'He will be later, Nicky,' she said. 'Actually, it's your mum-see?' She turned to the doorway and Cathy came through. There was utter silence, then, like a whirlwind, Nicky flew into his mother's arms.
It wasn't Stan who drove her home-was Max concerned that Cathy might succumb to an urge to flee with Nicky so Stan needed to stay on at the Tuscan villa just in case? she wondered.
Whatever, a Goodwin Minerals' driver picked her up not much later, and, after exchanging pleasantries, once again she was left to her thoughts as she travelled the Pacific Motorway north to Brisbane on another grey day with dark, swollen clouds above.
But her thoughts were curiously paralysed, she found. She could think of Nicky and his mother, she could think of the breakfast they'd eaten together, she could picture them waving goodbye to her as she'd been driven away. She could think of Mrs Mills' surprisingly emotional farewell … You're a dear, dear girl, Alex …
What she couldn't direct her thoughts towards was what she was going to do now-
not, that was, without her mind turning in circles so much so that she didn't immediately realize she was home.
'Is this it, ma'am?' the driver enquired.
'Oh! Yes. Thanks very much!'
'Do you need me to carry your luggage in for you, ma'am?' he asked as he opened the car door for her.
'No, just up to the front door will be fine. I can manage from there.'
'If you're sure, ma'am?'
'Quite sure, thank you, there's not so much of it.'
But ten minutes later, after he'd driven away, Alex was sitting on the garden bench beside the front door with the contents of her purse spread out on the seat but no sign of her front-door key. All her pot plants looked as if they'd been moved, which they had, but none had yielded a key underneath them and Patti, who had a spare key, was out.
The only small consolation was that it wasn't raining, although it was still threatening to do so.
So it was that when a familiar navy-blue Bentley nosed into the kerb in front of the house, an accumulation of frustration and over-taxed emotions saw Alex Hill sitting upright on her garden bench with tears running down her cheeks she was in no way attempting to staunch.
In fact she didn't even notice the Bentley and it was only when Max Goodwin stood in front of her that she suddenly realized she was not alone.
She looked up with a gasp, grabbed for a hanky from her pocket and launched into speech. 'Mr Goodwin! What are you doing here?' She stopped and blew her nose, then jumped up. 'I was going to say you're not going to believe this but you probably will-I can't find my key! And my neighbour, who has a spare, is out.'
Max Goodwin reached into the pocket of the same navy-blue suit he'd been wearing when she'd first met him and produced his mobile phone. He flicked a few buttons, then said, 'Margaret, I need a locksmith on the double.' And he gave the Spring Hill address, then he added his thanks, folded the phone and put it away.
'Th-thank you,' Alex stammered, 'but I still don't understand why you're here.'
'Don't you?' He looked her up and down, her jeans, her caramel velour jacket and the pretty paisley scarf she'd wound round her neck. She wore no make-up but her hair was loose and riotous enough to drive any man to want to run his hands through it, he thought with some irony. 'We need to talk, Alex.'
'I don't think we need to talk at all. I mean-' she attempted a smile, but it came off as a sketchy affair at best '-I have nothing against talking to you-' She stopped and her eyes widened as a smart little yellow van with 'The Travelling Locksmith'
stencilled in red letters on it pulled in behind the Bentley.
'I don't believe it,' she said. 'I know you only have to snap your fingers for people to come running, but this is-amazing!'
He turned and raised his eyebrows at the van. 'It's not a case of snapping my fingers, it's all Margaret's wizardry, but-' he smiled wryly '-that's fast, even for her.'
In the event, as the locksmith explained, he'd just finished a job a block away when the call had come through. And it didn't take him long at all to unlock Alex's front door.
'I-' she began as the locksmith left. 'Shouldn't you be on your way to the Coast?
They're expecting you.'
'I will be. After you, Alex.' He picked up her two bags. She'd shovelled her possessions into her purse in the meantime.
She hesitated, then preceded him into her flat-just as the heavens opened. He put her bags down inside the front door and closed it. 'It's been threatening to do that all morning.'
'Yes,' she agreed as she switched some lamps on, making the room come invitingly alive against the cacophony of the rain outside.
He looked around at the rug on the wall, the songket cushions, the mementoes and the pot plants, and he reached out to smooth his fingers along the back of a Verdite elephant on the bookcase. 'Very you, Alex,' he said as he studied a lovely little watercolour of Table Mountain, Cape Town.
'Thank you.' She put her purse down on the settee and shrugged. 'I'm not sure what that means, but it sounded like a compliment so I'll take it as one.'
'It was a compliment-to a special girl. But … ' He paused.
Alex squared her shoulders. 'It's not going to work, is it? I mean, if you marry her, you won't need me and-'
'Who said I was going to marry her?'
'Just about everyone I've spoken to in the last-' she gestured '-forty-eight hours.'
'Who?' he insisted.
Alex heaved a sigh, 'That's a bit of an exaggeration, but your sister, your cousin, your housekeeper.'
He grimaced. 'I'm sure my secretary put in her vote too.'
Alex thought for a moment with a slight frown in her eyes. 'Funnily enough, she didn't.' She put her hands on the back of the settee and studied them for a moment, then looked up to see him watching her narrowly. 'Are you?'
'Going to marry Cathy?' He paused and she thought she'd never seen his features so finely sculpted, his mouth so chiselled-or his emotions so firmly locked down. 'I don't know yet, but you can rest assured I fully intend to create a road of some kind that's an even, loving passage for Nicky.'
Alex felt her cheeks grow warm. 'She-she told you?'
He nodded.
'Perhaps I shouldn't have said it.' Her voice was barely audible as she put her hands to her hot cheeks.
This time he shook his head. 'Someone needed to say it. And, for what it's worth, I've been as self-centred as-anyone.'
Alex cleared her throat. 'Well, good luck. I-I really wish you all the best. But … ' she hesitated ' … the job as your personal interpreter is not going to work, either, is it?'
She glanced briefly at him, then glanced away.
'Alex, look at me,' he said quietly.
Do I have to? something cried in her head. Please don't make this any worse than it is already!
But she did raise her eyes to his.
'No, it's not going to work,' he said evenly. 'In fact it was a bit thoughtless of me in the first place, but I have an alternative suggestion.'
Her eyebrows rose unwittingly.
'The Chinese Consul in Brisbane is looking for an Australian citizen and resident who is fluent in Mandarin. Mr Li has connections with the consulate and he was most impressed with you. It sounds like an interesting job, much more hands-on than what you did for Wellford's, much more people orientated. And, of course, all grist for the mill of someone with the Diplomatic Corps in mind.'
Alex opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, then said something quite inane. 'How on earth have you had time to work all that out?'
He smiled rather dryly. 'I had a brainstorming session early yesterday morning and I happened to be with Mr Li later.' He shrugged. 'I've had a day and a half to get it all together.'
'So it was before Cathy came that you decided … ?' She stopped with the question left up in the air, and she couldn't hide the torture in her eyes.
'Yes, before Cathy,' he said. 'Alex, it would never work for us.' Although his words were level and quiet, they were quite definite even though the look in his eyes told her he hated to say them.
Because he felt sorry for her? she wondered, and flinched visibly.
'Alex?' This time his voice was a little harsh. 'Would you be interested?'
She turned away and forced herself to breathe deeply and to choke the tears back. She swallowed several times, then she turned back, came round the settee and sat down.
'It does sound interesting. I-I-could I think about it?' she said a little unsteadily. He didn't answer directly. 'Did you have anything else in mind?'