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
