An Innocent's Surrender by Penny Jordan

Author:Penny Jordan [Jordan, Penny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488031984
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1987-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

TWO DAYS before the ball they had snow. Christy was in a fever of panic when she woke up and saw the ominous colour of the sky, and the white blanket already lying inches deep outside.

‘Don’t worry,’ her mother consoled her when she confided to her her dread that the ball would be poorly attended because of the weather. ‘Folks around here are tough. They won’t let a little thing like a snowfall put them off.’

Although she was normally a good patient, over the last few days her mother had been extremely restless. The locum who had called to see her in Dominic’s stead had pronounced that this was a good sign which showed that she was recovering well, but he had still counselled plenty of rest and no excitement.

‘It’s not fair,’ she grumbled lightly now. ‘I’m missing out on all the fun.’

The ‘fun’ to her mother meant the organisation, Christy recognised, suppressing a small smile, inwardly sympathising with her parent even while outwardly she remained obdurate about allowing her to do anything.

Already a brainwave of her mother’s earlier in the week had resulted in Christy haring off to Newcastle with her father to buy as many heart-shaped tins and moulds as she could get her hands on. Members of the WI had been exhorted to search through their cupboards for these receptacles, so that a variety of heart-shaped desserts could be provided in tune with the theme of the evening.

Lady Anthony had very generously made the enormous kitchens at the Manor available to those members of the local community who were responsible for preparing the buffet, and Christy knew that her mother positively ached to be down there among them.

The colour scheme for the evening was pink and silver against a background of white. An inspired and totally unexpected, not to say generous, gift of a hundred metallic silver heart-shaped balloons had arrived by post from Meryl earlier in the week—she had spotted them in one of the Knightsbridge gift shops, she had informed Christy over the telephone, and had promptly bought their entire stock.

Meryl sounded so happy and bubbling over with self-confidence that Christy felt it was safe to ask her how things were.

‘Fantastic,’ she had told her promptly. ‘The news that he’s to be a father once more has stunned David. He’s thrilled, of course, but he insists on treating me like fragile crystal.’

‘And you’re complaining?’

‘Not really. Which reminds me, when junior does arrive, I shall require you to be godmama.’

Luckily the snow stopped falling just before lunch.

‘I’m supposed to be meeting the florist at the Manor this afternoon,’ Christy told her mother as they shared the soup she had made. ‘I don’t know whether to cancel it.’

‘Just as long as you aren’t contemplating driving yourself there you should be all right. Why don’t you give the florist’s a ring, and if they’re still keen to go, order a taxi.’

Christy took her mother’s advice. The woman who owned and ran the local flower shop confirmed that

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.