“Bob said Jack was pretty distressed last night by Veronica’s news. He thought we might be able to reassure him. Jack’s on his own. The girls are still travelling overseas.”

“We hardly know him.” Jack was the Halbots’ oldest child and a year younger than Bree. He’d gone away to boarding school then had done ag studies at uni. He’d only been back on the property a year or so and Natalie’s path hadn’t crossed his in that time.

Milt flicked her a cautious look. “I’ve seen him a bit lately.”

Unease churned in the pit of her stomach. “Where?” The Halbots lived further north along the Barrier Highway that later veered east and on to the New South Wales border. Their properties were on the same side of the road but to reach each other’s houses was a half-hour drive with another neighbour’s land between them. Both homesteads were nestled among large gum trees, a long way off the highway. You didn’t go there without a purpose.

“Jack’s interested in our new drafting yards and our breeding program. He’s been to our place a couple of times.”

Natalie felt as if someone had punched her. The air left her lungs. She stared at Milt but he was concentrating on the road ahead.

They overtook a truck then, finally, he glanced her way. “Bob’s worried Jack won’t want to stay on the property so he’s keen to let him explore some changes. I couldn’t say no, Natalie. How rude would that be?”

She looked ahead, the croissant cooling on her lap and the coffee undrunk. Outside the landscape was familiar and yet alien. Like the pieces of her life she thought she knew so well but that were shifting around her again.

“We can’t live that close and not help each other,” he said.

“We’ve never worked closely with the Halbots before.”

Milt’s big hands gripped the steering wheel tighter. The creases in his knuckles turned red against the brown tan of his skin. “Jack came to me. I didn’t have a reasonable explanation for refusing him.” He glanced across at her. “The past is the past, Nat. Like Bob said, it’s long behind us now.”

“Bob doesn’t know the real reason for us to keep away though, does he?”

She studied Milt’s profile as he concentrated on the road again. He didn’t even glance her way. She had an urge to reach across and slap him and that shocked her so much she slid her hands under her thighs in case they moved without her say-so. She had to agree; up until yesterday she’d thought the past was put to bed but now she knew the things you buried had an awful way of surfacing and hitting you in the face again.