She grinned up at him. “Always have done.” Her expression became devious. “Ah, it looks like Tim’s wound up his courage. Now remember, show no disapproval at all; no matter what you think of her.”
“What?”
“I believe your son has someone he wants to introduce you to.” With a last evil wink, she slipped free and disappeared back amid the guests.
Jeff didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. Then he caught sight of Tim determinedly making his way across the living room. There was a girl with him, their hands welded together. That was when he registered Tim’s anxious yet proud expression, and understanding dawned. Little Timmy had a girlfriend. Jeff felt horribly out of his depth. This simply wasn’t fair; fathers normally had months of early warning to prepare for this moment. A year and a half earlier, Tim had been a raging knot of hormones and suppressed anger. Your standard teenage nightmare, repellent to anyone but his own kind. Now, by the look of things, he was growing up. For an instant Jeff felt angry at missing out on another part of his son’s life.
“Dad, um, I’d like you to meet Annabelle, she’s an, um, friend of mine.”
The desperation in his son’s voice was almost painful to hear. In a kind of semipanic Jeff did what he always did, and fell back on the excessive formality he’d learned at his public school. “I’d be delighted.” He made a small bow. It was only when he straightened up again and looked at Annabelle properly that he realized she was utterly gorgeous. His gaze moved slowly up long legs, shown off by a short skirt, and took in a very generous cleavage. When he finally dragged his guilty eyes away from her bust he found she had rich brown-gold hair brushing her bare shoulders, and a delicate face—on which there was a quizzical expression as she stared at him.
Jeff recovered his poise, knowing he was close to blushing. He took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “An absolute pleasure. Tim’s kept very quiet about you. I’ll have to have a talk with him about that.”
“Thank you, Mr. Baker.” Annabelle managed to recover her hand.
“Oh please: Jeff.”
“Jeff,” she agreed.
“So do you live locally?”
“Yes, in Uppingham. I live there with my father.”
“I see.”
“Mum works in Brussels a lot right now. But not in the university; she didn’t have anything to do with your rejuvenation project. She’s one of the environment agency management directors.” Annabelle made an effort to stop talking. The way he’d looked at her was identical to how Tim had stared when she arrived at the party. It made her realize just how remarkably similar they were; like brothers, with Jeff only a few years older. It was a disconcerting thought, given what happened with Derek.
But then meeting Jeff Baker was strange anyway. Like everyone at school, she’d been impressed by the whole Jeff Baker legend. The kind of selflessness he’d shown when he gave away the memory crystal was phenomenal. It was a yardstick that none of today’s politicians or business leaders could ever hope to be measured against; even Sir Mitch wasn’t building his space-plane out of altruism. Jeff’s age had made him remote and iconic, someone you admired from afar like a historical figure, because you never got to actually meet them.
Now, though, not only was Jeff Baker that original legend, he was also rejuvenated. Doubly famous, and utterly fascinating. And she was dating his son. It made her nervous, which was why she was babbling like an old- fashioned rock star’s groupie.
“Sounds like a good job,” Jeff said.
“It is.”
“What subjects are you taking at school?”
“Dad!” Tim said hotly.
“What? I’m just being polite.”
“Yeah, but school! That droops.”
Jeff turned to Annabelle, spreading his arms wide in appeal. “All right. So how long have you two been together?”
She smiled before giving Tim a teasing sideways glance. “Couple of weeks.”
“Dad!”
“Sorry, Timmy, I guess I can’t be trusted out in public. But look on the good side, I didn’t launch into telling Annabelle about how cute you were when you were younger.”
“Was he?” Annabelle asked. It was hard for her not to laugh, Tim was squirming so. In a way Jeff Baker was almost worse than his wife and her friends. A lot more interesting, though.
“Absolutely. When he’s not around, I’ll dig out some of the old family videos. You can see him running around in his shorts when he was seven.”
“I’ll look forward to that.”
Tim groaned in dismay.
“It’s a conspiracy, Timmy,” Jeff said with a wide grin. “The whole world exists simply to make life hell for you.”
“Nice meeting you,” Annabelle said. She squeezed Tim’s hand, and they walked away together.
“That was a big mistake,” Tim moaned. He snatched another champagne flute from a waiter.
“I expect he needs time to find his feet. This must be very strange for him.” She glanced over her shoulder to see Jeff standing alone, holding his flute up as if unsure he should be drinking. For a moment she wanted to go back and show some support.
“Yeah, maybe,” Tim said. “I guess this wasn’t the right time to introduce you.”
“Thank you anyway.” She moved a fraction closer, her expression serious. “It was nice of you to invite me in the first place.”
Tim’s face turned a deeper shade of red. “Um, about invitations. I don’t know if anyone’s asked you or anything, or if you’ve already got someone to go with, but if you haven’t, and you’d like to, I wondered if you’d like to go to the ball together. That’s…with me. If you were going. I booked some tickets, that’s all. And quite a lot of our friends are going. So it might be nice, I thought.”
“’Course I’ll go with you.”
“Yeah?” Tim’s whole face radiated happiness.
“Yeah.” She poked him in the chest. “Took you long enough to ask.”
“Sorry. I didn’t know if you wanted to.”
“Oh yeah.” Their faces were centimeters apart. “I wanted to.”
They kissed. Just a teasing toying sort of way, to see how far the other would push it. There was a whoop from across the room. Annabelle pulled away, grinning, to see Martin and Colin at their most oafish, making big- time gestures at them. She sneered back at them, and started kissing a delighted Tim again.
IT WASN’T HALF PAST NINE when Jeff wearily climbed the stairs. Downstairs the party was over, with the catering crew and Mrs. Mayberry cleaning up while the Europol team ate up the leftover canapes and finished the open bottles of champagne. Tim and his friends had all gone to catch the bus into Stamford. When Jeff asked what they were doing, Tim said: “Couple of clubs, that’s all.” There was a pause. “All right?” He sounded as if he wasn’t sure he should be asking permission or not.
They had so many boundaries to work out.
“Sure,” Jeff had said. “Have fun.” He didn’t believe the teenagers could possibly possess so much energy. It was all he could do to get to the top of the stairs without pausing for breath.
“I’m going now, Mr. Baker.”
That was Lucy Duke. Jeff half turned on the top stair. She was standing in the hallway, buttoning her coat. “Okay then.” Jeff hadn’t made up his mind about Ms. Duke. He imagined it wouldn’t be too difficult to dislike someone who tried so hard to be reasonable at all times.
“Have a good weekend, sir. I’ll see you on Monday morning. There are several interviews scheduled, mostly foreign press.”
“Good night.”
“It was an excellent party, by the way.”
The door to Sue’s bedroom was open. Jeff saw her inside, and rapped lightly on the door frame. She was sitting at the dresser, touching up her makeup. Her welcome smile turned to genuine concern. “You look
