Flynn remembered her now. She was about seven years younger than him. A little scrawny kid she’d been. He’d seen her on her visits to her grandparents’ home. Theo had kept a pony for her to ride and she’d been in the drive one day when Flynn had roared past on his bike and frightened the pony. She certainly wasn’t a scrawny little kid anymore.

“I loved that pony and climbing trees with the boys.” Her smile lit up her face and Flynn liked the way she held her head proudly. “They were the best holidays.”

“Kat, that’s it. They used to call you Kat,” he said.

“They still do,” she said.

“Ladies and gentlemen.” One of the presenters called their attention to the front of the room. “We’d like to begin. Please take a seat.”

Flynn glanced once more towards the door before allowing Theo to usher him to a seat beside Kat. It would be much more enjoyable sitting next to her than Euan anyway.

* * *

“Euan, you were right. It’s so beautiful.” Keely stood on the little footbridge over the river, taking in the scene. Trees grew on the banks and bent their branches to meet the gently flowing water, small ducks slid along the surface and butterflies flitted in and out of the shadows. “There’s every shade of green and it looks so tranquil.” She turned to him in excitement. He was watching her, that quizzical smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.

“I’m sorry you had to have your appendix out to get here. Just goes to show every cloud has a silver lining. It would have been bad luck if you missed this on your Western Australian travels.”

Keely turned back to the vista in front of her, breathed in deeply and held the breath. There was hardly a twinge from her abdomen and she felt relaxed and yet a little excited. She really was on holiday: no timetables, no students, no problems. Slowly she exhaled. It was as if someone had given her permission to let go and at last she was doing it.

The evening before when Euan had come home he had been preoccupied. She’d pointed out the note Flynn had left and he’d scrunched it up and gone off into the other end of the house for a while. There were tomatoes, eggs and various cheeses in the fridge and she’d made omelettes. Euan had prepared her meals up till then. She’d hoped he liked omelette. It was a small way of saying thank you.