Chapters (53)
- Cover
- About Alison Stuart
- Also by Alison Stuart
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Prologue
- 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
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgements
- Preview of The Goldminer's Sister
She opened the door but Caleb drew her to him. This time he kissed her, their lips meeting softly as he avoided the nasty cut.
He closed his eyes, drinking in the taste of her, wanting more than anything to hold her like this forever, but, knowing the night had eyes, he let her go and she closed the door behind him, plunging him into darkness once more.
Thirty-Two
Thirty-Two
15 February 1872
Something had changed. Something that had caused Danny’s mother to stop laughing. She had a nasty cut on her lip. When he asked her about it, she told him she had tripped over one of the hens in the yard.
Mama hardly ate her breakfast then walked him to school, leaving him at the gate with a vehement hug and a kiss, something she never did, not when people could see.
All through the long, boring day, Danny stared out the window to where the northerly wind tossed the peppercorn tree in the schoolyard. The wind had made everyone tetchy and tempers crackled in the playground. He dragged his feet on the way home, glancing at the Britannia, but the surgery door was shut and there was a CLOSED sign in the window. He climbed the hill to the doctor’s cottage to pour out his troubles to Caleb, but the girl who kept for Caleb told him that the doctor had gone down to the Italian settlement and she didn’t expect him back until late.
Danny stumbled down the path and sat on a low wall, reluctant to go home.
‘Good afternoon, Daniel.’
A shadow fell across him and he looked up to see Uncle Richard smiling down at him.
‘Can I sit down, Daniel?’
Danny moved over and the man sat down beside him and fanned himself with his hat.
‘It just seems to get hotter and hotter,’ he said.
Danny shrugged. ‘It will change,’ he said. His nose twitched. ‘But there’s a fire somewhere.’
The man scanned the valley. ‘I thought I smelled burning. Is it dangerous?’
‘Depends where it is,’ Danny said. ‘There’s not much vegetation around here so I don’t think so. What happened to your nose?’
Uncle Richard touched his bruised and swollen nose and frowned. ‘I ran into a door,’ he said, adding, ‘in the dark.’ His swollen nose seemed to affect his speech. He sounded like he had a bad cold. ‘Daniel, I have to leave Maiden’s Creek soon but I was wondering if you and I could go on an adventure together?’
‘An adventure?’
‘Yes, a real adventure. I have a map—’ Uncle Richard patted his pocket, ‘—which shows us where the bushranger keeps his gold.’
Danny drew a quick breath. He’d heard people saying that there was a bushranger in the area.
‘How did you get a map?’ he asked.