Bride By Blackmail. Кэрол Мортимер
at the unexpected rebuke. ‘I can’t be less than I am, Andrew,’ she responded. ‘And being pleasant to a man I dislike is not—’
‘Don’t take it all so seriously, Georgie!’ Andrew cut in teasingly, obviously realising he had gone too far. ‘I love you just the way you are.’
Georgie looked up at him uncertainly in the dimmed lighting of the hallway. ‘I love you too, Andrew,’ she told him uncertainly.
‘That’s all that matters, then, isn’t it?’ he murmured, before kissing her.
For a brief moment Georgie froze, still thrown by Andrew’s sycophantic attitude towards Jed a few minutes ago. Not only that, Andrew had actually criticised her for her behaviour towards the man!
But as Andrew continued to kiss her the anger she felt towards him began to evaporate, and she kissed him back with a fierceness that bordered on desperation, knowing that the last thing she needed at this moment was to feel less than sure of the feelings she and Andrew had for each other.
‘Wow!’ he murmured a few minutes later as they broke their embrace, his forehead resting lightly on hers as he looked at her. ‘Perhaps we shouldn’t wait until next Easter to get married, after all?’ he urged huskily.
No! Yes! Georgie was no longer sure about anything at this moment… Part of her wanted to marry Andrew tomorrow. But another part of her knew that, no matter how she might try to shut it out, Andrew’s attitude towards Jed, even if it was purely a business manouevre, still bothered her. For a start, it didn’t seem characteristic of the Andrew she’d thought she knew…
She was also aware that it was seeing Jed Lord again that was making her have doubts about waiting until Easter to marry Andrew…
‘If it takes you this long to think about it…’
Georgie’s frown deepened. Andrew sounded almost sulky…
‘I was only joking, Georgie,’ Andrew assured her as he saw the consternation on her face. ‘An Easter wedding is fine with me. Which reminds me. We really should start doing something towards making plans in that direction. My mother tells me that it takes months to arrange a wedding.’
Maybe it did, to arrange a church wedding, with hundreds of guests invited and a huge reception afterwards at a fashionable venue. But, as a divorced woman, Georgie knew that wasn’t the sort of wedding she and Andrew were likely to have. Something else she really needed to discuss with him…
But not now. She needed to get this weekend over with first, then she and Andrew could sit down and talk about their future together. Including what sort of wedding they were going to have and who the wedding guests were likely to be. The fact that she didn’t want to invite one single member of her family was definitely going to be cause for discussion!
Oh, Andrew knew that both her parents were dead, and that she had been brought up by her grandfather. But he wasn’t a subject she had discussed in any great detail either. Andrew had seemed to accept her reticence, but Georgie wasn’t as sure Annabelle Lawson was going to be so agreeable about it. Especially when the other woman learned exactly who Georgie’s grandfather was!
‘If you’re really sure about waiting, we still have plenty of time for all that,’ she soothed.
Andrew looked at her searchingly. ‘All this discussion about divorce hasn’t put you off, has it?’ he asked.
In all honesty, it wasn’t talk of divorce that had suddenly made her feel less than certain about her wedding to Andrew; it was this other side of her fiancé that she had never seen before.
Nevertheless, her mouth firmed as she recalled exactly whose divorce had been discussed this evening. ‘Not in the least,’ she answered. ‘You are absolutely nothing like Jed Lord,’ she added with certainty. That was one thing she was sure of; she wouldn’t be attracted to Andrew if he were anything like Jed Lord! ‘I can all too easily imagine why his wife wanted to get away from him!’
Andrew looked concerned. ‘You really didn’t like him, did you?’
‘No,’ she confirmed with an inward shudder. Jed wasn’t a man who was easy to like; you either loved him or hated him. And Georgie knew which emotion she felt towards him!
‘Oh, well, with any luck you may not have to meet him again,’ Andrew said. ‘I don’t think my father will keep him waiting too much longer for an answer on that land.’
Georgie looked at him searchingly. ‘Is everything all right? With your father, I mean?’ If it wasn’t, maybe that would explain the difference she had sensed in Andrew’s manner earlier?
Of course,’ Andrew dismissed. ‘Now, it’s time we both went to bed, young lady; I for one am absolutely bushed.’ His words were followed by an involuntary yawn. ‘See.’
Georgie shook off her earlier mood of uncertainty as she smiled at him; it was probably seeing Jed again that had given her these misgivings! ‘I’ll see you in the morning, then.’
Andrew nodded. ‘But let’s not make it too early, hmm?’ he ventured, sounding tired.
‘As late as you like,’ Georgie assured him.
With any luck Jed would already have left the next morning by the time she put in an appearance.
She could always hope!
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