Substitute Bride by Margaret Pargeter Read Free Book Online Page B

think of other people!'
    'You don't exactly inspire anyone to worry over you, Rick,' she couldn't resist pointing out. 'You always seem capable of handling everything.'
    'Are you being sarcastic?' he gazed at her, his eyes like steel. 'I can handle most things, but not something I know nothing about. Then I have to rely on instinct, which is what brought me back ten days before I was due.'
    'If only I'd been able to speak to Rex!' Emma felt with anguished certainty that she should have made a greater effort.
    'Would he have listened?' Rick Conway ran a contemptuous eye over her unprepossessing figure. 'It's quite clear to me now he was only using you for one thing, and I doubt if he derived much pleasure even from that.'
    As Emma gasped in rage and horror, he continued, his anger apparently no less than her own, 'You could have come off worse. He could have persuaded you to go to Paris with him instead of Blanche. But before you begin congratulating yourself, don't think you're going to get away with it. You have a lot to answer for, bringing a man like that to the house, conspiring to fool me!'
    'I—' Emma began, then paused. What was the use of trying to convince him she wasn't guilty? He would never believe her, and in another few minutes he could be gone.
    Yet suddenly, for all she hated him intensely for what he had just done to her, she knew an urgent desire to prove she was innocent, at least of most of the things he was accusing her of. After al, neither Blanche or Rex could have anything more to lose. She had to make sure, though.
    'Couldn't you possibly forgive Blanche?' she whispered.
    'Don't you still love her? Surely no one can stop loving, just like that?'
    'Love?' he sneered mockingly, but when Emma waited to hear more, he changed the subject. 'I'm not good at forgiving people, least of all girls who go off with other men. I certainly don't intend forgiving Blanche, nor do I intend letting her go scot-free. Like you, she'll pay for her sins.'
    'I hope you're not contemplating anything foolish,' Emma gulped miserably. 'It's so easy to do something we regret afterwards.'
    'You'll be with me all the way,' he promised, his eyes glinting coldly, 'so you'll see whether I have any regrets or not.'
    What was he talking about? Not caring for the almost sinister ring in his voice, Emma wasn't sure she realy wanted to know. She was tired and wished he would go quickly and leave her in peace. There'd be more recriminations when Blanche came home and she didn't know how much more she could take. As she gazed in weary perplexity at Rick Conway all her former desire to vindicate herself in his eyes left her. If she had any desire now it was simply to see the last of him.
    'I'm afraid,' she said numbly, 'I don't quite folow you, but I think it would be better if you went. I don't feel so good myself. In some ways I think I've suffered almost as great a shock as you have.'
    'We have to talk,' he stared back at her coldly, without even the smalest flicker of sympathy in his eyes.
    'All the talk in the world isn't going to make any difference,' she rejoined stubbornly. 'Before you say any more I feel you should see Blanche. There could be a very simple explanation.'
    'Sex and a good time, with someone else's property,' he replied scathingly. 'On second thoughts, sex probably doesn't realy come into it. She was always a cold little b…'
    'Don't dare say it!' Her cheeks burning, Emma cut in. 'I don't have to listen to that kind of talk. I refuse to speak to you again!'
    'You're going to do more than that,' his mouth twisting savagely, he delivered a bombshel, 'you're going to marry me.'
    'Just like that?' she gasped, unable to believe he wasn't joking.
    'Yes, just like that,' he assured her, a hard glint in his eyes.
    'I've always made decisions quickly and my intuition rarely lets me down. I could say never, but not after Blanche.
    Blanche, I'll admit, didn't work out, but you wil, if I have to drag you to the altar. We'll be