Ian threw the heavy door open. ‘I’m not sure. Probably half an hour. You’ll be right. You’re only pregnant, not sick. Many women have given birth in the back of a car.’

Rose groaned as she felt a solid kick from inside her, and reached for the door handle. ‘That’d better not be me. I don’t see you hauling around a stomach larger than the Opera House and getting kicked from inside!’

‘Reckon I drag heavier wethers, though.’ Ian grinned and leaned over, patting her leg. ‘You’ll be right, love.’

‘Hmm. You only have to drag one sheep at a time. I’ve got two babies in here, Ian. Two! Could we stay here the night?’ Rose asked, as she hauled herself out of the car. ‘Barker looks like a nice little town. Surely they’d have a room at the pub. I’m really tired.’

Leafy trees lined the quiet street. Only two cars sat parked in front of the local shop. The voices of unseen men rose on the hot, still air: ‘Catch! Catch!’

A cricket match on the oval, on Saturday afternoon, she thought. Maybe there’s a tennis club here. Rose remembered playing tennis when she was at school. A sense of displacement hit her again. The nagging feeling of wanting to stay in one place had started a few months ago, as she’d felt her body swell. Travelling was increasingly awkward and the roads rough as her twin babies bounced inside her.

What she wouldn’t do for a house and a garden, somewhere she could walk, potter and cook in a kitchen, instead of being pulled from one shed to the next. They hadn’t been home since they were married twelve months before, on her nineteenth birthday, and it had been longer since she’d seen her family. Not that she was convinced they wanted to see her.

The irony of the situation was not lost on her: when she’d left her hometown, it had been to escape the confines of her strict, religious family, needing to taste freedom and space, and now all she wanted was a home. Somewhere to build a life. To raise her babies.

Her babies. Twins. She hadn’t even known twins were possible. She hadn’t known anything, so every part of this pregnancy was new and frightening. Ian had been so proud when she’d told him she was expecting.

‘A baby! Well, it’ll be a boy, for sure.’

Then there had been a bit of spotting and Ian had agreed to stop in a small town so she could visit the hospital. There, they’d found out she was having twins.