It wasn’t as if Elle hadn’t tried to fit in. She’d done her best; she’d even gone to university, partly to keep the peace but mostly because, more than anything, she wanted to make her parents proud. Unlike her siblings, though, she had no career in mind, and it only took two semesters for her to realise that being an accountant was not for her. Her lecturer suggested changing some subjects, which she did, picking up an art elective, which went a long way to making life bearable. Elle had always loved to draw and paint—it was the one thing she could do to escape everything going on around her.

She had toyed with the idea of switching to art school—she researched it and went as far as presenting the idea to her parents—but in the end she had been talked out of it. ‘You need security, Elspeth,’ her mother had said. ‘A reliable career.’ Gran had been the only one who encouraged her. ‘If art is where your heart is, then you should follow it,’ she’d argued when a tearful Elle had come home between semesters.

‘I can’t. Mum and Dad won’t let me,’ she’d sniffed, wiping her eyes.

‘This is your life. Your decision.’

‘They’ve already said they won’t pay for art school.’

‘So? Get a job and pay your own way. I can lend you some money if you need it,’ Gran had suggested.

The idea had been tempting, but the more she’d pictured herself at art school, the more easily she could hear the arguments and imagine the frosty silences she would have to endure throughout her studies, and probably for a long time afterwards. Elle didn’t do confrontation. She liked to keep the peace and not rock any boats. So, she’d kept her head down and did her best to stick with the university course. She’d managed two years before giving up.

Mostly, she’d missed the peace and quiet of Jessup’s Creek. She wasn’t cut out to be a city girl, and studying was not for her, so she’d come home and listened to her parents’ concerned lectures before getting a job at Brown’s to think over her options. That had been three years ago.