‘This is my last one,’ she said, shaking the empty pack at him. ‘Let me enjoy it.’

He watched her inhale. ‘Did Louisa tell you she might do this?’

‘She told me she’d drawn the money out of the savings account. To pay for the flights.’ She moved closer to the ashtray on the windowsill.

‘Flights?’ His face was shocked, open-mouthed, in the corner of her eye. ‘What is she, the bloody Queen?’

‘I know. There must have been a lot of money in that account.’

He put his knife and fork down. ‘How did she get hold of the money?’

‘It was a joint account. Joe gave her access.’

‘I bet he regrets that now.’ He stood and took a second beer from the fridge. ‘She cleared out the lot, did she?’

‘Think so.’

She felt his outrage as he opened the bottle and drank. She shouldn’t have mentioned the money. They’d end up rowing if he kept raking it over. The last fight they’d had was over money. And there was no chance of her clearing out the bank account and leaving him; she didn’t even have a chequebook. She’d get as far as Manly on the housekeeping he gave her each month.

‘I was shocked when she went,’ she said. The yard was dark now and she hadn’t brought the washing in. ‘I still can’t believe it.’

‘Neither can I.’ He put his empty bottle alongside the rest of his empties, next to the bread bin. ‘I always had her down as a lovely girl. Shows how wrong you can be.’

‘No, it doesn’t.’ She opened the back door and stood there with her cigarette. ‘It’s not easy, this country. Not if you weren’t raised here. It’s hard to be so far from home.’

‘Now you sound like your mother. Rest her soul.’

‘Don’t say that.’ She spun around to face him. ‘Don’t you compare me to her.’

‘All right.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘Don’t get cranky with me.’

Mandy blew smoke out into the yard. A light came on in Joe’s kitchen and she watched him moving around, opening cupboards and shutting them. Looking for something, maybe. ‘I’m going to bring the washing in.’

‘You not eating?’ He looked dismayed. ‘Why don’t you sit down?’

‘I won’t be a minute,’ she said, closing the back door behind her.

She stepped into the warm, clear night; the sky full of stars. A bright half-moon had risen behind the tea trees that ran along the backyards on the coastal side of Bay Street. The cicadas were still calling their high-frequency note. The air got fresher with each step away from the house, and the boom of the ocean got bigger in her ears until finally she felt her head stop churning. She closed her eyes, leaned against the eucalyptus and breathed.

Minutes passed. She looked back at the house. Steve was framed by a square of light in the back door, bent over the stove, spooning a second helping of stew onto his plate. She didn’t love him. The thought shocked her but she couldn’t dismiss it. He loved her as much as he always had, she knew this. But it wasn’t the same for her. She’d had an idea of him and the life he would give her, and it was different to the reality.