‘Glad to help. Catch you later. Good luck!’

Zara turned back to Lynda. ‘Come on, I’ll quickly show you around, then you go and see if Will is able to go home. I can unpack a bit more, then I’ll come out.’

The back door was sticky, but after a couple of good yanks it opened, and they walked out onto a large cement verandah covered with a grapevine. From there a large area of lawn sprawled all the way to the back fence, with a little outhouse down there too.

‘Look at this mulberry tree,’ Lynda said, stopping to finger a stem of a large tree near the side fence. ‘Gorgeous. I love mulberries at Christmas. With lots of cream and ice cream.’

‘You’ll have to come and pick them. You know very well I’m no gardener,’ Zara answered.

Next to it was a weeping willow, which shaded nearly half the garden.

‘It’ll be a beautiful place to write,’ Zara said. ‘I can set up a table there.’ She pointed to a shady spot where the leaves from the willow nearly touched the ground. ‘Even if it’s really hot, I think that would be a great spot to sit and get my stories straight.’ She paused. ‘Or drink wine.’

‘It’s certainly pretty. Much better than the front.’ Lynda pulled open the door into the outhouse and Zara peered over her shoulder. ‘Make sure you keep this door shut. You’ll get snakes in otherwise.’

Zara went inside and ran her fingers along the concrete double laundry troughs against the wall. ‘I haven’t been away so long that I’ve forgotten everything, you know.’

‘Just a gentle reminder.’ Lynda smiled at Zara. ‘Right, I’ll go and see if I can collect Will and see you a bit later. Okay?’

‘Sounds like a plan.’ Zara suddenly realised it would be nice to be back closer to her family, despite the awful circumstances.

Chapter 4

Dave drove silently towards Barker, Kim sitting alongside him in the passenger’s seat. He knew she was annoyed.

It took a lot to get Kim aggravated, but she was certainly riled right now. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see her winding her hair around her finger again and again. A clear sign of agitation. He’d heard her take a couple of deep breaths, as if she was going to say something then thought better of it.

It would come out soon enough. And he could wait, because he was sure her frustration was aimed at him and it wouldn’t be pretty when she talked about it.

The long-awaited visit back to Western Australia, to see his family and work through some of the angst and hurt due to his banishment from the family farm many years ago, hadn’t worked out that well and he knew Kim thought he was partly responsible.

He felt like a churlish teenager as he thought, You don’t get it.

Redirecting his mind, he wondered what had been happening in Barker during the time he’d been away. It had only been three weeks, but he felt like he’d been gone years.