Lifelong Affair Read Free Page A

he acknowledged. 'Very like you.'
    Again
they were talking in the past tense, and it was with a sense of deep pain that
she realised she would probably never see her sister again. Of a similar age,
the two of them had always been very close, had shared friends and clothes
during their teenage years, continuing to keep those same friends as the years
passed. Everyone was going to be heartbroken when they learnt the fiery-haired
Glenna was no longer with them.
    'Everyone
loved her, Sam,' she continued huskily. 'She was so much fun, so—so full
of life!' Her voice broke over the last.
    Everyone had loved Glenna—except
the Hammonds. Glenna and Mark had a private wing in the Hammond house, the
widowed Rita Hammond and her bachelor son occupying the other wing, while the
married daughter Janet lived several miles away with her husband and two
daughters. Rita Hammond and her daughter Janet had shown their disapproval of
Mark marrying an American actress from the first; the formidable Alex Hammond
had been indifferent. Mark was a charming rogue, very dark and handsome, but he
was no match for the rest of his family, resisting all Glenna's efforts to
persuade him to move to America, claiming that he had to stay in England to
work in the family firm, and also claiming it was unnecessary to have a house
of their own when the family house was so big.
    Living
with her in-laws wouldn't suit Morgan, and she knew that it hadn't suited
Glenna, although in the beginning she had been too much in love to object to
anything Mark decided. Her one stubborn bid for freedom, that of having her
baby born in the States, seemed to have caused their deaths.
    Morgan
pulled herself together with effort; she was not one to allow emotional trauma
to take her to the hysterical stage. 'You should be getting back, Sam,' she
told him in a firm voice. 'I shall be all right now, and you do have that scene
to finish.'
    'Jerry
told me to stay with you.'
    'But
I don't need "being with"! She sounded brittle, highly strung,
knowing she needed to be alone for a while to come to terms with her loss. She
deeply appreciated Sam's gentle care, but no amount of talking was going to help
her through the next few hours as she waited for Alex Hammond's call. 'Really,
Sam,' she insisted as he made to protest. 'I need time to—accept.'
    'Time
alone,' he nodded under standingly, having lost his young wife in an automobile
accident four years ago when they had only been married a year. He stood up,
tall and assuring. 'If you need me, any time day or night, just call, hmm?' He
framed her face tenderly with his large capable hands.
    She
appreciated his lack of argument, knowing she didn't have the strength to right
him if he insisted on staying. 'Thank you,' she blinked back the tears. 'Until
I get this call from Alex Hammond my hands are tied. I can't go to England
where the crash happened, and I can't go to Dad either.'
    Sam
bent and kissed her lightly on the lips. 'I'm sure he won't be long.'
    But
the evening passed, and then the night-time hours, and still Alex Hammond
hadn't called her. Morgan paced the room most of the night, the time dragging
slowly, until finally in desperation she telephoned the Hammonds' house
herself. She wasn't proud, and if they wouldn't come to her then she would go
to them.
    If
took some time to convince Symonds, the Hammond butler, that she really was
Glenna's sister and not a reporter trying to get a story. It seemed the Hammond
telephone hadn't stopped ringing since the news broke.
    'Mrs
Hammond has been sedated and is in her bedroom,' she was informed in a haughty
voice, and for a moment it took her back that the Mrs Hammond he was talking
about was Rita and not Glenna. 'Mrs Fairchild,' he spoke of Mark's married
sister, 'is at home with her own family.'
    'And
Mr Hammond?' she asked breathlessly, not giving a damn where Rita and Janet
were, not having taken to either of them at the wedding. Mother and daughter
were too much alike, both