'Alex, I know I'm more than a little out of order just landing like this on your wedding night,' Vivien was appealing with pleading eyes while Alex stood there towering over her like a monolith carved out of stone. 'But you do see that I simply couldn't wait to meet Sarah, who is going to make you astonishingly happy...and how can I tell that before I get to know her? She hugged me back. Pounced on by a total stranger and she hugged me back because she didn't want to hurt my feelings!'
'Vivien,' Alex attempted to insert a word into the endless flood.
'No hug?' Vivien looked expectant.
Alex bent down to peck the proffered cheek.
'I see he still counts you as an audience, Sarah. He's usually a little more enthusiastic... Well, where is he?'
'Who?' Alex breathed.
'Alex, what's the matter with you? Your son. I am just dying to get my hands on him!' The other car drew up. Nanny emerged, complete with Nicky. Vivien surged over and then slowly retreated a step.
'Let us go into the house. I will have you shown to your room.' Alex anchored a hand like a vice to Sarah's elbow, dragging her in his wake, evidently keen to remove her from his charming stepmother's radius.
But Vivien cut them off. 'Nanny says he's asleep and mustn't be disturbed,' she stage-whispered with a grimace. 'Bit of a dragon, isn't she? Your choice, Alex?'
'Yes,' Sarah confirmed.
'Your son is gorgeous, Sarah.' Vivien patted her arm warmly. 'You are a clever girl, and so slim again so quickly. Looking at you, nobody would ever dream you're a very new mother. Are you breast-feeding?'
Sarah reddened fiercely. 'No.'
'I'll take Nikos up to the nursery, madam.' Nanny sailed past.
'She's like a tank, isn't she?' Vivien remarked. 'I can see her putting up barricades to keep us out.'
Sarah giggled. 'Can't you just?'
'Alex, I am not going to stay.. .1 promise you. I won't even be staying to dinner. I'm flying straight back home again as soon as I leave. But really, Alex,' Vivien lamented, leading them into the chateau, 'it's all your own fault. That ghastly hole and corner wedding you subjected this darling girl to today! No friends, no family, no reception...not even a honeymoon—shabby. I could have done it in style. I do want you to know that I pleaded with him, Sarah. Even with only three weeks to play with, I could have made it the wedding of the year.' A line of staff was assembled in the vast entrance hall. 'I know, positively medieval, isn't it?' Vivien whispered sympathetically, reading Sarah's dismay.
Alex performed the introductions, but all formality was swiftly banished by Vivien, who also concluded the interlude by linking her arm with Sarah's, saying, 'Now I expect you'd like to freshen up,' and carrying Sarah
with determination towards the grand stone staircase.
'Bit of an atmosphere between you two, isn't there?' Vivien commented with a sigh. 'I adore Alex but it does take two to tango, doesn't it? And it happens even in the best of families. And who could call such a gorgeous baby an accident? Frankly, I'd call him a miracle...Alex saved at the eleventh hour from deep-freezing himself into eternity with that dreadful Elise—you do know about her, don't you?'
'A little.'
'A little's more than enough. She's the most frightfully perfect woman. Speaks several languages, is an accomplished artist, owns one of the most famous vineyards in the Loire and can trace her family tree back for yonks and yonks. Incredibly beautiful too. But she's very superior—treats me like the proverbial dumb blonde, which I'm not... and she would have undone all the hard work I put into unfreezing Alex. Elise doesn't have any emotions. I think she had them vacuumed out in a special operation so that she could function more like a robot!'
'But she must have been hurt...'
'Not at all. She doesn't love Alex any more than he loved her. They were going to get together some day andj hatch a dynasty, probably in a test tube.. .1 really couldn't imagine her doing it the normal way. She might get her
hair mussed. Thank God your birth control let you down!' Vivien asserted. 'You saved Alex from a fate worse than death!'
Vivien's constant chatter allowed Sarah to picture exactly what the older woman had been told. Alex had admitted he was making a shotgun wedding, purely for the sake of legitimising his child, it seemed. At least there was no need to put up a front of being a joyous and adored bride. Vivien pressed her into a huge and opulent bedroom, festooned with white flowers everywhere she looked. 'Got it all ready for you behind his back,' she confided.
Sarah focused on the colossal carved oak four-poster. It was also hung with masses of fresh flowers, resem-bling some fantastic scene from a film, she thought, on the edge of hysteria. She could barely breathe for the heaviness of the perfume in the air.