Trafford Publishing: A Man In Uniform

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A Man In Uniform

by Christina Janes

213 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0514; ISBN 1-55369-701-4; US$20.50, C$25.74, EUR16.80, £11.60

A Man in Uniform is a romantic novel set in Australia and New Zealand where the heroine, Melanie Bodie, finds duty must come before true love.

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about the book about the author sample excerpts catalogue info

About the Book

Melanie Bodie has completed her University studies in landscape architecture, and is deciding what to do next when circumstances at home change her future. She finds herself back in the small Australian town she wanted to get away from, and again living with her dominating father. Her father and brothers are trying to manipulate her future. Finally she cannot take it any longer.

Fleeing to New Zealand, she not only meets a fascinating man but also is given her first real landscaping job to complete. This man is already engaged, but despite this a relationship begins to develop. Melanie finds herself falling in love with the type of man she had vowed never to consider. She works hard to complete her landscape project, and as this is finished she is invited to go to Aukland for a sightseeing trip. It is here that she realises that he is the man for her, and that she loves him.

But fate takes another turn, and Melanie becomes the victim of retaliation, as well as being urgently needed again. She rushes back to Australia, and then back to the small town where she is yet again under the influence of her father. She feels trapped, and uncertain of what to do - should she follow her heart, even though circumstances have changed? Should she go off overseas, or should she just give in to her father's plans? She feels heartsick and alone, realising she cannot have the man she really wants.

About the Author

A lifelong love of reading has led to a desire to write. Now semi-retired from a long career in education, Christina draws on her own interests (travel, gardening, cats) and experience (mother, teacher, administrator, manager) to create romance within new horizons.

Sample Excerpts

CHAPTER SEVEN

"What do you mean postponed?" Patty flew at him, small dark eyes flashing. "We've only just set the date! What will everyone think? And why should I?"
"Nobody has been told yet have they?" Rick stood, arms folded, leaning with his back on the car, his voice deliberate. He had been trying to avoid an unpleasant scene, but now he knew he had to give himself time to think, time to reconsider.
Over the last week Patty had kept going on and on about needing to plan the wedding, and all the things that had to be done to make it the biggest occasion the town had seen in a long time.
"Of course I've told the family, so that they can get organised," she snapped, "and why shouldn't I? What's the problem? We've agreed!" Her voice was strident and whining, her alarm evident. That her future plans might be in jeopardy p; it was unthinkable!
Rick shifted his feet uneasily, scuffing the loose gravel of the lookout car park, not wanting to go through this, but knowing that he must. He knew he must not loose his temper, and must stay calm and reasoned.
He unfolded his arms, and thrust his hands deep in his pockets. "Patty, I just I just don't want to commit right at this moment. I need more time. It's not that I don't care for you - I do - but I just feel you're rushing everything". Patty had jumped up from the seat and now stood facing him, arms akimbo, enraged. "How dare you! How dare you!" her voice was like staccato shrieks in the night. "accuse me of rushing! It's you who said you want to get settled as soon as you'd come back to Cambridge, not me! It's you who've kept me waiting while you played around in Auckland, never making up your mind, and never telling me what you're up to". She stamped her foot, the words spitting from her. " So I hang around for you - now you've changed your mind? Is that what your telling me?" She flung herself onto the wooden seat, shoulders hunched, panting, tears brimming in her eyes.
Rick clenched and unclenched his fists in his pockets. He felt slightly sick. He knew what he was doing was hurtful, but Patty was no longer what he wanted.
He wondered idly if he'd really ever wanted her or had she just always been there? He knew he should comfort her and he hated it when she cried.
He moved to her, and sat down heavily, next to her. She shifted away from him.
He sat on the seat, his strong arms braced, his hands clenching the seat, showing his knuckles white.
"Patty, I just need more time - I'm not sure what I want -I'm just not sure. Please Patty, don't cry!"
He slipped his arm lightly around her shoulders, not wanting to hold her but knowing he should comfort her. She twisted towards him, and thumped her head on his chest, sniffing loudly.
"Oh Rick! Rick! Please," she sobbed, "you're all I've ever wanted! Please, Rick, don't do this to me, please". She raised her head, her face streaked with tears, her eyes imploring. Her anger was spent, now she was pleading.
Rick looked down at her stricken face, then looked away, out across the winking lights of the town below. He hated tears and he hated scenes, and most of all at this moment he hated himself.
He stared hard into the darkness, not moving, his arms still draped lightly around Patty's trembling shoulders.
Minutes passed, then he felt Patty stiffen, and pulling back her head she looked directly at him, her face now vivid.
"There's someone else isn't there?" she snarled through clenched teeth. "There's got to be someone else!" Her small hands balled, as if she was going to hit him. Rick was so taken aback at the vehemence of her retort that he visibly jumped, and pulled himself away from her as far as he could. Now it was his turn to be angry, and he felt his ire bubbling from the pit of his stomach. He felt cold, detached, now more in control, so shocked had he been at her attack.
"I didn't say there was anyone else. I said I needed more time," he said deliberately and carefully, his sympathy for Patty's tears diminishing rapidly.
She continued to stare at him, as if trying to look into his mind and pick out his innermost thoughts.
"There must be!" she spat at him again. "This is your town as much as mine. Everyone knows we've been together for years, and everyone expects us to get married now you've come back. This is where your life is, and it's what you've always wanted!"
Rick took a deep breath, his head still down. His tone became measured and deliberate. "I may have thought it was what I wanted when I was younger, Patty, but things have changed. I've changed. You don't spend time doing my job and still be the same at the end of it. You have no idea how differently I feel about a lot of things, and you haven't really wanted to know have you?"
"Take me home!" Patty had leapt to her feet and flounced towards the car. "I'm just not going to listen to this. I don't need to hear this".

The journey back to Patty's home was silent; each of them consumed by their own personal thoughts.
Patty flung open the car door almost before it had stopped, and looked as if she was going to rush inside the house, then stopped abruptly, and turned back to him. She was twisting her hands.
"Here," her tone was menacing as she stepped to the car and it's open window, "take this!" and she hurtled the ring he had given her into the car. It dropped onto his leg and under his feet.
Rick paused, eyes wide with amazement at the violence of her reaction, but before he could speak she flounced up the path and was inside the house.
The front door slammed violently.
Rick momentarily contemplated following her, then changed his mind.
He opened the car door and got out, his hands feeling inside the seat and then on the floor for the ring. He found it, and straightened up, looking at the small ring in his hand, and then at the firmly shut front door. He hesitated, then with a shrug put the ring in his pocket, re-entered the car and drove purposefully back to his flat, his jaw set firmly, his eyes focused on the road.

Adam was sitting on the old couch watching TV.
Rick strode to the refrigerator and seized a can of beer, snapping the top and drained half of it in a single motion.
Adam regarded him quizzically from over the back of the couch. "You okay?" he inquired.
Rick dropped his tall frame into a battered armchair. "It's over".
He took another long swallow of his beer.
"Over? What's over?" Adam's question was tentative.
"Patty and me! All over".
Adam turned his full attention to his friend, clicking off the television remote in his hand. "Oh! Are you sure?"
Rick nodded morosely, cradling his beer in both hands and staring fixedly at the can.
"You mean finito - finished p; gone?"
Rick nodded again, then shook his head sadly, and, as if talking to himself added, "But is it right?"
"Think I'll have a beer too!" Adam swung his legs off the couch and stood up. He looked at the hunched shape of Rick, the beer can clenched in his hands.
"I think it could be a long night!" he said to himself as he too helped himself from the refrigerator. "Yes -a very long one!"

* * * *
On the other side of town Mel sat gazing out the window, the book on her knees unread.
It was almost a week since her dinner with Rick and she had not heard from him since. She leaned back in her chair audibly sighing.

Kit looked up from the paper she was reading and sent Mel is slightly bemused look. John also heard the sigh and raised his eyebrows quizzically at his wife, a slight grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. Kit shook her head slightly warning John not to comment. Obediently he turned back to his television programme.

Catalogue Information