'That's Dad's trouble,' Phoebe said severely. 'He will cloud the issue with personal feelings when I'm talking about facts. Either I'm good enough to be a professional model or I'm not. Feelings don't come into it. If I'm hopelessly bad I wouldn't expect you to keep quiet about that because it might hurt my feelings.'
Lee was privately so much in agreement with this that she was left floundering in silent despair for an answer.
'So please tell me,' Phoebe went on. 'Am I hopelessly bad?'
'No,' Lee admitted reluctantly. 'You're not.'
Phoebe watched Lee's face for a moment before moving in for the kill. 'Am I good?'
'You know you are.'
'How good?'
I'll have to see the pictures before I can be sure of that.'
'But you've got a pretty clear idea already, haven't you? If I said I was determined to become a model, would you say I was raving mad?'
Lee ran a hand distractedly through her hair. She'd expected questions, but not this cunningly phrased interrogation. 'No, I wouldn't say that,' she said at last. 'But I would say you ought to listen to your father. He knows the world better than you do.'
'Not the fashion world, he doesn't. You're the expert there. That's why I'm asking you.'
'But he's your father and you're very young.'
'I'm at the age when people normally start thinking about their careers,' Phoebe said reasonably. 'If I said I wanted to go to Oxford I don't suppose either of you would say I was too young to make that decision would you?'
'I suppose there's something in that,' Lee admitted, frowning. 'I do think you're entitled to rather more say in your own future than he seems to be giving you.'
'Lee, please tell me honestly. Do I have the talent to be a model?'
Lee sighed and gave up. She'd warned Daniel that if this moment came she would have to tell Phoebe the truth.
'Yes, you do,' she said. 'You look fabulous and you're terribly photogenic. But it's an insecure life and a very hard one. You could get ill and your looks could vanish overnight. You could wear yourself out banging on doors trying to get a start.'
'But you could employ me-'
'Oh, no, I couldn't,' Lee said hastily, shuddering at the thought of Daniel's reaction to this plan. 'Not while your father's against it.'
'But if it weren't for Dad you'd employ me, wouldn't you?'
'I didn't say that. There could be all sorts of reasons for my not using you. You might not be suitable for any of the things I'm booked to do. You were the one who wanted to keep it impersonal. You're not suggesting that I should show you favouritism, are you?'
'Of course not. But I don't want to be discriminated against either,' Phoebe pleaded. 'If I'm not right for a particular job, fair enough. But you've got me on a blacklist all because of Dad. That's not only unjust, it's restraint of trade.'
'Pardon?' Lee said blankly.
'Restraint of trade. It's a legal concept. It's against the law for anyone to do something that interferes with another person's freedom to earn their living. The fact is, if it weren't for Dad, you'd hire me sometimes, wouldn't you?'
'I think I'd better not answer that,' Lee said, feeling the waters beginning to close over her head.
'That's all right,' Phoebe said wickedly. 'Some people take silence to mean consent.'
'Phoebe, why don't you just become a lawyer?' Lee pleaded. 'I'm beginning to think it's exactly what you're cut out for.'
Phoebe laughed-the young, confident laugh of someone who knew she could make the world dance to her tune.
That's what Dad says,' she said serenely. 'But I know what's right for me and I'm going to have it, no matter what he thinks. Thanks a million, Lee.'
When she'd gone the studio seemed quiet, as though a whirlwind had hit it and passed on.
'Were you ever that young and that sure?' mused Gillian.
'Yes,' Lee said. 'And it was a disaster. But then, I wasn't a genius.'
CHAPTER FIVE
Lee had no leisure to think of Phoebe for the next few days. Sonya was leaving to spend part of her summer holidays with Jimmy, and Lee's time was taken up with supervising her preparations. Mother and daughter enjoyed a final shopping trip together, during which Lee splashed out on a new dress for herself. When they got home she paraded in it before the mirror. It was blue silk, highlighting her eyes, and cut so that it clung to her dainty figure.
She commended herself for choosing something so classically restrained, until Sonya blew this self-deception apart with the frank comment, 'Jolly good, Mum! It's about time you bought something sexy.'
'Don't be vulgar, darling! It's elegant and simple.'
'Of course it is. Elegant, simple and sexy.'
'Sonya!'
Sonya placed her hands theatrically over her mouth. Lee surveyed the gown in dismay, seeing the truth at last. It was sexy. It was the most frankly provocative garment she'd ever worn with Daniel.
Sonya's train left at midday. Lee drove her to the station and they sat over a cup of coffee. As always on these occasions Lee's stomach was churning with conflicting feelings. She was determined never to interfere with Sonya's love for her father, but the sight of her going off to visit Jimmy roused painful sen-sations. Now she was uncomfortably aware that she was babbling.
'I don't know how you manage to fit in so many activities, darling. After you've seen your father you're going on that school camp-that's the twenty-third, don't forget-and then you'll…'
'Mum…' Sonya briefly laid her hand over Lee's, and her eyes were kind. 'I'm coming back, I promise,' she said gently.
Lee let out her breath, her heart thumping. 'I'm really transparent, aren't I?' she asked shakily. '
'Well, whenever I go off to see Daddy you remind me of all the things I'm booked to do when I get back. I'd have to be a lot stupider than I am not to guess why.'
'And you're not stupid,' Lee said with a little smile.
'I wish you'd stop worrying. I love Daddy, but I wouldn't want to live with him. His latest fad is to want me to call him Jimmy,' she added wryly.
'What? Why?'
'For the same reason he's started wearing trendy clothes and pulling his stomach in. He's nearly forty and he hates it. It drives Erica mad.' Erica was Jimmy's second wife.
Sonya's wisdom had made her seem mature, but suddenly she changed, becoming again a thirteen-year-old girl, gleefully winding her mother up.
'I tell you what, Mum,' she said with elaborate casualness, 'I won't go after all. I'll stay here and you and I will spend this next week together having a wonderful time-just the two of us.'
Lee gasped with dismay before she could stop herself. Meeting her daughter's eyes, she found them brimming with fun. Of course, Sonya knew Lee was planning to see a lot of Daniel. No one had told her but she knew.
'I think it's time you got on the train,' she said firmly.
'But shouldn't I stay here and keep you company-?'
'Get on the train, Sonya.'
'I just hate to think of your being all alone-'
'Get on the train before I take you by the scruff of the neck and put you on.' She joined in Sonya's laughter. 'I'm
