Read Online When Only Diamonds Will Do by Lindsay Armstrong - Free Book Online Page A

painful little interlude for her, during which she lost what little she’d eaten that day.
    Eventually she staggered back to the car and sat down on the seat sideways.
    ‘Here.’
    She squinted upwards to see Reith minus his suit jacket and with his tie loosened and his shirtsleeves pushed up, offering her a wet towel.
    ‘Where…How?’ she stammered.
    ‘The towel’s been in the back since we went surfing. And—’ he gestured behind him ‘—there’s a creek over the fence. The water is flowing and clean.’
    ‘Oh, thank you.’ She took the towel gratefully and held it to her face and neck. ‘Sorry but—’
    ‘Don’t be,’ he said, interrupting her, and took the towel from her. ‘I’ll wet it again. There’s also a bottle of drinking water in the console.’ He leant past her and pushed a button, revealing a plastic bottle of spring water.
    Half an hour later they were on their way again.
    Reith had tossed his jacket in the back seat and Kim had done what she could to restore herself.
    ‘Don’t worry about it,’ he advised after glancing at her. They were proceeding, she noticed, at a much slower pace. ‘You look fine,’ he said. He added very quietly, ‘You always do.’
    She turned her head to look at him and their gazes clashed briefly before she looked away.
    What does that
mean
? she wondered.
    Should I be complimented? Complimented enough to forgive him for forcing me to marry him? Does he honestly think that’s all it’s going to take? Still, he waskind just now, and helpful—if
only
I knew exactly what I was dealing with.
    ‘What are you going to say to your parents, Kim?’
    She tensed as his question broke the silence, and pleated the silk chiffon of her skirt. ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘That doesn’t sound particularly like you,’ he observed with a tinge of sarcasm.
    She bridled but forced herself to simmer down. ‘I was just going to…to present it as a fait accompli, but I don’t think that’s going to work, now that I come to think of it,’ she said. Then she took a breath. ‘Perhaps,’ she said slowly, ‘what you had in mind to say is…the best way to go.’
    ‘At least it’s honest.’
    ‘No, it’s not honest, Reith, from the point of view of getting married because of it but—’ she hesitated ‘—all right; I’ll go along with it.’
    ‘We don’t have to make such heavy weather of this, Kim. Not that long ago, we were good together,’ he said as he changed gear and swung into Saldanha’s driveway.
    She took a very deep breath. ‘You’re right,’ she agreed, and took some more deep breaths as she prepared to face her parents.
    In the event, however, the encounter proved to be catastrophic.
    Kim groaned as they pulled under the rear portico. ‘Damien’s here.’ She pointed towards the parked racing-green sports car. She frowned.
    ‘We might as well get it all over and done with.’ Reith switched the engine off and got out of the car.He retrieved his jacket from the back seat, fixed his shirtsleeves, fiddled with his tie and came round to open her door.
    Kim didn’t move for a moment as she stared down at the shiny gold band now on the ring finger of her left hand—she’d refused an engagement ring. As she did so, she thought of her parents, thought of all they’d done for her, and she found the strength to slip out of the car without his assistance.
    But what greeted them as she led the way inside, stopping only to pat a delighted Sunny Bob, was a scene of trauma. Her father was slumped on the settee in the main lounge, her mother was kneeling beside him crying. Mary Hiddens was hovering, wringing her hands, and Damien was savagely punching numbers into his phone.
    ‘Kim…Kim …’ Her mother caught sight of her. ‘Oh, Kim!’ Her gaze fell on Reith and she gasped. ‘So it’s true!’
    ‘What’s true?’ Kim ran forward to kneel down beside her mother.
    ‘Some journalist just rang your father and asked him if it was true that you’d