'A man has to blame somebody-as long as it isn't himself.'
'But things used to be so perfect between us.'
'Sure about that?' Jean asked shrewdly.
'I beg your pardon?'
'In my experience nothing is ever perfect. It just looks that way afterwards. Love is very difficult. That's why I never tried it after I got over the pigman. Why make it even harder by longing for an impossible ideal? It wastes what you could have now. And what you and Daniel could have is very special.'
While Lee was trying to decide how to respond Jean said briskly, 'I've enjoyed our talk. I'm sure you're just the woman Daniel needs to keep him in order.'
'Thank you,' Lee said, without much conviction.
Lee normally breakfasted off coffee and toast, but on the day of the big wedding dress shoot for Woman Of The World she made herself bacon and eggs and plenty of it.
'That's not like you,' Mark observed.
'I've got a very tough day ahead,' she told him. 'Five models, two make-up experts, two hairdressers, one fashion editor and twenty wedding garments. I'm going to need all my strength.'
'Oh, yes,' he said, elaborately casual. 'You've mentioned this wedding shoot.'
'More than once, probably,' Lee admitted. 'I was so furious that they only wanted me because of Phoebe. Ah, well, I got her so it all worked out well in the end. Bye, folks. Sonya, don't be late for school.'
She reached the studio to find Gillian just ahead of her, and a moment later a van full of clothes arrived. Lindsay Elwes, the fashion editor, burst in, full of agitation.
'I'm already on my first nervous breakdown of the day,' she confessed. 'Stephanie's let me down. Flu or something. I've been on to the model agencies but there's nobody suitable available, so I've got to rewrite the roster to divide Steph's dresses amongst the others.'
'Don't worry,' Lee soothed her. 'It'll all work out. It always does.'
'Aren't any of them here yet?' Lindsay demanded in a suppressed shriek.
'Yes. Roxanne's just walking through the door now, and Phoebe's right behind her.'
The mention of Phoebe's name brought a smile to Lindsay's face. 'Isn't she divine?' she murmured 'Lee, you're so clever to have got her for me.'
She wafted away to embrace the models. Within the next five minutes everyone who was missing turned up, and a kind of peace descended. Lee and Lindsay discussed the order of the shots while the models got dressed and started working on their looks.
The idea was to demonstrate a wide range of wedding clothes from the simple to the flamboyant, from the traditional to the ultra-modern. Phoebe had been assigned the outfits designed for very young brides. Her first one was a trouser suit made of ivory wild silk. On her head she wore a wide-brimmed hat modelled on the borsalino headgear favoured by gangsters in old Hollywood films, except that it, too, was of ivory silk. The idea was outrageous, but Phoebe made it work. On her graceful frame the outfit became cheeky, ingenious and fun.
Her next costume was a skintight body stocking in white stretch satin, over which were draped a couple of silk chiffon scarves. One huge flower was perched aslant on her head. Lee shot her with Roxanne, who was dressed as a shepherdess, with panniers and a basket full of flowers. The contrast between the two was breathtaking.
Lindsay Elwes performed miracles of organisation in distributing the absent Stephanie's dresses among the other models. At last she was left with only one garment that hadn't been reassigned.
'Roxanne, I think…' she murmured.
'Roxanne won't have time to get changed after the last tableau,' Lee objected.
'That's right, she won't. And Julia will just be putting on that Victorian thing-it'll have to be Phoebe.'
'I thought you wanted to keep her for the young, modern stuff.'
'Yes, I did,' Lindsay sighed. 'But there's no choice. She's the only one with the time to do it.'
The dress was made of silk chiffon and swept the ground. It was cut on classical lines, without even a hint of decoration. Even the floor-length veil was unadorned, held in place by two small pearls. Lee had her doubts about Phoebe in this conservative style, until she actually saw the girl wearing it. Then she drew in her breath.
Phoebe's blazing beauty was accentuated by the gown's simple lines. With her head slightly bent, a bouquet of lilies in her hand, she looked the essence of gentle femininity and grace.
Lee photographed her with the others in ones and twos, then by herself. 'Take some more of her alone,' Lindsay muttered, and Lee nodded. Already she could see that this was going to be the shot of the spread.
'Twirl,' she instructed Phoebe, who did so. The glorious gown and veil swirled out about her in a soft cloud.
After a few more minutes she called, 'OK, that's it!'
She'd half noticed a new presence in the studio. Now she turned to look and saw that it was Mark.
She gave him a friendly greeting. 'How long have you been there?'
He didn't answer. His gaze was riveted on Phoebe and his mouth had fallen open. She seemed to become aware of him and a slow smile spread over her face. Lee understood that smile. It was triumph that she'd brought her lover back to her feet, but it was innocent of any malice. Phoebe was simply enjoying her newly discovered power as a woman.
She walked slowly across the studio, stopped a precisely judged distance away from Mark and sank into a deep curtsey. The gorgeous dress flared out around her, as she'd known it would. She looked utterly entrancing, and Lee swiftly raised her camera again, praying that Phoebe wouldn't move until she had the picture. And of course Phoebe didn't.
'Do you like me?' she asked impishly of Mark.
He made a sound like a man being strangled. 'You-you look-' he stammered. 'You look just- just-'
'Phoebe, I need that dress,' Lindsay called, and Phoebe wafted away, with a slight backward glance at Mark. He gazed after her, rooted to the spot.
'Mark!' Lee waved a hand in front of his face. 'Come back to earth.'
'I didn't know,' he breathed. 'I never dreamed…'
'She's quite something, isn't she?'
'Quite something? Is that any way to talk about her? She's a goddess-Venus rising from the waves- the face that launched a thousand ships. She's Helen of Troy for whom men died. She's-'
'All right, I get your drift,' Lee said kindly. 'Come and have some coffee and sandwiches with me.'
'I couldn't eat,' he protested in a daze.
'Just honey arid nectar, huh?'
'What?'
'Never mind.' She patted his hand. 'Enjoy it while you're young.'
'All my life,' he murmured. 'All my life.'
'I thought you were never going to speak to her again.'
'That was before I knew,' he said simply.
Phoebe reappeared wearing her street clothes, but it was obvious that to Mark she still carried the aura that had surrounded her in the wedding gown.
'I've got the car outside,' he said. Phoebe laid her hand in his without a word and they left the studio together.
After that the atmosphere in Lee's home improved dramatically. Whatever had happened between Mark and Phoebe, his shining happiness confirmed that the reconciliation was complete.
'He helped me with my maths homework last night,' Sonya told Lee one day, adding with a giggle, 'Mind you, his mind's in such a whirl that I checked it carefully afterwards.'
'Did he tell you anything about how things are going? I don't like to ask him myself in case I'm accused of nagging.'
'The path of true love isn't entirely smooth,' Sonya said dramatically. 'Our hero's noble soul still has much to suffer.'
'Such as?'
'I think he's going to talk to you about his car.'
'Oh, heavens! Not again!'
'No, he's going to take the three thousand. He knows you're not going to let him have seven, and he really can't
