A Good Woman by Danielle Steel Read Free Book Online

severe black dress. She looked almost like a young nun. It was a sober look, but she was wreathed in smiles when she saw Josiah, and the only thing somber about her was her dress. She seemed to be in a great mood.
    “I had a terrific day,” she announced, then noticed the champagne they were drinking. She always observed everything, and never missed a detail. “Why are you two drinking champagne? What are you celebrating?”
    “Josiah just came to tell me he got a promotion at the bank,” her mother replied smoothly. “They’ve given him all sorts of new accounts to handle. And I thought we should congratulate him. Would you like a glass too?” Annabelle nodded. She loved champagne, and went to get a glass herself, and then duly congratulated Josiah on his promotion, although she never found banking very exciting. It had bored her when her father and Robert talked about it too. She was far more interested in science.
    “What did you do at the hospital today?” he asked her gently. He suddenly felt as though she were already his wife, and he was feeling extremely tender emotions toward her, which he couldn’t allow to show.
    “Lots of interesting things,” she said, smiling openly at him, and then taking a sip of the champagne. She had no idea she was toasting her own future engagement, and knowing that made both him and Consuelo smile too. They had become co-conspirators that afternoon. “They let me watch while they sewed up a nasty wound.”
    “If you tell me about it, I’ll be sick,” her mother warned, and Annabelle laughed, as they shifted the subject to something else. “You’ll have to stop doing that someday,” Consuelo said cryptically. “One day you’ll be grown up and married, and you can’t hang around hospitals, watching them sew up wounds.”
    “You do,” Annabelle reminded her with a smile.
    “I do not. I carry trays to patients in a far more civilized hospital, and I didn’t have time to do that when you were small. You can go back to it when you’re older.”
    “I don’t see why I’d have to stop if I married,” Annabelle complained. “Lots of women have children and still work at the hospital. Besides, I might never marry. Who knows?”
    “I don’t want to hear that!” her mother said, frowning, and then turned to Josiah. She could hardly wait for them to be married, and start having babies. It would be a whole new chapter in their lives, and she knew that Annabelle would be a wonderful mother. She was so patient and loving, and she thought she would make an excellent wife for Josiah.
    They talked about Hortie’s wedding then, which was only weeks away. She was so busy that Annabelle hardly saw her now. And Josiah said he was going to the wedding. Annabelle quietly said she couldn’t, and then was surprised by her mother.
    “I don’t see why you can’t go to the church service,” Consuelo said benevolently. “There’s nothing that says we can’t go to church. In fact, we should probably go more often. You can come home after that, and avoid the reception. But at least you could see Hortie get married. After all, she is your oldest and dearest friend.” And would probably be Annabelle’s matron of honor, Consuelo knew, when she married Josiah.
    “I’d be happy to take both of you,” Josiah was quick to offer, as he turned to his future bride, who had no idea what he was thinking. It would be his first opportunity to escort her in public, and he was excited by the prospect.
    “I don’t think I should go,” Consuelo said quietly. She wasn’t ready to be out in public yet. “But it would be lovely if you escort Annabelle to the service.”
    “Would you like that?” he asked Annabelle directly. She smiled broadly as she nodded.
    “I’d love it.” All her friends would be there. Hortie had wanted her as maid of honor, and now she couldn’t do it. This way, at least, she could be at the wedding. And it would be fun to go with Josiah, a little like going