Chapters (48)
- Cover
- Praise
- About the Author
- Also by Tricia Stringer
- Title Page
- 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
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgements
- Excerpt
- One
Back at camp her bags were packed, even though her ride to Broome wasn’t till tomorrow. One of the families had a spare seat for her to travel with them. She’d booked a room at a place in the town and flights for the following day and would arrive in Adelaide late Saturday night. She hadn’t let her own family know about her plans yet. Perhaps she’d ring them from Broome, or maybe Perth or maybe she’d just surprise them. She hadn’t decided yet but she was ready to go.
She ran her fingers over the soft cover of the book and gave a rueful but happy thought to her morning spent cleaning and tidying her cabin. Perhaps there were some parts of her that wouldn’t change, that she didn’t want to change even, but she was working on the rest.
Squeals of delight drifted up from the water. She stood and slipped off her sarong. She had time for one last swim before she began her journey home.
Thirty-One
Thirty-One
On the King property, rain had been bucketing down again from the big dark clouds gathered overhead. The ground was too boggy and Bree had stopped seeding. She pulled her ute up near the dog pens and took a deep breath. More rain was forecast, which might mean no paddock work for a day or so. The last few days had been crazy between seeding, keeping on with the tennis court – she didn’t want to let that go now her dad had started it – and visiting the lawyer the day before. It had been a relief when her dad had finally driven off to Adelaide after lunch but it had meant extra work for her. Now it was late on Friday afternoon and she was looking forward to sitting back with a beer and phoning Owen in Marla. She hoped he might have knocked off a bit earlier too.
She unleashed the two kelpies from the back and fed them a bone each from the old fridge in the shed.
“We can all put our feet up for the afternoon,” she said as she shut their pens.
“Bree!”
She looked across the yard towards the house. Laura was waving at her from the front gate. Bree waved back and climbed into the ute, drove over and lowered her window.
“What’s up?”
“There’s no water in the house. I’ve been out to the pump and it’s switched on but it’s not working.”
“Damn!”
“Can you fix it?”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with it.”
Laura’s hands went to her hips. “Well, can you check? Kate hasn’t been so good today and I think she’ll feel better if she has a shower and washes her hair.”