Wolf at the Door
Page 19
He’s enjoying this, Kelly muttered silently to herself. And indeed he seemed to be, spinning the story out and making it sound even more dramatic than she had imagined from Freda’s version.
‘What I did do was sell out several of my holdings to Sven so that I could use the capital for something else,’ he said.
And still later, ‘She was half right about your father and the partnership, by the way.’
‘Do you mean ... Marcel ...?’ Kelly was flabbergasted. ‘Surely he wouldn’t have done a thing like that without consulting me?’
‘Certainly not if it was something exactly like that,’ Grey replied with a shrug. ‘But of course it wasn’t exactly like that.’
‘Oh, I do wish you’d just get on with the story and stop being obtuse and mysterious,’ Kelly cried. ‘You’re starting to make me very angry.’
‘Yeah, well, just don’t start throwing things or anything. It isn’t allowed in small planes,’ he laughed. ‘Okay, I’ll tell you — partner.’
‘You? I don’t believe you,’ she shouted. ‘He wouldn’t … he couldn’t ...’
‘He did.’ Grey uttered the words firmly, brooking no argument. ‘Of course he didn’t sell you out, just most of his share. You and I both end up with forty-nine per cent each and he’s hanging on, to the remaining’ two per cent himself … sort of a tie-breaker, he called it.’
‘But ... you can’t even make coffee.’ Kelly felt mildly hysterical. It was a dream, she felt, and yet it wasn’t. She really was flying with Grey along the rugged flanks of the Rockies, and he really was telling her this.
And laughing. ‘You’ll have plenty of time to teach me before the children start arriving,’ he chuckled. ‘Although not too much time, I hope.’
‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Well, your father hasn’t anybody else to give him grandchildren, has he?’
‘You two had it all worked out between you, didn’t you?’ Kelly asked, suddenly wary of this grey-haired, grey-eyed man she loved. ‘What did he tell you, anyway?’
‘Not one damned thing. In fact he refused to even talk about it. You should know your father better than that.’
‘I’m not even sure I know myself any more,’ she replied honestly. ‘But then how did you know where to find me?’
‘Easy. 1 read your mind. You should know that too, by now.’
‘Too well. And I’m not sure I like it,’ she replied. ‘Am I really all that predictable?’
Grey laughed, an easy, comfortable laugh that restored Kelly’s own good humour. ‘You are the most unpredictable woman I’ve ever met,’ he said then. ‘I think that’s what I love most about you.’
Kelly accepted that in the spirit in which it was intended; he had finally said he loved her, and nothing else could matter after that. They flew the rest of the journey in a gentle, euphoric silence, with Kelly napping part of the way and only coming fully awake when they swooped down upon Grey’s private airstrip to find his mother and her father waiting for them.
Kelly was received with open, welcoming arms by both parents, each of them expressing in their own way a gladness and satisfaction that Kelly and Grey had finally worked things out.
She remonstrated mildly with her father about his reorganising of the business behind her back, but Geoff Barnes only laughed at his happy young daughter.
‘Business before pleasure,’ he chuckled. ‘And now that the business is well and truly out of the way — when’s the wedding?’
‘Ask the mind-reader,’ Kelly responded with a chuckle of her own, and Grey’s response was expectably predictable.
‘It’ll be as soon as it can be arranged,’ he said calmly.
And it was.
Apart from the families, only Sven Jorgensen attended the small, private wedding ceremony, and certainly the huge oilman’s presence was less of a surprise than Grey’s choice of a location for the service.
‘It really is ridiculous to make me walk half a mile through the bush in a wedding dress and these impossible slippers,’ Kelly told her father as the party negotiated the path to the crest of Kakwa Falls. She had found the unusual location difficult enough to imagine as they had flown down to the Kakwa in one of the huge Jorgensen helicopters, with Kelly in her flowing white dress and Grey looking resplendent in a morning suit.
But once on the ground, the spectacular venue proved a unanimous hit with everyone else, and Kelly had sufficient memories of her earlier visit to add to the new and even fonder ones she gathered on her wedding day.
There was still one more surprise, however, though it didn’t eventuate until they were alone in their room at the exclusive Jasper Park Lodge, where the rest of the wedding party had remained for their own celebration after a splendid wedding supper of prime ribs of beef and Arctic char in the Moose’s Nook.
Kelly emerged from the bathroom, suddenly and unaccountably shy as her wedding night began, only to find Grey had gone while she was washing, and left something vaguely familiar on the huge double bed in their room.
It wasn’t the negligee that Kelly had left prepared for herself; indeed it was quite the opposite colour. And when she slipped through the darkened room and picked it up, she had to laugh out loud.
The infamous black dress carried a message all of its own, and it didn’t really need the note that Grey had attached to it, reading: ‘You can wear this now. Love, Grey.’
She chuckled as she slipped the gossamer fabric over her clean, cool skin, wondering at the logic of a man who would go to the trouble to keep such a troublesome garment.
And then she laughed aloud. She wouldn’t be wearing it long anyway, she thought.
When Grey returned a few minutes later, carrying a magnum of champagne and a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign for the door, she knew she was right.
~~~
About the Author
Victoria Gordon is the pseudonym and muse for Canadian/Australian author
Gordon Aalborg’s more than twenty contemporary romances.
As himself, he is the author of the western romance The Horse Tamer’s Challenge (2009) and the Tasmanian-oriented suspense thrillers The Specialist (2004)and Dining with Devils (2009)
as well as the Australian feral cat survival epic Cat Tracks.
Born in Canada, Aalborg spent half his life in Australia, mostly in Tasmania, and now lives
on Vancouver Island, in Canada, with his wife, the mystery and romance author Denise Dietz.
More on www.gordonaalborg.com.
THE BOOKS
As Victoria Gordon
Wolf in Tiger’s Stripes (2010)
Finding Bess (2004)
Beguiled and Bedazzled (1996)
An Irresistible Flirtation (1995)
A Magical Affair (1994)
Gift-Wrapped (1993)
A Taxing Affair (1993)
Love Thy Neighbour (1990)
Arafura Pirate (1989)
Forest Fever (1986)
Cyclone Season (1985)
Age of Consent (1985)
Bushranger's Mountain (1985)
Battle of Wills (1982)
Dinner At Wyatt's (1982)
Blind Man's Buff (1982)
Stag At Bay (1982)
Dream House (1981)
Always The Boss (1981)
The Everywhere Man (1981)
Wolf At The Door (1981)
The Sugar Dragon (1980)
as Gordon Aalborg
Cat Tracks (Hyland House: Melbourne: 1981)
(Delphi Books: U.S. edition: 2002)
The Specialist (Five Star Mysteries: 2004)
Dining with Devils (Five Star Mysteries: 2009)
The Horse Tamer’s Challenge (Five Star Expressions: 2009)