He nodded and looked away, his jaw set. ‘I know you will.’
She stepped back and slammed the passenger door shut. She didn’t bother raising her hand as he drove away.
He didn’t look back.
G
ABRIELLE’S
dinner fork clattered to her plate, lightly steamed carrot and snow pea still attached, as she stared at Rafael as if he’d grown horns and a tail.
‘Etienne de Morsay’s coming here?’ she said on a rising note of panic.
‘Yes.Tomorrow.’ Rafe studied his sister curiously from the opposite side of the dining table. ‘Is that a problem?’
‘Yes,’ she said tightly. ‘What does he want?’
‘He wants to look around the vineyard, and then he wants to discuss a vineyard restoration project he’d like me to oversee.’
‘Rafe, please…’ Gabrielle looked almost frightened. ‘You don’t want to work for this man. Cancel the meeting. Tell him he can’t come. Tell him you’ve too many wedding preparations to attend to!’
‘Everything’s done. Besides, apparently he’s a king. Can you cancel an audience with a king?’
‘You can do any damn thing you want,’ said Gabrielle fiercely. ‘You owe him
nothing
.’
‘Except an explanation,’ said Rafael dryly. ‘I’d like one too. What’s going on, Gabrielle? What do you have against me conducting business with this man?’
‘Nothing,’ she said quickly, as if only just realising how much her reaction would intrigue him. ‘Nothing, except that I’ve met the man, I don’t like him and I don’t think we should have anything to do with him.’ Gabrielle’s mouth set into a stubborn line. ‘He’s not an honest man.’
‘How so?’
‘Rafe, please!’ Gabrielle picked up her fork and Rafe watched in silence as her hand shook so badly that she had to put the fork back down. Bowing her head, she hid her trembling hand from his view. ‘I don’t want to go into it. Just…tell him not to come. It’s not a good time. The wedding’s in three days, Luc won’t be here for another two, and I just can’t cope with the thought of Etienne de Morsay right now. I can’t.’ Ashen-faced, she stared at him.
‘Please!’
‘All right. I’ll put him off until after the wedding. But then you’re going to tell me what this is all about.’
Gabrielle looked away, but not before Rafael had seen in her eyes a mixture of unbearable pain, stark fear, and defiance. Rafe knew that look. He’d seen it throughout their miserable childhood, in his own eyes, as well as in Gabrielle’s. He never thought he’d see it here. ‘Tell me what’s wrong,’ he said in the dialect of their youth, in the language of Caverness and all that went with it. ‘Tell me what’s wrong and I’ll fix it.’
‘But you can’t fix it.’ Gabrielle stood and placed her napkin on the table. ‘Not this time. No one can. Don’t let him come here, Rafael. I’m begging you.’
‘Shh.’ Dinner forgotten, he rose and enfolded his sister in his arms as he attempted to ease her distress. ‘Shh. It’s all right. I won’t let him come here. Just tell me why?’
‘I can’t.’ Her arms tightened around him and she sobbed as if her heart were breaking. ‘I can’t.’
The day of the wedding dawned silvery and clear and Simone thanked heaven for it as she eased the curtains from the sliding door and let the peace of early morning soothe her and chase away the remnants of her troubled sleep. Gabrielle had grown increasingly withdrawn and edgy in the days leading up to the wedding and nothing Simone had done had seemed to calm her down. It hadn’t been until Luc had arrived yesterday that Gabrielle had settled and regular bridal jitters had resumed. Simone could cope with the likes of those. What she didn’t like was knowing that something was wrong and not knowing what, and not being able to fix it.
She hated that.
Almost as much as she hated knowing that Rafael had once again been deliberately avoiding her these past few days and that her nerves were stretched almost as thin as Gabrielle’s because of it. Didn’t he know that familiarity bred contempt and that absence only made the want grow stronger?
Didn’t he know that seeing his hand in the wedding preparations all around her and not once seeing
him
was likely to drive her loopy? The tens of dozens of old roses that Inigo had taken delivery of yesterday and hidden in one of the cool rooms had been Rafael’s doing, Inigo had told her. As was the horse-drawn carriage that would take Simone and the blushing bride from the guest house to the lakeside gazebo where the ceremony would take place.
Didn’t Rafe know that a sit-down meal last night with just the four of them—Luc, Gaby, Rafe and her—would have done far more to ensure a smooth wedding day than Rafe spiriting Luc away to the vineyard last night and leaving her and Gabrielle to occupy guest-house
rooms as per tradition? At least Luc and Gabrielle had spent most of yesterday together.
Simone had spent the day alone with only her thoughts for company.
They’d been decidedly dangerous thoughts.
Soon, Simone would call for coffee and then call to see if Gaby was awake and wanted her company, but for now she remained content to sit in her little guest-room courtyard, with the smell of night jasmine still lingering in the silvery dawn air.
She could do this.
No matter what Rafael’s mood today, or her own mood for that matter, she would do this. For the brother she adored. For Gabrielle with whom she’d shared so many childhood dreams. For her own sake, because she would never forgive herself if she made a mess of the bridesmaid duties bestowed upon her.
She
could
control her longing for Rafael today. She just had to do something to take the edge off her need beforehand, that was all. Maybe she should have booked a dawn skydive or gone for a quick swim in shark-infested waters. Maybe she still could. How far away was the beach? She padded inside and looked at the tourist leaflet on the bench. The beach was hours away and there was no promise of sharks.
Fine, then, she would just have to think rural. Horses. A spirited stallion with a burning desire to remain unbroken. A wild, beautiful, big-hearted beast who refused every normal rule of engagement and all you had to do was forget the rein and earn his trust and trust him not to hurt you in return. That was if he ever let you get close enough to him to try. But if he did let you close…if he
did let you ride…the experience stayed with you for ever and ruined you for all other horses.
‘Bastard stallions,’ she muttered. ‘More trouble than they’re worth.’
She could be good, this day. She could do her duty as Gabrielle’s bridesmaid and her duty to the houses of Duvalier and Alexander both. One day. It wouldn’t kill her to behave for one more day.
Then
she would go to war.
‘Your brother’s been pacing my kitchen since 6:00 a.m.,’ said Rafael, when Simone phoned the vineyard at Gabrielle’s urging, ostensibly to get an update on Luc’s frame of mind. ‘I cooked half a pig, a leg of cow and a dozen eggs and he barely managed a slice of Vegemite on toast. That’s gratitude for you.’
‘Show him your winery,’ said Simone.
‘Done that.’
‘I haven’t seen you round these last couple of days,’ she said next. Easy to be fearless from a distance. ‘Inigo even asked if you were deliberately avoiding me—you know how people talk. He seemed to be under the impression that you might be afraid of me. Or something. And that would be a shame seeing as we’re about to become one big happy family.’
Gabrielle snorted. Gabrielle grinned. Gabrielle silently shook her head.
‘I’m not afraid of you, Simone,’ Rafe said curtly. ‘I’m not avoiding you. And I thought we had a truce for today.’
‘Oh, we
do
,’ she said earnestly. ‘Has it started already?’
‘It’s today, isn’t it?’
‘Does that mean our truce finishes at midnight?’
Silence at that, followed by a curt one-word reply. ‘No.’
‘That’s what I thought. Why don’t we make this a twenty-four-hour truce starting from, say, now?’
‘Fine.’ If the phone could have bit her it would have.
‘Perfect. So what are we going to do about my brother?’
‘He’s driving me almost as insane as you do.’
‘Get him to help you make some wine,’ she offered.
‘I already have. Last night’s vintage has been tried, tested, barrelled, and for evermore shall be known as Bride’s Bane. It’s quite a drop.’
‘Luc better be sober, Rafael, or so help me you’ll both pay.’
‘Trust me, he’s sober,’ he said. ‘But tell me this. What the hell am I supposed to do with him for another six hours?’
‘You mean you don’t have a plan?’ Simone covered the phone with her hand and addressed Gabrielle in a loud whisper. ‘Luc’s fine. Completely relaxed. Not stressing at all.’ She uncovered the handpiece and addressed the angelic man on the other end of the phone. ‘Some best man you are.’
‘I do have a plan,’ he said. ‘Bring the wedding forward five and a half hours and we’ll meet you in the gazebo in twenty minutes. Luc likes it.’
‘It’ll never happen,’ said Simone blithely. ‘Take him to the barber’s instead. The barber can give him a nice close shave.’
‘No can do,’ said Rafael. ‘The days of the close shave are over. I’m the brother of the bride. This wedding’s
on
. What say we meet you and Gabrielle for brunch? How’s that for not avoiding you? You could come here. There’s bacon.’
‘No.’
‘Lunch, then?’
‘No.’
‘I’ll throw in some fried onions and BBQ sauce?’
‘Feed that man fried onions today and I’ll trim your grapevines to the ground and feed them to nameless ducks.’
‘All right already,’ he said with a long-suffering sigh. ‘No need to labour the point. I’ll name the ducks. Now where can we meet for lunch?’
‘You are so sweet when you’re desperate,’ she said. She’d seen a golf course not far from the guest house. ‘Take him for a game of golf.’
‘Does he play golf?’
‘He can learn.’
‘Golf’s a psychologically demanding game. I don’t know that he should start learning it on his wedding day. It’s unlikely to soothe him.’
‘Then play poker. And put him on the phone.’
‘Later.’ Anyone would think Rafe actually wanted to talk to her. ‘How’s my sister this morning?’
‘She’s an oasis of radiance and calm.’
‘Of course she is. Now try the truth.’
‘Put it this way. Remind me to get married at dawn.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want to meet up for afternoon coffee at, say, three?’
‘Your sister and I will be at the gazebo at six this evening. She’ll be the one in the long white gown.’ Simone rolled her eyes at Gabrielle who was laughing outright now. ‘I’ll be the one trailing behind her in the caramel-coloured sheath and, I promise you, we’ll both be worth the wait.’
‘I hate waiting,’ he said.
Simone grinned. There was something about weddings and truces that appealed to the sadist in her. ‘Don’t we all.’
By five-thirty that afternoon, Gabrielle and Simone were gowned and groomed to radiant perfection, and Sarah had taken over fussing duty.
‘Stop it,’ said Sarah sternly as Simone bent to check the hem of Gabrielle’s gown. ‘It’s my turn. From now on, you
both
get to stand there and look astonishingly beautiful and I get to do any last minute running around.’
The photographer arrived and started snapping. Harrison arrived and smiled shyly. Simone had met him earlier in the week—a big, spare-framed man with gentle strength, a rough-hewn face and eyes that were almost as blue as his son’s. Rafe didn’t resemble him much, apart from the colour of his eyes. Gabrielle’s resemblance to Harrison was only slightly more pronounced. Both Rafe and Gaby were their mother’s children when it came to startling good looks. But their hearts were true, and
that
, thought Simone, had more than a little to do with this man.
Harrison Alexander loved his children.
It was blindingly obvious from her conversations with Gabrielle that Harrison was their strongest supporter, and Simone wondered—not for the first time—what it was that had kept this man away from his children throughout their long and miserable childhood.
Josien hadn’t allowed him access to them, obviously, but why?
Why hadn’t he fought for them?
‘Harrison!’ Gabrielle didn’t call him father, but the warmth of her smile and her outstretched hands proclaimed her love for this big, gentle man. ‘You’re looking very handsome.’
Harrison’s bemused smile made it the truth. ‘Trust me, I’ve got nothing on the best man and groom.’
‘Except wisdom, experience, and charm,’ murmured Simone. ‘I bet you didn’t spend the day trying to think of something to do to occupy your time until the wedding.’
‘No, but I did remember a day like that, once,’ confessed Harrison. ‘I took pity on your brother and his groomsman and collected them up this morning. Every cow and calf I own has been herded from the far paddocks and into the cattle yards to the north. Tomorrow I’ll shift them back.’
‘You’re a good man,’ murmured Gabrielle, with a kiss for his weathered cheek.
‘There was
some
method to my madness,’ said Harrison. ‘I’ll probably drench them first.’
‘Practical too,’ said Simone admiringly. ‘Those boys have
so
much to learn…’ She fussed with a wisp of Gabrielle’s hair, never mind Sarah’s exasperated clucking. ‘I do believe we’re ready.’
‘Daughter,’ said Harrison gravely and extended his arm. ‘If I may?’
‘I love you,’ said Gabrielle quietly. ‘I’ll always love you for what you’ve done for Rafael and for me. And yes, Father.’ She placed her hand in the crook of his arm. ‘You may.’
Simone’s pleasure came in snatches after that. Gabrielle’s laughter when she first spied the horse-drawn carriage and top-hatted coachman. Harrison handing them both up into the carriage before seating himself alongside the driver. The ripples of light reflected off the water of the tiny lake. The golden glow cast by the late afternoon sun. The day had held its promise and Simone would keep hers.
A truce.
‘There he is,’ said Gabrielle in a hushed voice.
‘Yes.’ There he was, standing right next to the groom. Simone allowed herself a moment’s aching regret, just one, for what might have been, before putting that regret firmly behind her. ‘There they are.’
‘Courage,
mon amie
,’ murmured Gabrielle.
‘Today, I have plenty,’ Simone assured her. ‘Enough for you too if you need it.’