His Diamond Bride Read Free Page A

out your hands,’ he ordered.
    Smiling, she did so, until she felt the soft touch of fur in her palm, and opened her eyes to find a small teddy bear. She gave an excited squeal and rubbed him against her cheek. ‘Now, that’s a real present,’ she said. ‘ Much better than diamonds.’
    There seemed little in the toy to explain her delight. Six inches tall, with beady eyes and nylon fur, he was like athousand other cheap trinkets, but Dee was overwhelmed with joy.
    â€˜Do you remember the first one I gave you?’ Mark asked fondly.
    For answer, she reached under her pillow and produced another toy bear. Once, long ago, he might have been like the new one, but now all his fur had worn away, he was shabby and mended at the seams.
    â€˜He’s still here,’ Dee said, holding him up. ‘I never let him get far away.’
    â€˜You talk as though he was alive and trying to escape.’
    â€˜He is alive, and he knows he can never escape me,’ she said, looking at her husband with meaning. ‘That night you said you’d given him to me so that I didn’t forget you. I loved you so much that nothing in the world could have made me forget you, but you didn’t know that.’
    â€˜I took too long to understand,’ he agreed. ‘So many things I didn’t see until it was nearly too late.’
    â€˜But I always had my Mad Bruin,’ she said, indicating the threadbare toy.
    â€˜Mad Bruin,’ he said, taking the bear from her and holding him up to consider him. ‘I remember when you called me that. You were so angry. You were an impressive woman when you got really mad. Still are.’
    â€˜You scared me, doing something so stupid,’ she recalled. ‘You were the real Mad Bruin. Mad as a hatter, always doing something no sensible man would have done.’
    â€˜And we both got told off,’ he remembered, addressing the toy.
    She held both of the tiny bears together. ‘He’ll enjoy having a companion. I’m glad you gave me this. It was a lovely thing to think of. I thought you’d forgotten all about Bruin.’
    â€˜No, I didn’t forget, but I noticed that you keep him hidden away.’
    â€˜Nobody else would understand.’
    â€˜Nobody but us,’ he agreed.
    She slipped both toys under her pillow. Mark turned out the lamp and they settled down together in the darkness. She felt his arms go around her, while her head found its natural place on his shoulder.
    â€˜Bliss,’ he mused. ‘This is what I’ve been waiting for all evening. Everyone is kind to us, but they don’t understand. They just never know.’
    â€˜No,’ she murmured. ‘Only we know, but only we need to know.’
    â€˜Goodnight, my darling.’
    â€˜Goodnight.’
    After a moment she heard the change in his breathing that meant he was asleep. But she wasn’t ready to sleep. The evening had revived sixty years of memories and now they seemed to be there, dancing in the darkness.
    The old man beside her disappeared, leaving only the dazzling young hero of long ago. How stunned she’d been by her first experience of love, blissful if he smiled at her, despairing because she knew he could never he hers.
    Slowly she raised herself on one elbow to look down on him in gentle adoration. He awoke at once.
    â€˜What is it?’ he asked quickly. ‘Is something wrong?’
    â€˜Nothing,’ she reassured him, settling back into his arms. ‘Go to sleep.’
    Content, he closed his eyes again. But she did not sleep. She lay looking into the distance, remembering

CHAPTER TWO
    December 1938
    â€˜A NY sign of them yet?’ Helen Parsons’ voice sang out from the kitchen.
    Dee, her seventeen-year-old daughter, paused from studying a box of Christmas decorations and went to the window. The narrow London street outside seemed empty, but the darkness made it hard to see far so she slipped