From the bestselling author of Crimson Dawn

FLEUR

McDONALD
FLEUR Suddenly One Summer
When Brianna Donahue was three years old, her mother

McDONALD
mysteriously disappeared while farming in Merriwell Bay, Western
Australia. Her body has never been found. Brianna works the
same land with her father Russell, while almost single-handedly
raising her two children as her husband Caleb works
as a fly-in fly-out criminal lawyer in Perth.

One scorching summers morning, her son Trent goes missing and,
while frantically searching for him, Brianna must come to terms
with the fact that her marriage has large cracks in it.

Over two thousand kilometres away in South Australia,

Detective Dave Burrows receives a phone call reporting stolen In the heat of the
sheep from an elderly farmer. When he and his partner Jack
arrive at the farm, its clear that Guy has early signs of dementia. moment, anything
Following a conversation with his wife Kim, Dave becomes
intrigued with Guys family history. Was there a sister,
can happen...
or was there not? No one seems to know.

So how will Daves investigation impact Briannas world?

While battling the threat of bushfires back in Merriwell Bay,
Brianna is faced with challenges that test her relationships with
those she loves most. Suspenseful and incendiary, Suddenly
One Summer is an intriguing and heartfelt story of the
unlikely connections of life on the land.

Suddenly
One Summer
Cover design: Nada Backovic
Cover photographs: Getty Images

FICTION

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 First published in 2017
Copyright Fleur McDonald 2017
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 Prologue

The woman put a shaky hand to her head. She gasped as a

searing pain shot through her and she felt something warm
and sticky beneath her fingers.
Fear made her whimper.
Where was she? It was pitch black. There wasnt any
light filtering in from anywhere and the darkness was suffo-
cating. She couldnt hear a sound. Creeping her fingers
along the floor, she felt only dirt and stones.
Hello? she whispered. Hello?
Nothing.
Her breath came in short, sharp puffs.
A sudden scrabbling made her jam her hand over her
mouth to stop herself from screaming. There was a loud
squeakingangry and sharpthen more scrabbling.
Recognition filtered through. A mouse? A rat? She
remembered the sound, but not where shed heard it.

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 F L E U R M c D ON A L D

Panic rushed through her, making her hot and sweaty.

Somehow she knew something was very wrong.
How had she got here? Why did her head hurt so much?
Her fingers clawed at the dirt, scraping at it, hoping the
act of connecting with soil would jolt a memory. Nothing.
Think, she said to herself. Think. But as she muttered
the words, she realised she didnt even know her own name.

She wondered how long shed been asleep, but when she
woke there was enough light for her to see a rat at her
sleeve, sniffing her curiously.
Her squeal echoed around the building and the rodent
scurried away.
She moved her headthe pain was intenseand tried
to take in her surroundings. She was sure shed never been
here before. But there was also a strange sense of recog-
nition. The fear from last night returned. Where was she?
Just get up, she told herself. If she could get outside,
surely shed work out where she was.
She tried to stand up but the pain was so bad she vomited
onto the dirt and slumped back down.
Eventually she dragged herself over to the wall andleaned
against it, exhausted from the effort.
Door. She needed to find the door.
There, in the corner.
It took what felt like a superhuman effort to get to it,
the pain burning through her whole body but, after what

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 Suddenly One Summer

seemed an eternity, she reached the door and pressed down

on the handle.
It stayed closed.
No!
She leaned her body against it and shoved as hard as
she could. The door gave way and she tumbled out onto
rich, green grass and looked up at a landscape she didnt
recognise.

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 Chapter 1

Brianna Donahue let out a loud cry as she stepped on a stray

piece of Lego. She toppled to one side and grabbed a chair
to steady herself. The chair fell and she tumbled on top of
it, her phone falling from her hand.
Bugger! she swore quietly, hoping the noise wouldnt
have woken the boys. Far out! She sat on the floor for
a moment, holding her bare foot and massaging the sore
area with her thumb. What a way to start her birthday.
Surely Caleb could have checked that the boys had picked
up every little piece. Hed been supervising the clean-up last
night. For the first time in months.
Squeezing her eyes shut against the frustration, she
imagined Caleb driving towards the Merriwell Bay airport
in the pre-dawn light. He was returning to work after the
Christmas break, having managed to score another two
weeks into January as holidays.

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 F L E U R M c D ON A L D

Normally she would have got up and made him break-

fast. Talked about the next few days, what was ahead for
both of them. His court cases, her jobs on the farm. But
not this morning. Shed been too tired, and although she
wouldnt admit it to anyone else, she was sick of hearing
about a career and life she couldnt relate to. It felt like
months since she and Caleb had had a conversation that
didnt involve the kids, or farming, or the law.
Brianna glanced towards the west and imagined
the spotlights of his flash four-wheel drive illuminating the
pre-dawn dark. The long streaks of white picking up any
stray kangaroos. Caleb had bought the top-of-the-range
LandCruiser without telling her, turning up in it one day
with a large smile on his face. Brianna could tell he was
delighted with it and thought she should be too, but a
niggling voice inside her asked why he hadnt talked toher
about it first. That was what husbands and wives did, wasnt
it? Talked through important decisions, made themtogether.
Sighing, she dragged her thoughts back to the day at hand.
There was a catastrophic fire danger warning out. The
media had been reporting it for the last thirty-six hours,
whipping everyone into a frenzy of fear and expectation.
With the pain in her foot subsiding, Brianna got up off
the floor, pulling the chair with her. Casting around, she
saw her phone, picked it up and switched on the torch. If
she turned the lounge-room light on, it would filter into
the kids bedroom and wake them. She needed peace to
organise her thoughts for the day ahead.

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 Suddenly One Summer

In the kitchen she flicked on the radio and the morning

show crackled to life. The announcer was interviewing a
stock agent about a bull sale that had been held the previous
day. Still ten minutes before the news and weather. Biting
her lip, she tapped at the weather app on her phone, hoping
that the forecast had changed. Adrop in wind speed or
temperature would make her feel a lot more relaxed.
It took an age before the app finally connected and
updated. Like everyone out here, she was frustrated by the
slow speed of the internet. Scanning the screen she felt a
rush of anxiety. The forecast had worsened overnight.
Summer was supposed to be dry. And hot. That was
just summer in Australia. But there had been good rainfall
during the growing season and, as a result, there was a
large volume of dry material still in the paddocks. Which
made great fuel for fires. Add to that northerly winds of
over fifty kilometres an hour and a temperature of forty-
three degrees and everyone started to get jumpy.
There wasnt a shimmer of humidity in the air, so the
Fire Danger Index would be in the extreme category. As
the day went on, it was almost certain the FDI would
reach a reading of catastrophic. Every farmer within the
Merriwell Bay shire would be on high alert.
As a precaution, the lawns around the house would
need to be dampened. Brianna ran outside and turned on
all the taps. She heard the pump kick in, and the sprink-
lers gurgled and spluttered a couple of times before water
burst from them, raining droplets onto the thirsty lawn.
Agust of warm wind buffeted her face and for a moment

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 F L E U R M c D ON A L D

she wished Caleb could be at home today. He was steady

and calm, never panicking in a crisis, while she seemed
always to be filled with anxiety and adrenalin. Since shed
joined the volunteer fire brigade shed had to teach herself
to remain calm and make decisions under pressure, but
for Caleb it seemed to come naturally, perhaps because he
always had to think on his feet in the courtroom.
Caleb would know what had to be done on a day like
this. He had grown up on a farm, until his parents had gone
bankrupt after four bad seasons and a large stock theft that
hadnt been covered by insurance. He understood how a
farm was run and what life as a farmer entailed, and that
was one of the reasons their relationship worked. In the
past she hadnt minded him working in Perth and being
away a lot. She had plenty of friends and she was happy
in her own company, which was probably why farming
suited her. The long-term goal was for Caleb to open his
own practice in Merriwell Bay and shed always said that
until then they had to do what was necessary to make the
situation work. But these days she wasnt quite so sure. It
was tough parenting two active boys and running a farm
without Caleb by her side.
The high-pitched whistle of the kettle interrupted her
thoughts and she made a coffee, taking it outside onto
the verandah. Amagpie was under the sprinkler, dancing
and preening in the droplets, and she made a mental note
to tell the boys not to turn off the water today. The birds
would need it too.

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 Suddenly One Summer

Feeling unsettled, Brianna gave herself a stern talking-

to. Youve always managed. Today wont be any different.
But she recognised she was feeling vulnerable. She hated
that feeling. And somehow she was blaming Caleb for
it. It wasnt his fault that his high pressure job meant he
was away a lot. Being a partner in the firm Martin and
McIntyre, he needed to be available for important appoint-
ments. Afly-in-fly-out lawyer.
Sometimes she thought it would be best if they bought a
house in Perth and he stayed up there for the whole week,
rather than flying home when he had a spare day. Just
come home on the weekends. Thankfully, his employers
covered his travel costs and his high salary paid for the toys
he accumulated. The Toyota was used all the time, as was
the four-wheel motorbike, but the Mustang didnt see the
light of day very often. She was glad the farm didnt have
to pay for these things; theyd be bankrupt by now if it did.
Brianna pushed thoughts of her husband aside. The first
scheduled meeting with all the fire control officers was
about twenty minutes away. Peace until then. If the boys
stayed asleep.
The smudge of light in the east was now a golden spot-
light on the horizon. The sun would slide into view any
moment. The smell of eucalyptus came to her on the breeze.
The driveway was lined with gum trees planted by her
father, Russell, just after he bought Le-Nue thirty-five years
ago. It was an add-on block to the original farm hed grown
up on. Russell had always thought of it as his owna place
for him and his familywhereas the home farm was his

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fathers. Brianna could just remember walking by his side

as he put the seedlings in the ground, covered them with
dirt and gave them a long drink from the forty-four-gallon
drum hed rigged up on the back of his ute.
Her dad.
Feelings she couldnt quite name rippled through her.
Among them were happiness and love, sadness and pity.
She pressed her lips together tightly as she reflected on
the changes the last year had brought. Russell was getting
olderalthough his smile was still as bright and sunny
as it had been when she was a child, the lines were a bit
deeper around his eyes and he seemed to tire more quickly.
Brianna didnt want her dad to grow any older. She
couldnt imagine a life without him.
Mum?
Brianna turned around and saw her son, Beau, the
younger of the Terrors, standing in the doorway. The
white legs protruding from his boxers looked like match-
sticks, as though they might snap at any momentbut
looks were deceiving: Beau could run like a cow that had
found a gate open into a crop.
Good morning, sleepyhead, she said with a smile and
put her mug down so she could hug him.
Its hot already.
And its only going to get hotter, unfortunately. Were
in for a rough day. Well have to shut up the house before
the sun gets up completely. Can you pull the curtains in the
lounge room for me? Ill make you a Milo.

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 Suddenly One Summer

Taking a last deep breath of morning air, Brianna went

back inside to the kitchen. Two teaspoons of Milo mixed
with cold milk and there was the perfect start to a six-year-
olds day. Her dad had done this for her every morning
until shed gone to boarding school in Year 8. Brianna had
only lasted six months there, being desperately homesick.
Russell had brought her home and shed sworn never to
leave Le-Nue again. But, following high school, she had
left once more to attend agricultural college and study
farm management. That was where she and a handsome
young lawyer called Caleb had met, while hed been giving
a guest lecture.
Here you go, Beau, she called as she gave the drink
one last stir. Just then the windows rattled and a door
banged somewhere as a hot breeze swept through the house.
Outside, the trees in the driveway were bending towards
the ground and there was raised dust in the paddocks.
She thought through the list of things she might need
during the day. Most of it was already in the back of her
ute. The firefighting unit, petrol, drip torch and pliers. Her
uniform was behind the seat and there were eskies full of
water for her to drink. It all needed to be there just in case.
She reassured herself that there really shouldnt be any
fires today. Her neighbours had finished harvesting and she
was expecting a harvest and movement of vehicle ban to
be put in place for most of the shire. That meant no one
could go out into a paddock unless it was to check water
for stock. No one in the paddocks equalled no fires. That
was the way it should work, anyway. Still, there could be

11

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a thunderstorm, and lightning could strike the tinder-dry

bush, or some idiot could drop a lit cigarette.
Thanks, Mum.
She turned to her son as he climbed up onto a bar stool
at the kitchen bench. What do you think youre going to
do today? she asked. Its going to be too hot to play
outside. She started to rummage through a bowl sitting
on the bench that held all sorts of odds and ends, looking
for the Kestrel weather meter, which would help her
calculate the FDI. Shed have to take the readings in time
for the fire control officers meeting.
Beau shrugged, busy eating the Milo off the top of the
milk. Idont know. Play with my Lego and build another
spaceship. He frowned. Its boring when it gets hot. Cant
we go to the beach?
Well see, Brianna answered, noncommittal. She glanced
at the clock again and registered that it was unusual for
Trent, the older Terror, to be sleeping in this late. She hadnt
heard his usual morning noise at all, she realised. Usually he
was up before she was, out in the chook pen talking tohis
girls or playing with the dogs on the front lawn.
Ive got to go and take the readings for the Sked this
morning, she said as her fingers closed around the Kestrel.
Ill only be a few minutes. She grabbed her hat and jammed
it on her head, stopping only to pull on her boots and take
in the worsening weather.

12

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 Fleur McDonald has lived and worked on farms for
much of her life. After growing up in the small town
of Orroroo in South Australia, she went jillarooing,
eventually co-owning an 8000-acre property in
regional Western Australia.
Fleur likes to write about strong women over-
coming adversity, drawing inspiration from her own
experiences in rural Australia. She has two children
and a Jack Russell terrier.

www.fleurmcdonald.com

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