A Perfect Night by Penny Jordan

Author:Penny Jordan [Jordan, Penny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2000-10-03T16:00:00+00:00

Later Katie assumed that she must have said and done everything that was expected and required of her during lunch. Certainly no one seemed to find her behaviour odd or out of character, but she herself was intensely, uncomfortably aware of Sebastian Cooke’s presence all through the light-hearted alfresco family meal. While the others were chatting and exchanging pleasantries and banter, she was finding it hard to force down so much as a mouthful of her mother’s delicious cold spread.

In fact, she noticed a little bitterly at one point, Seb seemed more at ease and relaxed than she did and as for Charlotte…it was plain that she was enjoying herself hugely. Katie could hear her telling Jenny enthusiastically how much she was enjoying life at her sixth form college.

‘Being a boarder there makes it even better,’ she gushed. ‘The other girls are great and I’ve made so many new friends.’

‘It must have been quite a difficult decision for you to make,’ Jenny remarked to Seb.

‘It was,’ he agreed. ‘Sandra, George and I all sat down with Charlotte to discuss it. I know she believes at sixteen that she’s an adult, but while we accept that she is mature enough to make most of her own decisions about her education, it is an unfortunate fact that this modern world we live in is not always a very safe place for a young woman.

‘However, the school has an excellent policy which allows the girls some freedom while at the same time ensuring their safety.’

‘Yes, we’re allowed evening exeats and we can even go clubbing, just so long as there’s a group of eight or more of us and we all come back together in the school minibus.

‘Mum and George and Dad did take a bit of persuading to allow me to go, but it’s the best “A” level college in the country for my subjects and since I’m hoping to get a place at Manchester University it made sense to move here.’

With her own cousin and younger brother at a very similar stage in their education Katie was not surprised that her mother should be so interested in Charlotte’s ‘A’ level studies, but she wished her mother would not be quite so warm and welcoming towards Sebastian Cooke.

She was uncomfortably aware that by some fluke of circumstance, the group of adults around the picnic had separated themselves out so that she was actually now sitting closer to Seb than she was to anyone else. Unfortunately, the nearest other person to her was Gareth and she had determined to remove any remaining longings for him from her life by keeping as much distance—in every sense of the word—between herself and her brother-in-law as she could.

Still, at least she could comfort herself that Louise had not told the rest of the family about the fortune-teller’s prediction and Louise, Katie fervently hoped, would never refer to it again.

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.