Substitute Bride Read online

  ‘Oh, Laura,’ he said indulgently one afternoon, shaking his head over her spreadsheets. ‘You’re just not with it at the moment, are you? I suppose you’re flustered at getting an offer of marriage when you’d already given up hope. I’m not surprised it’s taking you time to get adjusted to the idea. After all, it will mean big changes—selling your flat and that sort of thing. What you really need is some time off to think about it. Why don’t you take some holiday leave so that you can get your daydreaming done out of office hours?’

  Laura stared at him in baffled incomprehension. Was Ray incredibly thick and she had just never noticed it before? Or were all men so conceited that they simply couldn’t believe any woman would reject their proposals of marriage? Her phone call refusing his offer didn’t seem to have made any impact on Ray whatsoever! Well, she didn’t feel equal to the task of trying to bludgeon the message into him again when she had so much else on her mind. And some time alone to sort out her disturbed feelings seemed like a very good idea.

  ‘Maybe I will,’ she said slowly. ‘I’ll get the leave forms today.’

  She was sitting in her living room that evening, filling them out, when the long-awaited telephone call from Bea finally arrived. As the phone shrilled Laura jumped up and snatched the receiver.

  ‘Laura?’

  ‘Bea! What took you so long? What happened? Did you tell James the truth?’

  There was a moment’s silence and then Bea’s voice came down the line, sounding unusually subdued.

  ‘Yes, I did. But he was really angry, Laura. He couldn’t see the funny side of it at all. That’s why I didn’t ring you earlier. Still, he’s calmed down a bit now and he says…he says he’ll be nice to you at the wedding and he’s sorry if he upset you while you were here. So please come and be my bridesmaid!’

  Laura bit her lip, feeling disconcerted. She could not suppress a twinge of satisfaction at the message that James was sorry for upsetting her, although his apology surprised her. But if he could be gracious, so could she. Perhaps she ought to speak to him now and set things on the right footing—cool, courteous and civilised. She took a long, slow breath, squared her shoulders and put on her glasses, as if she were preparing to deal with a difficult client at work.

  ‘May I speak to him?’ she asked.

  ‘He’s not here right now,’ said Bea, and the strained note in her voice was more obvious than ever. ‘I think he’s avoiding me, actually. But I’m sure it will all be sorted out soon. Now, look, you are coming to the wedding, aren’t you?’

  ‘All right,’ sighed Laura, giving in. ‘I don’t really want to miss it. But is it best if I try to stay out of James’s way as much as possible?’

  ‘Oh, absolutely! Actually it’s lucky that you decided you wanted to stay in rented accommodation instead of with one of Sam’s cousins. It makes it all so much easier. I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you try and arrive Friday evening and I’ll come over and see that you’re settled in your cottage? Then you needn’t see James at all until the wedding the following day. How does that sound?’

  ‘All right,’ agreed Laura slowly.

  This time, as the rugged hills and forests of Tasmania appeared beneath the wing of the plane, Laura had a pleasant feeling of familiarity about the journey. And as she drove from the airport up the east coast she couldn’t help admiring the lonely white beaches fringed by jade-green ocean, the patchwork fields, the stone cottages and dusty country roads winding up into the hills.

  Only on the Saturday morning when she was dressing in her bridesmaid’s frock did the first twinge of doubt attack her. What if James really hadn’t changed his attitude to her? Or what if her own antagonism blazed up? Were they really capable of behaving in a civilised, restrained fashion towards each other? Or was she heading into the eye of an emotional cyclone? Still, there was no point borrowing trouble! All she could do was to concentrate on the job in hand, which was helping the bride get ready.

  Bea had chosen to stay overnight with Sam’s aunt, so that the bridegroom wouldn’t see her in her wedding dress before the ceremony. Consequently Laura was spared the ordeal of having to confront James just yet. Instead she drove to his sister’s house, where she found total chaos.

  James’s sister proved to be in her early thirties, with the same black hair and tawny eyes as her brother, but where James radiated purpose and energy, Wendy seemed endearingly scatty. Her cottage—‘Only a weekender. I’m a lawyer in Launceston, Monday to Friday.’—was littered with books, clothes, unwashed plates, Labrador dogs and young men. Fortunately she and Bea seemed to be firm friends already, which Laura found comforting. It was nice to think Bea would have an ally who could defend her from James’s disapproval once Laura had left for Sydney.

  As she helped Bea into her long gown of ivory silk she felt a twinge of sadness. Soon Bea would belong to the Fraser family, while she would be more alone than ever. Well, she shouldn’t begrudge her sister’s good fortune. Better to concentrate on how gorgeous she, Laura, was going to look in her own red bridesmaid’s frock and how much fun she would have at the reception.

  When the first of the wedding cars arrived to take her to the church, she kissed Bea’s cold cheek and squeezed her hand.

  ‘Good luck. I suppose James will be here in about five minutes to pick you up. We’ll, I’ll see you both at the church.’

  ‘Bye, Laura. Good luck to you too.’

  Arriving in the church, Laura felt as strung up as if it were her own wedding, and she flushed crimson when the vicar came to meet her in the porch and frowned severely at her.

  ‘Beatrice told me all about your little escapade,’ he said in a stage whisper. ‘You’re wicked girls, the pair of you. I haven’t had such goings-on in my church since Sam and John Timmins drank the communion wine when they were twelve years old. I hope you’re both thoroughly ashamed of yourselves.’

  Laura bit her lip, suppressed a violent urge to giggle and nodded penitently. Bill Archer pinched her on the cheek.

  ‘Good. Well, let’s get on with the service.’

  He went back into the vestry and Laura stole a peep at the inside of the church, which was rapidly filling up with guests. Nearly all of them were Sam’s friends and relations. It was only because she and Bea were alone in the world that her sister had chosen to be married in this place that meant so much to her bridegroom. Laura felt an involuntary pang of envy at the sight of that tiny church packed to capacity with so many well-wishers. Not that she regretted her own single status for an instant, but there were moments when she couldn’t help wishing…

  She left the thought unfinished as the sound of a car pulling up on the gravel turning circle alerted her to the arrival of the bride. Not only the bride. James would be in that car too, since he was taking the place of Beatrice’s father. Laura’s palms grew suddenly clammy and her heart began to beat violently as she walked towards the car to help Bea out with her long train. Bea emerged looking beautiful, but Laura’s gaze was transfixed on the tall, masculine figure in a morning coat and striped trousers stepping out of the other side of the car. She stared at him in bewilderment.

  ‘Peter Clark!’ she blurted out. ‘But where’s James?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Laura,’ said Bea. ‘There’s something I didn’t tell you—’

  She got no further, for at that moment another car pulled up on the gravel and a second man stepped out of it. He too was dressed in a morning coat and striped trousers, but there the resemblance ended. Where Peter Clark was grey-haired, red-faced and cheerful-looking, the newcomer was lean, dark and visibly grim. He strode across the gravel with a face like thunder, and then stopped in his tracks as if he had been shot.

  ‘Beatrice,’ he said, looking straight at Laura. ‘What the hell is going on here? Why are you dressed in a bridesmaid’s outfit? And if you’re the bridesmaid, who on earth is the bride?’

  Laura felt a cold, sick feeling trickle through her limbs as she realised the truth. Obviously Bea hadn’t confess
ed to him after all! But why? Why?

  ‘I’m not Bea, I’m Laura,’ she croaked.

  James stared at her as if she had taken leave of her senses.

  ‘What do you mean? What’s going on here?’

  Out of the corner of her eye Laura saw a blur of white. She swung round just in time to catch Bea creeping off towards the church and grabbed her sister ruthlessly by the arm.

  ‘Yes, what is going on here?’ she demanded.

  ‘Sorry,’ babbled Bea, turning back to face them with a nervous smile on her lips, ‘I guess I forgot to tell you, Laura. For some reason James went off in a huff after your visit and left a note saying he wasn’t coming to the wedding. Well, I really didn’t tell you because I was afraid you wouldn’t come either. But now that you’re both here, I suppose that we should introduce ourselves. I’m Bea, she’s Laura, you must be James. I’m the bride, she’s the bridesmaid, you’re giving me away. Now, let’s get started, shall we?’

  With a stunned expression, James allowed Bea to seize his arm and lead him into the porch of the church. There she stopped and smiled radiantly at the sexton.

  ‘You don’t mind, do you, Peter?’

  Peter, looking even more dazed than James, shook his head and then lumbered into the church to join the rest of the guests. Torn between shock, disbelief and pure, murderous rage, Laura followed her sister inside and picked up the silk train. But as the ‘Bridal March’ echoed from the organ she had eyes only for James, who was casting her glances of baffled fury over his shoulder. Good. Well, let him suffer! He deserved it, didn’t he?

  Still, she would have liked to wring Bea’s neck. She had come here believing that all the unpleasantness had been smoothed over and that James understood their masquerade. Instead it looked as though there was going to be a real lulu of a scene in front of a hundred fascinated wedding guests when he demanded the inevitable explanations. Laura cringed inwardly at the thought and tried to drag her wandering attention back to the wedding.

  Somehow she managed to blunder down the aisle in Bea’s wake, but she felt as disorientated as if she were trapped in a dream. She was dimly aware of the expectant faces turned towards them, of Sam looking tall and rugged and beaming from ear to ear as Beatrice glided towards him, of the vicar gaping in dismay at the sight of James scowling beside the bride. Yet most of her own attention was taken up by the turmoil raging inside her. Why hadn’t Beatrice told her the truth? Why had James gone away after she’d left Tasmania? And what was he doing here now? She stole another glance at him and saw that he was staring at her, with his tawny eyes narrowed so that the pupils were nothing but dark, angry dots. The words of the service echoed in her head.

  ‘Holy Matrimony…is an honourable estate…not by any to be enterprised, nor taken in hand, unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly, to satisfy men’s carnal lusts…but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly…’

  A sudden flash of memory assaulted her and she found herself transported back to the beach, with James’s arms tightened around her and his burning kisses raining down on her. There had been nothing discreet or sober about that! Her cheeks flamed at the memory, and from the knowing flash in his eyes she guessed that he knew what she was thinking. Suddenly the church seemed suffocating, with its smell of flowers and candles, its press of human bodies. Laura longed to rush outside, to race over the hills and hide, but as she saw the way James’s hands were clenched at his sides, she knew that there would be no escape.

  When at last the service came to an end and an ecstatic bridal couple followed the vicar into the vestry, with Laura, James, Sam’s parents and the best man in procession behind them, she realised with a sinking sensation that the reckoning was nigh. James stood in smouldering silence as John and Laura witnessed the signatures in the registry.

  ‘And now the photos!’ cried Bea rapturously.

  ‘You can do without Laura and me for five minutes,’ growled James. ‘Go on, all of you. Out!’

  ‘My dear friend,’ began the vicar, ‘let there be no violence in the—’

  ‘You heard me. Out!’

  There was a buzz of speculation inside the church as the incomplete procession made its way back between the pews, but the sound was cut off by the ominous slam of the heavy oak door. James leaned against the solid wood and treated Laura to a long, contemptuous appraisal. Every muscle in his body radiated danger, and there was something alarming in the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed and in the strangely predatory tension in his shoulders. He looked like a panther preparing to spring.

  ‘All right, what’s going on?’ he hissed. ‘Why did you lie to me?’

  She winced at the blatant hostility in his voice and moistened her lips.

  ‘It was just a harmless deception…’ she faltered.

  ‘Harmless?’ To her alarm he suddenly crossed the vestry in two strides and pinned her against the sandstone wall. She gasped as he seized her shoulders and her heart began to hammer violently at the sight of his contorted features thrust so close to hers. ‘Do you call that harmless—the sort of chaos that you and your sister have perpetrated in the last week? What was it all about? Answer me!’

  She flinched at his scathing tone, but raised her head defiantly.

  ‘Bea asked me to come down and take her place last week when she was supposed to look over the house in Hobart.’

  ‘Why?’

  The curt monosyllable echoed round the room like the crack of a whiplash.

  ‘Because she was in trouble,’ said Laura with a defeated sigh. ‘She had to go to court to be charged with a traffic offence and she thought you would be shocked if you knew the truth. She also thought you’d be offended if she didn’t show up to see the house, so she asked me to come and pretend I was her. I wasn’t really happy about it, but it seemed quite harmless. You weren’t even supposed to be there and I didn’t think you’d ever know we’d swapped places.’

  ‘That doesn’t excuse a blatant piece of deceit,’ he snarled. ‘Once I did arrive, you should have told me the truth immediately. Instead you let me think you were my nephew’s bride. Your behaviour was outrageous.’

  Her guilt gave way to an uprush of anger.

  ‘Any more outrageous than yours?’ she countered. ‘I seem to remember that you had an interesting way of welcoming your nephew’s bride to the family acres!’

  He flushed at that, and Laura had the satisfaction of knowing she had scored a direct hit. But instead of defending his own behaviour, or apologising for it, he went on the attack once more.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell me the truth immediately?’

  ‘Because Bea phoned and begged me not to. I promised I’d leave it up to her to tell you.’

  He gave a ferocious growl of laughter.

  ‘She certainly chose her moment, didn’t she? Waiting until the wedding day and making me look a complete fool! Or was that your inspiration?’

  ‘No! After I went back to Sydney I made Bea promise that she would tell you before the wedding. She said she had, but she must have lied. I suppose she lost her nerve.’

  ‘Possibly not,’ James admitted grudgingly. ‘I haven’t been here ever since you left. She wouldn’t have had a chance to speak to me until now.’

  Laura shot him a puzzled look.

  ‘Where did you go?’ she demanded.

  His face was cold and inscrutable, revealing nothing. ‘I went out to an offshore island where I keep some sheep. There’s no telephone there.’

  She was silent for a moment, bewildered by this unexpected revelation. What had driven him away? Embarrassment? A belated feeling of guilt towards Sam for making advances to his supposed fiancée? Or had he simply taken such a violent dislike to Laura herself that he hadn’t wanted to set eyes on her again?

  ‘Why did you go?’ she asked thoughtfully. ‘Was it just routine work, or…?’

  His reply took her completely by surprise.

  ‘I found that I didn’t much fancy the thought of watching you marry
another man,’ he said coldly. ‘Even my nephew. Especially my nephew.’

  Laura was stunned. What did this mean? Could it possibly mean that he had felt a genuine liking for her and not just an involuntary physical attraction?

  ‘Then why did you come back?’ she asked warily.

  James shrugged.

  ‘Blame it on my sense of duty! I’m supposed to be the rational one in the family. It didn’t seem very rational to let my animal lust for you override my loyalty to Sam.’

  Animal lust. The words ripped through her like bullets, wounding her to the core. There was no mistaking the cynicism in his eyes as he gazed coldly back at her. No, James Fraser hadn’t liked her one bit. He had merely been trying to prove that all women were fickle and that he could have any one of them whenever he chose. She tried to hide her hurt by lashing back at him.

  ‘I’m so pleased to know that you’re motivated by loyalty to Sam,’ she purred. ‘It must have been such a relief when you realised today that I was only the bridesmaid and not his bride.’

  His eyes glinted dangerously.

  ‘It was. And I’m glad to know what you really are at last.’ His tone had been unmistakably jeering as he’d spoken the words ‘what you really are’. Did he mean that now he knew she was a cheat and a liar? Before she could ask him point blank, he continued. ‘Well, now that we’ve got all that sorted out, shall we go back and rejoin this farcical ceremony? Perhaps we can even have a photo together, as a memento of an unforgettable occasion.’

  Seizing her hand as if she were a particularly defiant kindergarten child, he opened the door and hustled her through the rapidly emptying church to the front porch. There was a buzz of comment and several people darted curious glances from James’s tight-lipped features to her defiant ones as they joined the rest of the wedding party.

  Although she yearned for the ground to open and swallow her up, Laura was determined not to ruin Bea’s wedding, and she did her best to smile as the photographer’s flash blazed. Fortunately Bea seemed oblivious of any tension and looked absolutely radiant as she flung her arms around the pair of them and drew them into a photo just with her and Sam.