Never Leave Me (58 page)

‘Dominic told me where to find you,' he said, and there was an expression in his eyes she had never seen there before. Love and relief and compassion inextricably mixed. ‘He told me why you were here.'

‘And you understand?' She could hardly breathe.

‘Yes,' he said gently. ‘Now I do.'

‘Oh,
chéri
!' She stepped towards him, her hands outstretched. ‘Please forgive me!'

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. ‘I forgave you a long time ago, sweetheart,' he said, and then, as she gasped with disbelief, he rose to his feet, closing the distance between them with sure, firm steps.

‘
Greg
!' Her face was radiant as his arms closed around her. ‘Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you telephone?'

He smiled down at her. ‘Because I wanted to show you,' he said huskily, ‘and now I want you to show me something,' and very gently he led her towards the cherry tree and the grassy mound that lay beneath it.

For a long time they stood silently, hands clasped, and then he said compassionately, ‘Did you love him very much, sweetheart?'

‘Yes.' Her voice was thick with memories. ‘With all my heart.'

She raised her face to his, the silk-dark fall of her hair soft against her cheeks, ‘And that is how I love you,
chéri.
Always and forever.'

He turned her round to face him and over his shoulder she could see Valmy, its walls blue-spangled in the early evening light. For eighteen years she had been homesick for it, pining for Norman fields and high-hedged lanes and the chill, grey sea of the Channel. She knew, as his arm tightened around her, that she would never be homesick for it again. That the years of pain and loneliness were at an end.

‘You are my life, Lisette,' he whispered, and as his mouth came down on hers, hot and sweet, the shadows of the cherry tree reached out, touching them gently, before merging softly into the deepening dusk.

First published in 1986 by Macdonald

This edition published 2012 by Bello an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR Basingstoke and Oxford Associated companies throughout the world

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ISBN 978-1-4472-3008-3 EPUB
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Copyright © Margaret Pemberton, 1986

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