Read Online Home to Eden by Margaret Way - Free Book Online Page B

I’ve never spoken of it, but he used to slap me.”
    â€œI know nothing of this!” Louise said in amazement.
    â€œI didn’t want to start anything. Upset you or Granddad. He tried to throw a scare into me. It didn’t work.”
    â€œI’m not surprised,” Sigrid said in a derisive voice. “You were just so…”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œSpunky, I suppose. Cheeky. Too precocious.”
    â€œShe was adorable,” Louise protested, never one to find fault in her even when she deserved it, Nicole knew.
    â€œThat man didn’t love me. He didn’t want me around.”
    Sigrid snorted, loud as a horse. “That’s not true, even if no one really rated beside Corrinne.”
    â€œI don’t understand how you can defend him, Siggy—when it suits you, that is,” Nicole said.
    This time Sigrid inhaled forcefully. “Because I feel sorry for him.”
    â€œWell, I hate him. I mean, I really hate him. I could have had my mother—”
    â€œYou can’t get off it, can you? You’ve got some incredible block.”
    â€œBlock, be damned!” Nicole saw red.
    â€œMy dears, please stop.” Louise held a lavishly be-jeweled hand to her head.
    â€œI’m so sorry, Gran.” Nicole broke off immediately. She and Siggy had always gone at it.
    â€œThere has to be hope for us,” Louise said. “If Drake has asked you over to Kooltar, surely we can see that as a thawing, can’t we?”
    â€œGracious me, who’d want to call on Callista?” Sigrid hooted. “You surely don’t think you’re going to fall into her outstretched arms, Mother. She bloody hates us, the cold bitch. She blames us all for the loss of her brother. She worshiped at his feet. Everyone knows that. If I’d have been her mother, I’d have sent her packing.”
    â€œTo where?” Nicole asked. “That’s hardly fair. She was the daughter of the house.”
    â€œThey should have sent her to one of her relatives in Sydney or Melbourne,” Siggy said sternly. “Opened up her life. Station living is too isolated. We’re too much in one another’s pockets. Callista was positively fixated on her brother. A byproduct of a lonely life. I tell you, if he hadn’t been her brother, she’d have tried to bag him. She was too close. A bit kinky, I’d say.”
    â€œLike Joel is too close to me?” Nicole shocked her by saying.
    Sigrid, on the voluptuous side when young, now bone thin, let out a swearword that made her mother wince. “That’s the most preposterous thing I’ve ever heard. It’s not at all the same. Tell her, Mother.”
    Louise sighed deeply, flapping her right hand helplessly. “I’m not sure if Nicole isn’t right.”
    A worse swearword escaped Sigrid. “You’ve onlyjust come home, Nicole, and you’re already stirring things up.”
    â€œI’m trying to understand what’s going on in my life, Siggy,” Nicole responded hotly. “I don’t want to upset you, especially when you let fly like a station hand. This may not be the time to ask, either, but why did you get rid of Dot?”
    â€œWhy talk about bloody Dot?” Sigrid made a gesture as though she was swatting a fly. “It was time she retired. She wanted to live on the coast.”
    â€œI never, ever heard her express that desire.” Nicole lifted her eyebrows.
    â€œIt seems she did, darling,” Louise intervened gently.
    â€œShe said that to you, Gran?” Nicole was amazed. “She said nothing to me and I was here in June. Why so sudden?”
    â€œI don’t know, darling, but she seemed quite happy to leave. I was most surprised. I thought Dot was a fixture on Eden.”
    â€œIf you give me her address, Siggy, I’d like to contact her.” Nicole turned to her aunt.
    Sigrid nodded stiffly. “I’m sure I’ve