For a split-second, she collided with splintering golden eyes, incandescent with disbelief. And then she tore her gaze from his and forced herself to walk straight-backed down the corridor and out of the hospital.
She was in shock, so deep in shock that she didn't even know where she was going. Callie was dead. She could not yet accept that. Their parents had died in a car crash when Sarah was seventeen. There had been no money. Callie had only been eleven.
'Look after Callie,' her mother had moaned repeatedly in Intensive Care. Mary Hartwell had still been fretting about her youngest child when she'd breathed her last.
Sarah had left school, given up all hope of any further education and concentrated on her sister's needs. She had persuaded her father's cousin Gina to let them live with her. With Gina in the background, the social services had allowed Sarah to keep her sister. Sarah had worked as a waitress. Every day she had come home to cook and clean and tidy up after Gina, who had regarded her as unpaid domestic help and had, in addition, taken almost every penny of her meagre wages.
As soon as she was eighteen, Sarah had found other accommodation. She had done her utmost to give Callie a secure and loving home. She had made her sister her number one priority. And Callie had thrived. A golden girl with the long-legged lithe good looks of a Californian blonde. Smart into the bargain, Sarah observed with helpless pride. It hadn't been easy to keep her lively extrovert sister's mind on the necessity of studying to get on in the world.But Sarah had managed it. Callie had passed her A levels and gone on to university to study languages. Sarah had been as proud as any mother could have been. She had taken on another job part-time in the evenings so that Callie wouldn't be short of money. Everything had been going so well before Damon Terzakis had entered her sister's life.
'I've met this truly fabulous Greek!' Callie had gushed down the phone. 'He's incredibly handsome and rich and crazy about me...'
'Sounds too good to be true,' Sarah had murmured tautly, disconcerted by Callie's excitement. Callie's boyfriends normally came and went without Callie enthusing about any of them. A beauty from her early teens, Callie had taken young men very much in her stride.
'I'll bring him over to meet you some time soon,' Callie had promised.
But weeks had passed before Sarah had finally met Damon. He had been twenty-five,- boyishly good-looking and full of careless charm. His lustrous brown eyes had helplessly followed Callie's every move. He had talked to Sarah as though she were Callie's mother rather than her sister, painstakingly courteous and deferential. By the end of the evening, Sarah had felt like a middle-aged matron of at least fifty.
Damon had gone out of his way to stress that his intentions were serious. Reaching for Callie's hand, he had said, 'I love your sister very much and I want to marry her.'
Behind her polite smile, Sarah had ironically been appalled. She had considered Callie far too young to make such a commitment. She had worried that Callie would abandon her studies outright or, at the very least, allow romance to take over to the detriment of her work. But Sarah had been too sensible to allow her feelings to show. One hint of opposition and Callie was likely to rebel.Her sister was headstrong and opinionated. Only tact and diplomacy were likely to win Sarah a hearing.
'Of course marriage,' Damon had stated smoothly, 'it would be in the future.'
Sarah had rewarded him with a beaming smile. 'I think that's very sensible,' she had said. 'Both of you have all the time in the world.'
'Don't talk platitudes,' Callie had snapped, withdrawing her hand from Damon's abruptly.
'But we have already discussed this, Callie mou,' Damon had protested and, turning his attention back to Sarah, he had added, 'Our love must be seen to have stood the test of time if I am to have any hope of winning my brother's consent to our marriage.'#p#分页标题#e#
'Your brother's consent?' Sarah had repeated helplessly.
'Greek families function on the basis of a strict hierarchy,' Callie had intervened witheringly. 'At the top of the family pecking order is the dominant male. Damon's father is dead. His brother, Alexis is the big wheel in the Terzakis tribe.'
Faint colour had darkened Damon's good-looking features. He had cast Callie a look of surprisingly strong reproof.
'I don't think you should take cheap shots at Damon's big brother,' Sarah had told her unrepentant sister while she'd prepared supper in their tiny kitchen. 'Or his family. He was offended-----'
'Stuff!'Callie had muttered, still angry. 'He's a grown man with a responsible job. But when he talks'about Alex he acts like a little boy. He never stops talking about him. Alex this... Alex that. You'd think Alex was God in his life.'