The Contents of This Document Are Private and Confidential

THE CONTENTS OF THIS DOCUMENT ARE PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL

PURLIEU

MICHAELA DAPHNE

SIXTH DRAFT

AUGUST 2017

28 Hamilton Road

Moorooka QLD 4105

Ph: +61 422 903 305

Purlieu

www.michaeladaphne.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval without permission in writing from the author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

First Edition.

PURLIEU

Hidden Grove: Book I

Michaela Daphne

AN EXCERPT

William’s fingers slipped from mine as he reached up to the lowest hanging branch of the lichen-covered tree. He swung his body up onto the branch, which shuddered with his weight. He reached to the next branch above, ready to hoist himself higher.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

William turned around, eyebrows raised.

“Oh, sorry.”

He pulled his leg down and put his hand out for me to take hold. His eyes were wide with expectancy.

“I thought we were going to your farm.”

“We are.”

I cocked my head to the side and folded my arms.

“Trust me,” he said.

I looked up the trunk of the tree. It was really high. The fingers of my weak hand trembled.

I sighed as he wrapped his hand around my wrist and tugged. I followed his pull up onto the first branch and watched as he hoisted up the next one. The bark had worn thin where he stood to reveal a smooth, shiny surface.

“Shouldn’t we be going to your farm?”

He continued up onto the next branch and the next.

“William?”

I scrambled after him, slipping on the worn parts of the branches. My stomach dropped.

“We are going to your farm, aren’t we?”

He continued up and up, loose leaves and the dirt from his shoes showering down on me.

“Come on. Quit playing.”

I stood for a moment in defiance, clinging to the trunk, wondering if I should climb down and just wait for him to stop being a child.

“William, I’m tired and I want a shower.”

He kept on climbing, higher and higher, without any qualms about height or safety. I lost sight of him amongst the thicket of branches.

“Are you coming?” he called.

I tried not to look down to see how far I’d ascended.

Every time the tree shifted under the weight of our movement, my breathing became more laboured, my feet released more sweat, the pounding of my heart became more pronounced against my chest. A yelling male voice rung in my ears.

I shook my head, gritted my teeth, and continued up the tree.

He was waiting for me several branches above. I wrapped my arms around the trunk for stability and screwed up my face in protest. His eyes were glittering with adrenalin.

“Where is your sense of adventure?” he asked.

“I’m not going any higher until you tell me what we’re doing.”

A cheeky smile spread across his face.

“Look up,” he said.

I did. We were almost at the top of the trunk where the branches forked off to make the canopy.

“It is not much further.”

“I don’t understand. What is not much further?”

“The farm.”

“William, if you are telling me that you live on top of a tree, I – I don’t know what I will do but you won’t like it.”

He scratched his chin.

“I do not live on top of a tree,” he said.

I stared at him for a moment, waiting for him to elaborate.

“It is not something I can just tell you about. I need to show you.”

A breeze blew through the grove sending a chill across my sweaty skin. The tree swayed with the wind. My heart skipped a beat as I grappled to clutch onto the trunk harder.

“I’m sure it’s very wonderful but I’m not going any higher.”

If I wasn’t going to go up, it was time to climb down. I chanced a look towards the ground. My heart skipped another beat and my stomach turned over. I pressed my body firmly into the trunk of the tree. It would be a long way to fall.

William casually stood on the branch, arms up on the limb above and watched me with amusement.

“You just said you would go higher if I told you what we were doing.”

“Well I changed my mind.”

“We are going to my farm. But there is an unconventional way of getting there.”

“What do you mean?”

“It would be best if I just showed you. We must go together.”

He reached out his hand for mine.

“Fine.”

I gave him my strong hand and gingerly turned to reach for the next branch. We climbed the remaining two to the top of the trunk where a small flat space sat with the branches forking out from it. Despite how close to the canopy we were, the light was hazy with darkness. I reached out my hand to brush the air away. It felt thick through my fingertips.

William squeezed my hand.

“Come.”

He stepped slowly and purposefully the few paces across the top of the trunk and pulled me along with him. As I walked in his wake, crossing the centre of the trunk, light, bright and blazing surrounded me like a flash of lightning on pause. It blinded me as the smell of eucalyptus disappeared and was replaced by crisp pine. I felt like I was everywhere and nowhere all at once, my body in motion, yet more still than if I were sleeping. As I passed the centre the light disappeared and I could see clearly out onto the boughs and up to the canopy.

By William’s side on the other side of the tree trunk, we looked down upon the mass of branches below. As my stomach dropped at the sight of the ground so far away and the urge to clutch at the wood of the tree for support, a strange feeling ran through me that I had crossed a threshold of no return.

“What was that?” I asked.

“An unconventional way of getting there,” he said.