Dreams in Moonlight

Part 5

"Not true?" Amanda teased with easy charm.

"True enough. I'd settle down with the right woman." He replied with some honesty and faint embarrassment. "But it seems to have been like saying open season has commenced! I am a hunted man!" He all but drawled. The fact of the matter was that apparently every single woman within a fifty-mile radius had apparently heard that he was looking for a wife.

"That's a hardship?" Teased Amanda.

"In some ways." He muttered and did his best not to glance at Mallory. He wondered whether she had a boyfriend. Which just annoyed him. The last person he wanted to think about was Mallory. Not when it had taken him years to shift her out of his heart. Only to realize that she had never moved out of his heart.

"You don't want to get married?"

"I do. To the right woman." He shrugged, not sure that he wanted to have this conversation with Mallory present. But given she had not left the small group there was nothing he could do about it. "I guess, as a poor labourer, I should be flattered by the attention." He barely glanced at Mallory, but she felt the intended slap.

"Poor?" Amanda challenged with a grin. Then tacked on when another word registered, "Labourer?"

"Yes. A labourer. There was a time I was considered unworthy marriage material. Useful for a short term dalliance, but not worth marrying." He stated succinctly, his eyes flicked to Mallory for a fleeting second before turning to smile at Amanda. The brief glance was strong enough to slice through Mallory. Thank goodness she had cloaked herself, and could therefore maintain her poise in the face of his blatant accusation about social standing.

But her eyes flashed with frustration and anger. Then she remembered that her cousin would see it and use it against her. So again, resurrected her wall and retreated, albeit not moving away at all.

"Doubt that." Amanda laughed. Greg continued to smile but said nothing more. "I imagine single women all over town, will fall at your feet if you proposed." Amanda smiled, "You might want to try that?"

He chuckled. "Thank you Amanda. Unfortunately, I know from first hand experience, that some women are more, to be blunt, utterly mercenary. Greg shrugged. "At heart I am just a labourer." He grinned but his eyes returned to Mallory, and said, "Social standing, or your position on the job market is important to some." He shrugged, and returned his glance to Amanda. "I learnt, that some women have agendas, what you own, how much you earn and what you wear, means a hell of a lot more to them."

"Well, as I'm sure Mallory, Harriet and Tina will agree, those women are ignorant!" Amanda replied with utter conviction. "I suggest you ignore any woman that stupid!"

Greg looked straight at Mallory, for all of a second, "I intend to."

Mallory acknowledged his intended message with a cool brief nod, but she did not drop eye contact. He found that oddly unsettling. The young girl he remembered was nothing like this cold fish. He'd slighted her twice in the space of minutes and she hadn't even flinched.

She looked calm and sophisticated, her clothes adding to the illusion of poise and glamour. She'd always been a beautiful girl, but she'd grown into a woman of elegance and grace. Her classic bone structure highlighted through careful makeup, her dress code spoke about class and elegance. With her dancer's willowy physique, he imagined she could wear most things and make them look good. So with the additional benefit of a well-cut, obviously expensive dress, that made the most of her assets, she outshone the women in the hall.

"Oh good, the band's going to start up again." Tina announced, hoping to prod Greg into asking her to dance.

"Amanda, would you care to dance?" Greg asked Amanda. He'd already taken her elbow before she could agree. Time to put Mallory well and truly out of his mind. Amanda was a beautiful woman, who he was sure he'd find interesting.

Mallory laced her fingers behind her back, so that he wouldn't see the nervous shake of her hands. She was running out of will power. Holding onto this façade of calm, cool, sophistication, took its toll.

"Yes, that would be lovely." Amanda beamed at him and as he escorted them onto the dance floor, she turned her head to look over her shoulder to look at her friends in open delight. Her face said it all. She was ecstatic. She mouthed a silent 'wow' at her friends then turned back to look where she was being led.

Mallory licked surreptitiously at her dry lips but didn't say anything as Amanda and the man Mallory loved walked toward the dance floor. Now she understood what people meant when they said your heart shattered into hundreds of shards of glass. Now she knew how it felt to have those bits of glass pierce what remained of your soul. How could she feel like this, as her heart shattered again. Her eighteen-old self surfaced, confidence at an ebb, pain racing and scorching every single cell. While she adopted the pose of a marble statue, inside, she was hollow.

"They make a lovely couple, don't they?" Tina sighed, sensing that she had lost her cause with Greg, but that didn't mean she couldn't gain some benefit from the outcome. Harriet wanted to hit Tina. Instead she glanced at Mallory, saw the tension in her eyes and her shoulders. Harriet offered a supportive smile.

Mallory knew she had to say something if she had any chance of stopping Tina. If Tina knew just how hard this was for Mallory, Tina would go for Mallory's jugular. "Yes. They do." Mallory replied quietly and firmly. They did indeed make a good looking couple. The tall, fair haired man and the beautifully elegant blonde. "They looked right together." Mallory said with no inflection, just a statement.

Amanda and Greg completed one revolution around the dance floor, when Greg asked her, "Are you related to Tina? And Mallory?"

"Tina married my cousin six years ago." She told him and swung her head slightly to toss her long blonde hair behind her shoulder, "The family had hoped that Mallory would marry him!" Then Amanda muttered beneath her breath, "I shouldn't have said that." She chuckled. "Strike that from the conversation, ok?"

Greg laughed. "I won't tell." He waited a beat. He was surprised to find that the thought of another man proposing to Mallory caused his heart to slam into his chest with a bruising thud. He thought he was well over her. He was sure he was over her. But that didn't stop him from asking, "So, your cousin and Mallory?"

"They went out for a few weeks. Sort off." Amanda nodded and sighed her disappointment. "But they were the perfect item. He was so in love with her. They were so lovely together."

That caused his heart to pound in anxiety. It was completely unexpected. He was over Mallory. Surely after ten years, it should not matter to him who Mallory dated. But that didn't stop him from seeking more information, "When was that?"

"I guess about seven years ago. Or about that. Euan proposed to her. I know that for a fact."

"And?"His heart literally stopped.