AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A wedding. The celebration of two people’s love for one another.
Betrayingly Beth’s eyes filled with acidly hot tears.
‘I fell in love with you the first time I saw you,’ Alex had told her, but of course he hadn’t meant it. Of course he had lied to her.
She had known that then. She knew it now. So why was she crying?
CHAPTER NINE
BETH SAT STARING into space, nursing a mug of coffee. She had just closed the shop for the day. It was almost a week since she had received her Czech order, and five days since she had seen Alex. Five days, three hours and...she glanced at the kitchen clock...eighteen minutes.
Kelly was away now with Brough, and Beth wanted to wait until after she had returned home before she told her the bad news about the business. She still had to speak with the bank manager as well. She got up wearily.
She was tired of explaining to eager customers that there had been a mistake with the Czech order and that the glass hadn’t arrived. She had repacked the cases, but of course there was no point in trying to return them to an empty factory.
A car boot sale might be her best chance of getting rid of them—provided she was prepared to pay people to take the stuff, she decided with grimly bitter humour.
After washing her mug she went back downstairs to the shop. Some of the Christmas novelties she had ordered earlier in the year at a trade fair had arrived and had to be unpacked. Although pretty enough in their way, they could not possibly compare with what she had hoped to be displaying.
She had some good stock to sell—items she had bought prior to her visit to Prague. Ordinarily Beth had a good eye for colour, and a very definite flair for the placement of things. In the window she had a display of fluted iridescent pinky-gold fine glass candle-holders and stemmed dishes, on one of which she had piled high shimmering pastel glass sweets. It looked very effective, and she had seen several people stop for a closer look.
Admiring it as she walked past their small cubbyhole of an office, she could hear the fax clattering. She grimaced to herself as she went to see what was happening. It was probably a message from her mother. Beth was going home to spend Christmas with her family and her mother was constantly sending her shopping lists of things she wanted Beth to buy on her behalf.
Absently Beth glanced at the machine, and then tensed, quickly re-reading the message it was printing.
The Glass Factory, Prague, to Ms Betha
ny Russell.
Re your order.
We have pleasure to confirm that your order for four dozen each of our special Venetian cut-glass stemware in colours ruby, madonna, emerald and gold is now completed and will be despatched immediately, air freight, to arrive Manchester, England...
Beth ripped the paper out of the machine, her hands shaking. What was going on? She hadn’t ordered any glass. How could she? She couldn’t afford to.
She reached for the fax machine, her eyes on the number printed on the message she had just received, and then she stopped.
‘Beth...?’
She hurried out of the office as she heard Dee’s voice, the fax still in her hand.
‘Have you heard anything about your glass yet?’ Dee asked her, and then, glancing at the fax message, added, ‘Oh, yes, I can see you have...they’re sending you a fresh order. Well, I should think so too. When will it arrive? I’ll come with you to the airport to collect it, if you like.’
‘Dee, I haven’t—’
‘You’re going to need to get it unpacked and on display as soon as it arrives. I’ll come and give you a hand.
‘Oh, and by the way, you know that man who was here when I came in the other day? Why didn’t you tell me who he was...’
‘Who he was...?’ Beth repeated dully. ‘I...’
‘Mmm...I had to go over to Lexminster at the weekend—an old friend of my father’s lives there, and of course I was at university there myself. He used to be a professor at the university and still attends some of the functions. He insisted on my accompanying him to a drinks party at one of the colleges and your friend was there.’
‘Alex?’ Beth questioned her. ‘Alex was there?’
‘Mmm...he was explaining to me about his family connections with Prague, and he did say, too, that he had told them how imperative it was that you got your order just as quickly as possible.’
‘Dee, please...’ Beth began. She would have to tell Dee the truth.
