That’s what he would want.”
“Only that,” Frank agreed. “He was the bravest man I ever knew. He saved my life. Did you know that, Dru?”
“No, I didn’t,” she replied. “He never told me that, Frank.”
“He wouldn’t, he was very modest in his own way—”
“Uncle Frankie!” Helena cried as she appeared in the doorway with Vanessa and rushed forward into his arms.
Frank held her tightly. She was part of Bill, and she looked so much like him, he thought.
His throat tightened and for a moment he couldn’t speak, so choked up was he.
Frank looked over Helena’s head, his eyes
A Secret Affair / 237
meeting Vanessa’s, and he nodded slightly.
Then, releasing his godchild, he went to greet Vanessa, embracing her. “I’m so sorry, so very sorry,” he said.
“So am I,” she whispered. “I loved him, Frank.”
“I know. He loved you…I have something for you.” Drawing away from her, Frank reached inside his jacket, took out an envelope.
“I found this in Bill’s room at the Commodore in Beirut.” He handed her the envelope.
She stared down at it. Bill had written VAN-ESSA across the front. She bit her inner lip, pushing back the tears when she saw his hand-writing. She stared at it for a long moment, afraid to open it.
Dru, watching her carefully, said softly,
“Perhaps you’d like to be alone when you read it, Vanessa. We’ll leave you.”
“No,” Vanessa said. “It’s all right…I’ll go…outside.” She left them in the sitting room and went across the back lawn and down to the dunes, clutching the letter tightly in her hand.
There was a sheltered spot where she often read, and she sat down there for a while, staring out at the sea, thinking of Bill, her heart aching.
238 / Barbara Taylor Bradford Finally she opened the envelope and took out the letter.
Beirut
Monday, March 25th, 1996
My very dearest Vanessa:
I know I’ll be seeing you in a few days, holding you in my arms, but I have such a need to talk to you, to reach out to you tonight, I decided to write to you. Of course you’ll be reading this letter when I’m there with you in Venice, since I’ll be bringing it with me.
The next few lines blurred as her eyes filled with tears, but after a few moments she managed to recover, and went on reading.
I don’t think I’ve ever really told you how much I love you, Vanessa—with all my heart and soul and mind. You’re rarely out of my thoughts and all I want is to make you happy.
You’ve brought me back to life, given new meaning to my life. And now I want to share that life with you. You will, won’t you, darling?
A Secret Affair / 239
You will be my wife and as soon as that’s possible?
In my heart I can hear you say yes, yes, yes in that excited way you have. And I promise you I’ll love and cherish you always.
You know what, let’s make a baby in Venice.
I know how much you want a child. And I want it to be mine. I want to know that part of me is growing inside you. So let’s do it this weekend, let’s make a baby.
I’ve never told you this before, but in the last six years my life has been hellish. Three people I loved very much died on me. First Sylvie, then my father, and finally my grandmother. Their deaths broke my heart.
But over the past few months I’ve come to understand that the heart broken is the strongest heart.
Bill
Vanessa sat there for a long time, holding the letter. And then she folded it carefully, put it back in the envelope, and rising, she walked slowly across the dunes and into the cottage.
About the Author
Bestselling author BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD was born in Leeds and was a journalist in Yorkshire and Fleet Street before moving to New York, where she lives with her husband. She is published in eighty-nine countries and forty lan-guages, and ten of her books have become hugely successful television series.
www.barbarataylorbradford.com Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Praise for New York Times
bestselling author
BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD
“Her name on a novel…[promises] a good story, simply told, with satisfying outcome…[her books]
finding their way into people’s homes and hearts.”
Dayton Daily News
“She’s the envy of all of us who put pen to paper.
Don’t miss her.”
Greensboro News & Record
“A master…. A good storyteller.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“You may fall in love…cry real tears…cheer.”
Chicago Tribune
And
A Secret Affair
“Barbara Taylor Bradford can be counted on to tell a good story, and she does in A Secret Affair….
Sweet, sad, and sure to please.”
Chattanooga Times
Books by
Barbara Taylor Bradford
A Woman of Substance
Voice of the Heart
Hold the Dream
Act of Will
To Be the Best
Everything to Gain
Dangerous to Know
Love in Another Town
Her Own Rules
A Secret Affair
Power of a Woman
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A SECRET AFFAIR. Copyright © 1996 by Barbara Taylor Bradford. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader December 2008
ISBN 978-0-06-179548-0
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About the Publisher
Australia
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http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
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http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
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New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com
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