‘Yeah, I got a few hours earlier, but now I’m awake, so why don’t you get some decent sleep in bed?’

‘I can’t leave him, Zara. I can’t. He needs me here. I promised.’

Her mother’s words pierced Zara’s heart. She thought she could almost understand what it was to feel a mother’s love when she heard Lynda’s hurt, the fear, the need of a mother to do this last thing for her child.

‘Okay, Mum. We can both stay together.’

Zara walked to the other side of Will’s bed, pulling the second lounge chair closer so she could reach out and take her brother’s other hand.

‘I remember when he was a little boy,’ Lynda said softly, staring at her son’s face. ‘He used to frighten me by climbing out of the window and escaping so he could be with Brian. He’d hear the noise of the sheep yards and just take off!’ She smiled sadly. ‘Do you remember that, Will? You just couldn’t stay away.’

‘What about the time he broke his arm going for a mark? He was still in boarding school then,’ Zara said, squeezing his hand. She leaned forward and looked at his arm. ‘The scar is still there from where they had to put in the plate.’

‘Oh, Will, it’s a wonder my hair didn’t turn grey sooner with all the antics you used to pull,’ Lynda said. ‘From being such a terror when he was a toddler, he grew into such a beautiful, gentle man, didn’t he?’

‘Everyone loves him, Mum. There’s no doubt about that.’ They sipped their tea in silence. No more words were necessary; they knew their task and waited for the inevitable.

It was 4.32 am by the clock on the bedside table when Zara awoke to her mother’s touch. Lynda was kneeling at her side and looking into her eyes. Instinctively Zara knew Will had gone.

‘He’s gone, Zara. He’s gone.’ Her mother’s face dissolved as the grief rushed forth.

‘No,’ she whispered and reached for Will’s hand to prove her mother wrong.

But there was no denying the fact: his rattling breaths had stopped, his chest had stopped rising. The cancer had finally claimed its victim.

Zara felt her heart close over and pinpricks of grief rise on her skin. ‘Oh, Will,’ she whispered and turned to Lynda. ‘Oh, Mum.’

This time there was no restraint, only the pure pain of loss finally realised.

CHAPTER 21

Chapter 21

It seemed like yesterday that Zara had been in the church in Barker, her brother’s coffin at the altar covered in a wreath of gum leaves and native flowers. But it also seemed like a lifetime ago.