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Tea Cooper Books

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“A movement caught his attention. A flash of white, a dash of color, dusty red against the gray-green of the leaves. Dragon lizards skittered into hiding behind the rocks as he stepped out of the trees into the clearing. A girl, hair dangling down her back in disarray, homespun skirt hitched up underneath a heavy leather apron, her brown feet bare, crouched beside a pool, hand outstretched to a pure white animal with large powerful hind legs and a long muscular tail. He'd read about these strange quadrupeds in the baron's notes. Kangaroos, the New Hollanders called them, and they were plentiful, reds and browns and grays, but white? And the girl like some Valkyrie. Hair the color of warm chestnut settling around her sculptured face.”

“Della sank down beside the creek, waiting for the flash of white fur that would herald Tidda's arrival. The first time she'd come across Tidda she'd been no more than a joey hardly big enough to be out of her mother's pouch. Perhaps because she was different, with her strange lack of color and red eyes, the mob had rejected her. Charity reckoned it was the sign of the devil, a punishment or a curse from the Darkinjung ancestral spirits. That was nothing but a load of rubbish. Tidda was more beautiful than most because of the strange trick natures had played upon her.”

“Dot slapped the loaf down onto the table along with more of the same delicious-looking butter Marianne had provided, and honey this time. No rations in this part of the world. She spread the butter thinly, not wanting to appear greedy. "Give it here." Dot grabbed the knife from her and spread the butter about half an inch thick. "We don't stand on ceremony." Then she put a dollop of honey in the middle and tipped the bread until it drizzled to the very edge. "Can't have you dying of starvation in the middle of the common." Highly unlikely that would happen. She wouldn't fit into any of her clothes if she kept eating this way.”

“Cutting and polishing an opal is a great skill. The outer casing has to be removed with a diamond saw and then it is shaped. The Romans mastered the art thousands of years ago." Della ran her finger over the stone. "Where did the name opal come from?" "From the Sanskrit meaning 'precious stone,' and later the Greek derivative opallios, meaning 'a change of color'.”