Bride By Choice

There was no sign of him in the crowd and she glanced up anxiously at the screen. To her relief the plane was so late that it hadn’t even landed. She got herself a coffee and took it to the window where she could look out on the bright summer day, and the even brighter prospect of her friend’s arrival.

It was amazing how often she’d thought of him, considering how busy her life was. By day she worked long, happy hours as Erik’s assistant. In the evening she dated a variety of men. Some were young, some middle-aged; there were wealthy businessmen, impoverished medical students, the odd theatrical. They wined and dined and adored her, and they all bored her equally, for none of them made her laugh.

Before Lorenzo she hadn’t known that laughter was important, but now every man seemed at fault because he couldn’t show her the comical twist to a situation, or share secret jokes that excluded the rest of the world.

They tried to impress her with romance, offering flowers, gifts and verbal tributes. But such outright gestures only made her think of Lorenzo, whose words were either teasing or seriously confiding, never romantic, but whose eyes held an intense look she would sometimes surprise.

It was June. He had been gone for nearly three lonely months, and he might be away still but for the decision of the Elroy Company to expand.

‘It hasn’t been announced yet,’ she’d told Lorenzo in a hurried telephone call, ‘but they’re buying up hotels all over the States. There’ll be an Elroys in Chicago, one in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and lots more. And all the contracts will be up for negotiation.’

‘I’m on my way,’ he’d assured her fervently.

In a little while he would be here. She would look into his merry face and the world would be bright again. She was smiling already at the thought.

But as an hour stretched to two, then longer, she frowned. At last she went in search of Charlie, whom she’d met when she was trainee, detailed to meet important guests. She’d never known his last name, or his precise job, but what he didn’t know about the airport wasn’t worth knowing.

When she gave him the flight number, his face fell. ‘There’s a spot of bother with the plane. It can’t get its undercarriage down. It’s up there, circling, while they try to put it right.

Helen went pale. ‘And if they can’t?’

‘It’ll land without the undercarriage. Technically that’s a crash but it won’t be too bad. Everyone will come down the chutes. Probably nobody will get hurt.’

In a daze Helen returned to the window, trying not to heed her mounting dread. Of course Charlie was right. Lorenzo would just slide down a chute and reach the ground safely. She tried to cling onto that thought, but now, her eyes sharpened by anxiety, she could see how ambulances and fire engines were discreetly gathering near the runway.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, we apologise for the late arrival of flight-’

The words seemed to shrill along her nerves. Terror blotted out everything so that she hardly heard the next words.

‘…will land in the next ten minutes.’

But what about the undercarriage? Lorenzo seemed to be there with her, laughing, giving her the wicked look that was so full of life and which she treasured. In a few minutes he might be dead.

She turned and ran to the observation area. There she strained eyes and ears frantically for the first sign. The news must have gone around for the place was crowded with worried-looking people who all stood in silence, gazing at the clouds. They were low today, concealing the plane long after it could be heard. But then it suddenly broke into sight and a storm of cheers and applause broke out.

The undercarriage was down.

Helen never clearly remembered what happened next. Her mind knew that she stood, held to the spot, while the aircraft descended to the runway, touched down perfectly and screamed away into the distance, before turning and taxiing back. She didn’t move even when it came back into sight, gliding to its place and easing to a stop. All about her the crowd was erupting but she seemed locked in a block of ice.

She’d stayed motionless, knowing that soon she would weep tears of joy and relief, but just now she could only hold herself together, because if she didn’t she would fall apart. She knew all this, but she didn’t dare let herself actually think about it.

After a long while she told herself that she ought to wait for Lorenzo at the place where the passengers would be emerging, but her limbs couldn’t move. This was all an illusion. The plane had crashed. He was dead. She would never see him again.

‘Helen-Helen-?’

Lorenzo was standing in front of her, giving her shoulders a little shake.

‘Helen?’ he said again. ‘Why are you crying, cara?’

A tender note in his voice as he said ‘cara’ was almost her undoing, but she made herself be strong. ‘I’m not crying,’ she said quickly, brushing her face.

‘When I couldn’t see you I thought maybe you’d gotten tired waiting and gone home. I’m sorry I’m late. There was a bit of trouble.’

‘Yes, the undercarriage. How much did you know on board?’

‘They told us to prepare for a crash landing.’ His familiar cocky grin was just a little frayed. ‘Of course I knew everything would be all right in the end. They can’t get me.’

‘Yes-yes-I knew that too.’

The tears were coursing down her face again, and this time she didn’t try to stop them. The next moment she was in Lorenzo’s arms, having the breath squeezed out of her in a huge bear hug.

‘I thought I wasn’t going to see you again,’ he said huskily.

‘Don’t say that,’ she gasped, thumping his shoulders. ‘How dare you scare me? How dare you?’ Then she stopped thumping and clung to him, feeling him vigorous and solid, and trying to reassure herself that he was really here.

‘I need a really stiff drink,’ he said at last, in a voice that wasn’t perfectly steady, and they made their way to the bar, holding on tightly to each other.

After three months he looked different. The Mediterranean sun had tanned him, making his curly brown hair lighter and his eyes a deeper, fiercer blue. Anyone seeing him for the first time would have known that this was a healthy male animal who lived through his senses and enjoyed it. Helen’s heart was still thumping from the dread she’d gone through, but as she looked at him she knew there was another reason.

Not that that would stop her being mad at him for frightening her.

Once settled in the bar, they regarded each other suspiciously

‘You weren’t scared for me, were you?’ he asked.

‘As if!’

‘I can see you weren’t,’ he said, sounding satisfied.

‘I just thought how like you it was to be on the plane that fouled up,’ she said crossly. ‘You probably made it happen.’

So she was being unreasonable! So what? The relief from terror was so shattering that she was ready to lash out at him.

‘Probably did.’ He was watching her, a gentle smile on his lips.

‘If you aren’t the most awkward, worrisome, disruptive-’

‘Disruptive? Me?’

‘Well, aren’t you? Don’t give me that innocent look! From the first moment you came into my life-sideways, let me remind you-deceiving me, deceiving everyone-’

‘Deceiving’s a bit strong,’ he objected mildly.

‘Well, it’s your own fault. You’ve done nothing but make my life difficult, kissing me and letting my parents get the wrong idea and-everything else.’

And haunting my dreams, she thought, and making me miss you every waking moment. And then showing me the truth I don’t want to face.

He held her hand for a moment, before saying, ‘When I was eight I went off exploring, the way kids do, and got lost. I was gone for hours and they had the whole island out looking for me. When they finally delivered me, wet and hungry, to Mamma-’ he gave a soft whistle ‘-boy was I in trouble!’

She looked at her hand lying in his, feeling the warmth and strength that she might so easily have lost.