The Christmas Bride. PENNY JORDAN

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      PROLOGUE

      ‘IT’S A total nightmare, it just couldn’t be any worse.’

      ‘Spending Christmas in a castle in Spain is a nightmare?’

      Tilly gave a reluctant smile as she heard the wry note in her friend and flatmate’s voice.

      ‘Okay. On the face of it, it may sound good,’ she agreed. ‘But, Sally, the reality is that it will be a nightmare. Or rather a series of on-going nightmares,’ she pronounced darkly.

      ‘Such as?’

      Tilly shook her head ruefully. ‘You want a list? Fine! One, my mother is about to get married to a man she’s so crazily in love with she’s sends me e-mails that sound as though she’s living on adrenalin and sex. Two, the man she’s marrying is a multimillionaire—no, a billionaire—’

      ‘You have a funny idea of what constitutes a nightmare,’ Sally interrupted.

      ‘I haven’t finished yet,’ Tilly said. ‘Art—that’s ma’s billionaire—is American, and has very strong ideas about Family Life.’

      ‘Meaning?’

      ‘Patience. I am getting there. Ma’s got this guilt thing that it’s her fault that I’m anti-men and marriage, because she and Dad split up.’

      ‘And is it?’

      ‘Well, let’s just say the fact that she’s been married and divorced four times already doesn’t exactly incline me to look upon marriage with optimism.’

      ‘Four times?’

      ‘Ma loves falling in love. And getting engaged. And getting married. This time Ma has decided she wants to be married at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve in a Spanish castle. So Art is transporting his entire family to spend Christmas and New Year in Spain to witness the ceremony—at his expense. We’re all going to stay at the castle so that we can get to know one another properly “as a family”. Because, according to Ma, Art can’t think of a more Family Time than Christmas.’

      ‘Sounds good so far.’

      ‘Well, here’s the bit that is not so good. Art’s family comprises his super-perfect daughters from his first marriage, along with their husbands and their offspring.’

      ‘And?’

      ‘And Ma, for reasons best known to herself, has told Art that I’m engaged to be married. And of course Art has insisted that I join the happy family party at the castle, along with my fiancé.’

      ‘But you haven’t got a fiancé. You haven’t even got a boyfriend.’

      ‘Exactly. I have pointed this out to my mother, but she’s pulling out all the high-drama stops. She says she’s afraid Art’s daughters are going to persuade him not to marry her, and that if I turn up sans fiancé it will add fuel to their argument that as a family we are not cut out for long-term, reliable marriages. She should really have gone on the stage.’Tilly looked at her friend. ‘I know this sounds crazy, but the truth is I’m worried about her. If Art’s daughters are against the marriage, then she won’t stand a chance. Ma isn’t a schemer. She just can’t help falling in love.’

      ‘It sounds more like you’re the parent and she’s the child.’

      ‘Well, Ma does like to imply that she was little more than a child when she ran off with my father and had me. Although she was twenty-one at the time, and the reason she ran off with Dad was that she was already engaged to someone else. Who she then married after she realised she had made a mistake in marrying my dad.’ Tilly was smiling as she spoke, but there was a weary resignation in her tone. ‘I feel I should be there for her, but I just don’t want her to blame me if things go wrong because I didn’t turn up with a fiancé.’

      ‘Well, you know what to do, don’t you?’

      ‘What?’

      ‘Hire an escort.’

       ‘What?’

      ‘There’s no need to look like that. I’m not talking about a “when would you like the massage” type escort. I’m talking about the genuine no-strings, no-sex, perfectly respectable and socially acceptable paid-for social escort.’

      Sally could see that Tilly was looking both curious and wary. ‘Come on, pass me the telephone directory. Let’s sort it out now.’

      ‘You could always lend me Charlie,’Tilly suggested.

      ‘Let you СКАЧАТЬ