His Perfect Bride? Read Online Free PDF

smiled at him.
    He looked at her strangely and she laughed at the curious frown on his face. ‘Why are you laughing?’
    ‘It was your face!’ She chuckled.
    ‘Thanks. A man likes to know his looks are amusing.’
    ‘It’s not your looks, Olly. There’s nothing wrong with those. But it was the way you looked at me.’
    ‘I was admiring you,’ he protested. ‘I mean, I was admiring your attitude to life. Not admiring you , per se. Not with that hair,’ he added with a wry grin.
    She pursed her lips with amusement and then stood up and looked in the mirror over the fireplace. ‘There’s nothing wrong with my hair.’ She checked some of the strands, tweaking and rearranging her colours.
    He stood up next to her and they both looked at each other in the mirror’s reflection. ‘No, of course not—it’s very…conservative.’
    ‘Hah! Now you’re being a snob. I thought I might add another colour to it, actually.’
    ‘Really?’ He raised his eyebrows in question.
    ‘What do you think to making the rest of it green?’
    ‘You can’t be serious?’
    ‘I’m deadly serious.’
    He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. His open-mouthed flustering made her burst into more laughter and she punched him playfully on the arm. ‘I’m just joshing with you. Of course I’m not going green.’
    ‘Thank God for that!’
    ‘I was thinking more like letter-box red.’
    He didn’t believe her this time. He picked up his jacket and threw it on. ‘Well, though it has been fun, Dr Chance, deciding whether you want to look like your head has been in a collision with a paint factory, you and I need to put in an appearance at work. Otherwise the whole village may well fall foul of a deadly plague without our being in our chairs, ministering to the sick.’
    ‘Hmm… I’m not one to turn down the chance of fighting an epidemic.’
    ‘Ready to go, then?’
    She put on her own coat and the incredibly long scarf that she’d been wearing earlier. ‘As I’ll ever be.’
    ‘You don’t need to feed the animals before we go?’
    ‘Already done.’
    ‘Any closer to picking up Anubis?’ He meant the tarantula.
    ‘No. But I gave him a damned good look thismorning, and I got within two feet of the tank without shaking.’
    ‘Progress!’
    ‘Exactly!’
    ‘Do you want to sit in with me this morning? We could do the clinic together and it would give me the opportunity to fill you in on some of our frequent flyers.’
    He meant the regulars who always turned up to the surgery, no matter what the state of their health. Every surgery had them. They were the people you could depend upon to turn up, who had nothing wrong with them but had got themselves appointments because they were lonely, or they wanted to chat about their problems in life in general.
    Then there were the hypochondriacs, who turned up over every little niggle—real or imagined. But you had to take them seriously each time, and check them out no matter what, or you’d get The Boy Who Cried Wolf syndrome. If one day you decided to ignore their call for help it would be the one time that they were actually ill and really needed you.
    ‘Sure. I think that would be a good idea.’
    ‘And if I introduce you they won’t think that you’re some sort of fairy.’
    She was closing her front door and locking it.‘You think I look like a fairy?’ She tried to sound offended, even though she wasn’t.
    ‘It was my first thought.’
    Her head cocked to one side. ‘And you, Dr James, look like a blond Clark Kent. Do I need to warn everyone that you don’t actually wear your underpants over your trousers?’
    Olly seemed to take the hint. And the reprimand. ‘I’m sorry.’
    She perked up and smiled. ‘You’re so serious ! I was joking! I quite like the fact you think I look like a fairy. I’d hate to look boring and normal.’
    ‘What’s wrong with boring and normal?’
    ‘It’s boring. And normal. Be different. Stand out from the