'Quite ready for your team?'
'Yes. I wouldn't be so pleased with myself if I was still floundering.'
'I never noticed you floundering,' he confessed quietly. 'You look as if you know exactly what you're doing. It's true you get into the odd scrape, but that apart, I'm all admiration.'
'You'll see the finished film before you leave here? The minister will get a video of it. He'll be on it, speaking, of course, and so will you.'
'Me?' He looked at her suspiciously. 'Is this a trick?'
'No. You're an important part of it all.-It would look astonishing if we left you out.'
For a minute she thought he was going to refuse but he watched her steadily and then nodded. 'OK. One thing at least: when you see the film in London, you'll remember me.'
Natalie looked at him for a long time, neither of them speaking. Unexpectedly she knew she would not forget Kip. It would be impossible. The knowledge showed in her green eyes for a second before she looked abruptly away.
'Neil will be interviewing you.' 'Neil?'
'He does the commentary. When they get out here I just point them in the right direction; mostly I work with Ray Hanson, the cameraman. Which reminds me,' she added, happy to have something to talk about besides remembering Kip, 'I have to hire two more vehicles. One should be a pick-up of some sort. Ray will need to ride in the back to pan the shots.'
'And where will you be?' He suddenly looked suspicious and Natalie answered without thought.
'In the back with Ray, directing him.'
'No!' She looked up, startled by his vehemence. He looked thunderous and her eyes widened at this sudden' display of temper. 'If you think I'm letting you hang out of the back of a truck you're mistaken!'
'I always do.'
'Then the fact that you've not broken your beautiful? neck so far is sheer good fortune. You're not doing it again.' '
Natalie stood and gathered her things, looking at him with annoyance. 'Goodbye, Mr Forsythe. Thanks for the coffee.' She walked down the steps and he stood there; looking after her, waiting until she got to her car before he said,
'I'll see you at the dam at two,' adding, as she nodded curtly, 'and Natalie, if you ride in the back of any truck, I give no interview.'
'The minister promised you would!' she flared at him but he simply looked mockingly sure of himself.
'I don't work for the minister. I work for Mallory-Carter. And let me tell you something, butterfly. Gabriel Basoni needs me more than he needs either you or your film. You bow to my rules or you get no interview.'
'You're impossible!' she raged, but he just nodded complacently.
'That's true.' To her vast annoyance, he simply raised his hand in farewell and went inside, leaving her to start her car and drive off angrily.
It was only as she arrived back at the hotel that two things struck her. In the first place, she would have to obey. She knew him well enough to know he didn't make idle threats. In the second place, he was worried every time she was in danger. Obviously he was a man with a highly developed sense of protectiveness. It gave her a sudden feeling of disquiet. She was capable of looking
after herself. Nobody had looked after her since her mother had died. She was her father's 'right-hand man' and he never coddled her; neither had Neil. She hardly knew Kip, but he was ordering her about as if he had rights.
Natalie was a little grim-faced when she met Kip at the dam after lunch but she soon relaxed as they made a tour of the vast construction. It was almost impossible to hear each other with the steady hum of the great turbines but her camera was out and ready, the African engineers a little sheepish as they came into the shots accidentally.
Unfortunately it was necessary once again to remind Kip of the favour he had offered—the darkroom—but he simply nodded when she mentioned it.
'Come early, about five-thirty. When you've finished you can have dinner with me. I'll let Josh know.'
'Er—I have a lot of notes to write up. The team will be out tomorrow afternoon.'
She knew she was wriggling uneasily, anxious not to be alone with him, but his expression did not alter. If he knew, he was ignoring it.
'Then come at seven for dinner and do the developing later.'