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a kitchen in the basement and bedrooms at the top. The street-level sitting room was gorgeous and gracious with Tuscan-pink walls and pale carpets that were a perfect foil for the beautiful artwork and furniture, including Liz’s grand piano in the far corner.
    The house seemed perfectly right for her aunt, a home in the truest sense. And Liz had managed this without the usual accessories of a husband or children.
    Bella hoped to feel settled and at home, somewhere . . . one day . . . She had no idea where it would be, but the longing nagged at her again as she followed Liz downstairs to the dining room, next to the kitchen, where they ate chicken soup with thick pieces of toast for dipping.
    â€˜This is divine,’ Bella said.
    â€˜Yes, it’s yummy, isn’t it? I didn’t make it of course.’
    Bella grinned. With so many fabulous stores conveniently close on the King’s Road, her aunt managed to throw together wonderful meals and dinner parties in a blink, despite her demanding, high-powered life as a concert pianist. All Liz had to do was buy pre-prepared gourmet food and heat it up. It was another of the many wonderful advantages of not living in the North Queensland outback.
    They voted to go to bed early to try to catch a few hours sleep before the taxi arrived. Nevertheless, hot chocolate and a bedtime chat had become an essential first-night ritual whenever Bella stayed at Godfrey Street. And Liz cherished this time with her niece.
    Now Bella was sitting in bed in borrowed pyjamas to save the hassle of unpacking. With her face scrubbed and her light brown hair brushed and shining and tumbling about her shoulders, she looked much younger than her twenty-three years.
    Twenty-three . Where on earth had the years gone? Liz had been in her thirties when Bella was born and she could so vividly remember Peter’s excited phone call to tell her that her niece had arrived.
    She’s the prettiest little thing, Liz. We’re calling her Bella Elizabeth.
    She’d been incredibly touched that Peter and Virginia had given their daughter her name. She’d tried not to let it influence her emotions, but she’d always felt especially close to Bella and she’d been delighted when the girl had chosen to come abroad.
    â€˜It didn’t feel selfish before,’ Bella said, snapping Liz out of her reverie.
    â€˜What’s that? What didn’t feel selfish?’
    â€˜Being over here and staying away. It felt important to me. The right thing to do.’
    â€˜It has been the right thing for you, Bella. You mustn’t feel guilty now just because your father’s ill. You’ll drive yourself crazy with that kind of thinking. I’m sure you did the right thing coming over here. You needed to do it. I felt the same at your age.’
    â€˜But you came here to study music.’
    Liz shrugged. ‘I might have left home with slightly different goals, but in our own ways we both needed to escape.’
    â€˜Escape?’
    The very thought seemed to appal Bella.
    â€˜It’s not a crime,’ Liz said defensively. ‘It’s perfectly normal for young people to stretch their wings and leave the nest.’
    â€˜Yes, well . . . I wanted to broaden my outlook.’ The girl sounded self-righteous now.
    â€˜Very commendable.’
    Bella smiled as if she knew she’d been caught out, but then a hunted look came into her clear green eyes and Liz realised, with some dismay, that her niece’s reasons for living abroad were probably as complicated and fraught as her own. And by staying away they’d probably both avoided facing up to their pasts.

3.
    The cabin lights were dimmed and while a few fortunate passengers slept, others watched movies on tiny screens or tried to read. The flight attendants made a final round of the cabin with bottles of water, then vanished. A long, long night in the air stretched ahead.
    Liz was a