Sunshine Yellow Read Online Free

not!”
    “Then stay as you are, little one. Not Penny Plain, but Penny Wise!”
    She continued to keep her eyes lowered to her plate. “Is it such a good thing always to play for safety?”
    “Perhaps not,” he conceded. “But for you ... yes! I wouldn’t want you to be hurt, Penny, you’re such a nice little thing, such a kind-hearted little thing.” His voice grew softer, warmer. “I haven’t forgotten how upset you were that day I broke the news to you that there wasn’t going to be a wedding after all. I remember that you clung on to my arm, and you saw quite clearly that I was practically stunned ... I was,” he admitted grimly. “But it passed!”
    “Did it?” she said, and her gentle tone was sceptical. “You don’t think you’re still a bit ... well, a bit stunned, perhaps?”
    “Perhaps,” he agreed. “But when I come to I’m going to be intensely relieved because I’ve had such a lucky escape. I came close to marrying a woman who would have let me down sooner or later, because although she’s lovely to look at that’s the way she’s made.” He stretched a hand across the table and touched her fingers lightly. “Penny, I’ve got an idea. Is there anything you want from life more than security?”
    She stared at him.
    “You value security, don’t you? That’s why you cling on to your aunt, and why you won’t cut loose and launch out for yourself ... why you prefer changing library books and exercising poodles to doing something exciting like earning your living in the great big world, and renting a bed-sitter like other girls.”
    “I’m not trained to earn my living,” she attempted to interrupt him, but he squeezed her fingers.
    “You could have been trained. Even your Aunt Heloise wouldn’t have stood in your way. But you’re timorous by nature, and you need roots ... and you need to cling! That’s why security is all-important to you.”
    She pushed aside the vanilla ice with which she had been toying and sat up straight and stared at him—stared into his dark blue, magnetic eyes. All at once she paled. She had the feeling that something momentous was coming.
    “I said just now that I’ve got an idea, Penny Wise,” he said distinctly. “It’s this. Marry me and ensure security for yourself for life ... I promise you that you’ll always be secure if you’ll become my wife in place of Veronica. I’ll make no demands on you, but I’ll keep you safe ... I think I’d enjoy keeping you safe!”
    Penny heard herself give a gasp, but no words would pass her lips.
    Stephen smiled in a quite extraordinary fashion, his blue eyes sparkled, and his voice challenged her.
    “Say ‘yes’ before I change my mind, Penny! Say ‘yes’ for your own sake!”

 
    CHAPTER III
    Aunt Heloise s tared at the telegram open in her hand, and the wording of it refused to make sense.
    “Married to Stephen this morning. Hope you approve. Penny .”
    Mrs. Wilmott sat down blindly on one of the hard white seats on the terrace. At the table in front of her her writing-pad was spread out, and her morning’s mail. She had been about to begin a letter to her niece at Grangewood, instructing her to collect some important items that had been left over at the cleaners, and asking her to make certain that the dogs had their vitamin tablets. She had actually removed her pen from her handbag, deciding that the look of Hotel Splendide on the hotel notepaper—particularly when she knew that she couldn’t really afford Hotel Splendide prices—was impressive, if nothing else, when the telegram had been handed over to her by a trim little page with shining buttons.
    Down on the beach Veronica was acquiring a delectable golden tan with the aid of a good-looking American young man who was anointing her shoulders with protective oil. Veronica was obviously enjoying the process, and she was enjoying everything about the South of France—the air, the sunshine, the relaxed atmosphere, the company