Mother Of The Bride

Carole Mortimer

Carole Mortimer is one of Mills & Boon’s best loved Modern Romance authors. With nearly 200 books published and a career spanning 35 years, Mills & Boon are thrilled to present her complete works available to download for the very first time! Rediscover old favourites - and find new ones! - in this fabulous collection…Reunited with her husbandTwo years ago, Helen Palmer married powerful, dynamic Zack Neilson to fulfil a beloved matriarch's dying wish. It had simply been a marriage of convenience and—afraid of the longings he had unleashed in her body and soul—Helen immediately cut Zack out of her life…But when her eighteen-year-old daughter—from a previous disastrous union—announces her engagement to Zack's son, Helen can’t avoid her husband any longer. Zack is back in her life…and this time he's not leaving!

Mother of the Bride

Carole Mortimer

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Table of Contents

Cover (#u15fdf0e2-d74b-511d-8928-aa8a38aedec8)

Title Page (#u451c7229-6c10-5360-a493-7e9dca28e551)

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ONE (#u06f0b525-21d8-5e8e-a4d6-4cc464501101)

Mr G. Neilson

and Miss E. Palmer.

The engagement is joyfully announced between Gregory, son of Mr Z. Neilson, of Knightsbridge, London, and Emily, daughter of Mrs H. Palmer, of London, W14.

HELEN choked on a mouthful of orange juice as the announcement in The Times almost seemed to leap out of the page at her. Emily and Greg? What on earth—–? This had to be some sort of practical joke! There was no way—–

‘What is it, Helen?’ The man seated across the breakfast table frowned at her enquiringly.

She immediately folded the newspaper, announcement inwards, deliberately keeping her movements unhurried, mopping up the orange juice she had spilt in her initial reaction, with the snowy white napkin from her knee, smiling reassuringly at her father.

‘The juice went the wrong way,’ she dismissed lightly. Her father had a heart condition and she didn't want him upset by what was, after all, just a practical joke being carried out on Emily by one of her friends because it was her birthday today. Except that Helen's father would find it no funnier than Helen did herself.

‘It was very clumsy of you, Helen.’ He stood up to get a damp cloth.

She felt irritated at the rebuke. ‘It's only juice, and the tablecloth will wash,’ she snapped—and then wished she hadn't as her father looked at her with hurt reproach for her uncharacteristic sharpness.

But that announcement in the newspaper had shaken her, she had to admit, for all that she knew it was nonsense.

‘I'm sorry,’ she sighed, standing up too. ‘I'll have to go, I have three weddings on today.’ Nevertheless, she automatically began to clear the breakfast things from the table before she went, with the economy of movement that was typical of her.

‘Leave that, Helen,’ her father chided. ‘I can do it when you've gone.'

She smiled at him affectionately for the offer, completing the task, feeling slightly guilty for her earlier abruptness. ‘Don't forget we're meeting Emily for dinner tonight,’ she reminded him as she pulled on the jacket to her black tailored suit, the high-necked light blue blouse she wore beneath making the grey of her eyes look almost the same colour.

He looked offended at the implication that he was becoming absent-minded, loath to admit even to himself that he was seventy-eight. ‘As if I would forget my granddaughter's eighteenth birthday!'

As if any of them could, Helen smiled inwardly; Emily had been driving them all mad with it for weeks now!

Tonight they were having an intimate dinner for the three of them; tomorrow Emily was having a party at a local hotel for all her friends. It had been their way of including her grandfather in the celebrations without putting him through the ordeal of a large, noisy party.

Helen paused to look at her reflection in the hall mirror on her wa