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.
‘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
