A Savage Adoration

'No, it isn't,' Christy agreed firmly, 'because we won't let it. Dad and I both know what would happen if we left you alone. You'd be out of bed and down in the kitchen in no time at all.'

Because the snow was fresh the taxi had no difficulty in getting through to the Manor. Christy got out and paid the driver, tensing as she saw Dominic's car draw up and park.

She had to wait for change, and she saw Dominic get out, his dark head bare, his hair ruffled by the chill breeze. He looked at her without smiling, his expression almost brooding in intensity. She longed to go up to him and touch him… just touch him, nothing else. Who are you kidding? she asked herself bitterly; nothing but knowing that he loved her with the same direct intensity with which she loved him would ever be enough to satisfy the ache inside her.

'You look pale. Are you feeling all right?'

She hadn't seen him move, and she swung round, feeling vulnerable and shaky, her fear of revealing her vulnerability to him making her sound terse and remote.

'I'm fine.'

'You don't look it. It must be the strain of loving a man who is committed to someone else.'

She was too shocked to conceal her expression from him. Her face went white, her eyes enormous pools of agonised pain.

'Christy, I…' He spoke almost roughly, his own eyes darkening, his voice harsh as he demanded thickly, 'Is it really worth it? Why don't you give him up? Let his wife…'

She almost sagged with relief as she realised what he meant. For one dreadful moment there she had thought he had guessed… that he had known how she felt about him.

A small van was bumping down the lane towards them, and she pulled away, just as the front door of the Manor opened and Amanda came out.

She was wearing a silk dress that emphasised the slimness of her legs and the full curves of her breasts. Mentally comparing her elegant appearance with her own cord and jumper-clad body, Christy only just managed to suppress a faint sigh. No wonder Dominic was hurrying towards the other woman. She wondered if he realised yet that Amanda wanted more than the same sort of casual affair he had offered her. Or perhaps where Amanda was concerned he was prepared to offer more.

'Sorry if I'm late…'

Wrenching her attention away from the couple walking ahead of them into the house, Christy turned to greet the woman hurrying to join her.

The front door had been firmly closed behind Amanda and Dominic, and Christy wondered if Amanda had simply not realised that they were there or was deliberately trying to be rude.

Lady Anthony herself showed them up to the ballroom, rather to Christy's surprise. She moved a little awkwardly, no doubt because of her arthritis, but it was still possible to see traces of the girl she must once have been.

Louise Fisher from the flower shop nodded her approval when she saw the room. She and Christy had already discussed what she intended to do, and Christy had shown her the balloons that Meryl had sent.

'You know, it's a real challenge to do something like this… And what a beautiful room.'

She went on to discuss how she intended to decorate it while Christy and Lady Anthony listened.

The last ball held here was for my husband's twenty-first,' Lady Anthony told them. For a moment a sad expression haunted her eyes. 'He was killed at the beginning of the war.'

'Yes, so the Major told me,' Christy responded.

Almost instantly Lady Anthony withdrew into herself, her expression hardening. 'My father told him he was never to set foot in this house again.'

Christy and Louise exchanged surprised looks.

'Had he and your father had a quarrel, then, Lady Anthony?' Christy asked gently, not sure whether or not she would be rebuffed.

'In a way… However, you haven't come here to talk about the past.'

Taking her hint that the subject was not one she wanted to pursue, Christy stood to one side while Louise studied the room. They were just discussing the mass of banked plants and flowers Louise intended to place in front of the raised stage which would hold the small band when Amanda walked in, her arm tucked proprietorially through Dominic's.

'Ah, there you are, my dear. We were just discussing the flowers.'

Amanda managed to look both bored and supercilious at the same time. 'Mummy always uses Moyses Stevens. She says that no one else can possibly compare with them.'

Christy, who knew the top people's florist's quite well through David, who always used them to supply flowers for his parties, flushed a little uncomfortably at Amanda's lack of tact, but Louise seemed perfectly calm and at ease.

'Yes, they are good, aren't they,' she agreed pleasantly. 'I was lucky enough to go on one of their courses a couple of years ago, and I certainly learned a lot.'