‘I’m the peacemaker, and the dogsbody.’ She smiled at her brother. ‘And I look pretty.’

Jock laughed. ‘You do at that.’

She was more than that. ‘You look beautiful,’ Zac corrected her, his sudden need to say that surprising him.

Jock peered over his sunglasses and Ava caught the look and said primly, ‘Thank you, Zac.’

They travelled around the closest paddocks, pointing out the direction of the local Aboriginal community, and then the trails that led towards the rising MacDonnell Ranges. They drove to the top of Lone Tree Hill, a local landmark with the graves from their family dating back to their grandfather Max’s father, the first settler of Setabilly.

While Jock drove off to check another set of troughs, Zac and Ava set the thermos and the contents of the esky out for morning tea. When she lifted a section out of the bag she laughed.

‘Mum’s put in some fresh sausage rolls and a bottle of tomato sauce. Jock’ll be in seventh heaven – he’ll want to travel with you more often. We’re getting spoiled.’

Zac leaned over and peered into the bag. ‘Happy to be of service.’ He couldn’t remember if anyone had ever packed a picnic basket for him. Or put something special away like Granny Mim’s Anzacs or Stella’s sausage rolls. Another poor little rich boy moment that he needed to get over.

Soon they’d eaten far too much and packed away the remains, the sun was past the middle of the sky and Jock looked at the blue sky above them. ‘We’ll head down to skirt the bottom of the ranges, steering into indents in the rock, looking for canyons or a place where cattle could be caught by weakness.’

They found half a dozen cattle, enough to make them all pale. Jock went silent as he dealt with those he couldn’t save and mapped the ones he’d come back for. With each successive tragedy, Jock withdrew further into himself.

Zac watched Ava grow more concerned as she assessed her brother’s mood. ‘We should go back,’ she said. ‘I want to check on Jessamine over at the community today or tomorrow. Mim will be wondering where we are and it’s Zac’s first day back doing normal activities.’

Jock grimaced and turned for home. ‘I guess.’

Ava had explained that the whole family depended on the number of breeding cattle to get them through the lean years, so Zac could understand his devastation.

‘We’ll just check the trap yard in the next gully. Then we’ll go back. I haven’t been out here for a few days,’ Jock muttered.

This time Jock noted the marks of a small herd that had stood for a while, whether too tired to move they couldn’t tell. ‘Okay. We’ll go home.’ But Jock set his face and said, ‘I’ll be coming back.’