Betrothed by Wanda Wiltshire Read Free Book Online

came to the part about my birth parents leaving a jewellery box for me, I took it from my bag and placed it in the middle of the table.
    Mum, who’d been making her way through a pile of ironing and doing a bad job of pretending not to be too interested, set the iron down and looked up. ‘A jewellery box?’ she asked as Dad got up to get my dinner.
    ‘Uh-huh.’
    Dad returned with my meal and placed it before me before reclaiming his seat and pulling the box to him. He examined it from every angle, brushed his fingers over the stones embedded in the lid and spent a long moment looking at the painted image in the middle. ‘It’s beautiful,’ he said finally. ‘You’d think these stones were gems if they weren’t so big . . . I wonder what kind of wood it’s made from.’
    Mum left her ironing to come look. ‘It’s lovely,’ she said, touching one of the stones. ‘Is there anything inside?’
    I took the key from my pocket, unlocked the box and handed the letter to my mother. Dad leaned in close and together my parents read the letter in silence.
    ‘This is very strange,’ Mum said quietly when she was finished.
    ‘I know. And do you remember the other night I asked if the name Marla meant anything to you?’ My parents nodded. ‘Well, that’s my name—my original name. I dreamt it and I found out today it’s true.’ I shook my head at the impossibility of it, barely believing myself.
    I took the bangle off and handed it to my mother, pointing out the engraving. She looked at it for a long time then passed it to my father. ‘We’ve been celebrating your birthday on the wrong day,’ she whispered. Until now, my birthday had always been on the fifteenth of February.
    She sounded so distressed, so unlike my mother. I hurried to reassure her. ‘It doesn’t matter, Mum. I was abandoned. How could anyone know my birth date for sure? Look at the locket, there’s photos inside.’
    My father opened the locket and my parents peered inside.
    ‘You were so brand new,’ my mother said, touching the image. ‘I wouldn’t even know it was you . . . and your parents are so beautiful and young.’ My mother’s face grew pale. ‘They would be young even now.’
    ‘What difference does that make?’ I said. She and Dad had both been in their forties by the time they adopted me and being an older mother had always bothered Mum.
    ‘There must have been a good reason they gave you up,’ Dad said. ‘Judging by that letter, you obviously meant the world to them.’ I knew it to be true and felt warm at the thought of it. ‘You look like her. This could almost be a photo of you.’
    I nodded in agreement. ‘Just take away my eczema.’
    ‘I can see the father too,’ Mum said quietly.
    ‘Do you have an address for them?’ Dad asked.
    ‘I have no idea how to find them.’ I shook my head slowly,feeling the utter hopelessness of it. Knowing I couldn’t reach them made me want them all the more.
    ‘If you’re meant to know them, you will know them,’ Dad said simply. But there was nothing simple about the expression on his face—or Mum’s. My parents felt threatened.
    I said, ‘Whatever, it doesn’t matter anyway.’
    But it did matter. It mattered a lot.

    I went to bed early. I knew Leif would be in my dreams tonight and I couldn’t wait to see him. Take me to heaven, I thought, smiling to myself and calling his name in my mind as I closed my eyes, and in a few short minutes I was standing in the forest. He was sprawled by the river in a patch of sunlight, hands tucked behind his head and one foot resting on his bent knee. He was wearing his usual outfit, hip-hugging jeans and nothing else, and was as mouth-watering as ever. His lips curved into a wide smile as he watched me appear.
    ‘Marla, you look delightful,’ he said, one eyebrow shooting up. I barely noticed he was speaking that other language; it felt as familiar to me as my own. He stayed where he was for a moment, looking up at me