The sudden pang in his stomach brought back memories of a similar feeling, and then he understood.

He chewed on the inside of his cheek for a minute, half-expecting her to keep talking. When that was all she said – she must be homesick, if she was as quiet as this – he cleared his throat. “And you can’t go back?”

But Australia was far to go, and her parents were dead, so maybe there had been reasons enough for the fleeing in the first place. Howell wouldn’t know. He had never left his village for any length of time.

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