looked around her as though confused, but suddenly she stopped, staring at a mirror on the wall. She was still wearing her veil and the pearl tiara that held it in place. With a gasp of fury she seized them, ripping them off and hurling them to the floor. Then she seized at her hair, tearing down the elaborate coiffure until it hung untidily about her face.
‘I’ve got to get out of this dress,’ she cried.
‘Come in here,’ Jackson said, leading her into his bedroom and opening the wardrobe. ‘Put something of mine on. My clothes will be too big for you, but they’ll do for a while. I’ll leave you.’
‘Wait.’ She turned so that her back was towards him. ‘I can’t undo it alone.’
There seemed to be a thousand tiny buttons to be released, and Jackson went to work. It wasn’t the first time he’d helped a woman undress, but those experiences were no use to him now. Inch by inch her figure came into view, and inwardly he cursed Dan again for abandoning such delicate beauty.
‘Thank you,’ she said at last. ‘I can manage the rest for myself.’
‘I’ll be outside if you want me,’ he said, and hurried away.
Left alone, Freya freed herself from the dress and the slip beneath. In the wardrobe she found a pair of jeans and a shirt, which she slipped on, and then she looked at herself in the full-length mirror.
It was only a short time ago that she’d stared at herself in the glamorous dress, hardly daring to believe that the beauty gazing back was actually herself.
‘And I shouldn’t have believed it,’ she murmured. ‘This is the real me—the one I always knew I was. Dull, ordinary. Not too bad on a good day, but pretty dreary on a bad one. I guess all the days are going to be bad from now on, and if I’m wise I’ll stick to working clothes.’
For several minutes she stood there, trying to get used to this other self, stranded in a bleak world.
* * *
In his office Jackson made a hurried phone call to Janine at the hotel.
‘Just to let you know that Freya’s all right,’ he told her. ‘I’ve brought her home with me.’
‘Oh, Jackson, thank you!’ she exclaimed. ‘There are such rows going on. Amos is fit to do murder. So are your brothers.’
‘I thought so. Freya needs to be well away from that. Don’t worry, I’ll keep her safe.’
‘How kind you are. She’s so lucky to have you!’
He gave a silent groan. If Janine knew the full story she’d be saying something very different. It was no use telling himself that he was essentially innocent. Dan had been seeking something that would trigger him into action and Jackson’s thoughtless words had done the trick. Now the beautiful bride was alone and humiliated, staring into an empty future.
‘Ask her to call me when she can,’ Janine said. ‘But as long as she’s with you I know she’s all right.’
He made a polite reply and hung up. For a moment he stayed tense and still, wishing he was anywhere in the universe but here. The click of the door made him look behind him to see Freya, clad in jeans and shirt, bearing no resemblance to the dazzling creature who’d come down the aisle in expectation of bliss.
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Let’s have something to eat. There’s a Chinese restaurant nearby that delivers. You like king prawns with black pepper, don’t you?’
‘Yes, but how did you know?’
‘It was the first thing I learned about you when we met six years ago. My father and your mother were just beginning to talk about marriage and the four of us had an evening out in a restaurant. But then some of Dad’s business contacts turned up and he simply forgot about the rest of us.’
‘We made a run for it,’ she remembered. ‘There was a Chinese place a few yards away.’
‘And we had a good time there,’ he said. ‘Lots of laughs. Right—prawns it is.’
He made the call and the food arrived a few minutes later. Briefly they were both absorbed in serving it and getting settled at the table, but then she uttered the words he’d been dreading.
‘Jackson, I want you to tell me what really happened.’
‘But I’ve told you—’
‘I mean the bits you’ve left out. Oh, please don’t pretend you didn’t. What you said in the church was the polite version. It had to be, with all those people listening, but I really need to know. Dan got this far and then he suddenly backed off. There has to be a reason, and I think I know what it is, but I need to hear you say it.’
‘You—know what it is?’ he said cautiously.
‘Are you afraid I won’t be able to cope? Don’t worry. I’m not going to burst into tears and weep all over you. But, however painful the truth is, knowing it is better than wondering. Was it something I did wrong?’
‘No, nothing like that.’
‘Then I guess I know the answer, and I can see why you don’t want to tell me.’
‘Can you?’ he said with growing alarm.
‘Well it’s obvious, isn’t it? Something happened to make him realise that he couldn’t go through with it.’
‘Don’t—jump to conclusions,’ he said uneasily while his mind whirled. Surely she couldn’t have guessed what had really happened?
‘There’s only one thing it can be.’ She took a deep breath. ‘When you were on the way to the church you and he got talking and—and—’
‘And what?’ he forced himself to say, inwardly cowering.
‘He told you he’s in love with someone else, didn’t he?’
Jackson’s relief was so great that he nearly dropped his spoon. Perhaps he was going to get off more lightly than he deserved.
‘I think she must have called him before he left,’ Freya went on. ‘And on the journey he realised that he loved her too much to marry me.’
‘No, he didn’t say anything like that. He just lost his nerve.’
‘Oh, please, I know you’re being kind, but this isn’t the moment for kindness. It’s the moment for truth, however brutal. There’s another woman, isn’t there?’
‘Not that I know about,’ he said firmly. ‘But if that were the answer isn’t it better for you to escape him now? If you’d found out after you were married it would have been a bigger disaster.’
‘Would it? Perhaps I might have seen her off. If he’d chosen me over her—’
‘Freya, listen to me. If a man can act like this on the way to his wedding then he’s only interested in himself and you’re better off without him.’
‘Maybe
