‘No kid of mine gonna know she been fathered by a bastard pig rapist,’ she’d vehemently declared. ‘Sure, my Jill gotta know her dad was a white fella,’ she said, ‘sure, anyone can see that. But she don’t need to know the truth. Nobody need to know the truth, and that’s a fact.’

‘So what did you tell her?’ Val asked.

‘I tell her that her dad’s name was Reginald Smith.’ Again that infectious grin of Edie’s. ‘I know a bloke called Reginald once – that a real nice name, I like that name. And Smith,’ she gave a shrug, ‘lot of white fellas called Smith. I tell her my man Reginald real proud to have a pretty baby girl,’ she shook her head sadly, ‘but poor bloke, he got killed in an accident, run over by a truck out in the bush. And then I got sent to Palm Island. Not for anything bad, mind,’ she added hastily, ‘just to be looked after, you know? I don’t tell her I got knocked up when I was about her age. No good tellin’ her that sorta stuff.’

‘Right,’ Val nodded, albeit a little sceptically, ‘and she accepted all of this, did she?’

‘Why not? She’s five years old when I tell her.’

‘Of course.’ Edie’s logic was inescapable. ‘And she never questions why she’s not called Jill Smith?’

‘Ah, that the best part, see.’ Edie was particularly pleased with this bit. ‘I tell her I give her my tribal name because I want her to be proud of who she is. And that the truth, Val, I swear, honest it is. Besides,’ she added after a moment’s thought, ‘Yiramba much fancier name than Smith. Sounds a whole lot better, don’t you reckon?’

‘Yes,’ Val agreed with a smile, ‘yes, it does.’

This conversation had taken place after Val and Edie had known each other for only six months. Having opened her newly acquired pub, Val had hired the Aboriginal woman who’d walked into the bar, marched straight up to the counter and demanded employment.

‘You hire me, you get best-ever laundry,’ the woman had declared, ‘me and my girl, we the best in Townsville.’

The woman’s boldness had struck an immediate chord with Val and, upon hiring her, she’d found Edie was not lying. She and twelve-year-old Jill were experts at their trade. In fact, Edie Yiramba, Val discovered, was well known around Townsville, having worked as a daily domestic and laundress in a number of households and establishments for the past two years, ever since her arrival from Palm Island.