Her Galahad

Her Galahad
Melissa James

Seven years ago, a pregnant Tessa Earldon had been passionately in love with her newlywed husband.But she was told he was dead and was quickly pushed into an ill-fated marriage - and lost her child shortly thereafter. Now divorced and on the run from her ex, when she hears footsteps one dark night, she assumes they belong to her husband. And she's right. But she's wrong about which husband is pursuing her .Six years ago, David Oliveri - aka Jirrah McLaren - was about to claim his bride when her brother intercepted him, threw him in jail and convinced Tessa that he was dead and to marry another. Now Jirrah is a free man, and he's back to get what's his - his wife. His child. And revenge. And not necessarily in that order.

“You must have grieved for me real bad,” David said.

“A whole month, wasn’t it, before you married again—out of respect for my memory? Nice grief, Tessa.”

She blanched. “If I’d known you were alive—”

“What? You wouldn’t have committed bigamy?” At her gasp, he continued. “That’s right, princess—little Miss High Society is a bigamist. Surely with a daddy, brother and husband as barristers, one of them checked out the facts for you before you walked down the aisle for the second time in just over a month?”

“I didn’t know you were alive!” Tessa’s cry throbbed. “They gave me a death certificate! They had a memorial service for you!”

She still sounded stunned. As if she hadn’t known where he’d been all those years. As if she hadn’t betrayed him for wealth, success and a handsome face.

Maybe she hadn’t?

Her Galahad

Melissa James

MELISSA JAMES

is a mother of three living in a beach suburb in county New South Wales. A former nurse, waitress, store assistant, perfume and chocolate (yum!) demonstrator among other things, she believes in taking on new jobs for the fun experience. She’ll try almost anything at least once to see what it feels like—a fact that scares her family on regular occasions. She fell into writing by accident when her husband brought home an article stating how much a famous romance author earned, and she thought, “I can do that!” Years later, she found her niche at Intimate Moments. Currently writing a pilot/spy series set in the South Pacific, she can be found most mornings walking and swimming at her local beach with her husband, or every afternoon running around to her kids’ sporting hobbies, while dreaming of flying, scuba diving, climbing down a cave or over a cliff—anywhere her characters are at the time!

For my mum,

who always said that this book would be the one.

And for Jaime, for her contribution.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Epilogue

Chapter 1

Lynch Hill Primary School

Outback New South Wales

It happened again.

The quiet whisper of chilling menace limped up her spine and entered her flesh with pinprick accuracy, congealing her blood to ice. This primitive instinct, like a savage voodoo curse, always came when she had to run. Run for her life.

The depth of terror that came alive when Cameron was close.

A furtive search of the school grounds, the lane and the road beyond revealed trees, grass, the half-tarred road, softly lowing cows meandering around the paddock opposite the tiny Outback school. A tranquil country scene, nothing to fear.

But she wasn’t paranoid. The pulsing beat of urgency inside her—the need to bolt—never failed. Cameron was here in Lynch Hill, using his cultured angel’s face, the smooth persuasion of his TV evangelist’s voice, the aura of wealth and success to get the information he wanted.

Have you seen this woman?

Like a nightmare in automatic rewind, she could almost smell his spicy lime-coconut scent lingering in the air: the subtle benediction of fear. I’m here, Theresa.

“How’d I do, Miss Honeycutt?”

Tessa started, clicked the stopwatch and walked to the boy panting by the ragged finish line at the end of the playground. “Fifty-nine point five-eight, Matt—a brilliant four hundred! You’ll blitz Sam Iliah at the Country Carnival. Any scout coming from the Australian Institute of Sport is bound to spot you.”