Chapters (50)
- Cover
- About the Book
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
- Also by Sandie Docker
- Book Club Questions
- Welcome to the Kookaburra Creek Café
- Prologue
- One
- Sign up to Read More and discover new favourites
‘Stunning.’ He smiled and extended his hand, and together they headed down to the restaurant.
The small dining room was lit by candles and fairy lights, and the tables were covered in white tablecloths with thick gold linen napkins folded into lotus flowers. The menu highlighted local ingredients, and everything sounded delicious.
Mark was telling Nicky about his latest case, as much as he was able to given the binds of confidentiality, and Nicky gave him an update on her manuscript. It was going painfully slowly, but she was starting to feel the story taking shape.
‘That’s good. When do you think it might be finished?’
Nicky shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Maybe the first draft by the wedding.’
‘It will be great for you to get another book published. It’ll do your self-esteem some good. Can’t be easy coming up blank like you have been. You wouldn’t want to be a one-book wonder.’
Nicky tilted her head. She wanted to get angry at him. Except he was right. It really hadn’t been easy. She’d been struggling to get a handle on her next book for months now.
‘You know I believe in you, princess. But if you don’t believe in yourself, my faith won’t mean anything.’
The waiter brought dessert – a decadent concoction of meringue and mousse and chocolate and raspberries that looked like a piece of art too good to eat. But Nicky did eat it and it was delicious. She ate half of Mark’s, too.
They headed back to their room and Nicky ducked into the bathroom to change into the black lace lingerie set she’d bought. She felt a dull ache to the left of her stomach. Perhaps she shouldn’t have stolen half of Mark’s dessert.
She checked herself in the mirror, making sure she’d squeezed into the tiny pieces of lingerie completely.
Oh, God. A sharp pain made her double over, clutching her belly. She tried to stand, but wasn’t able. The pain got worse.
‘Mark!’ she screeched.
He came rushing into the bathroom. She reached out her hand and everything went dark.
Eleven
25th January, 1942
My Dearest Tom,
What a joyful day it is, my love. Father has taken the post at the University of Sydney and I’m relieved that Mother has gone with him. It took quite the effort and some considerable acting skills I must say, to convince her I was ‘well enough’, as she put it, to be left alone. Well enough? As though I am suffering some kind of medical affliction!
You should have seen the performance I gave. I believe Ms Garbo herself would have been impressed. Naturally, I eased into the role of normality. Too big a turnaround too quickly would only have resulted in suspicion. I joined Mother on a few home visits first, accompanied her into town, and helped her in the garden. One step at a time.