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capable of keeping him dancing around the boxing ring were now unable to carry him a step further. He sank down on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands. His brain exploded with questions. Do I know the bastard? Where’s he taken them? They’re only two days ahead of me but which bloody direction?
    He ran to the nursery in the hope he would find his little princess asleep. Pearl’s cot was neatly made up as though it had never been slept in. Mrs Troy’s palliasse was stripped of its covers.
    He rummaged through every closet for some clue that would prove Jenny had been forced to write the letter under duress, abducted by some bushranger. Only a single valise was missing. Three empty coat-hangers hung in mute testimony that Jenny had taken nothing but her own Sunday best dress and a few of Pearl’s garments.
    His daughter’s dolls were neatly lined up on her toy box. Their silent painted faces seemed to wear cruel little smiles that mocked his anguish.
    And then he saw it. Jenny’s discarded wedding ring. The small duplicate of his own wedding band had their names and wedding date engraved inside. Stunned, he held her ring in the palm of his hand and read the inscription. 5 May 1833 Jakob and Jenny – Eternal Love.
    Eternal? She couldn’t even last four years!
    Blinded by rage Jake threw her ring across the room. He punchedthe wall, causing the mirror to shatter into jagged reflections of his face. He froze at the foot of the staircase, realising the significance of Jenny’s words after his last failure in bed. ‘Don’t put me on a pedestal.’
    Jesus wept! Did she know even then that she planned to leave me? Was that mongrel already in her life? Her ritual farewell now cut at his heart. ‘Will you love me forever and ever, Jakey?’
    Jake felt as if the walls were caving in. Yesterday he had everything that mattered. Today – nothing. Jenny had done what no man could ever do. Destroyed his world. He vowed that he would never again allow any woman to hold power over him as Jenny had done.
    He slammed the front door and turned his back on family life forever. The bloody bank of New South Wales was welcome to reclaim his farm and all he owned. Out in the sunlight the whole world seemed to have turned grey. Drained of all colour. Unreal. Time and space had fragmented.
    He saddled Horatio and galloped off towards Parramatta to file a police report. What the hell could he say? Missing. One wife and child, now in keeping. Last seen travelling with unknown gent.
    As he tethered Horatio to the railing in front of the police office, Jake was suddenly aware he was holding the miniature muff pistol. He had taught Jenny how to protect herself in his absence. But some bastard had got under his guard. Jake pressed the spring that released the hidden blade and turned the weapon into a dagger.
    â€˜God help you, you mongrel, I’ll hunt you down and kill you!’

CHAPTER 2
    Keziah Stanley looked furtively through the doorway of her vardo . The other travelling houses on wheels were ringed around the Romani camp on the edge of the village common. Dawn filtered through the mist. Horses grazed quietly beside the stream. Traces of smoke rose from the embers of small campfires that had burned last night at the heart of each family group.
    Behind Keziah lay the distant mountains of her birthplace in the Clwydian Range of North Wales. Before her lay the Cheshire route that led to Liverpool. Today was a milestone – her seventeenth birthday – the day she planned to escape her mother-in-law Patronella’s dominance.
    Last night Keziah had sobbed herself to sleep with her husband’s beloved face in her mind and her heart. Gem was in chains somewhere at the bottom of the world, but the memory of his lovemaking was as vivid as if he had lain with her all night.
    Keziah stiffened at the sound of Gem’s parents in the vardo next to hers. In contrast to Patronella,