A Wish and a Wedding by Margaret Way Read Free Book Online Page A

it this way. I don’t much mind going back to Mallarinka. But, unless you’ve forgotten, I’ve become addicted to hating you.”
    â€œNow, that’s just plain childish,” he said. “A childish passion. I think what you actually mean is you’re addicted to pretending you hate me.”
    â€œYou—are—so—bloody arrogant,” she muttered. She couldn’t handle Haddo at all. She just wasn’t equipped.
    â€œPlay it cool, now, Tori,” he advised.
    â€œI’m serious.”
    â€œSo am I.”
    â€œGod!” she moaned, hugging herself beneath his jacket and toiling away at keeping angry. “Okay—let me have it? What’s the job? If you think I’m going to clean all those blasted chandeliers or all that silver you’ve got another think coming. I wouldn’t mind working in the office an hour or so a day. But the rest of the time I want off. I mightn’t love you any more, but I do love Mallarinka.”
    â€œWell, obviously you’ll be given time off. That’s only fair. But I expect you to do a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. I will pay you.”
    â€œIf you feel you have to,” she said, bittersweet. “Gee, just think! I had all these parties and functions lined up. Instead, I’ll be doing—what? You’re being very coy.”
    â€œYou’ll be taking over the station school from Tracey Bryant,” Haddo announced.
    â€œYou’re joking!” she cried, appalled. “You’re having me on, aren’t you?”
    â€œOn the contrary. I’m dead serious.”
    â€˜So what’s wrong with Tracey?” she burst out jerkily. “I thought she loved it?”
    â€œTracey is pregnant.”
    â€œAh, lovely! ” She softened at the news. “Better luck this time.”
    â€œAnd not at this stage terribly well.”
    â€œOoh!”
    â€œWill you stop oohing and aahing?” he said crisply. “She’s okay. She’s going to stay with her sister in Warwick for a while. I had been considering hiring a replacement until Tracey is ready to come back to the job—she will be given adequate maternity leave—but out of the blue you’ve been delivered to me on a silver platter.”
    â€œIf you’re trying to make me angry, you’re succeeding.”
    â€œI’m not trying to make you angry at all.”
    â€œYou only have to look at me to make me angry,” she fumed.
    â€œI realise that.” There was a slight hardness in his tone. “Anyway, to get back to your job. I won’t say you’re perfect for it—you might be tempted to play hookey with the kids—but I think you can manage. What do you say?”
    â€œHire that replacement.”
    â€œOkay, I can do that. If you don’t like the idea of being schoolmarm to a bunch of kids, there’s always the station store. The hours aren’t as good. Nine to five as opposed to nine to three.”
    She looked towards him, a sigh rippling up from her throat. “Haddo, you know perfectly well I have no training whatsoever for teaching kids,” she said tightly.
    â€œYou completed two years of your arts degree,” he pointed out. “You were a straight A student. I think you could manage it if you brushed up a bit.”
    She groaned. “What about the little kids? The really little kids? That’s childminding.”
    â€œTake it or leave it,” he clipped out. “But believe me, you’ll be on Mallarinka to do a job of work.”
    Her emerald eyes flashed. “The fact you can dictate to me like that makes me want to hit you.”
    He laughed heartlessly.
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    Ten fraught minutes later they were driving through the massive wrought-iron gates of the Rushford mansion. Inside the six-car garage, the Rolls slid into its parking bay alongside the Mercedes Lucinda used on the occasions when she drove herself, and a