‘Did you quit to come over here?’
‘No. I took a leave of absence. The couple that owns the winery, the Hargroves, treat me as if I were the daughter they never had. Neither of their two sons wanted to be in the wine business.’
‘So, do you plan to stay here indefinitely?’
‘It’s hard to say. When I first saw the estate and how big it was—’ She picked up her glass and sipped some water. ‘By the way, I don’t think I told you, David hired a helicopter that very first day. He said that was the only way I could grasp an understanding of what I owned. It was quite a trip, I can tell you. All those acres of beautiful land.’
‘I can imagine what a thrill it was. Good for David.’
‘Naturally, the first few weeks here I was really homesick. Then David told me about a winery not too far from here called Moorlynch. He took me there and I met the owners. It’s quite lovely and their wines are excellent—all whites. That’s when I got the idea.’
‘What idea?’
‘To try making wines here one day. At Wickersham.’
‘That’s a wonderful idea.’
‘I hadn’t brought it up so far because I want the gardens to be the only priority. But down the road, that’s what I might do.’ She smiled. ‘Providing you haven’t spent all my money by that time, Lawrence.’
‘Did you have a garden back home?’
‘I did. A tiny one, at the house I rented on a big piece of property not too far from the winery. I grew mostly herbs and perennials, a few roses, too—some climbers. Mediterranean, I suppose you’d call it.’ She grinned. ‘Stuff that’s hard to kill.’
‘It sounds delightful. I envy you that weather.’
‘Like they say, the grass is always greener—’
‘Which usually means the water bill is higher.’
She chuckled. ‘How true. You wouldn’t believe the number of times I’ve prayed for rain during our endless summers. ’
They fell silent as the waiter arrived to take away the plates, topping up their glasses before making a polite exit.
‘What do the folks back home think of all your good fortune? Your friends?’
He couldn’t miss the flicker of apprehension in her eyes. She looked away and then, as quickly, back to him. ‘My parents died quite a while ago,’ she replied softly. ‘Nearly seven years.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, glancing down at the tablecloth for a moment to give her pause to reflect. There was no point in telling her that he knew already, that Latimer had told him. He looked up at her.
‘No, it’s okay. It took a long time but I’m fine talking about them now.’
‘I know how it is, Jamie.’Aware that it would come across as an empty platitude he found himself saying it anyway, if for no other reason than to fill the void: ‘I lost my wife ten years ago.’
‘I’m sorry, Lawrence,’ she said. She toyed with her wineglass, looking into it as she spoke, her voice now more upbeat. ‘They were killed in a plane crash. My dad’s Cessna. They went down in a snowstorm in the Sierras. It was a crushing irony, because they were on their way back from Lake Tahoe. They’d spent the weekend there celebrating their anniversary. It was one of their favourite places.’ She looked at him with a fragile smile and eyes that tried desperately but couldn’t hide her love and her sorrow. ‘My dad fancied himself as a poker player,’ she added.
‘How terribly sad.’ Kingston shifted in his seat, thinking a change of subject might be prudent. But she went on talking about them for another minute or so. He learned that her mother met Jamie’s dad-to-be—Warren Arthur Gibson, nickname, Wag—in San Francisco. At the time he was vice president of a wine-importing company, her mother, a private secretary for Bechtel, the international engineering company. Within a year they married and Jamie was born the following year.
The waiter reappeared with their main courses.
‘As for friends,’said Jamie, ‘I keep in touch with Todd and Suzanne Hargrove on a fairly regular basis. I’m in touch with other friends, mostly by e-mail, and once in a while, when I get really homesick, I’ll pick up the phone. Matter of fact, Matthew, one of the guys I worked with—neat guy, you’ll like him—may come over in a couple of months. He’s got three weeks’vacation due.’ She smiled. ‘I told him we were a little short on rooms but we’d fix him up somehow.’
‘Is he in for a surprise.’
For several moments they ate in companionable silence.
‘I forgot to ask you,’ said Jamie, giving him a questioning look. ‘Did you get to talk with Jack yet?’