The Determined Virgin. Daphne Clair
gallery is my bread and butter, and I do mosaics when I have the time.’
‘Do you take commissions?’
‘Sometimes. Mostly I do my artwork at home and sell from the gallery.’
‘Where would that be…your home?’
She shot a wary glance at him. ‘Mount Albert.’
Gabriel leaned back in his chair. ‘So, are you an Aucklander born and bred?’
It sounded like an idle question, mere chitchat. Rhiannon shook her head. ‘I was born and bred in Pukekohe.’
‘A country girl?’ he quizzed.
‘Not really. We weren’t into market gardening.’ That was what the rich red volcanic soil in the area was known for. Making an effort to relax, she added, ‘My father had an electrical service business.’
‘Had?’
She waited a moment. ‘He’s in a nursing home now. He was involved in a motorway accident, along with my mother.’
‘And your mother?’ Gabriel asked quietly, his eyes darkening in sympathy.
‘She died. My father has some brain damage. He needs twenty-four hour care.’ A familiar sadness touched her, for the man her father had once been.
‘That must be difficult for you, as well as for him.’ Gabriel paused, searching her face. ‘When did it happen?’
‘Nearly six years ago.’ She looked down at the tablecloth, and it blurred before her eyes. ‘I’ve had time to get over it.’ If a person ever did get over these things.
He laid one arm on the table, forefinger idly tracing a circle on the cloth before he looked up again. ‘Did you have family to help?’
‘My grandmother.’ Without her, Rhiannon didn’t know how she would have survived that horrible year. ‘She was wonderful.’
‘I’m glad. You were very young to be bereaved like that. Do you have brothers or sisters?’
Rhiannon shook her head. ‘Do you…?’
‘A younger brother who works for me, heading the Australian office, and a sister in the States. My parents are divorced but they both live in New Zealand with new partners.’
It was common enough and he didn’t sound particularly traumatised. ‘How old were you?’ she asked.
‘Ten.’
At ten he would have been vulnerable. She wondered how long it had taken him to get over his parents’ split.
‘Now,’ he said, ‘I’m thirty-two.’
Carefully she offered, ‘I’m twenty-three.’
He made a rueful face. ‘I was hoping you were older.’
She should laugh, but instead she looked away again, fiddling with a spoon on the table. ‘I feel older.’
‘Why is that?’
Studying the distorted reflection of the room, she answered, ‘I’ve been running a business since I was in my teens.’
‘Early ambition?’
‘Not really.’ Seeing he was waiting for more, she explained. ‘After the accident and…and my mother’s death, my grandmother decided to retire from her business and put me in charge.’ It had meant giving up her university studies, and sometimes she regretted that, but the offer had been a lifeline. She’d been too traumatised to concentrate on study and exams, and since her father couldn’t work and she’d used the money from the sale of his business to care for his needs, she’d had to earn a living.
‘Your grandmother ran a gallery?’ Gabriel guessed.
‘A suburban handcraft shop in Onehunga. Needlework, ceramics, a few paintings and carvings. I sold my first mosaics there after I took it over. The gallery evolved over time, and people began coming to it from all over the city.’ Rhiannon halted to steady her voice, replacing the spoon on the tablecloth. ‘I inherited the business when my grandmother died.’
Gabriel cast her a quick glance. ‘When?’
‘Almost three years ago.’ The cancer that killed her had been mercifully quick, but her death had left a huge hole in Rhiannon’s life.
‘Tough,’ he commented. Perhaps guessing she didn’t want to talk about that, he said, ‘Opening in High Street’s a bold move.’
‘It’s a risk, but I did my homework. I’m ready to move on.’
He gave her a thoughtful look. ‘You’re not given to taking risks lightly, are you?’ he said slowly.
How could he know, on such a brief acquaintance? Her neck stiffened warningly. ‘I like to know where I’m going.’
‘Sometimes it’s fun to take a step in the dark. You never know what it might lead to.’
His eyes had turned silver again, in the light from a chandelier overhead. They held hers for a long moment.
The waitress brought their desserts, and the moment broke. Rhiannon picked up her spoon, turning her attention to the dish before her.
After her first mouthful Gabriel asked, ‘How is it?’
She forced herself to look at him, finding nothing but polite inquiry in his eyes. ‘Very nice. Wonderful.’
He watched her take the next spoonful, then dug his own spoon into his gateau, asking, ‘You don’t have any trouble with the arm?’
‘It was only a bruise.’
Deceptively casual, he said, ‘Do you want to tell me why you were so frightened?’
Her hand tightened on the spoon. An unseen tremor passed through her. Without looking at him, after taking a breath to school her voice to an even tone, she said, ‘You startled me, that’s all.’
Steadily she went on eating.
After a few mouthfuls, steering him away from her life story, she asked, ‘How did you start in the air-freight business?’
He cast her a keen look but said, ‘I fell into it more or less by accident. I was working at the airport in the customs department, and when a freight firm was threatened with receivership it seemed a good chance to buy in and see if I could make a go of it.’
‘You had the money for it?’
‘The bank was good to me.’ He grinned. ‘Though I had to convince them I could turn the business around and make it a paying proposition.’
‘You must have been very persuasive.’
He had his coffee cup in his hand, looking at her over the rim. ‘I can be very persuasive when I want to be.’
The disconcerting glint that sometimes lurked in his eyes was there again. She had to make an effort not to look away.
‘And,’ he said, ‘my grandfather, bless him, offered to guarantee me for a loan.’
So he’d had a fond grandparent, too. Maybe that had helped when his parents split up.
Forking up a piece of gateau, Gabriel considered it. ‘The old guy’s gone now. He had a big globe on a brass stand in his living room, and I remember him explaining to me the concept of travelling around the world from one place to another until you arrived back where you started.’
‘How old were you then?’
Gabriel swallowed the morsel of gateau. ‘About five, I think. Ever since, a globe has reminded me of him. Maybe that’s why the idea of buying the air-freight company appealed.’
He lifted his cup to his lips. Her gaze slipped to his throat, caught by the movement under his skin. She watched with fascination until he