Forbidden Surrender

‘Sara—’

She shook off his hand. ‘Just go, Dominic,’ she told him vehemently.

‘I’ll go, for now. But we’ll talk again, Sara. There are some things I have to tell you.’

Her head went back. ‘There’s nothing I want to hear from you. Please go and talk to Danny, I have to go to my father.’ She walked away before he could make any further move to stop her.

Her father looked even worse now, and Sara made him sit down, holding his hand tightly as the door opened and Simon Forrester came in, still in his gown from operating.

The surgeon looked very tired. ‘Surgically I’ve done everything I could,’ he told them. ‘Now we’ll just have to wait and see.’

They took it in turns to sit with Marie through the night and most of the next day, and her father and Dominic were both with her when she woke up.

Sara had been sent home to rest, but she knew by her father’s face when he arrived home that Marie had come through the operation with no harm to herself. She instantly started to cry, the strain of the last few days finally taking over.

‘Hey!’ her father chided, his relief obvious. ‘You’re supposed to be happy, not burst into tears!’

‘I am happy,’ she wailed. ‘Is she really all right, Dad? Is it really all over?’ She blinked back further tears.

‘Really.’ He crushed her to him. ‘She asked for you.’

‘Then I’ll go to her. I—’

‘Calm down, Sara!’ he laughed, looking younger now that the tension was finally over. ‘She’s resting now, you can see her later.’

That first meeting with her sister was an emotional one, and during the next few weeks they became closer than ever, Sara spending most of her time at the hospital—when Dominic wasn’t there. Dominic she avoided at all costs.

The bandage was finally removed from Marie’s head, revealing that it would be a long time before the two of them were again confused with each other. Marie’s hair was now a blonde downy thatch only half an inch long. But she was alive and out of danger, and that was the important thing.

‘I feel ridiculous!’ She put up a selfconscious hand to her hair.

Sara smiled. ‘You look beautiful.’

‘That’s what Dominic said,’ Marie told her ruefully.

Sara’s smile became brittle. ‘Well, he should know.’

Dominic was the one to drive Marie home when the time came for her discharge, his arm about her waist to support her into the house. At the first sight of him in several weeks all Sara’s love towards him came bounding back, her lashes instantly lowering over her revealing eyes.

It was agony to watch his solicitous concern for Marie, so she made her escape as quickly as she could, using a visit to Eddie as her reason for excusing herself.

‘Sounds serious,’ Marie teased. ‘Doesn’t it, Dominic?’

‘I don’t know.’ His gaze was intent on Sara. ‘Is it?’

She daren’t look at him, daren’t risk giving herself away. ‘I don’t know that myself yet,’ she said lightly, knowing that she was lying. Eddie and she were friends, and that was all they would ever be. ‘I’ll let you know if it is.’

‘Before the wedding, I hope,’ Dominic said tautly.

‘We mustn’t tease her,’ Marie laughed.

Sara made good her escape, wondering how Marie had ever gained the impression that Dominic was teasing. He had been deadly serious, his expression grim.

When she arrived home later that evening Marie called her into her bedroom, patting the side of the bed for her to sit down beside her.

Sara did so. ‘Shouldn’t you be asleep?’

‘Yes,’ Marie grinned. ‘But I wanted to talk to you. How’s Eddie? I like Eddie.’

‘He’s well,’ Sara replied guardedly.

Her sister laughed. ‘I really was only teasing earlier about you and Eddie being serious.’

‘I hope so,’ she grimaced. ‘Eddie is in no more of a hurry to get married than I am.’

‘Dominic is.’

Sara looked up sharply. ‘Dominic is what?’

Marie sighed. ‘In a hurry to get married.’

Sara licked her suddenly dry lips. ‘Is he?’ she said brightly. ‘Well, you’ve been engaged for some time, and now that you’re well I suppose—’