Reluctant Wife(17)

‘Go?’ Her eyes widened.



‘To Japan,’ he said wearily. ‘Just for a week on business. I told you this morning that I had a busy time ahead—well, it’s all to do with the opportunity to acquire the agency for a very sophisticated Japanese electronic sound system, with the distribution rights, etcetera. I decided today that my best bet was to go over in person, so I’m flying out tomorrow. But you’ll have Nicky and …’



‘I know,’ Roz cut in dryly, and a little spark lit her blue eyes, but she looked away quickly, unwilling for him to see that she was curiously angry suddenly, and not only because he had made it sound as if she needed a whole host of minders. Then she forced herself to breathe deeply, although in a sense she was happy to be angry because at least she didn’t feel quite so foolish and it seemed to keep other, more complex emotions at bay.



‘I hope you’re taking over a plentiful supply of stuffed koala bears,’ she told him. ‘They love them in Japan. I was reading only the other day about a Japanese tourist who bought fourteen, dropped them in the Brisbane River—accidentally, of course-—-and rushed back to buy



another fourteen.’ She even managed to smile as she delivered this thrilling bit of information, which might have been lodged at the back of her mind for just this moment! she thought.



Adam looked at her steadily, then grimaced and said, ‘I’ll certainly take your advice, ma’am. I wonder if they sell them at the airport.’





CHAPTER THREE



‘ISN’T this just bliss!’ Nicky exclaimed enthusiastically as she rearranged herself on her lounger beside the pool.



It was a clear hot day with the lovely smell of summer in the air and the pool sparkled beside them, sprinklers netted the lawn further away with diamond drops of water, and to cap off the bliss, Nimmitabel had recorded an extremely fast track gallop earlier that morning.



‘Mmm,’ Roz agreed, but in fact she wasn’t thinking of their day but whether it was snowing in Tokyo.



‘Roz, were you ever in love before you met Adam? I mean, was he your first love?‘



The warning bell that sounded in Roz’s brain effectively banished images of winter in the Land of the Rising Sun. She sat up and reached for some suntan lotion to smooth over her ivory skin, rather exposed today in a scarlet bikini, and cautioned herself to think carefully about what she said. Had someone divined the real nature of her marriage to Adam?



‘Um … I did think I was in love with someone before I met Adam, but …’



‘Oh, do tell me!’ Nicky sat up and crossed her legs, looking at Roz expectantly. ‘What was he like?’



‘He was the boy next door,’ Roz said rather ruefully. ‘We more or less grew up together, and because I didn’t have a mother, his mother was really good to me. And we started out being brotherly and sisterly to each other, but one day it … changed. Much to some people’s dismay,’ she added slowly.



‘Who?’ asked Nicky avidly.



‘His father mostly—well, his mother too.’



‘But why?’



Roz hesitated. ‘We were very young and … perhaps they were afraid I’d inherited some of the less stable facets of my grandfather’s character. He was rather hopeless with money, you see. As soon as it came his way he gambled it on horses or dogs.’



‘Then how come you inherited such a fabulous filly? I mean, on her breeding alone, if she breaks down tomorrow, which God forbid——but …’



‘Nicky!’ Roz exclaimed.



‘Sorry. Shouldn’t have even cherished the notion,’ Nicky said hastily, and added, ‘She certainly looks as sound as a bell, but her potential as a brood mare is enormous, with her bloodlines. Isn’t that one of Adam’s pet theories?’ She smiled suddenly. ‘If you’d been anyone else he might have married you just to get his hands on your horse … have I said something wrong?’



Roz disclaimed hurriedly.



‘Oh, good,’ Nicky said cheerfully. ‘I just thought you looked a bit odd all of a sudden. But to get back to the point—if you had such a spendthrift grandfather and no other background to speak of …’ She blushed and pulled a face of extreme embarrassment.



So much so that Roz had to laugh, and at the same time experience a feeling of relief that the drift of the conversation had altered.



‘Actually, your background has always been a bit of a mystery, Roz,’ Nicky added apologetically. ‘I mean, you could have knocked us all down with a feather when Milly broke the news about the marriage. We’d never even heard of you or known that he’d met you. It must have been love at first sight …’ she sighed.