‘A man?’
‘Yes, he was a man—that threw me at first as well, but—’
‘Nicola.’
‘But he’s also a minister, and he was very nice, Brett, you don’t have to worry on that score.’
‘And what did he advise you to do?’
‘Well, you’re really going to enjoy this,’ she said with simple satire. ‘He advised me to stay put.’
For a moment she wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her, because she could have sworn she saw him relax slightly. Then he said, ‘Not what you wanted to hear, I’m sure.’
‘No,’ she agreed, and shrugged. ‘That doesn’t mean to say I’ll stick to the letter of his advice.’
‘Nicola, I—’
‘Don’t, Brett,’ she said with a sudden, weary little gesture. ‘I have no plans to go anywhere at the moment, but that doesn’t mean to say I’m reconciled to anything.’
He seemed about to say something, then apparently changed his mind and murmured with a humorous little glint, ‘So I can expect you to be here for your twenty-first birthday?’
‘Yes.’ She shrugged.
‘You don’t sound very enthusiastic.’
‘I’m not but I’ll probably come round.’ She studied him unenthusiastically, then a faintly malicious glimmer lit her blue eyes. ‘By the way, don’t imagine you’ve escaped The Wiggles.’
‘Why not? I mean to say,’ he amended hastily, ‘I never intended to. I did forget.’
‘And then breathed a sigh of relief, no doubt But we didn’t watch them.’
Brett Harcourt looked at his wife narrowly. ‘How come?’
‘Well, knowing how much you love them, I persuaded your children to let me tape the programme so that we could all watch it together some time tomorrow. Which is a Saturday, in case you’ve forgotten, and one of the two days of the week you keep inviolate from work or whatever.’
‘You—did that to me?’
‘Yes, Brett, I did,’ she responded gravely, then started to laugh. ‘They’re very good, you know.’
‘If you’re a kid. Four young men who’ve tapped into the kindergarten set and made a fortune, I imagine,’ he said meditatively. ‘Oh, well.’
‘You could thank me for averting a crisis. Sasha was distraught when you didn’t turn up.’
‘Sasha is every bit as histrionic as her mother,’ Brett Harcourt said a shade grimly.
‘And getting more and more like her by the day,’ Nicola agreed with a reminiscent little grin.
‘How about Chris?’
‘Oh, I think he’s going to be a chip off the old block.’
He raised an eyebrow at her. ‘Me?’
‘Yes, you.’
‘In what way?’
Nicola considered. ‘He’s clever—and practical. He said to Sasha, when she was throwing herself on the floor in floods of tears, “Don’t be so silly, Sash. If we tape it we can fast-forward all the advertisements.”’
Brett chuckled softly. ‘Definitely a man after my own heart. What did she say to that?’
‘Well, she’s no fool either,’ Nicola mused with secret laughter lurking in her eyes. ‘She said she liked the advertisements, they gave you a chance to go and get drinks and things, and she couldn’t stand the way men imagined they were driving a speed car when they had a remote control in their hands—flicking from one channel to another, fast-forwarding things and so on.’
‘You’re kidding. She’s only six.’
‘All the same, in more juvenile terms, that’s what she said! Six is old enough to be struck by male failings, apparently. You, for example, are a nightmare to watch television with for just that reason. So is Chris.’
‘Good Lord!’
‘So, there you go.’ Nicola sat down and pulled the sheaf of bills towards her.
‘We’ve been invited out to lunch on Sunday, by the way,’ Brett said after a moment.
‘Anywhere interesting? Can we take the kids?’
‘Of course. The Masons—I believe you met them at the Goodes’ dinner party a few weeks ago.’
Nicola wrinkled her brow. ‘Oh, yes, I remember. He’s a big, bearded bear of a man and she’s small and cuddly and given to being embarrassingly frank.’ She looked amused. ‘Isn’t he the new District Court Judge?’
‘The same. They’ve invited us to their house at Buchans Point. They have a pool as well as the beach. The kids should enjoy it.’
‘Sounds nice.’ Nicola threw down her pen to yawn heartily. ‘I think I’ll finish these tomorrow.’
‘Tired?’ he asked casually as he watched her tuck her feet beneath her.
‘I don’t know why.’
‘The rigours of marriage counselling?’ he suggested.
‘I think the rigour was on the other foot, if anything.’ She grimaced. ‘He was quite bemused.’
‘Let’s hope he’s quite discreet,’ Brett said.
‘He assured me he was.’
Brett stood up and stretched. ‘Because I doubt whether you’d enjoy featuring in the gossip columns any more than I would, Nicola.’
They stared at each for a long moment, until he added, ‘Don’t forget, that was the other object of this exercise—to protect your fair name from being dragged through the mud.’
‘And on that properly grateful note—’ she got up and curtseyed ‘—I’ll take myself to bed, sir!’
He said nothing, but his eyes were suddenly cynical and cold.
Don’t say it, Nicola warned herself. But, as so often happened, she failed to take her own advice—although she did manage to sound fairly clinical instead of rashly impassioned. ‘There are times when I hate you, Brett.’
‘I know.’ He picked up his glass and drained it.
‘Doesn’t it ever bother you?’
He set the glass down on the desk, stared at it for a moment, then raised his eyes to hers. There was so much amusement in them now, she caught her breath at the same time as a little frisson ran down her spine. A frisson of awareness
