Elusive Harmony by Mary Burchell

Author:Mary Burchell [Burchell, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2018-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Like most Florian dress shows, this one was breathtakingly elegant, and if Natalie had been in any mood to think of clothes, she would have hankered after at least half a dozen of the beautiful creations displayed. But from the moment she had heard Minna Kolney mention wedding dresses—with the murmured suggestion that she and Laurence might be mutually interested—she could think of nothing else.

She tried to tell herself that this would not have been the first time Minna had deliberately given inaccurate information or implied something which was only half the truth. But each time she reviewed the few words which had been spoken at the entrance to the salon she found them more disquieting.

A few minutes before the show began Minna had slipped into a seat opposite. (At least Laurence had not accompanied her, which was something!) But then it might well be true that only a rehearsal had kept him away on this particular occasion. Natalie wished now that she—or, better still, Anthea—had asked one or two explicit questions. It would be agony, of course, to know that Laurence thought of marrying Minna; but then it was also agony not to know.

After the show, Anthea lingered to examine two or three models, and perforce Natalie stayed with her, to help her decide what she would really like for a concert dress. In the end she chose two, with a cheerful indifference to the price, which marked her as the indulged wife of a very rich husband—quite apart from the fact that she was a highly-paid artist in her own right.

‘I noticed Minna didn’t stay,’ Natalie managed to say carelessly, as she and Anthea relaxed later over tea in a nearby café.

‘I noticed too,’ Anthea agreed. ‘I don’t think I altogether believe that broad, but unsupported, hint that Laurence is somewhere in the matrimonial running.’

‘Don’t you?’ Natalie tried not to sound too eager about that. ‘Why not, Anthea? She’s very attractive, and they often sing together.’

‘Lots of stage people are attractive, and he doesn’t have anything to do with the casting,’ retorted Anthea reasonably. ‘Of course I think she would very much like to corral him, but he——’ she paused so long that Natalie could not help prompting her with an anxious, ‘What about him?’

‘I don’t think Minna is his type, somehow,’ said Anthea slowly. ‘For an odd flirtation, perhaps, but for the real thing——’ she paused again, and then smiled as though she had made an amusing and interesting discovery. ‘You know, I’d say you were more his type.’

Natalie had often thought Anthea Warrender a darling—which she was—but never so much so as at that moment.

‘Why me?’ she asked, with an admirable assumption of lighthearted amusement.

‘There’s something warm and genuine about Laurence Morven,’ Anthea asserted. ‘He’s a romantic, and a little naïve—like all romantics. Besides, he’s a tenor and, boy! do tenors need a womanly woman to look after them and reassure them that they’re perfectly marvellous. Look at your father.’

Figuratively speaking, Natalie looked at her

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