Chapter 14 #3
At that moment, Vivi swept in. ‘Leave the poor man alone, Eliza, and come and eat some pudding with me. Bill’s housekeeper Mrs Winters makes the most delectable trifle and decadent sticky toffee pudding!’
‘I’m going to try them all!’ shouted Dan from the end of the pudding table.
As they all grabbed plates, Eliza noticed the room starting to quickly fill up with more guests arriving. People were chatting and laughing about their previous dinner destinations, and there was a buzz about the room.
‘Didn’t you get stuck with the Hendersons?’ Marjorie asked another woman, who Eliza vaguely recognised from the local shop. ‘How was Ethel’s infamous fish pie?’
‘Let’s just say the cats enjoyed it more than we did!’ the woman replied with a grimace, causing a ripple of laughter to break out.
Then the rich brassy sounds of Glenn Miller’s ‘In the Mood’ filled the room, and Bill announced, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, desserts are to be enjoyed, and dancing is mandatory!’
Dan immediately put his hand out to grab Marjorie’s, who blushed furiously but accepted with total delight. They moved straight to the centre of the dance floor where Dan surprised everyone with his remarkably nimble foxtrot that had Marjorie smiling with glee!
‘Is there anything that man can’t do?’ Eliza said to Vivi. ‘Just look at him go! Makes me wish he was thirty years younger.’
As other couples joined the dance floor, Bill approached Eliza with a gentlemanly bow. ‘May I have this dance, Ms Fox? I promise not to step on too many toes!’
Eliza grinned from ear to ear. ‘I’d be delighted Mr . . . actually, what’s your surname?’ she asked.
‘Hargrove, William Hargrove at your service!’
As Bill guided her around the dance floor with surprising skill, Eliza found herself relaxing into the unfamiliar steps.
Even though she really was better at pelvic thrusting if truth was told, she realised for the first time she really was loving her life.
Being led around the dance floor, surrounded by all her new friends.
‘This is very cool, Bill,’ said Eliza. ‘I like it! No grinding or gyrating, just good old-fashioned fun!’
‘Quite!’ said Bill. ‘Dancing always used to be about reading your partner’s movements and responding accordingly, a bit like life, wouldn’t you say?’
She smiled. As the music wound down, and Eliza was about to thank Bill for the dance, she noticed a commotion near the entrance.
She heard Vivi’s distinctive laugh, followed by a deep familiar voice.
Eliza’s heart skipped a beat as she turned to see Luke Stanley entering the room with his arm slung around Jean Pierre’s shoulder.
Every time she saw him it felt like she was being struck by lightning, and she wondered whether this was how every woman who had ever met him felt.
Or was this different? Because surely it took two people to feel the same way for lightning to happen.
Jean Pierre made a beeline for Eliza, forcing Bill to take a step back as he rushed in. ‘You’ll do it? You’ll really take us on?’
Vivi was hurrying behind him, looking a little embarrassed but also thrilled. ‘Sorry, Eliza, he’s so excited!’
Feeling joy course through her as Jean Pierre beamed, Eliza grinned. ‘Of course I will, Jean Pierre. Your new heritage vintage is going to be everywhere – I promise.’
‘Ma chérie, c’est magnifique!’ Jean Pierre clasped her hand and pressed his lips to it with theatrical flair, launching into rapid French that tumbled out at incomprehensible speed.
‘Jean Pierre!’ Vivi cut in, rolling her eyes affectionately.
‘English, please. Nobody understands your French when you’re this excited.
’ She looped her arm through his. ‘Let’s give Eliza some breathing space and head to the dessert table.
’ With a conspiratorial wink at Eliza, she guided her tipsy husband away.
A warm sensation spread through Eliza’s chest at the extraordinary feeling of belonging, of being valued. As she turned, still floating on cloud nine, she collided with a solid chest. Looking up, she found Luke’s eyes, his mouth curving into that deliberate smile that sent her weak at the knees.
‘I believe I might have just lost my dance partner,’ said Bill with good-natured resignation. ‘Go on,’ he urged, ‘there’s a lovely widow over there from Lower Farmington who’s been eyeing me up all evening! Duty calls,’ he said as he wandered off.
‘Fancy seeing you here,’ Luke said, his voice low and intimate, as if they were the only two in the room. ‘I thought you had a wedding meeting tonight.’
‘That was last night,’ she said, trying to sound totally casual and not mentally undressing him with her eyes. ‘Tonight, I’m on safari. Can’t you tell?’
‘So I see,’ he said, his eyes taking in her body. ‘Very appropriate attire.’
‘I like to prepare for all eventualities,’ she responded, wondering if the rapid acceleration of her heartbeat was causing her to sound a little breathless.
‘Looks like you’re quite the hit. First Jean Pierre, and now Bill on the dance floor, are you trying to woo all the men in Farmington one by one?’
‘Are you jealous?’ teased Eliza, raising an eyebrow.
‘Should I be?’ His voice was light, but there was an intensity in his eyes that made her catch her breath. Christ, she wanted him so badly.
‘I don’t know,’ she said breathlessly. ‘I suppose that depends on what this is.’ She gestured vaguely between them.
Luke’s expression shifted. ‘What do you want it to be?’ He stepped even closer, his voice dropping to a whisper, his breath hot on her face. ‘Because I’m finding it increasingly difficult to stay away from you, Eliza Fox.’ The music changed to a more intimate jazz. ‘Dance with me.’
It wasn’t a question, and Eliza allowed herself to be led to the centre of the dance floor, feeling the familiar excitement of his touch, his skin on hers.
‘I didn’t know you could dance to jazz as well as Greek music,’ she said teasingly.
‘There’s a lot you don’t know about me.’
She suddenly felt uncomfortable. He was right, there was so much she didn’t know.
‘Like your past?’
‘It’s really not very interesting,’ he said, his breath hot on her neck. ‘This, right now, is far better.’
She wanted to ask more. Ask him about Bella, or if there was something more recent she should know about.
Sighing as his arms tightened around her, she looked up into his eyes. ‘I guess I’m trying to figure out who you are, Luke Stanley. A farmer who hangs out in Greek restaurants, owns a cinema company, has a coffee shop, and dresses like Fred Astaire. You’re just one big conundrum.’
‘Is that a bad thing?’ he asked quizzically.
‘Not bad, just, confusing. I feel like maybe I’m missing important pieces of the puzzle.’
He guided her through another turn. ‘Maybe there’s no puzzle to solve, maybe not everything is complicated, maybe what you see is what you get.’
‘Now that,’ said Eliza with a smile, ‘is definitely not true.’
The music swelled around them and, for a moment, they just danced, bodies moving in perfect synchrony.
Eliza was acutely aware of every point of contact between them, his hand at the small of her back, her fingers lightly resting on his shoulder, their thighs occasionally brushing as they moved.
She was sure she could feel his hardness pushing against her as they danced.
He wanted her, too. Despite her questions, despite her uncertainty, she wanted to be in his arms. And was also dangerously close to breaking all of the rebound rules.
‘Okay,’ Luke conceded finally, his voice low in her ear. ‘You’re right. There’s more to me than meets the eye. But isn’t that true of everyone? Even you.’
‘Me?’ Eliza pulled back slightly to look at him. ‘I’m an open book.’
‘Are you?’ His eyes held a challenge. ‘The sophisticated London career woman who claims she’s just passing through, yet seems to be putting down roots faster than anyone I’ve ever seen. Planning my sister’s wedding, making friends with half the village, convincing me to open up my barn . . .’
‘That’s different,’ Eliza protested, though she felt heat rise in her cheeks. ‘I’m just being neighbourly.’
‘Is that what you call it?’ Luke’s thumb traced a small circle against her back, sending shivers through her. ‘Because it looks to me like someone who’s found something she didn’t expect to find.’
‘Okay, fine, so maybe we’re both more complicated than we pretend to be,’ she said.
‘Maybe we are.’ His green eyes held hers with an intensity that made her forget they were in a room full of people. ‘The question is, are you brave enough to find out just how complicated we both are?’
Before she could respond, the music shifted to a lively swing number, breaking the intensity of the moment. Other couples surged onto the dance floor, and they were suddenly part of a whirling mass of movement rather than in their private bubble.
‘Care to show me what you’ve got, London girl?’ Luke challenged with a mischievous glint in his eye, smoothly transitioning into the faster rhythm.
Despite herself, Eliza laughed. ‘You’re changing the subject.’
‘I’m offering a temporary truce,’ he countered, spinning her unexpectedly. ‘Dance with me now; interrogate me later.’
‘It’s a deal.’
Once the music finally stopped, and people started to drift off for the evening, Dan came over to check on Eliza. Luke was chatting to his father who was standing having a final glass of port.
‘Eliza, you are a wonderful dancer! That aside, I wondered whether you’d like me to walk you home, or if that’s already taken care of? And before you ask, I’ve already seen Marjorie to her door; now I am checking on you!’