‘No,’ Jenna said flatly. ‘He won’t.’

‘You don’t want to contact the police?’

That was a thought. But…contact the police and say what? That they’d been conned? She could get a message to her father, but she wasn’t at all sure that her father wasn’t in cahoots with Brian. There was no guarantee that he’d help.

They were two like pieces of low-life. Her father and Jenna’s father.

And their mother was dead.

‘We’re on our own,’ she said, with what she hoped was an attempt at cheerfulness. ‘Just Karli and me. But if you could put us up we’d be very, very appreciative.’

‘As opposed to very, very dead if I threw you out into the heat.’

‘Like your cattle,’ she agreed bluntly. ‘Yes. We’ll try not to be any trouble.’

‘I can’t afford you to be any trouble,’ he told her. He pushed back his chair and rose. The decision had been made and he obviously needed to move on. ‘If you’ll excuse me,’ he told her. ‘I’m hot and filthy and exhausted and I’m having difficulty making my head work. I need to dip myself under cold water before I play host.’

Once more he smiled down at Karli. His smile was warm and strong and caring-but it didn’t include Jenna.

‘We’ll discuss food and beds when I’m clean,’ he told her. ‘But I’m carrying too much dust to be sociable. Don’t go away. Or if you do, make sure you fill a few water bottles first. It’s a good four days’ walk to my nearest neighbour and as far as I know no one’s ever walked it. No one would be mad enough to try.’

And he walked out of the kitchen and left Jenna to her confusion.

The first thing she needed to concentrate on was Karli. The little girl’s eyes were closing and her body was slumping.