Read Online The Blackmailed Bride by Kim Lawrence - Free Book Online

Javier. None better…’
    Kate almost choked at this unlikely description of her persecutor. ‘He’s very competent, certainly,’ she replied grimly.
    â€˜The Monteros are all a pretty charismatic lot, but in my opinion Javier is the best of the bunch.’ What bunch? Kate wanted to ask. Javier Montero, where had she heard that before? It definitely sounded familiar but her muzzy brain just wouldn’t make the necessary connections. ‘Have you known him long?’ he asked, shining a penlight into her eyes.
    â€˜Not long,’ she hedged. ‘This might sound a bit strange, Doctor…’
    â€˜Any double vision, nausea?’
    â€˜No, but, Doctor…?’
    â€˜Yes, my dear?’ He began to check her reflexes.
    â€˜Where am I?’
    The doctor replaced his patella hammer in his case; he was too professional to display any overt alarm.
    â€˜Disorientation is not at all unusual after a knock like you’ve taken,’ he soothed cautiously. ‘Just what do you remember about the accident?’
    â€˜Too much,’ she responded feelingly.
    â€˜And before?’
    â€˜There’s nothing wrong with my memory. I just don’t know where I am,’ she gritted in frustration.
    â€˜You’re the same place you were before the accident, I expect, my dear. The honeymoon suite at the…’
    â€˜The what?’ Kate squawked, struggling upright.
    â€˜The honeymoon suite,’ he repeated patiently. ‘I’m sure you’ll remember if you give yourself time.’
    â€˜I won’t remember the honeymoon suite because I’m not staying in it. I’m not on my honeymoon… I’m in a nightmare!’
    The doctor looked amused. ‘Honeymoon! Well, that would make the headlines, wouldn’t it?’ he chuckled.
    â€˜It would…?’
    Her bemused response made him laugh even more heartily, then abruptly the humour faded from his face. ‘Don’t think for a second that I’m prying. Why, I know how much Javier values his privacy, and I can see you feel the same way. Listen, your relationship with him is none of my business; you’re his guest and my patient…and I can promise you that nobody will hear from me that you are staying here.’
    Kate laughed at the irony of this reassurance. It was beyond her why he felt the need to make it, but then just about everything was beyond her at that moment.
    â€˜I do not have a relationship with this Javier Montero—why, I don’t even—’
    â€˜Is she in there? Katie!’ The sound of a familiar lilting voice stopped Kate mid-flow.
    â€˜Mother?’ she gasped incredulously. Oh, my God, that knock on the head must have been worse than I thought, she decided as she frantically tried to come up with a reason for hearing her mother’s voice beside insanity.
    Not too keen to reveal she was hearing things, Kate broached the subject cautiously. ‘Do you hear anyone?’ she asked not particularly hopefully.
    Her eyes widened as the door was pushed open and theunmistakable figure of Elizabeth Anderson rushed in—if this was an hallucination, it was a very realistic one!
    â€˜My dearest child!’
    Kate, enfolded in a fragrant maternal embrace, wouldn’t have dreamt of contradicting her mother, but she knew her emotional statement was not strictly accurate. Whilst Elizabeth Anderson was undoubtedly fond of both her daughters, Susie, always the more demonstrably affectionate of the girls, was the indisputable apple of her eye.
    â€˜How did you know I was here, Mother?’ she croaked bemusedly when the pressure on her ribs eased enough for her to breathe.
    â€˜Why, Javier came to get us, of course; what a lovely man he is. You naughty girl,’ she remonstrated, wagging her finger with a playfulness that Kate couldn’t make head nor tail of. ‘Why didn’t you tell us you were a…’ She shot Kate a