quite beautiful. Raven-black hair licked around a long oval face with perfect expressive green eyes. She was slimmer than Annabelle, but just as tall. He could see that. A tight black leather T-shirt thinner than cotton was molded to her torso; there was a broad strip of taut abdomen visible between that and a micro skirt, with a couple of gold waist chains looped around her waist,
Yoni planted a big kiss on Tim’s cheek. He squirmed, not wanting to shove her away, but really…
Her hands clapped together. “Oh, he’s so cute.”
Panic froze Tim’s smile in place. “Thanks. You, er, look sensational.”
“I do? Wheeee!” Her whistle could have split stone.
Annabelle was grinning at his discomfort. “Yoni’s from the agency. She’s my chaperone when I go on assignments.”
“Right,” Tim said. It opened up a whole file of questions, which he simply refused to ask.
“Fibber!” Yoni protested. “I’m more than that to her, Tim. I do makeup, and I’m developing my talent as a stylist. I want to get behind the camera as well. I’m going to show the whole industry I’m more than just eye candy.”
“That’s nice.”
“Oh, you’re so desperately eatable. What’s your star sign?”
“I’ve no idea.”
“Let me guess, I’m good at this.” Her hand slapped against her forehead as she squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m getting it. You have a strong aura.”
Tim gave Annabelle an accusing look. She winked back.
“You’re a Virgo,” Yoni announced. “You have to be.”
“Dead on. You got me.”
“I knew it! Yes! I’m an Aries, and I was born in the afternoon.”
“Excellent.”
“Isn’t it just. So are you doing anything tonight? We could double date with Jeff and Annabelle if you wanted. The club scene in Peterborough isn’t bad. They showed me round at the weekend.”
“I don’t think we want to do that,” Annabelle told her kindly.
“Ow.” Yoni frowned. “You’re so like Jeff, too. It would be such fun.”
“Another time,” Tim said. He hated people like her, never respecting anyone else, always an embarrassment in public—and private.
“Back in a sec,” Annabelle told Yoni. She inclined her head, and Tim walked with her out onto the lawn.
“She’s from an agency,” Tim said thoughtfully. “I heard you were doing some modeling.” Sue had mentioned it. His news snatch no longer fished out items concerning her and his father; he’d changed the programming.
“Yes. I couldn’t really turn that kind of money down. I’ve already done one shoot for Harice. Docini have booked me for next week. And I’ve got a catwalk gig coming up, too. It’s fantastic.”
“Congratulations.”
“I’m not going to live off him, Tim. I’m not like that.”
“What’s going to happen when you go to university?” He knew he was being unnecessarily cruel now, and simply didn’t care. Or maybe it was just a test, to see if they could talk. “Are you going to commute back here on the weekends?”
Annabelle looked out across the garden. “I’m not going to university. Not away to one, anyway. I’ve already signed for an online university course. That way I can hold onto everything I want to in my life. I can work, I can study, and I can be with Jeff.”
“I don’t believe this.”
“What? What don’t you believe?”
“You used to dream about making it out of here, out of Rutland. I admired you so much for that, for having that goal. The way you chased it was…awesome. Now you’re giving all that up.”
“I’m giving nothing up. I’ve got what I want, Tim. I’m sorry you can’t see that.”
It was his mother’s tone; that was how she talked to him. The little boy who doesn’t understand no matter how slowly and patiently it’s explained.
The voice actually shocked him. The condescension behind it; she’d gained a touch of something. Confidence, he supposed, always the twin of contentment. Annabelle would now be able to hold her own among the Rutland nonworking mothers’ club with no trouble at all. He could never have stayed with a girl like this, he knew. Maybe you had to have Dad’s personality and experience to cope with her.
“If that’s true, then I’m happy for you,” he said simply.
She studied him closely, as if suspecting some falsehood. “Tim, I know this is hard for you most of all, but I really do love Jeff. All I want now is for him to be happy.”
“He will be. He’s lucky to have you.”
“Yoni was right.” She grinned impishly. “You are so adorable.”
HE FOUND JEFF IN THE STUDY, bent over the drawer containing the desktop synthesizer. Just for an instant, as he walked in, he saw a flash of guilt on his father’s face. There was a giddy little moment when he recalled the last time he’d seen that expression on the same face.
Father and son stared mutely at each other.
The synthesizer
“What are you cooking?” Tim asked. Anything to lighten the atmosphere.
Jeff ran a hand over his forehead, dabbing at the perspiration. “Just some neurofen. I’ve got a headache, and it feels like a cold coming on. I think it’s this damn air conditioning. It’s freezing in here.”
Tim, who’d never had a cold in his life, didn’t feel much sympathy. He closed the door. It was uncomfortably hot in the study.
Jeff sat behind the desk. “It’s good to see you. Looks like the dye’s almost gone.”
“Oh, that.” Tim’s hand went automatically to his neck. “Yeah. It comes out eventually.”
“How’s Vanessa?”
“Okay. I’ll probably go up and see her again next week.”
“Good. She’s a nice girl.”
“How’s Lucy Duke?”
Jeff let out an amused snort. “Furious. But Downing Street has enough trouble right now trying to spin Lacey out of any blame for the riot. And even she had to concede, I went up in public estimation.”
“She must really hate that.”
“Oh, she does.”
Tim let out a long sigh, and checked the window. Annabelle and Yoni were back together on the terrace. The agency chaperone was blithely chattering away, waving her arms around as if she were at a rave. “I remembered something on the way over here.”
“What did you remember?”
“Rachel. You took Rachel to bed after the Summer Ball, after Annabelle.”
“Ah.”
“Annabelle’s so much happy with you.” He was still looking out through the window. Annabelle was walking down the steps at the shallow end of the swimming pool. Yoni had gone to lie on the side of the pool, propping her chin up on her hands to watch intently as Annabelle immersed herself. She shouted something as her legs waggled about, and Annabelle laughed in reply. “It would kill her to find out.”
“Tim,” Jeff said gently. “She knows what I’m like.”
“Are you sleeping with Yoni as well?”
“Don’t ask questions like that, Tim. I’m with Annabelle.”
Which wasn’t quite an answer, Tim thought. “Whatever.”
“I remember telling you, Tim: Never confuse love with sex.”
“I don’t get it, Dad, I don’t understand what you are. She loves you. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
