Steele gave a small party for Billy’s 18th birthday. They had the function in a marquee at Lilly’s farm because she felt less conscious about the wheelchair there. Billy was very moderate in his party list, which he’d limited to about forty people and at least half of these were his relations. Billy especially wanted both Glenda and Deborah to be at his party but neither attended. Glenda told Clay that she wouldn’t be comfortable about being in the company of several people who’d appeared before her in court, and doubted they’d be comfortable either, while Debbie was in the Northern Territory on some research project.
Steele recognised that Billy couldn’t be tied to him forever and that he’d have to be given the freedom to develop both his career and his life. If he messed it up, it would be his own doing. While Billy played both the piano and guitar, it was his voice that so many people wanted to hear. Up to now, Steele had picked the gigs Billy attended and he hadn’t allowed him to go too far afield but he had his own van now, which had been fitted out for him to live in as he drove from gig to gig.
Billy’s party was only one of a number of events which happened, so it seemed to Steele, in a continual stream and which completely negated his hopes for a quiet life. Indeed, as Steele told Glenda, he’d never lived through a period anything like it. Much of what happened involved Glenda, as she was in possession of information which she was withholding from her daughters for perfectly valid reasons. Both she and Deborah had managed to refrain from mentioning to Donna that Clayton Steele was a resident of the district and had been for some years. This wasn’t only for Steele’s benefit but because Glenda had no wish to see Donna leave Britain before she’d finished her economics degree and, knowing how obsessed she’d been by Steele’s writing, she couldn’t be sure that Donna wouldn’t follow in Debbie’s footsteps if she learned that Steele was now accessible.
The second secret Glenda held concerned the existence of Steele’s son, Clement. She’d asked Gillian Brooker to withhold this choice bit of information from Debbie, at least until she’d finished her studies. The last thing she’d wanted was for Debbie to go to pieces because another woman had achieved more with Steele than she’d been able to. Glenda realised that she was treading a dangerous path and that Debbie might never forgive her for withholding this information but she was prepared to risk it for the sake of her daughter’s wellbeing. Glenda was well aware that there was a time limit on how long she could keep Clement’s existence secret and that both Donna and Debbie would be devastated that she hadn’t levelled with them. The day would come when Glenda’s secrets would have to be revealed to her two highly educated and very intelligent daughters, and when that happened, there was only one place she would find real understanding and that was with Clay Steele. But the moment of truth was not to be long delayed…