When Only Diamonds Will Do (14 page)

Not as cool as it was at home, nevertheless winter in Southern Queensland was chilly overnight and she
drew her jumper more closely around her and folded her arms protectively over her belly at the same time as she thought—this should be such a joyous moment. I would love to have Reith’s baby. Would he love to have our baby, though? And what about the ‘other woman’?

‘All the same, I think I’ll have to go back.’

Her words seemed to echo as she stared out into the darkness.

There were ragged windy clouds partly obscuring the moon now and a south-easterly blowing up the passage. Twenty-five to thirty knots predicted for tomorrow, she recalled from watching the weather forecast on the TV news.

She shook her head, as if to say to herself,
concentrate!
and she repeated, ‘I think we’ll have to go back. I can’t stay here for ever anyway and I need to sort things out, I need to make plans, I need to come back to earth …’

H
ER
car was still parked in the long-term parking area at Perth Airport and not long after she’d landed she was driving down the Kwinana Freeway towards home, conducting a conversation with Sunny Bob.

‘I’ve gone to a lot of trouble on your behalf,’ she told him. ‘It’s not that easy to fly dogs around the country—actually it’s easier to fly them than it is to do much else with them.’

Sunny Bob, curled up in the passenger seat, glanced at her reproachfully.

‘Not that I’m holding anything against you,’ she hastened to assure him. ‘
I
don’t know what
I
would have done without you. You’ve been a super friend.’

She patted him and grimaced because her nerves were jangling again. And concentrated on what she was going to say to Reith when she arrived at Saldanha.

Take hold, she advised herself. Don’t, for heaven’s sake, scream and shout at him. Don’t get all emotional. Just tell him the truth. Tell him about the baby? Maybe. Maybe not yet …

But Reith wasn’t there when she arrived home. Mary
was there and she gasped and burst into tears when she saw Kim.

‘Oh, you shouldn’t have, Kim,’ she kept saying. ‘We were so worried. Your parents …’

Kim comforted her as best she could and then asked the question that was burning on her brain. ‘Where’s Reith? Is he home? I believe he—’

‘Reith,’
Mary said with unmistakable venom. ‘He’s moved out and good riddance.’

Kim’s mouth fell open at this absolutely uncharacteristic malice on the part of Mary.

‘Where to?’ she asked tonelessly.

‘I don’t know and I don’t care,’ Mary said militantly. ‘Clover Hill, I believe. Oh, Kim …’

Kim hugged her again. ‘Is he there now?’

‘That I truly don’t know. He could be but there’ve been all sorts of comings and goings. I believe he’s here, there and everywhere.’

Kim went upstairs, where she showered and changed.

It was close to dusk and she put on a navy tracksuit and flat shoes. She left her hair loose with two wings pinned at the back. She put on no make-up other than lipgloss, but she sprayed a little perfume on. She noticed that her hands were shaking.

But, ready as she was, she still couldn’t bring herself to go to Clover Hill. And she found herself wandering around the house, touching this and that, the old, old South African pieces, the silver- and copper-ware Mary kept so shiny. The lovely porcelain her grandmother had collected.

And she smiled at her renovations and how well she’d blended the new with the old. But the smile faded and a curious frown took its place. The old satisfaction she’d got from Saldanha and all its elegance, all its history seemed to have faded. In fact it seemed to have given way to a…what?

She looked around the lounge and realized what it was. A shivery little feeling woven in with the pleasure that told her the memories were mixed now; some were even memories she’d rather forget. It wasn’t an entirely peaceful aura to Saldanha now.

She shook her head and wondered if she was being fanciful—and knew she could delay no longer.

Her car was in the garage but for once Sunny Bob looked less than enthusiastic about accompanying her.

She laughed. ‘Have I taken all the wanderlust out of you, Sunny? OK, you can stay at home. I might be back soon myself, anyway.’

There were some lights on at Clover Hill but no one came to greet her when she parked opposite the front door.

There was a familiar gun-metal four-wheel drive parked on the gravel, though, and her nerves tightened.

But she forced herself to walk up to the front door and knock. There was no response, however.

Kim fought an almost overwhelming urge to run back to her car and drive away.

She tried the front door and it opened soundlessly under her hand. She took a very deep breath and walked in. There were lamps on in the lounge and one of the
French windows was open to the veranda. There was an untasted, by the look of it, glass of brandy on a side table.

‘Anyone home?’ she called softly.

There was no reply and something drew her to the open door to the terrace.

She stepped out into the darkness, made fragrant by the rose garden, and stopped dead as a tall figure loomed out of the twilight—Reith.

He stopped too and they simply stared at each other for an age. He wore jeans and a navy sweater. His hair was ruffled and his jaw was dark as if he hadn’t shaved.

Then Kim made herself breathe normally and swallowed a couple of times. ‘Reith,’ she said huskily, ‘I saw you with Chilli George in Perth a few nights ago. That’s why I ran away. What was I doing in Perth? Not spying on you. I went up to see Damien, but that’s another story.’ She stopped abruptly as it struck her she’d forgotten about her brother in all the rest of it.

‘I …’ She put a hand up to her brow as she realized she felt a bit peculiar and wondered if her aversion to food was catching up with her. ‘I…I mean you…well …’ But she stopped again and this time her knees buckled and she would have fallen if he hadn’t lunged forward and caught her.

The next few minutes were confused.

He picked her up in his arms and took her inside to lay her gently down on a settee. ‘Stay there,’ he warned.

She closed her eyes but it seemed like only moments later that he was back with a glass of brandy that he held to her lips.

She took a sip then pushed the glass away vehemently and sat up. ‘No—’

‘Kim,’ he said quietly, ‘it will help. Just—’

‘No! No,’ she said, ‘you don’t understand! I can’t drink alcohol!’

‘Why not?’ He frowned.

‘Because I’m…I’m …’ She couldn’t go on.

She saw the understanding that came to his eyes. ‘Pregnant?’

‘Yes.’ Sudden tears streamed down her face. ‘And on top of seeing you with another woman, a woman I
hate
, incidentally, I have no idea whether you want us to have children or if Darcy is the only family you want or if it’s because of her you don’t want more children—or what!’ She couldn’t go on as her throat started to hurt unbearably and she put her hand up to it.

He pulled up a chair and sat down facing her. ‘Where were you?’

Her eyes widened. ‘I…Queensland. A place called Russell Island.’

‘Never heard of it.’

‘Neither had I. It was…interesting and very peaceful. Reith,’ she breathed, ‘I—’

‘I met Chilli,’ he broke in and ran his hand gently over her hair, ‘in the hotel lobby that evening. We bumped into each other, had a brief conversation—she asked after you, as a matter of fact. Then she said she had a taxi waiting for her and she invited me to have dinner with her. I declined and walked her out to the car. That’s where she did something I was not expecting,
an intimate gesture, I guess you could call it.’ He shrugged.

‘Very intimate,’ Kim said dryly.

‘Very Chilli,’ Reith responded, equally dryly. Then he added levelly, ‘But not me, Kim. Not me.’

She stared at him.

‘I swear to you that’s all there was to it.’

‘You seemed…to be much struck,’ she said raggedly.

A grim little smile twisted his lips. ‘You could say I got the surprise of my life. She’s probably one of the most predatory women I’ve ever met. She’s certainly not my type.’

Kim pushed herself upright. ‘But, Reith, you don’t want more children, do you? You…I could tell in the helicopter when I asked you, that you weren’t keen and it wasn’t just a matter of taking our time.’

‘Kim …’ He picked up her hand and seemed to battle for words for a moment. Then he said simply, ‘It scares me.’

Kim blinked several times. ‘Come again?’

‘I’ve never quite forgiven myself for Sylvie’s death. I couldn’t bear it if the same thing happened to you. But tell me something, do
you
want this baby?’

There was a long pause as she searched his face, then she said steadily, ‘Reith, more than anything in the world do I want your baby but—’ she stopped and gestured helplessly ‘—I sometimes feel as if we’re having an affair rather than being married.’

‘That could be because—’ He paused, then went on, ‘Because I can’t help wondering whether you’re going
to wake up one day and decide I’m not good enough for you.’

Her lips parted and her eyes were stunned. ‘You…I don’t believe it! Not you …’ But, as she trailed off, thoughts of her brother Damien and his insecurities flashed across her mind.

‘Really?’ she said to Reith. ‘Really, really?’

He took her hands in his. ‘Really. In fact I thought that’s what must have happened, that’s why you’d run away.’

‘No. Oh—’ she grimaced ‘—I have to tell you, being pregnant does mysterious things to you. I’ve never made so many impetuous decisions in my entire life.’

He smiled but it faded and he rubbed the blue shadows on his jaw. ‘I also wondered if you’d found out that I’d sold.’

‘Sold?’ she echoed.

He nodded.

‘Sold what?’

He took a deep breath and his eyes never left her face. ‘Saldanha and Balthazar.’

She gasped. ‘What?’ she whispered.

He nodded and saw the shock in her eyes. ‘Kim,’ he said intensely, ‘there was never going to be any hope for us with those two thorny issues for ever between us. You were always going to be torn between me and your family.’

‘I…I …’ But she couldn’t go on.

‘If it’s any consolation, they’ve gone to a South African consortium expanding their operations into
Western Australia. And they’re happy to have your father on their board in an advisory capacity.’

Kim licked her lips. ‘When did you do this?’

‘It’s been in the pipeline for a couple of months.’

‘So you were thinking back then—even back then about me being torn?’ she queried, her eyes huge with surprise.

‘Yep.’ He looked wry. ‘You would have thought that might have alerted me to the way things stood for me regarding you.’

Kim stared at him. ‘Mary,’ she said agitatedly then. ‘She’s cross—she’s
more
than cross with you! I don’t understand. Why should she …?’ She stopped.

He sighed. ‘That’s all my fault. When she told me you’d left with a bag and Sunny Bob but no hint of where you were going other than Perth, I told her, not pleasantly, that she should have stopped you. She then told
me
some home truths and—’ he gestured ‘—we haven’t got around to forgiving each other yet.’

Kim frowned. ‘What home truths?’

‘Along the lines of how I wasn’t fit to kiss your feet, how she’d often wanted to strangle me because I was making you miserable.’ He shrugged. ‘That kind of thing.’

Kim put her glass down and the faintest shadow of a smile touched her mouth.

‘You have no idea,’ he continued gravely, but there was a little glint in his dark eyes that made her heart beat faster, ‘the obstacles I’ve had to conquer for your fair hand, Kim Richardson.’

‘Perhaps I can guess,’ she said barely audibly. ‘My
dog, my family and even my housekeeper. Oh, I forgot about causing you nearly to collide with a tree.’

‘Kim.’ His voice was unsteady and he stood up and this time there was a question in his eyes as he looked down at her.

Kim stood up slowly—and she flew into his arms. ‘Oh, Reith, I love you! I’ve been so miserable, so …’

But he stopped her with his mouth on hers and he held her as if he’d never let her go.

‘About Saldanha,’ Reith said quite a bit later.

He’d lit a fire in the grate and closed the doors on the chill of the evening. He was sitting on the couch with her on his lap and he was slowly running his fingers through her hair.

‘Mmm?’ She looked up at him.

‘Do you mind very much?’

Kim considered. ‘No,’ she said at last. ‘I probably would have liked to think of a Theron always associated with Balthazar but you can’t have everything.’ She paused. ‘Saldanha, though—I don’t know how to describe it—but it doesn’t seem to offer me peace any more, whereas this place does.’ She looked around a little wonderingly.

‘That’s how I feel. As if we can leave all the trauma behind us and start afresh here.’

Hours later, she stirred in his arms.

The main bedroom had been furnished since she’d last seen it. It had a fireplace and there were glowing coals in the grate making flickering shadows on the
walls. They lay beneath a light-as-air, warm-as-toast quilt.

‘This Russell Island place,’ he said, spanning her waist with his hands, ‘must be well off the beaten track.’

‘It is a bit.’ She described it then said, ‘Why?’

‘It explains why I hadn’t, to date, found you.’

‘You looked?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘Well, I ended up there mostly due to Sunny Bob—’ She broke off and sat up. ‘I told him I’d be back soon. Probably.’

The quilt slipped off her shoulders, revealing her to be naked to the waist. He removed his hands from her waist and cupped her breasts.

‘He and Mary can console each other.’

Kim put a hand to her mouth. ‘Her too! She’ll be wondering.’

He plucked her nipples gently. ‘Kim, they’ll be fine.’

She took an unexpected breath. ‘That’s…not fair,’ she breathed as she looked down at his strong hands on her breasts. She lay back and tremors of rapture and desire flowed down her body.

‘I don’t see what’s unfair about it,’ he replied.

‘Well, we’ve already done this once tonight,’ she reasoned.

‘Who’s counting?’ he drawled and removed his hand from her breasts, only to start kissing them.

‘Now that—’ she had to take a very deep breath ‘—is very unfair. However, there’s an old saying—what’s sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose.’

He lifted his head and laughed down at her. ‘It’s the other way around.’

‘Believe me, it can work both ways,’ she advised as she trailed her fingertips down the hard wall of his chest, and lower.

It was his turn to suck in an unexpected breath and he swept her into his arms as they laughed together. Then he released her, but only to stare down at the sapphire-blue of her eyes, her red-gold hair, her lovely skin gilded in the firelight.

‘Don’t leave me again,’ he growled.

‘I won’t,’ she promised, and they made love for the second time.