She slid the pages back into the book and this time she put it in the drawer of her dressing table. The book might be out of sight but the holiday was not. Milt had said the time wasn’t right to get away then but they’d go one day. Life got busy and one day still hadn’t come. She’d tried to pin him down as they drove home from Adelaide but he’d deflected her suggestion once again.

Natalie pushed back from the dressing table, tugged her dress down and brushed a piece of hair back from her face. She was not letting him off the hook any longer. Their thirty-fourth wedding anniversary was coming up in July. Bree was more than capable of looking after the property and Natalie was determined to have a proper holiday. It didn’t have to be Broome but she and Milt were going away to mark their anniversary and if he wouldn’t go she’d darn well go without him.

“Would you be brave enough to do that?” she asked out loud. Her startled face looked back at her from the mirror.

Bree sat at the kitchen table with her injured leg propped on a second chair. Laura was opposite her, engrossed in her phone, letting out the odd moan or giggle or tapping out a message. Bree was sure Laura would need rehab if she ever lost her phone.

“You’re awake.”

They both looked up at the sound of their mum’s voice.

Natalie crossed the kitchen and rested a hand on Bree’s shoulder. “How’re you feeling?”

“A bit sore but I’ll live.”

“What happened exactly?”

“There was a piece of old wire partly buried on the edge of the track,” she said. “It flung up, hooked my leg and off I came.”

“Oh, Bree.” Natalie’s hand gripped her shoulder.

“Don’t fuss, Mum.” Bree shuffled in her chair, lowered her leg and shrugged off her mum’s hand. “I’ll live.”

“You were lucky,” Natalie said softly.

Bree knew she was lucky. The doctor had said a little deeper and further to the side and she would have severed an artery. She wouldn’t have made it back to the house let alone the hospital, but that hadn’t happened and there was no need to dwell on it.

Natalie turned to the fire.

“I’ve just added some wood,” Laura said and stuffed her phone in her pocket.

“Thanks.”

Bree studied her mum as she crossed to the fridge. She didn’t look any different. What had Laura noticed? Natalie pushed the fridge door shut with her hip and carried an armful of vegetables to the sink, then took her apron from its hook and slipped it over her head. She was behaving the way she always did.

Laura went to help. “I’ve put the potatoes in with the meat.”

“What about the pumpkin?”