Marmalady (Paperback)

Molly Anstruther makes marmalade when she's fed up with life. She's got cause to be. She's been stuck in a marriage to Frank for more than 25 years, ever since he took young Molly by force while she was still in high school, got her pregnant, and married her reluctantly. She miscarried at four months; it was not a foetus but an abnormal growth. Later attempts at pregnancy also failed but Molly put up with Frank's rough and insensitive love-making for years, hoping for a family. Her only value to Frank was, and is, economic; she stood to inherit money. He expects her to work, pockets her wages and uses them to run the household while he, a finance broker, builds an investment portfolio. From his position of prestige and wealth, he looks down at her lowly job. Molly's salvation has been a satisfying work history. She has risen to be the valued assistant of the boss, Peter Piper, the Pickle King. They all love Molly at the pickle works. Molly's favourite employee is Jake Morgan, the security guard, born in Australia to American parents, who stayed on after his father left the US Navy Communications Base in Western Australia and retired to the San Fernando Valley. Jake had a brief career in Australian Rules football but then joined the Australian Defence Force. He's also wondering what to do with his life as the boss has sold the pickle plant. Molly, preparing for the pickle plant's wind-up party, discovers she has had a win on a lottery. She's not sure how much but, such is her fear of Frank's grasping ways that she posts the winning ticket to her aunt. She has decided to leave Frank and wants him to have no share of any money she may get. At the party she is drawn to Jake and drives him home as he has had too many drinks to drive. They make love in a search for mutual comfort. Molly discovers for the first time that sex is a GOOD thing. Will Molly and Jake be able to start a new life and new family together, or will Frank's dodgy financial dealings ruin her financially and emotionally.