Read Online In Focus (2009) by Anna Jacobs - Free Book Online

that segment of his show.’
    ‘Would you need to find something out about yourself?’
    ‘No. I know who my family are and we’ve got a zillion photos of everyone. And you?’
    ‘I wouldn’t like to go on the show.’ But she had watched it again and kept remembering how the first attempt to show Pete as a child of three had looked like her lost brother – so incredibly like him that she hadn’t been able to get the image out of her mind. Stupid, really. His mother had said it wasn’t like him and Mrs Newbury should know.
    But Beth still wondered sometimes where her brother was. She’d studied other children in the street when she was younger, imagining what her little brother would look like, keeping track mentally of how old he’d be. Each time his birthday came round she’d comforted her mother, similarly at Christmas.
    As an adult she’d worried a few times in case she dated her brother without knowing it, and had tended to steer clear of fair-haired men. His hair might have grown darker now, of course, though hers hadn’t. Silly to keep thinking of him, really. The poor kid was probably long dead.
    ‘Would you like to dance?’ Daniel asked.
    ‘I’d love to.’
    She wasn’t surprised to find that he was a good dancer, not showing off but able to steer her smoothly round the smallish dance floor and maintain a conversation at the same time. She let herself move with the music and was sorry when that set ended. It was rare these days to find someone who danced as well as this.
    After they got back to the table, the woman on the other side of Daniel asked his opinion of something and the two of them got into a discussion. As the man on Beth’s other side had got up to dance, she was left to herself, which she didn’t mind in the slightest. There was enough going on around her to keep her interest.
    ‘Would you like to dance, Beth?’
    She turned sharply and saw Edward smiling down at her.
    Daniel half-turned and nodded, as if to urge her to accept.
    ‘I – um, yes, that would be nice.’
    She got up and let Edward pull her into his arms. He was taller than her by several inches and led her out on the floor with an expertise that far outdid Daniel’s. He didn’t try to speak, but when she stole a quick glance at him, he was frowning slightly and looking down at her.
    ‘Are you involved with Daniel?’ he asked abruptly.
    She swallowed. This was blunt. ‘Not in the way you mean. We’re friends, that’s all.’
    ‘Will you have dinner with me one night, then?’
    Renée’s words came back to her: don’t close the door on other men. ‘Yes. That’d be – um, nice.’
    He smiled slightly. ‘Good. Next Friday suit you? Since the show’s midweek, Pete’s usually quietened down by then.’
    ‘Quietened down?’
    ‘After the show there’s a lot going on behind the scenes that people don’t see: appearances, promotion events, planning for future shows, research. I’m not involved directly in most of it, of course, but I do have to watch Pete’s interests.’
    ‘Oh. Sounds busy.’
    ‘It is. Too busy. A bit like your life, I think.’
    She nodded.
    ‘I’ll pick you up at seven, if that’s all right. You’re not working that night, are you?’
    ‘Ah . . . no.’ Should she tell him she wasn’t really a cleaner? No, not now. When they went out together perhaps. Actually, she thought better of him for not letting that mistaken idea stop him asking her out. People could be so snobbish.
    ‘Give me your phone number and address when we get off the floor.’
    After that he didn’t speak, but he held her closer as they danced – and she let him. That wasn’t like her, but he moved so well and the music was good. Why spoil it with idle chatter?
    Yet one thought kept interrupting her enjoyment: why had a man as attractive as Edward Newbury asked her out? And another thought kept following it: why had she said yes so easily?
    It wasn’t because of what Renée had said, well only partly.