Not only that, but the gym staff ensured that any predatory behaviour was quickly dealt with. Their reputation was that women could use the facilities...in safety and comfort. This even extended to the car park, which was well lit and comprehensively covered by CCTV.What I did learn though was that Diane had initiated the relationship. She had not been flagrant in her flirting, but the other women had picked up on the signals, even though the men didn't. There had been no activity around the gym. She wanted to think that. She wanted to pretend that what had happened hadn’t happened but she had the scars to prove it. Why couldn’t we have just been a normal family? Because her father was an alcoholic. Because her father was a wife beater. Because her father was a child molester. Because she’d shot him 15 years ago. The screen door slammed shut and she jumped as if it was the shot she’d fired so long ago. It echoed in her mind and the smell of cordite burned in her nostrils. It had been. After all, she'd not seen Sadie smoke in years - andnot once through a cigarette-holder in her upturned butt.But second thoughts were not first thoughts, and there was nothing inthe bedroom to justify lingering a while. Indeed, given the way the twogay males were leering at her, she decided it was time to resume herstory-telling. To catch them in her web of woven tales, she decided torisk Big Sue's wrath by focusing her third tale on a bad boy (or isthat a good girl?) and his father. As Brad. It was awful – the water was warm, but the air was frigid and the ground covered in snow. We were both shivering by the time we crawled into our tent, curling up together under my cloak and every spare blanket we could find. In the morning, I donned a dress with special divided skirts for riding, and Alistair wore a doublet and trousers for the first time in a long while. We rode through the city at the head of our entourage, all the way to the castle we could see in the distance.Highever.