‘I loved it the moment I set foot in Sandridge,’ Adelaide said. ‘It was as far away from England as I could get and it offered me something England never could—hope.’

He rolled onto his elbow and looked at her. ‘Why do you say that?’

She turned her attention to slicing a cake but not before he caught the fleeting glimpse of something dark cross her features.

‘Memories, Caleb. Just memories.’

Caleb studied her for a long moment. What did he know about her? Apart from the dead husband, very little.

‘Why did you come to Australia?’

She swallowed and her gaze darted down to Danny’s distant figure hunched over the gold pan. She kept her eyes fixed on the boy as she said, ‘We had passage booked before Richard died. I saw no point in changing those plans.’

She was lying.

‘Did you have no other family to care for you?’

She gave a short, humourless laugh. ‘I am estranged from my father and I have no other family to speak of.’ She looked at him. ‘Please, let’s not spoil this lovely day with talk of things I would rather forget.’

He would have pressed her, but Danny came running up with his gold pan.

‘Look, Caleb! More gold.’ He frowned. ‘I suppose it’s your gold, isn’t it?’

‘I suppose it is,’ Caleb said, inspecting the wealth that glinted in the bottom of the pan. ‘But for once, Daniel Greaves, you can claim finder’s rights.’

Danny grinned. ‘Does that make me a claim jumper?’

‘I think it makes you my sole employee,’ Caleb said.

Danny returned to the creek. Adelaide pulled out her sketchbook and leaned back against the rock.

‘What are you going to do now, Caleb?’ Adelaide asked.

He settled back on the blanket, propped on one elbow. ‘I was planning on a snooze.’

‘I mean, would you have come back to Maiden’s Creek if it hadn’t been for the Murrays?’

Caleb considered the question, remembering the interrupted ride to Buneep. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I had already made that decision. I was going to turn at Buneep and come back.’

Back to my grand girl. Back home.

‘I have a few pennies in my pocket after playing doctor for the last week, so I can take some time to work out what to do next. I think I might talk to Penrose and see what I can do about raising some capital to get this mine going.’

He stretched out on the blanket and pulled his hat over his eyes, giving in to the lassitude of the warm afternoon. A companionable silence stretched between them, interrupted only by the scratch of Adelaide’s pencil.

‘I’m just going up the hill a bit to get a better view,’ Adelaide said.

‘Good idea,’ Caleb murmured.

Above him, the rattle of rocks marked Adelaide’s progress up the hill.

‘Caleb!’