Kerrien tidied round the house, humming tunelessly to herself. The children were playing quietly on the veranda, totally absorbed in their game. She was glad of this time alone, a space to think. In fact, she seemed to have spent most of the night thinking but had reached no conclusion about her feelings. She put down the half-peeled potato and stared through the window. On the surface, there should be no contest between the two men who seemed to be showing interest in her. Brett was young, good-looking, obviously available and his family seemed to run a successful business. Ashton was older and had two children already. Nor was he quite so devastatingly good-looking as the younger man but he had such hidden depths. His life must have seemed impossible for so long that it was little wonder he had forgotten how to enjoy himself. She sighed and went back to her potato peeling. She had been in such a reverie that she’d not heard the car draw up and Kate made her jump as she walked into t

The oppressive night gave way to a cooler dawn. Kerrien watched the strip of sky through her window, waiting for the day to arrive, so that she could get up. She had no doubt that Kate would want to spread her gossip to Ashton at the first opportunity. She also knew that whatever she said in her own defence, . Kate’s interpretation of what she saw would never change. She dressed and went through to the kitchen, desperate for some coffee to ease her burning, dry throat. The remains of last night’s meal lay on the table and she bundled it into the waste bin. In his haste to leave, Brett had forgotten it. Automatically, she wiped down the surface while waiting for the coffee to brew. ‘I'll go and wake the children,’ she said as Kate came into the kitchen. ‘I'd rather you left them. I don’t want you to go near them now.’ ‘Whatever do you mean? That’s what I’m here for ... to look after the children.’‘Precisely. And what happens the moment my back’s turned? You bring in some beach bum

'You can take the car if you like,’ Kate offered the next morning. ‘Gosh, thanks,’ Kerrien replied, surprised and pleased at the unusual offer. She had planned to take the bus to town and look round the Botanic Gardens. She had called Brett but his mother told her he had decided to go with some friends to Surfer’s Paradise for the weekend. Some festival or other was on and it had seemed like a chance he couldn’t miss. ‘Come and see us soon, love. Everything OK with you?’ Margaret had asked. How could Kerrien explain everything that had happened recently, in just a few words? ‘Fine,’ she answered simply. ‘Everything’s just fine.’ She hoped Margaret was easily convinced! As soon as she could, Kerrien made her escape. For once, she left the children for the others to organize. She would have liked to have seen Martine coping with dressing and washing them, but the temptation to leave before the other woman emerged, was too great. After she’d changed into a simple cotton dress, she sa

Although she tried to ignore the couple, Kerrien felt her gaze being drawn to them every few minutes. It was hard to accept that her fears were confirmed. Everything Brett had said to her, all his compliments, were designed only to seduce her. Once he had accomplished that, he would presumably have cast her aside and looked for his next conquest. ‘Let’s order a dessert, if you’d like one,’ Ashton suggested. ‘I don’t think I could manage any more to eat. But you have one.” Her appetite had gone. ‘Not on my own,’ he answered. ‘I'll just order coffee.” He stared at her, sensing her disappointment and her hidden anger. He thought she was suffering the blow to her pride that any woman does when she sees her lover with someone else. He could not know that she was angry with herself. She was angry that she had been taken in by Brett enough to spend so much time with him. But it did confirm that she’d been right to refuse him what he seemed to want so much. She’d been right to stop his lov

It was nearly lunch-time when Kerrien returned from her trip to drop Brett home. A quick hallo to Margaret and a coffee before she had left, made her later than she intended. She’d then taken a couple of wrong turnings, her mind pre-occupied. The journey took longer and longer, it seemed. There was strange feeling of unreality about everything, as if she was in the middle some sort of dream that would end when she awoke. The house was quiet and Ashton’s car was missing from its usual place. He must have gone to work, even though she’d thought he wasn’t on duty this weekend. Perhaps he had gone out — to be with his fiancée she thought miserably. She had to keep experimenting with the words, so that she would get used to it. How could he want to marry someone who was so negative towards those two lovely children? It was obvious to anyone with half a mind, that Martine couldn’t care less about them. It was equally clear that the children also felt the same way about their father’s fiancé