Free Bachelor's Wife by Jessica Steele Page A

already that the look of delight that should have been on her face wasn't there.
    'Yes, yes, of course,' she said quickly. 'It's just that I...' she had been going to say 'have something to tell you first', but before she could finish, he finished it for her:
    'It's just that with your upset stomach you're not up to showing the happiness you feel.' And before she could contradict him, 'If you're better tomorrow we'll go out and celebrate, shall we?'
    'Trevor, I must...'
    'The only "must" you have, darling, is to go to bed early. Have an early night, I want you in tip-top form by tomorrow. Oh, damn!' clearly he had just remembered something. 'I forgot, I'm taking Mother to visit Aunt Hetty for the weekend, you remember I told you about it. We won't be back until late Sunday.' He squeezed her hand again. 'Never mind, we'll have our celebration on Monday night.'
    Perry's emotions had been frayed before Trevor arrived. When very shortly afterwards he went, staying only to display his thoughtfulness in presenting her with the evening paper he knew she enjoyed but would be too poorly to go and collect herself, her emotions were positively shredded.
    She just couldn't believe she had actually agreed to marry him without first telling him about Nash Devereux! But that pleased expression on his face, after he'd told her he wouldn't kiss her in case he got her germs, told her she had.
    Oh lord, she groaned wearily, picking up the evening paper with a listless hand in the hope of immersing herself in print and so get away for a short while from the thoughts that were going to nag at her all night. She opened the paper, saw one large headline, and her groan that time was one filled with anguish.
    'WHO IS THE MYSTERIOUS MRS DEVEREUX?' the headline read. Hardly daring to read on, she found a temporary reprieve in the start of the smaller print to read, 'After revealing yesterday that he has a wife, that is all Nash Devereux is revealing. Our reporter today...'
    Perry let the paper drop. Nash still wasn't saying—but for how long would he keep her name to himself?

CHAPTER FIVE
    THE fact that she had spent a depressed and worrying weekend must have been showing, Perry thought when she presented herself at work on Monday and saw Madge, who had arrived at the same time, looking at her closely.
    'How's the tummy upset?' she enquired, her way of saying that regardless of the invention, Perry didn't look up to par.
    'Thanks, Madge,' said Perry, knowing Madge would take from that her thanks for covering for her and also that she didn't want to discuss anything to do with Friday.
    'Any time,' Madge replied. Then with a, 'Heads down time,' she prepared to start work.
    The trouble with this job, Perry thought, as she threaded a needle, was that if gave one plenty of time to think. And she had done more than enough chasing the same theme on Saturday and Sunday when a feeling of thoroughly disliking Nash Devereux had made itself felt. It was all his fault, she had thought time and time again, that the celebratory evening with Trevor she should have been eagerly looking forward to held nothing for her but guilt at the secret that was between them.
    She should be happy and excited, she thought, recalling the agony of her thoughts over the weekend, that soon she would be celebrating her engagement with the man she loved. For it had come to her, in long wakeful hours, that by not rejecting Trevor's proposal she must now be engaged to him.
    Unconsciously she sighed, her sigh heard by Madge, who looked up, wanting to help with whatever was troubling her, but unable to unless Perry confided in her.

    Oh, where was she to get five thousand pounds from? Perry wondered agitatedly. Even if Trevor had got five thousand she couldn't ask or accept it from him. She had taken money from one man once, admittedly not for herself, and look where it had got her! Not that there would be any trouble with Trevor if he gave her the five thousand she so badly needed, she