A Vengeful Reunion. Catherine George
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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.
‘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