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Chapters (59)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Book
  3. Dedication
  4. Chapter One
  5. Chapter Two
  6. Chapter Three
  7. Chapter Four
  8. Chapter Five
  9. Chapter Six
  10. Chapter Seven
  11. Chapter Eight
  12. Chapter Nine
  13. Chapter Ten
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Chapter Fourteen
  18. Chapter Fifteen
  19. Chapter Sixteen
  20. Chapter Seventeen
  21. Chapter Eighteen
  22. Chapter Nineteen
  23. Chapter Twenty
  24. Chapter Twenty-one
  25. Chapter Twenty-two
  26. Chapter Twenty-three
  27. Chapter Twenty-four
  28. Chapter Twenty-five
  29. Chapter Twenty-six
  30. Chapter Twenty-seven
  31. Chapter Twenty-eight
  32. Chapter Twenty-nine
  33. Chapter Thirty
  34. Chapter Thirty-one
  35. Chapter Thirty-two
  36. Chapter Thirty-three
  37. Chapter Thirty-four
  38. Chapter Thirty-five
  39. Chapter Thirty-six
  40. Chapter Thirty-seven
  41. Chapter Thirty-eight
  42. Chapter Thirty-nine
  43. Chapter Forty
  44. Chapter Forty-one
  45. Chapter Forty-two
  46. Chapter Forty-three
  47. Chapter Forty-four
  48. Chapter Forty-five
  49. Chapter Forty-six
  50. Chapter Forty-seven
  51. Chapter Forty-eight
  52. Chapter Forty-nine
  53. Chapter Fifty
  54. Chapter Fifty-one
  55. Chapter Fifty-two
  56. Acknowledgements
  57. About the Author
  58. Also by the author
  59. Sign up to Read More and discover new favourites

He was distracted from the ‘lucky for us’ by imagining her there at a conference. A sponge soaking up knowledge and ideas and analysing where she could use them to improve her practice. Standing quietly on the edge of the noisy ones.

He said, ‘I used to teach paediatric life-support courses a couple of times a year but stopped after the accident.’

‘You’d be good at it. Paediatrics are a specialist game. You have to have the knack to calm fear.’ She stared into the distance. ‘Kids get sick so fast, but at least when they turn the corner they heal swiftly, too. In clinics, I might put up a quick drip, and once they’re rehydrated they don’t look back. Let’s walk for another minute then we’ll go.’

He slanted a glance at her. ‘It’s not so easy to put up a quick drip in a dehydrated child.’

She smiled. ‘Everything is doable if it has to be done. Kids are like mothers. They know when people want to help them, so getting rid of the fear is the main thing.’

‘You’re amazing. How has nobody asked you to marry them all this time?’

She looked at him soberly. ‘I’ve been asked. But I don’t want to talk about it.’ She turned away from him and headed briskly back to the car. ‘Come on. Let’s go. We’ll be there in an hour.’

Chapter Twenty-one

Ava

The swirls of dust had blown from Ava’s windscreen as they turned into the stone entrance of Setabilly Station. There were only a few kilometres of driveway to go.

The conversation had flowed easily, except when she’d passed the SOLD sign on Dreamtime, the neighbouring station down the road from their gate. That had kept her quiet for a few minutes.

Granny Mim had said the Wilsons had gone, and Ava spared a thought for the family who had been there since the fifties. Like the Masons and the Mays, the Wilsons had been part of the struggle and the triumphs of the last poor years. Part of the serious discussions about rainfall, the good-natured teasing about comparative cattle weight, and the rollicking shed parties that raised money for the RFDS. All the community-minded stuff that station life encouraged to celebrate good times and the end of muster.

She wondered who’d bought the holding.

Almost immediately she thought, Does it matter? And then, terrifyingly, Will Setabilly be the next to change hands?