Take Me Higher (18 page)

Her anxiety was obvious to everyone in the house. It was swiftly brought out into the open and batted around. They were all piled into the Range Rover: the children were to be dropped off at school, Melba to the market, James to his winery. Syrah playing chauffeur when Keoki announced, ‘I’m speaking for the girls and me, Mom.’

There were giggles from Carrie and Betsy. Keoki hushed them up and carried on. ‘We feel, if it’s all right with you, and if you can stop looking for something to agonize over, you should marry James. We agree you’re much better and happier with him and us than without
him and us. You see, we like living altogether under the same roof and want to be a real family. One with a mother and a father. That’s about it, isn’t it, girls?’ asked Keoki.

A resounding ‘
Yes
!’ issued from the two girls as they jumped from their seats to throw their arms around Syrah’s neck and kiss the back of her head.

James was the last to leave the Range Rover. Before he climbed down, she told him, ‘The children are right, they want what you and I want so let’s get on with the wedding. Quiet, just the family, and a big party afterwards. We deserve it.’

All that day Syrah felt as if a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Her strength seemed miraculously to have returned. She was ready to cope with life and all it could throw at her. Her mind was suddenly crystal clear. Her pride seemed to be the only obstacle left to overcome and that was linked with the loss of Ruy Blas and Diana’s betrayal of her by loving the devilish Ira.

She could not bear to be saved yet again by anyone, least of all by the man she loved and was about to marry and who had already done so much for her. A feeling of having been through too much, that she had gone too far to fail herself and Ethan as she had done, took her over. This new turn of events – James free to marry her, a road open for them to be happy together for the remainder of their lives – seemed to have shocked her into action. Immediately she knew what she had to do. She must find a way to get back the family’s vineyards, complete what she had set out to do – becoming a Master of Wine Ethan would have been proud of, run her vineyard and produce a wine he would have admired. She needed a plan.

She spent an enormous amount of time going over a list of questions with her lawyer and then mulled over the answers. That evening there seemed a new kind of gaiety about her that was infectious. The children were aware of her being once again the Syrah they had first met and James sensed a new excitement about her. At the dinner table Keoki announced, ‘Watch out world, my mom is back.’

She broke into peals of laughter and told them ‘I’ve let myself be beaten by circumstances but I have not laid down and died. I’m going to marry your dad, girls, and you, Keoki, can have James as the man in our life, even call him Father if the girls don’t mind. And I’m going
after Ruy Blas, the wine cellar and then Richebourg-Conti.’

She received a standing ovation and they all drank champagne. That evening after the children went to bed, James and Syrah slipped out of the house and drove to the barn. There they made love and a new and fresh kind of lustiness came into their erotic couplings. Neither wanted to hold back, both wanting to experience those moments of ecstasy where they soared into sexual oblivion, orgasm to die and be reborn in.

After a night of unimaginably thrilling sex, James made breakfast for them and they ate it in bed. Over eggs fried in olive oil and served with crisp bacon, and an enormous pot of coffee, he asked, ‘Do you have a plan? Remember, whatever you need to do it will come to you, and that includes any money or help I can give.’

‘My plan? God, does that sound good! Ruy Blas and the wine cellar first. I’m certain that’s right. Ethan always said they were the keys to his kingdom and he was never wrong. I must get Ruy Blas and the wine cellar back before I go after Richebourg-Conti. So far that’s all I have as a plan,’ she told James.

But that wasn’t quite true. Instinct had told her to make an appointment to speak with the lawyers who had drawn up Ethan’s will and who still kept all his personal business and private papers. Syrah had instructed them to go through the old deeds of Ruy Blas and to examine them for any detail that might help her to get back the vineyard.

Several days later the lawyers suggested she come to see them. Something had indeed been found. The moment she entered the conference room, she could sense the excitement round the table. They were fighting with her for the sake of the Richebourgs and in particular for Ethan.

Baskin Coolidge chaired the meeting. Syrah immediately noticed the glint in his eyes, the positive attitude. ‘Something very interesting has surfaced from those old deeds,’ he told her. ‘We have discovered that Ruy Blas and the Richebourg-Conti vineyards were planted on Yurok Indian land sold to the Richebourgs on the condition that it, and any establishment or cultivation of the land remained in Richebourg family ownership or reverted back to the original owners.

‘Any sale would be null and void unless it was to a Richebourg or the Yurok tribe. The original price was a sum of money plus a yearly tariff of one-fiftieth of a percent of the profits from the vineyard. It was
paid to the tribe through a holding company set up in France by the original Richebourg purchaser.

‘Had you not insisted that we search back to the original deed we would never have made this discovery. Here, my dear Syrah, is the loophole you so desperately need. Your sale to Ira Rudman is illegal and the continuity of payments to the holding company for more than a century, in fact until the present day, is, we believe, a case to build on. You sold Ruy Blas without knowing of the clause in the original purchase agreement. Was Caleb aware of the original deed and clause?’

‘Instinct tells me that he wasn’t, but Ethan was and kept it a secret. What did he fear? Maybe not Caleb but probably Paula.’

‘I knew your father well, Syrah. Honour would demand of Ethan that no one should manipulate him, wheel or deal him, out of the original agreement,’ said Baskin Coolidge.

Syrah sat silently for a few minutes and then told the men round the table, ‘I knew my father better than anyone. I know why he kept that information from Caleb and Paula. Ethan enjoyed giving back something to the land, in this case in the form of a tribute to the tribe who originally occupied it.’

One of the lawyers, Wendell Corby, rose from his chair and addressed the group. ‘Once we found this extraordinary oversight of the original deed, we took it upon ourselves to get our accountant to try and trace the funds paid to the holding company. It was incredibly easy. Our investigation revealed that the money paid to the tribal holding company each year was listed as “expenses for Richebourg land conservation”. Neither Caleb, Paula, nor Ira Rudman’s accountants thought to question this expenditure, obviously having considered it necessary maintenance for the vineyards.’

Syrah focused on what these men were trying to tell her. Her heart swelled with relief for the way she had picked herself up, dusted herself off, and gone after what was rightfully hers. She felt flushed with happiness, she had a fighting chance. Looking round the table she could see on their faces looks of respect and admiration for her and sat that little bit taller in her chair.

‘What’s my first move?’ she asked.

Once more Baskin Coolidge took over. ‘Syrah, we suggest you should report your oversight to the district attorney at once. Since ignorance is
no excuse for breaking the law, you must be seen to be using the law to make good your mistake. You must convince the district attorney that, having learned you had done something illegal, you are offering to return the money Mr Rudman paid you for Ruy Blas. I am sure the district attorney will agree with this firm that Mr Rudman will have to play along since if he doesn’t Ruy Blas, by law, reverts to the Yurok Indian tribe. In that case Mr Rudman will be left without his money or the vineyard, though he may go for prosecuting you for fraud.’

‘That’s your advice?’

‘Yes, confirmed Baskin.

Chapter 16

It had been a private wedding and a very public reception. Ira was thrilled by all the fuss, Diana was not. Ira made capital in every way he could on the publicity the event generated. Diana knew that she was giving, probably, the best performance of her life.

Now firmly established as Mrs Ira Rudman, the deeds to Ruy Blas and the wine cellar transferred to her, and in the full knowledge that Ira was besottedly in love with her, Diana was now ready to confront her husband with some home truths. She dressed in what she called her movie star chic look that she knew Ira adored and was always titillated by and went to his office in downtown Los Angeles to surprise him with a visit. She brushed past his secretary and was through his office door before the young woman could announce her arrival.

Diana walked in on Ira chatting up a young, very young, blonde beauty. Embarrassment was not one of Ira’s vices. He smiled widely on seeing Diana. He leaned back in his high leather chair and roared with laughter then introduced the two women to each other and suggested the younger one leave while he dealt with his wife.

‘She’s no one. Just my old habit of chatting up any pretty face. You know me. This is a surprise, you coming without calling. There’s a bit of a pun there,’ Ira told his wife.

‘There’s no need to cover up what I just saw, I never expected otherwise,’ she told him as she sat down on a chair opposite.

The smile slowly slipped from Ira’s face. Never a stupid man he detected at once the edge to Diana’s voice, the coldness he had forgotten she was capable of and he had not seen once since their reunion. Fear gripped his soul. He tried to overcome it.

‘Don’t be angry. I’ll take you to lunch, show us off to the world,’ he suggested.

‘No, I think not. I merely dropped in to say goodbye, Ira. I’m walking out on you and this sham of a marriage. Consider it a little vignette that was written, produced, directed and acted by me. A playlet of pure revenge for the years of humiliation you caused me when I was deeply in love with you. There are other reasons why I am unforgiving when it comes to you: the pain you have caused Syrah by stripping her of her legacy, and the small wine growers you so ruthlessly tried to take advantage of in order to take control of the Napa Valley.

‘There are some things you should know. You will never turn the Valley into an Ira Rudman condominium dream machine. I went up against you and have been buying every small vineyard you were after. And now I have Ruy Blas and Ethan’s wine cellar, I intend to sell them back to Syrah,’ she told him.

‘You’re making all this up? It’s not a good joke, Diana. In fact, it’s a dangerous one. You don’t know who you’re playing with,’ he warned her.

‘That’s why all this has happened, because I
do
know who I’m playing with,’ she told him, and rose to her feet.

‘You love me!’ exclaimed Ira.

‘Now
that
was a piece of acting worthy of an Academy Award. I loved you just long enough to get Syrah’s legacy back for her. Oh, and I think I did it for Ethan and Keoki too. And we mustn’t forget the satisfaction of beating you at your own game,’ said Diana.

His last words as she walked away from him were, ‘You vengeful bitch! You want a fight, you’ll get a fight. I’ll go after Ruy Blas and the wine cellar through the courts if I have to. You can’t begin to imagine the lies I’ll tell to get what I want.’

Once more she turned to face him before she went through his office door. ‘Oh, yes, I can. That was always our problem.’

Much to Syrah’s consternation Diana was insisting on talking to her. It was James who suggested she could afford to be magnanimous and take the call. ‘A friendship such as you two have had shouldn’t die over a man,’ he told her. Syrah took the call.

The moment that Diana heard her voice, she started in with, ‘Now hear me out. It has never been as you presumed. I did
not
fall in love with Ira and betray you. I
never
intended to make a life with him. Let’s
just call it a short scene of sweet revenge, a balancing of the books. Please, Syrah, I must see you. There are too many things unsaid between us, and some that never should have been said at all.’

It was James who met Diana at Blackwolf’s air strip. She had chartered a bi-plane and pilot from one of Syrah’s flying friends. Seeing James, his wide smile and enthusiasm for her being there, told her it had been worth all the plotting, scheming, lies and little deceits. They kissed, James placed an arm round her shoulders and they walked to his Range Rover. Waiting in the car was Syrah. The look that passed between the two women was proof enough that they still loved each other, could work on forgiveness. Yet, as they drove away from the air field, their meeting was awkward, Syrah still feeling the pain of being deceived and let down by her once great friend.

A few miles from Blackwolf’s vineyard there was a small inn famous for its wine and luscious tapas which seemed never to stop arriving. There they stopped and sat at a table set on a stone promontory that appeared to be hanging over the vineyards below and for as far as the eye could see.

It was Diana who started. ‘I have a great deal to say, and an even greater number of things to explain. Let me begin at the beginning. I wanted to save Ruy Blas and the wine cellar from Ira’s clutches and exact some revenge in the process for the years of pain he caused me in the name of love. Then it struck me that his greed should be made to work for me. How to do that? None of what I am about to tell you is very nice, but nice had to be left behind when I made up my mind to get your legacy back for you. I plotted it beautifully, executed it brilliantly and my performance was perfect. First I had to make Ira fall in love with me all over again, then I would marry him and insist on your legacy as my wedding present. Revenge on you for not accepting my marriage to him, or so he thought. I didn’t dare take you in on my plan because I knew you would never allow me to make such a sacrifice for your sake. Besides, I was only ninety-nine percent sure I could get away with it. The cost in emotional terms was terrific. I never dreamed you would toss our friendship away over my move to marry Ira.’

‘I should have guessed you were up to something. But you could have given me a hint,’ Syrah told her.

‘I didn’t dare for fear you might talk me out of this huge gamble.’

The two women stood up and embraced one another and knew they were back in each other’s lives again. There followed a lengthy discussion about Syrah’s sale to Ira being unlawful. They and James agreed that there would be endless court battles with him over the issue.

‘There’s only one thing to do. I’ll go through with returning Ira’s money and you sell back my father’s legacy to me,’ suggested Syrah.

‘Hey, where are you going to get the money? OK, you have the funds to pay off Ira but then you’re broke again. It cost me nothing. Let me just give you Ruy Blas and the wine cellar?’ suggested Diana.

They finally came to an agreement which James thought was a double guarantee that Ruy Blas was Syrah’s. One was the unlawful sale to Ira, and the second Syrah’s purchase of the same property from Diana. The sale was agreed for a peppercorn. The three of them remained in the small inn for hours working out a plan to go forward now that Syrah had back the legacy. James offered financial support but much to his and Diana’s amazement Syrah rejected it.

‘This enterprise of clawing back Richebourg-Conti is going to take vast sums of money. I think I know where I can get some of it. I could never have come so far without you two but from now on I must try to do this alone, my way. I hope you both understand how important that is to me? No more crutches, no more advice, no more sacrifices.’

There was about Syrah a new kind of power and control. She showed a maturity, clear thinking, a sharp business sense that James and Diana found admirable. There seemed to be excitement in the air, as if the atmosphere was drenched in adrenaline.

As late afternoon settled in Syrah said, ‘The good times have begun to roll and I need to be dressed for them. A shopping spree is what’s called for. I need some seriously elegant clothes, power dressing to suit my ambitious intentions.’

That very day, while Syrah and Diana were shopping, the newspapers were full of the news that Richebourg-Conti was now owned by the French firm Château Brilliant Vivier after a hostile take-over. While the Napa Valley was reeling from this news, it meant nothing to Syrah except another way forward. Once she had her wardrobe and her lawyers and accountants had got together and mapped out her plan, she wasted
no time. Leaving James and Diana with Melba and the children, she rented a small jet and flew it to San Francisco, having called ahead and asked Sam Holbrook to take her to dinner.

This was to be the first time they had seen each other since they split and Syrah had returned to James. Female vanity took her over as she dressed for the evening. She wanted Sam to think her as much a beautiful woman as a business person. It seemed important to her not to be seen as too ambitious and controlling a female but rather a lady protecting her birthright and the family company. A beautiful, clever and wise creature with a good brain in her head and a will of iron.

They met in a grand restaurant in San Francisco. The attraction between them was as strong as ever. They were extremely pleased to see each other. Sam had often wondered about his decision to walk away from Syrah and choose to be just good friends. Now, seeing her, he knew that he had been right.

‘Are you still with James?’ he asked after greeting her with a kiss on each cheek.

‘Yes. We’ll marry as soon as I straighten out a few details,’ she told him.

That news did nothing to dampen their evening together. Genuinely interested in one another, they each brought the other up to date with what had been going on in their lives. Sam was astounded to hear of the terrible times she had gone through, the courage she had shown in always doing what was right, what Ethan would have wanted her to do. The twists and turns of fate might surely have killed off a lesser woman. He loved her more for her will to survive and prosper.

Finally, over coffee, he asked, ‘What do you want from me, Syrah?’

‘Money, an investment. My intention is to own all the Richebourg-Conti vineyards and wineries again. My first step on that road is to return the money Ira paid me for the Ruy Blas vineyard and Ethan’s wine cellar. You already know that Diana George has sold me the deeds to them for a peppercorn, so I own them twice over. But am left with no cash reserves. I want you to lend me the money I need in exchange for a forty percent share of my legacy, with me retaining the right to buy you out over a period of time. A payment that would be agreeable to us both and financially advantageous to you, Sam, would be part of the deal.’

For the next hour and a half they discussed the pros and cons of why he should or should not invest in Ruy Blas. The more they talked and he heard Syrah’s clever plan, the more interested Sam was. Finally he said, ‘You’ve convinced me, let’s do it.’

Time was on Syrah’s side, circumstances were favouring her. It was difficult to understand exactly why fate had chosen to intervene but she was clever enough not to question that too closely.

The following morning she flew Sam and herself back to Los Angeles and there in her lawyer’s offices an agreement was reached and papers drawn up. Nine hours later, the documents signed and with Diana holding an IOU for $50 million and Sam holding a forty percent share of Ruy Blas, Syrah was liquid enough to make a raid on Richebourg-Conti. James arrived and the three former underdogs of the big time wine industry of the Napa Valley went for a celebration dinner with Sam Holbrook.

He was clearly dazzled by Diana, amazed by her loyalty to Syrah, the courage it must have taken and the cunning to have done what she had done out of a deep sense of justice. Syrah’s determination to survive and thrive had changed all of these people’s lives. But as Sam put it, ‘It’s not over yet, Syrah. You’ve got your parcels lined up. Now you have to bring back the prize.

Syrah felt as hard as steel, as ready to fight for Richebourg-Conti as she would ever be, as she entered the lobby of the Ritz Hotel in Paris. Once checked into the suite of rooms she had taken for herself and her staff, an accountant and two lawyers, she ordered a superb luncheon to be served in the dining room of the suite. Then she bathed and thought hard about the several conversations she had had with Baron Michel de Brilliant Vivier. Feeling secure and determined that she would fly home owning Richebourg-Conti she left her bath, dressed, and very carefully made up her face and did her hair.

The Baron arrived exactly on time as she had guessed he would and by the look on his face she could see he had acquiesced to her wishes and not said anything to his partner Ira Rudman, believing as she had promised that his silence would be advantageous to him.

This was the first time the Baron had met Syrah. He had been intrigued by her phone calls and was now enchanted by her vivacity
and chic, her perfect French and instantly recognisable sensual appeal. Though from the moment he entered the room the Baron was never off guard, they had a charming and civilised chat about her father, Paris, the Baron’s opinion of California.

Within half an hour, Syrah came to the point. She told him, ‘I am not a devious person, I am new to the world of big business and takeovers. All of this is hard for me to come to terms with. I don’t like being out of my depth so I stay where I am comfortable, putting things on the line and dealing openly. I came here to tell you that a coup has taken place. I am now the owner of Ruy Blas and Ethan’s wine cellar.’

‘That’s a very amusing fantasy, my dear, and quite impossible, I can assure you of that,’ he told her.

Syrah rose from her chair and walked across the room to open a door to one of the outer rooms of the suite. She called in one of the lawyers. Syrah introduced the Baron to Baskin Coolidge who assured him that it was quite true and presented documents of Syrah’s proof of ownership plus a copy of the original land deed, explaining the loop hole and how it had been overlooked. The Baron being unable to take this blow at face value or to accept the opinion of either Syrah or her lawyer, she called in the second lawyer and the firm’s accountant. For an hour they went over every aspect of the facts presented. A quick and astute man himself, the Baron soon saw that if nothing else the Richebourg girl would keep them in litigation for years. He telephoned his own lawyers and ordered them to the Ritz at once.