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was said to have been on a bullock
    cart making its way down to the big smoke of Brisbane. It never got there. Jack was
    droving around that time and mysteriously wandered off only to return months and
    months later a rich man with money in his pocket and a new bride on his arm. The
    only problem was the old bride was still living. Word is the first Mrs. Throcker, Jane,
    took it badly until Jack explained to her that the new bride, Maisie, was married under
    one of his other names and technically she was the only real Throcker wife.”
    “Other names?” Did Jane stick around, Cass wondered. Would any woman do
    that having a new wife appear, different surname or not? But then how did women
    survive back then without the aid of a man?
    “Jack was quite a jack the lad. Women loved him. Men either feared him or
    wanted to kill him. By all accounts, Jane Throcker just went along with the other
    woman, each bearing children to Jack. And, I suppose, in those times, there wasn’t a
    lot she could do about it. Stay married or be a fallen woman.”
    “And the gold?”
    “No one ever really knew what happened to it. After Jack died, because no one
    was game to do it beforehand, people searched his land but nothing was ever found.
    Jack was too cunning for most and sometimes for his own good. If there is gold still
    buried out there, then he never got to use it or he blew the lot and is having a good
    laugh now in the afterlife.”
    “Hence the annual Throcker Thrash.” Cass understood now. Legend and greed
    were powerful motivates. History was on one side and great wealth on the other.
    “Yes, once a year, everyone in the district comes together to search for Jack’s
    treasure on his property. The old homestead still exists.”
    “If Adele’s family is so wealthy, then why does she go looking for the Throcker
    treasure?” Added to that, from the little she had seen of the other woman, Cass
    doubted she was the type that ever got her hands dirty.
    “She’s greedy. Pure and simple,” Flo explained to Cass. “The Throcker Thrash is
    in a couple of days. You’ve picked a good week to come to Mundabucka.” She
    looked Cass up and down and smiled. “Now, can we trust you to help us make some
    beds or will you feel the need to rumple them with the lovely Evan?”
    Cass blushed. “My libido is in check.” My heart? That’s a different matter.

Chapter Six
    It was midday. The sun was high and bright as Evan stood and watched Cass
    talking to her chooks as if they were short, feathered people. He wondered who Cass
    had back home. On one hand, he felt like he was bursting with knowledge about her
    and on the other, she was a sexy, mysterious stranger who had shaken up his life
    faster than he thought imaginable. He loved women. They came and went in his life.
    This one? Evan didn’t want her leaving any time soon. She had captured his imagination like no other.
    “I have no idea what I’m doing,” Cass told the chooks as she broke up pieces of
    bread for them to eat.” This was met by much clucking. “Oh sure, easy for you to
    say.” The chooks gobbled down the bread she fed them. “How did I get mixed up
    with two crazy lesbians, a cut throat Sicilian and a hot jack of all trades who makes
    my knees wobble when he smiles at me. I’d probably faint if he kisses me again and
    that’s so embarrassing because I’m a grown up woman and not some silly girl with a
    crush.”
    Evan smiled at her words. Oh, there will be more kissing but no fainting . Cass
    was built to last and to be loved hard and sweetly. He had never before come inside a
    woman’s body unprotected. That was a rush that Evan had never expected. It was raw
    and primal and he wanted to be all caveman-like and carry Cass off over his shoulder
    and make love to her again and again.
    “And all this in the midst of an annual event where they trash someone’s property,” Cass murmured to Bert and Mitzi.
    “Actually, we thrash it. We don’t trash it.”