The following morning, Megan woke to the realisation that she was about to spend a few days in close contact with Cynthia. For once she didn’t feel like her normal, cheerful morning self. She scowled at Ben across the breakfast table and when they were getting ready to leave for the block in Ben’s new Land Cruiser, she could hardly bring herself to be civil to him.

‘I’ll go and see if Cynthia is ready,’ he said stiffly.

Megan grunted. She did not dare answer that remark or she’d have said something she might regret.

When he came back, he was looking even more tight-lipped. ‘We’ll have to get the other car and drive both of them down. Cynthia has rather a lot of luggage and there’s all the new stuff you bought for the house as well. I’ll go up and phone from our room. You might as well grab a coffee while we wait for it.’

There followed an hour’s delay while the other car was hastily delivered by the dealer and the luggage redistributed. Cynthia, of course, was riding with Ben.

‘I’m sorry about this,’ he whispered to Megan as they put things into the boot of her car.

‘Not as much as I am!’ She walked round to the driving seat and made herself comfortable.

Ben came across to hover beside the driver’s window. ‘Are you sure you’ll be all right driving on your own?’

‘Of course I will! I bought a little booklet and I know the road rules off by heart now,’ she said brightly, aware that Cynthia was standing listening to every word, a smug smile on her face. As Megan started the motor, she watched resentfully as Ben helped Cynthia into the Land Cruiser.

‘I’ll be just fine!’ she said aloud, but her hands were trembling as she put the car into drive and eased off the hand brake. She wasn’t going to let that woman find out how nervous she felt about driving in Australia for the first time.

The morning rush was long past, so the journey down the freeway was quite peaceful and Megan’s confidence grew quickly. This wasn’t all that different from driving in England. She didn’t know why she’d been worrying.

By the time they arrived in Mandurah, she was actually enjoying herself and would have been content to grab a quick sandwich, but Cynthia insisted she was starving, so they had lunch in a large hotel built round an indoor swimming pool.

‘We should have gone to that café we found last time,’ Megan said, keeping her expression wide-eyed and innocent. ‘The food was delicious and the decor most original. Such lovely expensive furniture.’

Ben choked on his orange juice. ‘Er – not quite Cynthia’s style.’ They exchanged amused glances and the tension between them eased a little.

‘We’d better get some groceries,’ she said.

‘Yes. Coming, Cynthia?’