‘You were.’

‘But it’s done now,’ she said with a flash of anger. She sounded like a wimp, she decided, and a wimp was the last way she’d have described herself. She’d been looking after herself since she was knee-high to a grasshopper. It was men who’d got her into this mess and this guy was of the same species.

‘Can you at least put us up here until the next train comes through?’ Then, at the look on his face, she went on in a hurry. ‘Please. We’ll be no trouble.’ She had to persuade him. What choice did she have?

What choice did he have?

‘I don’t have any choice,’ he muttered, echoing her own thoughts. Then he looked again at Karli and he relented. He even smiled again. ‘It’s a pretty funny place to stay and I bet it’s not what you’re used to, but you’re very welcome.’

He smiled across at Karli, and the child stared at him for a long moment and then tried to smile back.

‘You’re nice,’ she whispered. She nestled closer to Jenna. ‘He’s nicer than my daddy.’

‘Yeah, well, that’d be hard,’ Jenna said with some asperity, but she fondled the little girl’s curls and looked across at Riley.

‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘If there’s really no choice…’

‘You know, we could always contact the flying doctor and ask them to collect you,’ he said, suddenly helpful. ‘We could say you were psychiatrically unhinged.’

‘Gee, thanks.’

‘It might work. They have a psychiatric service.’

‘You’re being very helpful!’

‘Well, I think I am,’ he told her, but his eyes were still resting on Karli with concern. He was making light of it for Karli’s sake, she realised. ‘I’ve let you drink my water and sit at my kitchen table and if you decide to take up my very generous offer of accommodation I’ll even let you share my baked beans. Then I’ll offer you both a spare bed and keep you fed and watered until the next train comes through.’ He hesitated. ‘You realise just how much danger you put yourselves in? This man you were with. Brian. Will he realise and send a search party?’