‘I’m going to miss this place.’
‘You’ve made a pretty good job of things. The vintage was great. You’ve vinified brilliantly.’
‘More by good luck than good management…’
‘Only the ignorant make good wine by chance.’
‘Have you ever thought that, when you do things to “show people”, they’re either dead or they no longer care?’
‘Why don’t you stick around?’ Halliday said casually. ‘In three years, based on today’s showing, the château should be making a profit. Big Mick will be licking your boots. You could replace the dead wood. Plant new vines. Computerise the chais…’
‘Aren’t you forgetting something?’
‘An A-one bottling plant?’
‘Alain Lamotte’s loan has to be paid off. The château has to be sold.’
Picking up a quartz pebble, Halliday made it appear, a second later, from Clare’s ear.
‘Did you know that pieces of quartz from the vineyards of Latour were once polished and presented to King Louis XVI as buttons for his waistcoat? What if I paid off the loan?’
‘You? Since when have you got so much money?’
‘I could sell my vineyard in Chile…’
‘You’d do that!’
‘We’d make a great team, Clare…’
A great team. She could recite Grandmaman’s last letter by heart. ‘…Jamie is as strong-minded as Thibault. He knows exactly where he is going. Thibault and I were always a team, but there was never any doubt who was team leader…’
‘Your flair…’ Halliday was saying.
‘And your expertise.’ Any partnership with Halliday would be a partnership of equals.
‘We could turn this place into a showpiece.’
‘Château de Cluzac would be known all over the world.’
Halliday took his cards from his pocket. ‘When I was about twelve, I was taken to see a magic show. I helped my dad round the place and saved up enough to buy my first book of card tricks. By the age of fourteen I was hooked. You can’t expect every trick in the book to suit your style, but find the right ones and they can fill your life, bring you riches you’ve never imagined…’
‘I’m getting married in four weeks.’ Clare glanced involuntarily at the ring from Butler’s Wharf. ‘You’re leaving Jamie out of all this.’
‘Not me. You.’
Touching the wooden pickets with her fingertips as they walked along the rows, Clare examined the thoughts she had been suppressing. She tried to picture herself walking down the aisle in the little church in Scotland, supervising the extension to the cottage in Waterperry, working her butt off in the Nicola Wade Gallery, selling her wares in Portobello, joining the spouse tours at conferences, waiting for Jamie as he reduced fractures and pinned bones.
She wanted to see the vines beneath their blanket of snow in winter, to be there when the sap rose, to witness the first buds of spring.
Halliday had stopped. His eyes were level with her own.
‘There are things that must be confronted,’ he said.
‘Are you trying to tell me something?’
‘Nothing that you don’t already know.’
‘What if it’s a mistake?’
‘If you don’t make decisions, you can’t make mistakes.’
Clare glanced up at the crenellated château, which stood, as it had for three hundred years, severe, rigorous, rational, silhouetted against the Médoc sky; she looked down at the arid earth which would shortly build up its deep reserves of water on which the success of next year’s vintage would depend. She could hear Baronne Gertrude’s voice.
‘You have de Cluzac roots, Clare. Like the roots of the vines, they are planted deep.’
‘You belong here, Clare.’ Halliday spoke softly, reading her mind.
Unaware who made the first move, she found herself in his arms.
After twenty-eight years, Clare de Cluzac had come home.
About the Author
Rosemary Friedman has published 21 novels – which have been widely translated and serialised by the BBC – three works of non-fiction and two children’s books. Her short stories have been syndicated worldwide and she has judged many literary prizes. She has written and commissioned screenplays and television scripts in the UK and the US. Her stage plays Home Truths, Change of Heart and An Eligible Man toured major UK venues following their London premières. She lives in London with her husband, psychiatrist and author Dennis Friedman.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
ALSO ON EBOOK BY ARCADIA BOOKS
THE COMMONPLACE DAY
AN ELIGIBLE MAN
THE FRATERNITY
THE GENERAL PRACTICE
GOLDEN BOY
INTENSIVE CARE
THE LIFE SITUATION
THE LONG HOT SUMMER
LOVE ON MY LIST
A LOVING MISTRESS
NO WHITE COAT
PATIENTS OF A SAINT
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
PROOFS OF AFFECTION
ROSE OF JERICHO
A SECOND WIFE
TO LIVE IN PEACE
WE ALL FALL DOWN
Copyright
Arcadia Books Ltd
139 Highlever Road
London W10 6PH
www.arcadiabooks.co.uk
First published in 2001 by House of Stratus
This Ebook edition published by Arcadia Books 2013
Copyright © Rosemary Friedman 1996, 2001, 2013
Rosemary Friedman has asserted her moral right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publishers.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–1–910050–12–5
Arcadia Books supports English PEN www.englishpen.org and The Book Trade Charity http://booktradecharity.wordpress.com
Arcadia Books distributors are as follows:
in the UK and elsewhere in Europe:
Macmillan Distribution Ltd
Brunel Road
Houndmills
Basingstoke
Hants RG21 6XS
in the USA and Canada:
Dufour Editions
PO Box 7
Chester Springs
PA 19425
in Australia/New Zealand:
NewSouth Books
University of New South Wales
Sydney NSW 2052