Free His Diamond Bride by Lucy Gordon Page B

completely relaxed about it.’
    â€˜Am I?’
    â€˜All you can think about now is enjoying yourself with me,’ she persisted, meeting his eyes urgently and trying to convey her message. ‘Hold me close and look deep into my eyes, as though I was all you cared about in the world.’
    If only…
    He nodded, understanding and following her lead with a good deal of skill. The house was tiny and ‘dancing’ consisted mainly of taking small steps from side to side, but that, too, was useful, because their ‘audience’ had a close-up view of the performance.
    â€˜Smile,’ she whispered, favouring him with a dazzling smile of her own. ‘Pretend I’m Sylvia.’
    He managed to stretch his lips, although his eyes were still blank. Dee raised her head so that her mouth was closer to his, not kissing, but conveying the impression that she would kiss him if they were alone.
    Suddenly she clutched her head and said, ‘Oh, I’ve got such a headache.’
    â€˜It’s getting late,’ Helen said. ‘It’s been a nice evening, but—’
    Obediently, everyone began to drift off. It wasn’t really late at all, but everyone knew ‘something was up’.
    â€˜Shame Sylvia couldn’t make it,’ someone murmured. ‘I wonder what kept her.’
    There were several curious looks at Mark, then everyone was gone.
    â€˜Right, what is it?’ Helen demanded, looking from one to the other. ‘What are you two keeping a secret?’
    â€˜Sylvia’s gone away, Mum,’ Dee said. ‘She left a letter.’
    Mark handed it over and Helen read it, her face becoming like stone.
    â€˜She’s with a man,’ she said harshly. ‘My daughter’s a bad girl?’ She glared at Mark. ‘What do you know about this? Why didn’t you stop her?’
    â€˜Because I didn’t know.’
    â€˜You’re supposed to have been courting her all this time. Why didn’t you protect her?’
    Dee forced herself to be silent. She longed to cry out that someone should have protected Mark from Sylvia’s treachery, but he would have hated that. She contented herself with saying, ‘Why don’t you save your anger for Phil?’
    â€˜Just who is he?’ Helen demanded.
    â€˜I think I saw him once, when I went to collect her from the shop,’ Mark said. ‘They were giggling together. We had a row about it.’
    Suddenly Helen burst into sobs. Dee moved towards her, but her father appeared from the doorway where he’d been hovering and signalled for them to go. She left them in each other’s arms, while she and Mark went out into the garden.
    Once outside, Mark leaned against the wall, dazed like a man in a nightmare.
    â€˜We can’t just leave it there,’ he said. ‘I have to find her, but I don’t know how.’
    â€˜She said she was already far away,’ Dee recalled. ‘They’ll probably know more at the shop. It’s my half-day tomorrow. I’ll go over and see what I can find out.’
    â€˜Shall I come with you?’ he asked quietly.
    She knew what it cost him to make the suggestion, for she felt everything with him: the pain of revealing himself as the rejected one, the shame of admitting how he’d been deceived, the awareness of smothered grins. Her heart ached for him.
    â€˜It’s best if I go alone,’ she assured him. ‘They’ll talk more freely to me.’
    â€˜Thank you.’ That was all he said, but she knew he’d divined her understanding and was grateful.
    She went to the shop the next day and returned home that evening with a heavy heart.
    â€˜They all know Phil,’ she said. ‘He’s the rep for a clothing firm so he was in and out quite a lot, and they got to know each other.’
    â€˜But why did they run away?’ Helen asked wretchedly. ‘Why not just get married?’
    â€˜They