'Girls are just fine He smiled down at her and then turned his attention to Natalie, the golden eyes summing her up swiftly. 'I hope you're not here to interview me right now, young lady. I've got a lot of business to talk over with Kip first.
'She's with me,' Kip assured him, his hand coming to Natalie's arm in a way that brought instant interest to Andrea Mallory's eyes and a faint flush to Natalie's cheeks. 'I might remind you too that the official opening is at three.'
'And the interview?' Once more Natalie got the benefit of the strange tawny glance and held herself a little stiffly.
'After the opening, if you can manage it.'
'Don't be scared of him,' Andrea advised with a grin. 'He's not nearly as bad as he looks.'
She got an amused, chiding look from the big man, who almost lifted her into the waiting car before piling their two suitcases into the back.
'Why this afternoon?' Kip held Natalie back and spoke in a low voice. 'I thought it was tomorrow.'
'If he'll do it today we can keep to our schedule.' She hardly dared look at him and she could almost feel the waves of anger that flew across his face.
'Just like that,' he said flatly.
'We're on a tight schedule. You know that.' What did he expect? How was she supposed to cope with things? Already the bottom had dropped out of her world. One more night—was that what he was offering? He didn't speak to her again. Somehow he contained his anger and managed to hold an ordinary conversation with his two visitors but once or twice Natalie caught Andrea's eyes on her through the rear-view mirror, puzzled and speculating. No doubt she knew her own brother.
The official opening was indeed spectacular. The road across the dam was closed, the one or two cars that
needed to cross being manoeuvred slowly by the police. While they had been at the airport seating had been arranged and a heavy ribbon in the blue, red and amber of the Madembi flag was fastened across the road, ready for the minister to cut.
The Kabala Hotel too was a hive of industrious activity, the dining-room cleared for the official dance that the minister had ordered. Lunch was a buffet in the lounge, and who cared about lunch when this day" was so important? The waiters' grins said it all.
As his visitors went off to their rooms, Kip held Natalie back, his fingers flexing on her arm.
'Right now I have to go, but after the opening you and I talk.' He sounded particularly grim, not a smile in sight, and after the way he had not spoken to her on the drive from the airport Natalie was tightly wound up with anger and misery.
'What have we got to talk about?' She glanced at him defiantly and then dropped her eyes as his face flared with temper.
'If you don't know, then maybe we have nothing to talk about after all,' he bit out. She noticed his glance flash to Neil who was watching them as closely as ever and her own temper rose. What exactly was she in all this masculine rivalry? Not good enough to be engaged to Neil, nothing more than a night's love-affair with Kip.
She spun away from him and ran up to her room, temper sustaining her until she got there, her eyes filling with tears as soon as the door was safely closed. She had to get through this day, that was all. Tomorrow night she would be back in London and Kip would simply take up his life where he had left off, expecting her to do the same.
As to Neil, she had already decided about that. She would leave Westwind, get away from the studio. In her travels she had seen many things, taken hundreds of excellent photographs. She had about a trunkful of notes and she would write. Maybe Paula would see some sense and leave Neil, but whether she did or not Natalie was certain that she would not be the one to cause the breakup. She could not see now why she had ever been taken in by Neil. Kip filled her every thought, her whole existence—hopelessly.
The minister sat with his wife in the centre. To one side sat Kane and Andrea Mallory and at the other side of him Kip, frowning and dangerous-looking, like a fair-haired bandit in expensive clothes, as Ray put it. The other government officials took up the rest of the front row and as she moved with Ray, working the sound, Natalie found her eyes searching for Annette; after all, wasn't Annette a fairly important person in these parts? She had set up the school from nothing, as she had already told Natalie.
She was there, of course, her face carefully composed, and Natalie almost laughed aloud; Annette dared not glare in case the camera caught her.