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
‘Do you have an answer for everything, Adelaide? I suppose it was self-defence, but I had my doubts whether the law would look kindly on me and I wanted no more of prisons. So, I judged it to be in the interests of my health to leave San Francisco and the first boat sailing that night brought me to Melbourne.’ He chuckled. ‘To be honest with you, I’d never even heard of Melbourne.’
Danny stirred and cried out. Caleb checked the boy’s pulse and shook his head. ‘He should be home in his bed with proper bandaging and Netty’s broth,’ he said.
‘He’s still alive and that is you, your skill as a doctor. Have faith in yourself, Caleb. We could have died here, tonight. The same horrible death that took Richard, and I wouldn’t want to die without telling you how very much I love you. I meant every word I said. I cannot imagine my life without you.’ In the light of the candle, her eyes blazed with the ferocity of the bushfire.
That word, that one word he had never uttered in his life, hung on the heavy air between them. Love. When he thought they would die he had told her he loved her.
‘Adelaide—’
‘It’s all right, Caleb. If you said what you did just to make dying easier, that’s fine, but don’t give me hope when there is none.’
‘No, you mistake me, Adelaide. I meant what I said. I didn’t think I was worthy of your love—of any woman’s love. You know the worst about me and yet …’
She laughed, a musical sound. ‘It’s because I know the very worst about you. Don’t you see that? You know the worst about me. I am a fallen woman, and a liar.’
He took her chin gently between his thumb and forefinger and tilted her face up. ‘You are none of those things, Adelaide. You were an innocent child, seduced by a man who knew damn well what he was doing—who wanted only one thing from you: your father’s fortune. You have fought for your son every day of your life and if that means you had to invent an imaginary past, no one can blame you for that.’
He leaned in so close their foreheads touched and her soft breath caressed his cheek.
‘Adelaide,’ he murmured. ‘I have loved you since I first saw you defending Lil’s girls in the post office. You will always fight for the lost cause and God knows, I am a lost cause.’
Thirty-Six
Thirty-Six
17 February 1872
They must have slept.
Caleb stirred first, realising that he had lost all feeling in his left hand. He gently extricated his arm from behind Adelaide and bit his lip in agony as the blood started to flow again to his fingers.