Yesterday's Bride Read Online Free PDF

worked hard to get where I am, Jason. A few months away and I could be forgotten."
    "Who could forget you, Leigh?" Jason asked dryly.
    She ignored him. "Also, I know absolutely nothing about children. I've never been around them. They scare me silly. I honestly wouldn't know what to do for Jody," she pleaded.
    "It can't be so hard," he replied. "New mothers take care of their infants every day. You're a smart girl, Leigh, you'll learn."
    She tried again. "I'm sorry, Jason, but I just can't take this on. You'll have to find someone else."
    "Will I?" he questioned. "Did I forget to mention that if you do this small favor for me, I'll initiate proceedings for an annulment immediately?" He smiled unpleasantly and Leigh felt very apprehensive suddenly.
    "However, if you turn me down, I might be forced to sue for divorce, charging you with desertion and anything else I can think up. I don't think that you will find me an easy opponent. I assure you that I can make life quite unpleasant for you. I have spoken to Mr. Judkins, and he is quite willing to take on the case. Don't forget, my dear, that we are not as lenient about those things here as are your sophisticated city friends."
    Leigh was stunned. "You wouldn't be so petty!"
    "Try me and see," he taunted. And then, almost as if speaking to himself, he added, "I don't know which prospect intrigues me more, the joy of engaging in a first-class court fight with you or that of seeing the cool, society beauty struggling with a three-year-old."
    Leigh believed him. He was ruthless enough to try anything. She was all too well aware of Mr. Judkins's reputation. His divorce cases had been smeared all over the gossip columns when she was growing up in Raleigh. The intimate details had been there for all to read about and snicker over. Her face flamed. Who knows what crazy statements Jason would make about her? She had felt the full force of his anger before and she knew that, even with the experience and sophistication that she had learned over those years working in the city, she still did not want to take Jason on in public. It was not only that she was afraid of this bitter, angry man, but more important, she was too proud. She could feel her old wound throbbing beneath the scar. She did not want to open it again for all to see it gaping.
    "You win," she said, pressing her lips tightly together to control their trembling. "You must want to punish me very much."
    Jason stood, his eyes full of bitterness. "You don't know how much."
    As she walked him to the door, he told her that he would pick her up on Friday morning to go to the farm. "Be ready," he warned before he left.
    Leigh slammed the door hard behind him and stood pounding the flat of her hand impotently against the wood, railing against his invincibility. She had always known that Jason would make a dangerous and implacable enemy, and he was her enemy now. What was worse, she had just delivered herself into his hands. He intended to make her pay in full for walking out on him. Well, she had a score to settle too. He had won this round, but maybe, just maybe, she wasn't beaten yet.
    Leigh tilted her chin and marched into the kitchen to break the disastrous news to Flora.

    Silence reigned in the car. Jason, concentrating on the road, seemed preoccupied, and Leigh was busy fighting back the apprehension that welled up in her at the thought of the next two months. She had tried looking out the window, but the repetition of trees and billboards couldn't hold her interest, centered as it was on the driver of the car. Her awareness of him was almost a tangible thing, and she hated it. With a sigh, she lay her head against the back of the seat, relieved at least that Jason drove such a luxurious car. Leigh was tired. She hadn't been sleeping well and the last two days had been frantic— packing, convincing her agent that she needed a few months off, closing the house. Putting Flora on the bus to Wilmington had been the worst; it was