Time After Time

Table of Contents COVER PAGE PRAISE ABOUT THE AUTHOR TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT PAGE DEDICATION CONTENTS PART ONE CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 CHAPTER 10 CHAPTER 11 CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 13 CHAPTER 14 PART TWO CHAPTER 15 CHAPTER 16 CHAPTER 17 CHAPTER 18 CHAPTER 19 CHAPTER 20 CHAPTER 21 CHAPTER 22 CHAPTER 23 CHAPTER 24 CHAPTER 25 CHAPTER 26 CHAPTER 27 PART THREE CHAPTER 28 CHAPTER 29 CHAPTER 30 CHAPTER 31 CHAPTER 32 CHAPTER 33 CHAPTER 34 CHAPTER 35 CHAPTER 36 CHAPTER 37 CHAPTER 38 CHAPTER 39 CHAPTER 40 CHAPTER 41 EPILOGUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Guide Cover Title Page Table of Contents Start Acknowledgments List of Pages i ii iii iv v vi vii ix x xi 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 117 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 261 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 Chapter 1 Alice Croydon stared at her grandmother. ‘You’re what?’ ‘Leaving your grandfather.’ Of all the things she’d been preparing to hear from her gran at this family meeting, this had not been one of them. Daisy and Verity, Alice’s older sisters, swapped startled looks as her brothers, Charlie and Toby, reached for their beer bottles, seeming determined to keep their heads down and stay quiet. ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, Meryl,’ Kathy Croydon said, eyeing her mother-in-law with a dubious expression. ‘You can’t be serious.’ ‘As serious as a heart attack.’ ‘Leaving him?’ Kathy added. ‘As in …’ ‘As in leaving the silly old coot.’ ‘But why?’ Alice asked. ‘Because I finally realised that if I don’t go out and chase my dreams now, I never will.’ ‘Chase your …’ Kathy repeated vaguely before giving a confused chuckle. ‘What dreams?’ ‘Exactly,’ Gran said, sounding almost triumphant. ‘What dreams? My dreams, Kathy. I want to finally do something for me.’ ‘I don’t understand,’ Alice said. Her grandparents had been married for sixty years and now Gran was saying she wanted to end their marriage? Gran’s eyes softened slightly. ‘I know it must be a bit of a shock, pet,’ she said, ‘but it’s something that’s been brewing inside me for a long time now.’ ‘It can’t be that long, we literally celebrated your sixtieth anniversary two weeks ago.’ Kathy threw her hands in the air. The party at the local Ex-Services Club had been a huge event—more like a Croydon family reunion. The Croydons were Gunnindi’s largest family. It had all started with Bartholomew Croydon and his wife Brunhilda, who’d carved out a life in the bush and started a dynasty. Fifteen children later, they’d gone on to help build the town of Gunnindi and overrun it with Croydon descendants. A large proportion of the original family had branched out and moved to other towns in the region—a wise decision, seeing as they were pretty much the only gene pool in what was, at the time, a remote, largely unsettled part of the country. However, there had always been a hefty core of Croydons in Gunnindi and the name was still associated with a number of roads, bridges and playing fields around the district. Croydons were breeders. That’s what they did. Had done ever since old Bart and Hilda. Alice’s parents had five children and it seemed her siblings, the eldest being ten years older than herself, were all following the tradition. Alice had twelve nieces and nephews, aged from seventeen down to just six weeks old. Baby Tabitha was currently, obliviously, sleeping in her mother’s arms on the lounge. Marriage and family had been the Croydons’ life motto—until Gran dropped the mother of all announcements on them. ‘If you recall, Kathy, I specifically said I didn’t want a party,’ Gran said now, bringing Alice back to the drama unfolding in her parents’