The Yuletide Bride: 1781 (Wedlocked!) by Mary Lyons

Author:Mary Lyons [Lyons, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-07-16T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

A SHRILL ringing from the clock beside her bed broke through Amber’s restless sleep. Yawning, she put out a hand to silence the alarm before raising her weary head to check the time. Eight o’clock—and time to get up.

Amber groaned, turning over to bury her face in the pillows. Tossing and turning throughout the night, she’d hardly had a wink of sleep. And it was all Max Warner’s fault. Lying wide awake through the long hours of darkness, she’d been finally forced to accept that he was quite right. She really was still crazy about him! Even thinking about that torrid embrace last night was enough to set her stomach churning wildly, like a cement-mixer out of control. How on earth was she going to stagger through what promised to be a hideously long day?

If only she had some experience to fall back on. Some knowledge of both men and the world outside the provincial backwater in which she’d lived for most of her twenty-six years. Unfortunately, having fallen madly in love with Max at the age of eighteen, her subsequent pregnancy and marriage to Clive Stanhope had prevented her from taking part in the normal life of most teenagers. While her contemporaries had been going through the natural process of growing up—gaining some experience of the world and their own sexuality—she’d been looking after a small baby and, before the year was out, mourning the death of her young husband.

It was cringingly embarrassing to realise that her friends would undoubtedly react with screams of laughter, ridicule and sheer disbelief if they ever learned the truth. How could she possibly confess, even to Rose Thomas, that Max had been her first and only lover? That she now felt badly frightened, and completely out of her depth in trying to deal with such a hard, tough and sophisticated man?

With a heavy sigh of deep depression, Amber threw back the covers and swung her feet off the bed. Sitting on the edge of the mattress and staring blindly down at the floor, she realised that she had to pull herself together. Having to face the disastrous truth that she was still in love with Max was only a minor problem compared to the all-important fact that Lucy would be coming home later on this morning. She must try to work out exactly how she was going to handle the situation. Max was obviously a whiz at business affairs, but he clearly wasn’t used to dealing with a seven-year-old little girl. And while she didn’t really believe he would demand that Lucy should immediately be told he was her real father, he was plainly determined to push ahead with his mad idea concerning their marriage. He’d also made it clear that if she didn’t agree to his plans for a Christmas wedding, he wouldn’t hesitate to carry out his vile, cruel threats to keep her tied up in the courts for ever and a day, destroying both the life of herself and her daughter.

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