Chapter Twenty-FourWe half-carried Mrs Scobie back across the Eureka Flat toward our tent, but when we drew near she shook us off. ‘I have other friends here,’ she said. ‘The damage is done and there’s no more danger, so I can stay in my own tent safely now. I’m sorry to have brought you into our troubles.’
‘Stay with us,’ Patrick begged, cut to the heart that he’d found a woman he couldn’t save. ‘We’ll think of something, I promise.’
She shook her head and smiled slightly. ‘My friends will take care of us. We diggers stick together.’
‘We’re diggers too!’ Matilda protested. ‘Why else would we risk coming here?’
‘Of course you are, dear,’ she said gently. ‘But it’s early days yet. Not to put too fine a point on it, but my other friends have considerably more food.’
I blushed, but there
