She turned back to the older woman. ‘Miss Richmond—’
‘Please do call me Rachel,’ the actress instantly invited, still smiling warmly. ‘Luke, darling, did you ask Janet to organise some tea for us all?’ She arched blonde brows at her son.
His mouth tightened grimly. ‘No—’
‘Then do so, darling,’ his mother interrupted imperiously before turning back to smile at Leonie once again. ‘Leonie, I’m sure you would like a stroll in the garden while we wait for our tea.’ Without waiting for an answer she linked her arm with Leonie’s and led the way out the French windows into the sunlit garden. ‘I do so want you to tell me all about yourself, my dear,’ she encouraged interestedly. ‘I’ve never met a female historian before. It must be so exhilarating to excel in such a male-dominated subject. Exactly what…?’
Leonie was only half listening to the older woman as she chattered on, seemingly not really requiring an answer to her questions. At least, Leonie didn’t give her any. She was too distracted by the furious expression she had seen on Luke Richmond’s face as the two women walked outside into the garden. It was more than obvious to her that if he could have forcibly removed her from the house without upsetting his mother, then he would have done so.
‘It really is lovely to meet you, my dear.’ Rachel Richmond squeezed her arm in delight, green eyes glowing as she smiled. ‘I did so enjoy your last book.’
‘My first book,’ Leonie corrected dryly. ‘But also my last,’ she added ruefully. ‘You see—’
‘Oh, I do so hope not, Leonie—I may call you Leonie, I hope?’ Rachel Richmond prompted belatedly, a slight frown marring the actress’s otherwise smoothly creamy brow.
‘Of course,’ she accepted dismissively. ‘But, Miss Richmond—’
‘And you really must call me Rachel,’ the older woman invited again lightly. ‘Everybody does. Even Luke,’ she added affectionately.
A fact Leonie had already noted—and found strangely odd. And, in truth, she wasn’t sure she could use such a familiarity herself. This woman was an icon of the theatre and cinema, still able to command the interest of a crowd whenever she chose to make a public appearance, still able to draw a full audience night after night on the rare occasions she agreed to appear on the stage. As Leonie was finding, her personality was just as commanding in the flesh…
She frowned. ‘Rachel,’ she conceded awkwardly. ‘Your son seemed to think—’
‘You really mustn’t mind Luke.’ The other woman smiled indulgently. ‘He’s very protective of me. And he’s always been such a serious boy,’ she added affectionately.
‘Boy?’ At thirty-seven, Luke Richmond could hardly be called that!
Rachel laughed softly at Leonie’s stunned expression. ‘He’ll always be a boy to me.’ She smiled. ‘And, I do assure you, his bark is so much worse than his bite,’ she excused lightly.
Somehow Leonie seriously doubted that, had every reason to believe he would have forcibly ejected her from the house if his mother hadn’t appeared so precipitously.
And late…
‘Perhaps,’ she conceded disinterestedly.
After all, Luke Richmond’s arrogance was completely unimportant to her; he wasn’t a man she intended being in the company of any more than she had to. Which amounted to a simple goodbye when she left in a few minutes’ time, as far as she was concerned!
Leonie gave another glance at her wrist-watch. ‘It’s getting rather late, Miss Richmond—Rachel,’ she corrected as the older woman gave a little moue of rebuke for her continued formality. ‘I—’
’How long did it take you to drive down here?’ the actress asked interestedly.
‘Just over an hour,’ Leonie answered frowningly. ‘I’m afraid I do have another appointment in town this evening, so—’
‘It was so good of you to give up your Saturday afternoon in order to drive down here.’ Rachel nodded. ‘I get up to London all too seldom nowadays, I’m afraid,’ she confided ruefully.
‘Not at all,’ Leonie dismissed. ‘But I really will have to be going shortly, so—’
‘Don’t you just love the springtime?’ Rachel seemed not to have heard her last comment, looking around the garden with obvious pleasure in the early colourful blooms that already abounded in the numerous flower beds. ‘Everything is so new. Life replenished,’ she added wistfully.
As it happened, Leonie did like the spring, but more practically because it meant an end to the dark winter evenings and mornings, hating the fact that during the winter months she often arrived at her job at the university in the dark, and also left in the dark.
‘Yes,’ she answered dismissively. ‘Rachel, you telephoned me completely out of the blue last week and asked for this meeting; don’t you think it would be helpful if you were to tell me why?’ she added with a frown.
In fact, Leonie had been caught completely off guard when summoned to a telephone call at the university eight days ago, only to discover that the caller was the actress Rachel Richmond. She had been so thrown by the identity of the caller that she had agreed to this meeting while still in a daze.
Although it was obvious from the few insulting remarks Luke Richmond had thrown at her that he was under the impression that she had asked for this meeting.
A fact Leonie would have been only too happy to have corrected for him—if he had given her the opportunity. Which he most definitely hadn’t!
But despite having had plenty of time for thought since Rachel’s call Leonie was no nearer knowing the reason for this meeting. She had even enlisted Jeremy’s help, but he had simply teased her about ‘hobnobbing with the rich and famous’. Other than that he had been no help in finding a solution either.
Jeremy…
Leonie found herself smiling as she thought of her fellow lecturer, a computer whizkid, who managed to transmit his love for the technology to the students who flocked to join his degree course year after year.
An attraction of opposites, Leonie accepted with a rueful smile. Leonie, with her love and interest firmly fixed in the past, Jeremy, with his lightning-speed acceptance and understanding of an advanced technology that he was sure would dominate the future.
He was also the reason she didn’t want to be late back to town, the two of them having a dinner date for this evening…
Rachel unlinked her arm from Leonie’s as she turned to look at her, suddenly serious, the green eyes no longer glowing with warmth but darkly searching, looking more like her seventy-odd years now that she was no longer smiling. ‘But surely it’s obvious why I telephoned you, my dear?’ She frowned quizzically.
Leonie gave a rueful grimace, shaking her head in obvious puzzlement. ‘Not to me. All you would say on the telephone last week was that you wanted to talk to me,’ she reminded lightly.
‘But—’ Rachel shook her head. ‘You mean you have absolutely no idea why I invited you here?’ She sounded incredulous.
‘None at all,’ Leonie confirmed with a good-humoured grimace.
‘I see.’ Rachel frowned. ‘Oh, dear. Well, that makes things rather awkward, doesn’t it?’ she realised ruefully. ‘You see, I read your book on Leo Winston—’
‘So—so your son informed me.’ Somehow Leonie couldn’t bring herself to call that arrogantly cold man by his first name! ‘I believe he also read it.’ Her voice hardened as she remembered the disparaging comment he had made. ‘I’m pleased you liked it, of course, deeply flattered—’
‘My dear girl, I didn’t