A Perfect Christmas Read Online Free Page A

Caitlyn Thomas responded, ‘Can’t it wait, Neil? I still have a few details I need to discuss with Reverend Harper and . . .’
    He said evenly, ‘Cait, you’ve given your instructions to the Reverend on several previous occasions to my knowledge. I’m sure you don’t need to keep going over them with him. Now I do need to speak to you.’ He then asked the clergyman, ‘Is there somewhere private we can go, please?’
    ‘You’re quite welcome to use the Vestry,’ Reverend Harper told him. Then he took a quick glance at his watch. ‘Er . . . will this take long, Mr Graham? Only we’re already over-running and I have sick parishioners to visit yet.’
    Neil assured him, ‘I’ll be as quick as I can.’
    The rest of the gathering looked on perplexed as he guided a bemused Cait into the Vestry. Once inside, Neil shut the door behind them.
    She stared at him expectantly for a moment. When he stared back at her, seemingly tongue-tied, her impatience got the better of her and she snapped, ‘Neil, you said what you had to say to me was urgent, so please get on with it. I have a mountain of things still to do and the wedding is only seven days away.’
    He had been experiencing feelings of dread, afraid that yet again he was going to back down and not tell her what he knew he needed to, but Cait’s reminding him that their wedding was only a few days away hardened his resolve. He blurted out, ‘I can’t do this any more, Cait.’
    She stared at him, utterly shocked, before smiling brightly and telling him, ‘Oh, goodness, for a moment there I thought you were telling me you didn’t want to marry me! But you mean you can’t do any more of this rehearsal tonight as you’ve arranged to meet your mates in the pub. Surely they’ll understand why you’re late, though, considering the circumstances. It’s not like it’s your stag night, is it? That’s not until next Friday. And while we’re on the subject, Neil, please make sure those mates of yours don’t let you drink too . . .’
    He sharply interjected, ‘Cait! Will you for once let me finish what I want to say without assuming you know what it is?’
    Her mouth snapped shut and her eyes widened in shock. Neil had never used this tone of voice to her before.
    Taking advantage of the silence, he told her, ‘When I said I can’t go on with this any more you were right to think I meant with the wedding.’
    Her jaw dropped and she stared at him for several seconds before she whispered, ‘You do want to call the wedding off?’
    Without hesitation, he nodded. ‘Yes, I do. I’m sorry, Cait, I really am.’
    She gazed at him a while longer before she gave a knowing laugh, patted him affectionately on the arm and told him, ‘Oh, sweetheart, you’re just suffering from wedding nerves, that’s all. All grooms suffer from them.’
    She turned away from him and made to head for the door but he grabbed her arm. When she was facing him again, he said to her, ‘I’m not suffering from wedding nerves, Cait. I . . . I . . . well, there’s no easy way of putting this, but the truth is that I don’t want to marry you. I can’t see a happy future for me with you, Cait, it’s as simple as that.’
    It was evident that this announcement had stunned her rigid. She stared open-mouthed at him again before she blustered, ‘Then why did you ask me to spend the rest of my life with you?’
    He sighed heavily, raking one hand through his hair. ‘I didn’t ask you to, Cait.’
    She looked stupefied. ‘Yes, you did. In the Chinese restaurant that Saturday night.’
    He shook his head. ‘No, I didn’t. On the table near us a man proposed to his girlfriend, which we couldn’t help but overhear, and you said that you’d like to get married, which I took to mean one day, so I said that I would too, and have a couple of children, and you assumed from what I’d just said that I was proposing to you . . .’
    Her mouth was opening and closing fish-like and she seemed