Читать онлайн «Married In A Moment»

Автор Jessica Steele

Dear Reader,

Weddings are wonderful; private and yet, at the same time, shared by and with family and friends.

My wedding to Peter passed in a haze of warmth and happiness. It was a blissfully sunny September day, with photographs taken afterward in a delightful flower-filled garden.

This year we celebrate our Pearl anniversary, enjoying thirty years together—enhanced to begin with by our first new arrival: a heart-stealing puppy by the name of Tess.

Wishing you as much happiness.

Yours sincerely,

Welcome to Whirlwind Weddings!

Whirlwind Weddings is a heart-stirring miniseries about

matrimony, featuring strong, irresistible heroes, feisty

heroines and four marriages, made not so much in heaven

as in a hurry!

This series was the idea of three very special authors who

are close friends: Heather Allison, Ruth Jean Dale and

Day Leclaire. They’re joined by ever-popular British author

Jessica Steele. When the authors came up with the idea for

Whirlwind Weddings, we gave them just one stipulation:

their heroes and heroines had to meet and

marry within a week! Mission impossible?

Well, a lot can happen in seven days... .

If you enjoyed Whirlwind Weddings,

do write and let us know!

The Editors, Harlequin Romance

Harlequin Enterprises Ltd.

225 Duncan Mill Road

Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9

Who says you can’t hurry love?

Married In A Moment

Jessica Steele

CHAPTER ONE

ELLENA stared at the television screen in stunned horror, her brain numbed by what the newscaster had just announced—an avalanche in the Austrian Alps. An avalanche in the very area where Justine was spending a ski-ing holiday with her boyfriend Kit!

Ellena didn’t seem able to think as the newscaster carried on solemnly about tons of snow, rocks and boulders, and no chance of anyone surviving such circumstance! Having done with that piece of news, he went on to the next item.

Though still disbelieving, she was starting to recover sufficiently from her initial shock to tell herself that she was panicking unnecessarily. Only that morning she had received an ‘our hotel’-type of picture postcard from her sister... But—that must have been posted days ago!

Hurriedly Ellena found the card, feverishly scanning it and looking to see if by any chance there was a printed hotel telephone number.

There was! In next to no time she was busy dialling. If she could just speak to Justine...

The line was engaged. For a half-hour the line was engaged. Ellena accepted that she was not the only anxious relative wanting to get through, though the waiting was unsustainable.

Perhaps Justine was trying to get through to her. She would know that Ellena would be anxious. She put her phone down. It did not ring.

All lines were probably swamped anyway. Perhaps Kit had managed to get through to his family. He had two brothers; the middle one, Russell, and his wife, Pamela, were looking after their baby while Justine and Kit were away.