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deflated. She had been busting to show John Duggin her new filly, but not like this.
    John gave her arm a gentle rub. ‘She’s going to be fine, Jess. There’s no way we’ll lose this one, promise.’
    â€˜Thanks, John,’ she said. ‘You don’t know how much I needed to hear that!’ She used her shirt to wipe away the tears. John was the best vet in the whole world. If he promised that Opal would get better, she believed him. He had never promised her that with Diamond.
    â€˜Where’s the other horse you wanted me to see?’
    â€˜Over in the yards,’ said Jess, leading him to where Chelpie stood looking lethargic and hungry. ‘You know Katrina Pettilow’s horse, Chelpie?’
    As John walked around the shed to the yards he stopped in his tracks. ‘Is that her?’ His face didn’t give a lot away, but Jess knew that anyone who had seen this horse in her glory days would be utterly shocked at her appearance now. ‘How did she get here?’ he asked.
    â€˜She keeps breaking out of her stable and escaping to the river flats. It’s because she’s so hungry, I reckon.’
    â€˜Katrina locks her up and forgets to feed her,’ added Shara. ‘She’s been here since the night of the flood.’
    John stepped through the lower rails of the yards and walked up to Chelpie with a hand out. She screwed up her nose at him, then resumed staring into space. The vet raised a hand to her neck and ran it over her shoulder. Muttering something under his breath that Jess didn’t catch, John moved to her head. He pulled her eyelids down and inspected them, and opened her mouth to press at her gums.
    â€˜She looks pretty bad, don’t you think?’
    John looked Chelpie all over, then nodded. ‘Yeah, she’s not a happy horse.’
    Craig came back down from the house. ‘Lawson said we can go to his place and pick up the truck now. He’s just finishing off a job, then he’s going to come over and check on the mare.’
    â€˜That’s settled then,’ said John. ‘I’ll see you at the surgery in a couple of hours.’
    â€˜What about Chelpie?’ asked Jess.
    â€˜I’ll make some phone calls,’ said John.

    At the clinic, the filly was heavily sedated and settled in a large stable. It had taken both Craig and John to restrain her. She still thrashed about so wildly that John gave her a needle to knock her out, saving them all from trauma and bruises.
    John let Jess and Shara assist as he tended to Opal’s leg wounds and injected a cocktail of drugs into a dripline, then squeezed and poked and pulled at her head. He looked into her mouth and put his gloved fingers into her ears. ‘I can’t find anything obvious. With any luck it’s just an ear infection from the floodwater and the antibiotics will fix it.’ He removed the drip and face cover. ‘She’ll wake up in half an hour or so.’
    While Shara followed John up the stable aisle, pestering him with questions about antibiotics and anaesthetics, Jess sat beside the unconscious foal and stroked her neck gently. As she ran her hand over Opal’s thick, soft foal fur, she realised that it was the first time she had ever patted her. She ran her hand between the filly’s ears and rubbed her forehead. ‘You’re going to be okay, little sweetie,’ she whispered. ‘You’re my once-in-a-lifetime horse, and I’m going to look after you no matter what, okay?’
    Jess ran her hand over Opal’s shoulder and traced her fingers slowly around the three white markings, just like she used to do with Diamond. ‘We’re going to be the best of buddies, Opal.’
    Lawson agreed to leave Marnie there for a few days to keep the foal settled, but he was firm that the mare would then be going droving. The six-week trip had been organised for months and he’d be needing his good horse