The Lost Mother: A beautiful and heartbreaking World War 2 historical novel by Catherine Hokin

Author:Catherine Hokin [Hokin, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bookouture

Chapter 8

Yorkville, April to December 1936

Frank Gellner was an elusive man.

Perhaps that is part of his attraction – that he’s different from Eddy.

Anna clipped a tortoiseshell comb into her newly set waves and straightened the bow fastening the neck of her coral-pink blouse. She didn’t know exactly what kind of an event she was attending tonight, or what the dress code might be, so she had erred on the side of simple and elegant.

Marika would be proud of me.

She pushed the thought away before it forced her to change her whole outfit. She did not want to think about whether Marika would have approved of her choice; she had no desire to think about Marika at all.

Focus on Frank instead: whatever tonight is about, it clearly matters to him.

He wanted her there; he might not have been clear about what he was launching at the Casino tonight, but he had been very direct about that. His invitation was more personal and intimate than most of the conversations they had had. It read as if – for him at least –whatever this thing was between them was a relationship, not a series of almost casual encounters.

Anna located her lipstick and coloured in her mouth, making her top lip slightly darker than the bottom in the way that was currently in fashion. She wasn’t used to not being able to read a man. She wasn’t entirely sure that she liked it. She and Eddy’s relationship had been so intertwined, there had been no mystery about him. Until their last few weeks together, Anna would have said she knew him inside out.

Thinking about Eddy wasn’t something Anna often let herself do: her feelings for him were still too clouded in confusion and anger for her to know whether there was still love for him there. Now that she had some distance on the way things had ended, however, she had realised that Eddy finally succumbing to Marika’s flattery and to her casting him as her rescuing knight had saddened but not surprised her. Eddy had never cheated – Anna would have staked her life on that – but he was a romantic and far too susceptible to a woman pleading distress, especially if that woman was as seductive as Marika. Eddy had been many things – not least misguided – but Anna would always have called him an open book; that was one of the reasons she had fallen in love with him. Frank, on the other hand, was a charming but closed one.

They had met half a dozen times in the four months since the December dance. Their attraction, Anna was convinced, was mutual, although it hadn’t progressed physically beyond goodnight kisses Frank was always the first to pull back from. His self-control had made her crave his touch more – she wasn’t sure if that was deliberate.

They had partnered each other three times in the swing competitions that were held monthly at the Casino. They had won them all, without any practice.

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