by Penny Jordan
‘Dee and Hugo...what do you mean? What was extraordinary about them?’ Alex replied, frowning. ‘I admit that the fact that they already knew one another was a coincidence...’
‘Oh, Alex! Surely you must have seen...noticed...?’ Beth demanded.
‘Seen what? They hardly spoke to one another all evening,’ Alex protested.
Beth rolled her eyes.
‘They didn’t need to speak. You could practically feel the air palpitating around them.’
‘Palpitating?’ Alex gave an amused snort of derision. ‘Hearts palpitate, Beth. Air—’
‘Yes... Yes, exactly.’ Beth pounced before he could finish. ‘And their hearts were palpitating all right. There’s something going on between those two,’ she pronounced darkly. ‘Heavens, the way they were looking at one another—I almost expected the air between them to self-ignite...’
Alex gave a theatrical sigh.
‘Look, I don’t want to dampen your hopes. I know that you, and Anna and Kelly for that matter, are so blissfully pleased with yourselves for being lucky enough to find such wonderful men, but— Ouch!’ Alex protested as Beth threw a dishcloth at him.
‘We were lucky, huh?’
‘Beth, where are you going?’ Alex asked her as she suddenly turned and walked towards the kitchen door.
‘I’m going to ring Anna...in private...’
* * *
‘You don’t think that Beth guessed, do you?’ Dee asked Hugo anxiously as she snuggled into his arms beneath the warmth of her duvet. ‘She gave me a very knowing look when she said goodnight.’
‘Well, if she has guessed it wasn’t my fault,’ Hugo responded virtuously. ‘I wasn’t the one playing footsie under the table—and very suggestively too, I might add.’
‘I’ve already told you that was an accident,’ Dee protested. ‘I’d lost my shoe...’
‘Mmm, and I nearly lost my self-control. Anyway, what does it matter if she did guess?’
‘You know we said that we wouldn’t go public until after the committee meeting. If I’d known when she originally invited me to dinner that Alex’s duty invite was you, I—’
‘You mean you said we wouldn’t go public...’
‘We don’t want the other members of the committee to think that—’
‘That what?’ Hugo teased her. ‘That I’m so desperately in love with you that you used your wicked wiles to get me to vote in your favour?’
‘Certainly not. I would never do anything like that,’ Dee protested indignantly.
‘No...? Are you sure?’ Hugo wheedled coaxingly as he slid his hand over the curve of her hip.
‘Mmm...I thought I was supposed to be the one doing the seducing,’ Dee murmured huskily.
‘Mmm. Well, perhaps I’m trying to use my wicked wiles on you.’
‘What for?’ Dee asked him softly as she opened her mouth to his kiss. ‘I’ve already given in to you...’
‘Mmm...you have, haven’t you?’ Hugo agreed. ‘And pretty soon everyone’s going to know that you have, aren’t they?’ he asked her, gently patting her stomach.
‘Hugo,’ Dee objected. ‘How did you know?’ she asked him. ‘It’s far too soon yet, and...’
‘I know for exactly the same reason that you know,’ Hugo told her. ‘What we shared was just too powerful, too strong, too intense for us not to have created a new life together.’
‘We can’t be sure...’ Dee warned him. ‘Not yet.’ But Hugo could see the hope in her eyes, and his heart melted with love for her.
‘You’ll have to marry me now,’ he told her.
‘Yes, but not until after the committee meeting,’ Dee told him teasingly.
‘Not until after the committee meeting,’ Hugo agreed.
* * *
‘And so, in conclusion, I would like to reiterate that in my view this committee has a moral obligation to the original founder of the charity to follow in his footsteps and apply charitable help to that section of the community where it is most needed. As this report in front of you proves quite conclusively, it is needed nowhere more than in the relief of the deprivation that is being suffered by the town’s young people.
‘To give them not just a sense of self-worth, nor even a future to look forward to, but positive and concrete proof of their town’s faith and belief in them would surely be a fitting tribute to the spirit of everything that your founder stood for. By helping those young people we are investing in the future. Not just their future, but the future of our own descendants as well. To deny them the opportunity to become responsible citizens would, in my view, be a grave moral indictment of us as human beings.
‘To take on a task of the magnitude of this one is a very bold and courageous step, there is no doubt about that, but I believe it is one we are capable of making. The question is, do you believe it?’
Dee gasped as Hugo sat down to a standing ovation from the whole committee.
He had completely surprised her when he had asked the committee if he might address them, not as Peter’s representative but as a private individual.
Although somewhat surprised, they had agreed. Hugo’s reputation had gone before him and Dee had seen how impressed they were by him.
Now, as he sat down, her eyes filled with proud tears. Here, in the shape of the words her husband-to-be, her lover, the father of her child, their child, their children, had just uttered, she had heard the vindication of everything that her father had hoped and worked for.
Hugo had put her case so well, turning it on its head so that instead of pleading with the committee to have compassion for the young of the town he had actually made them feel that they were already the compassionate, wise, comprehending people they must prove themselves to be.
As she looked around her she could almost sense her father’s presence and his approval, his love. Ignoring the amazed looks of the other members of the committee, she went over to Hugo and kissed him.
‘I love you,’ she told him huskily. ‘I love you so much.’
There was no doubt about the way the committee would vote; she could see it in their faces. Rye’s young people would have their new centre and meeting place. They would learn proper trades, they would thrive and grow, and the town would thrive with them.
Tonight she was hosting a very special dinner party. Those who had been invited thought it was being given to celebrate her birthday, and that was what she wanted them to believe—Kelly and Brough, Anna and Ward, Beth and Alex.
She looked down at the diamond ring glittering on her left hand. Hugo had given it to her this morning...in bed.
Like the ring on her finger, her life had come full circle, bringing her back to the place she most wanted to be, the person she most wanted to be with. And tonight, at dinner, she would introduce Hugo to her friends as her husband-to-be, her lover. The shadows Julian Cox had thrown over her life had gone for ever. Hugo had banished them with the warmth of his love.
‘Stop looking at me like that,’ he warned her in a whisper against her ear as he bent his head towards her. ‘Otherwise...’
The votes had been cast and the result was a resounding yes.
Dee was still looking at Hugo and whispered softly, ‘Most definitely, yes.’
EPILOGUE
THE BELLS GAVE tongue, a burst of joyous, almost triumphant sound, as Dee and Hugo emerged from the church into the sunshine outside.
‘Why is it that women cry at weddings?’ Brough demanded as he, Ward and Alex exchanged very male looks with one another while their respective partners, to a woman, viewed the bride and groom through a happy film of tears.
‘It’s because we’re so happy, of course,’ Kelly answered him truthfully.
‘So very, very happy,’ Anna concurred softly as the three women looked tenderl
y at one another.
This morning, before the service, as the three of them had bustled about Dee’s bedroom helping her to get ready, Dee had suddenly commanded them all to stop, and opened the bottle of champagne in an ice-bucket next to her dressing table, pouring four glasses.
‘To love and happiness,’ she had proposed, raising her glass, and then, as the other three had joined her in her toast, she had added with a wicked, very Dee-like smile, ‘And to the man who is in many ways the author of the happiness we have all found in this last year or so.’ Whilst the others had hesitated, her smile had deepened, and she’d enlightened them. ‘Julian Cox. Without him none of us would have met our wonderful, perfect partners.’
‘You want to toast Julian Cox?’ Anna had marvelled softly. ‘Oh, Dee...’
‘Why not?’ Dee challenged her gently. ‘There isn’t room in my life any more for negative, destructive feelings, Anna... I don’t need them...’
‘Dee’s right,’ Kelly had confirmed. ‘Julian might have cast a horribly grey and threatening cloud over all our lives in one way or another, but it quite definitely turned out to be a cloud with a silver lining.’
‘Well, then, perhaps we should make our toast to hidden silver linings,’ Beth had suggested.
Between them they had finished the bottle of champagne, but, watching Dee now, Anna knew that it wasn’t the champagne that was responsible for the glow of happiness on her face, that open look of love with which she was regarding Hugo. The bells were still pealing, the rose petals making a silver and pink moving cloud around the bridal couple, and Dee looked radiant in her wedding gown of antique cream lace. Anna, Beth and Kelly, her three supporters-cum-attendants, were dressed in similarly elegantly styled gowns of toning cream raw silk, trimmed with the most beautiful matt dull gold cummerbunds fastened with huge soft bows at the back. The little bridesmaids, in contrast, were in the same colour combination, but their dresses were pure fairy tale—masses of cream silk voile over matt gold underskirts.
The photographers coaxed everyone together for a final photograph outside the church. That over, Dee turned to whisper something to her new husband. After giving her a tender kiss, Hugo detached himself from her and came over to where the other six were standing.
‘Can you start getting everyone organised to leave for the wedding breakfast?’ he asked Anna. ‘Dee and I have something we want to do before we leave, so if you could cover for us for a few minutes...?’
‘No problem,’ Anna assured him, and she and the others started to discreetly get the guests moving.
* * *
‘Do you think he knows?’ Dee asked Hugo quietly as she leaned her head against his shoulder and looked down at her father’s grave. She had just placed her bridal flowers on it, and as Hugo’s arm tightened around her a happy tear splashed down onto the cream blooms.
‘I don’t know,’ Hugo told her softly. ‘But what I do know is how much, how very much, I love you, Dee...’ He could feel her trembling as he kissed her. ‘Come on,’ he told her firmly. ‘You and I have got a wedding breakfast to attend.’
‘You and I?’ Dee questioned, smiling at him. ‘Don’t you meant the three of us...?’ As she turned towards him in profile it was possible to see what the elegant shaping of her gown had kept modestly concealed: the ripening shape of her body.
‘The three of us,’ Hugo echoed huskily, whilst outside the church the final flurry of rose petals sank gently onto the earth.
* * * * *
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ISBN: 9781460303894
A LITTLE SEDUCTION
Copyright © 2013 by Harlequin Books S.A.
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holder of the individual works as follows:
A TREACHEROUS SEDUCTION
Copyright © 1999 by Penny Jordan
THE MARRIAGE RESOLUTION
Copyright © 1999 by Penny Jordan
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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