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glanced down at her from the fence and grinned. ‘They’re twins – pretty special, hey?’
    ‘Who, the boys?’ asked Jess.
    ‘No, the horses,’ laughed Rosie. ‘The boys aren’t even brothers.’ She pointed to the taller of them. ‘That’s Tom, on Nosey. He stays here during the holidays. Private-school boy – he gets to break up from school earlier than us. Both his parents are lawyers and they’re always working.’ She bent down and whispered. ‘They are so rich. You should see all the gear he has for riding. His saddle cost four thousand dollars!’
    Jess made a choking sound. ‘Four thousand bucks? I didn’t know you could pay that much for a saddle!’
    ‘Yep, you sure can,’ said Rosie. ‘Anyway, Tom doesn’t care about all that. He lets me ride with his saddle all the time.’
    ‘Cool,’ said Jess, wondering what a four-thousand-dollar saddle would feel like to ride in. ‘So who’s the other one?’
    ‘Oh, that’s Luke, on Legsy.’ Rosie seemed to have trouble tearing her eyes away from Tom. ‘He came here to do a brumby-gentling program a few years ago, and he was so good with horses that Harry asked him to stay. He’s a foster kid.’ She lowered her voice to a whisper again. ‘He was a real mess when he first came here. He used to come home from school all busted up from fighting. Harry doesn’t make him go to school anymore – reckons he’s better off working with the horses and doing something he’s good at.’
    Harry interrupted their whispering. ‘Are you going to introduce me to your friend, Rosie?’
    Jess looked at the ground.
    ‘Jess, this is Harry,’ said Rosie.
    ‘G’day, Jess!’ said Harry. He pulled a chewed toothpick from his mouth and flicked it onto the ground. ‘How do you like my colts?’
    ‘They’re like something out of a movie. They’re beautiful.’
    ‘They’re twins. First I’ve ever had survive,’ said Harry. He looked proudly at the two colts.
    ‘They’re the first twin horses I’ve ever even seen,’ said Jess.
    ‘Want to see them draft some cattle?’ asked Harry.
    ‘Umm . . .’ Jess wasn’t really sure what ‘draft some cattle’ meant. She remembered that Shara had talked nonstop about something called campdrafting when she came back from a holiday in Darwin once. She was so taken with the sport that she had spent the next month chasing her parents’ purebred Droughtmaster cattle up and down their hilly property, despite their demands that she stop. Her dad had eventually grounded her.
    Harry didn’t wait for Jess to answer. ‘Cut out a beast, Tom,’ he yelled, then turned to Jess and patted the fence rail. ‘Hop up, kiddo. You won’t see much from down there.’
    Tom nodded briefly at Harry, and rode the horse into a yard full of cattle.
    Jess climbed up onto the rail. She watched Tom single out a big, ugly cow and push it away from the mob. It trotted to the top of the yard, moaning loudly in protest, and then tried to dart back to the mob. Quick as lightning, the colt swung to the left and blocked its path. The heifer lunged to the right, only to have the colt spin on its heels and block it again.
    ‘Real cowy, these colts,’ Harry muttered as he climbed off the rail and opened a big set of gates. The cow lifted its heels and gave a clumsy skip with its hind legs as it bolted out of the arena. Tom held the colt steady as he cantered after it.
    ‘Go easy now, Tom. Just track after it for a bit,’ Harry called out.
    After following the cow for a minute or so, Tom reined the colt in and brought him back to the others. Tom was as tall and gangly as the colt he rode and his white teeth were the only part of his face Jess could make out under his black helmet.
    Luke gave his horse a nudge to make it step forward. He had the crumpled appearance of a teenager who did his own washing. Rusty-brown hair poked out from his helmet and his face was covered in freckles. ‘Want me to put Legs around, Harry?’ he asked.
    ‘Sure,