Page 1 of Best Laid Plans

PROLOGUE

A PARTY was in full swing at Tambaroora.

The homestead was ablaze with lights and brightly coloured Chinese lanterns glowed in the gardens. Laughter and the happy voices of young people joined the loud music that spilled out across the dark paddocks where sheep quietly grazed.

Will Carruthers was going away, setting off to travel the world, and his family and friends were sending him out in style.

‘Have you seen Lucy?’ Mattie Carey asked him as he topped up her wine glass.

‘I’m sure I have,’ Will replied, letting his gaze drift around the room, seeking Lucy’s bright blonde hair. ‘She was here a minute ago.’

Mattie frowned. ‘I’ve been looking for her everywhere.’

‘I’ll keep an eye out,’ Will said with a shrug. ‘If I see her, I’ll let her know you’re looking for her.’ He moved on to top up other guests’ glasses.

But by the time he’d completed a circuit of the big living room and the brightly lit front and side verandas, Will still hadn’t seen Lucy McKenty and he felt a vague stirring of unease. Surely shewouldn’t leave the party without saying goodbye. She was, in many ways, his best friend.

He went to the front steps and looked out across the garden, saw a couple, suspiciously like his sister Gina and Tom Roberts, pashing beneath a jacaranda, but there was still no sign of Lucy.

She wasn’t in the kitchen either. Will stood in the middle of the room, scratching his head and staring morosely at the stacks of empty bottles and demolished food platters. Where was she?

His brother Josh came in to grab another bottle of champers from the fridge.

‘Seen Lucy?’ Will asked.

Josh merely shook his head and hurried away to his latest female conquest.

A movement outside on the back veranda caught Will’s attention. It was dark out there and he went to the kitchen doorway to scan the veranda’s length, saw a slim figure in a pale dress, leaning against a veranda post, staring out into the dark night.

‘Lucy?’

She jumped at the sound of his voice.

‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere,’ he said, surprised by the relief flowing through him. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I had a headache.’ She spoke in a small, shaky voice. ‘So I came outside for a bit of quiet and fresh air.’

‘Has it helped?’

‘Yes, thanks. I feel much better.’

Will moved beside her and rested his arms on the railing, looking out, as she was, across the dark, limitless stretch of the sheep paddocks.

For the past four years the two of them had been away at Sydney University, two friends from the tiny country town of Willowbank, adrift in a sea of thousands of strangers. Theirfriendship had deepened during the ups and downs of student life, but now those years were behind them.

Lucy had come home to start work as a country vet, while Will, who’d studied geology, was heading as far away as possible, hurrying overseas, hungry for adventure and new experiences.

‘You’re not going to miss this place, are you?’ she said.

Will laughed. ‘I doubt it.’ His brother Josh would be here to help their father run Tambaroora. It was the life Josh, as the eldest son, was born to, what he wanted. For Will, escape had never beckoned more sweetly, had never seemed more reasonable. ‘I wish you were coming too.’

Lucy made a soft groaning sound. ‘Don’t start that again, Will.’

‘Sorry.’ He knew this was a sore point. ‘I just can’t understand why you don’t want to escape, too.’

‘And play gooseberry to you and Cara? How much fun would that be?’

The little catch in Lucy’s voice alarmed Will.

---