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‘Are you?’ He shrugged. ‘You know, Leo, for a moment, as I held you in my arms, I was fool enough to hope things had changed.’
‘Nothing’s changed,’ she said with sudden passion. ‘How you can act the innocent, Jonah, when all the time—’ She broke off, suddenly weary. ‘Oh what’s the use? You and I both know what happened. Why do you think I stay away from home so much?’
‘I wish I knew,’ he retorted. ‘Enlighten me.’
She stared at him, shaking her head. ‘What a marvellous actor you are, Jonah Savage. You’re so brilliant in the role of wronged fiancé—’ Leonie smiled brightly as her parents escorted the last of their guests along the hall towards them. ‘Thank you so much for sparing the time tonight, Jonah,’ she said distinctly. ‘You made Fenny very happy.’
‘I’m glad,’ he responded in kind. ‘She’s a delightful little girl.’ He turned to smile at Tom and Frances Dysart. ‘It was a great party. Thank you for inviting me.’
Jonah departed with the Andersons, after general farewells that required nothing more of Leonie than the smile which felt pasted to her face. Afterwards she told her parents she was too tired to rejoin the dancing.
‘You won’t get much sleep,’ said her mother ruefully. ‘I’m afraid the music won’t stop until two at the earliest.’
‘Never mind.’ Leonie eyed her spike-heeled scarlet sandals with hostility. ‘At least I can take these off!’
Later, huddled under a quilt on the inflated mattress set up beside Fenny’s double bed, Leonie knew that even if the house were perfectly quiet she would still be awake. Seeing Jonah again, and, worse still, discovering that the old, familiar chemistry was as strong as ever, was no recipe for sleep. Seven long years, she thought bitterly, yet the pain still cut like a knife. When she’d posted Jonah’s ring to him and fled back to Italy that fateful spring her astounded parents had taken a lot of convincing before accepting her repeated explanation about changing her mind. They had taken to Jonah from the first. And very obviously still looked on him as the injured party. She gritted her teeth in frustration. Now he was in the neighbourhood, it was an impossible situation. And because everyone knew the school was closed she could hardly hurt her parents by running back to Florence again to keep out of the way. Nor would she. Jonah couldn’t be allowed the satisfaction of spoiling her unexpected holiday.
‘Are you awake?’ whispered Jess, closing the door quietly.
‘You have to be joking!’ Leonie switched on a lamp and sat up, eyeing the tray Jess put down beside her. ‘Do I smell hot chocolate?’
‘You certainly do. I’m a star,’ said Jess, handing her a steaming mug. ‘I take it I share with Kate? Good thing she’s so small.’ She sat down on the edge of the bed with a yawn, then sipped with relish. ‘I hope this sits well with champagne.’
‘So do I. If you get up in the night don’t wake me!’
‘Do you boss Roberto round like that?’
Leonie smiled demurely. ‘No. He’s the masterful type.’
Jess stared. ‘Really? Does that turn you on?’
‘A bit, I suppose.’
‘Personally,’ said Jess, grinning, ‘I think this Roberto of yours must be really something if he outdoes Jonah in the turning-on department.’
‘That was a long time ago,’ said Leonie dismissively.
‘Who are you trying to kid?’ Jess’s dark eyes mocked beneath the ash-blonde hair. ‘I saw you earlier on tonight.’
Leonie felt heat rush to her face. ‘You could see?’
‘Only because I was just behind you. No one else noticed, Leo. But from where I was standing—shuffling about, really; the boy couldn’t dance—it was pretty steamy.’
Leonie groaned and laid her head down on her knees. ‘Jonah was making an experiment to prove something to me. And it worked, damn him.’
‘Chemistry lesson?’
‘Exactly.’
Jess sighed. ‘No wonder you looked a bit hacked off when he asked me to dance.’ She grinned. ‘Not that I was flattered. I just happened to be nearest. He never said a solitary word except to thank me politely afterwards and take off as soon as he could.’
Leonie raised her head again, her eyes heavy. ‘It was so mortifying, Jess. The hormones still responded to Jonah no matter how hard the brain tried to put on the brakes.’ She shrugged. ‘Not that it matters. I’m unlikely to see him again.’
Jess frowned. ‘But if you still feel like that after all these years, Leo, couldn’t you bring yourself to forgive Jonah’s one indiscretion and get together again? I assume it was just the one?’ she added.
‘As far as I know. But don’t be fooled by what happened tonight, there’s absolutely no chance of my getting back with Jonah. Ever.’
‘Pity.’ Jess sighed, then stood up to wriggle out of her dress. ‘Though that’s tempting fate a bit, Leo. Never say never.’
CHAPTER THREE
NEXT morning, after what felt like only a few minutes’ sleep, Leonie got up early to help her mother provide breakfast for any of the guests who could face it. She slid out of bed as quietly as she could to let Jess and Kate sleep on, washed and dressed in Fenny’s little bathroom and went downstairs in the pale light of a cool spring morning.
Glad to find the kitchen empty, and her parents and Fenny still presumably sleeping, Leonie laid the big table, set out an array of cups and beakers on the central island, then filled kettles and got out coffee, sliced bread. Afterwards she made herself a pot of tea and some toast, surprised to find she was hungry. When her mother arrived a little later she smiled in surprise.
‘You’re early, darling, I hoped you’d sleep in for a bit.’
‘I opted for the inflatable mattress,’ said Leonie, grinning. ‘It was no hardship to desert it for the lures of breakfast.’ She poured tea for her mother, and offered to make toast.
‘Thank you, I think I will. Frankly I could have stayed in bed a lot longer this morning, but I had visions of pallid, hungover young things needing coffee and no one here to provide it.’
‘They could have gone over to the Stables and made Adam feed them.’
‘Always supposing they could wake him.’ Frances laughed. ‘I wonder how everyone slept? I imagine there was quite a fight for beds.’
‘Students are used to sleeping on floors,’ Leonie assured her. ‘I did it often enough in my youth.’
‘Darling, you talk as though you were Methuselah!’
‘I’m staring thirty in the face, Mother,’ Leonie reminded her.
‘You don’t look it this morning in those jeans. And last night you positively dazzled in that amazing dress. Nor was I the only one to think so.’ Frances buttered her toast and bit into it appreciatively. ‘I needed this. I didn’t eat much last night. And you abandoned your supper the moment Jonah arrived.’
Leonie eyed her mother in amusement. ‘Nothing gets by you, does it?’
The interlude of peace was short. In twos and threes the yawning party goers came down to join them. When Tom Dysart arrived with Fenny and Kate he gave a wry look into the room full of chattering females, and accepted with alacrity when offered a tray in his study.
Leonie took it in to him with the Sunday papers, stayed to chat for a while, then volunteered to fetch Marzi from the farm while Fenny and Kate had breakfast with the other girls. She collected a jacket from a peg in the scullery and went out alone into the crisp, bright morning, her lips twitching at the sight of drawn curtains and total absence of life in the Stables.
Leonie walked briskly down the drive and out on to the main road, passing only the occasional churchgoing car in the quiet of early Sunday. After a mile or so she turned down the lane which led to Springfield Farm, smiling at the sounds of yapping and barking in the distance as pungent, familiar smells came up to greet her. When she reached the farmhouse a young giant in stockinged feet opened the door in answer to her knock, Chris Morgan’s yawn changing to a grin at the sight of his visitor.
‘Well, well, Leo Dysart, home from foreign parts! Come in, come in.’
‘Hi, Chris, nice to see you again.’
Leonie kicked off her muddy boots in the back entry and followed Chris into the welcoming warmth of a kitchen where tempting smells of fried bacon hung in the air. Chris gestured towards the table and pushed the teapot towards her.
‘Sit down, help yourself. My father’s taken your dog out with ours. They’ll be back in a minute. My mother’s away, visiting my sister and new sprog.’
Leonie exclaimed in surprise. She’d attended primary school with both Chris and his sister Jenny. It came as a shock to hear that the new ‘sprog’ was Jenny’s third son.
Chris was all for providing Leonie with a vast fry-up, like the one he was devouring himself, but she shook her head, laughing.
‘I’ve had breakfast. And if I ate one like that every morning I’d need a new wardrobe.’
He grinned. ‘My turn for the milking this morning, I need refuelling. Besides, I’m a growing lad.’
‘Heavens, I hope not!’
‘How did the party go?’ he asked, as he went on with his meal.
‘Very well. I’ve left Mother and Kate serving coffee to the female revellers. There was no sign of life from Adam’s place.’
Chris made himself a sandwich with the last of his bacon and sat back, looking at her with open pleasure. ‘You look very perky for the morning after, Leo. Downright gorgeous, in fact.’
‘Why, thank you, kind sir,’ she retorted, fluttering her eyelashes. ‘Though if I do it’s a wonder. I spent half of yesterday travelling, and the other half partying. I’ll probably collapse in a heap today at some stage.’
Chris got up, eyebrows raised, in response to a knock on the back door. ‘Like Piccadilly Circus here this morning,’ he said, grinning.
The grin was missing when he returned with the new arrival.
‘Hello, Leo, I didn’t know you were here,’ said Jonah briskly. ‘I’ve come to collect the shotgun Denzil promised me.’
After years of never laying eyes on Jonah Savage, Leonie could hardly believe she was in his company for the third time in less than twenty-four hours.
‘Good morning,’ she said frostily.
Chris gestured towards the teapot. ‘Like a cup, Jonah? My father’s out with the dogs; he won’t be long.’
‘No hurry. No tea, either, thanks.’
There was an awkward pause while Jonah surveyed the easy familiarity of the scene with a look which set Leonie’s teeth on edge.
Chris cleared his throat awkwardly. ‘I’ll just go out and look for Dad,’ he announced, and took himself off with such obvious relief Jonah raised a supercilious eyebrow.
‘I trust I didn’t interrupt anything.’
Leonie shrugged. ‘I was just telling Chris about the party.’
‘I see. Did you enjoy it?’
‘Yes, very much. Did you?’
Jonah sat down in Chris’s chair. ‘No, Leo, I did not. In fact, once I knew you were home after all I was tempted to invent something life-threatening and stay away.’
‘But of course you couldn’t disappoint Fenny.’
‘Exactly.’ He eyed her searchingly. ‘Leo, every time you mention the child you get that Medusa-like look on your face. Don’t you like Fenny?’
‘How dare you say that? I adore Fenny. But because of you I never see enough of her. And then I come home to find she only has eyes for you—’ She lapsed into silence, furious with herself.
Jonah smiled mockingly. ‘Jealous?’
Leonie’s heated reply was cut off by the arrival of Denzil and Chris Morgan, with a very muddy, excited retriever who greeted her with exuberance. She thanked the Morgans, clipped on Marzi’s lead, refused Jonah’s offer of a lift, and went outside to chat with Chris in the yard for a minute or two before starting off for home.
Steaming up the steep hill from the farm, with a panting Marzi at her side, Leonie had worked off some of her anger by the time a familiar car drew level.
‘Sure you don’t want a lift?’ asked Jonah through the car window.
Leonie gave him a honeyed smile. ‘Certain, thanks. I’m enjoying the walk—and my own company.’
‘Then I’ll leave you to it.’ Jonah nodded coolly, and drove off.
When Leonie reached the gates of Friars Wood she unfastened Marzi’s leash, then stopped off at the Stables, to find Adam’s friends packing themselves into various cars for the journey to the station, or the trip to Edinburgh, with Fenny and Kate in attendance.
Leonie was greeted with enthusiasm, and though some of the faces were ominously pale everyone reiterated vociferous thanks for the wonderful party. There were kisses all round, and hugs for Fenny, then the convoy of cars began to move down the drive.
‘When are you going back?’ asked Leonie, taking Fenny’s hand to walk back to the house with Adam and Kate.
‘After Mother’s Sunday lunch, of course,’ said Adam, who stood three inches over six feet and had an appetite which belied his lanky frame.
‘We ought to be eating leftovers from last night,’ said Kate, giving him a teasing smile, ‘but Mother’s roasting beef and whipping up gallons of Yorkshire pudding batter for her darling son as we speak.’
‘Yummy,’ said Fenny, her hand in Leonie’s. ‘It’s my favourite. Do you have it in Italy, Leo?’
‘Not really, no.’ Leonie smiled down into the small, shining face. ‘But I eat lots of other delicious things.’
‘Is Jonah coming to lunch?’
Leonie devoutly hoped not. ‘I don’t think so, darling. Let’s go and help Mother.’
‘And wake Jess,’ said Adam with relish. ‘And don’t worry about the party leftovers—I’ll take any surplus back with me.’
‘As usual,’ taunted Kate, then shrieked as Adam made a dive for her, slung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and ran with her through the scullery into the kitchen, Fenny and Leonie laughing as they followed them in.
‘Please!’ implored Jess, holding a hand to her head. ‘Less noise, children, for pity’s sake.’
‘Too much champagne?’ enquired Adam as he set Kate down.
‘Too much music,’ groaned Jess. ‘I can still hear that thumping.’
‘Have some more tea,’ advised her mother, ‘then it’s all hands on deck, please. Adam wants to be away in reasonable time.’
To Leonie it was a pleasure all the more acute for being so rare as she sat down to family Sunday lunch. Despite the run-in with Jonah, her walk had given her an appetite, and during the meal she entertained a rapt Fenny with tales of the little girls she taught in Florence.
‘Can’t you come home and teach little girls here, Leo?’ pleaded Fenny.
‘One day, perhaps,’ said Leonie brightly.
