Lyrebird Hill
Page 39
‘If you did change your mind and decide to live at Thornwood,’ Margot told us, ‘there’s really not a lot to do. The paddocks are mostly in agistment, which means you’ll have additional income from farmers grazing stock on your land. The rest is natural bushland, so aside from general maintenance near the house, it’s the sort of property you can simply sit back and enjoy.’
She collected the photos and slid them back into the property file. ‘Now, I expect you’re keen to know how much it’s worth.’
Shadows were creeping across the room; the light filtering through the window had taken on a grey tinge. My chair creaked as I shifted my weight. A rundown old house on a chunk of wilderness, miles from anywhere; a few grazing paddocks, some muddy dams. Nothing to get too keyed up about, surely?
I nodded.
Margot wrote on a notepad and tore off the top leaf, then placed it reverently on the desk in front of us.
Bronwyn gasped.
The lawyer smiled approvingly. ‘Certainly worth the trouble of a quick look, wouldn’t you say?’
About the author
Anna Romer grew up in a family of book-lovers and yarn-tellers, which inspired her lifelong love affair with stories. A graphic artist by trade, she also spent many years travelling the globe stockpiling story material from the Australian outback, then Asia, New Zealand, Europe and America.
Her first novel, Thornwood House, published in 2013, reflects her fascination with forgotten diaries and letters, dark family secrets, rambling old houses, and love in its many guises – as well as her passion for the uniquely beautiful Australian landscape.
When she’s not writing (or falling in love with another book), Anna is an avid gardener, knitter, bushwalker and conservationist. She lives on a remote bush property in northern New South Wales.
Also by Anna Romer
Thornwood House
LYREBIRD HILL
First published in Australia in 2014 by
Simon & Schuster (Australia) Pty Limited
Suite 19A, Level 1, 450 Miller Street, Cammeray, NSW 2062
A CBS Company
Sydney New York London Toronto New Delhi
Visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com.au
© Anna Romer 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Author: Romer, Anna, author.
Title: Lyrebird Hill/Anna Romer.
ISBN: 9781922052421 (paperback)
9781922052445 (ebook)
Subjects: Sisters – Death – Fiction.
Suspense fiction.
Dewey Number: A823.4
Cover design: Christabella Designs
Cover image: © Mark Owen/Trevillion Images
Typeset by Midland Typesetters, Australia