Free Bachelor's Wife by Jessica Steele

image by hoisting her on to his desk, she knew she had been right to leave his office. Had she stayed she just knew he would have managed to make her feel an even  bigger fool than he had already made her feel.
    Unfeeling brute that he was, business was the only thing that concerned him. That he considered her part and parcel of a business deal made six years ago was obvious.
    Inwardly Perry cringed at the way she had been so open with him about the state of her finances. Talk about handing him ammunition on a plate! And why, oh, why hadn't she belted him again after he had kissed her? Like a lamb she had stood in his arms for a full five seconds, mesmerised by the feel of those experienced lips on hers.
    Too emotionally mixed up to think of going into work that afternoon—they weren't expecting her anyway—she changed into jeans and sweater and let her hair down about her shoulders. Then she spent the rest of the day until six o'clock with tidying her flat, doing some washing, while at the same time railing angrily against Nash Devereux and wondering what on earth did she do now.
    At six a knock on her door showed Mrs Foster had opened the front door to Trevor and sent him up, explaining as he entered her sitting room that he had rung her place of work.
    'The girl on the switchboard said you had an appointment and had left,' he said, letting her know the telephonist's ears were not limited to telephone monitoring, 'but I didn't believe her because you hadn't said anything to me about it. So I told her to put me through to Madge.' Feeling queasy inside that the time had come when she had to explain what her appointment was all about, Perry cleared her throat as he continued, 'Madge told me you had an upset stomach and had gone home. I knew you didn't have an appointment. How are you feeling now, darling?'
    'Er—Trevor,' she began, and as the moment arrived, her upset stomach was no figment of Madge's imagination, not now anyway.
    'You're very pale,' said Trevor before her full courage came to her. And in sudden alarm, 'You're not going to be sick, are you?'
    'No, I'm not going to be sick,' she said to his patent relief. 'I...' the words to tell him stuck.
    'Good, good.' Visibly he brightened, and suggested that since by the look of her she was still far from well it might be an idea if she sat down.
    He sat with her on the settee, his hand holding hers, while she sought desperately for just the right words to tell him what couldn't be kept from him any longer.
    'It came to me while I was driving here,' Trevor was saying before anything very tactful had come to her in the way of dressing up what she had to tell him, 'that you really shouldn't be living here all on your own, not with your fragile constitution.'
    'Fragile constitution!' She was as strong as a horse, always full of energy. But his interpretation of her delicate colouring had astounded her into forgetting for the moment what had made her paler than usual.
    'You seldom have any colour in your cheeks,' he pointed out in reply to her startled exclamation, apparently unaware of the many young women who would give their eye teeth to have the finely tinted skin that went so well with her hair and eyes. 'And with Madge saying how poorly you were this morning, how you should have someone to look after you—well, it came to me as I was coming along that I might be being a bit—well, just a shade too careful in wanting to be sure before I ask you to marry me.'
    'Oh!' Perry was at a loss to know what else to say as she wondered at Madge's motherly instincts coming to ripeness at precisely this time.
    'Perhaps I've been so long in insurance that I wanted the policy to be sound before I took it out,' said Trevor, and didn't see that she winced at his choice of words if this was supposed to be a romantic moment. 'Anyway, darling,' he added, giving her hand a squeeze, 'I think we should get married.'
    'Trevor, I...'
    'You do want to marry me, don't you?' He looked put
    out