internship and residency at
Massachusetts General-I know only the best get in there. Then Dr. Townsend
chose you out of fifty applicants and took you into his practice because he
knew you were good. Do you want more?"
26
He laughed aloud. "Is there any?"
"Only that you're a nice man, Andrew. Everybody says so. Of course, there
are some negatives about you I've discovered."
"I'm shocked," he told her. "Are you suggesting I'm not perfect after
all?"
"You have some blind spots," Celia said. "For instance, about drug
companies. You're very prejudiced against us. Oh, I'll agree that some
things-"
"Stop right there!" Andrew raised a hand. "I admit the prejudice. But
I'll also tell you, this morning I'm in a mood to change my mind."
"That's good, but don't change it altogether." Celia's businesslike tone
was back. "There are lots of good things about our industry; and you just
saw one of them at work. But there are also things that aren't so good,
some that I don't like and hope to alter."
"You hope to alter." He raised his eyebrows. "Personally?"
:'I know what you're thinking-that I'm a woman."
'Since you mention it, yes, I'd noticed."
Celia said seriously, "The time is coming, in fact it's already here,
when women will do many things they haven't done before."
"Right now I'm ready to believe that too, especially about YOU." Andrew
added, "You said there was something else to tell me, that you'd get to
later."
For the first time Celia de Grey hesitated.
"Yes, there is." Her strong gray-green eyes met Andrew's directly. "I was
going to wait until another time we met, but I may as well tell you now.
I've decided to marry you."
This extraordinary girl! So full of life and character, to say nothing
of surprises. He had never met anyone like her. Andrew started to laugh,
then abruptly changed his mind.
One month later, in the presence of a few close friends and relatives,
Dr. Andrew Jordan and Celia de Grey were married in a quiet civil
ceremony.
27
On the second day of their honeymoon Celia told Andrew, "Ours will be a good
marriage. We're going to make it work."
"If you ask me . . ." Andrew rolled over on the beach towel they were
sharing, managing to kiss the nape of his wife's neck as he did. "If you
ask me, it's working already."
They were on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. Above them was a warm
midmorning sun and a few small wispy clouds. A white-sand beach, of which
they were the only occupants, appeared to stretch into infinity. An
offshore breeze stirred palm fronds and, immediately ahead, cast ripples on
a calm, translucent sea.
"If you're talking about sex," Celia said, "we're not bad together, are
we?"
Andrew raised himself on an elbow. "Not bad? You're dynamite. Where did you
ever learn-T' He stopped. "No, don't tell me."
"I could ask you the same question," she teased. Her hand stroked his thigh
as her tongue lightly traced the outline of his mouth.
He reached for her and whispered, "Come on! Let's go back to the bungalow."
"Why not fight here? Or in those tall grasses over there?"
"And shock the natives?"
She laughed as he pulled her up and they ran across the beach. "You're a
prude! A real prude. Who would have guessed?"
Andrew led her into the picturesque thatched bungalow they had moved into
the day before and which was to be theirs for ten days more.
"I don't want to share you with the ants and land crabs, and if that makes
me a prude, okay." He slipped off his swim trunks as he spoke.
But Celia was ahead of him. She had shed her bikini and was already lying
naked on the bed, still laughing.
28
An hour later, back on the beach, Celia said, "As I was saying about our
marriage . . ."
"It will be a good one," Andrew finished for her. "I agree."
"And to make it work, we must both be fulfilled people."
Andrew was lying back contentedly, hands intertwined behind his head.
"Still agree."
"So we must have children."
"If there's any way