Chapter 26
The sun was setting in a nest of purple clouds when Matt pulled up at the bed and breakfast attached to Mrs Murphy’s tearooms. Sarah was waiting out the front, clad in a tight black dress with a chain around her hips, holding a document wallet. Matt pulled over, disconcerted by how glamorous she looked. He was dressed in his ranger’s uniform. She was dressed for a date.
‘Hop in.’
‘Whatever have you done to your face?’ she asked.
‘I told you I was accident-prone.’ He drove past the local hotel and took the road to Nandena. There might be a band playing there tonight. Ha, who was he kidding? He didn’t want to be seen with Sarah in town, not looking the way she did.
The road ran between plantations of pine, which clung to the slopes and valleys like a dark fog. Ahead, a wombat
