First Moment

She's hungry for him. He hasn't even been gone a week and she already misses him so much it overwhelms her. She's not used to feeling such powerful things, and feeling them so deeply and intensely. It's hot and dry, she waves her small cotton fan rapidly in front of her face but it doesn't do anything. She takes frequent sips from her glass of iced tea, but it does little to quench her parched throat. She concentrates on the letter to her cousin Clarence, though her hand is sweaty and can't grip the pen properly, so her handwriting comes out messier than she'd have liked. This country is still so strange and uncomfortable in so many ways. But she is not ready to leave, and doesn't know if she ever will be.

There is plenty of work to do on the ranch. The Drover made sure things were in good shape before he took off on the drove, but the daily maintenance needs to be kept up. Nullah whistles lightly, creating the tiniest breeze breaking the heat, as he helps Sing Song prepare dinner. Bandy is getting water from the tower to put on the boil. Sarah needs to finish the letter before dinner, so that she can turn her attention to finishing the pile of tax forms Callahan is coming to collect later this evening.

She sets down her pen, missing the Drover so much she can hardly breathe in the claustrophobic heat. She slept badly again last night. After weeks of his body curled around hers, she is finding it hard to sleep without him. The heat doesn't help of course, still so foreign and uncomfortable, it makes her restless and irritable. Nullah is delightful company, and she is more than able to fill her days with entertaining and nuturing him: tennis lessons, reading and grammar lessons, cricket games, taking the horses out for an adventure to the river or the mountains, curling up in wicker chairs on the verandah, sharing songs and singing every song they know into the vast starry night. But there is a part of her, only recently awakened, that longs for the presence and love of a man. The man who can fill the void he left is riding, almost alone, across the dusty dry Outback.

Sarah resolved when he left to never let it bother her so much that she couldn't continue happily with her life. It's a matter of principle and pride. Like a many things she's learned about the Drover, it's turning out to be much harder to control than she expected.