When she came out of the bookshop, she continued to stroll along. In one mall there was a stand where people were collecting money to save endangered species. She made a contribution, feeling it a good way to start life in Australia, then got talking to the guy handing out leaflets. They compared notes about what was being done in her part of England and what needed to be done here, and half an hour had passed before she realised it.

By the time she moved on, she had volunteered to join their efforts and he’d given her an application form.

Since it was now lunch time she hurried back to the hotel, her heart lifting at the thought of meeting Ben as they’d arranged. She felt guilty for being late, but found the room empty, with only a brief message pushed under the door saying Mr Saunders had been unavoidably detained on business and would get back as soon as he could after lunch.

‘Oh, and I’m just to wait around again, am I?’ Megan exclaimed, feeling bitterly disappointed. She had been looking forward to Ben’s company in the afternoon, had wanted to share what she had found out and do some further exploring together.

And she didn’t like the brusque tone of the note or the way he kept issuing what sounded like orders. She screwed up the paper and let it drop to the floor. ‘Well, sorry, Mr Saunders, but you won’t find me sitting here meekly waiting until you deign to return!’

She flicked through the brochures she’d picked up in the hotel lobby and found she could cruise down the river to somewhere called Fremantle. Good! She’d vanish for the afternoon and if Ben came back when he said he would, she’d let him sit around wondering where she had gone, for a change!

The desk clerk gave her instructions for finding the cruise-boat terminal, but she refused his offer to call a taxi because she needed a brisk walk to use up some of her energy.

As she passed a sign indicating a shopping precinct, she decided to go inside and buy herself a sandwich. By this time she had walked off some of her anger and was wondering whether to return to the hotel. Perhaps she had over-reacted. Well, she knew she had over-reacted. Her feelings for Ben seemed to be see-sawing up and down all the time.

She rode down the escalator into a basement shopping mall, looking around her with great interest. Half the city’s shops seemed to be underground or indoors. Was that because of the hot summers?

Part of the way down, however, she gasped aloud and shock held her so rigid that she would have fallen off at the bottom had it not been for the quick support of a woman behind her.