Sissy’s head drooped and she nodded, but her hand clutched Penrose’s sleeve, preventing him from rising.

Caleb looked from Penrose to Lil. ‘How about I see to Sissy first,’ he said.

He gently pulled her hand away from her face. The reddening mark on her cheekbone where Barnwell had struck her would soon darken into bruising, matching the yellowing bruises he had given her a few nights earlier.

‘You told Adelaide didn’t you?’ she said.

‘I’m sorry, Sissy. I had to.’

She batted away his hand. ‘Don’t fuss, Caleb,’ she said. ‘I’m glad she knows.’

‘Told Adelaide what?’ Penrose demanded.

Caleb and Sissy looked at each other. ‘You tell him,’ Sissy said and began to cry.

Throwing Caleb a look of mingled confusion and anger, Penrose gathered Sissy in his arms and carried her upstairs, returning ten minutes later.

‘The girls threw me out,’ he said. ‘Now are you going to give me an explanation, Hunt?’

Lil set glasses of whiskey down in front of the two men. She poured herself a glass and pulled up a stool that creaked ominously under her weight. ‘By rights I should throw you two out after that bastard for brawling in me bar, but I’ve a soft spot for both of you, so ’ow about you tell me what’s going on with Sissy and that bastard, Barnwell?’

Caleb took a thoughtful draught and furnished Lil and Penrose with a precis of the letter and Barnwell’s intentions towards Adelaide, omitting any reference to Danny’s parentage.

Penrose let out a low whistle. ‘So now Adelaide knows he’s a lying bastard, do you think he’ll just go quietly?’

Caleb glanced at the door through which Lil had thrown the man. ‘No,’ he said. ‘He’s angry and humiliated and he’s out to hurt everyone he thinks has wronged him. That’s Adelaide, Sissy and me, and now possibly you.’

Lil snorted. ‘I know ’is sort. I knew ’e was trouble the minute ’e walked through the door.’ She stood up. ‘’Ave another whiskey and be on your way, the both of you. Sissy will be fine. I’ll make sure ’e goes nowhere near ’er again.’

The warm night air, heavy now with the pungent smell of the distant bushfire, doused Caleb in reality as he lurched into the street.

Penrose glanced up at Sissy’s window, where a light still glowed.

‘If I find Barnwell—’ Penrose muttered.

‘You’ll do nothing,’ Caleb said. ‘You just watch out for Sissy.’

‘But Adelaide is a friend too. He may just be angry enough to go back there.’

Caleb stared at his friend, the realisation that an angry and humiliated Barnwell was quite capable of taking his frustrations out on Adelaide, dousing him like a bucket of cold water.