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‘Darling, let me introduce you to an old friend of mine.’ Irritatingly it was Chris who took charge of the proceedings, drawing his wife towards him.
‘Oh, not another old flame, darling....’ The fluttery voice was unexpectedly hard, and instantly Sophy revised her opinion. Chris’s wife was not the delicate little flower she looked. On the contrary, she was every bit as hard as Chris himself, she thought inwardly, taking the hand the other girl extended.
‘Heavens, aren’t you tall!’ Innocent blue eyes slid upwards over Sophy’s body. ‘You must be almost six foot.’
‘Five-ten actually.’ From somewhere Sophy managed to summon a cool smile. Six foot made her sound like a giantess—a freak almost.
‘And this,’ Chris was looking past Sophy now to Jon and the children. His mouth curled in a dazzling smile, laughter lighting his eyes as he looked at Jon. ‘You can only be Sophy’s boss!’ His glance swept derisively over Jon’s appearance, and Sophy could almost see him comparing it with his own. The immaculate white cotton jeans, the cotton knit jumper in blues and greens banded with white...the elegantly cool casualness of his appearance in comparison to Jon’s.
Chris’s rudeness did not surprise her, but the blindingly fierce stab of mingled anger and protectiveness she felt, did. She reached out instinctively to take Jon’s hand in her own, unaware of the deeply gold glitter in her eyes as she said firmly, ‘And my husband. That’s what we came to tell you... Jon and I were married this morning.’
‘Married!’ Her mother looked shocked and disbelieving, and Sophy was furious with her when she cried out, ‘Oh, Sophy...no...how could you do this to us?’ her eyes dropping immediately to her daughter’s tautly flat stomach.
Fury kicked sharply beneath her heart as Sophy realised what her mother was thinking.
‘Sophy is not pregnant, Mrs Marley.’ She was still holding Jon’s hand and the firmness with which he squeezed her fingers was intensely reassuring. She was beginning to feel as though she had strayed into a bad dream. She had known her parents would not be pleased...but that her mother should actually think she was pregnant. She was burning with embarrassment on her parents’ behalf. Neither of them had made the slightest attempt to put Jon at ease or to make him feel welcome.
‘Then why such a rush?’ her mother complained. ‘Why didn’t you say anything the last time you were here?’ She looked suspiciously from her daughter’s flushed face to the one of the man behind her. ‘I know what it is,’ she said shrilly. ‘You’ve married her so that you’ll have someone to look after those children. I told you he was making use of you.’
Sophy couldn’t endure it. She turned blindly towards Jon saying huskily, ‘I think we’d better leave,’ but the hard pressure of his hand holding hers held her back.
‘You do your daughter a severe injustice, Mrs Marley,’ he said very gently. ‘I married Sophy quite simply because I love her.’
Even her mother fell silent at that, rallying enough to add huffily, ‘Well, I still think you should have told us, Sophy. I can’t understand why you should have got married in such a hole-and-corner fashion at all...and in such a rush!’
‘Because I want to be with Jon and the children, Mother,’ she managed evenly. ‘That was why.’
‘Well you can’t expect your father and me not to be shocked. Not even to tell us about the wedding—’
‘I had the most wonderful wedding,’ Felicity cut in cattily. ‘Five hundred guests and a marquee on the lawn at home. Mummy said it was her dream come true for me.’
‘Good old Sophy! Married, eh?’ Chris was eyeing her with open mockery. ‘I never thought I’d see the day. You know, old boy, I once actually bet Sophy that she’d never find a man to marry her.’
‘Well, you see, you were wrong.’
Was she imagining the faint rasp beneath Jon’s mild tone? She must be, Sophy thought, her skin suddenly burning with furious anger as she heard Chris saying quite distinctly to his wife, ‘Not as wrong as all that.’ He turned to Jon and taunted smilingly, ‘She told you about our little bet, then, did she?’
