Petrakos Bride

9780373126538_pl.inddExtracted 1 threads from 9780373126538-exw.PDFUntitled Article 01: UntitledIN THE best of moods, and ready for her second day temping at Petrakos Industries, Maddie bounced on to the bathroom scales and stilled to look hopefully down at the gauge. She winced at the reading. Possibly it hadnt been a good idea tojumpon them. She got off again. Shedding her nightdress and her watch, she reset the weighing machine and stepped on as lightly as possible. Disappointingly, the weight was identical. You cant keep body and soul together on that salad stuff, old Mrs Evans who lived on the ground floor had opined, when Maddie had joined her and her daughter for a delicious three-course Sunday lunch, complete with all the trimmings, just a couple of days earlier. Perhaps the salad stuff would have been safer? Or possibly the bar of chocolate she had eaten on the way home from the supermarket the night before had been an over-in- dulgence too far? Could extra weight go on that fast? In truth, the long hours she worked just to pay the rent raised her healthy appetite to starvation proportions, and she still did not earn enough to eat well. Her despondent green eyes travelled across the expanse of her full-breasted, generous-hipped re- flection. Generous mouth tightening, she looped impatient fingers through her torrent of long red hair, then anchored it back with a clip and got dressed at speed. The black jeans and white blouse had a closer fit than she liked over her opulent curves, and she frowned. When a fire had broken out at her last address she had lost almost every- thing she possessed. Although she was trying to build up a new wardrobe by buying from charity shops, it wasnt easy on a low income. As she turned away from the mirror her at- tention fell on the photo of her late sister by her bed, and she scolded herself for being so precious about her appearance when she was lucky to have her health. Look on the bright side,had been her grandmothers most constant refrain while she was growing up. Every cloud has a silver lining, her grandfather had often chipped in with determination. Yet Maddie and her grandparents had known a lot of heart- break in their lives. Suzy, Maddies beloved twin, had been diagnosed with leukaemia soon after the girlseighth birthday. The stress of coping with Suzys illness had destroyed their parents marriage. Their paternal grandparents had taken charge, supporting Suzy through her gruelling treatment, her period of remission, and finally the last stages of her life. And ultimately it had been Suzys fierce determination to get the most out of the time shed had left that had taught Maddie the importance of hanging on to a cheerful outlook. As she waited at the bus stop Maddie was struggling to subdue a juvenile tingle of excitement while she wondered if this would be the day she caught a glimpse of the legendary Giannis Petrakos again. Honestly, when she thought about him she felt more like a schoolgirl than a twenty-three-year- old grown-up! It was embarrassing to recall that she had once cherished a newspaper photo of the startlingly handsome Greek shipping tycoon. But she had been a teenager, and shed developed a hopeless crush on him. Petrakos Industries was a towering contemporary office block in the City of London. Maddie had neverGraham, Lynne is the author of 'Petrakos Bride ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373126538 and ISBN 0373126530.