Janie tossed Thomas the Tank Engine melamine plates onto the kitchen bench and spooned tinned spaghetti onto cold toast. She hooked a strand of her blonde wavy hair behind her ear before hastily unwrapping sliced cheese to throw onto the steaming orange mush.
‘Tea’s ready!’ she yelled. She could hear squeals in the bathroom and Dave’s deep voice cutting over the top. They weren’t getting out of the bath again. Little buggers.
‘Brendan! Jasmine! Do what Daddy says!’ she yelled over her shoulder. She was about to fill a couple of sipper-cups from the tap when she heard the dogs bark and the slow idle of a diesel engine outside. Peering through the grime-fogged window above the sink, she saw a red twin-cab ute roll to a stop.
‘Yes!’ she said. It would be Kate. She looked again to make sure it wasn’t just someone calling in to tell them one of the obnoxious bulls was on the road again. Or some townie with a gun licence and no idea, wanting a shot. ‘Dave. I think they’re here!’ She stopped talking when she saw Kate get out of the driver’s side.
‘Oh my God,’ Janie whispered to herself. Kate was as pretty as ever, but curvier than Janie remembered. The sight of her old friend brought back a rush of memories. Suddenly Janie was transported back to those dark adolescent years when she had first met Kate. The filthy house she’d grown up in, at the back of the servo. Her mother’s Winfield Blue breath, laced with whisky. Off milk in the fridge and nothing in the cupboard for breakfast save a stale pack of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, surrounded by small black pellets of mouse dirt.
Kate had come into her life and made her aware that she deserved better. And as Janie began to pick herself up and out of the hovel that was her home, she discovered she had talents, whatever her mother might say to the contrary. She had the talent to comfort, and make the people who drove into the servo feel special. She could mother and fuss and humour. It was such a joy to discover that she had the power to give to others what she herself had never received. And Kate was at the heart of it. Janie had enfolded her in her warmth and nurtured her through the darkest days of Laney’s illness, knowing she had needed Kate as much as Kate needed her. Now here Kate was, back home with her child in tow, and all the feelings from those years stirred and swirled around them.
‘What?’ yelled Dave from the bathroom above the din of the twins crying. Janie didn’t answer. She ran from the house, not pausing to put on her boots, hopping over the gravel in her holey socks.
‘Ahhh! It’s you!’ she said, bear-hugging Kate.
‘Ahhh! And it’s you!’
Laughing, tears springing unexpectedly from the corner of their eyes.
‘Look at you!’ Janie said, holding Kate at arms’ length.
‘Look at you!’
‘Yes, yes, housewife, mother, farmer. Glam as ever.’ Janie smoothed down her rumpled flannelette shirt and Kate noticed how tired she looked and how she had put on weight since the birth of the twins.
‘You haven’t changed!’ Janie said.
‘Neither have you!’
But they both knew nothing was the same. Since they had last seen each other, everything had changed. Everything.
‘Just dished up a shocker of a tea for the kids, I’ve gotta get changed and then we’re all set for the pub. Dave’s on the bath and bed shift now,’ Janie said, punching Will lightly on the upper arm as a greeting.
‘Good on him,’ Will said. ‘So you’re up for the pub then?’
‘You bet. But first things first! I want to meet Nell! Where is she? Let me see.’ Janie dived for the ute door and jerked it open.
‘Oh! Look at her. She’s gorgeous!’
Nell grinned back at Janie’s friendly round face.
‘But she’s so sweet and innocent-looking,’ Janie said turning to Kate. ‘Not a bit like her mum.’
‘Ha. Very funny,’ Kate said.
‘Hello, Nell. I’m Janie, your mum’s friend from way back.’
Nell blinked at her, then her grin grew wider, revealing rows of dainty white teeth.
‘She sent you prezzies in the mail. And photos of her baby twins. Remember?’
Nell nodded.
‘Want to get out and stretch?’ Janie unclipped the seatbelt. ‘C’mon inside the house and meet Brendan and Jasmine. They’re littler than you, but you’ll like them.’ She turned to Kate. ‘I normally feed them better but you sprung this on me, so I hope Nell doesn’t mind tinned stuff.
Kate shook her head, thinking guiltily of all the slapdash meals she’d thrown in front of Nell.
Janie talked on. ‘They can play for a while then into bed if we’re a bit late. You got a cot or something for Nell?’
‘Swag in the back of the ute. I’ll bring it in,’ said Kate, unflipping the tarp. ‘She’ll sleep anywhere and eat anything. Won’t you, darling? We won’t be long. Just the one drink.’
Janie looked from Kate to Will, her frown deepening on her freckled face.
‘You! Have just one? I don’t reckon.’
‘Course it’ll just be one.’
‘Sure,’ said Janie. ‘Will, back me up here.’
‘Don’t look at me, Janie … you and I both know what she’s like.’
Yes, Janie did know what Kate was like. She grimaced.
‘I haven’t set foot inside the pub since the twins were born. Kate shows up and five minutes later I’m back in like Flynn! But why stop at one?’
As they walked towards the weatherboard house Kate punched the air.
‘I knew you’d come good for me, Janie. Go, you good thing!’
‘I do have time for a shower first, don’t I?’
‘Sure,’ said Kate, feeling impatient to go already.
As they walked towards the house, small resentments ran inside their heads, niggles of annoyance like nibbles on a fishing line, despite their joy in seeing each other again. Janie, still slightly sour at Kate for not coming back to Tasmania for her wedding. Kate, still a bit miffed that Janie had never got over to the mainland to see Nell. Then there was the big niggle. The unmentioned night of the Rouseabout Ball, still drifting between them like a fog.
A low mist dimmed the moon’s shine as it slid upward, full-bellied, behind the gums on the hillside. The street outside the pub was dark and empty except for Kate’s ute and a boxy, rusted Land Cruiser. The store across the road was shut and the petrol bowsers were locked. It was a township on hold until morning.
Curled up, with her nose in her tail, Sheila slept on the front seat of the cab, while Will’s dogs dozed on top of the beaten old tarp in the back. Their ears moved when sounds drifted from the low-slung hotel.
The Millbrook Hotel was built from hand-chipped convict sandstone that had been slathered thickly with white paint over the years. Tonight the white pub with the steep iron-black roof glowed in the moonlight. Its small windows, like cat’s eyes, shone with yellow light. When Kate saw the pub again she ran her hands over the smooth upright wooden post of the verandah and laughed.
‘Huh! This place hasn’t changed.’
‘Yes it has.’ Janie rolled her eyes. ‘Dave reckons it’s got worse.’
‘Worse! How could it?’
‘Old Boggy Jocks carked it last year. The Halfwit and the Whore run it now.’
‘The halfwit and the who?’
‘Boggy’s daughter, Bev, and her toy boy, Jason. Bev’s old enough to be Jason’s mum. But she’s in lerve with him. L.E.R.V.E. lerve!’
Toy boy. The phrase jolted Kate. It was a term she sometimes thought of, remembering that night. But he hadn’t been a toy boy. Had he? He’d been seventeen, only two years younger than her. Over the legal age. Then Kate shut her eyes for a moment and thought to herself for the millionth time, How stupid. How could I have been so stupid?
‘C’mon,’ she said, forcing herself to think of something, anything, else. ‘It’s Will’s shout.’ She dragged a protesting Will by the sleeve towards the pub door, hauled it open and stepped inside.
‘God, just look at the talent in this place!’ Kate said, putting her hands on her hips and surveying the row of empty stools that lined the bar.
‘Yep, it’s always crawling with hot men,’ Janie said.
The three of them moved towards the vacant bar. Kate’s eyes scanned the wall above it, which was plastered with photos. No new ones since she’d last been here four years earlier. There was the snap of old Boggy-big-gut, the past publican, with the fish he’d caught one lazy summer day before his overworked heart gave out. His nephew’s log truck after he’d rolled the jinker near Lake Leake. The big nights where some clown put on a chick’s bra and his mate wore his undies on his head. A snapshot of old Clarry taken the night he rode his horse right in to the bar and ordered them both a beer … a light one for the horse, because he was the one driving home. Pool comps, cricket finals, footy nights, darts tournaments, all clustered together in a fading dog-eared collage of days long gone. On the wall next to the potbelly stove was a beer ticket machine, and on the muttering telly above it, footballers scrambled for the ball.
Kate squinted at the small TV and tried to read the score. As she did, a stick-thin woman with long jet-black hair and eyes rimmed with too much mascara emerged from out the back. She rushed towards the bar, putting on a show of urgency. Kate noticed the woman’s breasts were plumped up with a lacy crimson bra that emerged from a low-cut black top.
‘Thought I heard customers,’ she said, laying her silver-ringed fingers flat on the bar. ‘What can I get yez?’
Will ordered three beers.
‘How about a Slippery Nipple as a chaser?’ Kate suggested. ‘Might as well get stuck into it. No time to muck about.’
‘Sorry, love, we don’t do Slippery Nipples here. But I can get you a Mudslide from the fridge. If yez like?’ Kate nodded. The woman inclined her head and bellowed, ‘Jason! This girl here wants a Mudslide.’
‘Three,’ corrected Kate.
The woman tucked her chin in and looked cynically at Kate as she yelled, ‘Make that three bottles, Jason. Perlease!’
‘Cascades and Mudslides … how wet can you get?’ Kate said, taking a gulp from her beer glass. A young man with spiked hair and a chunky silver necklace rushed the Mudslides out to the bar. He set them down and smiled vacantly at them. The gaze of one eye wandered out to his left.
‘You’re a darlin’,’ the woman said as she draped herself over him.
‘Cheers,’ said Kate. She picked up the bottles and moved away to sit at a sticky table, grained with plastic faux-wood. As she turned her back, she was sure she heard the woman muttering ‘Bloody mainlander’ under her breath. Kate whispered to Janie, ‘The halfwit must be a quarter-wit if he’s going out with her. She’s a shocker.’ She pulled out a moulded plastic chair.
‘Shh!’ said Janie. ‘The whore’s been very delicate since Boggy Jocks died. She’s likely to slag in your beer if she thinks you’re taking the mickey out of her. Dave reckons they really are nice. She just takes a while to warm to strangers … especially people from the mainland.’
‘I am not a mainlander,’ Kate shot back.
Janie pulled a face at her.
‘Just, whatever you do, don’t order a meal here.’
Once settled at the table Janie glanced at Will, then moved her focus to Kate.
‘So, when are you going to see him?’ She fingered a torn cardboard beer coaster. Thylacines with smiles that snarled.
‘See who?’ Kate said, knowing full well who she meant.
‘You know you should see him.’
‘Why?’
‘You know why. He needs to know.’
‘No, he doesn’t.’ Kate could feel the anger rising in a hot red flush on her cheeks. How dare Janie bring this up now? She noticed Will shift uncomfortably in his chair.
‘He’s just got engaged. I saw it in Sat’day’s paper. Did you know?’
‘Bit young, isn’t he?’ Kate swigged her beer.
‘He’s twenty-one,’ Janie said. ‘That only seems young to you tertiary-educated types. Round here, in these parts, it’s not. He’s a good bloke.’
Kate felt the jab from Janie, a defensiveness that stemmed from the fact they came from such different worlds. Kate felt herself prickle.
‘So what if he is engaged? What’s it got to do with me?’ she asked.
‘He should know before he gets married. It’s not fair on him and —’
‘Not fair? He doesn’t have to know. What difference does it make? Can we not talk about this please, Janie? We’re here to have fun.’
‘But —’
‘Look. I’m not discussing bloody … bloody Virgin Boy, okay? It’s the past. All over.’
‘Virgin Boy? Not after you’d finished with him,’ Janie said dryly.
Kate glared at her, but Janie persisted.
‘He needs to know he has a daughter, Kate. You have to talk.’
Kate rolled her eyes.
‘Janie’s right,’ said Will. ‘You should tell him about Nell.’
‘Why?’ Kate, under pressure now, could feel a nerve in her temple flicker and jump. Will grabbed her hand as she went to lift her beer to her mouth. He forced her to meet his eyes.
‘Because you know very well that it’s the right thing to do. Plus, his dad had a car accident that’s buggered him for life,’ Will said. ‘He’s virtually stuffed. So it might be nice for Nell to meet her grandfather before it’s too late. It’s for Nell’s sake too, Kate. It’s not always just about you.’
Kate looked down at her lap.
‘Nell has a right to know who her father is, too,’ Janie said.
Kate looked up at them and nodded. She downed the last of her beer and cranked the top off the Mudslide, feeling defeated.
‘Okay. Okay. I’ll deal with it. Trust me. Just give me time.’
Pushing back the chair, she swigged on the bottle and skulked away towards the jukebox. After making her selection, she turned and gave Will and Janie a grin. They rolled their eyes as Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ blared out through the drab pub. Kate danced towards them, swivelling her hips.
‘Very funny,’ Janie said, but Kate couldn’t hear her over the pumping music.
Nearly two hours later at the Millbrook Hotel, all three dogs were perched on the bar stools, their ears pricked towards Kate. Sheila squatted matronly on tubby haunches. Will’s dog, Grumpy, looked serious and king-like on his seat. His impish red and tan kelpie pup, Bra, wobbled nervously on the vinyl stool top, her coat and eyes gleaming beneath the bar lights.
‘Why’s she called Bra?’ Jason asked.
‘Because she rounds them up and points them in the right direction,’ Will said.
Bev threw back her head and hacked up a smoker’s laugh, while Jason looked blankly at the kelpie.
All canine eyes were on Kate as she held a packet of Twisties between stained yellow fingers. She commanded the dogs once more to ‘stay’. Janie held a camera up. She, like Kate, swaggered from too much booze and her words ran together.
‘Okay, Jason, get posing,’ Janie said. The halfwit put his arm around Bev and smiled a gappy-toothed smile.
‘In a bit closer to the dogs, Bev-ly,’ Janie said.
‘Have you got everyone in?’ asked Kate.
‘Yes.’
‘And are you getting enough cleavage in?’
‘Yep. They’re both in. Bigger than Texas, eh, Bev?’
‘They sure are,’ Bev said with another husky laugh, hoicking her bosom up further.
‘Now say lesbians,’ Janie said.
‘Lesbians?’ the halfwit queried.
‘It’s an alternative to saying cheese. Now say lesbians …’
‘Lesbians!’ they yelled, except for the halfwit, who said ‘What?’ After the flash went off, they all whooped and the dogs leapt down from the stools, young Bra barking and bounding in front of Will. Only Sheila remained at the bar waiting expectantly for her Twistie reward.
‘What would the health inspector say if he came in right now?’ Will shook his head and called Bra away from an upturned peanut bowl. Her thick pink tongue busily in search of salt.
‘Bugger the health inspectors,’ Kate said. ‘This place is all right.’
‘You reckon? You ain’t seen out the back,’ snorted Bev.
Janie set the camera down.
‘C’mon, Webster, you’ve got me totally blotto and I’ve got friggin’ playgroup in the morning! I’m supposed to have made the bloody playdough. Let’s go.’
‘Ah, playdough-schmaydough,’ Kate said, clicking her fingers. ‘More vodka please, Jason!’
‘But …’ Janie watched as Jason leapt into action, pressing the lips of glasses to the spirit measures that hung like big black spiders above the bar.
‘Not for me, Jase. I’ll be over the limit if I have any more,’ Will said.
‘We can ring Dave. He’ll pick us up,’ Kate said.
‘And leave the kids alone in the house while he comes to town?’ said Janie.
‘They’ll be right. They’re asleep.’
‘Oh, Kate, that poor child of yours,’ Will sighed. ‘How has she survived?’
Kate squinted at them both.
‘Who are you? The mother police?’
With Vodka shooters lined up like glass soldiers, Kate hustled Will and Janie into position. She tipped back her head and slung a glassful into her opened mouth, then reached over the bar and re-filled it with water from a tap. ‘There you go, Will. Happy now? You can play pretend pisspot.’
‘Gee, thanks,’ said Will, taking hold of the tiny glass between thumb and forefinger.
‘Wait!’ Kate said. ‘There’s one more thing I have to do …’
Will and Janie groaned as Kate went over to the jukebox and put ‘Like a Virgin’ on again. She writhed her way back to them, mouthing the lyrics in a pouting parody of Madonna. Just as Kate ran her fingers through Janie’s hair and thrust her pelvis against her leg, the door opened behind her. Kate failed to notice the look on Janie’s face for a while as she waggled, humped and ‘hey!’d in true Madonna style.
‘What?’ she eventually asked. Janie swallowed and flicked her eyes towards the door. Turning, Kate saw three people watching her floorshow.
Kate instantly recognised her stepbrother Aden, his city-slick buzz cut propped up with product and a wicked grin on his angular handsome face. Next to him was a slim girl in a pretty pale-blue dress and navy coat, looking like an out-of-place princess. She didn’t look amused. And behind them stood a man.
Kate blinked as she stared in a drunken squint. She took in the young man’s six-foot-plus confident stance. The way he filled out his navy and red rugby jumper, his broad axeman’s shoulders tapering to a slim waist, his hips made even more lethally sexy by his thick, brown leather belt. His fair hair was cropped navy short and his cheekbones were more glorious than Michelangelo’s David. And then, Kate saw his eyes. The same saltwater-blue eyes the boy had had. The seventeen-year-old boy from the B&S. Kate felt the breath pulled from her lungs.
‘My God,’ she mouthed before looking away. It was Nick. An older, filled-out, mature version. But it was Nick nonetheless. He was unmistakable. Kate bit her bottom lip until it hurt. Nick bloody McDonnell.
Will stepped through the rabble of dogs that enthusiastically welcomed the newcomers, his tubby hand outstretched in welcome.
‘Nick McDonnell. How would you be?’
‘Great, thanks, Will.’ He took Will’s hand warmly. ‘And Janie, how are you?’
Kate didn’t recall his voice from that night, but it was deeper now, of that she was sure.
‘Bit blotto,’ Janie said. ‘Kid-free time for a change. Dave’s got ’em.’
Nick nodded and smiled. ‘Good for you.’
Kate took in the way his firm mouth turned up at the corners.
‘You remember my sister Kate?’ Will asked, pushing her forward.
Kate stood looking at the toes of Nick’s shiny RM Williams boots. Then she glanced up, her dark eyes flashing nerves, and muttered, ‘G’day.’
Aden emerged from behind them, grabbing Kate in a jovial headlock.
‘You’re in deep shit, Kate Webster.’
‘Get off, Aden!’ She tried to wrestle free, her heart skipping like pelted stones on a river.
‘We were going to welcome you home, except you cleared out before you’d even set foot in the place. Mum’s freaking out. She cooked lunch and then dinner for you.’
‘Ah, how sweet of her. Heartfelt, I’m sure,’ Kate muttered.
Will quickly stepped in.
‘Aren’t you rude buggers going to introduce us?’ He indicated the girl who stood a little way off from their cluster, red-cheeked from trying to prevent Grumpy’s wet-black nose from prying into her crotch.
‘Yes. Sorry,’ said Nick, turning to her.
‘Allow me,’ said Aden. ‘We just met outside. This is Nick’s fiancée, the lovely Felicity. Green, wasn’t it? Felicity Green?’
‘You got it,’ she said.
‘Felicity, I think you already know Will and Janie. This is my wicked stepsister Kate.’
‘Nice to meet you.’ Kate held out her hand. Felicity took it, her head inclined to one side, smiling serenely. As she held Felicity’s delicate fingers, Kate felt her own hand was coarse and large. She couldn’t help herself.
‘Teacher or nurse?’ she asked pointedly.
Felicity opened her mouth as if to say, ‘How did you know?’ then realised Kate’s question was a jibe.
‘Um … nurse.’ She withdrew her hand and flicked her hair away from her perfect heart-shaped face with a toss of her head.
‘Nice to meet you, Nick and Flick. And let me tell you, you two click,’ Kate said with a cheeky wink.
‘Good one, Wordsworth,’ Will said. ‘Here’s a dollar, you juvenile. Go and put some decent music on.’
Kate pulled a face at Will, but moved away, cheeks burning red, calling the dogs to her, painfully conscious that ‘Like a Virgin’ was still throbbing through the tiny bar. Nick looked down towards the grotty brown lino floor, trying to stifle a smirk.
‘No one’s ever noticed that before. Nick and Flick,’ Nick said. ‘Pretty funny when you think about it.’
‘She’s had a few,’ said Will by way of an apology.
‘We all have,’ chipped in Janie.
‘We’re only having one. Aren’t we, Nick?’ Felicity said.
‘Yes.’ His eyes settled on Kate, who was crouching, stroking her old red kelpie.
Kate was cringing at what she’d just said, feeling guilty, rude and stupid all at once. She wanted to crawl under the dark cave of the pool table and hide from the glamorous (and probably very nice) couple she’d just snubbed. Aden moved over to her and slid his hands about her waist from behind. He lifted her up and swung her around.
‘You’re in big trouble,’ Aden sang like a primary-school kid.
Kate wrestled away from him.
‘I know I’m back in Tasmania when my stepbrother starts groping me like that.’
‘Oh, come on. Bit of brudderly-love.’ He came at her again with outstretched arms.
‘Crap,’ she said, pushing him away.
‘I’ve been instructed to take you home.’
‘Bugger off. I’d already be home if all your lot weren’t there.’ She turned to face him, glancing self-consciously at Nick before lowering her eyes.
‘Get over yourself, Kate,’ Will said, stepping in. ‘Aden’s right. It’s time we went home. It isn’t fair on Annabelle and Dad. They’ve been looking forward to seeing you … and Nell.’
At the mention of Nell, Kate glanced nervously towards Nick, but he was leaning on the bar now, talking to Felicity.
‘I think I’ll stay with Janie tonight,’ Kate said, wanting to be out of the pub.
‘Wouldn’t it be better if you just came home?’ Will urged.
‘If I stay at Janie’s I won’t have to disturb Nell.’
‘Fine. Your choice. I’ll drop you off,’ Will said shortly. ‘Aden, could you please let Dad and Annabelle know Kate’s sorry she didn’t make it for dinner and she’ll be out in the morning. Right, Kate?’
Kate shrugged.
They left in a flurry of drunkenness and dogs, shouting their thanks to Jase and Bev as they went. Nick stood at the empty bar with Felicity. The halfwit and the whore, too drunk to care about serving their new customers, pashed together on a wooden bench beside the fire.
‘Can I get you a drink, Flick?’ Nick asked uncertainly.
‘Please don’t call me Flick.’
A little later, outside the pub, Felicity’s voice echoed in the empty street. ‘Who was she?’ she asked as she pulled her coat around her thin body and shivered.
‘Who?’ Nick opened the door of the ute and waited for her to get in.
‘You know. That girl.’ Nick winced as he slammed the door and walked around to the driver’s side. Felicity turned to seek out his face in the darkness. ‘Aren’t you going to tell me?’
Reaching for his seatbelt, Nick felt trapped in the small cab. He could feel Felicity’s intense pale eyes locked on him.
‘Which girl?’
‘You know.’
Nick shut his eyes. ‘No one. She’s no one.’
‘Nick …’ Felicity placed her slim hand on his knee. It wasn’t a tender touch. It was a warning.
‘She’s just some friend of my brother’s. Haven’t seen her for years.’
‘A friend of your brother’s?’ Felicity said. ‘Since when has Angus ever had a friend who was female?’
Nick didn’t want to talk about it. Not now. He was still reeling from seeing Kate again. He planted his foot on the accelerator and the V8 Holden ute lunged out onto the highway. A dark-blue blur in the black night. As he stared at the road ahead his mind turned back to Kate, despite Felicity’s seething presence beside him.
From what he could tell, Kate hadn’t changed much. She still wore her dark hair long and filled out her jeans to perfection. He loved her curves. She reminded him of those Rubensesque women reclining on soft satiny pillows and swathed half-naked in sheets. The sort of paintings he’d almost fallen into during art classes at school after the B&S. He’d trace his finger over the long flowing hair of the women and relive his night with Kate. Her face was just as he remembered … stunningly, heartstoppingly pretty, her skin smooth as caramel cream. She’d hardly changed at all. Maybe the rumour wasn’t true, Nick thought. Maybe she didn’t have a kid to some college bloke on the mainland, after all.
He pulled up outside the nurses’ quarters in the next town, beneath the gleam of a solitary street light. Felicity looked sulkily at him. ‘She’s quite attractive, I suppose, that Kate Webster. Don’t you think she’s attractive? A bit plump, but still really pretty.’
‘No. Yes. I mean I’ve never noticed. You’re the attractive one. You looked gorgeous at dinner tonight.’
He reached out and ran his hand over her long straight blonde hair.
‘Don’t,’ she snapped, shrugging off his touch and straightening the engagement ring on her bony finger.
Nick sighed. ‘So, are you coming out to the farm after your shift?’ He turned to her and began toying with the buttons on her coat.
‘Maybe. I need to clean the saddles for Saturday.’
‘Oh. Okay.’
‘Well, I’ll see you then.’ She reached for her handbag.
‘Don’t I get a kiss?’ he asked.
Felicity undid her seatbelt and got out of the car.
‘Not tonight you don’t. There’s something you’re not telling me, I just know it. No talk, no kiss.’ She slammed the door and her heels clicked up the path towards her little brick nurse’s house.
Nick watched her shut the front door without a wave. He sighed again as he drove away and looked up at the moon. It was high in the sky now, hanging above the white mist like a giant yellow egg yolk. He clenched the steering wheel. She was back. Kate Webster was back.