‘How about midday?’ she asked later, when she rang Jonah.
‘Fine. It gives me time to see one or two people first, but I’ve cancelled the rest until next week.’
‘How do you feel?’
‘I’ll live. I was just going to bed. I’ll pick you up around eleven. Goodnight.’
‘Goodnight,’ she echoed, and put the phone down, feeling decidedly flat.
Next morning Leonie plumbed new depths of guilt when Fenny heard about the trip to London.
‘Why, Leo?’ she wailed. ‘Marzi’s gone and now you’re going too.’
‘I’ll be back tomorrow, I promise,’ said Leonie, making a vow to curb her impulses in future. ‘I’ll bring you back a present.’
‘I don’t want a present, and I don’t love you any more,’ sobbed Fenny, and dashed off to the car without saying goodbye.
‘Oh dear,’ said Leonie in dismay.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Kate, hoisting her school bag. ‘She’ll come round. Have a good time.’
‘I’ll try. See you tomorrow.’
‘Fenny gets tantrums, I’m afraid, just like any other little girl,’ said Frances when they were alone. ‘She came rushing downstairs this morning, hoping the dog had come back, and then heard you were leaving, too. Not a good day for Fenny.’
‘I don’t have to go, Mother,’ said Leonie, feeling worse by the minute.
‘Of course you do. Remember what Kate said: use the time to get on better terms with Jonah. If that’s what you want, of course.’
Having assured her mother that she wanted it more than anything in the world Leonie almost changed her mind when Jonah arrived. He was neither looking nor feeling his best, it was evident, despite the dark glasses, which hid his bruised eyes, and the strip of plaster across his nose. She took one look at him and held out her hand for his car keys.
‘I’ll drive.’
‘No, you won’t!’
Leonie snatched the keys from him, kissed her mother, and ran down the path to Jonah’s car, leaving him with no choice but to follow. It was a sunny day, which should have made the drive across the Severn Bridge pleasant, but the atmosphere inside the car had nothing to do with the weather.
‘Head bad?’ enquired Leonie.
‘Nerves, mainly, due to your propensity for the wrong side of the road,’ he retorted.
‘Look, Jonah,’ she said angrily, ‘if you’d wanted to travel alone you just had to say. This wasn’t my idea.’
‘Do you think I don’t know that?’ he retorted. ‘Now for God’s sake be quiet and just drive. This stretch of motorway requires concentration.’
Leonie said no more. Other than a brief argument when Jonah insisted on buying their train tickets she maintained a stony silence all through parking the car, and continued it while they waited for the train at Bristol Parkway. It was obviously too late for mending fences with Jonah. And if he was in this kind of mood much these days maybe she didn’t want to bother, anyway.
When they boarded the train Leonie took her place in the first-class seat Jonah had paid for, and picked up the newspaper provided, using it as a shield to avoid looking at him when he slid into the seat opposite.
Jonah plucked it away and stared into her eyes. ‘Are you going to stay silent all the way to London?’
‘You told me to shut up, so I did,’ she retorted, glaring when Jonah began to laugh.
‘Pax!’ he said, holding up his hands in mock surrender. ‘We’re attracting attention.’
Leonie cast a hasty glance around, realised he was right and sat back in her seat, face burning. ‘I should have stayed at home.’
‘But you promised Jess a visit,’ he reminded her, grinning.
So he knew she’d lied. With relief Leonie saw a drinks trolley approaching. ‘I think I’ll have some coffee.’
‘It comes free with the ticket during the week.’
‘I wouldn’t know. I don’t usually travel first class.’
‘You did last Saturday,’ he reminded her.
‘The train was full. And at weekends you can travel first for just a few pounds more than the usual fare.’
‘Can you really?’ Jonah smiled indulgently. ‘There, Leo. It isn’t so hard to talk to me after all, is it? How would you like your coffee? Black with one sugar?’
She nodded, galled by his patronising tone. But later, when she saw Jonah swallow a couple of pills, she felt remorse. ‘Head very bad?’
‘It’s not wonderful,’ he admitted. ‘Sorry I yelled at you in the car.’
Leonie smiled a little. ‘At least I kept quiet afterwards—which must have done your head some good.’
‘Not really.’ His lips twitched. ‘You were so hostile it throbbed even harder.’
Leonie laughed outright. ‘I’m not hostile now.’
‘And my headache’s better already,’ he said promptly.
After that the journey progressed more pleasantly. Jonah firmly deserted the personal to outline his plans for Brockhill, assuring Leonie that the modifications to the building would have no adverse effect on other properties in the area.
‘As a means of reassuring the local council, I’m using skilled local labour as much as possible,’ he went on. ‘Getting planning permission was hellish tricky. Your father’s support for the project was a great help.’
‘Dad was probably glad of some way to make up for your treatment at my hands,’ said Leonie soberly, then frowned. ‘But why did you want to buy Friars Wood?’
‘Oddly enough it wasn’t my idea. When the plans were put in front of the board they found that it had once been part of the Brockhill property, and a general decision was made to offer for it. I agreed to ask Tom personally, though I knew he would never accept. Besides, it gave me an excuse to visit your parents. And meet Fenny at last.’ Jonah looked at her very directly. ‘But when I put the idea to your father I admit the odd thought of revenge did cross my mind where you’re concerned, Leo.’
‘Especially when you produced that ancient old document to frighten me!’
‘I enjoyed that,’ he said, his eyes gleaming impenitently. ‘Your reaction gave me a very ignoble glow of satisfaction.’
‘Did it make up for what I did?’
Jonah’s eyes darkened. ‘It would take something very different to do that, Leo. But I admit that revenge was sweet.’
‘I bet it was,’ she agreed ruefully. ‘Mind you, I think Dad was sorely tempted to accept your offer. The upkeep of Friars Wood is no joke. But he put the idea of selling up to the vote when we were all gathered together after the party.’
‘How did it go down?’
‘Like a lead balloon!’ Leonie smiled wryly. ‘But Mother was dead against the idea, anyway, so the vote was academic.’ She explained about her father’s qualms over the responsibility Adam was taking on, and exactly what his inheritance would entail. ‘Dad had only Rachel to consider, but my baby brother’s got three sisters.’
‘Four with Fenny,’ Jonah reminded her.
Leonie shook her head. ‘Rachel left her well provided for, apparently. The rest of us assured Adam we didn’t care about the money as long as he kept on Friars Wood, but he suddenly became very grown up and serious, swearing he’d make sure we got our share, whether we wanted it or not.’
‘But by that time—far in the future, hopefully—the three of you will be married,’ said Jonah without inflection.
‘Not necessarily.’ Leonie gazed out of the window. ‘Jess is in love with her career, and Kate’s obviously going to do something high-powered with her flair for sciences.’
‘And you?’ he prompted.
Leonie shrugged. ‘I may still be in my room with a view in Florence.’
Jonah’s eyes narrowed, but he made no comment as the train pulled into Paddington. ‘Will Jess be at home now?’ he asked, as they made for the taxi rank.
‘No. I’m to collect the key from her landlord.’
Jonah helped her into the next taxi in line, gave the
driver an unfamiliar address and sat beside her. ‘You can go on to Jess later. You may as well come to my place until she finishes work.’
CHAPTER TEN
SECRETLY Leonie considered this a brilliant idea, very much aware that the days were flying by. If she wanted to mend things with Jonah there was no time to lose.
‘You could have asked me first,’ she said, in token protest.
Jonah shook his head. ‘You would have refused.’
‘I thought you were going straight to your parents in Hampstead.’
He touched his nose gingerly. ‘It seemed best to ring first and warn my mother about this.’
Leonie scrutinised him dispassionately. ‘The swelling’s gone down. And with the glasses the black eyes aren’t noticeable.’
‘Good. I’ve never thought of myself as vain, but I draw the line at giving people nightmares.’ He slanted a look at her. ‘When you were so hostile in the train the other passengers probably thought I was a battered husband.’
‘I didn’t do the battering!’ she retorted, attracting interest from the taxi driver.
‘Nor am I your husband,’ Jonah whispered in her ear.
Leonie could find nothing to say in answer to that, and lapsed into silence, wondering, not for the first time, how life would have been these past years if their marriage had taken place that summer.
‘What are you thinking about?’ he asked in an undertone.
‘Marriage. How it would have been for us.’
‘I doubt it would have been unalloyed bliss, Leo. But it was all I wanted. Back then, at least,’ he added deliberately.
Message received, thought Leonie, lashes veiling the light of battle in her eyes. ‘When did you move?’ she asked, trying for a safer topic.
‘As soon as I could after you dumped me.’
Safe topics, it seemed, were in short supply.
Jonah’s flat was in a modern, riverside development with a view over the Thames, and familiar from the plans he’d shown her years before, when the complex had been in construction.
‘This was your baby, of course,’ she said, impressed.
He nodded. ‘The only kind available to me now, alas. Lacking the human variety I concentrate on my career instead.’
Leonie kept her temper with effort. ‘If you’re going to keep twisting the knife, I’ll take off to Jess’s place right now.’
Jonah gave her a wry, conciliatory smile. ‘Meeting up with you again seems to have revived old hurts I thought were healed. I apologise, Leo. Don’t go yet, I’d like you to see my home.’ When the lift stopped at the top floor he unlocked one of the doors leading off a hushed, carpeted hall, and ushered her inside. ‘Welcome to my room with a view.’
Bright afternoon sunshine streamed through vast windows Jonah opened onto a balcony overlooking the river. Leonie’s first impression was space and light. And emptiness. Every last detail of Jonah’s old flat remained vivid in her memory. But in his new home nothing was familiar. A dining table and chairs stood at one end, at the other a pair of big sofas were covered in the natural linen union of the curtains drawn back to display the view. Kilim rugs gave the only note of colour on the polished wood blocks of the floor. There were no ornaments, no fitted carpet, and the white walls were bare.
Leonie looked round, frowning. ‘How long have you actually been here?’
‘Nearly six years. I had my choice of apartment when the building was finished.’ He opened a door into a compact, expensively equipped kitchen. ‘Would you like some tea?’
‘Thank you.’ Leonie perched on a steel and leather stool, watching as Jonah filled a kettle, her heart heavy as she remembered the intimate, domestic tasks they had once shared so joyously. ‘Why is the flat so bare, Jonah?’ she asked curiously.
He leaned against a counter, arms folded. ‘Choice. I like it that way.’
‘It’s very different from your old place.’
‘It was meant to be.’ Jonah shrugged. ‘Once I accepted the fact that you were gone for good I started erasing all traces of you from my life. I sold some things, sent other stuff to charity shops and threw the rest away. Eventually I was left with nothing to remind me of Leonie Dysart.’
‘How you must have hated me,’ she said soberly.
Jonah shook his head, his eyes unreadable behind the dark lenses. ‘I was filled with hurt, not hate, Leo. Though the purge was amazingly therapeutic. By the time I’d finished I didn’t feel any emotion at all. Which was just the way I liked it. I made it clear to all interested parties that I never wanted your name mentioned again, and did my damnedest to cut you out of my life. For years I succeeded quite well. Then the Brockhill property came up and I met your family again, and made Fenny’s acquaintance at last. And once I set foot in Friars Wood there were photographs of you all over the place, and your family talked about you.’ He took off the glasses and tossed them onto a counter, his eyes locked with hers. ‘I felt as though a block of ice were melting deep inside. And feelings I’d been so sure were dead came alive again no matter how much I tried to suppress them.’
Leonie’s heart leapt. ‘I could never put you out of my mind,’ she said huskily. ‘I always had Fenny to remind me, looking at me with those eyes of yours—’ She broke off, embarrassed to find tears welling up in her own.
Jonah stood tense and still for a moment, then he closed the space between them and took her in his arms, holding her as though she were a piece of Meissen porcelain.
‘Will Roberto object if I offer a little tender, loving care?’
‘I don’t care if he does,’ she said recklessly, and buried her face against his shirtfront.
‘In that case—’ Jonah turned her face up to his and kissed her with the tenderness that had always been an integral part of his lovemaking, like a steady glowing core at the heart of his physical passion.
Leonie’s eyes closed, her breath suddenly hurried and her tears dry on her burning cheeks as her lips parted to the tongue which slid between them to caress hers. A tremor of such violent response ran through her entire body she gasped and slid her arms round him, and Jonah’s tenderness erupted into fire so suddenly neither of them had any defence against it.
He put her away suddenly. ‘Leo, I didn’t bring you here to do this,’ he said sternly, his eyes like green flames in his tense, bruised face. ‘But I want you so much I’m going crazy.’
‘So am I,’ she said bluntly, gone beyond subterfuge. ‘Can’t we do something about it?’
Jonah seized her in his arms, kissing her with a ferocity she responded to with such ardour he picked her up and carried her to his bedroom, kicked the door shut, then put her down on the bed and began to undress her with feverish haste. ‘If you’re going to change your mind do it now!’ he commanded at one point.
Leonie shook her head vehemently, but stayed his urgent hands, needing to savour every minute, to make sure that this was happening, that they were together at last, in a situation she had dreamed of for so long and thought would never happen again. She smiled into his smouldering eyes as she undid his shirt, then bent her head, her parted lips against his chest as her tongue caressed his skin, and her mouth moved lower in a series of slow, descending kisses.
Jonah groaned like a man in pain and pushed her flat, kneeling over her as he stripped off their remaining clothes. Then slowly, his eyes devouring her, he lowered himself little by little until they lay together in total contact. Her breath expelled in a relishing sigh as his lean, naked body settled against hers, and she caressed his taut shoulders with inciting hands as he kissed her. He moved his mouth lower to her breasts, to kiss and pull on each diamond-hard nipple in turn, then at last slid questing fingers to seek for the sensitive bud at the heart of her moist arousal, and Leonie gave a choked little cry as waves of sensation coursed through her body.
At the very point when the exquisite torture threatened to overwhelm her Jonah’s hard muscular thigh nudged hers apart, and he took possession of her with a long, sure thr
ust that pierced her to the core, and she gasped his name, astonished that this was happening at last for real, instead of in the dreams that had left her sobbing in the night when she woke alone. Jonah kissed her hungrily as he held her still for a moment, then he began to move, tantalisingly slow at first, but soon with mounting urgency, and she revelled in the fierce, blissful earthiness of it, reassured beyond all possible doubt that this was hot, sensuous reality and she was awake and alive and in seventh heaven. When the inexorable, ultimate pleasure of it overwhelmed her at last they were both half laughing, half sobbing in exultation as Jonah held her fast in the throes of it before surrendering to his own release.
‘Dear God,’ he gasped against her mouth, his arms still locked around her.
She nodded in mute, breathless agreement.
He raised his head to look at her flushed face, beads of perspiration standing out on his forehead. ‘Are you all right, Leo?’
‘It depends,’ she panted, ‘on what you mean by all right.’
His throaty laugh vibrated right through her body. ‘I know it’s hard to believe, but I brought you here for tea, not this.’
Leonie grinned up at him. ‘I’m still waiting for the tea.’
‘Do you want some now?’
She thought about it. ‘No. Not particularly.’ Her eyes widened in sudden remorse. ‘Jonah! How do you feel?’
He chuckled. ‘Have you got a thesaurus handy?’
‘I meant,’ she said with dignity, ‘that your head might be hurting.’
‘I don’t care a damn if it is. The rest of me feels wonderful.’ He rolled onto his side, taking her with him, and held her close, smoothing her dishevelled head against his shoulder. ‘You know, darling, I thought this would never happen again.’
She nodded, melting inside at the endearment. ‘I used to dream. Of us, together like this. Then I’d wake and remember. And cry.’
Jonah groaned into her hair, his arms tightening. ‘What a hellish waste! Years of our lives spent apart for nothing. Why the blazes didn’t you stay and confront me that day, Leo?’
‘If it had been any other woman I would have come out fighting,’ she assured him fiercely. ‘But it was Rachel. So all I could do was lie low until the coast was clear, crying my eyes out. Then I rang for a taxi.’
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