Her Dr. Wright
Page 18
Sarah had brought the conversation back to where it had begun. Rowena felt David shift as if in discomfort, and understood his hesitancy. As far as she was concerned, it was enough to know that he loved her as deeply as she loved him. Marriage could wait.
‘We’ll do it one day,’ she told Sarah. ‘But quietly. Just the two of us and whatever officials the law deems necessary.’
‘I’d marry her tomorrow if she’d agree to it,’ David said, ‘but we’d both be uncomfortable. There’s so much to be sorted out, and Sue-Ellen was my wife, whatever else she was. I guess it’s an element of respect I’m talking about.’
‘Good grief, David,’ Ted exploded. ‘You must be the only man in the world who’d even think of showing respect for a murderer.’
Rowena felt David flinch and she nestled closer to him, taking his hand and clasping it in hers.
‘We don’t need marriage vows to prove anything either to others or ourselves,’ she said firmly. ‘We’ve already pledged our love to each other, and for now that’s enough. And David’s right. Whatever else Sue-Ellen was, she was a fellow human being—a woman he once loved very deeply. For that reason alone, he needs time to mourn her—to mourn the original Sue-Ellen, not the sick woman she became.’
David’s fingers tightened on hers but it wasn’t until he was driving her home that he spoke.
‘You are without doubt the most remarkable female ever put on earth,’ he said, as casually as if commenting on the weather.
Rowena hid her twinge of delight and denied the compliment.
‘No! You are!’ he repeated. ‘You not only stood by me right through this nightmare, even when I was hateful and hurtful to you, but you’re now putting into words things I can barely sort out in my head, let alone explain.’
‘I know how you feel, that’s why,’ she said, leaning over so she could rest her head on his shoulder. ‘When I first realised I was thinking of you as a man—feeling an attraction towards you—I was almost overcome with guilt. I felt as bad as if Peter had still been alive and I was betraying him by considering you that way.’
David nodded and she knew he understood. It was one of the wonderful things about David—he understood so much. He’d understood she’d had to tell Peter and Adrian about him, and had walked with her to the lookout on the cliff-top, where she’d always felt closest to them, and had waited by the gate while she’d communed with their spirits.
He understood that though they might spend part of every night together, delighting in the joyous journey of discovery that was physical love, the conservative islanders preferred that they each woke up in their own beds, so one or other of them was usually commuting home in the early hours of the morning.
And would be until they were finally married.
‘It’s rather nice,’ David said, as he stopped the car outside her gate and turned to take her in his arms. ‘This courtship thing! I know I long for the day when I’ll wake with your warm body curled against me, but at the same time the meeting and parting does heighten the senses, and add spice to our love-life. Perhaps, after all, we have something for which we can thank Sue-Ellen.’
Rowena tasted the kiss he pressed on her lips, and felt the flutters of excitement it generated shimmy through her body. And, as ever when David kissed her, she had a sense of coming home. Of finding safe harbour after a long and dangerous voyage.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-5692-0
HER DR. WRIGHT
First North American Publication 2002
Copyright © 2002 by Meredith Webber
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Visit us at www.eHarlequin.com