Hell Hath No Fury Read Free Page B

should remain indoors until the bruises on her face faded and the swellings subsided. There had been no treatment for the bruising inside her mind.
    If she tried to speak about it to her mother, her mother hushed her to silence, telling her it was best if she forgot all about what had happened. She felt too embarrassed even to try and talk to her father about such an incident. He was a formidable man, cynical, with a heart of flint. A dictator in his own home. Her mother not only waited on him hand and foot, but obeyed his every whim. He laid responsibility for what had happened on his wife, blaming her for not warning their daughter against having anything to do with boys.
    From then on he had ignored Maureen completely. It was as if by not speaking to her, and pretending she wasn’t there, he could forget the entire shameful incident.
    A hostile silence invaded their lives. Her mother looked careworn and haggard, her face deathly pale with dark smudges beneath her eyes as though she hadn’t slept for weeks.
    Maureen remembered how she had cried herself to sleep at night. She’d felt dirty, soiled. Although they had told no one, she felt that everyone she met knew about what had happened.
    Looking back, she realized her parents must have felt the same. Later that year they’d moved away from Benbury.
    Her mother had been right, though; time was a great healer. She couldn’t remember when she had finally stopped crying herself to sleep. It had probably been when she realized that no one else was aware of what had happened, or if they did know, they simply weren’t interested.
    The move had helped. Once there was no danger of meeting any of the boys who’d been involved in the debacle she’d been able to draw a veil over the experience and, in time, banish it into some deep recess of her mind.
    Attending Business School had been the start of an entirely different lifestyle. Nevertheless, she had become very reserved. No one was allowed to penetrate the protective shell she built around her feelings.
    Not until now!
    It had been a revelation when she first realized that in Philip Harmer she’d at last found a man she could respect and love. One whose mental talents paralleled her own, and whose aims and ambitions mirrored hers.
    Each passing day had brought a sense of astonishment. And tonight had seen the culmination of her most private fantasies. When he had asked her to marry him she had been too overwhelmed for words. It had been difficult not to throw herself into his arms with joy and relief.
    Her heart beat wildly as she relived his reaction to her confession. The moment she’d seen the horror on Philip’s face she’d wished she’d ignored his plea that she should tell him every detail about her life.
    She was sure the only time she’d felt so terrified had been on that harrowing night itself. A chill chased down her back as she remembered what a struggle it had been for him to come to terms with her revelations.
    Still unable to sleep, Maureen went to make herself a hot milky drink. By the time she returned to bed she was once more calm, and feeling confident about her future . . . their future together.
    She even managed to convince herself she was relieved that she had spoken out. Philip was right; it was better not to have any skeletons in the cupboard. Now, they both knew everything there was to know about each other.
    She snuggled down under the covers. It was sheer heaven to have a clear conscience at last, she thought as she drifted off to sleep.
    Fingers of light were parting the curtains when she woke. For a moment she lay there wondering why she felt so light-hearted, as if she hadn’t a care in the world.
    As the events of the previous evening came back to her she smiled contentedly, letting her thoughts linger on the new life that now lay ahead of her.
    She wondered how her parents would react when they heard she was to marry Professor Philip Harmer.