Winter Wonderland Wishes. Abigail Gordon

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СКАЧАТЬ in the idea of happily-ever-after once the wedding momentum had started. All of her friends except for Susy were engaged or married and it had seemed a natural progression.

      The wedding had been set up so quickly by her mother who, along with Washington’s most popular wedding planner, had had everything moving at the speed of light.

      Susy had accepted the role of her maid of honour, and the two young women had been excited about seeing each other after so long, but the day before she’d been due to fly out Susy had called and broken disappointing news. She was unable to leave London as the jury had not returned the verdict on a very prolonged case. In her own words, she’d said she’d have to miss the wedding of her best friend in the world in order to see some bad guys locked away for a very long time in an English prison.

      Deflated and disappointed, Phoebe had understood, but it had left her with only two distant cousins in her bridal party. She had agreed to include the young women, who were both twice removed on her mother’s side of the family, because she had been secure in the knowledge that Susy would be beside her for the days leading up to her wedding and with her at the altar of the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

      She barely knew the girls. She hadn’t seen them in over five years and from what she had heard they were party girls who were living on the west coast and their antics in social media were a constant source of embarrassment to their respective families.

      It had been decided that it was time they returned to Washington and settled down. They were both single and in their early twenties, and the families’ combined strategy had been to use the wedding as their wayward daughters’ entrée into the right circles. They’d hoped that a society wedding would help the girls meet potential husbands and leave their wild life behind them.

      Unfortunately that had never happened. They’d flown in a few days before the final dress fittings and managed to ruin Phoebe’s life in the process.

      Looking back, Phoebe realised that everything about that day had been wrong, but at the time she hadn’t been able to step back far enough to see it for what it really was. But now she could. The three months since the scheduled wedding day that never happened had given her time to see Giles for the man he was. Controlling, calculating and ambitious. There was nothing wrong with ambition, but, fuelled by his other character flaws and good looks, it made for a man who would do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted—and apparently with whomever he wanted. A misogynist, with a lot of family money and connections.

      Phoebe would be eternally grateful to the best man, Adrian, who had delivered the bad news the day before their nuptials. She appreciated that it had been a difficult call for him, but knew he had spent a number of months working closely as a political intern with her father and respected him enormously. Adrian had told Phoebe that he cared too much for her and her family to stand by and let Giles hurt her. He’d broken the boys’ club rules and she knew he would no doubt pay the price with his peers. She also knew that her father would do his best to support him, but Adrian was not motivated by professional gain and that made his act even more admirable. Honesty in the political arena was rare, and Phoebe and her father were both grateful.

      Phoebe’s head was spinning as she was finally called up to one of the immigration booths. She dragged her hand luggage behind her and handed over her passport. Then, with everything in order, her visa was stamped and she was waved through to collect her luggage.

      ‘Enjoy your stay, Miss Johnson.’

      Phoebe’s lips curved slightly. It was an attempt at a smile but she was still not sure how she felt and whether she had just made another of life’s bad calls—a huge error she would live to regret almost as much as accepting the first date with Giles and, six short months later, his proposal in the opulent wood-panelled and chandelier-filled dining room of that five star hotel in Washington.

      The ring was a spectacular four-carat diamond, set in platinum, and it had been served on a silver platter alongside her crème brûlée dessert. A single strategically placed violin had played as Giles had fallen to one knee. But it had only been a fleeting kiss on the forehead he’d given her when she’d agreed to be his wife.

      It hadn’t been a passionate relationship, but she had still believed their life together could be perfect. He wasn’t one to show public displays of affection and she had accepted that. In hindsight, she suspected he preferred to look around at all the enamoured faces in the room rather than at hers. He had enjoyed the attention the proposal had focused on him. In person and in the media.

      As she shuffled through the airport to collect her checked baggage Phoebe drew a deep breath and thought about the irony of his reticence in showing any public display of affection with her while enjoying very private displays of affection with other women. And she felt sure there had been more than the two she knew about. It was all about appearances. And what happened behind closed doors seemed inconsequential to him.

      She shuddered with the thought of how close she’d come to being his wife. And the lies that would have been the foundation of their marriage.

      No matter what lay ahead, her life had to be better than that.

       CHAPTER TWO

      THE MOMENT PHOEBE saw the sign ‘Welcome to Adelaide’ she decided she would quiet her doubts. There was no room for second-guessing herself. She was already in her new home. This is it, she said to herself silently as she collected her luggage and then made her way to the cab rank. No turning back now.

      The airport was only twenty minutes from the centre of town, where she would be living. The town she would call home for six months. Six months in which she hoped to sort out her life, her head, and if possible her heart—and forget about the man who had seduced her bridesmaids.

      ‘You were supposed to meet potential husbands—not hump the groom!’ she muttered under her breath.

      Phoebe noticed the cab driver staring at her strangely in the rear vision mirror. His eyes widened. She realised that her muttering must have been audible to him and she bit her lip and looked out of the window in silence.

      Phoebe paid the driver, giving him a generous tip. She had been told it was not necessary in Australia, but it was second nature. He placed her suitcases on the pavement and tucked the fare into his pocket. She was left standing in the heat.

      It was a dry heat, like the Nevada desert, and it engulfed her like a hot blanket dropped from the sky. She was grateful that she had changed on the two-hour stopover in Auckland, and was now wearing a light cotton sundress and flat sandals. She lugged her heavy suitcases, one at a time, up the steps to the quaint single-fronted sandstone townhouse that she prayed had air-conditioning. The suitcases were so heavy it would have cost a small fortune in excess baggage if her father hadn’t insisted on paying for her first class flight.

      On Phoebe’s personal budget, post hand-beaded wedding dress, along with the purchase of the maid of honour’s and the bridesmaids’ dresses, beautifully crafted designer heels for four, three pearl thank-you bracelets and half of a non-refundable European honeymoon, she could only have managed a premium economy flight. But she’d been so desperate to leave Washington for the furthest place that came to mind she would have rowed to Australia just to get away from the drama of the cancelled wedding and her desolate mother.

      Phoebe drew another laboured breath. A week ago she’d known little of Adelaide, save the international bike race and the tennis that took over the city in January. Her career СКАЧАТЬ