Queen of the Road

by Tricia Stringer

  Angela chewed on her lip. She couldn’t imagine him ever doing anything wrong. Surely she hadn’t misjudged him that much.

  ‘Jeff eventually sent my mother away but he offered for me to stay. I chose to go with my mother. She couldn’t manage without me. I missed Jeff, I missed our life with him, the kind of life he’d shown me, but I couldn’t just let her starve or lie in a gutter all night. I started drinking myself, pinching things so we could eat. You could say I went off the rails. Anyway, the end result was a stint in juvenile detention. And Jeff was waiting for me when I got out. He took me back to his property and I spent a year there working for him. Eventually Mum came looking for me. Jeff was the one who convinced me to cut her loose. I was her ticket to more money and once the government allowances dried up, he was worried I’d be back to stealing. He found me the job in WA, my ticket out. Mum was in hospital at the time, and after saying goodbye I travelled across the country to escape her. I’ve been on the move ever since … Until now. Between Alice and you and Claudia, I guess I’ve got a reason to stay. My story’s no big secret, Angel. Just a lot of stuff I’m not real proud of.’

  He stopped talking and looked down at his hands again. Angela could hear a clock ticking somewhere nearby. What could she say? Coop had told her his life story, a story he usually kept buried but which he’d felt confident enough to share with her. And he’d used her pet name again.

  ‘We’ve got something in common then,’ she said.

  His eyes flicked to hers and he raised one eyebrow, just a little.

  ‘Well, nearly,’ she hurried on. ‘My stepmother threatened me with boarding school when I was a teenager. She would have preferred juvenile detention, I’m sure. I was no angel back then.’ She smiled at him.

  He made the space from his chair to hers in a flash. She stood up as his arms reached for her and she lost herself in his kiss.

  Finally she eased from his embrace. ‘I’d like to give us a go,’ she whispered. ‘Get to know you better.’

  ‘I think I’ll like that.’ He grinned.

  ‘You know, Alice was talking about you earlier.’

  ‘Uh-oh.’

  ‘I think she was asking me what my intentions were.’

  ‘Bad, I hope.’ He bent to kiss her again but she put a hand up to stop him.

  ‘Just one more thing,’ she said. ‘Do you think you could learn to sleep in a bed?’ She nodded to the swag on the floor in the room off the kitchen. ‘Swags are okay for camping but I don’t know about every night.’

  ‘I reckon I could manage a bed,’ he said, and this time she didn’t stop his lips from meeting hers.

  ‘That’s a marriage kiss,’ sang a little voice. ‘You’re going to get married.’

  They pulled apart and turned to see Claudia and Alice watching them from the doorway.

  ‘A marriage kiss?’ Coop raised his eyebrows.

  ‘She watches daytime TV at Leanne’s.’ Angela smiled.

  ‘I can be a bridesmaid,’ Claudia said, jumping up and down.

  ‘We might be a bit soon for that yet,’ Alice said. ‘But when the time comes, I expect to be the best man.’

  Coop laughed and scooped Claudia up in his arms. The little girl squealed in delight and Angela hugged them both.

  ‘I must say, I’m thankful for whatever wind it was that blew you all into Munirilla,’ Alice said.

  ‘So am I,’ Coop said.

  ‘Me too,’ Angela agreed.

  ‘Good grief,’ Claudia said. ‘Me too!’

  ISBN: 9781460888865

  TITLE: QUEEN OF THE ROAD

  First Australian Publication 2012

  Copyright © 2012 Tricia Stringer

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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