“Of course.”
“Does she approve?”
Penelope smiled. “Of you? I’m not telling.”
“I take that as a yes.”
She laughed. “Maybe I’m trying to protect your feelings.”
“We both know you’d tell me the truth if you weren’t interested as well.” His cocky grin should have been a turn off, but on him it was charming. There was enough teasing in his tone to not take him too seriously.
“There’s that ego again,” she said.
“Just part of my charm.”
It was true, so she changed the subject. “Have you read Lilian’s journal?”
“Yeah, last night. I couldn’t see many clues. What about you?”
“She respected Clarke and the indigenous people but had little respect for her first husband.”
“He was pretty awful to her.”
“It doesn’t come across in the journal, but I’ll bet she was pleased to find the treasure when he couldn’t. It serves him right for not involving her.”
“Things could have turned out differently for her if he had.”
Penelope was glad Lilian had ended up with the man she loved. “Would Clarke’s wife have arranged for his body to be retrieved?”
“I hadn’t considered that. There wasn’t a lot of infrastructure here back then, but she might have arranged a ship to transfer his body to Fremantle to be buried.”
“So we might find nothing,” Penelope said. “If he’s still there, he’ll only be bones. Dingoes might have dug him up when he was first buried.” Not a nice thought, but a possibility they should consider.
They chatted about other possibilities on the drive and when they arrived at the Ridge, Brandon was loading an esky into the back of a ute.
“Are we late?” Sam asked as they got out.
“No, just getting things organised. The others decided it was a nice morning for a ride, so they’ve taken the horses. It’s us and Amy driving down.”
Penelope followed them inside and Amy sat at the kitchen table knitting what looked to be a bear. “Hey!” She put down her knitting and hugged Penelope. “Glad you could make it.”
“Me too. That looks so much better than my attempts at knitting.”
Amy’s eyes lit up. “You knit too? What are you making?”
Penelope laughed. “I’m attempting a baby’s blanket for my best friend’s newborn, but she’ll be in high school by the time I finish.”
“The first few attempts were hard for me. You should bring it out. I’ll give you a hand.”
Penelope smiled. “Georgie mentioned you knitted, so it’s in my bag. I unravelled everything last night because it had a lot of holes.”
“I can vouch for that,” Sam said. “I wasn’t sure what she was trying to make.” He kissed her cheek to soften the tease and Amy’s eyes widened, and then she grinned.
Penelope blushed and reached into her backpack. “I’ve cast on the required stitches and done the first row.”
“Wow, your stitches are tight,” Amy said. “My first recommendation would be to not tighten the yarn so much. You’ll find it easier. I’ll sit with you when we get back and we can go through the pattern together.”
“Thank you.”
