Riding the Storm Read Free Page A

some time, almost hypnotized by the motorway and the drone of the cars alongside them.
    ‘You OK, Mum?’ she said at last. ‘You’re awfully quiet.’
    ‘You never said.’ Valerie sounded choked. ‘You never toldme you heard all those arguments – when you were small. I always tried to keep you from hearing those rows.’
    Chrissie spoke softly, hardly daring to ask. ‘Did he ever lose his temper and hurt you, Mum?’
    ‘No, not really. Sometimes he came close but it was mostly all bluster and noise.’
    ‘Why did you put up with it?’
    ‘Chrissie, it was another era. People saw things differently. And he hasn’t really threatened me – not for years now.’
    ‘But he used to?’
    ‘Chrissie, I’m not comfortable talking about this. It’s all in the past, anyway.’
    ‘I’m sorry, Mum. I know he’s my dad but there’s precious little love lost between us. And I hate the way he treats you. Expecting you to shelve all your plans just to wait on him. You know damn well he’d be off to the stables as soon as he’d eaten and you wouldn’t see him for the rest of the day. He treats you like an unpaid servant or worse.’
    ‘Maybe. But he has old-fashioned expectations – “A woman’s place is in the home” and all that.’
    ‘It’s downright medieval. And in any case, you grew up with horses just as he did and you’re far more intuitive. You could be a much better trainer than he is, if you were allowed to be.’
    ‘But that wasn’t my choice. I took a back seat when I found I was pregnant with you. Robert isn’t to blame for everything.’
    ‘No. Just ninety per cent of it.’
    ‘You don’t understand. I wasn’t his first choice and I knew it. I’ve never told you this before, but he wanted to marry Joanne.’
    ‘Uncle Peter’s wife? You’re kidding me.’
    ‘Oh, no.’ Valerie sighed. ‘I suppose you can hardly remember her. You wouldn’t have been more than an infant when they took off and went to North Queensland. When the brothers fell out for the last time, Pete wanted to put as many miles between them as he could. He said he didn’t care if he never saw Robert again.’
    ‘I think I remember Joanne. Or I have an impression of her. A pretty woman with long fair hair who always wore floaty clothes. I thought she looked like a fairy.’
    ‘She was fey all right. Beautiful, artistic and with no practical skills at all. Poor old Pete. She won’t have improved with age. People don’t, you know. We were all kids of racing people, so we went around in a gang when we were young. Joanne was Robert’s girl to begin with but he came on too strong and frightened her off. It was Pete who picked up the pieces and comforted her. The rest you know. Feeling he’d somehow lost face, Rob took it out on Pete, making his life a misery. So Pete sold his share of the stables to him – for next to nothing, of course – and took Joanne to make a new life up north. It must have been a struggle for them, starting again from scratch. Not that Robert cared. I think he wanted Joanne to suffer for giving him up.’
    ‘But, Mum, if you knew how Dad felt about her, why did you take him on?’
    ‘Oh, I had my reasons at the time and I needed to be married – I was expecting you.’
    ‘Of course you were. Too much to expect Dad to wait until after the wedding.’
    ‘I persuaded myself that I was in love with him, too.’ Val giggled at her daughter’s incredulous expression. ‘Stop it– don’t look like that. He was quite something when he was young. Not always this grumpy, red-faced git with receding hair.’
    ‘Oh, Mum.’ Chrissie echoed her mother’s infectious giggle. ‘But he shouldn’t have treated you badly even if you were a second choice.’
    ‘Well, I disappointed him, didn’t I? You arrived easily enough but I couldn’t get pregnant again to give him the son he wanted. The boy he dreamed would succeed him and take over the stables.’
    ‘Why? There’s no guarantee a son would