‘One,’ he said promptly. ‘But it was a brilliant one, wasn’t it, Jack?’ He grinned down at Abbey’s little son and Jack grinned a toothy toddler smile right back at him.

‘I… I see.’ Abbey couldn’t help staring. This man was making himself right at home. Jack was normally shy…

‘It wasn’t all that brilliant,’ Janet conceded. ‘I told him what to do.’

‘Not necessary.’

‘It was necessary, young Ryan,’ Janet told him, and Ryan smiled and sat back in his chair like a rebuked schoolboy. ‘I just wish I could do it myself.’ Janet’s smile faded. ‘If I could lift him…’

‘He’s too heavy for you to lift from the bath,’ Abbey said, as if repeating a conversation that had been played out a hundred times. ‘But, Janet, if you’d get your hip fixed… ’

‘Your hip?’ Ryan turned to look consideringly at Janet. ‘Now that’s what I don’t understand. Tell me why you’re dependent on sticks.’

‘Arthritis,’ Janet said shortly. ‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘It does.’ Abbey leaned forward and spoke urgently to Ryan. ‘Janet’s in urgent need of a hip replacement. If she had that… well, she’d be like a girl again. But I can’t persuade her to get it done.’

‘I’d have to go to Cairns,’ Janet said harshly, ‘and I won’t leave you, girl. You need me.’

‘I can get a babysitter…’

‘For a month or more? And who’d feed the poultry and look after Jack and-?’

‘Who’ll push your wheelchair when your leg gives completely? ’ Abbey retorted.

Ryan held up a hand. ‘Whoa… Is there something I’m missing here?’

‘Yes,’ Abbey said shortly. ‘Or rather-no. There are no complications. She should get it done and she won’t.’

‘I won’t go to Cairns,’ Janet muttered. ‘I’d hate it’

‘I’d come and visit you,’ Abbey told her.

‘Oh, yes,’ Janet jeered. ‘In your spare time?’

‘Why not do it here?’ Ryan asked, and both women turned to stare at him.

Silence.

It was Abbey who spoke first.