Chapters (48)
- Cover
- Praise
- About the Author
- Also by Tricia Stringer
- Title Page
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgements
- Excerpt
- One
Olive had settled Bree and put her to sleep, she’d sent Kate off with Clem to check troughs, then she’d made Natalie a cup of tea and drawn a chair up beside her bed and they’d talked. Olive was the only one Natalie had told how bad she felt. Neither of them had understood that she had post-natal depression but Olive had done her best to help, saying she could manage the girls for twenty-four hours and Natalie should take a break. One thing Natalie had no trouble with was breastfeeding and she had extra breastmilk stored in the fridge. She could go to Adelaide and spend the night with Milt, just the two of them away from the property.
She’d jumped at the chance. The first half of the drive she’d felt weak with failure then she’d felt guilty with relief. Relief that someone else knew how she felt and that her baby was safe and she could have some time with her husband just for themselves.
She’d arrived unannounced at the motel just on dark and pulled in beside Milt’s car. The room had been in darkness and she’d thought perhaps he was off having a meal but when she knocked a light went on. She’d heard voices, had knocked more insistently, and then Milt had opened the door in a pair of tennis shorts, looking drunk and dishevelled. The shock on his face was only outdone by the look on the woman’s face behind him. Veronica Halbot was wide-eyed and red-faced. Natalie remembered lurching to the side of her car and being sick and by the time she’d straightened herself up Veronica had disappeared so that Natalie could almost believe she’d imagined what she’d seen.
It had been a dreadful, sleepless night. There were no other rooms free so she’d had to stay in Milt’s. He’d slept on the floor. The old rattling air conditioner had barely lowered the temperature in the stuffy room and the next morning Natalie had driven home leaving Milt to continue with the carnival.
Her life had fallen apart. Not only was she struggling with being a mother but she believed her husband to be an adulterer. She’d moved into the children’s room, telling Olive it was so Milt could sleep better and she could deal with the girls more easily. She’d been consumed by embarrassment at first, thinking people would find out, then she’d felt guilty, blamed herself for not being a better wife. Whatever the reasons for Milt’s glitch she couldn’t bear everyone knowing about it; her parents who hadn’t liked Milt from the start, her friends, everyone in the district would know.