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Her throat worked. ‘I can’t just spring it on Marion,’ she said urgently. ‘She’ll be horrified.’
‘Possibly,’ he agreed sardonically.
‘You should have dodged it,’ she accused.
He linked his long, strong fingers. ‘That’s a matter of opinion.’
‘No,’ Caiti denied, ‘it’s not! Anyone could see that it has to cast a shadow over their wedding. Not only that but you’re not related to Derek as I am to Marion and you just said you don’t see yourself as—’
‘By the same token,’ he broke in impatiently, ‘anyone could see there is unfinished business between us, Caiti, so—’
‘There needn’t be,’ she said intensely. ‘You could have instituted divorce proceedings through my solicitor, as I wrote and told you just after I left.’
‘Your solicitor,’ he repeated drily. ‘Did you honestly think I would be happy only to communicate with you through your solicitor?’
She swallowed. ‘Be that as it may, I don’t know what to think now.’ She put her hands delicately to her temples.
Rob Leicester watched her closely again. If the truth were known, her Gallic gestures, passed on by her French mother no doubt, had always fascinated him. She used her hands a lot. And he’d always been able to tell when she was disturbed, not only from her hands but also by the way a pulse disturbed the deliciously smooth skin at the base of her slender throat. It was beating rapidly now…
‘The sooner you break the news to Marion the better.’
‘That’s easy for you to say,’ she objected. ‘She’ll probably be hurt that I didn’t write to her about it. It was something I just couldn’t put in a letter—she may even have decided to come haring home!’
‘But you intended to confide in her at this reunion, I imagine?’ He studied her critically. ‘Or have you decided simply to block it all out of your mind?’
‘Of course not!’
Their gazes clashed and his was sardonic as he murmured, ‘One could be forgiven for wondering about that.’
She swallowed. ‘I—’
‘Then the sooner also,’ he overrode her, ‘you acknowledge that things aren’t finished between us, Caiti Leicester,’ he said deliberately, ‘the better.’
‘Things?’ she echoed huskily.
He sat back, his hazel gaze terribly mocking. ‘Would you have got such a shock to see me again if I meant nothing to you now?’
She bit her lip. ‘How long are you in Cairns for?’
‘A few days, I’m here on business as well. I believe that in a couple of days’ time we’re having a get-together; the bridal couple, bridesmaids, best man, Derek’s mother, sister and her boyfriend.’
Caiti closed her eyes then her lashes flew up as he laughed softly.
‘If you could see your horrified expression,’ he said.
‘R-Rob,’ her voice shook, ‘would you have just sprung yourself on me at this get-together if we hadn’t bumped into each other today?’ she queried.
He considered. ‘If necessary, although I doubt you would have gone on in ignorance for that long. I’m actually taking things one day at a time. There was no way of knowing when the chief bridesmaid would discover who the best man was.’
‘That’s diabolical!’
His eyes narrowed and he watched her intently. ‘Is it, Caiti? Any more diabolical, would you say, than the way you left Camp Ondine two days after we got married?’
Her lips parted.
He stood up. ‘Think about it. In the meantime I’ll give you a lift to Marion’s.’
Caiti hesitated then stood up too. ‘Thank you.’
The drive from the airport to Marion’s house was mercifully short. All the same, it was ten tense minutes until he nosed the powerful Range Rover into her cousin’s driveway.
He’d said nothing on the way. She’d stared out of the window and observed that little had changed since she’d last been in Cairns. Still the same lush, tropical foliage and flowers, and still the same bird calls that were so evocative of the region.
Then he pulled up and turned to her. ‘You wouldn’t be so silly as to do another bunk, would you, Caiti?’
She took an angry breath as their gazes clashed. ‘There was no silliness involved the first time,’ she said tautly.
‘But you agree it was a bunk?’ he countered with lazy insolence.
‘I agree that I was misled,’ she said precisely, ‘and I found it impossible to carry on in the circumstances. However, no, I won’t be doing a bunk, Rob, until we’ve sorted things out because we obviously can’t go on like this.’ She opened her door and slipped out of the car. ‘Don’t worry, I can manage my bag.’
But he got out and retrieved it for her. ‘Until the party, then, but I’ll give you this should you need to get in touch in the meantime.’ He fished a business card out of his pocket and handed it to her.
She didn’t even glance at it. ‘I won’t.’
‘You’re very proud, Caiti,’ he said softly. ‘Takes me right back to when we first met—remember?’ He waited for a moment as her eyes changed beneath a flood of memories, then he swung himself back into the vehicle, and drove off.
Caiti had just let herself into the house when Marion arrived home with a large dent in her car’s front fender.
The cousins fell into each other’s arms.
Marion Galloway was short and generously curved with curly brown hair and she had a warm, open nature. At twenty-five, she was two years older than Caiti and an audiologist by profession. Despite losing her parents as a teenager, she had her life well organised and her long relationship with Derek Handy had always run smoothly.
‘I’ve missed you so much!’ she said to Caiti as they hugged exuberantly.
‘Me too,’ Caiti responded. ‘How was it? Did you have a marvellous time? I want to hear all about it!’ she warned.
‘Let’s have a cup of tea. Phew!’ Marion wiped her brow. ‘What an afternoon!’
A few minutes later they were sitting over a cup of tea on the pleasant, creeper-shaded veranda, and Marion was reminiscing about her trip.
‘But it’s so wonderful to be home,’ she said at last. ‘It’s been six weeks but it’s still wonderful. I’m only sorry we couldn’t have got together earlier.’
‘Better this way,’ Caiti said. ‘I’ve got a whole month off.’
‘Tell me about it! Sounds great, working for the French Embassy in Canberra. Lucky you to have had a French mother.’ But Marion sobered rapidly. ‘Is there any hope of a reconciliation between your parents?’
Caiti and Marion’s father’s were brothers.
Caiti heaved a sigh. ‘No. I can’t quite believe it happened, you know. She’s got this new man in her life I don’t like at all. Dad is roaming around South America—he’s in Patagonia at the moment—and I’m sure he’s bereft. They were married for twenty-five years when they split up.’
Marion shook her head in dismay. They discussed Caiti’s job as an interpreter for a while, and the pleasures of living in the nation’s capital.
‘It’s a long way from Cairns,’ Marion said humorously, ‘but what made you give up teaching?’
Caiti hesitated because this was heading into difficult territory. How to tell Marion that in very short order her parents had split up while Marion was overseas, and teaching French to mostly bored high-school students had been no balm to her troubled, suddenly lonely soul?
How then to explain that she’d tossed in teaching and taken up tour-guiding, which had virtually led her into Rob Leicester’s arms?
‘Uh—got bored with it, I guess,’ she said ruefully.
‘To be honest,’ Marion said slowly, ‘I never thought you were cut out for teaching languages. You’re too artistic.’
Caiti relaxed slightly. ‘Well, I’ve been able to indulge that side of me, if it is there, over the past year in Canberra. I’ve done a course in French literature at the National University as well as a music-appreciation course. But listen, I want to know all about the wedding plans!’
Marion blew out her cheeks. ‘It’s been a bit of a rush, to be honest.’
‘I—I wondered about that. Two months isn’t a lot of time to organise a wedding.’
‘Tell me about it!’ Marion looked heavenwards. ‘But I just knew, as Derek and I were coming home, that now was the time to do it.’
Caiti studied her cousin and frowned inwardly as she wondered why Marion’s words had raised a curious little echo in her mind—now or never?
And it struck her that Marion and Derek Handy had been together for at least four years, so could Marion be getting a little desperate to tie the knot…?
But Marion continued blithely, ‘I think I have it all under control, though. Mind you, it’s been a battle. Derek’s mother has very decided ideas and since I have no mother of my own she seems to have set herself up as my mother by proxy. There have been a couple of tense times.’
Caiti blinked. ‘Such as?’
‘She’s pink-fixated for one thing. She wanted pink smoke, pink doves, pink bridesmaid’s dresses and choirboy angels with pink wings.’
Caiti started to laugh helplessly. ‘I don’t believe it!’
‘Wait until you meet her,’ Marion advised. ‘However, you and Eloise—she’s Derek’s sister and the other bridesmaid—will be walking down the aisle in midnight-blue rather than the particularly foul baby-pink she had in mind—all gratitude duly accepted!’
‘Thank you so much, Marion! Baby-pink makes me look as if I have jaundice.’
Marion grinned. ‘As for the rest of it, it’s all fallen into place rather nicely, and Derek is particularly thrilled because the person he most wanted for his best man is available.’
Caiti froze.
It went unnoticed as Marion poured more tea. She added, as she spooned sugar into her cup, ‘It was so lucky really, considering what short notice it was and the fact that Rob Leicester moves about quite a lot. Have you heard of Leicester Camps, Caiti?’
‘Yes…’ Caiti said slowly, and it came out as if she were searching her mind for an elusive name when, in fact, she was searching for a way to break the news to Marion that she had actually married the founder of Leicester Camps then run away from him.
‘They’ve developed a few eco-resorts in remote spots that have really taken off,’ Marion supplied. ‘Well, Rob has. The family owns a grazing empire on Cape York but Rob—he’s the younger son—decided to diversify. The first one he opened was Camp Ondine, north of the Daintree. Apparently it’s a magical rainforest and reef experience. Another biscuit?’ She offered the plate to Caiti.
Caiti shook her head numbly.
‘Anyway, Derek and Rob were at boarding-school together and their friendship carried on from there. I’m not quite sure why but Derek’s always admired Rob Leicester tremendously and to find that he was back at Camp Ondine, and available, was perfect.’
Marion paused and a faint frown knitted her brow. ‘In fact, I sometimes think,’ she reflected, ‘it’s the one wedding detail that has Derek’s unqualified approval.’
‘What do you mean?’ Caiti queried with a frown of her own.
Marion shook her head and laughed. ‘Nothing. Well, it hasn’t been an easy time for poor Derek with his mother and I at loggerheads occasionally. He is her only son and she lost her husband not that long ago. I don’t know—I just get the feeling that he’s really relying on Rob to get him through it all. I haven’t met him myself so I hope he’s right. Incidentally, we’re having a get-together in a couple of days so we’ll all meet the famous Rob Leicester then!’
‘Marion—’
But Marion beat her to the draw. ‘Honey, you look a bit tired,’ she said with concern. ‘You’ve been flying all day and here I am rattling on about Derek’s best man! Why don’t you have a nice long soak in the tub while I get dinner ready?’
CHAPTER TWO
CAITI ran the bath and sat down to watch the water flowing with utter confusion in her mind.
To parody the words of Rob Leicester, she thought bitterly, how could this have happened to her?
But there were other thoughts. Was she being ultra-sensitive or did she detect that all was not quite as it should be between Marion and Derek?
One thing was becoming obvious—Derek would not take kindly to finding a substitute best man. But was Derek actually having second thoughts? Was Marion rushing him into a wedding against his better judgement?
She reached over to turn the taps off then sat back on the bathroom stool as it hit her that all of that paled into insignificance beside her own dilemma—the dilemma of finding that she was as vulnerable to Rob as she’d ever been.
And she had been vulnerable, she reminded herself. Her parents’ separation just before she’d met Rob had confused and unsettled her. That she should feel troubled and confused had come as no surprise but at only twenty-one then, the loneliness she’d suffered when her parents had gone their separate ways had come as quite a shock.
To counter it, she’d given up her teaching job after a while and applied for something more challenging. She’d applied for a job as a tour guide and interpreter with a company that specialised in bringing French tourists on conducted trips to Cairns and the tropical delights of Queensland.
She’d got the job despite no previous experience and that was how she’d come to meet Rob.
One segment of the package tour on offer had been a two-night stay at a luxury rainforest camp run by Leicester Camps, a company with a growing reputation for developing eco-camps in remote and beautiful spots.
Camp Ondine had been under Rob’s management at the time. North of Cairns on the mouth of a river, it offered not only an unparalleled rainforest experience but also fishing and island-hopping trips offshore to the adjacent Great Barrier Reef. Its maximum capacity was thirty, so it was intimate, and the emphasis was on service and a wonderful cuisine.
Caiti had been most impressed. Then she’d met the man in charge and it had been a bit like receiving a high-voltage charge of electricity.
At thirty then, Rob Leicester was nine years her senior. Not only that, but he’d also first viewed her as a disaster—and told her so.
Her mind took wings as she sat beside Marion’s bath, right back to that first encounter…
Caiti regarded the man who had just accused her of being a walking disaster.
He was tall and rugged with thick, dark, slightly shaggy hair and blue shadows on his jaw. He wore jeans and a blue sweatshirt as if, despite owning and running Camp Ondine, he bucked in with his staff and was more a behind-the-scenes operator than a front man.
On the other hand, the jeans and sweatshirt moulded to broad shoulders and a rock-hard body heightened a dynamically masculine presence. The unexpected impact this had on Caiti made her draw an excited little breath, annoyingly.
Above all, he had light hazel eyes that were boring right through her in a singularly insolent and unimpressed manner.
Big, tough, mean and nasty—it shot through her mind.
