what I thought. Why don’t we make this a twenty-four-hour truce starting from, say, now?’
‘Fine.’ If the phone could have bit her it would have.
‘Perfect. So what are we going to do about my brother?’
‘He’s driving me almost as insane as you do.’
‘Get him to help you make some wine,’ she offered.
‘I already have. Last night’s vintage has been tried, tested, barrelled, and for evermore shall be known as Bride’s Bane. It’s quite a drop.’
‘Luc better be sober, Rafael, or so help me you’ll both pay.’
‘Trust me, he’s sober,’ he said. ‘But tell me this. What the hell am I supposed to do with him for another six hours?’
‘You mean you don’t have a plan?’ Simone covered the phone with her hand and addressed Gabrielle in a loud whisper. ‘Luc’s fine. Completely relaxed. Not stressing at all.’ She uncovered the handpiece and addressed the angelic man on the other end of the phone. ‘Some best man you are.’
‘I do have a plan,’ he said. ‘Bring the wedding forward five and a half hours and we’ll meet you in the gazebo in twenty minutes. Luc likes it.’
‘It’ll never happen,’ said Simone blithely. ‘Take him to the barber’s instead. The barber can give him a nice close shave.’
‘No can do,’ said Rafael. ‘The days of the close shave are over. I’m the brother of the bride. This wedding’s on. What say we meet you and Gabrielle for brunch? How’s that for not avoiding you? You could come here. There’s bacon.’
‘No.’
‘Lunch, then?’
‘No.’
‘I’ll throw in some fried onions and BBQ sauce?’
‘Feed that man fried onions today and I’ll trim your grapevines to the ground and feed them to nameless ducks.’
‘All right already,’ he said with a long-suffering sigh. ‘No need to labour the point. I’ll name the ducks. Now where can we meet for lunch?’
‘You are so sweet when you’re desperate,’ she said. She’d seen a golf course not far from the guest house. ‘Take him for a game of golf.’
‘Does he play golf?’
‘He can learn.’
‘Golf’s a psychologically demanding game. I don’t know that he should start learning it on his wedding day. It’s unlikely to soothe him.’
‘Then play poker. And put him on the phone.’
‘Later.’ Anyone would think Rafe actually wanted to talk to her. ‘How’s my sister this morning?’
‘She’s an oasis of radiance and calm.’
‘Of course she is. Now try the truth.’
‘Put it this way. Remind me to get married at dawn.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want to meet up for afternoon coffee at, say, three?’
‘Your sister and I will be at the gazebo at six this evening. She’ll be the one in the long white gown.’ Simone rolled her eyes at Gabrielle who was laughing outright now. ‘I’ll be the one trailing behind her in the caramel-coloured sheath and, I promise you, we’ll both be worth the wait.’
‘I hate waiting,’ he said.
Simone grinned. There was something about weddings and truces that appealed to the sadist in her. ‘Don’t we all.’
By five-thirty that afternoon, Gabrielle and Simone were gowned and groomed to radiant perfection, and Sarah had taken over fussing duty.
‘Stop it,’ said Sarah sternly as Simone bent to check the hem of Gabrielle’s gown. ‘It’s my turn. From now on, you both get to stand there and look astonishingly beautiful and I get to do any last minute running around.’
The photographer arrived and started snapping. Harrison arrived and smiled shyly. Simone had met him earlier in the week—a big, spare-framed man with gentle strength, a rough-hewn face and eyes that were almost as blue as his son’s. Rafe didn’t resemble him much, apart from the colour of his eyes. Gabrielle’s resemblance to Harrison was only slightly more pronounced. Both Rafe and Gaby were their mother’s children when it came to startling good looks. But their hearts were true, and that, thought Simone, had more than a little to do with this man.
Harrison Alexander loved his children.
It was blindingly obvious from her conversations with Gabrielle that Harrison was their strongest supporter, and Simone wondered—not for the first time—what it was that had kept this man away from his children throughout their long and miserable childhood.
Josien hadn’t allowed him access to them, obviously, but why?
Why hadn’t he fought for them?
‘Harrison!’ Gabrielle didn’t call him father, but the warmth of her smile and her outstretched hands proclaimed her love for this big, gentle man. ‘You’re looking very handsome.’
Harrison’s bemused smile made it the truth. ‘Trust me, I’ve got nothing on the best man and groom.’
‘Except wisdom, experience, and charm,’ murmured Simone. ‘I bet you didn’t spend the day trying to think of something to do to occupy your time until the wedding.’
‘No, but I did remember a day like that, once,’ confessed Harrison. ‘I took pity on your brother and his groomsman and collected them up this morning. Every cow and calf I own has been herded from the far paddocks and into the cattle yards to the north. Tomorrow I’ll shift them back.’
‘You’re a good man,’ murmured Gabrielle, with a kiss for his weathered cheek.
‘There was some method to my madness,’ said Harrison. ‘I’ll probably drench them first.’
‘Practical too,’ said Simone admiringly. ‘Those boys have so much to learn…’ She fussed with a wisp of Gabrielle’s hair, never mind Sarah’s exasperated clucking. ‘I do believe we’re ready.’
‘Daughter,’ said Harrison gravely and extended his arm. ‘If I may?’
‘I love you,’ said Gabrielle quietly. ‘I’ll always love you for what you’ve done for Rafael and for me. And yes, Father.’ She placed her hand in the crook of his arm. ‘You may.’
Simone’s pleasure came in snatches after that. Gabrielle’s laughter when she first spied the horse-drawn carriage and top-hatted coachman. Harrison handing them both up into the carriage before seating himself alongside the driver. The ripples of light reflected off the water of the tiny lake. The golden glow cast by the late afternoon sun. The day had held its promise and Simone would keep hers.
