âMy suggestion is that we stop fooling around and get this marriage off the ground.â
Tattieâs mouth fell open as she sorted through this. âFoolingâ¦?â she asked incredulously.
He lifted a dark eyebrow at her. âYou led me to understand you knew what you were getting into, Tattie. And, for what itâs worth, your suggestion of a yearâs grace was a good one. At least we know we can get along pretty well.â His mouth quirked. âWe donât appear to have any habits that drive each other up the wall.â He looked at her with a question in his eyes.
âLovers could be a different matter.â
âMy dear Tattie,â he murmured with his hands resting lightly on her shoulders and his gaze summing her up from head to toe, âI feel quite sure that it could only enhance our relationship to become lovers. Trust me.â
ALEX CONSTANTIN rifled a hand through his dark hair and glanced at his watch. It was his first wedding anniversary and the time for the celebrations was approaching fast.
He pushed his chair back and swivelled it so that he could watch the sun set over Darwin and the Timor Sea as he thought about the evening ahead. His wife, uncharacteristically, had been more than happy to allow his parents carte blanche in organising the festivitiesâshe was only now due to fly into Darwin.
His mother, not uncharacteristically, had been delighted to take on the task and the family home, one of them, would be polished to within an inch of its life and glowing with flowers. Mountains of delicious food would be in the last stages of preparation for the buffet supper and the long veranda would be cleared for dancing.
So far so good, he thought drily. What his mother had not dreamt, and what heâd only become aware of when sheâd blithely dropped by the invitation list earlier in the day, was that sheâd invited his ex-mistress, whose name was known to his wife, to be amongst the hundred or so people celebrating his first wedding anniversaryâ¦
A discreet knock on the door interrupted his reflections and his devoted secretary, Paula Gibbs, came in with the last of the dictation he had given herâand the slim, colourful gift box heâd asked her to get out of the safe before she left for the day.
âThanks, Paula,â Alex said, and motioned her to sit down while he signed the letters. He pushed them back across the desk to her and his hand hovered over the present. âWould you like to see it?â
âIâd love to!â
Alex opened the box, studied the contents for a moment, then with a shrug pushed it across towards Paula.
She picked up the box and let out a little gasp. âItâs beautiful! I knew it would be pearls, but diamonds as well! And Argyle pinks if Iâm not mistaken.â
âYouâre not,â Alex said wryly, and added in answer to the query in his secretaryâs eye, âGiving her Constantin pearls would be a bit like giving coals to Newcastle. At least sheâll know I had to buy the diamonds.â
Paula closed the box after a last lingering look at the pearl necklace with its beautiful diamond clasp. Then she said firmly, âBut Mrs Constantin isnât like that, Iâm sure.â
He replied, after a momentâs thought and with a fleeting smile, âNo, Mrs Constantin is not like that at all, Paula.â But he was suddenly and insanely tempted to addâWould the real Mrs Constantin please stand up?
He stood up himself instead, because Paula was an ardent fan of his wife, and, anyway, his problems were his alone. But the question was still on his mind as he drove the short few blocks home to the apartment that faced Bicentennial Park and Lameroo Beach. It had been a cause of some amusement for his wife that the Sultan of Brunei was reputed to own the penthouse in the same building. âAre you in the same class wealth-wise as the Sultan of Brunei, Alex?â sheâd asked with a gleam of sparkling fun in her blue eyes.
Heâd denied the charge in all honesty, adding that the Constantin family fortune, added to the Beaufort fortune which she herself had inherited, would probably be less than small change to the Sultan of Brunei and, indeed, the Paspaley family which had pioneered cultured-pearl farming in the Northern Territory and the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
âBut youâve also done very nicely out of pearls, thank you, havenât you, Alex?â sheâd remarked, and added, âPlus the cattle stations, cruise boats et al?â
Heâd agreed, but pointed out that she had also done very well out of her familyâs fortune.
âTrue.â Sheâd glanced at him with a question in those stunning blue eyes.
âI only make the point because you seem to hold my family fortune in a certain sort of low esteem,â heâd said.
âIs it because Iâm only a first-generation Australian of Greek descent whereas the Beauforts go back to the pioneering roots of this part of the country?â