by Valerie Parv
Her hands gripped his shoulders, easing him back against the pillows. He was burning with fever. ‘It’s all right, they’re fine. Not a scratch.’
‘Thank God.’ He closed his eyes. She waited a few minutes, to see if he would open them again, but his breathing settled to a reassuring evenness.
She caressed his brow, smoothing away some of the worry lines as she crooned meaningless words under her breath. When she was sure he was asleep, she pressed her lips to his forehead. ‘I love you, Ryan. More than life itself. Get well for me, please.’
She dragged an armchair closer to the bed and sat down, linking her fingers with his. In this position, she could keep watch without disturbing him. Her thoughts spun with the things he had inadvertently revealed.
She’d already known that Clair had trapped him into marriage through her pregnancy—a fact she had been too ashamed to share with her family. So she had told him that she was an orphan. Then, it seemed, she had made the most of her position as his wife without accepting any of her obligations.
How must Ryan feel, knowing that his money had bought the fast car in which his wife had died? No matter that he wasn’t to blame. He must have paid for her sins many times over in self-recrimination. Terise knew only too well how that felt, having been made a scapegoat for Clair too often herself.
Hardest to forgive must have been Clair’s attitude towards the twins. How could any mother have used her own children so shamelessly? Especially such adorable little girls as Trudy and Lisa. They were already so deeply anchored in Terise’s heart that she couldn’t bear the thought of anyone failing to cherish them.
How could she have been such a fool as to believe Clair’s lies? The fault had all been on her side—not on Ryan’s. Bored with marriage, she had invented her tales of mistreatment to bring Terise running. To Terise’s shame, it had worked. She had come charging in like an avenging angel, looking for ways to hurt a man who had already been hurt more than anyone deserved to endure.
Thank goodness she hadn’t succeeded, she thought as tears rolled unheeded down her cheeks. She swabbed them away angrily. Self-pity was a luxury now. Her concern must be for Ryan. She couldn’t undo the harm already done, but she could avoid inflicting more pain on a man who had shouldered enough to last a lifetime.
If it meant leaving him she would do it, she told herself decisively. Never mind what it would cost her. She would count that later. For now, all she wanted was his happiness.
Unconditional love, she thought again. Giving more than you received. It was his right.
She was unaware of drifting off to sleep until she was disturbed by a nurse fussing with the intravenous lines. ‘Sorry to disturb you,’ she mouthed as she completed her work, adding a notation to the chart at the foot of Ryan’s bed.
Terise’s neck ached, and her mouth felt as if it was stuffed with cotton wool. According to her watch she’d been here for hours. ‘How is he?’ she queried softly.
The nurse checked the monitors. ‘Sleeping normally. He should be well enough to go home soon.’
Joy surged through Terise, and her eyes blurred until she blinked them clear. This was no time for tears. He was going to be all right.
With a reassuring smile the nurse left them, and Terise stretched to ease her cramped muscles. Ryan still gripped her hand, limiting her movements, but she welcomed the tightness in her joints. It was little enough sacrifice for all he’d been through.
Suddenly she sensed his eyes on her, open and aware now. His hand tightened on hers, refusing to let her withdraw. ‘How long have you been here?’
‘Most of the night.’
‘Did I hear you say the children are all right? I wasn’t dreaming?’
She lowered her head. ‘No, you weren’t dreaming. They escaped without a scratch. You got the concussion.’
He raised a hand to his head. ‘That explains the king-sized headache. The other driver was drunk, weaving all over the bridge. I was too tired, my reflexes too slow to get out of his way.’
‘The police arrested him. Don’t think about it now,’ she urged, having heard the details from the admissions staff. ‘Save your strength for your recovery.’
He really looked at her then, his eyes narrowing in the lowered light. ‘You are here. You know, I had the damnedest dream...’
She looked away. ‘It wasn’t a dream. You mistook me for Clair and told me a few home truths.’
He frowned. ‘You can’t believe everything a man with concussion tells you.’
‘Even if it’s what I want to believe?’
He made a noise of disapproval, but she ignored it.
‘It’s all making sense now. It must have been hell for you. Why didn’t you tell me when I made all those stupid accusations?’
‘It wouldn’t have changed what happened.’
She looked at him in wonder. ‘And you wanted to protect her memory for the children’s sake.’ It explained his anger when he had found her gossiping about his marriage with Maggie.
‘You and your rose-coloured glasses,’ he growled. ‘But this time you’re right. Ours was no more than a marriage of convenience. If it hadn’t been for Trudy and Lisa...’ His hand clenched in hers. ‘Clair enjoyed the status more than the reality of being a wife. I lived with it for my kids. They made everything worthwhile.’ He started to sit up, swearing as the room swam around him.
She slid an arm around his shoulders. ‘Why don’t you lie still and be glad you’re still alive?’
‘Because I can think of much better things to do.’
Before she could react he had wrapped her in his arms and pulled her down on to the bed with him.
It felt so wonderful that she was almost tempted to allow it, until she recalled her promise to herself. ‘Let me go, Ryan. This isn’t the answer.’
‘It is if you meant it when you said you love me.’
Colour rioted across her features. ‘I thought you were asleep.’
‘Did you mean it, Terise?’
There was nothing else to say. ‘Yes.’
‘And I love you. It’s all that really matters.’
It was all happening too fast. She had never dreamed that Ryan returned her love. It was almost too much to take in. ‘But you can’t. What about Cecily?’
His lips sought her neck and explored it as he said in a muffled voice, ‘I told you, she’s on her way to Germany with her fiancé—the president of the world trade assembly.’
Her heart did a somersault. ‘You left out the most important word. Fiancé,’ she said huskily. ‘That was the wedding announcement the media were expecting? But I thought you and Cecily...’
He had started on her ears now, and heat tore through her like wildfire. ‘Cecily is an old and dear friend—no more. I told her how I felt about you at Bowral, which is why she left us alone.’ He finally reached her mouth. ‘It worked, didn’t it?’
‘It almost didn’t,’ she said, freeing her lips with a curious reluctance. ‘When you found out how I’d deceived you I thought it was the end of everything.’
He sobered abruptly. ‘It could have been. I’d begun to fall in love with you after you risked your neck to save Lisa on the mountain. Seeing you injured almost killed me, so it had to be love.’
‘Then you found out the truth.’
‘It tore me apart. I thought you were like Clair, and I wasn’t about to go through that again. But everything about you was so different. When they carried me in here all I thought about was maybe never having the chance to tell you I love you.’
She had never thought to hear him say it, and the possibility that he might have died without ever saying it frightened her so badly that she began to tremble.
He understood and held her tightly, soothing her with murmured endearments as he stroked her hair and peppered her face with kisses.
Half lying on the hospital bed, she surrendered to the ecstasy of his arms around her and the passion she read in his kisses, until she was dizzy with wanting him.
Suddenly he looked up and laughed, tracing the side of her face with a teasing finger. ‘You realise half the hospital knows what you do to me by now?’
Following his gaze to the heart monitor above the bed, she saw a frantic tracing of peaks and valleys as big as the Himalayas—a visible reminder of how she stirred his blood. She hid her head against his shoulder, her face flaming.
He lifted her chin, his eyes caressing. ‘Never be ashamed of our love, my darling. I don’t care if the whole world knows it. We’ve waited long enough for our happiness.’
Waiting a little longer was the sweetest torment, she found, trying to weigh it against a lifetime of happiness ahead. There was so much to do before their wedding—even after Ryan had finished recuperating.
The ceremony was held in the grounds of Westmoreland at Bowral, on a day God had decreed should be perfect for a wedding.
Trudy and Lisa looked adorable, in identical gowns of coral silk, with garlands of flowers on their blonde heads. Each carried a basket of rose petals to strew before the bride.
Along this scented path Terise walked, in a haze of pure happiness, her crushed silk gown whispering around her legs. Admiration was reflected in the looks turned to her from Maggie, Marcus and Elaine, and Ryan’s many friends. He had flown his mother, Patricia, out from England a few days before, and she bestowed a smile of encouragement as Terise passed her. Cecily Elbrun—or Cecily Kurtz, as she was now—looked smugly satisfied on the arm of her new husband.
But Terise had eyes only for the man waiting for her in front of the celebrant. Ryan’s injury had bequeathed him a dashing scar over one eye and a slightly leaner profile. He looked so handsome that her heart almost stopped as she floated to his side.
Love shone out of her eyes, and was reflected back from his in that unique way he had of making her feel truly beautiful.
‘You may kiss the bride.’
The ceremony had passed in a poetic blur. Now Terise trembled as Ryan took her in his arms for their first public kiss as man and wife.
Behind her, Trudy tugged at Elaine’s hand. ‘Grandma, is that ’rassment?’
Elaine coughed in surprise. ‘Harassment? Of course it isn’t, not when you want to be kissed.’
‘Daddy says our new mummy has a mouth just asking to be kissed,’ Lisa chimed in helpfully.
‘Then I s‘pose they’ll be kissing a lot,’ Trudy said.
Against his new bride’s mouth, Ryan smiled indulgently. His faintly teasing voice reached her ears alone. ‘Out of the mouth of very babes...’
IMPRINT: e-book Sweet Romance Single
ISBN: 9781460872215
TITLE: SISTER OF THE BRIDE
First Australian Publication 2012
Copyright © 2012 VALERIE PARV
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