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body, arm socket ready for severe damage – she was just about ready to don her walkers and outfit herself with the bags when her email alert pinged.
    She rushed at the machine and there it was. Berry had answered.
    No problem. Let me know when & I’m there.
    She tapped out a harried reply, hoping against hope that he hadn’t sent an email and shut his machine off.
    Now. Please. I’m starting to walk towards the gate.
    An anxious minute or so and a reply came.
    Yr mobile no...?
    She keyed in her number, and typed –
    I will start walking now. Text me & thank you.
    She gathered her gear and set it at the top of the verandah steps. Taking a deep breath she went in search of Mac Thomas and found him at the kitchen table.
    “I’m very sorry, Mac. It’s a terrible blow.”
    He barely raised his head from the table. “What would you know?” His eyes looked like a bloodhound’s, his face had turned a shade of pale and sweat had popped on his forehead.
    “Are you feeling all right?”
    “Just bugger off out of it.”
    “Right.” There wasn’t anything much to say after that.
    He barely nodded.
    She let her breath out and winged it down the hallway. When she got to her room, Greg was sitting on the bed, staring out the open verandah door.
    Her blood froze.
    “Leaving right now?” He swung to look at her.
    “I just told your dad. And um, he doesn’t look very—”
    “Walking with all that stuff?” He pointed to her luggage outside.
    “I didn’t want to bother anyone.”
    “I’ll bring the car around. Drive you back.”
    She hesitated. Her phone pinged in her pocket. She checked. Berry.
    Meet u on their track.
    “Look, thanks, but I should be fine. I lug this stuff everywhere, all the time.” She moved past him and out onto the verandah. The heat coming off him was palpable. She couldn’t run without her stuff – though she felt like it. She couldn’t leave all her worldly possessions behind, not this time. She’d actually have nothing if she did that.
    “I said I’ll bring the car around.” He followed, stepped off the verandah and shouldered past her, striding around the corner of the house.
    Clancy tried to calm herself, strapped the laptop securely to the wheelie bag. Her hands shook but grabbing the backpack and shrugging into it gave her flight some strength. The handbag strap looped over her head and shoulder and the bag fitted snugly against her body. She clutched the wheelie bag handle and set off down the steps, wanting to get a little distance between her and the house.
    She had no clue how far away Berry would be. She just began marching resolutely down the track hoping he’d appear like she hadn’t hoped for anything in a very long time.
    She’d hardly gone a hundred metres. How the bloody hell she thought she was going to be able to drag all this stuff – her back already ached under the weight of the pack, the wheelie bag finding every bump and rock in the road. But the very thought of being stranded here with two extremely angry and disconsolate men drove her on.
    Where was Berry? How far did he have to come?
    She heard both vehicles at once. She saw a huge four-wheel drive sweep the bend ahead of her at the same time she knew Greg must be driving behind her. She glanced around. Sure enough, the vehicle which Mac Thomas had driven to bring her to the estate was speeding up the drive.
    She struggled off the track as Greg pulled up first. He snarled through the window. “Get in.”
    She swiveled to see Berry – she hoped it was Berry – about two hundred metres away.
    “Thanks. I’ll wait for Berry,” she said.
    Greg glanced up the track at the approaching vehicle then leaned towards her across the passenger seat. “Don’t do this. We need you back at the homestead. Get in.”
    Clancy, her heart pounding, watched Berry roaring up fast. “No. It’s okay, I’ll go with Berry.” She stepped back on the verge, still loaded with everything, afraid to let go of any of her