‘If he loves you, I don’t think it should.’
‘No – but like you said on the plane, it’s complex.’
She got out, waited till Leo had driven out of sight, then walked up the steps and rang the buzzer to Anthony’s flat.
‘It’s me,’ she said when he answered.
There was a moment’s hesitation, then Anthony said, ‘Come on up.’
When she stepped out of the lift, he was waiting for her. He took her in his arms and held her very close for a long moment, and she realised with relief that it was all OK.
‘Thank God. I’ve been so worried.’ He kissed her hair. ‘Where the hell have you been?’
‘In France. At Leo’s apartment. He guessed where I was and came and found me.’
‘That’s mad. Why France?’
‘I was hiding. I was frightened.’ She sighed. ‘Let’s go inside and I’ll explain.’
While Anthony made tea, she lay on the sofa and kicked off her boots. Then they sat sipping their tea, Gabrielle’s feet in Anthony’s lap, while she told her story.
‘So that’s it. Pathetic, no?’ she said when she had finished.
‘I wish you’d come to me, instead of running away. I was worried. Everyone was.’ Anthony massaged her toes through her socks.
She closed her eyes. ‘That’s lovely. Don’t stop. I was going to ring you last night from the hotel, but I was too scared.’
‘Scared of what?’
She opened her eyes. ‘That after you’d found out that Leo was my father, you wouldn’t want to see me any more.’
‘How does that work?’
She gazed at him for a long moment. Had he been acting, he would have looked puzzled. But then, he had no idea that she knew anything about him and Leo. She bit her lip. Who was hiding what from whom? Just as she was trying to decide whether to tell him what she knew, he leant over and took her face in his hands. ‘It makes no difference to me that Leo is your father. I don’t know why you didn’t tell me sooner, or why you think it makes any difference to me now. But if we’re going to be together, we have to be entirely honest with each other. About everything.’
Her eyes searched his face, but she could find no clue, nothing to tell her what Leo meant to him. But deep in her heart she thought she knew.
‘Agreed?’ asked Anthony.
She nodded, and let him kiss her, sealing a bargain she was already failing to keep.
Leo drove to Chelsea, feeling emotionally empty for reasons he could not fathom. Perhaps it was to do with the fact that Gabrielle and Anthony meant so much to one another, and he could now only regard himself as peripheral. The last twenty-four hours had taken it out of him, and the three things he needed now to restore his equilibrium, he decided, were a shower, a change of clothing, and a large Scotch.
When he had accomplished the first two, he came downstairs and poured himself a drink from the remains of the Macallan single malt on which Jamie had made such tremendous inroads at Christmas. Looking at the bottle reminded him of that evening, of lying on the sofa leafing through the book which Sarah had given him, Jamie snoring on the other side of the room, hearing the front door open and close as she came in. The Lost Railways of North Wales still lay on a small table near the window. He picked it up and turned it over. What a fool he’d been to let her go. Something had been wrong all the time she’d been staying here, but suddenly he no longer believed it had anything to do with Toby. He should have looked a little deeper.
On impulse, he picked up the phone and rang Sarah’s mobile. When she answered, he could hear the clamour of a bar in the background.
‘Sarah? It’s Leo. You sound like you’re busy.’
‘A bit. Hold on.’ Sarah turned to the young man she was with. ‘I won’t be a moment.’ She slipped out of the noisy wine bar into the chilly street. ‘Sorry, that’s better. I can hear you now.’
‘Look, I won’t keep you. It’s just I have to see you. Are you free on Friday?’
She had actually been reserving Friday for the man in the wine bar, a fairly interesting new romantic prospect, but decided he could wait. Calls out of the blue from Leo didn’t come very often. Weak though it was, she wanted to see him.
‘Yes, I think so.’
‘You’re in Leadenhall Street these days, aren’t you? I can come to you, if you like.’
‘There’s a cocktail bar called Prism, just opposite the Lloyd’s Building. We could meet there.’
‘Perfect. I’ll see you there at six.’
At half five on Friday afternoon reception rang Leo to tell him that Rachel was downstairs, asking to see him.