‘Now look-’
A sound from the doorway made them both look, and see Mark. She wondered how long he’d been standing there, and how much he’d heard.
‘Hallo, Dad.’
‘Hallo, Mark. Has anyone offered Miss Wharton any tea?’
‘Yes, Lily’s made some.’
‘Then I suggest you take it upstairs and show Miss Wharton your room. She’d like to see some of your interests.’
She guessed that he would really have liked to throw her out, but he would not do so in front of his son.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I appreciate your being so helpful.’
That annoyed him, she was glad to notice.
Mark’s room turned out to contain all the gadgets any boy could want, including a music centre and computer. Evie guessed she was supposed to admire, and conclude that Mark had everything. Instead, she shivered.
Such a profusion of mechanical things, and nothing human. Even here, no pictures of the child’s mother were on show.
‘How powerful is your computer?’ she asked.
He switched on and showed her. As she’d expected it was state of the art, linked to a high-speed Internet connection.
‘It’s the next generation,’ he said. ‘They aren’t even in the shops yet, but Dad brought it home for me. He makes sure my machine is always ahead of the other kids’ machines.’
‘I’ll bet your school loves him for that,’ Evie observed wryly.
‘At my last school they told him he was throwing everything out of kilter by making their computers look outdated. He replaced every machine in the entire school with the newest thing on the market. Then he turned to the headmistress and said, “Not out of kilter now.” And he winked.’
‘He what? Mark, I don’t believe it. I shouldn’t think your father knows how to wink.’
‘He can sometimes. He says there are things any man can do if he has to.’
So, Evie reflected, winking was Justin Dane’s idea of putting on the charm, something a man could do when he had to, but which was otherwise a waste of time. But she felt she was getting to know him now, and ventured to say, ‘I’ll bet he bought you a new computer too, and it was one step ahead of the school’s.’