Love in Another Town (11 page)

 

M
AGGIE STOOD STARING
out of the kitchen window, wondering what had happened to Jake. It was snowing hard, the tiny crystalline flakes sticking to the panes. She always worried about him in bad weather. The roads could be so treacherous.

Christmas traffic, she decided, that's what was holding him up. He had promised to be here by two, but perhaps he had been delayed at the Little Theatre in Kent. At Samantha's request he had gone up there to look at one of the lighting systems which had blown the night before. None of the stagehands knew how to fix it permanently. Since Jake had designed it, Samantha and Maggie knew he would be able to solve the problem.

Maggie's thoughts drifted to the play for a moment.
The Crucible
had opened in September and, much to
everyone's surprise and delight, it was still running. It was a sell-out at weekends; Samantha was in her element as the producer, director and owner of the theatre.

Turning away from the window, Maggie walked across the room, her steps slower these days. She was seven months into her pregnancy. The baby, a boy, was due in two months and she couldn't wait to deliver. The baby was big and she was heavy; and every day she seemed to grow slower and slower.

Sitting down at the kitchen table, she looked at her list of gifts. She had finished almost all of her Christmas shopping, having started it earlier in the year. Today was Saturday the sixteenth of December, and anything else she still needed Jake would have to buy. Maggie knew she did not have enough energy to struggle through the stores, the big stores at any rate.

At least she wouldn't have to do much cooking. She and Jake were going to spend Christmas Day with Samantha. That was the big day, of course; on Christmas Eve Samantha was coming to them along with some of the cast and other members of the theatrical group. Weeks ago Maggie had decided to make the supper a cold buffet, so much simpler for her to handle.

Rising, Maggie lumbered into the small sitting room and walked over to the tree. Jake and she had decorated it slowly, gradually, over the past two weeks, mostly because he was so busy with business. And she was unwieldy, not very much help to him.

Maggie smiled inwardly and put her hands on her stomach. The baby was her treasure. Hers and Jake's. He couldn't wait for the child to be born, and was
forever pampering her, treating her like a piece of crystal.

Stepping up to the tree, she eyed it critically, knowing that certain branches were still rather bare. Perhaps today they would have time to stop at The Silo to buy some more gold and silver icicles, gold angels and fruits. She and Jake had created a gold and silver tree, with touches of red and blue here and there; and it was eyecatching, she thought.

Maggie walked slowly back to the kitchen and stood at the window again, waiting for him, wishing he would get home. After a while, she moved away, went to the radio and turned it on.

‘Hark! the herald-angels sing, Glory to the new born king. Peace on earth and mercy mild …' a female voice was singing on the Christmas record the station was playing.

Maggie was immediately distracted. She heard the pick-up coming into the yard and stood looking at the door expectantly, waiting for him.

As always, she felt the impact of him in the pit of her stomach whenever she saw him, even after a very short absence. What it was to be so in love. Sometimes she worried that she loved him far too much.

‘Hi, sweetheart,' Jake said, striding over to her, tracking snow across her clean floor.

But Maggie did not care. ‘Hello, darling,' she answered, beaming at him. ‘I was beginning to worry, wonder what was taking so long.'

‘That stupid system I invented!' he exclaimed, brought her into his arms and kissed her cheek.

‘Oh Jake, your face is cold, and your hands. Why didn't you put on your gloves and a scarf?'

He grinned at her boyishly. ‘Oh stop worrying about me. I'm fine. Anyway, the system's okay for tonight and tomorrow. But I think I'll have to rig up something else next week. Samantha's going to kill me if I don't get it perfect, and this one's not.'

‘Do you want a cup of coffee?'

Jake shook his head. ‘I think we'd better get going. It's snowing hard, and the snow's settling. It's going to take us a good half hour to New Milford. Do you have the plant for Amy?'

‘It's over there on the counter top.'

Jake walked over and looked at it. ‘You've made it look pretty with the blue and silver bow, Maggie.'

She nodded. ‘Shall we go, Jake?'

‘Yes. Let me get your coat.'

The snow had stopped falling by the time they arrived in New Milford, and the sun was shining in the brilliantly blue sky.

Maggie held onto Jake's arm tightly as they walked down the path. There was a light covering of snow on the paving stones, and she was afraid she might slip.

‘Here we are,' Jake said a few seconds later. ‘Now, just let me undo this.' As he spoke he pulled the wrapping paper off the plant and shoved it in his pocket. Bending down, he placed the miniature evergreen on the new grave.

Straightening, he turned to Maggie and put his arm around her. ‘I'm glad we came,' he murmured. ‘I gave her my word we would. “Come and visit my grave as soon as you can after you're married,” she said and then she made me promise.'

‘She's at peace now,' Maggie said. ‘Out of her pain and suffering.'

Jake nodded. ‘Her soul is free. She wasn't a bit afraid to die in the end.'

Maggie pulled off her gloves. Leaning over the grave, she straightened the blue and silver bow. Her broad gold wedding ring gleamed brightly in the afternoon sunlight. ‘That's because Amy knew where she was going,' Maggie murmured.

Jake merely nodded and put his arm around his wife protectively. Together they stood in silence at the grave for a few moments, lost in their own thoughts. Jake was thinking of Amy, who had died ten days ago. He had known her most of his life, and she had been his high-school sweetheart. Somehow everything had gone awry with them. Still, in the end, they had remained friends. He was glad of that, and happy that he had been able to give her comfort in the end, had helped her through her illness. He had been with her when she died, and her last words had been for him. ‘Bless you, Jake,' she had said. ‘And your soulmate and the baby.'

A week after her death he and Maggie had married, fulfilling Amy's wish that they do so immediately. He had wanted it that way himself, and he knew that Maggie had too. The wedding had been at Samantha's house in Washington; Sam had insisted. She had also arranged for a local judge, who was a friend of her family, to perform the short ceremony. She and Alice Ferrier, the costume designer from the drama group, had been the witnesses.

Jake knew he would never forget last Saturday morning. Their wedding day. Maggie had looked so
beautiful and full of life. She had worn a blue wool maternity dress that reflected the colour of her eyes but did little to conceal the fact that she was seven months pregnant. Neither of them cared. Maggie's eyes had been full of tears when the judge pronounced them husband and wife, as his had been. They had both been very emotional that morning, and for days afterwards.

Sam had given a small lunch and members of the cast of
The Crucible
had come in to toast them and wish them well before going off to the Little Theatre in Kent. It had been the most special day of his life.

Jake said, ‘I think we'd better go, Maggie. It's starting to snow again.'

Together the two of them walked along the path that led to the gate of the cemetery. At one moment Maggie glanced up at the sky, and high above them she saw the arc of a rainbow. It was indistinct but it was there. She blinked in the bright sunlight and looked away. When she turned her eyes to the sky again the rainbow had disappeared.

She held Jake's arm as they continued on down the path, and at one moment she said quietly, ‘The cycle of life is endless, and it never changes.'

‘What do you mean?' he asked, glancing down at her, frowning.

‘There has been a death … and soon there will be a birth. That's the way it is.
Always.
One soul has gone to her rest, a new soul is about to be born in a few months.'

Jake nodded and was silent as they made their way out of the cemetery and back to the Jeep. Once he had helped Maggie in and settled himself in the driver's
seat, he leaned in to her and kissed her cheek. ‘I love you, Maggie of mine,' he said. Looking at her huge stomach he placed his hand on it and added, ‘And I love our baby. He's going to be born well blessed.'

‘Oh I know that,' Maggie said, smiling into his eyes. ‘Come on, darling, it's time to go home.'

Home, Jake thought, as he put the key in the ignition and turned it.
Home.

At the centre of this stunning novel stands Maximilian West, billionaire tycoon, corporate raider extraordinaire and a man of almost mythical power, glamour and charm. Yet, while Maximilian appears to have everything, in reality he is riven with internal conflict – and torn apart by personal doubts.

Many women have loved Maxim – and many strive to reach his fortress heart: Anastasia, his first wife; Camilla, the beautiful English actress; Adriana, the competitive American career woman; and Blair, the mistress who schemes to become his wife. But only one woman holds the key that will unlock Maximilian's secret – and set his soul free …

Sweeping through war-torn Berlin, through the heady atmosphere of Paris, Madrid and Tangier, to contemporary London and New York,
The Women in his Life
is a superb, compelling novel and ranks triumphant alongside Barbara Taylor Bradford's other phenomenal international bestsellers.

‘Another surefire bestseller from an ace storyteller'    
Annabel

‘Legions of readers will be satisfied by the romantic fortunes of the cultured, wealthy and powerful people she evokes'    
Publishers Weekly

ISBN 0 586 07035 4

Mallory Keswick is a woman with the world at her feet. Then out of the blue, that world is shattered by violent tragedy and she loses all that she holds dear.

Torn by grief, Mal knows that she must rebuild her life. She flees to a village on the Yorkshire moors where she learns to draw on the deepest reserves of her spirit, and to look life in the eye once more.

Returning to Connecticut, Mal opens a café and shop selling gourmet food and kitchenware and turns it into a highly successful venture. But there remains in her life an aching void, a grief that no individual, nor her new-found business acumen, can assuage. Then she meets Richard Markson, and once more, Mal's life has come to a crossroads. It is he who shows her that she has everything to gain – but only if she has the courage to take it.

Totally absorbing and heartrendingly real,
Everything to Gain
lays bare Mallory's life to expose powerful feelings that are startlingly familiar, because they are our own.

‘Heart-rending stuff …
Everything to Gain
is truly uplifting'
Today

ISBN: 0 586 21740 1

Sebastian, the fifty-six-year-old patriarch of the Locke clan, is handsome, charismatic, a man of immense charm and intelligence. He heads up the philanthropic Locke Foundation, funded by the vast family fortune built by his forefathers. Committed to relieving the suffering of those in genuine need, Locke travels the globe, personally giving away millions a year to the poor, the sick, and the victims of natural disasters and wars. He is seen as a beacon of light in today's darkly violent world. That is why the police are so baffled when Sebastian is found dead in mysterious circumstances. Has he been murdered, and if so who would want to kill the world's greatest philanthropist? Could such an upstanding man have enemies?

Vivienne Trent, an American journalist, met Locke as a child, married him, divorced him, but stayed close to him. Aware that there was another side to this enigmatic man, she sets out to find the truth about his death and about Locke himself.

‘Few novelists are as consummate as Barbara Taylor Bradford at keeping the reader turning the page. She is one of the world's best at spinning yarns.'
Guardian

ISBN: 0 586 21739 8

Meredith Stratton is forty-four and a successful businesswoman.

The owner of six international inns, she is about to celebrate her only daughter's engagement. At this seemingly happy time in her life, Meredith begins to suffer from a strange illness that baffles everyone. Her doctor cannot find a cause for her debilitating symptoms, and, desperate for answers, she seeks the help of a psychiatrist. Through therapy, Meredith peels back the layers of her life to discover the truth behind her most careful creation – herself.

Secrets, survival, redemption and love abound in this compelling story of a woman who uncovers the key to her tormented past, and finds the courage to live by her own rules.

‘Barbara Taylor Bradford is a wonderful storyteller who can convey the power of love. The warmth and compassion of her tale brought tears to my jaded old eyes.'

Sunday Express

ISBN: 0 586 21741 X

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

HarperCollins

An imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers
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Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins
Publishers
1995

Copyright © Barbara Taylor Bradford 1995

Barbara Taylor Bradford asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Epub Edition © JUNE 2011 ISBN: 9780007443185