‘Bloody hell. That’s a long time. Surely you must have suspected something.’

‘I should have, but I didn’t. His work gave him the perfect excuse for when he had to go away, and when he couldn’t tell me where he was going, or why I couldn’t contact him. He was a spy, you see.’

‘A spy!’ Mike exclaimed. ‘Lord, Natalie, you didn’t fall for that old chestnut, did you?’

‘He was—is—a spy,’ she ground out firmly. ‘He works for ASIO in their anti-terrorist unit. I know this for a fact, Mike. I was working in a government position myself at the time.’

‘What as?’

‘I was personal assistant to one of the ministers in the Premier’s Department. I took six months long service leave after the fiasco with Brandon. And I never went back. I started up Wives Wanted instead.’

‘Why?’

‘Why?’

‘Yes, why? No lies now. Give it to me straight.’

‘I guess there were lots of reasons. A few weeks into my long service leave, I started looking up introduction agencies on the internet. I was only thirty, after all. And terribly lonely. But after some simply awful email experiences with men who just wanted to get into my pants, I decided to start up an agency of my own, one which fulfilled my own requirements for a husband. I soon discovered there were lots of other women out there like me, and lots of men too who’d been burned, but still wanted wives and children.’

‘Makes you sound like a do-gooder. Admit it, Natalie. You started Wives Wanted to find yourself a husband.’

She sighed. ‘I suppose so. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. But it still satisfied something in me to see women get what they wanted where men were concerned. I guess it was a form of revenge and therapy rolled into one.’

‘Yeah, I can understand that.’

‘What about you?’ she asked, sick of talking about herself. And going over such painful old ground.

‘What about me?’

‘What made you so sour on love and marriage?’

‘I’m not sour on love and marriage. Good luck to those who find happiness in both, I say. They’re just not for me.’

‘But why? And don’t lie to me. Tell me the truth, like you say you always do.’

The muscles in his jaw stiffened, then twitched.

‘There are some truths better left unsaid,’ he muttered, and returned to his meal.

Natalie stared at him, unrequited curiosity destroying her own appetite. ‘That’s it? You’re not going to tell me?’

He never said a word till he finished his food. ‘Nope,’ he said as he put down his fork.

‘Well, thank you very much,’ she snapped.

‘You don’t need to know all the ins and outs of my life. It’s not as though we’re getting married for real.’

‘I told you mine,’ she threw at him.