The Man I Fell In Love With. Kate Field

to discover that Leo hadn’t thought me worth mentioning. And how aggravating, a rebellious part of me argued, that he hadn’t thought to smooth the evening for me by pre-warning the other guests. Caught on the hop, I had nothing to offer but the truth. ‘I’m his wife.’

      ‘Leo’s wife?’ Andrew stared at me as if he’d just noticed that I had green scales and a horn. ‘You’re the last person I’d have expected to see here. Lower down the list than Elvis.’ He laughed. ‘Good for you. Not many wives would have been so tolerant. Mine certainly wasn’t.’

      ‘You mean you’re …’ I trailed off, not sure what the PC word to use was.

      ‘No, absolutely not. My ex-wife was intolerant about much more minor things than that. Leo’s had it easy.’

      We both glanced over at Leo. He and Clark were watching us, but swiftly looked away and started talking.

      ‘That wasn’t suspicious, was it?’ Andrew said. ‘Do you think we might have been set up?’

      ‘Set up?’

      ‘Hadn’t you noticed that all the other guests are couples?’

      ‘No.’ Or rather, I had, but I hadn’t attached any significance to it – certainly not the type that Andrew was suggesting. The idea that Leo might have tried to set me up with a blind date was preposterous. Wasn’t it? I gazed over at Leo again, and he smiled and gave me a nod – the sort of encouraging nod I had seen him give the children a thousand times.

      ‘No such thing as a free dinner,’ Andrew said. ‘Shall we get it out of the way and then we can enjoy the rest of the evening? No offence, Mary, but I didn’t come here looking for a partner, and I don’t think I’ve found one.’

      It was hard not to take some offence at being rejected after I’d spoken less than a dozen words. Perhaps Daisy had been right about the dress. But that was besides the point – the point being, what was Leo doing, trying to pair me off with this stranger? Before I could go and tackle him, Clark called us in for dinner. It wasn’t a surprise when I was ushered to a seat next to Andrew.

      ‘Fancy seeing you here,’ he said with a grin.

      Andrew had been right: removing the awkwardness from the start meant we could talk about what interested us with no pressure about how we were being perceived. Of course I ended up talking about Alice Hornby, and my plans to visit as many bookshops as I could in Lancashire to plug Leo’s book and arrange publicity events.