The Rain-Soaked Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

inability to stand by her convictions and walk out on their marriage. Then she would think of the disapproval of her parents, the inevitable loss of the few friends she had gathered through Leonard’s social circle, and the threat of public attention as the papers scrutinised their divorce. No doubt one of them would find a willing mistress to make famous for a day.
    It all just felt impossible and she hated it.
    ‘I haven’t slept for nearly a whole day,’ she said. ‘I can’t help being tired, can I?’
    ‘Should have napped on the plane like I said. But then you never listen to common sense.’
    ‘I can’t sleep on planes …’ She let her reply peter out. Why was she bothering to argue? She was exhausted, the last thing she needed was to get into an argument. She went back to her silence.
    In his pocket, his mobile phone beeped a text alert. ‘God’s sake,’ he said. ‘Who’s that at this hour?’
    ‘Want me to check?’ she asked, happy to have something to distract them from their cross words.
    ‘No.’ He looked panicked. ‘I’ll do it.’
    ‘You’re driving.’
    ‘Barely.’
    He fished the phone out of his pocket, casting her a nervous glance. He thinks it’s one of his lovers, she realised. At that moment she could have punched him, the pathetic little man.
    Keeping one eye on the road, the car barely moving, he looked down at the phone and grunted.
    ‘What is it?’ she asked, unable to resist making the situation more awkward for him if it was another woman.
    ‘A jumble,’ he replied. ‘Something’s wrong with it. Not even words. Fuck it!’
    He dropped the phone, shaking his hand as if stung. He shuffled in his seat, writhing as if he had just dropped something dangerous into his lap.
    ‘What?’ she asked.
    ‘Get it!’ he shouted. ‘The phone, bloody thing burned me.’
    The windscreen of the car suddenly filled with rain and Leonard swore. ‘Brilliant, just what I need on top of everything else.’
    He turned on the windscreen wipers of his beloved Mercedes and slowed to a crawl. ‘I can barely see a thing,’ he said. ‘Where did this come from?’
    She had a light sweater folded across her lap and she used it like a glove to pick up the discarded phone, holding it carefully. Then, as she realised it wasn’t even hot, took it in her other hand.
    ‘It’s stone cold,’ she said.
    ‘I tell you it burned me!’
    ‘The screen’s cracked.’
    ‘There, I told you there was something wrong with it. Bloody thing.’ He blew on his fingers and then stamped on the brake.
    ‘What now?’ she asked, staring through the windscreen.
    It was lucky they had barely been moving, she realised. The road ahead dropped into a steep hill and below them, distorted by the rain, she could see a woman stood at the very edge of their headlights.
    ‘Silly cow,’ said Leonard, pulling on the handbrake. ‘I could have run right into her. What’s she doing wandering up the road at this hour?’
    Rachel peered through the wet glass, trying to look at the woman in the road. She was dressed entirely in white, black hair clinging to her pale face as the rain beat down on her.
    Leonard beat the horn, making Rachel jump.
    ‘For God’s sake, Leonard, I think she knows we’re here.’
    ‘Then why doesn’t she shift out of the bloody way?’
    With a frustrated roar, he disengaged his seat belt and opened the door. ‘She’ll soon bloody move if I have anything to do with it.’
    ‘Leonard, she probably needs help.’
    ‘She soon will do.’
    He got out, slamming the door behind him, slipping on the wet tarmac as he headed down the hill towards the woman.
    ‘Leonard!’ Rachel shouted. The man was impossible. She undid her own seat belt. Rain or no rain she was determined that whoever that was down there shouldn’t have to feel the full force of her husband’s temper.
    She was opening the door when the handbrake clicked off and the car began rolling down the hill.
    She grabbed at it, in panic,