Placing the bottles in the sink, Tilly had seen that Connor had cleaned up after himself. The breadboard was in the wrong place though. Reaching automatically to right it, her hand stilled, then went instead to the windowsill where he’d left the carving of the little lizard sitting on the torn margin of a newspaper. On it he’d written, Thanks for everything, Tilly. Had he carved it because he was leaving, she wondered, or was it just a generous afterthought? Like a bunch of flowers delivered to a hostess after a guest’s departure. In which case, shouldn’t he have addressed the little carving to Sophie?

‘Oh,’ she said now, dragging her thoughts back to the present. ‘We’ve got another patient. The cutest little sugar glider, Luke! I’d only ever seen pictures of them before. Sophie found him at the foot of a tree along the river walk. He’s very weak – she’s not sure if it’s age or malnourishment. He did have ticks though. We got them off and I’m feeding him glucose and sugar water.’

‘Umm, where is he? Let’s have a look. Good thing you de-ticked him – they certainly wouldn’t have helped his condition.’

‘I put him in a box in the laundry.’ Tilly led the way. The tiny marsupial, whose fluffy tail seemed larger than its body, was curled up in the corner of a shoebox lined with shredded paper. The creature’s eyes opened when the lid was lifted but that was all. Tilly busied herself tipping glucose and sugar into a tiny saucer, which the glider readily lapped up. ‘I used an eye dropper at first,’ she explained, ‘but he seems happy enough to drink it himself. He’s very tame as you can see. What do you think?’

‘Weak, not tame. The ticks were probably doing for him,’ Luke said. ‘See how pale his gums are? They must have been sucking the life out of him. He’s only young. You might have caught him just in time. Where did the saucer come from?’

‘A kid’s teaset. I picked it up at the old dump. There would’ve been children here once, I guess.’

‘Yeah, probably. Well, just keep on with what you’re doing. Build his strength up and he should be right.’ He turned back to the kitchen. ‘I’ll head down to the camp. No need for Sophie to lead the walk tonight.’

‘Not without your dinner,’ Tilly said firmly. ‘Wait five and I’ll get you something in a dish that you can warm up later.’