‘I’m so glad to see you!’ Eileen said, giving her older son the biggest embrace George had ever seen her bestow.

Now it was George’s turn to hug Jim. ‘My boy’s back again,’ he said, and then held him at arm’s length for an inspection: grey face, grey clothes, and a fine layer of ash powdering his hair. But he was alive and seemed unharmed.

‘I can’t believe you’d do such a stupid thing, son,’ George said. ‘You must have been mad to stay on the headland, and what were you doing out of school anyway?’ At this point he became so overwhelmed with relief that he had to look away. He barely registered what he was looking at: the water meandering between the lagoon and the ocean, and next to it groups of people sitting on the beach. He barely registered either the sounds of voices as people shouted to be heard over the drumming of the relentless surf. All he could focus on was his joy that Jim had been found. Passing a sleeve across his tired eyes, he turned to Peter. ‘I can’t thank you enough for finding him,’ he said, voice cracking with emotion that even a brief fit of coughing couldn’t disguise.

Peter shrugged, as if his efforts had been minimal, or perhaps he was simply giving George time to recover. ‘He was hiding in a cave till the fire passed over.’ After a pause, he said very quietly, ‘There’s something else we need to talk about, although you mightn’t want Eileen to hear this just yet.’

George followed Peter and Jim and sat on the sand a few yards away, while Eileen was engrossed in telling Ilona and Zidra about how worried she’d been.

‘What’s up?’ George said.

‘Tell your father what you told me, Jim.’

Jim began to talk. He talked so fast that George occasionally had to ask him to repeat details.

‘I see,’ said George slowly

‘The fire wasn’t my fault, Dad.’

‘Of course it wasn’t, son. You were lucky to get out though.’ He knew it would take him time to absorb this information. Days probably. Bill Bates that way inclined, whoever would have believed it.

Later George sat down a little awkwardly next to Eileen, with his bad leg extended in front of him. To his surprise, she took his hand.

‘You’re right about Jim,’ Eileen continued. ‘He’s a very special boy. I realised that when I thought we’d lost him. Andy and Jim are both special in their different ways.’ She squeezed his hand and wriggled her bare toes a bit.

He looked at her feet. They were pretty feet, in spite of the bunion that was developing on one big toe. He hoped she wasn’t going to tell him that Jim was so special she’d decided she couldn’t allow him to take up his scholarship. She hadn’t even ordered the uniforms he’d need, although it was nearly the end of the term and he’d be starting at Stambroke College in early February.

He held her hand a little awkwardly in his own. He wasn’t used to this hand-holding business. This was the second time in one afternoon she’d done this, and in public too. Although he liked Eileen’s new demonstrativeness, he was even more determined than before that Jim was going to take up his scholarship, come what may.

‘Yes, Jim’s a very special boy,’ Eileen repeated, and then stopped. He braced himself for what was coming. ‘So, George,’ she continued, ‘I really do think we should give him the best start in life that we can.’ His heart sank. So this was it. The best start in life that we can would be a good family environment while Jim attended Burford High.

‘The best we can,’ George repeated, parrot-like, and waited.

‘Yes, we should give him the very best start in adult life that we can. So, George, you’re right about the scholarship. Jim must be allowed to take it up.’

He noted the way she said Jim must be allowed. It was as if someone else, and not she, had been blocking Jim from the Sydney school, but he also knew that what she had just said would not have come easily to her. George, you are right. It must be years since she had said such a thing without at once qualifying it with a criticism. Although perhaps that was yet to come. George, you are right but you are wrong. He waited, not saying anything.

‘So I wanted to say that I’m sorry. You’ve been right all along about the scholarship.’

Only now did he dare to hope. Glancing at her, he saw she was smiling. He grinned back but couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t seem overly triumphant. He had won though.

‘And who knows,’ Eileen said, ‘what might happen with Andy? Maybe he’ll turn out to be a great artist.’ She looked oceanwards, as if gazing into the future.

And still she was smiling.

George began to feel a little peace descend upon him. Now that Jim was safe, now that Eileen had been willing to make a compromise, he would be able to keep going. His family was lucky but others weren’t quite so fortunate.

‘Andy could become a great artist,’ he repeated slowly, for his wife’s benefit. ‘Anything is possible, Eileen.’

But nothing would ever be quite the same again, he knew. Too much had happened. The pub was gone. Bill Bates was dead. You just never knew what people were really like. Jim had taken the initiative by raiding Bates’ office and only now did George begin to feel proud of his son’s behaviour. Although he’d been foolhardy and his life had been endangered, he’d done the right thing.

Now Eileen had agreed that Jim should be educated in Sydney, he could start talking normally to her again. Maybe the armistice that they’d just reached would mean they could rub along together a bit better in the future. Of course, she’d have to be told everything that had happened, or nearly everything. Maybe not right this minute, he didn’t think he could face that yet, but certainly tonight.

Unbidden, an image sprang into his mind. It was the advertisement he’d seen in the Burford Advertiser the previous Saturday. The newspaper would have gone already, probably wrapped around the garbage that he carried out to the bin each evening after tea was over. But he could recall every detail of the advertisement, including the telephone number. The six-inch telescope was quite a few years old and needed some work. Nevertheless, as soon as the lines were repaired, he’d telephone the owner about it. The telescope was probably in pieces and that’s why it was so cheap, but if he put his mind to it and had all the parts, he reckoned he could have a go at fixing it. He didn’t think Eileen would try to prevent him from doing that now.