Sharon Kendrick Collection. Sharon Kendrick

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       EPILOGUE

      GUY closed the front door and turned to look at Sabrina, a slow smile lighting up his face as he thought how beautiful she looked in her mint-green dress with her glorious bright hair tied back with a matching green ribbon.

      ‘So, how did that go, do you think?’ he asked her.

      ‘I think they enjoyed it.’ Her eyes glinted with mischief. ‘Your mother kept asking me whether we’d arranged a wedding date.’

      ‘And what did you say?’

      ‘I said no, of course. Because we haven’t.’ But there was no resentment in her voice. ‘And your sister-in-law kept telling me how much she had enjoyed her two pregnancies.’

      ‘I’ll bet she did!’ He grinned. ‘Like some more champagne?’

      She’d barely touched a drop all afternoon. She’d been so nervous about meeting Guy’s mother and stepfather and his brother and wife and their two children. But the lunch had gone like a dream, and now relief began to seep into her veins. ‘Love some.’

      He opened up the French doors leading onto the balcony and brought out two fizzing flutes. He handed her one as they sat side by side on the small bench, turning their faces towards the sun.

      ‘Do you know what the date is, princess?’ he asked quietly.

      The glass was halfway to her mouth, but she quickly put it down on the decking and turned to look at him as a distant memory stirred in her mind. ‘But you know the date!’ she exclaimed. ‘We’ve had this lunch in the diary for ages. It’s June the tenth. Why?’

      He put his own glass down to join hers—champagne was the very last thing on his mind. ‘It’s exactly a year since I persuaded you to stay,’ he said softly. ‘Remember?’

      She nodded, mesmerised by the dawning tenderness on his face. ‘I didn’t take a lot of persuading,’ she said drily.

      He smiled. ‘It didn’t seem like that at the time. I knew then that I loved you, princess.’ He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed one fingertip after another. ‘But I didn’t want to rush you, or push you into something you weren’t ready for. You needed time to recover from Michael’s death and time to decide whether you could ever trust yourself to love again.’

      ‘Oh, Guy,’ she whispered, shaken by the depth of his understanding. ‘Darling, darling Guy.’

      ‘I love you,’ he said in a wondering kind of tone, as though he had just discovered a foreign language in which he was fluent.

      And Sabrina realised that deep in her heart she’d known that he loved her. Loving wasn’t just about saying three little words—Guy had shown her in every way that counted that he cared. His consideration, his softness, his intelligent regard and respect for her and the beautiful power of his lovemaking had left her in no doubt of that whatsoever.

      ‘I love you,’ she said softly.

      He leaned forward to gently kiss her. He had known that, too. Her love for him was as bright as the June sunshine which was beating down so warmly on their faces.

      Their lives together had merged and harmonised. Guy had stopped working on Saturdays, too. And now he came home at a decent hour in the evenings—sometimes even before her—which was a good thing. Unwilling to lose her, Wells had created a new job for her—enlarging the children’s section of the bookshop. Sabrina had organised author signings and related talks, which had been avidly and ecstatically received, and now she had groups of school-children from all over London to enjoy them.

      ‘So will you marry me?’ he asked, very, very softly. ‘Now that you’ve had time to heal properly?

      ‘Oh, yes, I’ll marry you,’ she responded СКАЧАТЬ