The Angel Tree by Lucinda Riley Read Free Book Online

sorry about this, Taffy. I’ll be fine now, really.’
    He looked at her, unconvinced. ‘Have you eaten? You could pour out your sorrows over a nice plate of pie and mash. I find it always helps with affairs of the heart. Which I presume is
where your problem lies.’
    ‘Try a little further down,’ mumbled Greta, then regretted it immediately.
    He did his best not to let his true emotions register on his face. ‘I see. And that Yank’s upped and left you, has he?’
    ‘Yes, but—’ She looked at him in astonishment. ‘How did you know about him?’
    ‘Greta, you work in a theatre. Everyone from the doorkeeper to the manager knows everyone else’s business. A nun on a vow of silence couldn’t keep a secret in this
place.’
    ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about him. I should have, but—’
    ‘What’s past is past. Now, I’m going to wait outside while you change and then I’m going to take you for some supper.’
    ‘But, Taffy, I—’
    ‘Yes?’
    Greta offered him a weak smile. ‘Thank you for being so kind.’
    ‘That’s what friends are for, isn’t it?’
    He took her to their usual café across the road from the theatre. Greta found she was starving and devoured her pie and mash as she recounted her plight to him.
    ‘So, I got the address from Doris and I went to see him this morning. But, Taffy, you have no idea what it was like there. This Mr Fix-it . . . he had dirty fingernails. I can’t . .
. I can’t—’
    ‘I understand,’ he soothed. ‘And your American doesn’t know you’re pregnant?’
    ‘No. He shipped out the morning after he went to the Windmill and saw me starkers. I don’t have an address for him in America and, even if I did, after seeing me on stage he’s
hardly likely to take me back, is he? He comes from a very traditional family.’
    ‘Do you know whereabouts he lives in the States?’
    ‘Yes, in a town called Charleston. It’s somewhere in the South, apparently. Oh, Taffy, I was so excited about seeing the bright lights of New York.’
    ‘Greta, if Max lived where you say, I doubt you’d ever have seen New York. It’s hundreds of miles away from Charleston, nearly as far as London is from Italy. America’s a
vast country.’
    ‘I know, but all the Americans I’ve met seem to be so forward-thinking and not at all stuffy like us Brits. I think it would have suited me.’
    He gazed at her, his emotions a conflicting mixture of irritation and sympathy at her naivety. ‘Well, if it makes you feel better, dear girl, the town you were about to move to is slap
bang in the centre of what is known as the Bible Belt. Its inhabitants adhere so rigidly to the Scriptures that they make the morals of even our most devout English souls seem relaxed.’
    ‘Max did say he was a Baptist,’ Greta mused.
    ‘There you are, then. I know it’s no consolation, but honestly Greta, Charleston is about as far from the atmosphere of New York as my family home in the wilds of the Welsh mountains
is from London. You’d have been a fish out of water there, especially after the life you’ve lived here. Personally, I think you’ve had a lucky escape.’
    ‘Perhaps.’ Greta understood that he was trying to comfort her, but everyone knew America was the New World, the land of opportunity, whichever part of it you lived in. ‘But if
you say they have such strict morals, then why did Max . . . well, you know . . .’ Greta blushed.
    ‘Maybe he thought he could bend the rules if you were engaged to be married,’ he suggested lamely.
    ‘I thought Max loved me, really. If he hadn’t proposed, then I’d never, ever have—’
    Greta’s voice dried up in shame and embarrassment. He reached for her hand and squeezed it. ‘I know you wouldn’t,’ he said gently.
    ‘I’m not like Doris, really. Max . . . he was the first.’ Tears appeared again in Greta’s eyes. ‘Why does my life always seem to go wrong?’
    ‘Does it, Greta? Do you want to talk about