Chapter One
Beth Lowe was startled from her unhappy daydream by her friend and employee, Tasha Mills, bouncing through the office door.
'Today's the day we meet the boss, n'est-ce pas?' Tasha said. 'How do you like my French?'
Beth placed her pen on the pile of cheques she should have been signing and frowned. 'If you mean Pierre Laroche, he's not my boss.' She glanced at her watch. 'And he should be here any minute now.' She leaned back, the old leather chair creaking. 'He speaks English, you know.'
'So I guessed, but it won't hurt to wow him with my linguistic ability, will it? All eight phrases.' Tasha perched on the corner of Beth's desk. 'Why didn't you meet him at the airport? You want to make a good impression, don't you?'
Anger bubbled inside Beth and she made a conscious effort to maintain her outward calm. Did she want to impress Pierre Laroche? Impale him might be nearer the mark. Ten years earlier, he'd stolen her heart - then broken it. Now he was back in her life but this time he wasn't interested in her heart. It was her winery he wanted to steal. And she had to be professional around him. She had to act like the capable business person she purported to be.
Tasha examined her nails while she waited for an answer and Beth took a deep breath. She couldn't expect Tasha to understand. She hadn't told her friend about the disastrous relationship with Pierre, the biggest mistake of her life. And she hadn't told her the truth behind his imminent visit either. She cleared her throat. 'I want to impress him with my management ability, not my driving skills,' she said.
Tasha shrugged. 'Point taken. Still, I'd have thought... Oh, hey, I'm sorry if I seem insensitive. I know you're cut up about the takeover, but it's done. C'est la vie.' She grinned and made a flourish with one hand. 'But seriously, you did your best to prevent it and it wasn't your fault the Board voted the wrong way.'
Not her fault? She wasn't so sure. There must have been something she could have said to sway the directors to her side, to persuade them selling L'Alliance a controlling stake in Lowland Wines was a bad move. She'd tried to convince them to reject the takeover bid out of hand. Failing that, they could have accepted the lower - and unconditional - offer from the Canadian consortium. But, no, they'd been lured by the big dollars offered by the huge conglomerate. Now her job was on the line along with the dream her father had entrusted to her.
'Do you know anything about him?'
She refocused her eyes on Tasha. 'What?'
'This guy - Pierre. Do you know what he's like?'
'Um...' Beth stood and walked to the window. 'No.' It wasn't a lie. Exactly. He'd shown himself to be very different from the man she thought she knew. And besides, a lot could have happened in the ten years since she'd seen him. She didn't know anything about the person he'd become.
She stared at the uniform rows of vines curving with the contours of the Barossa Valley just as they had in her childhood. This had been her father's office and she'd spent hours by the window waiting for him to finish work and walk back to the house with her. She loved the view. It almost always had the power to relax her. But how much longer would it be hers? How long did she have before L'Alliance decreed she was more of a liability than an asset and moved her aside?
Beth tensed as a white car came into view. A taxicab. 'I think he's here,' she murmured.
Tasha dashed to the window, all but nudging her aside. 'Shall I go and meet him? Show him in here?'
Beth looked at Tasha's sparkling eyes. She clearly hadn't picked up on Beth's ambivalence towards their visitor. Stifling a sigh, she nodded. 'Okay, Tash. You do that.'
'How do I look?' Tasha finger-combed her short black curls.
'Beautiful. As always.' Resisting the urge to smooth her own hair, Beth turned back to the window. The view hadn't worked its magic today. Her turmoil was too deeply entrenched. She sucked in a steadying breath. She'd had a decade to forget Pierre but the memory had persisted. Vivid and painful. Invading her dreams. Now, he would be on her territory but she wouldn't have the advantage. He'd still have that. Once again, he was in a position to hurt her.
She heard Tasha giggling and grimaced. He'd won over her friend already. Straining hinges groaned as the heavy door swung open and, rigid with anticipation, she listened to their footsteps on the polished timber floor.
'Hello, Babette.'
Not that name.
His voice reverberating inside her, Beth clenched her stomach muscles to hold back the nausea, pasted a professional smile on her face and turned.