Second Best Wife by Isobel Chace

Author:Isobel Chace
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-05-01T23:10:17+00:00

'That could have been anyone, the other one everyone knew to be me!'

He shrugged, losing interest. 'You do have a little curl, though. You had it then, and you have it now. Mother used to refer to it as your "kiss-curl". You have pretty hair, Georgie Porgie, even if it does lead a life of its own. It never stays put like Jennie's does.'

Georgina could have told him that she didn't use hair lacquer as her sister did, but she didn't. She sighed instead, wondering rather bleakly if there would ever come a time when he would cease to compare her with Jennifer all the time. She glanced out of the window at the steadily falling rain and took consolation from the thought that her sister would have hated everything about the bungalow and the sodden scenery. Jennifer was a fair-weather person in all senses of the word. She hated wet weather as much as she hated having to put herself out on another's behalf. Nobody could be more pleasant while everything was going well, but when she was crossed nobody was safe from her ire.

'It's all right,' she muttered inelegantly. 'It suits me as it is.'

His eyes mocked her. 'It certainly does!' he agreed. Celine came suddenly to life, pointing her knife at Georgina in a manner which caused Miss Campbell to click her tongue disapprovingly. 'Georgie Porgie ran away when the others tried to play! Did you run away, Georgina?'

'Not she!' William said on a laugh. 'She gave them all a bloody nose!'

'I did not!' Temper flared inside Georgina. 'You and Duncan were the only two—ever!'

'The others must have been wise enough to keep their distance!' William taunted her.

To everyone's surprise and to her own consternation, her eyes brimmed with tears and they ran unchecked down her cheeks. She wiped them away with an angry hand, ashamed of displaying such weakness before her tormentor. But he was already on his feet, standing over her with his arm round her shoulders.

'Georgina, you little fraud! You've never cared before when I teased you! What did I say?'

'Nothing, nothing at all!' she sniffed dismally. 'I like being told how unattractive I am!'

Celine's eyes were as round as saucers. 'Georgina's crying!' she announced. 'Nobody ever cries here but me!'

'I'm sorry,' Georgina muttered.

'I think you're nice!' Celine crowed. 'You can't help being in love with William. Most married people fall in love — Stuart told me so. He says I'll fall in love one day and I won't have any more nightmares.' Her face flickered with a new anxiety. 'But I don't want to cry about it, I want to be happy! Why doesn't William make you happy?'

'He does,' Georgina claimed, her voice muffled by her hand.

'Do I?' There was a note in William's voice Georgina had never heard before. 'Then what are you crying about?' Her face crumpled. How could she possibly tell him that? She scrubbed angrily at her cheeks and fell back on the oldest excuse in the business. 'I'm tired and I have a headache!'

He pushed the curl back from her forehead.

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