Forbidden Surrender

She hurried downstairs, intending to rescue her aunt and uncle from what could only be an embarrassing meeting, even though they appeared to be putting a brave face on it.

‘Sara doesn’t know about this, does she?’ she heard her aunt say, halting her entrance at these puzzling words. What else didn’t she know?

Michael Lindlay sighed. ‘It isn’t something I find easy to tell anyone, but especially Sara.’

‘It’s unbelievable,’ her uncle said emotionally. ‘Poor Sara, I don’t think she’ll be able to take it. First her mother and stepfather, and now—–’

‘Ssh, Arthur!’ his wife told him. ‘I think I heard Sara.’

Sara sighed her frustration. What had her uncle been about to say? First her mother and stepfather, and now—–? Now was her father going to die too? Oh God, surely not! But what other explanation could there be?

She forced a bright smile to her lips as she breezily entered the room. ‘I’m ready,’ she announced generally, looking at her father with new eyes. If he was dying, and there could surely be no other explanation, then of what was he dying? He was only in his forties, what could strike a man dead at that young age? A weak heart, a terminal disease? The list was endless. And it made her continued resentment of him seem childish and cruel.

Her father stood up. ‘And looking very nice too.’ He turned to her aunt and uncle. ‘Can I persuade you to join us?’

‘Perhaps another time,’ her aunt refused.

Sara studied her father on the drive to his home. He didn’t look ill, a little strained perhaps, but not ill. Still, some illnesses were like that, the person looking completely normal until it was too late.

Unless she had it all wrong. But what else could have been meant by that conversation?

‘Sara!’ Marie ran out of the house to greet her as soon as the car drew up outside. She pulled Sara’s car door open, tugging her out on to the gravel driveway. ‘I couldn’t believe it when Daddy rang to say you were coming to lunch.’ She hugged her tight. ‘After yesterday I didn’t think you would ever want to see us again.’

Sara gave a tearful, smile. Marie’s pleasure was completely genuine. ‘Not want to see my own sister?’ she choked.

‘Oh, Sara!’ Marie hugged her all the tighter. ‘Isn’t it fantastic?’ She put her arm through the crook of Sara’s. ‘We’re going to have such fun together,’ she told her, taking her into the house.

‘Hmm-hmm?’

They both turned at the rather pointed cough. Marie grinned at her father’s pained expression. ‘Okay, Daddy, you can come too,’ she permitted graciously.

‘You’re so kind,’ he grimaced, a lithe, attractive man who didn’t look old enough to have twenty-year-old daughters.

Lunch was a lighthearted affair, with Marie and her father doing their best to make Sara feel at home. And to a certain degree they succeeded, all of them greatly enjoying the staff’s amazement at there seemingly being two Maries. It took a bit of explaining, but everyone was very welcoming once they knew who Sara was.

‘I have to go back to work this afternoon,’ their father said regretfully. ‘Will you be here when I get back?’ He looked hopefully at Sara.

‘Well, I—–’

‘Oh, do stay, Sara,’ Marie cut in on her refusal. ‘Then after dinner we can—–’

‘Dinner?’ she laughed. ‘I only came over for lunch.’

‘I want you to stay,’ her father told her huskily.

She shrugged. ‘All right—dinner.’

He shook his head. ‘Not just to dinner, Sara. I want—we both want, Marie and I,’ he seemed to be having trouble articulating. ‘We want you to stay here with us.’

Sara bit her lip. ‘Dominic said something about that. I have to go home—–’

‘This could be your home,’ her father cut in. ‘With Marie and me.’

‘Surely Marie will be getting married soon?’ Her voice was shrill at the thought of Dominic marrying Marie. She might have only been a replacement for Marie this morning, but as far as she was concerned Dominic had been Dominic, the man she and Marie both loved. Yes, loved. She had fallen in love with a man who wasn’t just engaged to any woman, he was going to marry her own sister, a girl she couldn’t possibly dislike or fight.