‘She’s the only one here now?’

‘We release as soon as we can,’ she said, efficient again. ‘Wild animals respond to captivity with stress. There’s a few that are too damaged to survive on their own, but we’ve relocated them all now to bigger animal shelters. Places where they can have as close to a normal life as possible. So yes, there’s only this little one here now. And me.’

He frowned. ‘You’re living here?’

‘I… Yes. I hope you don’t mind. It’s easier.’

‘You’re on twenty-four-hour call?’

‘Not many of my patients buzz me. It’s not as hard as it sounds.’ She was opening the door onto the verandah and ushering him out, almost before he was aware of what she was doing.

There was a small dog lying on an ancient settee by the door. He’d seen him as he arrived. He was some sort of terrier, a nondescript brown-and-white mutt who hadn’t bothered checking Jake out when he arrived. Too old to care? He glanced up now, gave a feeble wag of his tail and then went back to what he was doing.

Which wasn’t sleeping, Jake realised. He was staring down the valley, as if he was waiting for someone.

Tori touched the dog’s ears, and the dog nosed her palm and went right back to looking. Waiting to go home?

‘You’ll be looking forwards to going home,’he ventured, and saw a flash of pain, hidden fast. Uh-oh, he thought. Stupid. If she was staying here… She’d be one of the hundreds burned out.

She hesitated and he knew he was right, but it was too late to retrieve the situation. ‘I guess I must be,’ she said slowly before he could think what else to say, and she shrugged. ‘No, of course I am. It’s time I moved on.’

‘Is that what you were doing last night-moving on?’