Read Online The Virgin Bride (The Australians) by Miranda Lee - Free Book Online

girl in Tindley and I don’t care who knows it!’
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    The next few weeks were the most amazing in Jason’s life. His relationship with Emma deepened considerably with their time spent together. They discovered surprisingly similar tastes in books and movies, both liking character-driven plots you could really get your teeth into. Neither had any patience with mindless violence or horror stories. Science fiction only got the thumbs-up if the characters were believable and didn’t have unpronounceable names. Jason had always read a book or watched a video to wind down after a long day’s doctoring, and whilst he always bought new books—and only read them once—he liked nothing better than to see a favourite movie several times.
    When he’d showed Emma his video collection, she’d expressed delight at spotting some favourites of her own, and insisted they watch every single one together. Over the past month or so they had, and then had such fun listing their top five in order of preference. Jason had been astounded at how close their lists were. They both put Witness at number one, and, whilst the next three had been in different order, they’d both selected Braveheart , Chariots of Fire , and Tootsie for numbers two to four. Only in the fifth selection had they differed, Emma liking Jane Austen’s Emma —which he’d laughingly pronounced a form of nepotism—whilst he’d put in Blade Runner .
    Yes, Jason was delighted at how the woman he’d chosen with his head and not his heart was working out. Just talking to Emma was great. And with anyserious lovemaking sidelined till the wedding, they had a lot of time for just talking.
    He discovered that his fiancée, whilst not academically brilliant, was creative, intuitive and sensitive, holding interesting opinions on a wide range of subjects. In the year she’d nursed Ivy, she’d read her aunt the newspaper every day from cover to cover, and had acquired a general knowledge which was surprising. Her memory was excellent. She still read the paper over breakfast every morning, she told him with pride.
    Jason also admired her cooking skills, whilst she, in turn, simply admired him. He could feel it, and it fed his confidence where she was concerned. Once their wedding day was on the horizon, he really didn’t care if Ratchitt returned.
    The trouble was…it wasn’t Ratchitt who showed up to spoil things. It was Adele.
    It was two weeks before the wedding, a coolish Friday in late October. Doc was taking surgery that afternoon, and Jason was out on house calls. He’d just finished his last call and was heading back to Tindley when his mobile beeped. It was Nancy.
    â€˜A call came through for you, Dr Steel,’ she said, a bit snippily. ‘A lady doctor, no less. She said it was an emergency and she needed to contact you immediately.’
    Jason felt his stomach flip over. ‘Did she leave her name?’
    â€˜Yes. Dr Harvey. She said you would know her numbers off by heart,’ Nancy added, suspicion in her tone. ‘Anyway, she wants you to ring her back straight away.’
    â€˜Right. Thanks, Nancy. Dr Harvey’s an old colleague from my Sydney days. Must have a medical problem she needs consulting on,’ he found himself babbling. Hell, he could feel Nancy’s dark disapproval down the line. The possibility—however remote—of her spreading a rumour around Tindley that Dr Steel was no better than Dean Ratchitt, and had some lady-friend on the side whilst he was courting Emma, brought panic. Emma was so vulnerable in that regard.
    â€˜Damn you, Adele,’ he growled as he pulled over to the side of the road and dialled the number of the surgery first.
    She wasn’t there. She was on the road somewhere. Would he like her mobile number?
    He said he knew it, which he did. He’d rung the darned thing a million times in his day.
    She answered on the