Wind in the Wires (41 page)

And by what they’d done, in that bed, in her bed. Couldn’t live with it. Didn’t want to live if she couldn’t live with him. Wanted him to go, to stay. Wanted to scream at him to shut up and make love to her. Wanted to scream at him to get out of her sight.

‘Mum told me they’d gone to live with the angels. I never doubted her. Jenny used to tell me that my daddy had gone up to live in the stars, and that I’d never forget him because he’d been given the job of painting all of the rainbows, and that every time I saw a rainbow, I’d know he was up there waving his paintbrush to me. I saw him too.

‘I worked out my own way not to forget Jenny. She was the scent of lemons. There was a plant in the Balwyn garden that had lemon-scented leaves. For years, every pair of trousers Mum washed, she found a few of those leaves in the pockets. I still do it, crush lemon leaves, pick lemon verbena, lemon-scented geraniums.’

His sigh was a deep sob of a sigh, his voice breaking when he tried to speak of Georgie. But he swallowed, breathed deep and continued.

‘Granny used to say Georgie’s hair looked like a spill of new-minted pennies. I didn’t know what a new-minted penny was, but shiny pennies became Georgie. I had a jar full. Mum and Grandpa used to save me the shiniest ones. I never spent them. I’d sit in the sun, pouring pennies backward and forward from the jar to a little beach bucket, chanting, “Georgie, Georgie, Georgie.”’

‘Stop it. Please God, stop it.’

He walked around her, swept the two rings into his hand, then dropped them into his pocket.

‘I’d forgotten what Jenny looked like, forgotten her hair. I loved the scent of your shampoo. It’s your hair. Her scent is all over you. I should have known.’

‘Please God, Morrie.’

He couldn’t stop. ‘I put them away in England. Everything stopped over there, the dreams, the moving, the changing faces. I took my middle name when I went to university, determined to be someone brand new, called myself Morrison Langdon, became the son of an Englishman, living in a five-hundred-year-old manor house, its roots so deep in the soil, a bomb couldn’t move it. I’ll take Pops home. I’ll . . . I’ll undo it.’

And he picked up his case, his car keys, and he left her, left her kneeling on cold tiles on the bathroom floor, left her alone to howl.

About the Author

Joy Dettman was born in country Victoria and spent her early years in towns on either side of the Murray River. She is an award-winning writer of short stories, the complete collection of which,
Diamonds in the Mud
, was published in 2007, as well as the highly acclaimed novels
Mallawindy, Jacaranda Blue, Goose Girl, Yesterday’s Dust, The Seventh Day, Henry’s Daughter, One Sunday, Pearl in a Cage, Thorn on the Rose and Moth to the Flame. Wind in the Wires
is Joy’s fourth novel in her Woody Creek series.

Also by Joy Dettman

Mallawindy
Jacaranda Blue
Goose Girl
Yesterday’s Dust
The Seventh Day
Henry’s Daughter
One Sunday
Diamonds in the Mud

Woody Creek series

Pearl in a Cage
Thorn on the Rose
Moth to the Flame

More Bestselling Fiction by Joy Dettman

Pearl in a Cage

The first novel in Joy Dettman’s sensational Woody Creek series.

On a balmy midsummer’s evening in 1923, a young woman – foreign, dishevelled and heavily pregnant – is found unconscious just off the railway tracks in the tiny logging community of Woody Creek.

The town midwife, Gertrude Foote, is roused from her bed when the woman is brought to her door. Try as she might, Gertrude is unable to save her – but the baby lives.

When no relatives come forth to claim the infant, Gertrude’s daughter Amber – who has recently lost a son in childbirth – and her husband Norman take the child in. In the ensuing weeks, Norman becomes convinced that God has sent the baby to their door, and in an act of reckless compassion, he names the baby Jennifer and registers her in place of his son.

Loved by some but scorned by more – including her stepmother and stepsister who resent the interloper – Jenny survives her childhood and grows into an exquisite and talented young woman. But who were her parents? Why does she so strongly resemble an old photograph of Gertrude’s philandering husband? And will she one day fulfil her potential?

Spanning two momentous decades and capturing rural Australia’s complex and mysterious heart,
Pearl in a Cage
is an unputdownable novel by one of our most talented storytellers.

Thorn on the Rose

It is 1939 and Jenny Morrison, distraught and just fifteen years of age, has fled the tiny logging community of Woody Creek for a new life in the big smoke.

But four months later she is back – wiser, with an expensive new wardrobe, and bearing another dark secret . . .

She takes refuge with Gertrude, her dependable granny and Woody Creek’s indomitable midwife, and settles into a routine in the ever-expanding and chaotic household.

But can she ever put the trauma of her past behind her and realise her dream of becoming a famous singer? Or is she doomed to follow in the footsteps of her tragic and mysterious mother?

Spanning a momentous wartime decade and filled with the joys and heartaches of life in rural Australia,
Thorn on the Rose
is the spellbinding sequel to
Pearl in a Cage
.

Moth to the Flame

In
Moth to the Flame
, Joy Dettman returns with another dazzling tale of the unforgettable characters of Woody Creek.

The year is 1946. The war ended five months ago. Jim Hooper, Jenny Morrison’s only love, was lost to that war. And if not for Jenny, he would never have gone.

‘
An eye for an eye
,’ Vern Hooper says. An unforgiving man, Vern wants custody of Jenny’s son, his only grandson, and is quietly planning his day in court.

Then Jenny’s father Archie Foote swoops back into town. Archie offers Jenny a tantalising chance at fame and fortune; one way or another he is determined to play a part in her life.

Is Jenny’s luck about to change, or is she drawn to trouble like a moth is drawn to the flame?

First published 2012 in Macmillan
by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney 2000

Copyright © Joy Dettman 2012
The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.

This ebook may not include illustrations and/or photographs that may have been in the print edition.

National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Dettman, Joy.

Wind in the wires / Joy Dettman.

9781742610788 (pbk.)

A823.3

Adobe eReader format: 9781743345375 
EPub format: 9781743345382 
Online format: 9781743345368 

The characters and events in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Typeset by Midland Typesetters Australia
Cover design by Xou Creative

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