Thorn on the rose by Joy Dettman

Author:Joy Dettman
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia

‘There’s love there, Vern — or they believe there is.’

Vern reached for the page, but she folded it, placed it back into its envelope and returned it to the lean-to.

‘How do I know that’s what’s in it?’

‘Because I’m not that good at making up words on the spot — and because I told you so.’

‘Let me read it for myself.’

‘It’s my evidence for court. I can’t have you damaging it,’ she said.

She didn’t sit with him again. She emptied her mug and rinsed it with a dash of water from her kettle, then turned, waiting for his mug. He had no intention of leaving. He asked her if she had a biscuit.

‘You’re as fat as a pig already. You need to cut back on cakes and biscuits. Your father probably died of the sugar disease.’

‘What else has a man got left?’

‘Life,’ she said. ‘Which a lot we grew up with haven’t got. Get out of the house and live it. Get back to your council meetings, out to your farm. You’re bored. That’s your trouble. That’s why you keep hounding me with your solicitors.’

‘I keep hounding you because that boy is a Hooper, and I’ll see him raised as a Hooper — and for the umpteenth time, I sent those letters to her, not you.’

‘You’ll find out how much Hooper I’ve got left in me if you keep sending them. I’ll spend Archie’s money on my own solicitor and have you and that streak of misery you call a daughter up on charges of verbal abuse, mental anguish, blackmail and anything else I can think of. Now go home. I’ve got work to do.’

‘I’m not going anywhere.’

‘Then go home and get a pair of boots on your feet. I can’t stand looking at you in bedroom slippers.’

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