Bailey drew a great cow. Misty gazed down at the child’s drawing with something akin to awe. He was six years old, and his cow even looked like a cow.

‘Wow,’ she said as she stamped his picture with her gold elephant stamp-gold for Effort, elephant for Enormous. ‘You must really like drawing, Bailey.’

‘My dad can draw,’ Bailey said. ‘People pay him to draw pictures of boats.’

His father was an artist?

‘Then you’ve come to the right place,’ she said, glancing out of the window towards the distant harbour.

Nicholas Holt didn’t look like an artist, she thought, but then, what did she know of artists? What did she know of anything beyond the confines of this town?

Don’t think it. There was no point going down that road. For now, Banksia Bay was her life.

And for how much longer? She’d just offered to pay for a dog.

How long did dogs live?

‘Story time,’ she said determinedly. ‘Tell you what, Bailey, as you’re the new boy today, you can choose the story. Any book from the rack. Take a look.’

Bailey looked at her dubiously but he’d obviously decided this was an okay environment-this was somewhere to be trusted. And chubby little Natalie was right beside him, his new Friend For Life. ‘Choose Poky Little Puppy,’ Natalie whispered as only a six-year-old could whisper. “Cos it’s all about a puppy getting into trouble, like your new dog.’

Like your new dog…

Uh oh.

‘He’s not Bailey’s new dog,’ Misty said as she settled on the reading stool with the kids around her.

‘Then whose is he, miss?’ Natalie asked, and she knew the answer. She’d known it as soon as she’d seen the plastic collar.

She sighed. She was stuck here anyway. Why keep fighting the odds? Her dreams had already stretched a lifetime and it seemed they needed to be stretched a while longer.