His Diamond Bride by Lucy Gordon Read Free Book Online Page B

it to me. I really try to manage on what I earn but I’m a bit short this week, so Mark’s helping me out. Don’t tell Mum, will you?’
    â€˜Of course not, but why didn’t you ask me? I’ve helped you out before.’
    â€˜I know, and I didn’t feel I could ask you again, and Mark’s been so chivalrous.’
    Somewhere in the atmosphere she was aware of Mark, torn in two directions; half of him grateful for her quick-witted rescue, the other half fighting to keep a straight face.
    Sylvia remained oblivious to the undercurrents. ‘You mustn’t borrow money from Mark,’ she said. ‘It isn’t proper. I’ll lend you what you need. Now, give him that money back.’
    â€˜Yes, Sylvia,’ she said meekly, handing the cash over but unable to meet Mark’s eyes.
    Nor could he meet hers. And somehow that made the secret all the sweeter.
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    It seems so trivial, looking back, but your masculine pride was involved, which made it important. I still laugh when I remember how horrified you were, and how we had to sneak a meeting later so that you could give me the money again. How grateful you were to me for putting Sylvia off the scent, and how happy I was!
    Christmas was wonderful, just because you were there.You gave us all presents, even Billy. He was overjoyed with that noisy toy you bought him and drove us all crazy with it, bless him! You gave Sylvia a pretty necklace, and me a purse saying it was ‘to keep my money safe’, putting your fingers over your lips. It meant the world to me that we shared a secret, even if you did spoil it a bit by saying, ‘What a sister I have!’
    That wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but she could always take you away from me. She was the one you kissed under the mistletoe, while I looked away, then looked back. Seeing you like that hurt terribly, but I couldn’t turn away again.
    And then it was New Year’s Eve, and that was when I discovered things I hadn’t suspected before, things I didn’t understand…

CHAPTER FOUR
    A S THE hands of the clock crept towards twelve on New Year’s Eve, doors were flung open and the inhabitants of Crimea Street poured out into the open, carolling their pleasure up into the night sky.
    â€˜Goodbye, ’thirty-eight. Goodbye and good riddance!’
    â€˜Hello, ’thirty-nine. This is the year I’ll get rich.’
    â€˜Listen to them,’ Joe murmured. ‘So sure it’s all going to get better, when in fact—’
    â€˜Don’t be so gloomy,’ his wife advised him. ‘There probably isn’t going to be a war.’
    â€˜They said that just before the last one,’ Joe said. ‘Some of them were still saying it the day before I was drafted into the army.’ He gazed sadly at the rapidly growing crowd, singing and dancing. ‘They never think to wonder what the next New Year will be like,’ he murmured.
    â€˜But we know what the next one will be like,’ Dee said wryly. ‘Mark and Sylvia will be married, and she’ll probably be pregnant.’
    â€˜The way they’re carrying on, it’ll happen the other way round,’ Helen observed grimly. ‘Look at them. I didn’t bring my girls up to act like that.’
    Dee smothered a grin. Between her parents’ wedding anniversary and Sylvia’s birthday was a mere three months, but all the family pretended not to notice.
    â€˜ You wouldn’t do a thing like that, would you, Mum?’ she asked demurely.
    â€˜That’s enough from you, my girl. Any more of your cheek and I’ll—’
    â€˜What, Mum?’
    â€˜And don’t you think you can snigger and get away with it. Just you be careful.’
    â€˜Leave it,’ Joe said easily. ‘They’re young, like we were once.’
    He slipped his arm around his wife’s shoulders. As she turned her head they exchanged smiles, and suddenly