And the Bride Wore Red by Lucy Gordon Read Free Book Online Page B

Melisande’s latest lover.
    â€˜You mean, Freddy?’ Olivia had queried.
    â€˜No. Freddy’s finished since she caught him sleeping with a pole dancer. It’s your father.’
    â€˜Mum and Dad? What are they playing at?’
    â€˜I gather he went to see her, seeking solace from a broken heart.’
    â€˜I thought you said he’d made some girl pregnant.’
    â€˜He thought he had, but apparently it’s not his, so he went to cry on your mother’s shoulder because, and I quote, “she’s the only one who understands”.’
    â€˜Give me patience!’
    â€˜That’s what I said. Anyway, it seems that they looked at each other across the barrier of years, heart spoke to heart as though time and distance had never been…’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜I told her to get out before she made me ill. It’s just her putting herself centre-stage again, as always.’
    Olivia had had to agree. She’d seen, and suffered from, enough of her parents’ selfish grandstanding to dismiss this great romance as just another show in the spotlight.
    You could say much the same of all great romances, she thought. Her father would let her mother down again, because that was what men did. It was what Andy had done. And who cared if Lang called her or not?
    Several days had passed since their last meeting. After talking so significantly he had fallen silent, and with every passing hour Olivia had condemned herself more angrily as a fool.
    It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been warned, she told herself crossly. When Andy had appeared in her life, she’d abandoned the caution so carefully built up over a lifetime because she’d convinced herself that this man was different.
    But no man was different, as she’d learned in anguish and bitterness. She’d vowed ‘never again’, but then she’d been tricked into ignoring those resolutions because Lang had charmed her.
    No, it was more than charm, she admitted. It was the sense of quiet understanding, the feeling that his mind and heart were open to hers, and that she would find in him generosity and understanding.
    Heart spoke to heart as though time and distance had never been.
    Her mother’s melodramatic words shrieked a warning in her head. She and Lang had met only a couple of times, and came from different worlds, yet time and distance did not exist, hadn’t existed between them from the first moment.
    Which meant that she would fight him all the harder. If she made the foolish mistake of falling in love with Lang, the misery would be far greater than before.
    It was useful that he’d shown his true colours in time to prevent a disaster. She repeated that to herself several times.
    But no way would she stay here, pining. If she didn’t return to England, she’d go somewhere else. She got a brochure advertising cruises along the great Yangtze River and booked herself a cabin. She would board the boat at Chongqing, leave it at Yichang and travel on to Shanghai. After that, who could tell where she would travel? And what did it matter? What did anything matter as long as she had no time to think?

CHAPTER FOUR
    O N THE last day of term Olivia counted the minutes until it was time to go. Just a little longer and she need never think of Lang again. Concentrate on the Yangtze. Think of Shanghai.
    The last pupil had gone home. She was gathering up her things when a buzz made her look at her mobile phone, where there was a text: I’m outside .
    For a brief moment her heart leapt, then indignation took over. Cheek! Like he only had to announce his presence and she must jump.
    She texted back: I’m busy .
    The reply came at once: I’ll wait .
    Mrs Wu looked in to say goodbye and they left the building together.
    â€˜Have a good holiday,’ she said. ‘And please dispose of that young man hanging around the gate. Loiterers are bad for the school’s