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
Caleb shook his head. ‘We can hope but it won’t if there is enough unburned fuel around us to keep it going.’
‘It’s going to rain,’ she said, her voice rising in panic. ‘It always does. I know this country. I know the weather.’
‘We can only hope,’ Caleb said and added, ‘and pray.’
‘Mama!’ Danny’s cry cut Adelaide to the core. What choice did they have—except prayer.
Smoke had already begun to fill the cave as she hurried back inside. The candle Caleb had left burning cast a ghastly shadow around the space.
Danny rolled onto his side, curled up in a tight ball, screaming.
‘He’s in pain,’ Adelaide sobbed. ‘Do something!’
But she knew there was nothing Caleb could do. She pulled her son into her arms, holding him to her and rocking him as she had done when he was a baby. But the travails of sore teeth were nothing compared to the agues that now racked his limbs. Her tears, unchecked now, fell on her son’s damp hair.
Caleb could only watch in utter helplessness as Danny writhed and convulsed in his mother’s arms.
If the child died …
He closed his eyes and steadied his breath. Danny had become as much a part of his life as his mother and if Caleb lost Danny, he would lose Adelaide. He realised that whatever happened, he could not lose Adelaide. She had become his rock, his sanity, his reason for living. She had dragged him out of the cold, meaningless vortex into which he had fallen.
Outside, the roar and crash of the returning fire came closer and, despite Caleb’s efforts to cover the mouth of the adit and keep back the smoke, it rolled over the ridge from the approaching blaze into the cavern, creeping in through the gaps in the rocks that he had stacked against the entrance. He sank back against the wall, his hand across his mouth to try and lessen the effect of the smoke but his eyes watered and he coughed. Across from him, Adelaide wept and cooed and rocked her child. Like him, she coughed, turning her face away from the insidious smoke.
‘It’s getting thicker,’ she said, between breaths. ‘Caleb …’
‘I know,’ he said. ‘I think we have run out of options, Adelaide.’
‘Hold me,’ she said. ‘If we’re going to die, let it be together.’