Free Heart of the Outback by Emma Darcy Page B

city woman I happen to fancy? Oh, yes, very beautiful, but not the type to ever take your mother’s place!
    She couldn’t look at Gareth as he took the driver’s seat and started the engine with an angry roar. He reversed abruptly from the parking bay and accelerated out of the school grounds. The school where girls of Stacey’s class were sent, the privileged, moneyed class that bought the clothes designed by Alida, but who would always consider her beneath their level of establishment society.
    Only when they were on the road and into the traffic stream leading to the city centre did Gareth speak. “You will now apologise to Miss Rose, Stacey, for your incredibly rude behaviour towards her,” he commanded tersely.
    “You said you’d take me to the movies,” came the rebellious reply. “You said —”
    “I said you will damned well apologise!” he shouted over his shoulder in temper.
    Mutinous silence.
    “Stop the car and let me out, Gareth,” Alida said quietly. It was the end. The absolute end. There was no possible hope of any future for them.
    “No!” he snapped. Then he expelled a long shuddering breath and produced a calm controlled voice. “Stacey, I am not cutting you short. I do not forget my promises. I simply asked Miss Rose to join us. She wanted to meet you. I thought you might like to meet her. What, might I ask, is your problem with this arrangement?”
    More mutinous silence.
    “Stacey!” Impatiently.
    “She doesn’t fit into our lives,” came the fiercely resentful reply. “Go to bed with her if you have to, but why should you want me to meet her?”
    It was precisely what Alida had deduced from Stacey’s behaviour towards her, yet the bald shock of the spoken words sent a wave of utter revulsion through her. Gareth was stumped for a reply. He had none, Alida’s dulled brain told her. The only reason he had instituted this gambit of meeting his daughter was as a sop to her sensibilities so he could get his own way with her!
    “Let me out, Gareth,” she repeated more strongly. “I don’t want this any more than your daughter does. She’s the same as her mother!”
    “You didn’t know my mother!” Stacey sniped from the back seat. “And don’t think you can ever take her place!”
    “Stacey!” Gareth yelled, then blazed a furious look at Alida. “What the hell does that mean?”
    All the pain he had given her forged her reply. Why should she spare them anything? Neither of them had given one damn about her feelings.
    “Your wife didn’t mind you treating me as a whore. Neither does your daughter. As long as I’m kept separated from your real lives. Which is what you want, too,” Alida seethed at him. “So stop the car and let me go, Gareth! And don’t ever come near me again. Because I’m through with being used as your whore!”
    “Alida, no!” He shook his head. “It’s not like that! I swear to you.”
    “Stop it! Just stop it!” she screamed. “I can’t bear anymore!”
    He swore and thumped the driving wheel. “As soon as we’re off the freeway I’ll stop and we’ll talk this over sensibly.”
    He still wasn’t prepared to give up his plan. He was totally without conscience or caring where she was concerned. Only what he wanted mattered to him.
    “What did she mean, Mummy didn’t mind?” Stacey demanded.
    Gareth muttered something venomous under his breath, then his mouth compressed into a hard grim line, denying any ready answer to his daughter.
    “Dad?” Stacey persisted. Then with angry resentment, “You can’t let her speak about Mum like that.”
    Alida gave a harsh bitter laugh. “But you can speak about me any way you like. As nasty and hurtful as you please.”
    “Alida.” Gareth’s eyes stabbed a plea at her but it didn’t reach her heart. She had no heart left for any of the softer, kinder emotions, only a hard core that burned with a blistering demand for the unvarnished truth and a meting of some justice from the murk of how