An Indecent Marriage Read Online Free PDF

terrified him with her potential for all sorts of problems. He was standing in the living room, considering what to do, when he heard a car in the driveway. He went to the window and watched a badly abused, twelve-year-old Ford pull up to the side door. It stopped in the glare of the security floodlights on the overhang. His daughter got out on the passenger side as the driver, a tall, dark haired boy with an athlete’s build came around and embraced her, pinning her against the side of the car with a kiss that transfixed Portman, standing unseen behind the heavy draperies.
    His jaw hardened as the boy finally released her and Jessica headed for the house, glancing longingly over her shoulder as she did so. Portman heard her key in the lock as the car started up again. He walked slowly toward the hall, his fists bunching with frustration and barely checked anger. He knew the kid who had just been manhandling his daughter. He had seen him around the factory a few times. No wonder Jessica had concealed the obviously intimate relationship. He would put a stop to this. Right now.
    Jessica came through the door, humming under her breath, and then stopped short when she saw her father blocking her path. She blanched, almost dropping the keys in her hand, and then regarded him silently, bracing herself for the first volley.
    “I thought you said you would be studying all weekend,” he began quietly.
    “I thought you said you would be gone until Sunday night,” she countered, her chin coming up.
    She was going to be difficult, he saw. No tears or pleas for forgiveness—that was Jean’s style. Jessica faced the enemy and fired back. She might cry from sorrow or sadness, but never in combat.
    “The conference ended early. Do you have any explanation for the scene I just witnessed through the window?” he said icily, coming directly to the point.
    Jessica’s shoulders slumped with defeat. So he had seen. She had hoped she could hold him off long enough to come up with a suitable explanation for her absence, but her farewell to Jack required no subtitles. Her father knew it all now, and she waited for the bombs to fall.
    “Do you know who that boy is, Jessica?” Portman demanded. “Do you know anything about his family, his background?”
    “I know that Jack is a wonderful person...” she interrupted, but Portman cut her short.
    “As wonderful as his father, the town drunk? My office manager has bailed Chabrol out of jail several times this year alone. When sober he’s the best spinner I’ve got, which is the reason I haven’t fired him, but I will not allow my daughter to keep company with the sort of trash that spends almost as much time in jail as on the job.”
    “Jack is not trash!” Jessica answered heatedly. “He isn’t responsible for his father’s problems, and he does everything he can to make up for them. He has two part-time jobs and gives his mother all the money he earns, and he’s going to college next year and...”
    Portman held up his hand for silence. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t care if the boy is about to be knighted. He comes from the gutter and I won’t have you joining him there. The family lives in a four-room flat, overrun with filthy, smelly brats. The mother speaks some garbled dialect no one but her children can understand. All of them run around in rags not fit for a charity collection.”
    “They can’t help it if they’re poor,” Jessica cried, her voice full of outrage at his unfairness.
    “Jessica, this not a debate. The subject is closed. You are never to date that boy again. When you see him at school, you may say hello and goodbye to him, that’s all. If I find that you have disobeyed me, I will arrange for your transfer to a private school that will make your previous institutions look indulgent. I’ll send you as far away as possible, to France or Switzerland, and the closest you will get to an adolescent male will be a telephone call from your cousin