When the car was loaded with unglamorous plastic shopping bags, Ben swooshed them off southwards again. After a few miles, he made a detour along a narrow road that ran round the edge of a huge expanse of water called the Peel Inlet.

‘It’s beautiful,’ Megan said softly, as they stopped to watch some pelicans doing a well-choreographed slow-motion ballet by the water’s edge.

‘Just wait until summer. It doesn’t rain for months. All the grass shrivels up and turns beige. That’s when you have to watch out for bush fires.’

‘In England, there would be buildings all the way around this lake, not to mention promenades and pleasure boats. Here there are only us and a few pelicans.’ She threaded her arm through his.

‘You get a lot more boats on the inlet in summer, though not many big ones. They run aground too easily. Most of that water is only about a metre and a half deep, except for the boating channels that have been dredged. In summer, you see people wading along a hundred yards from shore, towing a baby bath behind them into which they put the crabs they catch.’

‘You’re joking.’

‘No, I’m not. Mandurah’s famous for its crabs. Most people catch their own and then boil them up.’

‘It sounds too good to be true.’ For all the stern warnings she kept giving herself, happiness was fizzing inside her. ‘Can we do that in the summer? Catch crabs, I mean?’

‘Oh, yes.’ He sat down on a wooden bench and leaned back. ‘And we’ll catch prawns, too. You go prawning after dark, boil them up over a camp fire, followed by a midnight feast.’

She sighed happily as she joined him on the bench. ‘This is going to be heaven! Imagine still being able to do that.’ She sat up abruptly. ‘Are there still large stocks of prawns here?’

‘Oh, yes. And of crabs. And bag limits on what you can catch.’

She relaxed again. ‘Great. So I shan’t feel guilty.’

After a moment or two of silence, he said abruptly, ‘You’re not really impressed by luxury or money, are you, Megan?’

She coloured a little. ‘I’ve been spending your money, haven’t I, using that credit card you gave me? Look at all the books I bought.’

‘That’s not real spending. Most of the women I know would be buying jewels and designer clothes.’

She felt embarrassed by the warmth of his gaze. ‘Well, you’ve already bought me enough clothes to last for ages, and buying books is the sort of spending I like best. Do you have any bookshelves in your shack? If not, I’ll splash out on some. And – and I’d like a computer, too, if that’s all right. I had an old one in England, but it wasn’t worth bringing it out here.’

‘Why a computer?’