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  As Zac held her close it was as if the last three years apart had never happened. He appeared to have conveniently forgotten the trauma, the hurt and the broken heart he’d left her with. But Nanette hadn’t and even if old emotions that she’d thought were dead forever were rising to the surface, she wasn’t about to give in to them.

  When Zac began placing gentle kisses on her head a tremor of anger flooded through her body.

  ‘Zac, stop it now.’ Nanette pushed him away. ‘I’m leaving – don’t try and stop me again!’

  Zac shrugged. ‘I just thought maybe you’d like to forget the past – put it behind us.’

  Ignoring him, Nanette began to make her way to the gangway. More shaken than she cared to admit, the only thing she wanted to do was get off the yacht.

  She’d thought she was over Zac and yet here he was, proving he still had the power to stir her.

  She was on the gangplank when he called her name. Swallowing hard she turned her head to look at him, her hand gripping the gangway rope tightly for support as Zac spoke.

  ‘I invited you here tonight for a reason. You see, Nanette, I have a proposal for you. One to which I hope very much you will say yes.’

  CHAPTER SIX

  ‘How did your dinner date with Zac go?’ Mathieu asked. ‘Are you two finally friends again?’

  Mathieu asked his questions as he, Nanette and the twins walked around the headland towards the open-air cinema. The twins, excited at the prospect of seeing the latest Pirates of the Caribbean film had rushed ahead.

  ‘Not really,’ Nanette replied slowly. ‘Nothing’s really changed. Zac certainly hasn’t.’

  She was still in turmoil from the evening she’d spent with Zac. As for his proposal, she hadn’t yet discussed it with anybody.

  She glanced sideways at Mathieu, unsure if he was the right person to confide in about what had happened on board Pole Position between her and Zac, but she needed to talk to someone and because the twins were involved, Mathieu did have a right to know what Zac had proposed last night.

  ‘Come back and have another glass of champagne,’ Zac had urged. ‘I really need to talk to you.’

  Standing on the gangplank Nanette had been determined. ‘No thanks, Zac. I don’t want any more to drink. Whatever you’ve got to say to me can be said out here.’

  Holding her breath Nanette waited for him to speak. She was determined not to let Zac see how shaken she was. And how unbelievably angry she was with him over his actions – both past and present.

  ‘Come back and work for me, Nanette.’

  His unexpected request fell into a lengthening silence as Nanette gazed at him. All this wining and dining and faux romancing was because he wanted her to work for him? Not because he wanted them to be a couple again as she’d foolishly begun to imagine.

  ‘What?’ She looked at him in disbelief.

  ‘I’m starting a holiday business and I need someone I can trust totally,’ Zac said.

  ‘I’ve got a job – looking after the twins. And when Vanessa and Ralph return from their Amazon adventure, I shall go back to the UK with them.’

  ‘Come on, Nanette – you’re capable of much more than playing nursemaid to a couple of kids. You were the best PA I ever had.’

  ‘If I was that good, why no word, no job offer from you before – when I needed all the help I could get?’ Nanette asked angrily.

  ‘I cut back on my business activities when I realized you weren’t going to be around for a long time,’ Zac said, shrugging. ‘I was too busy racing and simply didn’t have the time to find a new PA.’

  ‘And now you’ve got time for a new venture?’

  ‘This time I’m trying to invest in a business that I can work at when I give up racing.’

  ‘You’re giving up racing?’ Nanette asked shocked.

  ‘Not immediately, but I don’t fancy being the oldest driver on the circuit fighting for a drive. Realistically, I suppose, I’ve got another two or three years, but if I don’t win the championship this season’ – Zac grimaced – ‘who knows? I might just walk away from it all in October.’

  He paused and smiled at her. ‘I also thought it would be an ideal opportunity to try and make up for the hurt that I’ve caused you in the past. We could both go places with this new business.’

  Zac looked at her expectantly, waiting for her response.

  Nanette sighed. Zac could sound so plausible when he turned on the charm. She’d seen it work in the past when he’d wanted his own way over something. But not this time, not with her.

  ‘Apart from the fact that I’m not looking for another job – I’m happy caring for the twins – working for you again is not something I’d ever thought about.’

  ‘Will you think about it now?’ Zac persisted. ‘The twins are growing up they won’t need you forever.’

  ‘You don’t need me either, Zac.’

  ‘Oh but, Nanette, I do,’ Zac said, once again reaching out to take hold of her hands and squeeze them tightly. ‘I leave for Silverstone tomorrow and then I’m back here for three days before I fly out to Canada. Please think about it while I’m away. We’ll have supper next week and you can give me your decision then.’

  ‘I don’t need time to think Zac. I don’t—’

  ‘Shh.’ Zac effectively stopped her by placing his fingers firmly against her lips. ‘Next week.’

  ‘Goodnight, Zac.’ Once again, she turned away from him, stepping back on to the gangplank to leave. Zac didn’t try to stop her this time.

  ‘I’ll see you home,’ he said. ‘Just give me two minutes while I fetch something from my cabin.’

  Feeling the need to put some firm ground underneath her feet, Nanette jumped off the yacht’s gangplank and stood waiting on the quay.

  Standing there, watching the evening activity of the harbour, Nanette felt curiously light-headed. The events of the past hour had been totally unexpected, but she was pleased she’d kept her cool and been able to be so resolute in facing up to Zac despite her hammering heart.

  ‘Here you are – some bedtime reading,’ Zac said, reappearing with a large envelope marked Vacances au Soleil and bulging with papers. ‘At least have a look at it while I’m away,’ he said, when Nanette tried to refuse to take it. ‘It might help change your mind.’

  Nanette had thrown the envelope on to the table in her room intending to ignore it and simply hand it back to Zac next week, but curiosity had got the better of her and the next morning she’d opened it.

  Now, as she and Mathieu caught up with the twins near the cinema, she began to tell him about the contents of the envelope.

  ‘Vacances au Soleil is apparently going to be an exclusive holiday club, which will, for a large amount of money naturally, arrange dream holidays for their members, anywhere in the world. Dubai, St Tropez, Rio, Sun City and of course Monaco.’

  ‘And Zac wants you to run the operation for him?’

  Nanette nodded. ‘Yes. Initially the office would be on board Pole Position. And, according to the job description he’d thoughtfully put in the envelope, he wants me to travel to inspect the places and make sure they’re exclusive enough. Starting next month.’

  ‘Could be fun,’ Mathieu said.

  ‘He’s conveniently brushed aside the events of the last three years – and the fact that I look after the twins,’ Nanette said, crossly. ‘It’s only a few weeks before the long summer break begins. Even if I was tempted, which I’m not, there is no way I could possibly let Vanessa and Ralph – or you – down in that way.’

  Mathieu was silent for a moment.

  ‘Do you have any plans for the future? The twins are growing up – they won’t need a nanny for much longer. Maybe Zac would keep the job open for you? Or you could start with just an hour or so a day while the twins are at school.’

  Nanette gazed at him exasperated.

  ‘Mathieu, I don’t want to work for Zac again. I don’t belong in his world any more. And I don’t think I even l
ike him any more. I certainly don’t trust him.’

  Mathieu paid for their tickets and sent the twins off to buy a snack from the refreshment cabin before turning to answer her.

  ‘I can’t tell you the details but this “thing” I’m involved with is getting more complicated,’ he said quietly. ‘I could do with some inside help.’ He glanced at her. ‘You working for Zac, having access to papers and his associates, might be very useful to me.’

  ‘Are you saying Zac is involved in this “thing”?’ Nanette demanded.

  Mathieu didn’t answer directly, simply giving a slight shrug of his shoulders.

  ‘Is Jean-Claude right then, in thinking you’ve become embroiled in something illicit?’ Nanette asked worriedly.

  Mathieu sighed. ‘It’s not as simple as being illicit or illegal. And now to complicate matters even more, I think I’m being followed.’

  The twins arrived back at that moment clutching crisps and popcorn and clamouring to go and find their seats.

  ‘Come on, Dad, the film starts in five minutes,’ Pierre said.

  Mathieu gave Nanette an apologetic glance. ‘We’ll talk later – let’s go watch pirates!’

  Sifting under a cloudless sky as dusk fell over the Mediterranean, Nanette tried to concentrate on the film but not even the swashbuckling Johnny Depp could take her mind off the problems of the man sitting next to her, his arm casually around her shoulders.

  And as for his, ‘I think I’m being followed’ statement – how could she possibly tell him the person behind that particular problem was his own father?

  The night she spent sitting in the shaman’s hut beside a delirious Ralph was one of the longest of Vanessa’s life.

  For two hours after the native bearers had placed him in the hut, Vanessa had paced up and down outside. Refused admittance by the chief shaman she could do nothing but pray for her husband and wonder what was going on in there.

  Nick and Harry, the cameramen, gave her a brief account of what had happened out by the mine.

  ‘Ralph didn’t feel well all morning, said his stomach was hurting. He ate very little lunch before he was sick.’

  ‘Why on earth didn’t he return to camp?’ Vanessa said.

  ‘Thought he’d be better working through it,’ Harry answered.

  ‘Said he must have eaten a grub or some other local delicacy last night that didn’t agree with him. Once he’d been sick he did seem a bit brighter. We did manage to persuade him to have a short snooze before work started again and he seemed better for it.’

  Vanessa listened horrified as Nick then told her about the boulder that had slipped as the men had tried to manoeuvre it into position for the dam. Breaking the wooden stakes they were using to guide it into position it had fallen, giving Ralph’s head a glancing blow and knocking him unconscious into the stream.

  Listening to Nick’s matter-of-fact account of what had happened, Vanessa remembered the words of the tourist in the eco-camp. ‘All the money in the world won’t get you out of the jungle in a hurry’.

  What if Ralph didn’t respond to whatever mumbo jumbo they were saying and administering to him in there? How was she going to get him to a proper hospital?

  As if reading her thoughts, Harry said, ‘If he hasn’t regained consciousness by tomorrow, we’ll get him carried down to the tributary and hire a canoe to take him to the Amazon River itself. Then hopefully we can get him to a hospital in one of the large towns.’

  Vanessa looked at him in despair.

  ‘But that will take days.’

  There was a second or two’s pause, before Nick said, ‘Let’s pray it won’t be necessary. I’m told some of these natural medicines the natives use are amazingly effective.’

  Both Nick and Harry stayed with her until Angela appeared with some food for Vanessa and insisted she ate it.

  ‘It is going to be a long night,’ she said quietly. ‘You will need all your strength.’

  Angela was still with her when the head shaman came out and said Vanessa could finally see Ralph. Fearful of how Ralph would look, Vanessa clutched Angela’s hand and walked slowly into the hut.

  ‘You stay with him tonight?’ the shaman asked. ‘I show you what to do.’

  Looking at Ralph’s injured face and his battered body, daubed with what Vanessa took to be some sort of native ointment and protected in places with primitive dressings, she forced herself to concentrate on what she had to do for Ralph.

  ‘The next few hours are critical,’ Angela said.

  The medicine man and Angela showed her how to gently bathe Ralph’s cuts and bruises with a sticky substance that Angela explained was a sap taken from trees in the forest.

  ‘Sangre de Grado – it is good,’ Angela assured Vanessa. ‘You see tomorrow, Ralph will look better. He will be better.’

  Vanessa did a lot of praying that night as she tended to Ralph. Applying cooling compresses to a large bump on his temple and gently stroking his hand, she willed him to regain consciousness.

  Around two o’clock he began to mumble and restlessly moved his head from side to side. Quickly Vanessa changed the compress for a cooler, fresh one. As she gently held it in place she scrutinized his face for any further glimmer of life but he’d lapsed back into unconsciousness and the long night continued.

  At regular intervals one of the native men would appear in the doorway of the hut, stand there looking at Ralph for several seconds, before vanishing back into the darkness. The first time it happened it spooked Vanessa, but as the hours went on she welcomed the fleeting visits.

  Dawn was beginning to filter through the canopy of trees surrounding the hut when Ralph finally opened his eyes and smiled at her. Vanessa felt a huge wave of relief sweep through her body and she gave him a gentle kiss.

  ‘Hi, welcome back.’

  ‘Sorry about the dolphins.’

  For a moment Vanessa thought Ralph was still delirious before remembering today was the day they were to have trekked to the breeding grounds to see the young dolphins.

  She shook her head. ‘It doesn’t matter. You’re more important. How do you feel?’

  ‘Groggy – and thirsty.’

  Carefully Vanessa held a cup of water to his lips as Ralph took several sips.

  ‘Do you remember what happened to you?’

  ‘Yes. I was in the way of the boulder when it broke the wooden runners and fell. We were so close to finishing the dam too. Still hopefully today the boys will be able to sort it.’

  ‘Just so long as you’re not thinking of joining them,’ Vanessa said.

  Ralph shook his head and then groaned with the pain it generated.

  Vanessa waited a couple of seconds before saying quietly, ‘I’m not sure you’re well enough to hear this but you need to know.’

  Ralph glanced at her puzzled as she took a breath before continuing, ‘Angela was here earlier, talking to me. She doesn’t think any of this was an accident.’

  Ralph sighed and reached out for her hand.

  ‘I know. Neither do I. The head shaman warned me to be careful a couple of days ago.’

  ‘But why didn’t you tell me? The villagers seemed happy to have us around when we arrived,’ Vanessa said. ‘What’s changed?’

  ‘Since the guy from Rio has become involved some of the men have become wary of me filming the village activities. Particularly the dam,’ Ralph explained quietly.

  ‘Is that because of the mercury they’re going to be using? Will the profits from the gold still go to the village?’ Vanessa asked.

  Ralph’s fingers squeezed hers before saying slowly, ‘Not as much as the villagers hope.’

  Vanessa was silent, remembering how worried Angela was about the future of the village and its people, how they desperately needed to find a reliable way of sustaining their way of life.

  ‘There must be another way,’ Vanessa said thoughtfully. ‘Something legal they can do to survive.’

  ‘If we could think of another option, I
’d be only too happy to help them set it up,’ Ralph said quietly, ‘but as far as I can see there is nothing we can do. There’s something else. They want us to leave.’

  ‘Are we going to?’

  ‘Not immediately no. I’ve still got a couple of things I’d like to film. But I’ve promised to stay away from the dam – which suits me. The less I know about it the better.’

  Vanessa stroked his forehead gently.

  ‘How much longer do you think we’ll be here?’ she asked quietly.

  ‘A week, maybe a bit less – depends on how quickly I get better from this little incident,’ Ralph said. ‘Could I have another drink please?’

  As she held the water to Ralph’s lips, Vanessa thought about Ralph’s ‘little incident’. It was typical of him to play down the seriousness of the accident but Vanessa knew it could have turned out so differently. She could have been a widow before they’d been married even six months.

  She smothered a sigh. Another week and then the trek back out of the jungle, back to civilization and proper doctors.

  Ralph was regarding her anxiously.

  ‘If you want to leave and wait for me in the eco-camp I’m sure Angela could arrange for a guide.’

  ‘I’m not leaving you,’ Vanessa said fiercely. ‘We came together and we’ll leave together. OK?’

  Ralph nodded weakly and closed his eyes. ‘Love you,’ he whispered as he drifted exhausted back into sleep.

  Vanessa sat at his side, still holding his hand, and wishing they were already in the comparative safety of the eco-camp.

  Nanette took a deep breath, gripped the steering wheel tightly, and gently pressed the accelerator pedal. As the car began to move forward she found herself hardly daring to breathe.

  ‘Relax,’ Jean-Claude said. ‘Nothing is going to happen.’

  It was Sunday mid-morning and the two of them were on their way to Antibes for lunch, when Jean-Claude had taken an unexpected detour before stopping the car and insisting it was time for Nanette to start driving again.