Connie's Secret: The True Story of a Shocking Murder and a Family Mystery at a Time When Appearances Were Everything by Anne Lovell

Author:Anne Lovell
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Australia & New Zealand, Murder, True Crime, General, Murder Victims, Personal Memoirs, Biography & Autobiography, History
ISBN: 9781741755381
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2008-08-31T23:00:00+00:00

and suggested they take a walk in the park. She took the opportunity to tell him she was thinking of going to the country to teach music. He seemed pleased with the idea and said he had thought she was wasting her talents in the shop. He gave her the impression that he was glad she was planning to leave town and, despite her resolve, she spent most of the night in tears.

Still, facing up to Myrtle and Norman helped her plan assume credibility in her mind. She had previously taught music in the country and would do so again. She’d find a suitable town, one her family wouldn’t visit. She’d adopt a new persona; perhaps even become a widow with a baby . . . after the birth, of course.

She found the courage to call in to the Catholic seminary in Parramatta, where she told a nun that she had a young Catholic girl working at the shop who was in trouble. Where should she go? The girl didn’t want to stay in the city because she was terrified that her parents would find out. The nun was helpful and told Connie about a Catholic home for unmarried girls at Bathurst, where they worked for their keep in the laundry until the baby was born. Then the baby was adopted out. Connie noted down the address and wrote a letter to the home.

She never convinced Myrtle of the merit of teaching music in the country; this idea fell on deaf ears. Myrtle knew that clauses in their father’s will meant that the business would eventually be sold and she did not want to be solely in charge when this occurred. She had her relationship with John to consider and he had already made mention of marriage in the following year. Her new home would not be in Parramatta.

Despite her opposition Connie could not be dissuaded and Myrtle was angry. She deliberately hurt Connie on the evening of her departure in early November by giving her a cursory kiss 126

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when she finally boarded the train. She wore a smug smile as she leant heavily on John’s arm and watched the train pull out of Central Station.

Connie felt the hostility and was close to tears but, once the train was steaming away from the city, she could only feel relieved. Her secret was safe! I’ve escaped! she breathed, drawing the address of the Bathurst home from her handbag.

She’d told both Myrtle and Norman that she was going to Parkes; it was further from Sydney, as well as from Tenterfield.

Peering through the window later, she could see the country changing. Once over the Blue Mountains the blue-greens changed to browns. Sooty ash from the engine coated the glass, seeming to envelop the drying landscape and, as Bathurst grew closer, she began worrying about her welcome at the home and her ability to pass as a Catholic.

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Twenty

As the train steamed into the

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