Dot watched her go and gave her own version of a snort. “She’d have you believe she doesn’t care two hoots about her sons but she’s only covering up how much she misses them. She was like a lioness protecting her cubs through a messy divorce from her alcoholic husband then raised them singlehandedly. Her boys both ended up working overseas and she misses them terribly. Although it has been handy for us to have a bit of free accommodation in London and Singapore over the years.”

“Do you have children?”

“No. It wasn’t to be for Ted and me. What about you?”

“Three daughters.”

“Are you going home once you leave here?”

Natalie’s stomach churned at the thought. She’d sent a dutiful text to her family each night. She’d kept it general, not sure how to say in a few words that she’d ended up in Broome instead of Brisbane. Milt responded briefly each time but they’d not spoken on the phone since she’d left home, and there’d only been a couple of short texts from the girls hoping she was having fun. She wasn’t ready to go home yet. So far she’d only seen the sights of Broome. There was so much more to the region.

“Perhaps I’ll find somewhere cheaper in another part of town for a few more nights. Or maybe take a tour to Derby and the Mitchell Falls. I haven’t booked my flight home yet.”

Faye arrived back then and they all left the water.

“What about that Horizontal Falls trip?” Faye said as they towelled themselves dry.

They’d perused many tourist brochures together over the last few days, looking for places they could explore together. “It did look fabulous.”

“A bucket list item, they say.” Faye turned her hard stare on Dot.

“You could have gone on your own,” Dot responded with an equally steely look. Natalie had learned over the last five days Dot wasn’t the pushover she’d first seemed. “You know I won’t fly in anything small. The plane here from Perth was bad enough and we have to get in another sardine can to go back yet.”

“Was it a little plane?” Natalie hadn’t looked at plane sizes when she’d booked. She’d simply picked the cheapest and quickest option to get her to Broome.

“If you call a Boeing 717 with over one hundred seats little, then yes.”

“Oh.”

“Why don’t you go up the Dampier Peninsula?” Dot said. “Visit that beautiful pearl farm we read about. They had accommodation, didn’t they?”

“Buy yourself some pearls,” Faye said. She wore no jewellery during the day but each night at dinner Natalie had noticed she wore a short string of pearls.

“A gift from my father to my mother,” she’d said when Natalie had commented on how lovely they were, prompting a long discussion about pearls.