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parents had enclosed the side of the verandah and turned it into a sunroom. In winter, it caught the sun and was the warmest part of the house. His father seemed to spend the majority of each day out here, reading and doing crossword puzzles.
    After that first night, Seb had gone through the house and discreetly disposed of every bottle of liquor he’d come across, but there didn’t seem to be any reaction from his father. The old bugger obviously had a stash somewhere, so Seb’s next avenue would be the machinery sheds, and he’d do it in a grid search, centimetre by bloody centimetre, as soon as he got the chance.
    â€˜Dad, I’ve been thinking about a new venture.’
    His father stopped reading the paper and looked at him warily.
    â€˜Have you heard much about wind turbines?’
    â€˜Can’t say I have,’ Angus said slowly.
    â€˜I’ve been looking into them as a bit of a business venture – a retirement fund of sorts. They need wind to make them work effectively and the high country we have on the farm would be ideal. There’s not much upkeep – we don’t have to feed them, grow them or worry about drought.’
    His father sat there and considered him silently. Seb pushed the booklet he’d been looking through across the table. ‘Have a read and see what you think. I want to lease the land from you to run them. I need to invest some money I’ve had put away in something that will work for me, so I’m prepared to fund it all. You wouldn’t need to pay for anything. You just keep your eye on it, and sit back and watch it generate money.’
    â€˜Sounds like you’ve thought it all through.’
    Seb gave a half-grin, before taking a sip of his coffee. ‘There’s a lot of down time and waiting on the job – sometimes gives you way too much time to think.’
    â€˜You’re like your mother. She was always the financial guru around the place – always coming up with new ideas of how to make money.’
    Seb watched his father, catching a glimpse of the loneliness he’d been living with for the last few years. ‘Well, have a read and see what you think. No hurry, looks like I’ll be here a while.’
    Gathering the determination and mental discipline he’d developed over the years in order to get him through his training and the work he did, he went into the yard to continue cleaning up. There were more bushes to tame into a respectable height and enough weeding to keep him occupied for the rest of the day. Tomorrow he planned on tinkering with the tractor and starting on some slashing.

Chapter 4
    The shadows from the thick trees lining the side of the road flickered in a dazzling, almost blinding glare as Rebecca drove through them. She breathed a sigh of relief as the long stretch of road ended and she came into sunlight once more.
    God – how long had it been since she’d driven out here? Something tightened in her stomach as the answer came back to her as clear as though she’d spoken it out loud.
    Eighteen years.
    She tried to block the growing despair that seemed to claw its way up her throat and into her head. Around the corner and over the bridge … She turned up the volume on the CD and hoped that Beccy Cole would blast the demons from her memory. She needed to make this trip. Fixing her eyes determinedly on the horizon, she refused to allow her gaze to drift to the gully on the side of the road and acknowledge its presence.
    A couple of days earlier, Rebecca had done a quick search of the files – as had become her usual practice – to check that Seb had been coming in to have his dressings changed. She’d tried not to feel hurt that he planned his visits around the times she wasn’t rostered on. The first time it had stung, so had the few times after that, but she’d come to accept that he clearly didn’t want any further contact with her. The files