He looked at her and burst out laughing.
‘I believe you’re as nervous as I am,’ he said. ‘Aren’t you used to entertaining strange men backstage every night?’
Bella shook her head. ‘I’m always frightened they might be disappointed when they meet me in the flesh.’
‘Disappointed?’ He looked her over incredulously. ‘You must be joking.’
Bella was suddenly conscious of how low her dress was cut.
‘The flowers are heavenly,’ she said, blushing. ‘How on earth did you manage to get such beautiful ones in winter?’
‘Rifling my mother’s conservatory.’
‘Doesn’t she mind?’
‘Doesn’t know. She’s in India.’ He smiled maliciously. ‘I’m hoping an obliging tiger might gobble her up.’
Bella giggled. ‘Don’t you like her?’
‘Not a lot. Do you get on with your parents?’
‘They’re dead,’ said Bella flatly, and waited for the conventional expressions of sympathy. They didn’t come.
‘Lucky you,’ said Rupert Henriques. ‘I wish I were an orphan — all fun and no fear.’
He had a droll way of rattling off these remarks which made them quite inoffensive. All the same, she thought, he’s a spoilt little boy. He could be quite relentless if he chose.
He picked up his drink. ‘You were even better than usual tonight.’
‘Don’t you get bored seeing the same play night after night?’
He grinned. ‘I’m glad it’s not a Whitehall farce. You’re the only reason I’ve been so many times.’
There was a knock on the door.
‘Hell,’ he said. ‘Do we have to answer it?’
It was Queenie.
‘I won’t be a minute,’ Bella said to her. ‘I’m sorry,’ she added to Rupert, ‘I shall have to change.’
He drained his glass, got up and moved towards the door.
‘I was wondering if you’d have dinner with me one evening next week,’ he said.
It’s Monday now, thought Bella. He can’t be that keen if he can wait at least a week to see me!
‘I’m very tied up,’ she said, untruthfully.
‘Tuesday?’ he said.
‘I’m working that night.’
‘Wednesday then?’
She paused just long enough to get him worried, then smiled: ‘All right, I’d like to.’
‘I don’t suppose you like opera.’
‘I adore it,’ lied Bella, determined to keep her end up.
‘Great. There’s a first night of Siegfried next Wednesday. I’ll try and get tickets.’
As he left he said, ‘I’m sorry I had to make your acquaintance in this rather gauche fashion, but I didn’t know anyone who knew you, who could have introduced us, and the only other alternative would have been to have bought the theatre.’
It was only later that she discovered he was only half-joking. The Henriques family could have bought every theatre in London without batting an eyelid.
Chapter Two
Promptly at six-thirty on Wednesday he picked her up.
‘You look gorgeous,’ he said, walking round her.
‘You don’t look so bad yourself,’ she said.
He was wearing a very dark green suit with a red silk shirt.
‘You like it?’ he said, pleased. ‘My tailor only finished it on Monday; that’s why I couldn’t ask you out last week.’
An Aston Martin was waiting outside; music blasted out of the slot stereo; the heat was turned up overpoweringly.
Bella wound down her window surreptitiously as they drove off. She didn’t want to be scarlet in the face before she started.
As they stopped at the traffic lights, Rupert turned and smiled at her. ‘You shouldn’t have made me wait so long to see you,’ he said. ‘I’ve been in such a state of anticipation I’ve been unbearable to everyone.’
Even in the thick of a first-night audience with the diamonds glittering like hoar frost, everyone turned to stare at them. Rupert seemed to know lots of people, but he merely nodded and didn’t stop to chat.
The curtain hadn’t been up for five minutes before Bella decided that Wagner wasn’t really her. All those vast men and women screaming their guts out. She glanced at her programme and was appalled to see she was expected to sit through three acts of it.
Somehow she managed to endure the first act. It seemed so strange to be on the other side of the curtain.
‘Is it all right? Are you enjoying yourself?’ asked Rupert as he fought his way back to her side with drinks during the interval.
‘Oh, it’s great,’ she lied enthusiastically.
Rupert looked dubious. ‘Well, I don’t know; they make a frightful row. Say as soon as you’re bored and we’ll leave.’
Two earnest-looking women with plaits round their heads turned to look at him in horror.
During the second act Rupert became increasingly restless, but cheered up when Brunhilde made her appearance.
‘She looks just like my mother,’ he whispered loudly to Bella, who gave a snort of laughter.
A fat woman in front turned round and shushed angrily. Rupert’s shoulders shook. Bella gazed firmly in front of her but found she couldn’t stop giggling.
‘I say,’ said Rupert a minute later, ‘shall we go?’
‘We can’t,’ said Bella horrified. ‘Not in the middle of an act.’
‘Will you be quiet,’ hissed the fat woman.
‘My wife feels faint,’ Rupert said to her and, grabbing Bella by the hand, he dragged her along the row, tripping over everyone’s feet.
Outside the theatre they looked at each other and burst into peals of laughter.
‘Wasn’t it awful?’ he said. ‘I wanted to impress you, taking you to a first night, but this really was the end.’
As they picked their way through Covent Garden’s debris of cabbage leaves and rotten apples he took her hand. ‘We’ll have a nice dinner to make up for it.’
They dined in Soho; very expensively, Bella decided. Crimson velvet menus with gold tassels, and rose petals floating in the finger bowls. They sat side by side on a red velvet banquette, rather like being in the back row of the cinema.
‘What do you want to eat?’ Rupert asked her.
‘Anything except herrings.’
He laughed. ‘Why not herrings?’
Bella shivered. ‘My mother forced me to eat them when I was young. I was locked in the dining-room for twelve hours once.’
Rupert looked appalled. ‘But I’ve never had to eat anything I didn’t like.’
‘This is a nice place,’ said Bella.
