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‘Maybe. It’ll be fun finding out, anyway,’ she said bumping him playfully with her shoulder. Knowing that Kane was going to be around for a while lightened her heart. The tears were gone.

‘I’ve got another question for you.’

Ellie moved back a little and looked up at him. Kane’s eyes were dark and his expression serious as he held her gaze.

‘You love mucking around with this stuff, don’t you?’ He gestured to the pots along the railing. ‘Now that Mum and Panos have gone . . . the farm will be mine. Panos had no family. I’ve always had a yen to grow something. How would you feel about trying to resurrect a mango plantation?’ He rushed on as Ellie felt her mouth drop open. The lightness in her chest was replaced with joy that spread through her entire body as she looked at this man. This man she knew she’d fallen in love with.

‘We could knock down the old house, build a new one . . . and the shed. Get rid of all our bad memories. Plant some new trees maybe?’ Kane’s hand cupped her face. ‘Maybe it’s too soon but we’ll see. One thing I am sure of is that I’d really love you to share it with me.’

‘Are you sure?’ Ellie whispered.

‘I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.’

Ellie lifted her head and pressed her lips against his.

‘I take it that’s a yes.’

Chapter 37

One week later

Daintree, North Queensland

When the wound on Ellie’s head had healed and her headache was finally gone, Kane travelled to Queensland with her. They’d waited until after his mother’s funeral and driven to the airport the next morning.

Ellie knew her own healing could not begin until she spoke to her mother and told her that she’d been right about the farm – about her father’s death, and about the men who had wanted to use the place for its resources. The news she had was not the sort of thing she wanted to deliver by email or over the phone. When she’d asked Jock for more time off, he’d understood, knowing the ordeal she’d been through.

‘I owe you, Jock.’ Ellie hugged him.

‘No, I think you’ve done me a big favour.’

‘How’s that?’ Ellie tipped her head to the side, wincing a little as the plaster caught on her hair.

‘I think we finally have another pilot who’s going to hang around a while.’ Jock grinned at her. ‘No ex-wife likely to turn up looking for Kane, is there?’

Ellie smiled back. ‘Not that’s he’s mentioned. I’d better check.’

They landed in Cairns in the early morning and Kane drove to their hotel. Ellie yawned as the beaches flashed past her window. ‘Why is it that every flight seems to leave Darwin in the middle of the night?’ She looked over at Kane as he drove through the city. His tanned arms held the wheel confidently and the haunted look had left his eyes. His mouth was relaxed but Ellie knew he still had a way to go before he healed.

He had talked more about his flashbacks and the stressful memories that he carried inside him. ‘When I think about you on the side of the helicopter in the river . . .’ He shook his head slowly. ‘I’ve got another reason to have a bloody flashback.’

Ellie shivered; it would take her a long time to forget the fear that had gripped her while she waited for rescue. She had blocked the memory of the crocodile taking that man. She reached over and put her hand into Kane’s, and he squeezed her fingers. The shiver left her as he lifted them to his lips.

Kane was staying at the hotel while she drove to Emma’s by herself. ‘It’ll be better if it’s just you and your mum and sister.’ Ellie appreciated his thoughtfulness. She was seeing more and more of the real Kane every day.

Emma and Mum lived in a small cottage on the river in the little village of Daintree, north of Port Douglas. Ellie hadn’t called to say she was coming because she knew she would have blurted out what had happened. Her involvement in the rescue of Gina Johnson hadn’t made the papers; the only person the journalist had been interested in was the heavily pregnant wife of the Chief Minister.

David had called them on Monday afternoon. Apart from the committee members, they were the first to hear that the vote for the mineral exploration on the edge of Kakadu National Park had been emphatically defeated. David had spent time at police headquarters telling them what had happened. Of course Russell Fairweather had denied any involvement, but allegations about the industrialist were being investigated by an independent corruption body. The email from Panos that Ellie had found in her father’s old email account had been filed as evidence.

‘Don’t let that blackfella talk you out of Russell’s deal, Pete.’

Panos had also bragged about the money.

‘A million dollars is nothing to Fairweather. We’ll all be rich, mate.’

David was resigning from parliament. He’d told Kane and Ellie when they’d visited Gina and little Ellie Rose in the hospital before they headed back to Darwin with the children. He’d been eager to get back for the vote. Bill Jarragah, mortified by Heather’s actions, had followed them in his old Land Cruiser. David and Gina had elected not to press charges against Heather but the relationship between Ellie and Heather had been tested, and although Heather was contrite and doing her best to preserve their friendship, Ellie knew it would be some time before she’d be able to trust her again.

The small town of Dalrymple flashed past and Ellie shivered as she passed the crocodile warning sign on the river bridge on the northern side of town. A few minutes later she turned off the main road and drove along the river into Daintree.