“We were very much in love. I had no idea he had written back.”“Yeah! It doesn’t look like he ever got to around to finishing it, but I could ...ell you meant a lot to him.”“Thank you, dear! Can you hand me that photo album on the table over there.”Rose flipped it open to the middle. There was page with only two pictures on it.“Granddaddy,” exclaimed Angie.“Yes! This was my Paul. This one his high school graduation photo. He gave it to me shortly after we met. This one was taken one night on. There wasn’t a day that went by that she didn’t carry bruises welts or cuts on her. And he was never nice to her. He always talked down to her, yelled at her, spat on her, told her how stupid, ugly and worthless she was. And the more he told her, the more she knew he was right.At my urging she began starving herself to lose weight for him. Not that she needed too, she was already in decent shape, but it was an added degradation and pain for her. Plus he had called her fat so that was reason. I crouched over thelitter tray, hiked up my nightie and urinated. God, that was relievingand humiliating at the same time. At least there was some toilet paperthere for me to use. I was half expecting her to say that pets don't useit."What a good kitty you are Belle." I already hated that name. My name wasMatilda! But I knew what would happen if I spoke up about it. "It's bathtime now. All of your new outfits have arrived today. The servant girlsare putting tail holes in everything as we speak.. The last month flew past. The rain abated, but the roads were reddish-brown sludge. It took nearly a half-hour to get to Alpha on Tuesday morning. Richard didn’t even try the road south from Jericho and the one from Barcaldine to Blackall to Tambo didn’t look much safer. He drove on to Longreach – taking well over four hours. He stopped at the first hotel he saw after turning off the Capricorn.“Tough drivin’?” he was asked.“Lots of sticky mud.”“Dry south of here. Where you headin’?”“Mitchell..