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spirits revived. Perhaps Sven was only paying a social call after all.
    Having finished her ovation, Tessa turned to Sven, but Eliot sternly bade her 'Go basket,' and for once she obeyed him. Sonya busied herself pouring out the coffee, and Sven handed Eliot his cup and pulled up a chair for her in front of the fire. She sat down, her face glowing from her exercise, a slim graceful figure in rust-coloured trousers and sweater.
    'Was it nice on the Heath?' Eliot asked.
    'Lovely. We had a pleasant walk.'
    'All alone?' Sven asked, giving her father a significant look.
    'No, I had Tessa.'
    Eliot cleared his throat. We've been talking about that,' he told her. 'Sven thinks you're too much alone, you should get out more with young people. He suggests you have one night out a week, a theatre or even a dance, preferably on Saturdays.'
    Sonya shot a glance at Sven's enigmatical face. What persuasions had he used to make her father relax his strict rules? Her own efforts had been completely unsuccessful. She became suddenly excited. Was he going to offer to take her, and would she at last be admitted to his private life? She could only conceive her father would give permission if Sven were to have charge of her.
    'Thank you. Daddy,' she said. 'I'd enjoy a theatre now and again.' She hesitated. 'But I don't like going alone.'
    'You will not be alone,' Sven announced.
    Her heart leaped. So he was going to escort her and relax the formality of their present association. She looked down into her coffee cup to conceal the eagerness in her eyes. Sven went on:
    'I have told your father that you have formed a friendship with an estimable young man at the club, who I am sure can be trusted to take care of you. Naturally he would not wish you to wander round town without an escort.'
    Sonya flushed with indignation and disappointment. So Derek was to be brought in to act as her nursemaid! She knew he would jump at the chance to take her out, he had so often asked her and she had been forced to refuse, but that Sven should have talked her father round behind her back and calmly propose that she should be handed over to Derek as a young man who could be relied upon filled her with rage.
    'Since when have you had the right to vet my friends?' she asked Sven, with difficulty controlling her anger. She turned to her father. 'Aren't you afraid of a romantic entanglement?'
    'I have assured your father you are not enamoured of the young man,' Sven said calmly.
    'Oh really, and what do you know about my feelings?' Sonya burst out, wondering if she dare state that she was crazy about Derek. 'I suppose I've to thank you for this ... this concession, but I prefer to choose my own escort.'
    Eliot moved uncomfortably. 'It's not without misgivings that I've given my consent,' he told her. 'But as you told me once yourself, you're not in purdah. You'll have to learn to cope with admirers, of which you'll have many when you're a skating star, but I trust you to be discreet and to always put your career first.'
    'Of course I will, Daddy, and thank you very much. I'm sure Derek will be pleased to accompany me wherever I want to go, he's often asked me, but I don't see why Mr Petersen had to come in on it.' She shot a baleful glance at Sven. 'Do you have to be guided by him in whatever concerns me?'
    Eliot frowned. 'Yes,' he said, 'he understands your problems better than an old hermit like I am can. You should be grateful to him for his interest in you.'
    Still smarting for being foisted on to Derek, Sonya felt no gratitude towards Sven, and his complacent expression annoyed her still more.
    'I didn't think Sven's interest extended beyond the rink,' she said coldly.
    'Oh, it does,' Sven declared. 'I want to see you behaving like a normal young woman and enjoying your leisure. I would offer to escort you myself, but I have promised your father I will come and keep him company while you are out. I understand he is used to having you with him in the evenings.'
    Sonya