THREE hours, Matt told himself, as he drove to the Sunday luncheon he couldn't avoid. Four at most. He should easily manage to pass that length of time with his family without putting a foot wrong with Nicole Redman. He could do a show of polite interest in her work, enough to satisfy his grandmother's standard of good manners, and spend the rest of the time chatting to his brothers.
He was not about to make any judgments today. Let Nicole Redman stew in her inadequacies as far as the family history was concerned. He'd brought the photographs and the photocopied plan she'd requested. He'd hand them over to her and that was his bit done. She wasn't about to seek him out for anything more and be damned if he'd chase her for anything, either.
What was it...ten days since he'd called her bluff? The gall of her to blame him for her lack of professionalism on the project! Sheer amateursville taking all those tourist photos in the park. No theme, no purpose, just click, click, click. And calling him a hostile force...huh! She hadn't thought he was hostile while they shared the fruit platter on the veranda.
A pity he hadn't taken his chance then and there. It was well and truly gone now.
Though it was better he hadn't got sexually involved with her. She probably cheated on that level, too, promising more than she'd ever deliver. Visual pleasure definitely wasn't everything. And reality rarely lived up to fantasy.
His grandmother could have Nicole Redman all to herself from now on. She would just have to accept that her matchmaking scheme had bombed out and live with the consequences of her choice. It wasn't paramount that the family history be published at the end of Nicole's contract. Another person could be brought in to get it right. This was not a full-scale disaster, more a minor mess they could all sweep under the carpet.
On the marriage front, she had ready consolation for her disappointment with him. This luncheon...Tony's pressure for him to be there... reading between the lines, Tony was bursting to celebrate with the family the fact that he and Hannah were expecting their first baby. Had to be. Hannah wanted a whole pack of children, having come from a big family herself, and Tony had declared himself happy to oblige her. Three months married... time enough for Hannah to get pregnant.
So today was bound to be happy families day for Nonna. She'd have Alex's and Gina's two children to cluck over and Tony and Hannah promising another great-grandchild. Plenty of good stuff for her to focus on. She could count her blessings and forget about him for a while. A long while. He'd get married in his own good time to his own choice of wife.
He drove in to the private parking area behind the castle, noting that Alex's Mercedes was already there and Tony's helicopter was sitting on the pad. He was the last to arrive, which was good. Easier to lose Nicole Redman in a crowd, although if his grandmother parked him with her at the dining table... Matt gritted his teeth, knowing he couldn't completely ignore her. He hated being boxed into a corner. Hated it!
Using the back entrance, he strode along to the kitchen where he was bound to find Rosita, who knew everything there was to know about what went on in the castle. She'd not only been the cook and housekeeper here for over twenty years, she was his grandmother's closest confidante, sharing the same Italian heritage and always sympathetic to her plans.
She was at the island bench, tasting a salad with an air of testing its ingredients for the correct balance. Matt grinned at her. Rosita loved food and didn't mind being plump because of it. He and his brothers had been fed many great feasts in this kitchen.
"Have you got it right?'' he teased.
"This is Hannah's special salad. An interesting combination... cabbage, noodles, walnuts...but you do not want to know these things." She gestured expansively. "It is good to see you, Matteo!"
"You, too, Rosita." He gave her a quick hug. "How's everything going here?"
"Oh, busy, busy, busy. You will find everyone in the billiard room." That surprised him. "Why the billiard room?" He couldn't imagine
Alex and Tony wanting to play today.
"It is where Nicole has her work on the family history. Your grandmother is showing them what's been done so far."
"Well, that should be interesting," Matt said dryly, wondering how Nicole was managing to convince them that anything had been done.
"She works too hard, that girl." Rosita shook her head disapprovingly. "Up all hours of the night. I make a supper for her but more times than not she forgets to eat."
"Definitely a crime," Matt commented with mock gravity.
"Oh, go on with you!" She shooed him away. "And do not leave it so long again before visiting your grandmother. Over a month."
"Busy, busy, busy," he tossed back as he left the kitchen. "Young people," he heard her mutter disparagingly. "Rush, rush, rush."
But Matt didn't rush to the billiard room. He was considerably bemused by the picture painted of Nicole Redman by Rosita. Hardworking? And why was such a large room being taken up for this project? How did she justify it?
The door was open. The rest of the family didn't even notice his arrival. Their attention was fixed on the billiard table which was still wearing its protective cover. A quick sweeping glance told Matt Nicole Redman was not present, which made his greeting much more relaxed.
"Hi!" he said, strolling forward. "What's the big deal here?"
Everyone answered at once, saying hello and urging him into their midst to look at what was fascinating them. The surface of the billiard table held a pictorial history of the family, a massed display of old photographs, arranged in sequential decades, with a typed annotation of who, where and why underneath each one. Some of them Matt had never seen, or if he had, he didn't remember them.
"This is great, Nonna," he couldn't help remarking.
"Nicole and I have been sorting them for weeks. These are the best from a store of old albums and boxes."
Probably more his grandmother's work than Nicole's, Matt decided. "Have a look at this time line, Matt." Tony waved him over to a
whiteboard which he was now studying. "All the big dates lined up—the wars, the mafia interference, the cyclones, the whole progress of the sugar industry, when the other plantations became viable...and on this side of the line, notes on what the family was doing through these critical times. Just the bare bones but it gets the history in perspective, doesn't it?"
It did. In fact, Matt had to concede it was quite an impressive summary. And a very logical method of getting the whole story in order. He was beginning to have a nasty niggly feeling he might have misjudged Nicole Redman. Yet if she really could do this job, why had she been so inept during her visit to Kauri King Park?
Which reminded him of the bag he was carrying. He turned to his grandmother. "I've got more photographs here. Shots of the park being built. Nicole asked me to get copies of the originals and a photocopy of the plan. Where should I put them?"
"On her desk. Thank you, Matteo."
Following the direction of his grandmother's nod, Matt saw that a large desk had been brought in and positioned under the window at the far end of the room. It held a laptop computer, piles of manila folders, a tape- player and a stack of cassettes which Alex was sorting through, picking up each cassette and reading the label.
"So what's Nicole Redman's taste in music?" Matt asked as he put the bag next to the computer.
"It's not music. They're interviews with the old families in the Italian community. Nonna said she's off doing another one today."
"Not joining us for lunch then?" Matt now had mixed feelings about whether he wanted her there or not. Easier for him if she wasn't, but if he was guilty of prejudice— and the evidence was stacking up against the assumptions he'd made—an apology was due.
"No. She's gone down to the Johnstone Shire. A cou ple of hours' drive. Won't be back until late afternoon, I should think."
Free of her.
Except she sat uncomfortably on his conscience.
"She's certainly compiled a lot of material this past month," Alex remarked admiringly.
"Yes, but can she write?'' Matt snapped, part of him needing to justify his stance with her.
Alex gave him a startled look. "Don't you know...?" He stopped, frowned. "That's right. You weren't at the lunch when Nonna introduced Nicole to the rest of us. One of the reasons Nonna chose her to do this was the biography she'd written of her father."
"A biography," Matt repeated, stunned by this new information. "Mmm... It's called Ollie's Drum. Her father was a jazz musician." Jazz... New Orleans...
"Have you read it?" he shot at his oldest brother, whose opinion he'd always respected.
"No." Alex gave him a droll look. "But biographies don't get published unless the author can write, Matt. Besides, Nonna has read it and it satisfied her."
Ollie's Drum. Matt fixed the title in his mind. He needed to get hold of that book, read it for himself. The ferocity of that thought gave him pause to examine it more rationally. What was the point of pursuing more information about her? If he'd blotted his copybook with Nicole Redman, so what? Hadn't he already decided any kind of relationship with her was not on?
Though he didn't like feeling he hadn't been fair. Injustice of any kind was anathema to him.
On the other hand, she'd given him every reason to think what he had, and accusing him of being a hostile force, making her nervous... absolute hogwash!
"You're right off base if you're thinking Nicole Redman isn't up to this job," Alex remarked, eyeing him curiously.
"I didn't say that."
An eyebrow was cocked, challenging any doubt at all. "She's got a swag of degrees. History, genealogy, literature..."
Degrees could be forged. With today's computers almost anything could be made to look genuine.
"She's taught various courses at a tafe college, too," Alex went on. "Very highly qualified. Nonna was lucky to get her."
Not even a hint of suspicion that Nicole was not as she had presented herself. If Alex was sold on her...and Alex certainly didn't have a matchmaking agenda...then it had to be conceded Nicole did have the ability to do this job.
Which meant he should apologise.
The sooner, the better, in fact. She couldn't be feeling good about a member of the family casting aspersions on her integrity. She might very well have gone out today to avoid the unpleasantness of his presence. And working on a Sunday could be taken as a slap in the face to him for doubting her commitment to the project.
Her absence suddenly felt very personal.
Matt didn't like it one bit. He'd never been painted as a hostile ogre before. He wished he hadn't brought up the sexual angle with her. It made the situation doubly awkward when it came to back-pedalling on the stance he'd taken. Nevertheless, he couldn't just walk away from it. She had another five months left on this project and leaving her under a black cloud where he was concerned, was not right.
This blot had to be confronted and dealt with. Today.
Even if he had to wait hours for her to return to the castle.