious.” He put down the box of bottles he’d been carrying at her feet.

She glanced at the boxes he had stacked behind her. They had brought a ute load from the Haystack Block. She’d thrown herself into helping him pack the boxes, anything to avoid discussing school. When they got back to Levallier Dell, Flynn had shown her how to put on the labels and then he’d left her to it while he brought in the rest of the boxes.

“Do you think we’ll need more?” he asked.

“There’s no time to label more than what you’ve brought over. There’s a lot of food prep to be done and the final touches to the cellar door.”

“You’re right.” Flynn picked up some of the bottles she’d already labelled and slid them back in their box. “It’s hard to know how many of these we’ll sell over the weekend. It’s a new wine for us. People won’t be expecting it.”

“If you bring some more from the Haystack Block, we can always dash out and label them as we sell them.” Keely smiled at the lunacy of it. They were going to be flat out keeping the food and wine up to the customers.

“You’re right.” He counted the boxes again. “If you’re happy to continue on for a while, I’ll go and get another ute load.”

Perhaps it was her surprise that he would even contemplate bringing more or perhaps it was disappointment that he was leaving her, either way, when he looked at her face, he stopped and broke into a grin.