Dreams Can Come True by Vivienne Dockerty Page A

us, though they’ll be sure to provide us with light clothing. It’s cooler, so I’ve heard in the mountains during the summer months. I’ll come back and tell you all about it in a couple of years or so, unless of course you would be willing to write to me. A chap can get very lonely, even if he is surrounded by his men.”
    “I’d love to write to you. Send your address to Cecelia or Florence and they can pass it on.” Jeremy looked pleased and, saluting smartly, he asked could he have the honour of escorting her to supper as well?
    They sipped sparkling wine together, after partaking of a gourmet buffet, then ventured into a secluded alcove when the chaperone looked the other way.
    Jeremy was flushed with the warmth of the ballroom, the wine he had been imbibing and the embarrassment of a possible rejection if Hannah turned him down.
    “Hannah,” he said, taking her gloved hands in his and placing a kiss on each one. “I have something to ask you. Could you possibly wait for me to come back from my tour of duty? I would find it very pleasing to make you my bride.”
    Her eyes widened in surprise at his suggestion. He could have his pick of any of the young ladies that were in the ballroom. She said so and was pleased when he shook his head and spoke of his devotion to her.
    “I’ve always looked upon you as much more than a friend of my sisters’. I admire your looks, your candour and the way you have a sparkling wit and repartee. I don’t want a dull as ditchwater, well brought-up, little mouse type of a life partner. I want someone who excites me, vivacious and full of fun like you are. We’d have a good marriage and you could continue to do the work you carry out for the various local charities. Oh yes, I’ve done my homework; though your background is trade you’ve had every social advantage, which can only enhance our marriage, I’m sure.”
    “Can I have time to think about it? I should inform my parents first before I say yes to you.”
    “There is not a lot of time, Hannah. I would need your decision before I leave. Do say yes, my darling and you’ll make me the happiest man alive.”
    They had the last waltz and he held her as if she was spun sugar, whispering loving endearments into her ear and pleading that she tell him if she had made up her mind.
    Hannah was dizzy with his impassioned attention, a little too dizzy if truth was told from the drinks she had consumed. And when Jeremy tapped on the door of the guest room at Causey Hall later, she had made up her befuddled mind that she was going to marry him. So, it was natural, wasn’t it, for a couple who had just agreed to a betrothal between them, to show a little passion? Especially when one of them was going overseas.
    “Hannah, darling,” Jeremy wheedled, as he lay beside her on the bed. “Give me something to remember you by, in my lonely moments before I go to sleep. Let me love you. Let me take the memory of your sweet kisses and your tender warm body with me. I’ll know then that you are mine forevermore.”
    He slid his pyjama-clad body under the blanket to get even closer.
    She was won over by his touching declarations, though only expected him to do a little more in the way of kisses; not begin to probe her in her private place, nor begin to knead her bosoms as if she was going to turn into a loaf of bread. Then her senses began to stir and she began to retaliate, thrusting her body about in a very unladylike fashion, as he caressed her in places that she had never thought about before. Though when she felt his hard member, urgently seeking its way between her parted legs, Hannah felt she had to say something. Her mother had told her that this act that Jeremy was about to carry out could bring an unmarried girl’s name into disrepute.
    “Stop, Jeremy,” Hannah slurred her words. Intoxicated she might be, but this thing she was about to partake in could bring on long-lasting consequences. She sat up quickly, causing Jeremy