can we,’ Amy said faintly. ‘Thank you but…’
‘But we have twenty-four hours to change your mind,’ Maudie said happily. ‘You don’t want to stay in a backpackers’, do you, Rachel?’
‘No, but…’
‘There you are, then. Meanwhile, if you feel like Scrabble in the morning, we’re in Platinum Cabins Car Two, Cabins Four and Five, with a nice little sitting room in the middle. There’s a butler person who guards our privacy but just ask for us and Hugo will okay it. He’ll more than okay it. It’ll be lovely.’
Maudie beamed and her beam almost matched Amy’s, only Amy’s wasn’t on. Amy was now looking trapped—which was pretty much how Hugo was feeling.
‘I need to go to bed,’ Rachel said, still sounding confused. ‘If you’ll excuse me…’
‘If you’ll excuse us both,’ Amy said with alacrity and stood. ‘Thank you for the lovely offer, Dame Maud, but, of course, we can’t accept. Our accommodation’s already paid for, and we’re content. Goodnight.’
She backed to leave the table, but there was something Hugo needed to say. He’d been slicing for a while now. ‘Amy?’
Amy paused. ‘Yes?’
He shouldn’t say anything. He should simply let things finish right now, but this was irresistible.
‘Here’s a little something for midnight,’ he said, and he handed over his second carefully wrapped napkin.
Amy stared down at it. If it was possible for her to look any more hunted, she did.
‘Thank you,’ she said and stuffed it into her purse.
She turned and fled, with Rachel following limply behind.
‘What nice girls,’ Maudie said as they retreated.
‘Yes.’ But needy. He’d kind of like more steak.
‘It’ll be nice to have company at Uluru.’
‘They refused.’ Praise be.
‘They don’t mean it. Amy’s worried about Rachel. You can see it. She’ll like Rachel having a nice quiet time with me while you take her off exploring. You’ll have time. I know you’re thinking of visiting the mine, but there’ll be days to spare. I wonder what’s wrong with Rachel?’
‘It’s none of our business.’
‘Of course it’s our business. Amy’s part of the ballet company your grandfather and I practically founded. I usually keep track of the members of our company and it was a shock to hear she’s retired. Since James fell ill, of course, I haven’t heard a thing. I need to get back in touch. But then, it’s her sister who looks ill. She’s not in the ballet scene. If I wasn’t on this train I could make some phone calls…’
‘It’s not our business!’ he repeated.
‘Of course it is,’ she snapped. ‘They’re two nice girls and anyone can see they’re in trouble. It’s our job to help them. And it was very nice of you to give Amy your steak.’
‘I…’ She’d seen, then. He might have known.
No. Not worth arguing.
‘Though cold steak will be horrid as a late night snack,’ Maudie said, and he could tell she’d already included the girls in her list of responsibilities. Maudie’s principal skill was picking people up and making them feel better. Hugo loved her for it, but every now and then it got her into trouble. And now, like always…
Now he hadn’t a snowball’s chance in a bushfire of stopping her.
‘If Amy wants to bully Rachel into eating later on, she’d be better with sweets,’ she was saying thoughtfully. ‘We have complimentary chocolates in our sitting room. Do you think you should take them some?’
‘No. I don’t know where to find them.’
‘You can find them if you want to.’
‘I don’t want to.’
‘Hugo…’ Her voice was filled with reproach.
‘No.’
‘What a waste,’ she said sadly. But her indomitable spirit had been stirred and it wasn’t about to settle. ‘Still,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘We’ll probably see them at breakfast and if we don’t then I’ll track them down. And the house at Uluru… The more I think of it, the more perfect it seems.’ She smiled again, the smile that Hugo had wanted to return, but the smile that now meant trouble. ‘We might just have some fun, and heaven knows we all need it.’
Fun, Hugo thought.
He’d wanted his grandmother to have fun, but now he wasn’t too sure what fun entailed. Trouble?
Two single women and Maudie? Trouble indeed.
CHAPTER TWO
‘SO TELL me who they are,’ Rachel demanded.
To say Amy was disconcerted was an understatement. She needed to catch her breath, get her composure back and feed Buster.
Instead, for the first time in this trip, for the first time in months, she had her sister asking questions.
But Buster first. She locked their compartment door, opened the wardrobe and Buster nosed out.
Buster was a tiny fox terrier, the size of half a cat. He was fourteen years old, he was missing an ear and he had one gammy leg.
Rachel had found him over twelve years ago. He’d been tossed from a car like litter, and Rachel had come home holding the bedraggled creature as if he were diamonds.
‘Amy, we have to keep him. We have to. Please let me…’
They’d been staying with the last of their succession of foster parents and, as usual, Amy had pleaded on behalf of her younger sister.
‘He’ll stay outside. I can build him a kennel. We can use my allowance to feed him. I swear he’ll be no trouble.’
The couple they’d been staying with had been one of their kinder sets of foster parents and he’d been allowed to stay. At night they’d sneaked him in through their bedroom window. He’d slept with them then, and he’d been with them since.
Rachel had left him behind two years ago—he’d stayed with Amy during her sister’s doomed marriage—but they were together again now, and it was Rachel who needed Buster rather than the other way round.
The little dog nosed out of the tiny wardrobe and looked around with caution, as if he understood he was in hiding. Then his ears pricked and his disreputable tail started to wag.
He’d been on dog pellets for two days. He was clever. The smell from Amy’s purse was not dog pellets.
‘It’s
