Lucy Gordon: Daniel and Daughter

As it was a Saturday, Mark used the car to take Phoebe out that night. Late in the evening a bouquet of pink roses was delivered to Lee with a note.

I'd have liked to make these red, but I was afraid you'd send them back. Is that heap of scrap metal safe? When may I come into your life? Daniel.

Lee wrote back.

Thank you for the lovely roses, and thank you even more for not making them red. The mechanic assures me that it is. Never. Lee.

There was no reply to this, and Lee began to relax.

It was exam time. Sonya's temper seemed shorter than usual, and she was unreasonable enough to blame Lee, actually saying, 'Honestly, Mum, you're like a bear with,a sore head, these days.' Lee bore this injustice with saintly patience, as befitted a mother at examination time.

'Mind you, it's worse for Phoebe,' Sonya said over breakfast one morning. 'Even though she's so young she's taking the entrance exam for Oxford, and she's terrified she's going to pass.'

'Terrified she's going to pass?' Lee echoed, puzzled.

'Yes. She doesn't want to go to Oxford, but her father's set his heart on it. Oh, look Mum! There he is!'

'Where?' Lee said sharply.

"There's no need to jump like that. He's in the paper.'

Lee studied the newspaper that Sonya pushed across the table, and saw one of her own pictures of Daniel forming part of an advertisement for a book called Women, Beware Men, to be published in a week's time. There were the dates of several television interviews.

'We must watch,' Sonya said.

'You can if you like,' Lee said casually. 'I have other things to do.'

In the end she saw him by accident. While channel-hopping she found Daniel's face smiling at her.

'Scientists have known for years that women are really the stronger sex,' he was saying. 'They stand up better than men to extremes of heat, cold and pain. They're tougher too.'

The interviewer, a young woman, pressed him. 'Then how did men gain the upper hand?'

'Because we have the muscular power. You're stronger in the long term, but we're stronger in the short term, which is where most decisions are made.

'I picture a cave woman hunting for food, millions of years ago. As soon as she'd slain the deer some muscle-bound lout jumped out, bopped her on the head and took the credit for her kill. And we've gone on stealing your credit ever since.'

'But surely that's all over now?'

'Not at all. It's just moved on. Men have used women's new freedoms to make their own lives easier. Always beware the man who seems on your side.

'But doesn't that include yourself, Mr Raife?'

'Oh, yes, you should beware me more than anyone.'

Daniel gave his attractive laugh, and the interview ended in good humour. Lee switched off, wishing she hadn't seen him. The screen image had reminded her powerfully of the real man, and undone the work of weeks.

It was nearly summer. Mark's college was celebrating the end of term with a dance, to which he was planning to take Phoebe. He returned from a date with her one evening and found Lee about to go to bed. 'I've got a letter for you, from Phoebe's dad,' he said. 'He made me promise to make sure you read it.'

Lee thought she could make a good guess at the letter's contents, but Daniel managed to surprise her. It was an excessively formal document, typewritten on his business stationery.

Dear Mrs Meredith,

I'm sure you agree with me that the time has come for us to make each other's acquaintance properly. Your brother is becoming important in my daughter's life, and, although they are both naturally too young for anything serious to come of it, I feel that a meeting between our two families would be beneficial at this time.

I therefore propose that the four of us should attend the dance at Mark's college. I would be grateful for a reply at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely, Daniel F. Raife.

The name was followed by a string of letters detailing his many degrees. They added the final touch to the letter's suffocating formality.

'He says I can only take Phoebe if you're his guest and we all go together,' Mark said, reading over her shoulder. 'Ye gods! He isn't normally as pompous as that.'

'I know,' Lee said. 'I wonder how many attempts it took him to strike just that note of old fogeyism.'

'Why should he want to sound like an old fogey?'

'To make it impossible for me to refuse, of course.'

'Well, why should you want to refuse? You will go, won't you?'

'Yes, love, I'll go. I've been thoroughly outmanoeuvred and I may as well give in gracefully. And don't ask me what that means because you wouldn't understand the half of it.'

As the dance was a formal occasion everyone assembled in evening dress. Mark's dinner jacket and bow tie set off his baby face, making him look cherubic and innocent. Phoebe, whom Daniel brought to Lee's house to collect the rest of the party, was wearing a long dress of white chiffon.

Lee was in sapphire-blue and knew she looked lovely. There was a glow in her perfect complexion and a sparkle in her eyes that had nothing to do with make-up. It was the prospect of seeing Daniel after the long weeks of self-denial.

As soon as she set eyes on him she knew that every moment of those weeks had been wasted. She'd thought of him so often that he seemed to have been with her all the time. Now she saw him in the flesh and was struck again by his blazing good looks. Daniel's conventional dinner jacket and bow tie poorly concealed his true self-the primitive male or the prowl, intent on luring the desired female into his lair.

She'd eluded him for weeks, but he'd stalked her with skill and patience, and finally brought her to the mouth of the cave. Now his quiet appearance was telling her that she needn't fear going in; she would be perfectly safe. But she didn't trust Daniel for a moment. He hadn't gone to so much trouble to snare her merely to let her be safe.

The joyful look that passed between Mark and Phoebe gave her a moment's poignant sadness. They were so young and vulnerable in their certainty that their happiness would last.

'Are you ready to go?' came Daniel's voice in her ear. 'I've been trying to attract your attention for the last minute.'

'I was watching them,' she said, indicating the two youngsters, who'd drawn a little apart.

'But you were thinking of something else as well,' he said. 'Something that made you sad.'

'I think it's always a bit sad to see children of that age fancy themselves in love. They're so sure it's going to last for ever, and we know it isn't.'

'I agree. But there was more in your face-a whole history.'

'Shouldn't we be going?' she asked hastily. Daniel was coming too close to secrets she wasn't ready to tell.

The great hall of the college was lit up and lavishly decorated with flowers. The dancing had begun and Phoebe and Mark drifted into each other's arms, oblivious to the rest of the world.

'Why don't we dance, too?' asked Daniel.

'I thought we were going to have a serious talk,' she prevaricated.

'Later. I want to know if having you in my arms feels the way I've been dreaming of it.'

He drew her onto the floor as he spoke, and she went, unresisting. His hand pressed into the small of her back, pulling her close to him, and she drew a sharp breath as she became aware of the warmth of his body against her own. It was the thought of this moment that had made her a coward. Now the moment had come, and it was as sweet-sharp and tantalising as she'd feared. She'd tried to avoid it, but he'd been too clever for her, and her heart rejoiced at her defeat.

Looking up at his face, she knew that it was the same with him. His eyes had a glowing light as they met hers, and she could feel a slight trembling in the hands that held her.