'Jason, I'm sorry.'
'What for?'
'For not trusting you. For being too impatient to wait for our relationship to come to maturity. I've been as much to blame,' she said slowly. 'I didn't have enough trust. But oh!' her arms tightened convulsively round him, 'I went through agonies of suspicion and jealousy…' The memory of Rena Harvey, of Rome, a magazine in a dentist's waiting-room, flashed in rapid succession through her mind, but she bade them be silent. The barrier had gone down between herself and Jason; they could talk now, together, not at each other, and trust had flowered in its place. She murmured against his cheek: 'Love me and forgive me—because I love you so much, my darling.'
'Just go on loving me,' he whispered, and claimed her mouth with sudden fierceness of passion that took her breath away.
In the middle of the kiss a discreet tap came at the door.
Jason released her with a muttered: 'Damn!' and called, 'Come in.'
Lady Hubard put her head round the door. 'Doesn't anyone want any food? It's nearly four and we haven't yet had lunch!' She smiled. 'There's a buffet table in the dining-room, and three reporters in the lounge, Jason. Also, Miss Mayo just rang up to ask if you were here, if you were all right, and if she had to remain at the office.'
'Oh, lord!' Jason clapped a hand to his head. 'Poor May! I'd forgotten I'd told her to wait for me at the office and I'd call there on the way home from the airport.'
'And Charles is entertaining the B.B.C. in the library,' Lady Hubard added sweetly. 'Shall I say you'll be down in five minutes?'
'Can't we go out the back way?' he groaned.
'Afraid not,' she chuckled. 'Today you are notorious, my dear.' With a sympathetic smile for Miranda she withdrew and closed the door softly.
Jason closed his eyes despairingly. 'There'll be no escape for us today, I'm afraid. But I wonder… shall we slip away to somewhere quiet tonight?'
She went back into his arms and framed his face with her hands. 'If you want to. I'm too happy to care where we are.'
It was true. All the assurance she had ever longed for was here now, in his arms drawing her close, in the love unhidden in his eyes, in the sweet joy of his mouth… This was the end of the dream and the beginning of reality. This was her marriage.
Miranda's Marriage Page 23
