At Home With The Templetons by Monica McInerney Read Free Book Online

I’m feeling up to it.’
    She snatched the magazine away from him. ‘And when will that be, Henry? When the house falls down around our ears because we can’t afford the most basic of repairs? When the visitor numbers dwindle to zero because you haven’t felt like advertising or because you’re too busy doing your family tree or entertaining yourself rather than anyone who happens to stumble upon us? Have you checked the bank statements lately? The money from that silverware sale is practically gone and you know the electricity bill is due any day. You’re not even trying any more, are you? Do you think all the vases and those chairs you were so thrilled to find are going to sell themselves?’
    ‘I think I preferred it when you were in awe of me. The sweet little Eleanor I met twenty years ago would never have talked to me like this.’
    ‘Don’t patronise me, Henry.’
    ‘I’m not patronising you. I’m telling the truth. You were much easier to handle back then. Darling, you’re just tired. Upset about Gracie.’
    ‘Yes, I’m tired. Yes, I’m upset about Gracie. But I am also completely and utterly tired and upset with you. How many more excuses, Henry? Do you know what Gracie’s just asked me in there? Why people call us the mad bloody Templetons. Why we think we own the place.’ ‘We do. Well, most of it. I think the bank might have an interest in the stable roof.’
    ‘It’s not a joke, Henry. I’m not joking.’
    ‘No, Eleanor, but you are shouting and I don’t want you to wake the children any more than you do. You’re tired, I’m tired, it’s been a busy day. Come here. Come here and let me give you a kiss.’
    ‘I don’t want a kiss. I want you to fix everything you promised you’d fix and haven’t. I want you to bring in more money. I want you to do all the accounts you said you’d do months ago. I want Charlotte to start behaving, I want Audrey to stop all this acting nonsense, I want Gracie to stop being so anxious and earnest about everything, I want Spencer to stop plotting to blow us all up.’ She was now somewhere between laughter and tears, even as Henry patted the bed beside him, reached for her and drew her closer. ‘I want a normal family life, Henry. Is that too much to ask?’
    ‘Yes, darling. I’m sorry, but it is.’ He held her closely as she gave in to the tears. ‘That’s not all, though, is it?’
    She didn’t raise her head from his shoulder but she shook her head. He stroked her back, her hair, held her tighter. Her words were muffled and he had to ask her to repeat them. She lifted her head and looked him straight in the eye.
    ‘I want Hope to go. I want her to leave me alone. Leave all of us alone. She’s ruining our lives. She tried to do it in England and nearly succeeded and she’s trying to do it again.’
    ‘She can’t help it, Eleanor. She’s not well.’
    She shook his hands off her at the same time she shook her head against his words. ‘I don’t care, Henry. I don’t care any more. I just want her to go.’

CHAPTER THREE
    our days after Gracie’s accident, in the kitchen of a farmhouse three paddocks away from Templeton Hall, thirty-five-yearold Nina Donovan was reading the local weekly newspaper. A large headline dominated the front page: UNDERAGE DRIVER WREAKS HAVOC.
    Nina already knew all about it. She’d got the first call only minutes after the crash, as she came in from dropping her twelve-year-old son, Tom, to his junior cricket match, her head filled with the work she needed to finish, despite it being a Saturday. As a freelance illustrator, her income and reputation depended as much on her meeting her deadlines as her artistic talent. The caller was one of the school mums, breathless with excitement as she described the little girl in costume; the crash; the policeman.
    ‘That family will do anything for attention, won’t they?’ the woman said as she finished her account. ‘The reporter from the local paper was there just