Bilgarra Springs by Louise Rotondo Read Free Book Online Page A

all hopeful. The mare that arrives the day after tomorrow is a Thoroughbred mare and he intends to put his Stock Horse stallion over her.’
    Aurora didn’t know what to say to this as she had no experience at all with horses, or breeding anything, so she merely nodded to show that she understood what they were explaining. She’d rather not make another fool of herself by saying something ridiculous. She figured she would find out anything that she needed to know over the next month.
    Fiona rose from the table.
    ‘That pie is probably just about ready to eat. I’ll go check.’
    With that Trudy jumped up, stuck her head around the corner of the house and called the girls to come and wash their hands. She then went over to a large, old sideboard that was positioned on the house wall, beside the door. She took out crockery and cutlery and returned, passing some to Aurora. The rest she spread out on the other side of the table, except for her own set. The two girls came running around the corner of the house and straight into the bathroom.
    Aurora heard a stern ‘Girls!’ from Fiona, followed by,’You pair are really lucky that you didn’t run into me with this platter. How many times do you have to be told not to run through the buildings? Make sure that you wash your hands well before you go out to the table please. You’ve been playing with the puppies out in the dirt.’
    Fiona came through the doorway, quietly followed by the two girls, now somewhat more subdued, their eyes flicking to Aurora and then quickly looking away in case she saw them. Fiona carried a platter that held a steaming pie, the pastry of which looked absolutely fantastic, along with a creamy looking pile of mashed potato, corn and other vegetables. It smelled divine. As the girls sat down, Aurora’s stomach grumbled in anticipation. She suddenly realised that she was really hungry. She hoped like mad that the noise of the wooden bench on the concrete pavers as the girls sat down had covered the noise from her stomach and that the other ladies hadn’t heard it.
    Fiona served the girls, allowing the others to serve themselves. As Aurora lifted the first forkful of pie, her mouth watered in expectation. The pie tasted as good as it looked and smelled. She wondered which of the two ladies had made it. It really was good. Aurora generally had a very expressive face and the delight over the pie must have shown as Fiona caught her eye and briefly gave her a knowing smile. It was nice to eat with others in comfortable silence. Any dinner gatherings that she usually attended were generally full of people each trying to outdo the other and blow their own trumpet.
    It seemed to be a different world out here — from her limited contact so far, they seemed to be different people with different values. Both Fiona and Trudy seemed to be genuinely nice, down to earth people. People like that were rare in Aurora’s world where it was all about climbing the academic ladder. Both women presented an unusual experience to what Aurora was used to. Trudy didn’t appear to be shy as Aurora had originally thought, she just seemed to have an inner peace that allowed her to comfortably remain silent until she had something to say. Fiona oozed confidence and authority, but gently rather than harshly. She decided that it may be nice getting to know these two women. The month ahead was not looking like being anything like Aurora had expected.
    With another mouthful of pie, Aurora glanced up at the skyline. The black tree shapes silhouetted against the red-orange sky were fantastic, a sunset worth looking at, which she decided sort of figured as she was further west after all. For the next month she had this to enjoy. New horizons symbolically meant new and promising prospects opening up and she wondered if, half-hoping, there was some message in there for her.

four

    S urprises
    Aurora rolled over in the semi-darkness. Footsteps up the hallway had pulled her from her