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‘Yes, but—’

‘Dr Brown was Julia’s tenant, but he’s been cagey about letting her into the kitchen and sitting room.’ He rubs under Keith Urban’s chin. ‘It all makes sense now, him drinking himself almost to death, but he put on a good show in daylight hours.’

When my hands flutter in agitation, Keith Urban sits at my feet. ‘Why do the builders have to start now if they can’t finish till the end of January?’

‘They’re working either side of Christmas with a break in between. Sounds fair enough to me.’

‘I can’t live in the cabin until the end of January.’

‘Nice little place, in my opinion.’ Jimmy’s hat bobs up and down when he scratches his head. ‘And it’s not like anyone else is living there.’

‘No, but—’

‘Cameron’s property is coming along nicely. He’s got a lot of work to do yet, but it’s a nice patch of dirt—he paid a lot less than it was worth given it was on the mine side of the highway.’

‘I need to run a practice, Jimmy. That’s why I’m here in Summerfield.’

‘Julia says exactly the same.’ A slow and thoughtful nod. ‘With you medical types, people or pigs, it’s a vocation.’

‘Yes, Jimmy, but—’

‘It’s good to have a vet around the place again. What’s your specialty? Dogs and cats?’

‘Cattle and sheep.’

‘A slip of a thing like you? I wouldn’t have thought it.’ Jimmy’s face creases when he smiles. ‘Then again, I’m a landscaper by trade, and we’re getting more women into that. Did you come across Gordon’s granddaughter, Mackenzie, at school? She’s a saddler like Gordon.’

‘I don’t remember her.’

‘What with her parents at loggerheads, she was in Summerfield one minute then shipped back to Sydney the next.’ He holds out his hand. ‘You got business cards on you?’

‘I have a box in the ute. I’ll get you one.’

‘Give me the box.’ He rubs his hands together. ‘Dr Brown walked out of here months ago, so his clients had to go to other vets. How about I share your cards around and drum up a bit of business?’

Chapter 6

I’m climbing down the ladder after making the bed when my phone rings. The cabin is small and there’s very little storage, so I’ve allocated places for essentials. My keys are on the windowsill. My phone and charger are on the bench next to the kettle.

‘Amelie Peterson.’

‘I found your card in the general store. Is it okay to call so early?’

I adjust the straps of my pyjama top. ‘Vets are always up early.’

‘I’m Milly Rogers. Me and my partner Benedict have a hobby farm at 111 Kitchener Road.’ This must be the Milly that Anna told me about. Her voice is tearful. ‘Can you come and see our cow, Belle?’

‘I have a booking at ten, but I could come at eight. What’s the problem?’ When I open the blind above the sink, the snowflakes on the Christmas ball sparkle in the light.

‘A calf.’ Her voice breaks. ‘You’ll see when you get here.’

I check my supplies and whistle Keith Urban into the ute straight after breakfast. Milly is the fifth client I’ve picked up through Jimmy’s efforts and I’m grateful for—

Cameron’s ute, parked across the driveway, is blocking my exit. In the past week, I’ve seen him only once, when he was pulling out of the driveway and onto the road. He was turning right. I was turning left. It’s not like it would have been dangerous for our eyes to have met or for us to have acknowledged each other. The lift of a finger from a wheel. A flash of lights. No, and no. We were so intent on keeping hard left and hard right we could have ended up in the ditches either side of the driveway.

Today it’ll be impossible to avoid him. ‘Stay,’ I tell Keith Urban as I jump to the ground. ‘I won’t be long.’

Cicadas buzz a chorus as I skirt around the sprawling branches of the blue-green spruce to his ute. The doors are shut but the windows are down, and the tray is open. ‘Cameron!’ When the roll was taken at school, when he won awards in assembly, when he was made school captain, teachers used his full name. Is that why I still do it? Even though everyone else around here seems to call him Cam. ‘Cameron!’