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‘Well, it’s like this...’ she began.

* * *

‘And so you see,’ Beth concluded, when she had finished explaining to Anna just what had happened, ‘there’s no way I can keep the glass, nor accept such an expensive present...’

‘Not even from the man you love?’ Anna suggested gently.

Beth flushed, shaking her head.

‘Especially not from the man I love,’ she objected. ‘I just don’t know what I’m going to do, Anna, how I’m going to explain...’

‘Well, I can’t give you any advice other than to tell you to follow your heart, to listen with your heart and your emotions.’

‘But I can’t just tell him that I love him. I can’t say that I lied...that I want him...that I...’

‘Why not?’ Anna asked her mildly. ‘You’ve told me!’

CHAPTER TEN

WHY NOT INDEED?

Beth gnawed on her bottom lip. Anna had gone and she was on her own; the shop was locked and she had made herself a meal which she had been totally unable to eat. It was now just gone seven o’clock. She had Alex’s address and his telephone number because they were written on the delivery note that came with the glass. All she had to do was pick up the phone and dial.

And then what? Tell him, I love you, Alex. I was wrong about you, about everything, and now I can tell you that I’ve loved you all the time. Now I can allow myself to admit that I love you? Would he believe her? And even if he did how would he feel about the paucity of her gesture, her love, when compared with the rich generosity of his? It wasn’t that she loved him any less than he did her; that was impossible. Her love was just as deep, just as committed...just as intense. It was just that her previous experience had made her wary of giving too much too soon, and meeting him had in one sense come too soon on top of her realisation of Julian’s perfidy.

At least Alex would never be able to accuse her of using him as...

She started to dial his number and then stopped. Perhaps tomorrow, after she had had time to think properly, to rehearse what she needed to say...or maybe... She had taken the gift-wrapped box his aunt had given her upstairs, and her attention was caught by it. She went over to it and picked it up. It was heavy. ‘You will open it with Alex...when you are together,’ she had told Beth.

Suddenly a very daring and dangerous plan occurred to her. Without giving herself time to change her mind, Beth picked up the box and grabbed her coat and her car keys.

Lexminster wasn’t that far away—a two-hour drive, maybe even less at this time of night.

* * *

Alex picked up some papers he had brought home to work on. His mother had telephoned earlier, inviting him over for dinner.

‘Your aunt will be here, but only for the one night; she’s flying on to New York tomorrow...’

Alex had been tempted, but he had already endured one very stern lecture from her on his foolhardiness and stubborn persistence in persuading her to give priority to his order for Beth. When would she receive it? he wondered. His aunt had promised, albeit reluctantly, that she would have it in time for the Christmas market.

He wasn’t quite sure how Beth would react when she did receive it. It wasn’t entirely impossible that she would send it back to him in a million broken pieces, but he suspected that it might be that she couldn’t bring herself to destroy something which he knew already she would find irresistibly beautiful.

He had made himself a meal earlier but had not really felt like eating it. God, but he ached for Beth. Somehow, and he didn’t know quite how yet, he was going to find a way to convince her that he loved her, that he was genuine and that she loved him—because Alex was convinced that she did. She might claim that all they had shared had been sex, but Alex knew her, and she simply wasn’t that kind of woman. Her emotions ran too deep and too strong for her to divorce herself from them like that. She could not have responded to him the way she had without feeling something for him. He was convinced of it.

He frowned as he heard his doorbell ring. He wasn’t really in the mood for company. He got up and walked from his living room into the hallway and opened the front door.

‘Beth!’

Beth stood nervously in the doorway, her nervousness increased by the shock she could see in Alex’s eyes and hear in his voice.

‘I...’ She took a step backwards and looked wildly over her shoulder, as though about to flee.

Immediately Alex reached for her wrist, drawing her gently but firmly inside and closing the door behind her.

Beneath his grasp her wrist-bones felt heart-wrenchingly fragile. Under her free arm she was clutching a large rectangular parcel against her body.

‘A present...for me...?’ he asked teasingly, trying to lighten her tension.

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