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‘Come on, Kate,’ said Leonie affectionately, as her younger sister hung back as usual as they approached the stable block.
‘That’s right, love,’ said Jess, ‘chin up, chest out and smile!’ She tickled her small sister in the ribs, prodding her forward just as the door flew open and several young men fell back in mock-awe.
‘Get yourself out here, Dysart,’ yelled one of them, ‘I’ve just seen a vision—in triplicate!’
‘It’s the three graces,’ sighed another reverently.
‘Show some respect,’ ordered Adam, amiably cuffing them out of the way. ‘These are my sisters, Leonie, Jessamy and Katharine, whom you may address, if they grant permission, as Leo, Jess and Kate.’
While Adam rattled off introductions, the exuberant young guests, male and female, crowded round his sisters, pressing them to drinks.
‘No alcohol until after supper,’ Adam explained, handing orange juice to Leonie.
‘Did they go along with that?’ she asked in an undertone.
‘Absolutely. We had a pretty wild night on my birthday in Edinburgh. But here on my own patch I’ve laid down the law—no drinking until after supper, and no sneaking back here for illicit snogging and so on. I took them along the cliff path as far as the Eyrie earlier, to warn that it’s a good six hundred feet down from the path to the River Wye, and I’ll repeat the process when the rest of the gang arrive.’ Adam grinned. ‘And don’t worry about Kate. I’ll make sure she has a good time.’ He shouted for silence. ‘Listen up, you lot, my sisters are taking the women over to the house to change, and allocate bedrooms. I’ll introduce the men to my parents later.’
Back at the house time flew by in a flurry of preparation.
Young female guests were shown into the three bedrooms normally occupied by the daughters of the house, and the stream of traffic was constant along the long upper landing as jeans and sweaters were exchanged for scanty little dresses. Everyone jostled for places at full-length mirrors, and latecomers arrived to join in the melee.
‘Thank goodness you had a bath earlier on, Kate,’ said Leonie in the haven of Fenny’s little room. ‘Bags first shower, Jess—I feel travel-stained.’
Later the three of them went downstairs to join their parents for a glass of wine in the lull before more guests arrived. Fenny, in pink taffeta and lacy tights, her dark hair caught up with a velvet bow, was incandescent with excitement as she saw her sisters.
‘You all look gorgeous,’ she cried, rushing from one to the other in admiration.
‘Fenny’s right,’ agreed Tom Dysart, smiling proudly on his daughters.
‘It’s amazing how genetics work,’ said Frances with satisfaction. ‘You’ve all got something of your father and me, in various permutations.’
‘Only I drew the short straw,’ sighed Kate, pulling a face. ‘And I do mean short.’
‘You look stunning,’ said Leonie firmly. ‘And be thankful. Only someone as small as you could wear a dress like that.’
In brief, mint-green organza, with her hair coaxed up into a loose knot of curls, Kate looked very different from her everyday schoolgirl self, but it had taken naked envy from some of Adam’s girlfriends to convince her of the fact.
Leonie had released her own hair from its severe braided coil to cascade in bronze glory to her shoulders, and wore a scarlet silk sheath of such superb cut Jess eyed it reverently.
‘I admire your style, chancing that colour with your hair. Must have cost a lira or two,’ she muttered.
‘You didn’t pick that little number up in a charity shop, either,’ retorted Leonie. ‘Looks as though you were shrink-wrapped into it.’
Jess grinned. ‘I knew Adam’s girlies would all be wearing floaty little numbers so I opted for black and sexy.’
‘Very different from Leonie’s twenty-first,’ said their mother reminiscently. ‘That was all satin ballgowns.’
‘Except for Leo,’ said Jess bitterly. ‘She conned you into buying her that clinging gold job with the plunging back. It made the rest of us look like lampshades.’
‘I wasn’t even allowed to stay up,’ said Kate, smiling at Fenny. ‘You’re a lucky girl.’
‘I know,’ said Fenny, pink with excitement. ‘And I’m going to sleep on the folding bed in Mummy’s room.’
There was sudden commotion as the male contingent arrived from the stables; the girls stampeded down the stairs to join them, and Adam’s voice, loud above the rest, shouted that some of the neighbours had arrived, along with the DJ and the music equipment.
Tom Dysart hurried off to supervise installation in the conservatory off the dining room, and Frances followed him with Kate and Fenny to welcome the newcomers, but her elder daughters remained behind for a moment of quiet together before the party began in earnest.
‘How long are you home for, Leo?’ asked Jess.
‘Two weeks, at least.’ Leonie explained about the flu epidemic.
Jess whistled. ‘Won’t this Roberto of yours object?’
‘He wasn’t happy.’
‘He’d be even less so if he knew Jonah Savage was on the scene. Or doesn’t he know about Jonah?’
‘No. Though it wouldn’t matter if he did.’ Leonie shrugged. ‘I’m nearly thirty, Jess. It would be pretty strange if I hadn’t had a boyfriend or two in the past.’
Jess gave her a scathing look. ‘Come off it, Leo. You and Jonah were crazy about each other.’
‘But not any more. Come on. Time we joined the fray.’
‘In a minute.’ Jess put a hand on her arm. ‘Look, I wouldn’t bring this up if Jonah hadn’t reappeared on the scene, but come on, Leo, after all this time surely you can tell me what happened. Please. I promise I’ll never mention it again.’
‘The usual thing. I found out he was involved with someone else.’ Leonie’s mouth curved in a wry, bitter smile. ‘And so, dear reader, I bolted back to Italy, and instead of coming home at the end of the academic year to get married, I stayed on at the school to become Miss Jean Brodie, Italian-style.’
Jess whistled softly. ‘I knew it had to be something like that, but I just couldn’t believe it. And don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.’
‘You’d better not. Everyone else—including Mother and Dad—thinks I just changed my mind,’ warned Leonie.
‘Except Jonah, of course.’
‘Including Jonah. He never knew I found out.’
‘What?’ Jess frowned. ‘Who was the woman, Leo?’
‘Not my secret to tell.’
‘Whoever it was, the affair died a quick death—what’s the matter?’
‘Indigestion.’
‘You know my boss is a friend of his,’ Jess went on. ‘Plenty of female company in Jonah’s life, I hear, but nothing permanent. Is Roberto permanent?’ she added.
‘I think he wants to be.’
‘And what do you want—or need?’
Leonie smiled brightly. ‘At this moment in time, entertainment. Let’s party.’
The drawing room was soon thronged with friends and neighbours, but the younger set crammed into the vast dining room, where the ancient Persian carpet had been taken up to leave the gleaming wood floor bare for dancing. The chairs had been removed, and the dining table pushed against one wall and laden with the supper Frances Dysart had decreed should be eaten the moment all the guests had arrived, before there was any dancing or too much consumption of the wine and beer provided.
‘I want your friends to line their stomachs first,’ Frances told her son very firmly.
When Jonah Savage was shown in Leonie was describing her life in Florence to some of her parents’ friends. She felt Kate stiffen with apprehension beside her, but Fenny charged across the room, her face aglow, and before Jonah could do more than murmur a conventional greeting the little girl had towed him to the far side of the room to join the group round her parents. Leonie saw him shake his head, smiling, as her mother offered him supper, then turned her attention back to the Andersons, who had known her all her life, and were doing their level best to behave as though they’d never received an invitation to the wedding of Leonie Dysart and Jonah Savage.
Sheer will-power forced Leonie to carry on eating, talking and behaving as though the arrival of her onetime fiancé was of no more note than any other guest. But sensitive Kate promptly rescued Leonie’s abandoned supper, and roped her into taking trays of plates off to the kitchen, where Mrs Briggs, who helped in the house on weekdays, was firmly in charge, with the help of one of her daughters. Leonie spent a few minutes chatting with them in the kitchen, then took Kate by the arm.
‘Right then, love,’ she said firmly. ‘Time for you to join the younger set.’
Kate looked at her in entreaty. ‘I can’t go in there on my own—’
‘You don’t have to. I’ll come with you.’
As Adam had promised, Kate was instantly absorbed into a crowd of friendly young people, and Leonie, wanting nothing more than a bed to herself in the dark, returned to the drawing room to help Jess circulate with wine.
Jonah Savage was talking to some of her father’s friends as Leonie and Jess removed plates, and refilled glasses.
‘Are you sure I can’t get you anything to eat, Jonah,’ asked Leonie, smiling brightly as she poured more wine into his glass.
Before he could reply a great thumping beat began to reverberate through the room, and Fenny let out a screech of excitement.
‘It’s the disco, Mummy. Please can I go in the party now?’
‘I’ll take her, if I may,’ Jonah offered.
Frances nodded and Jonah bowed formally to the ecstatic six-year-old.
‘May I have this dance, Miss Dysart?’
Tom Dysart grinned ruefully at the assembled guests, and suggested that everyone join the party to hop around to the noise for a few minutes. ‘Afterwards,’ he added, ‘we’ll leave the energetic bit to the young and get back here for coffee and medicinal brandy.’
The moment Leonie and Jess joined the dancers they were drawn into the throng, where Kate was dancing happily with one of Adam’s friends, showing no trace of her earlier shyness. For a breathless few minutes the older set valiantly kept pace with the young, then Adam had a word with the disc jockey and turned to grin at his parents as Frank Sinatra began to sing ‘My Funny Valentine’.
Frances Dysart, née Valentine, blew her son a kiss, and Adam scooped Fenny up and settled the beaming little girl on his hip as he jigged slowly round with total disregard for timing.
‘Mind if I cut in?’ said Jonah, and Leonie’s partner, unversed in the skills of ballroom dancing, surrendered her to him with a rueful grin.
In Jonah’s arms Leonie moved in silence to the music, her body in instant, perfect rhythm with his, as it had always been in the past, both on the dance floor and in private. Jonah held her lightly enough, but the touch of his hand on her back burned through the silk of her dress. She tensed, certain that everyone must be watching and speculating, felt his fingers tighten on her hand, and at last surrendered to the eyes that were willing her to look up.
‘It’s been a long time,’ said Jonah softly, and pulled her closer. Her heart leapt as she felt his body stir against her. She tried to put space between them, but his hand hardened against her back, keeping her in contact so close her face flamed, and her dress felt suddenly too tight as her breasts hardened in response impossible to control. She stared blindly over his shoulder, trying to ignore the heat which penetrated through their clothes, her gossamer silk and the fine Italian wool of Jonah’s suit no barrier to the desire that surged between them like an electric current.
Then the music stopped and Jonah released her, smiling at her in narrow-eyed triumph. He thanked her with impeccable courtesy, then to Leonie’s secret rage deserted her to partner Jess.
Leonie left them to it, and went upstairs to Fenny’s room for a few private moments of recovery and repair. Afterwards she went to help serve coffee and drinks in the drawing room, and stayed there, chatting for a while, until her mother asked if she felt brave enough to detach Fenella from the party.
‘You know she’ll do anything for you, Leo, but be firm,’ said Tom Dysart, puffing on a large cigar.
‘Don’t worry,’ Leonie assured him. ‘She’s probably worn out by now.’
Fenny was tired enough, but tearfully reluctant to leave the revels. She clung to Jonah’s hand, pleading to stay a little longer.
‘Darling, it’s very late,’ said Leonie gently. ‘Say goodnight to everyone, there’s a love.’
Adam solved the problem by stopping the music. He ordered everyone to bid farewell to Miss Fenella Dysart, and after a chorus of goodnights and blown kisses Fenny allowed Jonah to lead her from the room.
‘Will you come up and read to me, Jonah? Please?’ she cajoled.
He smiled at her indulgently. ‘I’m told you can read very well yourself.’
‘I’m too tired,’ said Fenny, sounding so forlorn Leonie relented.
‘I’ll take you along to Mother and Dad to say goodnight very quickly to everyone, and when you’re tucked up in bed perhaps Jonah would be kind enough to read a very short story?’ she said, casting a look at him.
‘With pleasure,’ he said promptly.
In her parents’ rather draughty bathroom later, Leonie hurried the drooping little girl through her preparations for bed, then settled her down on the folding bed in the dressing room off the main bedroom, and went out onto the landing to beckon Jonah inside.
It was a painful, disturbing experience to listen while Jonah read to Fenny. Watching, Leonie felt a sharp, agonising pang for what might have been; survived it, then, when Fenny was asleep, went ahead of Jonah through her parents’ room and out onto the landing.
‘Thank you,’ she said formally. ‘If you’d like to go downstairs to join whichever company you prefer, I’ll be down in a few minutes. I need repairs.’
‘I’ll wait here for you.’
‘Please don’t,’ she said coldly.
His eyes narrowed. ‘Ah. Back to square one again.’
‘What did you expect?’
‘Are you telling me I imagined what happened when we were dancing?’ he demanded fiercely.
‘No,’ she snapped. ‘I’m not. We were always very—compatible in that way. But you can’t use sex like a dose of antibiotics, Jonah. Some things it can’t cure.’
‘Sex,’ he repeated, after a taut, throbbing silence. ‘How succinct. A shame you’re not equally so on other subjects. Our broken engagement, for instance.’
‘Hypocrite! You know—’ She turned away abruptly as a group of girls came streaming up the stairs in search of a bathroom. ‘See you later,’ she added out loud, and gave him a fever-bright smile of dismissal.
A peep in at the dancers later showed Adam, Jess and Kate quite literally having a ball, but Leonie, feeling a hundred years older than her siblings, made no move to join them. She returned to the less frenetic atmosphere of the drawing room instead, and circulated among the company, topping up drinks, stopping to chat here and there. And she took good care to extend her civility and her smile in equal measures to Jonah when he came in, knowing full well that everyone in the room was speculating on his presence and her reaction to it. When her parents’ guests began to leave at last Leonie seized on the job of escorting them out, and eventually found herself alone at the door with Jonah.
‘Say my goodnights to Adam and your sisters,’ he said coolly.
‘You’ve given up dancing already?’
His eyes shuttered. ‘I’ve given up a lot of things, Leo. Hope included.’
Leonie shivered in the open doorway in the icy wind blowing up from the river. ‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ she said politely.
