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head home now. I’ll call the flying doctor and have him look you over.’
    ‘I don’t need any doctor looking me over,’ she gasped.
    ‘But I want him to. How do you think I’ll feel if you sue me for damages in a month or two?’
    ‘I won’t. I’m all right, Mr Roper.’ To show him Georgina crossed to Ribbons and mounted ... and it was the hardest thing she had done in her life.
    ‘Point taken,’ drawled Roper. ‘You’re all right, He mounted Gibraltar, raised his whip to his cattlemen who now had the mob in full control, and they began the trek back.
    Every inch of the way was a torment to Georgina, she had never felt more sick, more sad, or more sorry for herself in all her life. But she bit her lip and made herself do it, and even talked brightly as she proceeded along a track that never seemed to end.
    It did end eventually, of course, and as they started through the last patch of scrub, Roper said: ‘I think you should come up to the homestead.’
    ‘No, thank you, sir.’ Apart from longing to close the door on him, on everybody and everything, Georgina felt she could not have lasted any longer than the time it took to reach the hut.
    ‘You didn’t let me finish, Brown. Not for any medical attention, seeing you’re so averse to it, but for a long hot bath. You seem sound in limb, but you must be bruised. I can’t see you standing under the tank stand and getting any benefit there, you want something to lie in. A supply of boiling balm, or at least I find it that after a trek.’
    A hot bath! Georgina felt herself yearning—even aching —to accept the offer. And why not? Baths were taken behind closed doors, or presumably they were, even here. ‘Well, sir ’ she said weakly.
    ‘Good. You can strip off and lie in there for an hour. I'll even bring your meal in if it’s too good to leave.'
    ‘If you don’t mind I’ll just take the hot bath and then come back to bed,’ she said quickly.
    ‘They’re your bruises, Brown,’ Roper shrugged. ‘Incidentally, I have a good medicine chest. Just shout out and I’ll show you what a layman can do in the absence of a doc.’
    ‘I’m sure you can, but I’m all right.’
    ‘Methinks the—young man doth protest too much, Roper drawled. ‘It would be no trouble, and I’m up in medical know-how. You have to be out here.’
    Wishing now she had never accepted the offer of the bath, Georgina murmured something back and they went on to the homestead.
    Mrs Willmott fussed around with towels and soap, plying more than was needed.
    ‘What a pity you’re not a girl,’ Roper drawled. ‘I know Willy. I bet she has some bath salts stacked away somewhere.’
    Georgina did not reply. There was only one thing on her mind. Had the door a key?
    It was the first thing she looked for, and after she had locked herself in she gave herself up to the luxury of hot water, hot water all around her, not just applied with a sponge from a basin. She had several darkening spots that promised to turn into passable bruises, and a few scratches, but apart from these, and an exhausted feeling as though she had been put through a mangle, she had come off lightly.
    She lay back and fairly wallowed. It was only when there was a tap on the door and a ‘Are you drowned in there?’ that she realised how long she had stayed. Regretfully she got out.
    She towelled herself leisurely, looking with distaste at her crumpled pants and crushed overshirt. All at once she found herself longing for a girl’s dress, pink for preference, with little buttons and a few bows ...
    The shrill of a telephone broke into her thoughts.
    At first she took no notice of the ring, no notice of Mrs Willmott answering. Then, insidiously, as though she could not escape it, she listened.
    ‘Yes?’ said Mrs Willmott.
    After that: ‘Yes, they are here.’
    Next: ‘No, I’m afraid I couldn’t at the moment, it’s been a field day today and the bath was the first order— No, there’s no connection to