The Colonel and His Daughter Read Online Free PDF

he said with a sexy smile and an even sexier Dutch accent.
    “Oh, yes,” she said, flustered. “Can you bring them through the house? As quick as you can – I don’t want anyone to see them.”
    “Don’t you want to inshpect them before I unload?”
    “No, no, that’s fine, they’ll be fine, they always are. Please hurry.”
    Roger looked up when the tall stranger passed through the living room carrying box after box of flowers.
    “Down boy,” Trudy said, but he’d already gone back to sleep.

    Reggie Blinking couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the Dutch flower lorry pulling away from Trudy’s house – especially as Julia’s Aunt Sandra was just staggering out of the Frog and Dumpling.
    Her eyes like saucers, she watched the huge lorry rumble past.
    “Atishooo!” she sneezed loudly.
    Reggie had never heard such an artificial sounding sneeze, but it had been so violent, it sent Sandra into a perilous spin and she bounced between the wooden picnic tables on the pub forecourt like a ball in a pinball machine.
    “Ka-ching,” Reggie thought as she bounced. “Ka-ching, ka-ching.”
    He came to his senses in an instant and rushed over just as Bill White came out of the pub and grabbed Sandra, locking her in his arms to steady her.
    “Come along, Sandra,” Reggie said, helping Bill to hold her upright. “Settle down.”
    “Ooo,” Sandra giggled. “All these chaps after me. A girl might get the wrong idea.”
    Reggie exchanged a look with Bill. Between them, they managed to sit her down on one of the benches.
    “I’ve been celebrating,” Sandra cried happily.
    “It’s a bit early in the day isn’t it?” Reggie said.
    “Early?” Bill muttered. “This is left over from Julia’s hen party last night. I found her asleep under the pool table.”
    “I’m not drunk,” Sandra said, raising her untidy head. “I’ve got the flu.”
    “What shall we do with her, Bill?” Reggie asked. “We can’t just leave her here.”
    “It’s all right, Reggie,” Bill sighed. “I’ll see she gets back to her sister’s safely.”
    He helped her to her feet and set off down the road with Sandra clinging round his waist.
    “You will behave yourself at Julia’s wedding won’t you?” he said as he propped her up in the Pollards’ front porch and rang the bell.
    “Come in, why don’t you?” she said with a seductive purr.
    “Not today, thanks.”
    “Don’t you fancy me?”
    Bill looked at her. The glue on her false eyelashes had melted leaving one stuck to her cheek and the other dangling from her eyebrow.
    “Doesn’t everyone?” he said diplomatically.
    “Well, yes,” she smirked. “I suppose they do.”
    There was only one woman Bill was interested in, and she didn’t want to know. But he wasn’t going to give up. Ever.

    Diana looked at her father in the cream suit and dashed away a tear.
    He looked so handsome, so proud and upright, yet at the same time slightly crumpled and a little fluffy round the edges.
    “Don’t look that bad, do I?” Potts chuckled.
    “You look lovely, Dad,” she said. Then she turned to the hovering shop assistant. “This is the one. We’ll take it, thank you.”
    While her father went back into the fitting room, Diana delved in her bag for a tissue and blotted the puddles under her eyes.
    It wasn’t just Dad. It was remembering the look on Bill’s face every time she knocked him back. She didn’t want to hurt him.
    But perhaps it was just his pride that was wounded. They’d had a fling, that was all. A meaningless fling.
    By the time her father emerged, Diana was struggling to control a fresh flood of tears.
    “You’re an emotional old thing aren’t you,” Potts said, giving her a squeeze. “Just like your mother.”
    She smiled through her tears.
    “Come on,” she said. “I’ll treat you to a slap up lunch, then we’ll have ice creams in the park. What do you say?”

    On the day of Julia’s wedding, Sandra arrived early at the church to