Chapter 4 Ghosts of The Past

And the answer was clear-cut. It couldn't be him. There had to be someone else. Sir Gabriel Carter certainly had some paternal interest in her, belated though it had been incoming-- he had no time for loving relationships.

Vivienne remembered back to when he had first demonstrated some fatherly concern for her. She had been thirteen, and it was during her first term at an extremely expensive boarding-school-though not the one Aria had attended. That had been aimed more at social status than the academic achievement prized by the school where Vivienne had been sent. But her fellow students were from privileged families and they knew who she was.

The teasing had been nasty-- as nasty as children could make it. Vivienne didn't take kindly to being called a bastard, and she fought back with all her strength. One particular incident landed her in the headmistress's office and Sir Gabriel Carter was sent for.

Vivienne had not expected him to come, but he had. 'Would you like to change schools, Vivienne?' he had asked.

'I hardly think there would be any point, Father,' she had replied scornfully. 'You are known everywhere.'

'I could take you to England, if you'd feel happier in another country.'

'No, thank you.' Her chin had lifted in proud defiance. 'No one is going to make me run away.'

He had stared at her for a long moment, and then a semblance of a smile had crossed his face.

At the end of that year he had taken her overseas with him for the whole of January, visiting France and Italy, giving her a visual education that no books could ever supply. It was the first time he had ever spent more than a few hours with her and, while Vivienne would not let herself like him for it, she had learnt to respect the man for the remarkable person he was.

Every January from then on he took her somewhere: Canada and the United States; Switzerland and Austria; Greece and Israel and Egypt; Great Britain and Ireland; Japan and Hong Kong; each year until she was eighteen, when she announced she was going to study medicine and wouldn't have the time to accompany him any more.

He had given that same odd semblance of a smile at that declaration too.

Vivienne wished she knew how his mind ticked. He gave so little away. Nothing that she could really get a hold of. 'What have you been up to lately?' she asked, careful to make the tone of the question as offhand as possible.

'Trying to buy an island,' he answered drily.

'Your own little empire?' she mocked.

He gave that soft laugh that told her she had got him wrong. 'No. If Marlon Brando can own one, there is no reason why I shouldn't as well. I plan to do the same thing and turn it into a holiday resort.

Vivienne thought that Marlon Brando's island was near Tahiti, but surely her father did not intend to go so far afield? She knew he had a financial interest in several resorts on the Gold Coast of Queensland.

'Somewhere along the Great Barrier Reef?' she asked, more to have her judgement confirmed than out of curiosity.

He smiled, pleased to be able to surprise her. 'No. One of the smaller Society Islands near Tahiti. It's called Te Enata-the land of men.'

Vivienne raised a sardonic eyebrow. 'And they don't mind you taking it from them?'

He laughed. 'There's only one man concerned. The island is already privately owned. It belongs to Adrian Blackwood.'

Vivienne caught her breath as her heart kicked an extra beat. Adrian Blackwood!

The name instantly conjured up the man, the memory so sharp and vivid that it blotted everything else out of her mind: the lean grace of his tall physique; the expressive use of his hands; the fascination of his face that had more to do with the intelligence behind it than the Don Juan good looks; and those wicked, wicked black eyes that flirted and teased and probed and would have swallowed her up if she had weakened to his compelling attraction.

'You met him once in Hong Kong,' her father remarked, then added, as if it was of no consequence at all, 'But it was a long time ago. You may not remember.'

'I remember him,' she muttered tightly, straining to keep her churning emotion under control. She had hated Adrian blackwood... and been fascinated by him. Never before or since had she been so stirred by a man.

He had playfully mocked all her ambitions and ideas which she had passionately defended. He had tried to belittle her beliefs and she had fought him with every weapon in her armoury. And she was quite certain she had scored some telling hits. At least she had wiped that cynical glint from his eyes a few times.

'He remembers you. He asked after you today,' her father said conversationally.

'I probably gave him a few things to remember me for,' she said on a note of savage pride.

Sir Gabriel Carter shot her a sharp look, but Vivienne made no further comment. Her face had that closed look that effectively shut him out. He wondered if there had been more to that encounter with Adrian Blackwood than he had seen at the time.

He hadn't liked the amount of attention Adrian had paid to Vivienne. Nor the way he had looked at her or danced with her. She had been so young then-just out of school, no match for an experienced man of the world like Adrian Blackwood; particularly one who was such a practised charmer and so damnably good-looking; with the added attraction of a mind that could twist anything to his advantage.

Certainly nothing had happened that night. And surely nothing had happened on the ensuing days either? He would have noticed some change in Vivienne's pattern of behaviour if Adrian had tried anything, and it had held steady. Adrian could not have pursued her. Or Vivienne had slapped a rejection in his face.

He smiled to himself. That was possible, who knew her sense of resolution better than he? And the thought of his very strong-minded daughter rejecting the sophisticated advances of Adrian Blackwood gave Sir Gabriel considerable amusement as he drove through the city traffic.

Vivienne's thoughts had swung off on another tangent altogether, although Adrian Blackwood was very much on her mind. Hong Kong had been five years ago.

'How little you know of life,' he had taunted when she had accused him of pursuing goals that were for his own aggrandisement ... money and power for the sake of wielding it ... and women, of course. Vivienne had recognised his type instantly. Adrian Blackwood was just like her father. He had pursed his lips in that affected but oddly tantalising manner.

'I wonder if your ideals will still hold their shine in a few years' time. I am tempted to play the devil's advocate ...' He had paused, then slowly shook his head. 'Curiously enough, with you I'd rather not.'

But Adrian Blackwood did have the kind of diabolical mind that could conceive such a game as sending those cards and roses. Except his interest in her had only lasted that one night, Vivienne reminded herself cuttingly. She had seen him the next day with a glamorous woman on his arm and he had given Vivienne a mocking little salute in passing. On to the next game... and more compliant prey, Vivienne had thought, and quickly and quietly buried the hurt she felt.

Hurt pride, she told herself. His attention had

been flattering-and she had not been immune to his compelling attraction, but it was perfectly obvious that he preferred women who didn't challenge what he chose to do with his life. Or else she wasn't attractive enough to hold his attention. A man like that ...

The memory stirred an uncomfortable feeling and it took Vivienne several moments to recollect herself and resume a cool-headed reappraisal of her earlier speculation. It couldn't be Adrian Blackwood behind the cards and the roses. A man who had discarded his interest in her after one night would hardly be hounding her for six years!

All the same, she wished she could meet Adrian Blackwood again. She would like very much to match her wits against that clever, cynical mind of his now that she had more years of experience behind her. She wondered if he was still so wickedly handsome... so dangerously sexy ... or if years of decadence had diminished his magnetic attraction. It would be interesting ... just to see.