Barefoot Bride

"GUESS who I bumped into in town?" Beth bounced down the steps into the garden and plonked herself onto the lounger next to Alice. Alice had spent a blissful morning by the pool, feeling the tension slowly unwinding as the tropical heat seeped into her bones, and guiltily enjoying some time on her own. There was a puppyish enthusiasm about Roger's wife that could be quite exhausting at times, and, ever since she had arrived two days ago, Alice had been con-scious of how hard Beth was trying to distract her from the fact that Tony was getting married tomorrow. No one could be kinder or sunnier-natured than Beth, though, and Alice would have been very fond of her even if she wasn't married to Roger. And this was, after all, Beth's pool that she had been lying beside all morning. A good guest would be opening her eyes and sitting up to take an interest in her hostess's morning. On the other hand, Beth had told her to relax before she'd gone out.Alice had done as she was told, and was now so relaxed she honestly couldn't summon the energy to open her eyes, let alone care which of Beth's many acquaintances she had met in town. "Umm, Elvis?" she suggested lazily, enjoying the faint stir of warm breeze that ruffled the parasol above her. "No!" Beth tsk-tsked at Alice's failure to take her exciting news more seriously, but she was much too nice to take offence. "Someone we know, At least, I think you know him,'she added, suddenly dubious. "I'm pretty sure that you do, anyway." failingly sociable, and gathered lame ducks under her wing wherever she went. When Roger and Beth had lived in London, Alice had often been summoned to parties where Beth fondly imagined her disparate friends would all bond and find each other as interesting as she did. Sadly, Alice was by nature as critical and prickly as Beth was sweet and kind. She settled herself more comfortably on her lounger, resting an arm over her eyes and resigning herself to one of her friend's breathless accounts of someone Alice had met for five minutes several years ago, and who she had most likely hoped never to see again. "I give up," she said. At least she wouldn't have to pay much atten-tion for the next few minutes. Beth's stories tended to be long, and were often so muddled that she would get lost in the middle of them. All Alice would be required to do was to interject an occa-sional "Really?" or the odd "Oh?" between encour-aging murmurs. "Who did you meet?" she asked dutifully. It was the cue Beth had been waiting for. "Will Paxman," she said. Alice's eyes snapped open. "What?" she demanded, jerking upright. "Who?" "Will Paxman," Beth repeated obligingly. "He was a friend of Roger's from university, Well, you must have known him, too, Alice,'she went on with an enquiring look. "Yes," said Alice in a hollow voice. "Yes, I did.' How strange. She had convinced herself that she'd forgotten Will, or at least succeeded in con-signing him firmly to the past, but all it had taken was the sound of his name to conjure up his image in heart-twisting detail. Will. Will with the quiet, serious face and the stern mouth, and the disconcertingly humorous grey eyes. Will, who had made her heart jump every time he'd smiled his unexpected smile. He had asked her to marry him three times, and three times she had said no. Alice had spent years telling herself that she had done the right thing. She felt very odd. The last four years had been consumed by Tony, and she'd been braced for memories of him, not Will. Ever since Tony had left, she had done her best to armour herself against the pain of if onlys and what might have beens, to convince herself that she had moved on, only to be ambushed now by the past from quite a different direction. Alice was totally unprepared to think about Will. She had thought that relationship was long over, and that she was safe from thoseHart, Jessica is the author of 'Barefoot Bride ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373182855 and ISBN 0373182856.