Accommodation provided, together with appropriate remuneration. Please forward expressions of interest to: Mr T. H. Fortescue, Kenilworth Station, Croydon Creek, via Armidale New South Wales. Kate Courtney stared at the notice on the board outside the Avonleigh Teachers College common room. Governess? Rural location? She hesitated. The day before, she’d received the college’s formal letter informing her that having passed her final exams, she was now qualified to accept teaching positions in New South Wales government schools. That letter had turned a page in the story of her life. The scholarship she’d won, as a poor but studious girl born and bred in a down-at-heel corner of the city, had now served its purpose. Her years of study, the endless evenings spent writing essays by a flickering candle in the kitchen, were over. The book of her life must now begin a new chapter. She turned to the notice and read it again, word by word. In a moment of reflection, she closed her eyes and saw herself standing on a mountain top, taking in the view of her future.
