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a cheerful person, he was having a rare moment of melancholy as Emily Carlisle had just informed him that therestill had not been any news of her brother George’s whereabouts. The disappearance of clergymen serving in far-flung corners of the empire was not unheard of, of course, but to have known one personally was somewhat disturbing. However, he produced his jolliest smile, hoping that it didn’t look as false as Kitty’s. Oh dear, he thought, surely not trouble already?
    ‘Good morning, Kitty, my dear.’
    ‘Hello, Reverend Goodall,’ Kitty replied, her tenuous smile evaporating.
    ‘That’s a long face for someone about to be married, I must say!’
    Kitty didn’t respond.
    ‘It’s not wedding jitters, is it?’ the vicar asked. ‘Because if it is, I can assure you that almost every bride I have ever married has suffered from them. It’s perfectly normal when a young woman is about to embark on a new—’ He stopped. He had been going to say ‘adventure’, but as he knew that Kitty Carlisle had had plenty of those already, and very colourful ones by all accounts, he hurriedly changed tack. ‘A new life. And it’s a big responsibility, taking on a husband, you know!’ He chuckled heartily, but he did it by himself.
    He saw then that Kitty was genuinely upset, and sat down to explain to her exactly what the ceremony would entail, thinking that it might help to settle her nerves. He’d just got to the bit where the newly married couple sign the parish register when the sound of someone arriving came through the open window.
    Kitty leapt up and ran to look. When she pulled her head back in she was transformed, an enormous smile lighting up her face and her eyes shining.
    ‘He’s here!’ she exclaimed to the vicar. ‘Rian’s here!’ And she ran across the room, gave Reverend Goodall a resounding kiss on the cheek and darted out the door, leaving him sitting speechless in the wicker chair.
    Kitty tore down the stairs, along the flagstoned hall and out through the front door, where she launched herself at Rian. He caught her and swung her around, then took her in his arms.
    ‘What’s all this?’ he asked gently, looking down at her.
    ‘I thought you weren’t coming,’ Kitty said breathlessly, feeling the warmth of a blush finally begin to creep across her face.
    ‘Sweetheart, wild horses couldn’t keep me away.’
    ‘I thought you might have changed your mind.’
    Rian kissed the tip of her nose. ‘ Mo ghrá , I have never been more certain of anything in my life.’
    Kitty laughed out loud. ‘Good. Let’s get married then, shall we?’
    And so they did.

Chapter One
    Sydney, December 1844
    K itty hung over the rail of the Katipo , watching rubbish bob past the hull as the schooner eased herself into Sydney Harbour. It was hot, even out there on the water, and Kitty’s shirt was sticking to her back although it was only nine o’clock in the morning. Bodie, the ship’s cat, lay curled in the centre of a rope coil at Kitty’s feet, her black fur sleek and gleaming.
    This was the first time they had been back to Sydney since everything that had happened four years earlier, when Wai had died in a small tenement in a narrow street on The Rocks. Now, it was time for Kitty to fulfil her promise to her dear friend, and to Wai’s father Haunui: they had come to collect Wai’s bones and take them back to New Zealand, where she belonged.
    ‘I’d forgotten how hot it gets here,’ Rian said as he appeared beside her.
    Kitty turned to look at him. He was tired and there were dark shadows beneath his eyes. It had been a rough trip this time around the Cape of Good Hope and across the lower latitudes, very rough, and they hadn’t yet recovered from the shock of losing Sharkey during a brief sojourn in Durban. As usual he’d been in a pub all night and as he left he was set upon by a group of seamen he’d had an altercation with earlier, and was stabbed in the throat. He had died almost