No More Lonely Nights Read Free

far, but I’ve often heard of brides suddenly feeling they’ve made a mistake. It’s a big decision; scary, too, I’d imagine, but once you had gone through with it maybe you would realise it really was what you wanted, after all.’
    ‘No, that’s just it,’ burst out the other girl. ‘It never was.’
    Sian looked sharply at her. ‘Never?’
    ‘No.’ Annette was very flushed, her tearful eyes enormous. ‘He asked me and I don’t even remember saying yes, but suddenly we were engaged and I felt like someone who had got caught up by something, a tornado, maybe, blowing me away. It all happened too fast and my father was so thrilled. Cass is… well, the man I’m marrying is rich, he can give me so much. Dad isn’t after the money, honestly, but he was pleased that I was going to be looked after. Dad isn’t very strong; his health is bad and since my mother died we’ve only had each other, there are no other relatives. Dad was afraid he would die and I’d be alone, so he sort of jumped at Cass, I’m afraid.’
    ‘But you must have liked… the man you’re engaged to,’ Sian suggested with care.
    Annette bit her lip. ‘When I met him there was someone else, but he went away. He misunderstood, he thought I preferred Cass, but I didn’t— only, when Rick, the other man, left, I was miserable, and Cass was there, and I didn’t care about anything. It didn’t seem to matter whether I married Cass or not for a long time.’
    A great light had dawned on Sian. There was someone else; a man Annette preferred, was in love with, a younger man, Sian suspected, and probably one without much money if he was so jealous of William Cassidy.
    ‘And then this morning he rang me,’ Annette whispered, her voice thick with choked tears.
    ‘He?’
    ‘Rick. This other man.’
    ‘What did he say?’
    The tears were running down Annette’s face now. ‘That he hoped I’d be happy, but Cass could never love me the way he did. He sounded so unhappy, then he rang off in the middle of saying something, and I got scared. What if he does something stupid? He wouldn’t, would he?’
    She looked beseechingly at Sian, who soothed her. ‘I’m sure he won’t.’ Shrewdly, Sian asked, ‘Does he live in London?’
    Startled, Annette nodded. ‘However did you guess that?’
    ‘It wasn’t difficult,’ Sian said, amused. ‘But you know, you can’t just leave your bridegroom standing at the altar.’ Her green eyes focused commandingly on the other girl’s face. ‘You must ring the church and explain. We’ll stop at the next telephone box we see.’
    Annette sighed heavily, but agreed. Sian smiled at her, then got out her suitcase, opened it and hunted for a clean pair of jeans and a clean shirt. Annette changed among the crowding trees; it took her quite a while, and Sian suspected she was crying too much to be deft-fingered, but she left the girl alone while she herself thought through what she should do. Heaven had dropped a once-in-a-lifetime scoop into her lap. No reporter worth her salt could possibly let it get away. If she didn’t report this story, sooner or later the rest of the press would get on to it. William Cassidy was news. For all Sian knew, the press had already got the story—had Annette been missed yet? Had her father raised the alarm?
    Annette came out of the trees, carrying her gown and veil over her arm, her white shoes clutched in one hand. She now looked very ordinary: a slim, athletic girl in jeans and a shirt. Sian wondered curiously what William Cassidy had fallen for in her. She was a nice enough girl and quite pretty, but there was nothing special about her.
    Sian grimaced to herself as she thought that although the eyes of love were always blind to faults, they saw what everyone else had missed— the uniqueness of one human being.
    As they drove on, Sian said, ‘Annette, I ought to tell you. I’m a journalist, and I was actually asked to cover your wedding.’
    ‘Oh, really? What a