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‘Up here!’

I spin around, then peer through the foliage of the spruce. Cameron, ten metres up and leaning back, has his feet against the trunk of the tree.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Hanging lights.’

When I make out the harness strapped around his legs and waist, my heart rate should steady but doesn’t.

‘I’ll come down.’

‘I can move your ute. Where is the key?’

He secures a large canvas bag between two branches. ‘In my pocket.’ Like he’s abseiling down a wall, Cameron releases the rope in increments as, a bounce to every step, he works his way through the branches and jumps down the trunk to the ground. When he releases the strap around his waist, the harness puddles at his feet and he steps out. Blue jeans, a faded blue shirt, three-day growth on a handsome face.

‘Didn’t think you’d be out so early,’ he says.

‘I have more work than I expected thanks to Jimmy.’

‘Word of mouth is good.’

My eyes go to his mouth, his go to mine. We both look away. ‘I told Milly Rogers I’d be there by eight.’

‘Milly is great. Benedict too.’

‘I haven’t met them yet.’

‘Have you met anyone else?’

‘Terrence Lee called me out. So did Summer Vallance and a couple of others.’

‘Anyone but clients?’ His eyes are particularly green. ‘A lot happens in sixteen years. There are other good people.’

‘Maybe.’

‘I don’t lie, Amelie.’ His lips firm. ‘I never did.’

He doesn’t have to say ‘roundabout’ for me to know what he’s referring to. I search for safer ground. ‘When you said that Keith Urban and I could move into the cabin, we were planning to stay for a week, so I didn’t pay in advance. As it now appears we’ll be here until the end of January, we’d better settle on terms. I’ll also need your bank account details.’

‘Julia thought you could live in the terrace, and you can’t. She owed you an alternative.’

‘You didn’t.’

‘Whatever my reasons, I agreed you could have the cabin.’

‘At the practice, I would have been liable for water, electricity and other costs.’

He frowns. ‘I don’t want rent.’

‘I insist.’

‘Pay me in kind.’ He speaks gruffly. ‘I have over two hundred cows and almost that many calves.’

‘I pay rent in the form of veterinary services?’

He shrugs. ‘Why not?’

It’s good of him to let me live in the cabin. He’s given me no reasonnotto be civil. When he asked after my parents and I asked why he’d done that, he said, ‘That’s what people do.’Polite conversation.If nothing else, I owe him that.