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
Natalie sat in her bedroom in front of the dressing table. The shower had refreshed her and her equilibrium had returned. This was the one place in the house she felt was her own, the one room she’d been allowed to make changes to, to make her mark. The walls were the colour of milky coffee and the curtains steely grey. The furniture was oak and, conscious that her husband lived in a house full of women, she’d kept away from florals and frills and always chose a quilt cover and cushions with subtle patterns in greys and whites and splashes of deep red.
Once she’d overcome her despair at the mess in her kitchen she’d tackled the cleaning up. Laura had arrived back when it was nearly all done and had rushed to help. The sight of her daughter tidying away the recipe books had reminded Natalie again about the copy of The Model Wife she’d shoved back in the kitchen drawer. She’d asked Laura to mop the floor. Laura hadn’t been keen but Natalie had insisted. While her daughter was off getting the mop and bucket Natalie had removed the book and taken it to her bedroom.
She looked at it now with its faded cover, the title barely readable; a harmless old book. She gave a soft snort and turned to the chapter titled ‘Managing the Home’. Nat read the first line to herself. The model wife is proud of the home her husband provides for her and shows her respect by keeping it perfectly clean and without clutter. It was this chapter that had made her realise how much she’d conformed to the book’s rules. The occasion had been Olive and Clem’s thirtieth wedding anniversary, the year before Kate was born, and Milt and Connie had thought they should mark their parents’ marriage milestone with a celebration. Natalie had convinced them to make it a surprise. She’d done most of the cooking over at their neighbour Martin’s place. Those were the days before he’d married Brenda and he’d been pleased to have someone using his kitchen and leaving him leftovers.
The two days before the surprise party Olive and Clem had been in Adelaide. It had been school holidays, so Natalie had thrown herself into cleaning the shared areas of the old house from top to tail. She took down curtains and washed them, had the carpets steam cleaned, washed windows, dusted and polished every surface until everything gleamed. Each night she would fall into bed exhausted and Milt had declared her crazy, said no-one was going to notice a bit of dust on the windows or a smudge on a door handle.