time, and she hadn’t really thought when she had told Richard’s parents about him, but perhaps it was a bit of a cheek.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said uncertainly. ‘You obviously
The unfathomable look in the blue eyes dissolved abruptly and he was smiling once more. ‘Of course not,’ he said. ‘I’m flattered you would even think of me! Are we madly in love?’
Lucy flushed. ‘I did imply that we were living together,’ she admitted.
‘Aha! Well on the way to commitment, then! Does this mean that I’ll have the pleasure of your company for longer?’
‘No…God, no,’ she said hurriedly. ‘I rang my friend Meg and I can go and stay with her tomorrow. She’s out this evening, or I’d be there now.’
‘You’ll stay tonight, then?’
‘If you don’t mind,’ she said a little uncomfortably, hearing the echo of his voice. There’s always someone… who’ll sort things out for you.
‘Of course I don’t mind. We’re in love, aren’t we?’ Guy stood up and stretched. ‘I’m starving. Let’s go out and get something to eat.’
Lucy’s stomach rumbled at the thought, but she could imagine the kind of restaurants Guy frequented. ‘I’m not dressed for going out,’ she said, gesturing down at herself. ‘I don’t have anything smarter with me.’
Guy studied her. She was wearing jeans and a camisole top, with a soft little cardigan, and the beautiful blonde hair was clipped casually up. She didn’t look at all smart, it was true, but she looked fresh and natural and very pretty and, in spite of the inevitable effects of the long flight from Australia, there was a sparkle about her that no diamond necklace could have matched.
‘You won’t need sequins or a tiara where we’re going,’ he promised her. ‘You look absolutely fine.’
Lucy got to her feet, still hesitating. ‘To be honest with you, Guy, I haven’t got much money,’ she confessed at last, flushing with embarrassment. ‘Meredith gave me what cash she had, but it wasn’t much and I’ll need to find a temporary job of some kind to see me through until I can go back to Australia. Until then, I don’t think I can afford to go out.’
‘Dinner’s on me,’ said Guy, and then, when he could see her about to protest, ‘Hey, I’m your boyfriend, aren’t I? I don’t want you telling Richard’s parents that I’m too mean to take you out!’
Overriding her feeble attempts to resist, he bore her down in the lift and out into the cold London night. Lucy had been expecting that they would go to one of the smart restaurants nearby, but instead Guy led her away from the chic shops and bars and crowds and down a maze of small streets that seemed a world away from the glittering towers of Canary Wharf.
He took her to a tiny, unpretentious Italian restaurant that Lucy would have walked past without noticing if Guy hadn’t stopped and pushed open the door. Instantly they were enveloped in a fug of welcome warmth and noise. At first glance the restaurant seemed completely full, but the waiters and then the owners greeted Guy like a long-lost brother and, before they knew it, a table for two had been conjured up and was being laid with a flourish while the waiters vied to make Lucy laugh with their extravagant compliments.
‘Hey, that’s enough!’ Guy pretended to glower at them. ‘She’s with me!’
After Kevin’s laconic style, it was heady stuff. Kevin did strong and silent, not fun and flirtation, and, although it was just nonsense, Lucy’s spirits rose in response.
Taking a sip of wine, she put down her glass and leant her elbows on the table with a happy sigh. The restaurant was throbbing with the sound of people enjoying themselves, with chatter and laughter and the warm smell of good food, while downstairs what sounded like a large party of Italians were watching football on television, their whoops and groans erupting up the stairs at regular intervals.
‘This is a great place,’ she told Guy, smiling. She could feel her pulse quickening and all at once she had a sense of thousands of vibrant little restaurants like this one, each full of people talking and laughing, spreading out across London. It was almost as if the city had an insistent beat to it that made her want to tap her foot.
‘I’m glad you like it,’ he said, his eyes on her bright face.
‘It’s funny to think that we were in the outback only two days ago, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘It feels as if we’ve flown into a different universe. Wirrindago is so beautiful. It’s so quiet and so still and so big.’ She looked around the restaurant. ‘All these people, all this noise…it’s unimaginable there, and yet, when you’re here, it’s hard to imagine how isolated it is there.’
With a glance at her watch, she tried to calculate the time difference, her nose wrinkling with the effort of concentration. ‘They should be having their morning smoko about now,’ she worked out and the blue eyes were momentarily wistful.
‘Are you missing Kevin?’
‘I haven’t had time to miss him yet.’ Lucy picked up her wine and avoided Guy’s eyes. Already Kevin seemed remote, she thought guiltily-like someone she had known in another life.
Only Guy was real. Sitting across the little table from her, he seemed extraordinarily vivid, as if everything about him was suddenly sharper and clearer in a way that left Lucy feeling uneasy. The easy pleasure she had taken in the restaurant had evaporated and in its place was a bubble of tension that cut off their table from everyone else.
‘I will, though,’ she told Guy, almost as if trying to convince herself. ‘I’ll miss him a lot.’
‘Of course you will,’ he agreed in a neutral voice.
Lucy was very aware of his blue eyes on her face, but she couldn’t look at him. Instead she swirled the wine in her glass and watched it intently, trying not to think about the slow, disturbing thump of her heart.
She was very glad when Joe, the owner, arrived, full of smiles, to take their order. ‘For you,
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Lucy, hastily consulting the menu. ‘It all looks so good…I would like everything! What can you recommend? Anything except beef!’
‘For you, the special tonight…linguine with crab and just a
Guy rolled his eyes at the accent and leant over confidentially. ‘You know, he can speak English perfectly well, can’t you, Joe? He’s just showing off to impress you.’
Joe clapped his hand to his heart. ‘You are just jealous because you are a buttoned-up Englishman and you do not have the words to tell Lucy how beautiful she is!’
Lucy laughed, glad at the way the strangely tense atmosphere had dissolved into humour. ‘The linguine sounds fab, Joe,’ she said. ‘I’d like that, please.’
Joe smirked at her and turned to Guy. ‘Your usual, then, is it?’ he asked, switching seamlessly from a romantic Italian into a cocky Cockney, and Lucy was still bubbling with laughter as he disappeared in the direction of the kitchen.
‘No need to ask if you come here often!’
‘More often than I use my kitchen,’ he admitted.
‘You’ll have to find yourself a nice girl who can cook for you,’ said Lucy, lavishly buttering a piece of bread. She didn’t think she could wait until her linguine was ready.
‘Sadly, most of the women I know are on permanent diets,’ said Guy, and she paused guiltily for a moment in mid-butter before deciding she was too hungry to care about appearances. ‘They do even less cooking than I do.’
He looked across the table at Lucy, her mouth full of bread. ‘I’m afraid you’re the only nice girl I know who can cook.’
As their eyes met, Lucy’s heart started that painful thud again, slamming slowly against her ribs in a way that made it hard to breathe. Uneasily, her gaze slid away from his and she swallowed the bread with some difficulty.
‘I’ve already got a job at Wirrindago,’ she reminded him when she could speak.
‘So you do.’ Guy’s smile was rueful. ‘I keep forgetting.’
There was a pause. Lucy pushed some breadcrumbs around her plate, unable to look at him for some reason. Her appetite had suddenly deserted her. As the silence lengthened, she pressed the crumbs on to her finger and licked them off.
‘Have some more bread,’ he said, offering the bread basket. His voice was very dry and, when she risked a
