‘I got it for chicken livers tonight,’ Diana said. ‘Something quick after this long day.’

But she didn’t really feel tired, and David was obviously refreshed from his nap in the car. Only Constance showed the strain of the trip, a dark brightness in her eyes which was her will straining against her fearful uncertainty. Though she couldn’t really help in the kitchen, she stayed there in the way until all the groceries were settled and they could go into the living room together for their drinks. Then she sat on the couch, needing Diana to sit beside her.

Diana put her arm around Constance and said, ‘You’re marvellous. You did it, all the way from Vancouver.’

‘Here’s to our holiday,’ David said raising his glass.

‘You’re going to stay with me?’ Constance asked.

‘Of course we are,’ Diana said.

‘Are we locked in?’

‘Not yet,’ David said, ‘but I’m going to fix the doors tonight so that we’ll all be safe.’

‘We’re never safe,’ Constance said.

‘As safe as we need to be,’ David answered.

He insisted on cooking this first meal by himself, claiming the kitchen too narrow for two people to work, and Diana let him. She needed to stay quiet with Constance, to give her time to be reassured. Because Diana was so full of promises to herself, of swimming, of walking out on to the desert, of driving out to the grapefruit groves, she might have offered those things to Constance if Diana had not known it was too soon for them to sound like anything but impossible demands. There was time. They could live the days slowly. Right now it seemed the greatest of riches to be sitting here with Constance, looking out beyond the screened porch to the last light on the ridge of the western mountains.

Diana woke hearing voices very near, right beyond their open bedroom window.

‘Who are they?’ Constance asked. ‘Where are we?’

‘Golfers,’ Diana decided. ‘They’re up with the sun. We’re in the desert.’

She smelled bacon.

‘David’s playing with the microwave.’

Constance was like a cat in a new place, hesitant at every threshold, head up listening, sniffing, but she understood the workings of the shower and had to show Diana how to turn it on, and she was pleased with the white slacks, oversized pink shirt and white velcro-fastening shoes.

If Constance was catlike, David bounded around like an overexcited dog. He’d already been out for a look around and had found two lemons lying in the road, fallen from an immodestly bearing tree.

Because the birds feasting on berries just beneath the south window didn’t startle away when the three sat down for breakfast, they realized they must be looking through one-way glass. Not only could they be secretly intimate with the birds, they could watch the parade of people without being watched themselves.