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life had made perfect sense. Now it was all jumbled. She just couldn’t believe that Shara would keep something like that from her. She wouldn’t just leave Diamond lying in a cattle grid. Jess opened her phone, brought Shara’s message back up and punched in a direct question.
    did rocko chase diamond thru that grid?
    She snapped her phone shut and stared back up at Rosie and Grace. ‘I’d better get back to fixing this fence,’ she said in a tight voice. ‘I’ll see you around.’
    ‘You can tighten that wire up with a stick. Want me to show you?’ said Rosie, slipping off her horse and picking a stick up off the ground, which she began to twist around the wire. ‘This is an old bushie’s trick that Harry taught me.’
    ‘Who’s Harry?’
    Jess watched Rosie turn the stick like a tap. The strand of wire began twisting around and around itself, pulling tighter and tighter.
    ‘He’s our uncle,’ said Rosie.
    ‘Yeah, that’s where we’re going now,’ said Grace, ‘if we ever get there.’
    ‘He breeds stockhorses. We’re just on our way to see his foals. He has eight of them.’ Rosie stood back and viewed the fence with a satisfied look on her face. ‘Hey, why don’t you come with us? Come and see the foals.’
    ‘Yeah,’ said Grace. ‘They are sooo cute.’
    ‘Thanks, but I don’t have a horse to ride.’
    ‘You could walk,’ shrugged Rosie. ‘If you get tired, you can jump on the back of Buster.’ She gave her horse a slap on the rump. ‘He’s real comfy!’
    Jess’s head was still reeling with images of Rocko chasing Diamond. ‘Hey?’
    Rosie patted Buster’s rump again.
    ‘I look like a freak,’ said Jess.
    ‘Don’t worry about it. The foals won’t care,’ said Rosie.
    ‘Maybe next week.’
    ‘Nup,’ said Rosie. ‘You gotta see them when they’re newborn. They won’t be the same in a week. They won’t be all funny and wobbly.’
    ‘Just jump on Buster,’ said Grace. ‘He won’t hurt you. He’s built for comfort, not speed – that’s what Dad reckons!’ She began making pig noises.
    ‘Shut up, Grace,’ grumbled Rosie.
    ‘Well, I’m kinda grounded too.’ Jess could hear herself making excuses. That last one wasn’t even true. But she hadn’t planned on having a good day today. She had planned on being miserable. Right now she was downright angry.
    ‘Okay, but we better get going, because we told Harry we’d be there before lunch,’ said Rosie, putting her foot in the stirrup and climbing back on her horse.
    ‘Wait. I just . . .’
    She just what? What was her problem? Was she seriously planning to miss out on eight newborn foals?
    ‘Hang on. I’ll get my bike.’ Jess switched her phone off and shoved it back in her pocket. She could think about Shara later.

8
    AFTER AN HOUR’S ride over bumpy and sometimes steep trails, Jess was glad to get off the bike. She propped it up against the fence and squeezed her aching butt cheeks together. What a torture rack!
    From behind her, Grace giggled. ‘Give me a horse and saddle anytime!’
    Jess wiggled her legs, purely for Grace’s amusement, and then unlatched the gate for them to bring their horses through.
    Inside was a set of timber cattle yards adjoining a fullsize rodeo arena. Next to it was a huge barn, and beyond that stretched acres of green pasture. Sitting on the top rail of one of those yards was an old man wearing a battered old hat.
    ‘Hi, Harry,’ Grace and Rosie chorused.
    Harry answered in a voice as croaky as a cane toad’s. ‘Hey! How you going, girls? Come and see the colts!’
    Rosie and Grace tethered their horses and jumped up onto the timber slab fence. Jess followed. In the yard, two teenage boys sat on jet-black colts. The horses’ coats shone like glossy patent leather. Both had large, soft eyes and handsome heads, but one had a small white star on his forehead and a snip on his nose, while the other had no face markings but did have small white socks on his hind feet.
    Rosie