"I don't suppose you're going to come and help us some more back at base, Ella," Nick said, without any hope.
I'd love to," she said guiltily. "It's just I have school tomorrow morning, you see."
"Why did I know you were going to say that?" Nick gave her a brotherly pat on the behind.
Sandy wasn't jealous any more. As they packed away the equipment, she whispered to Ella, "Did you see him?"
"Yes, I saw him."
"Did he see you?" Still a whisper.
"No, no he didn't."
"Are you glad or sorry you came?" Sandy had to know. Again total truth is very satisfying.
"A bit of both, to be honest," Ella Brady said, and slipped out the back way before she might see Don Richardson hold out his hand and ask his tiny, emerald-wearing, estranged wife to dance.
She got a taxi home and stayed awake until 5 a.m. After two hours she woke groggy and bad-tempered. And when she got to her class, she didn't feel any better. "If you know what's good for all of us, you lot must be no trouble today," she warned the Fifth Years, who were inclined to be difficult.
"Was it a heavy night, Miss Brady?" asked Jacinta O'Brien, one of the more fearless troublemakers.
Ella strode so purposefully towards the girl's desk that the class gasped.
Miss Brady couldn't be about to hit a pupil, surely? But that's what it looked like. Ella stood, her face inches from the child's. "There's always one in every class, Jacinta, one smart-arse who goes too far and ruins it for everyone. In this class you are the one. I was going to treat you like adults, tell you the truth - which is that I didn't sleep and don't feel too well. I was going to ask for your co-operation so that I could give you as good a lesson as possible.
"But no, there's always the smart-arse, so instead we will have a test. Get out your papers this minute."
Ella gave them four questions, and then she sat there trembling at her outburst. She had said smart-arse. Twice.
This wasn't the kind of school where you said that.
She had meant to say smart aleck. Oh, God, why couldn't it be Tuesday? Then she could see Don Richardson that night.
But she got through the day and was relieved to get home.
I understand you've started stalking him now," Deirdre said on the phone that night.
"How did you hear that?" Ella gasped.
"It was in one of the gossip columns. I can't remember which," Deirdre said. As usual Ella fell for it.
"What?"
"Oh, shut up, Ella. I met Nick. He told me you wanted to crash Don's big fund-raiser with him."
Ella began to breathe again.
"Some capital city this is, you can't do anything," she grumbled.
"Well, you haven't done anything, have you?" Deirdre reminded her.
"No. Tomorrow night," Ella said. "It would have been tonight, but I remembered what you said about not being too available."
"Can we meet lunchtime Wednesday?" asked Deirdre.
"No, that's my short lunch ... it will have to wait till after work."
"Early Bird Quentins? My treat?" Deirdre offered.
"Early Bird starts at six-thirty. I'll be there," Ella promised. There was an old clock on a church tower near Ella's flat. It was just striking eight when he knocked on the door. I'm boringly punctual," he said. He carried a briefcase, an orchid and a bottle of wine.
I'm just delighted to see you," Ella said simply. There was something about the way she said it that made him put down everything on the table and take her in his arms.
"Ella, Angel Ella, I'm never going to hurt you or be bad for you in any way."
There was a catch in his voice as he spoke into her hair. "Nothing bad is ever going to happen to you, believe me."
And as she looked at him before she kissed him properly, Ella knew this was true.
They put the orchid in a long narrow vase, and got about the business of preparing dinner. He sliced the mushrooms, she made the salad. They had a glass of cold white wine from her fridge. And he opened the bottle of red he had brought before they sat down in the most normal and natural way, as if this was where they had always lived. She didn't ask him would he stay the whole night because she knew he would. They talked easily. He said he had enjoyed meeting her parents.
"They liked meeting you, too, but I expect everyone does," Ella said.
"Does that mean you think I'm putting on some kind of an act?" he asked, hurt.
"No, I don't think it does, you do like people, and you make them feel as if there's no one else in the room. It's just the way you are ... even now."
He looked round her flat. "Come on, there is no one else in the room!" he said, laughing.
"No, it's a way you have, I expect you were great at the fund-raiser thing on Sunday." Her eyes were bright.
"I don't know," Don Richardson said thoughtfully. "People had been generous, I was just thanking them, making them feel that they weren't being taken for granted, that the Party appreciated them. It wasn't meant to be all smarmy, just gratitude."
"Glad-handing," she said, remembering his words.
"Yes, I was sending myself up when I said that, it's just that I would have preferred to be with you."
"You were very good at it, I saw you," Ella said suddenly. She didn't know why she had made this admission. Possibly because she wanted no lies, no pretending. To her amazement he just nodded at her.
"Yes, I saw you, too," he said.
She felt her face redden with shame. He had actually spotted her stalking him as Deirdre described it.
"Nick, the guy who did the video, he's a mate of mine. He wanted some help."
"Sure."
"Actually he didn't want any help, I just asked if I could come along too."
"Did you, Ella? Why?" His hand rested on top of hers, lightly.
"I just wanted to see you, Don, I was very sorry too that we weren't meeting that night, to go to the do was the next best thing."
He stood up and held her face in his hands and kissed her. "I didn't dare to believe that might be true, Ella. I've thought about it over and over since then and prayed it was true."
"And would you ever have said that you'd seen me?"
"No, it was your business that you were there, I'd never interrogate you. Never."
"You were very good, Don, you were tireless."
"No, I was very tired, I drove past this house on the way back to my flat, I saw your lights on and realised you were home .. . but . .."
"But what?" she asked.
"But our date was for tonight. I didn't want to look foolish and overeager."
Her eyes had tears in them as she led him away from the table and to the bedroom. And it was everything that it had never been before, with Nick or with the sporting hero or the two one-night stands. Ella lay in his arms long after Don had gone to sleep. She was the luckiest woman in the world.
Next morning, she just offered him coffee and orange juice, and didn't fuss about breakfast. He seemed to like the lack of fuss. Possibly Margery and the boys made too much noise and crowded him out. Ella would never be like that.
She picked up a package of papers to take to school.
"What are they?" he asked, interested.
"Oh, I gave the Fifth Years a test yesterday. The good side of that is you have forty minutes" peace while they do it, the bad side is you have to mark thirty-three extra papers."
He kissed her on the nose.
"I know nothing of your life, Ella Brady," he said.
"Probably better to keep it that way, in case you keel over and die of boredom," she said.
"You couldn't bore me." He sounded very serious. "May I come back tonight, a bit late-ish?"