Dark Summer Dawn Read Online Free Page B

firmly established, shall we? I haven't come blundering in on your idyll on my behalf but on Julie's.'
    'Julie's?' She was startled, her eyes flying to the creased letter.
    His gaze followed hers and his mouth tightened. 'It looks as if I've made a wasted journey. Nevertheless I'll say what I've come to say. Julie's panicking because she hasn't heard from you. She's desperate for you to come home and help with the wedding. She wants to know why you haven't written or phoned.'
    Lisa said, 'I only got her letter today. I've been away— abroad. I only returned yesterday.'
    'The contents don't seem to have impressed you very much.' Dane was leaning back in the chair, watching her from beneath lowered lids.
    'You and I both know,' she said tautly, 'that there is no way I'm ever going back to Stoniscliffe. You'll have to stall Julie—find some explanation that will satisfy her.'
    'I can't think of one,' he said. 'And even if I could, I doubt if it would satisfy Chas. He can't wait for you to come—back.'
    She noted ironically the small hesitation and wondered whether the word he'd stumbled over had been 'home'.
    'How is he?' She wasn't merely trying to change the angle of the subject under discussion. She really wanted to know. Letters were pretty unrevealing, and she had kept hers amusing and busy, providing excuse after excuse for not returning to Yorkshire.
    'If you really wanted to know, you would have gone to see for yourself,' Dane said harshly. 'How the hell do you hink he is—trapped in a wheelchair for the rest of his life!'
    'A wheelchair?' She gaped at him, her head reeling in disbelief. 'What do you mean?'
    'He had a stroke,' Dane said curtly. 'It's left him partly paralysed. He can walk a few yards with difficulty and use one hand.'
    Lisa shook her head. 'He said he hadn't been well, but he never even hinted…'
    'Why should he? If you'd cared, you!d have gone to see.'
    'That's your reasoning, not his.' She glared at him.
    'Perhaps,' he said. 'He always was too soft with you—too ready to make excuses. He wouldn't write and ask you to come back because he's terrified of pity. He's a strong man who's suddenly found a physical weakness he can't command or overcome, and it's been a struggle for him. He has a nurse living in, but he doesn't ask for help or sympathy from anyone else. He's counting on Julie's wedding to bring you back to Stoniscliffe. I could have told him it was a forlorn hope.'
    'That's not true!' Her throat felt thick and tight. 'I—I love Chas.'
    'So you've always protested. According to you, you asked for nothing better than to be a daughter to him and a sister to Julie. Well, now's your chance. Live up to your words.'
    'It isn't as easy as you think.' She was arguing against herself now, not him, although he wasn't to know that. 'I have a career—commitments.'
    'As you've already made clear.' His mouth twisted a little. 'Couldn't you convince him that you also have a commitment to Chas—a prior commitment? Unless, of course, you no longer see it that way. As for your so-called career,' he shrugged, 'I imagine it would survive a slight hiccup like Julie's wedding.'
    'You can sneer all you want,' she said furiously, 'but it's my life. It isn't the sort of success you would recognise, but I'm happy. What did you expect me to do—become a "little typist" like my mother?'
    'When you can capitalise on your considerable assets? Hardly.' Dane looked her over. 'You must have one of the best known faces and bodies in the country. How does the man in your life like having to share you with the fantasies of thousands of others?'
    She shifted her head. 'He survives.' She'd deliberately led him to believe that there was such a man, so there was no point in screaming at him that her face and body belonged to herself alone, that in front of the cameras she played the role Jos had written for her, no more no less, and all it needed now was for Dinah, who was away on tour in the Midlands, to walk in and blow the