Bride by Arrangement by Rose Burghley

demanded of Pierre. “You two don’t strike me as a normal engaged couple! You don’t fall into one another’s arms after an absence of nearly a week!”
    Pierre stood looking down at Chloe, and it was to her he seemed to be making his reply as he said:
    “Perhaps we prefer to reserve our demonstrations until we are without an audience. As a matter of fact, I’m going to suggest that Chloe comes back with me to Trelas for dinner. I’ve told Burton to expect us both, and he understands it’s to be in the nature of a celebration. Our reunion after an enforced separation!”
    His eyes were still deliberately holding Chloe’s, and she felt as if the breath was catching in her throat. His warm fingers were grasping her arm, closely, firmly, making her heart pound and her blood race, and as he went on looking at her her lips fell a little apart, and the green eyes grew less anxious.
    When they drove home later, Chloe felt as if something brittle and precious, like a piece of blown glass, was between them, and a n uneasy vibration might shatter it. Pierre, with his slim brown hands gripping the wheel of his expensive car, his sleek dark head turned a little away from her, although his eyes were firmly fixed on the road ahead, was close to her again after a whole week, and his closeness made her feel weak with the longing to touch him. But she didn’t dare to do so, for that, too, might break the spell ... the sudden charm that held them. And, in any case, if Pierre was aware of her as she was of him, there was no need for any actual physical contact. Not in those moments while they climbed to the green top of the cliff, and the white shape that was Trelas.
    Only when they came in sight of it did Pierre speak.
    “You were away a long time, Chloe.”
    “Only a week.”
    “But it was a long week ... I found it so!”
    “You—you telephoned one night...?”
    “And you were out! Were you enjoying yourself very much?”
    She shook her head, so firmly that although he wasn’t looking at her he could feel the firmness that quivered all down the length of her frame.
    “No. I didn’t really enjoy the week at all. But there was a lot to be done, and Eunice insisted on buying me masses of things. There were all sorts of fitt i ngs and appointments to keep, and in the evenings we dined out, and went to theatres and places. Eunice has been so terribly kind I don’t know what to do about it. I simply can’t let her pay for all the things we’ve bought.”
    “I wouldn’t let it worry you,” Pierre replied. “We’ll settle all that later on, go into the whole matter. Just now I want to know whether you were, very pleased when David arrived.”
    She was silent, wishing she could tell him how much she had longed for him to arrive instead, but the words wouldn’t pass her lips. She was too shy in his presence, and too unsure of him, to say things like that at that stage of their acquaintance. “Were you?” Pierre insisted, and his voice sounded sharp. Once more she shook he r head.
    “No. Except that it was nice to see him ... I’ve always thought it nice to see David. But I was hoping—hoping you would telephone again!”
    One of his hands left the wheel, and she felt the warmth of his fingers as they covered hers.
    “I wanted to,” he admitted, with a strange simplicity. “I wanted to do so very much, but I didn’t want you to think I was pestering you. I also felt strongly tempted to follow you to London, but for the same reason I didn’t do so!”
    “Oh!” she murmured, and he looked at her sideways and their eyes met and held. A little glow stole under her skin, and her long eyelashes fluttered. “It would have made the week bearable! ... In fact, it would have—made the week!”
    His fingers crushed hers with sudden fierceness.
    “In that case I’ll never let you go to London alone again! Or with anyone else apart from myself!”
    Trelas looked very much as it had looked to Chloe on the evening of her