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‘You’re happy to work on the weekend?’ Cy asked.

‘Bloody oath. One day’s the same as another to me.’

‘I mightn’t be here on Saturday and Sunday. Do you reckon you’ll be okay by yourself?’

‘Mate, give me a shovel and a pick and I can do whatever. I’ll bring some tucker with me. Nowhere to get a feed around here anyway, is there? I think I can go for a piss down the back of the dam and if I need a crap I can dig a hole.’ He laughed again and for the first time, Cy noticed his blackened teeth.

Jerry was certainly a charmer, but as long as he could dig, Cy didn’t care.

‘Friday?’

‘Eight o’clock do?’

‘That’ll be fine. See ya then, Sir I. Don’t forget half the dosh up front.’

Cy expelled a deep breath as Jerry climbed into his ute and gunned the engine. He walked up to the top of the rise and checked that he drove straight out the gate.

He waited until the black ute disappeared up the highway, and he went back to his digging. Another hour and he’d go up and check on Tarni.

Chapter 24

McLaren Mango Farm - Monday morning

Tarni

Tarni spent a restless night. She woke up a couple of times to go to the toilet and when she got up the second time, she realised she must have had a massive sweat. The sheets were tangled around her legs and damp.

She was too tired to stay up and go looking for fresh sheets so she moved across to the other side of the queen-sized bed, where the sheets were dry. She went back to sleep instantly, and her sleep was filled with strange dreams. She dreamed about Jonty working down on the mango trees, and she dreamed about her parents. Her grandfather appeared at one point, telling her to go home. ‘It’s too hot up here for a lass like you,’ he said.

When she woke the next time, sunlight was streaming through the open blinds, and she put her hand to her eyes. Her head was pounding. She’d rolled on her hand through the night, and it was tender, but it wasn’t as sore as she had expected it would be. It was her head that was hurting the most.

Tarni lay back for a moment and closed her eyes, intending to get up soon. When she woke again the room was darker, the sun had moved off the window. She glanced at the clock, surprised to see it was after nine.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed she cooled her feet on the smooth white tiles. She loved the tiled floors that were right through the house. Even though it was late autumn, the house stayed warm all day. There was no carpet and it would be so easy to keep clean. If there was one thing that Tarni was, it was a clean freak and it had been hard living in rented apartments in the city.

One day, she thought, I’ll have a home like this.

She cradled her sore hand in front of her as she stood, and she swayed on her feet as her head pounded.

Making her way slowly to the guest bathroom she picked up the plastic bag, she’d used last night and put it over her bandaged hand. Her shower was quick, and she washed her hair one-handed, managing not to get the dressing on her injured hand wet.

Drying herself with one hand was a little bit more difficult, and she dropped the towel a couple of times, her head pounding as she bent to pick it up.

She rubbed her wet hair with the towel and then struggled to pull it back into a scrunchie. Once it was back, she stood in front of the mirror.

Her face was pale, but she had twin spots of colour high on each cheek, and that concerned her. Using the back of her hand to feel her forehead, it didn’t appear she had a temperature. Tarni was tempted to take the dressing off her wound and have a look at it but instead, she moved her thumb gingerly. It didn’t hurt and it wasn’t throbbing like it had been yesterday afternoon, so she assumed there was no infection there. She was just run down and headachy from yesterday.

There was no sign of Cy when she walked out to the kitchen. He would have gone down to the trees at dawn. The coffeemaker was still on and she decided to sit out in the sun with a real coffee. She removed the clear plastic water container from the back and filled it with water from the water purifier. After clipping it on and plugging the machine in, she turned to the small container beside the coffee maker and looked at the selection of coffee pods. Using the pods worried her because they created such environmental waste.

One wouldn’t hurt; hopefully, it would help ease her headache. She chose a strong espresso coffee, opened the hatch and put the pod inside. As it heated, she found a cup in the drawer beneath the cupboard and put it under the spout. Seconds after she pushed the button the enticing aroma of fresh-brewed coffee tickled her nose.

She looked in the pantry for the granola she usually ate, but her head was pounding, and she decided to have the coffee and some painkillers first; she’d think about breakfast later when she felt better. Then she’d go down to the shed and have a look at the seeds, log the temperatures, and hopefully be able to measure the overnight growth, even if she was one-handed.

Taking her coffee Tarni wandered out to the veranda. Placing it on the small coffee table, she went back to the bathroom and took two of the strong painkillers with the remaining water in the glass by the bed. She went to refill the glass in the bathroom sink and then decided to go back to the kitchen and use the purified water. On top of her sore hand and headache, she certainly wasn’t going to risk a tummy bug from microorganisms in the tank, no matter what Cy said.

Five minutes later, she was sitting in a comfortable papasan chair, looking out over the lush green trees. There was a slight breeze and the leaves rippled as the wind blew through the plantation. She really should go down and start work, but her headache was gradually easing. Resting her head against the soft back of the comfortable chair, Tarni put her head back and closed her eyes.

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