‘How lovely of you to come all the way to see me. What a shame I am in here or I could cook you my roast lamb. I know how you miss that, James. And baked turnip for you, Nina. I remember.’
She smiled at them both, pleased with herself. James looked away.
‘Next time, Patty. When you’re feeling better,’ said Nina.
On the morning of the third day everyone fell into a schedule. James was due to sit with Patty. Mark and Frederick were having the new osmosis filtration unit installed. Nina would drop off James and then do the shopping.
James waved goodbye to Nina and walked down the corridor, smiling his greetings to the nurses on duty. He was expecting Patty to be asleep so he was surprised to find the bed empty and Amanda sitting in the armchair.
‘Where is she?’
‘Having a CAT scan,’ replied Amanda, flicking through a magazine.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘I’m her daughter-in-law, a member of the family. I care about what happens to her.’
There was an edge to Amanda’s voice that James did not like. He wondered if he could find where his mother was having tests and go to her there.
‘She’ll be back soon. Sit down, I won’t bite,’ said Amanda.
She sounded perfectly friendly, even giving a little smile. James didn’t believe it for a minute. He did not want to be alone with Amanda and tried to keep as far away from her as possible. But he had been cornered. James was supposed to be here. She wasn’t. He sat on a plastic stackable chair that had been brought in from the reception area. Amanda continued to read the magazine. James could think of nothing to say. Her presence made the room seem stuffy.
She turned another page and, looking up at James, said sweetly, ‘You are an arsehole.’
She turned back to her magazine.
James sighed. He didn’t want to have this conversation. ‘Don’t, Amanda,’ he replied. ‘Just don’t.’ James was emotionally exhausted. It was the worst possible reply.
Amanda snapped shut her magazine. ‘You were an arsehole then and you are an arsehole now. I can’t understand what I ever saw in you.’
The veneer of civility was gone. Their loathing of each other was instantly at the fore.
‘What exactly are you angry about, Amanda? Huh? A fling we had when we were both pissed? Or are you angry that you may not get the Wilde money after all? Which is it? Your bruised ego or your greed?’
Amanda looked as if she had been slapped. Her eyes glittered dangerously. ‘How dare you!’ She spat out the words. ‘First you walk out on me –’
James cut her off in mid-sentence. ‘I did not walk out on you. We had a drunken fling. I’m not exactly proud of it but I’m not ashamed either. We were both consenting adults. Now let it be.’
‘Easy for you to say. You treated me like a tart. Had your way then took off, without so much as a goodbye. I deserved better than that.’ Amanda paused for breath.
All was silent in the little hospital room.
When James finally spoke he sounded weary, resigned. ‘I am sorry if I hurt you. I didn’t mean to. You do deserve better than that.’
Amanda was having none of it. The more reasonable James sounded the more irate she became. ‘Mark is worth a thousand of you and it has taken me this long to realise it. I used to want an apology, some kind of explanation. You behaved like a pig. Now I want nothing more to do with you. You have ruined this family. It’s all your fault.’
The small white-walled room started to close in on James. The antiseptic hospital smells filled his nostrils and added to the feeling of claustrophobia. James had to get out of there.
He stumbled out into the hospital carpark, his mind filled with loathing for his sister-in-law. She brought back such unhappy memories. He preferred to forget his years working for his father on the vineyard. It had seemed to him then that everything he had done in his life he had failed at. He had returned from the Olympics a few years earlier feeling like a failure and tried to stay out of sight of the media and his team mates, as far from the skiing world as he could flee, living quietly at the vineyard. But the farm had seemed impossibly small and irrelevant after he’d had a taste of overseas travel. His friends had moved on in their careers and he felt like he had nothing. Frederick had given him a job on cellar door sales. He hated the drunken holidaymakers that came through. He hated the small-town focus of the family. He hated everything about the winery. Then his father had stamped on the only opportunity he felt he had to achieve something and regain some self-respect, becoming a Lloyd’s name. He had decided it was time to go. He didn’t fit in here.
James hadn’t told his family of his plans to leave. He hadn’t known himself. It was an idea he had been toying with for a few days then, that final Saturday, the others had taken off to promote their wines at a jazz festival at Pokolbin, leaving James with Amanda to look after cellar door sales. It had been so hot, the flies had fried on the windowsill. The coolest place on the property was the tasting barn, the huge vaulted sandstone building with stone floors. The relentless heat could addle a man’s brain. James had heard somewhere that human beings couldn’t cope at temperatures above 48 degrees Celsius. Their thinking became muddled. That’s how he felt.
Amanda and James had no way of knowing whether it would be a busy day or not. In this heat probably not. But they put the ‘open’ sign out on the road in case.
They were soon bored. It was too hot to go out and there was nothing to do inside the tasting barn but drink and banter. James had been glad Amanda was there. He had always considered her to be good fun. She made James laugh, through a combination of flirty innuendo and ribald humour. Men found her attractive and she knew it, revelled in it. James had been happy to spend the afternoon in her company.
They decided to test each other with blind tastings. James couldn’t remember whose idea that was. Probably Amanda’s. She had a formidable reputation for having one of the keenest palates in the Hunter. Amanda made James sit on the customer’s side, then she lined up six wine tasting glasses in front of him. She had brought out four bottles of white from the fridge. They were their current stock used for tastings.
‘Too easy,’ James said when he saw them.
‘Oh, you think so, huh,’ she said, disappearing into the back room.
She returned with two unopened bottles from the neighbouring vineyard. Same varieties, same years.
She lined up the six bottles for James to study the labels. Two Wilde semillons from different years, and a semillon from the winery next-door, an unwooded Wilde chardonnay and the same from next-door, and a Wilde verdelho, the current vintage.
‘Are you ready?’
James studied the labels. Satisfied, he gave the thumbs up sign. Amanda untied the red silk scarf from around her neck and moved behind him to blindfold him. The scarf smelled of her perfume, sweet and light. He was immediately suspicious. Ninety per cent of tasting involved the sense of smell.
‘Nice try, Amanda. I’m onto you. Trying to give me a handicap with the perfumed scarf. It won’t work, you know.’
Amanda sniggered. ‘Just concentrate on your palate, buddy boy.’
James sat in the darkness and waited. He listened to a bottle being opened and the wine being poured. He felt Amanda’s hands place the glass in his hands. He swirled the liquid about the glass, releasing its aroma, and inhaled deeply.
Quite pungent. An overlay of tropical fruit. The Wilde verdelho. He took a sip and swirled the liquid about his mouth. Honeyed. Silky. Definitely the verdelho. It was cool and refreshing. He downed the rest of the glass.
‘Wildes’Verdelho 1986. Next.’
Amanda took his hand and placed it around another glass. Round, clean, light. A touch of grapefruit. The current vintage semillon by Wilde Wines.
Amanda had tied the blindfold securely and no light seeped through to James’s world. He found himself straining to follow her movements, listening to the bottles being uncorked, the wine poured and anticipat
ing her touch. They moved down the row, James savouring generous amounts of each of the six wines before finishing the glass. Amanda made notes of each selection.
Next, it was Amanda’s turn. James untied the blindfold and moved behind her, tying the scarf securely. She made her selections as James recorded them on a pad.
They finished the whites, emptying each glass into their mouths and then moved onto the reds. By the fourth glass, James was laughing and dribbling so much Amanda had to help him find his mouth, placing the glass against his lips and pouring. They both started to giggle uncontrollably. Wine dripped down James’s chin. Groping around for a cloth he struck Amanda in the chest and knocked the wine out of her hand, spilling its contents all over his shirt.
Laughing and half falling off the chair, Amanda pulled the shirt over his head, flinging it across the counter. James finished the row of reds. His motor coordination started to falter and he fumbled clumsily as he attempted to retie the blindfold behind her head.
Amanda waited in darkness for James to pour the first red. He was giggling so much he kept missing the glass. Then, ignoring her hands, he put the glass straight to her lips. Amanda was renowned for her love of a good red. She swilled the wine around in her mouth, enjoying every texture and sensation. She groaned with appreciation.
‘You started with the 1986 Shiraz, my favourite.’ She rolled her tongue slowly over her lips, savouring every last drop.
It was the most incredibly erotic thing James thought he had ever seen. Soon Amanda complained of being hot and peeled off her skimpy T-shirt, tossing it aside. She sat in just her shorts and lacey white bra.
‘Where are you, I can’t see you,’ she called out.
James poked her in the ribs and jumped aside as she tried to grab his hand. Sweat gave her tanned skin a sheen. She was laughing so much she dribbled the next glass down her cleavage. James couldn’t take his eyes off her breasts as the red wine dribbled across the white lace, spreading like a stain and falling into the deep cleft. It seemed incredibly lewd to James to be able to sit and stare all he wanted at Amanda’s breasts. He watched them move as she breathed, jiggling in time with her giggling.
James found this notion highly amusing – jiggling from the giggling. Amanda wanted to know why he was laughing. As she spoke they jiggled more. James was laughing so hard he couldn’t speak. Amanda reached out to him in the darkness and her hand brushed his bare chest. It was wet with wine and sweat. At her touch James abruptly stopped laughing.
Amanda started to move both her hands over him, feeling him like a blind man would. Her fingers caressed his bare waist. James held his breath. He enjoyed the sensations, closing his eyes and focussing on the feel of her cool fingers running over his hot, naked torso. Amanda climbed onto James’s lap and finding his mouth, started to kiss him.
They fell over each other lustily. Sweaty, wine soaked, hot and panting. James tore off what was left of his own and Amanda’s clothes then hoisted her onto the counter. Amanda pushed her feet against an upturned barrel and they thrust against each other. Hard and urgent.
It was all over in a matter of minutes.
They dressed clumsily, still laughing.
James went into the back room and put his head under the tap, splashing cold water over his neck and face. Amanda came in and stood behind him, running her hands over his buttocks, spooning herself around his bent body. They swayed like that for a moment but the heat of the back room quickly became oppressive.
James started to sober up and went inside the house and up to his room to fetch a clean T-shirt. He had forgotten what he was looking for when he got there and lay for a moment on the bed. He didn’t mean to leave Amanda with the mess to clean up but he fell asleep for some hours and when he woke up everything was in darkness. Amanda was nowhere to be seen.
The next day James went to see Felix in town and tell him he couldn’t become a Lloyd’s name. A week later he was on a plane with him to London. Three months after that he received a letter in Whistler from his mother, telling him Mark was getting married, to that nice girl Amanda who he might remember. She worked on door sales.
James didn’t bother going home for the wedding but sent a telegram wishing the happy couple a successful future.
He hadn’t seen Amanda again until four years later, when he stood in the family lounge room introducing his bride Nina to his brother and sister-in-law.
CHAPTER 13
Thursday, 21 February 1991
Leo noticed a mark on his shoulder. It was an ugly blue bruise with a tinge of yellow around the edge. It didn’t look so new. Leo wondered when he had hurt himself. His body was a mass of scars and bumps from sailing mishaps. He thought of his last race. He couldn’t remember falling over or being hit by anything. Then it came to him. Nina biting him, playfully at first, then, no longer aware what she was doing, she had sunk her teeth in and hung on. Leo smiled to think of it. They had a date this Saturday. He wanted it to be special. He looked about his bachelor penthouse. It didn’t look right. He needed to go shopping.
*
Felix was already chatting with Frederick on the verandah when Nina and James returned from the hospital.
James had been expecting him but still he was nervous at the sight of his friend standing beside his father. He knew he was in for a long and uncomfortable discussion about what had happened with Lloyd’s. There were some issues that would only be discussed away from Felix, personal issues including why James had gone against his father’s express wishes and gambled with the family’s financial future. That was a conversation James knew they would have privately.
As far as Frederick was concerned, Felix was here to talk about Lloyd’s, not become involved in Wilde family business. Nina placed a bottle of wine and three glasses on the outdoor table, then with a little smile of reassurance to James, discreetly withdrew.
‘Tell me about Lloyd’s.’ Frederick directed the remark to Felix.
Felix cleared his throat and began. First, he explained about the unprecedented losses, the syndicates that were being called in and where James fitted into the scenario. When Felix got to the part about James agreeing to unlimited liability, Frederick shot his son a withering glance, but said nothing. Frederick sat very still, allowing Felix to paint the full picture without interruption. James also remained quiet, watching and listening and finding it impossible to know what his father was thinking. Felix outlined the settlement they had been offered by Lloyd’s lawyers, whereby they could quarantine their loss. If they could pay that sum, that would be the end of it. If not, they would come after the winery.
Frederick closed his eyes for a moment and scratched his head. ‘It is that bad then,’ he said quietly. He looked out across his vineyard, the rows and rows of neatly planted vines that stretched as far as the eye could see in the east and across to the waterwheel in the west.
‘When Patty and I first saw this place it was an old dairy farm. We knew it would be a lot of work but we were young and determined. We used to stand over where the Jacob Leesing vine is planted and plan where we would put everything. We wanted the house to overlook the vines so we could watch them grow. One thousand acres. That’s 400 hectares planted with world-class grape-producing vines.’ He stopped and sighed, his eyes watery. He suddenly looked very old. ‘I know every single grain of this soil, every leaf on these vines. What you are telling me is … it’s … I …’ His voice trailed off.
James felt the saddest he had ever felt in his life. There was nothing he could say.
‘We’re finished,’ said Frederick Wilde at last. ‘What do I tell her? What do I tell Patty?’
James put his hand out to his father and touched him gingerly on the knee. ‘Dad, I …’
Frederick recoiled. ‘Don’t say a word. Nothing.’ His voice was harsh and James winced as if struck.
Felix spoke again. ‘I think you may have two other alternatives.’
Frederick continued to stare out at the vineyards. ‘Go on.’
‘Mmmmm …’ said Frederick.
‘Or there is another possibility.’ Felix hesitated. ‘I may have a client who is interested in investing in Wilde Wines. He has a few spare million. He could pay out Lloyd’s, plus any other loans you may have – and I assume you probably have a few. I’m sure you would also have ideas on how best to utilise an injection of cash, which could also be a possibility.
‘In effect he would become a silent partner in your business. He has no interest in running a vineyard himself and not the faintest idea about how the business operates. He is an old schoolmate who has also been caught up in the Lloyd’s fiasco and would be most sympathetic to your predicament. I think I can see a way to rearrange some of his finances and make investing in your vineyard work for him too. He has money to spend and I look out for business opportunities for him. Like many financial analysts, I happen to believe that the Australian wine industry is worth investing in.’
Frederick looked through narrowed eyes at Felix. He was surprised by the suggestion and more than a little bemused. ‘Without seeing our books, this client of yours would like to invest millions in my business?’
Frederick didn’t miss a trick. He was surprised that Felix seemed to know so much about his business. He shot another scornful glance at James. He shook his head, then turned back to Felix. ‘My son, who is obviously as indiscreet as he is stupid, has informed you of all our business affairs and, knowing all that, this client of yours would like to take over the business and I could work for him. Is that it?’
‘No, sir. We would put in place a company structure that protected his investment while maintaining your authority and autonomy. You would be partners but on paper only. His only job, if you like, would be to supply the finance. Of course, he would want a return on that finance but he does recognise that this would be a long-term investment with limited short-term returns.
The Affair Page 17