In the Land of the Long White Cloud

something proper to munch on. It’s nice to play at serving, but you won’t put any meat on your bones that way. Here you go!”
    The young woman happily pulled out muffins and sweet rolls by the handful. The girls forgot their newly acquired table manners for a moment and pounced on the treats.
    Helen attempted to restore order and distribute the sweets properly. Gwyneira beamed.
    “That was a good idea, wasn’t it?” she asked Helen, as the six children sat on the side of a lifeboat, taking small bites as they had been taught and not sticking the whole things in their mouths at once. “On the upper deck they serve food as though it were the Grand Hotel, and I couldn’t help thinking of your scrawny little mice. So I polished off the table a bit. I wasn’t out of line, was I?”
    Helen shook her head. “They won’t put on any weight from the offerings down here. The portions are not generous, and we have to get the food from the galley ourselves. So the older girls siphon off half of it on the way—and that’s ignoring the few naughty rascals that belong to the midship immigrant families. They’re still too shaken, but watch out—in two or three days they’ll start ambushing the girls and demanding tribute to pass! But we’ll survive these few weeks. And I’m doing my best to teach the children something. That’s more than anyone’s done for them until now.”
    While the children were eating and playing with Cleo, the young women chatted and strolled back and forth on deck. Gwyneira wanted to know as much as possible about her new acquaintance. Eventually, Helen told her about her family and her position at the Greenwoods’.
    “So then you haven’t lived in New Zealand before?” Gwyn asked, a little disappointed. “Didn’t you say yesterday that your husband is waiting for you there?”
    Helen blushed. “Well…my husband to be. I…you’ll certainly think it absurd, but I’m crossing the sea to marry over there. A man whom thus far I know only from letters…” Ashamed, she lowered her eyes. She only ever became fully conscious of the monstrousness of her adventure when she told other people about it.
    “You’re doing the same thing I am,” Gwyneira said breezily. “And mine hasn’t even ever written me.”
    “You too?” Helen marveled. “You’re also answering an unknown man’s marriage advertisement?”
    Gwyneira shrugged. “Oh, he’s not really unknown. His name is Lucas Warden, and his father asked for my hand on his behalf.” She bit her lip. “In a mostly conventional manner,” she amended. “From that perspective, everything is in order. But as for Lucas…I hope he at least wants to marry. His father didn’t tell me whether he’d asked beforehand or not.”
    Helen laughed, but Gwyneira was serious. She had learned over the past few weeks that Gerald Warden was a man who asked few questions. The sheep baron made his decisions quickly and on his own, and he could react gruffly to others’ opinions. That was how he had succeeded in accomplishing so much work during his weeks in Europe. From purchasing sheep to negotiating agreements with wool importers to discussing matters with architects and well construction specialists—even wooing a wife for his son—he managed everything coolly and with breathtaking speed. Gwyneira liked his decisive approach, but sometimes it scared her a little. When it came to commitments, he had an explosive streak, and he sometimes demonstrated a wiliness in business transactions that Terence Silkham disliked. As he saw it, the New Zealander had bamboozled the stallion’s breeder using every trick in the book—and whether the card game for Gwyneira’s hand had been honestly played remained in question. Gwyneira sometimes wondered what Lucas thought of it all. Was he as energetic as his father? Was he running the farm at thatmoment just as efficiently and without compromise? Or did Gerald’s occasionally overly hasty dealing aim at shortening Lucas’s solo rule of Kiward Station as much as possible?
    In any event, she now told Helen a slightly tempered version of Gerald’s business relationship with her family, which had ultimately led to her wooing. “I know that I’m marrying into a flourishing farm of close to a thousand acres and a fold of five thousand sheep that should continue to grow,” she concluded. “I know that my father-in-law maintains social and business ties to the best families in New Zealand. He is