"Are you going to marry me -- yes or no?" Matthew Standish--or Mal to his friends--arrived back into Copper's life with a marriage proposal that sounded just about as romantic as sheepshearing! But then, the situation required practical solutions: Mal needed a mother for his young daughter and a housekeeper for Birraminda. So what was Copper's answer to be? Copper hadn't ever been able to forget Mal, but she wasn't the same girl he'd known seven years ago. In fact, she had a very practical business proposition of her own.