Chapter 37
Tom returned to Binburra without his wife. Mrs Mills and Old George didn’t ask questions.
He didn’t miss Kitty, as such. He could do without her contempt, rudeness and constant complaining. He could do without her drinking, sullenness and dissatisfaction. But he did miss the idea of being married, of caring for somebody else. Of putting someone else’s happiness ahead of his own.
Tom waited a week, but nobody rang; not Kitty nor Harry nor Emma. He didn’t ring them either. There was a finality about what had happened that couldn’t be fixed.
‘I’m going camping,’ he said a few days later over breakfast.
Mrs Mills stopped kneading bread dough and wiped floury hands on her apron. She came over and gave him a rare kiss, right on the top of his head. ‘Should you be going off on you
