Daniel and Daughter

CHAPTER NINE

It seemed there was no end to the little pinpricks that Phoebe's success could deliver to her father. For his birthday she blew a hole in her budget by buying him a winter coat of black leather. When he protested at the expense she said airily, 'It's all right. Daddy. I got it wholesale. Turn around again. I want to see how fabulous you look.'

Then she, Sonya and Lee applauded while he showed his pleasure by grinning self-consciously. It was a happy scene, but he would gladly have given it up if only Phoebe had been able to spend the day with him. Unluckily an important booking was taking her in one direction just as he was setting out for a family party in the other.

Lee and Sonya accompanied him to his old home in the Midlands, where his mother still lived in the comfort he provided for her. Jean and Sarah, his sisters, also turned up, leaving Lee in no doubt that she was being looked over as a future addition to the family.

She liked the Raife women, who were all tall, like Phoebe, although without her beauty. They had her sharp wits too. They greeted Lee warmly and with a kind of relief, as though she was the long-awaited answer to prayers. She wished she knew what Daniel had told them about her.

She was particularly drawn to Jean, the eldest of the three siblings. At forty-three Jean was unmarried, stylish, and had a booming, abrupt voice that spared nobody, not even the brother she adored.

After lunch she showed Lee over the garden, which was only just losing its colour. 'What about this Phoebe business?' she demanded, coming straight to the point. 'Taking it hard, isn't he?'

'Very hard. He had his heart set on her going to Oxford.'

'Plenty of time for that later. Girls of sixteen don't yearn for the life of the mind.'

'But-didn't you?'

Jean roared with laughter. 'He tell you that? Well, of course I wanted to finish my education, and I minded that my father was a blithering idiot about it. But it wasn't the whole of life. Secretly I yearned to be drop-dead gorgeous and have men prostrating themselves at my feet-especially Jack Denis.'

'Who was Jack Denis?'

'Local heart-throb. My, he was handsome! An Adonis. Pity he was as thick as a plank.'

'Didn't he notice you?' Lee asked sympathetically.

'Not him. He married the daughter of a pig farmer. Now the place is theirs. She does the paperwork and he looks after the porkers-although I think he finds even that a bit mentally challenging.' She joined in Lee's laughter.

'If I'd had Phoebe's beauty I'd have wanted to make the most of it, not have my father droning on that there were more important things in life.'

'Yes, there's a lot Daniel doesn't understand.'

'My little brother is a very brilliant man-in his way,' Jean said drily. 'But when it comes to coping with a daughter about to leave the nest he's as big a fool as the rest of the male sex. He told me about the steak and chips fiasco. Luckily for him a first-class mind came to the rescue with some low-fat cooking.'

'Hey,' Lee said indignantly, 7 bought him that book.'

'Did I say otherwise?'

'You said a first-class mind.'

'I meant yours. A mind that can see straight to the heart of the problem and pinpoint the answer. You did that while he was still floundering.'

'That's the first time anyone's praised my mind,' Lee mused.

'Sonya has a good brain too. Gets it from you. Daniel won't go far wrong while he's got you to put him straight.'

'I'm not so sure,' Lee said sadly. 'He copes on the surface, but underneath he's tense and miserable. I can't reach him. In his heart I think he still blames me.'

'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 keep taking Phoebe out in that tomato on wheels. So he's going to give in without actually admitting that he's giving in. You'll be careful what you say to him, won't you, Mum?'

'I'll try to be tactful, darling,' Lee said meekly.

'He's madly sensitive about money, now Phoebe's earning so much. He took her to dinner last week and she lacerated his feelings by offering to go Dutch. Luckily she saw the light in time and meekly allowed him to pay for her.'

'Daniel Raife's daughter did that?'

'She's in love,' Sonya intoned, in the manner of someone announcing a terminal disease. 'And so is he. Honestly, they're dead boring, both of them. What's that for, Mum?' Lee had given her an impulsive hug.

'It's gratitude, darling. At least one person around here has kept a clear head on her shoulders.'

'You wait till it's my turn,' Sonya said wickedly. 'Any day now I'm due to turn into a fiend who stays out late every night, wears punk make-up, dates yobbos and snarls, "Gerroff my back!" every time you speak to me. Most girls my age are already doing that, but luckily for you I'm a late developer.'

'Thank you, darling,' Lee said faintly.

In fact her relationship with Sonya was fast becoming the one stable point in a turbulent world. Mark's moods were on a roller coaster, depending on how often he saw Phoebe.

The negotiations about the car money were handled delicately on both sides. Mark loftily deigned to accept three thousand pounds, without any reference to their previous battles. What Sonya had called 'the tomato on wheels' vanished, never to be seen again, and its place was taken by a silver-blue saloon.

For a while peace reigned, but the next upset was just over the horizon. And the cause, as Sonya had hinted, was Mark's sensitivity about money.

Lee came downstairs one morning with a headache. She'd slept badly, as she often did these days, and felt far from ready for the day. She collected the mail and began to sort sleepily through it. There were bills for herself and something for Mark that she recognised as his credit card statement. It was a source of friction between them as whenever he had trouble meeting the monthly payment, which was usually, he nagged her to increase his allowance. Lee always refused and advised him to economise, which annoyed him.

'Give this to Mark, please,' she said to Sonya, who was just coming downstairs.

Lee went into her den to open her mail. While she was frowning over an invoice she was startled to hear Sonya's voice reach her from the kitchen across the hall.

'Mum will go absolutely ballistic when she sees that.'

Then Mark's voice. 'She isn't going to see it. Anyway, no woman tells me what to do.'

Lee hurried out and reached the kitchen door just as Sonya said, 'Don't be a prat, Mark. Of course she'll find out.'

'Find out what?' Lee asked. The two of them jumped. In the silence Lee looked from one to the other. Sonya's lips were firmly pressed together and

Mark wore an uncomfortable look, at variance with his defiant words.

The credit card statement lay open on the table. An instinct for trouble made Lee glance at it.

'Two thousand pounds!' she exclaimed, aghast. 'Since when was your credit limit that high?'

'I only just increased it,' Mark said sulkily.

'You had no right to. One thousand is more than enough.'

'Oh, stop making a fuss! I haven't actually used up the two thousand. It's just there-in case I need it.'

'This is because of Phoebe, isn't it?'

'You know what she's earning. How can I entertain her on a student's grant?'

'And you think the answer is to run up debt in the hope that I'll hand over your inheritance?'

'It's about time you did,' he shouted.

'Acting like this isn't going to persuade me that you're responsible about money.'

'It's my money!'

'Not until you grow up.' She became aware of Sonya watching with bright-eyed eagerness and said briefly, 'Scram!'

When Lee and Mark were alone she spoke more gently. 'You've got it really badly, haven't you?'

He gave a mirthless laugh. 'That's putting it mildly. That day in the studio, when I saw her in the wedding dress-I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life. She looked like an angel. I'm in love with her. She's the only girl I'll ever love.'

Oh, the delusions of youth! Lee regarded him sympathetically. 'But this isn't the way, my dear,' she said kindly. 'If Phoebe were the kind of girl who only cares about a man's money-well, you wouldn't be able to compete. But I don't think she's like that. Does she tell you how she feels about you?'

'Oh, yes, she says she loves me,' he replied wretchedly.

'Then can't you trust her?'

'I do trust her, but I get scared. If you'd only see sense, Lee, and hand over the cash-'

'No,' she said, her eyes kindling. 'It's there to safeguard your future. I'd be crazy to let you blow it on your first infatuation.'

'I'm nineteen now. That's old enough to have what's mine.'

'Not according to your trust.'

'The hell with the trust!'

Lee's headache had grown worse. If only Mark would stop this. 'Is there any tea in the pot?' she asked, turning away.

'Never mind that now. It's time we had this out.' Mark took hold of her arm and pulled her around to face him.

Lee's temper flared and she shook herself free. 'Stop trying to bully me. As far as I'm concerned we've already had it out-too often. The money stays where it is until you're older, and that's my last word on the subject.'

'Well, it's not my last word on the subject. Don't think you're going to get away with this.'

'Oh, Mark, please! Stop talking like a character in a bad melodrama. It doesn't move me, except to make me want to laugh.'

'Laugh, yes! You know nothing about real feelings. But you're going to find out how wrong you are.'

He stormed out of the house, slamming the front door so hard that the house rattled.