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Her grip on my arm is firm. ‘You would’ve been pretty underneath.’

‘Animals don’t judge on appearance, that’s why I like them.’

‘I reckon Rocket likes you.’

I hold up the X-ray again. ‘The break is high on his leg, and see the shadowing? It’s displaced there.’

‘That’s why it’s bad.’

‘Yes, but the displacement is relatively minor and there’s a chance that, with the right treatment, the break could heal naturally.’

‘Without an operation? Why didn’t the other vets tell me that?’

‘Best practice is pinning Rocket’s leg. Letting it heal on its own could have side effects. He’ll be more likely to get arthritis in his leg.’

‘Who doesn’t get arthritis when they’re old? You tell me that.’

‘He might not be as agile as he was.’

‘He’s inside with me every night, and I’ll give that neighbour of mine a piece of my mind, tell her to lock her bully cat up when Rocket goes out in the mornings.’

‘He might have a limp.’

‘Better to have a limp than be dead.’

I stroke Rocket’s ginger stripes. ‘I agree.’

‘It would’ve broken my heart to let him go to someone else, but I called the animal shelter to see if they could take him on. They said with a broken leg, they’d have to put him to sleep.’

‘They wouldn’t have the resources to care for him in the way that you can. He’ll need to be kept in a confined space for around eight weeks. We’d start him off in a small cage, just his bed and a litter box. If he’s improving, we get him into a larger cage, but he doesn’t come out of that cage until his leg has healed and he’s strong. Do you think you could manage that?’

‘He won’t be in too much pain?’

‘If he needs pain relief, I’ll give it to him, but if the leg is healing as it should, that wouldn’t be for long. You know him, Maggie, you’ll know how he’s doing. If he’s eating and purring, we’ll let time do the healing. To an extent, it’s good that he’s guided by pain. If his leg is uncomfortable, he’ll want to stay off it.’

‘He’d be out of the cage by the end of February?’

‘He should be.’

‘You’re not going to put him to sleep.’ Maggie rests her hand, mottled and wrinkled with age, on Rocket’s side. ‘I can’t believe it.’

‘There are no guarantees.’

‘You’ve given me a chance to spend Christmas with Rocket. That’s more than I could ever have wished for.’

Chapter 12

Early every morning, around five or six, I open the blinds in my tiny loft bedroom. The national park is a solid band of green, but Cameron’s farm is a patchwork of greens and yellows. I watch the sun rise over his pavilion house, the stable block, horse paddock, sheds and cattle yards. This morning, the cattle have been corralled in the smaller paddock to the side of the house where the horses, the tall black thoroughbred and the smaller stocky grey, are generally kept. At six fifteen, I kick off the sheet and shuffle across the bed to the ladder.

‘Good morning, Keith Urban.’ The kelpie wags his tail. ‘We’re going somewhere different today.’

Every morning last week, I worked in the surgery. Dogs and cats, pet rabbits, native animals I patched up before sending on to wildlife rescue. In the afternoons, I made house calls. Milly and Benedict’s cow Belle is still in one piece. Maggie’s Rocket is eating well and increasingly keen to get out of his cage.

The supplies I picked up on Friday afternoon are stacked in boxes near the door. I vaccinated and castrated calves during placements when I was at university, but my experience in sorting and handling cattle is limited. As a farmer relying on cattle for his income, it would be uneconomic for Cameron to pay a vet to do what he’s asked me to do today, but my labour is free so maybe this makes sense.

‘Rent in kind,’ I remind myself.

I haven’t seen him since I visited Julia’s house, but I heard his voice when he talked to the builders at the surgery two days ago. They’re working hard on the kitchen installation and the refurbishment of the bedroom, bathroom and living spaces, but nothing will be finished until February. By then, I’ll be gone. Where to? I now have four options: a company wanting to implement best practice for the treatment of the beagles they use to test drugs for cancer research; two universities; a livestock corporation.