Chapter Four #3
Startled and blinking, she instinctively stepped closer to Leo and felt his arm curve around her as he led her directly to the car waiting for them.
Once inside the air-conditioned space, Sammy craned back, staring at the reporters, then turned to Leo and whispered urgently, ‘What on earth were they doing at the airport? I don’t get it.
We didn’t have any of this in England. In fact, other than the people at the party, no one even knows that we’re engaged! ’
‘What gives you that idea?’
‘Why would anyone know? There certainly wasn’t anyone taking pictures...’
‘I’ve made sure to keep it low-key,’ Leo informed her and she looked at him in utter astonishment.
‘What do you mean?’
He was sprawled in the seat, leaning against the door, his big body angled to face her.
Dressed in grey trousers and a short-sleeved black polo shirt with a tiny discreet insignia embroidered on one side, he was the last word in sophistication.
He had that look. The look of someone who should be photographed. Rich. Powerful. Influential.
She recalled the way his mouth had felt against hers and quivered.
‘I have an excellent relationship with the press, particularly the tabloid press. They’re like sharks.
They’ll cheerfully rip you apart if it takes their fancy.
It’s always a good idea to keep them onside.
I’m wealthy, I’m powerful but I’m not a Hollywood star.
The less they print about me, the better, but I accept that my movements are sometimes of interest.’ He shrugged.
Sammy found it fascinating that he could sit there and talk about a world that was so foreign to her.
He really and truly moved in a completely different hemisphere.
A world where people were photographed and simple day-to-day things became newsworthy events to be recorded for public consumption.
No wonder he had reasoned that her presence by his side would give his cause gravitas.
She was the embodiment of everything that was contrary to all of that—the embodiment of normality—just the sort of reassuring thing the lawyers would make note of when it came to sorting out custody of an impressionable young child.
Guilt shook her because this normality was only going to last as long as it took for him to have Adele under his wing.
She consoled herself with the thought that whatever was brought to the table by Leo and his wonderful, kind-hearted father was sure to be better than what lay in store for the little girl at the hands of a grasping grandmother, but she still backed away from thinking too hard about the rights and wrongs.
At the end of the day, she thought uneasily, it wasn’t her problem.
Besides, whilst the world of extreme wealth was not one she inhabited, she knew that there were very many children of wealthy parents who did very well on a diet of private schools and boarding schools and nannies.
‘I know a couple of the reporters,’ Leo said as though it were the most normal thing in the world.
‘The trick is to see them as humans in their own right and not a collection of pests. Humanise them and they’re more likely to humanise you in return.
At any rate, I spread the word that I was engaged and made it known that a flashy announcement wasn’t going to do.
I felt that was appropriate, given the circumstances, but no point broadcasting it when it’s going to come to an end in due course. ’
‘No, quite.’ She was finding it hard to keep up.
‘They listened and did as I asked.’
‘People do that, don’t they?’ she murmured and he looked at her and nodded.
‘Different story over here,’ Leo informed her. ‘Ignore anyone who asks for an interview. I may not be as well known as I am in London but I do have considerable financial interests in this part of the world and...’ He flushed darkly and paused, and something about that pause roused her curiosity.
‘And what?’
‘I did achieve a certain amount of unwanted notoriety for dating a certain Australian actress about a year ago.’
‘Really?’ Sammy had been so wrapped up in concerns about her mother’s health at that time that she doubted she would have been able to remember anything that had been going on around her, never mind what had been unravelling in the gossip pages of tabloid newspapers.
‘Vivienne Madison.’
‘The Vivienne Madison? Gosh. I had no idea. What happened?’
‘I’m surprised you missed out that little slice of my life,’ Leo inserted wryly, ‘considering you seem to have spotted me in the centre pages of tabloids in the past.’
‘I wasn’t really with it a year ago,’ Sammy admitted.
‘Mum was undergoing treatment and I was...in a different place. A scary place. I was barely functioning. I mean, I was going to work but taking a lot of time off and I couldn’t focus at all.
I don’t think I glanced at a newspaper once for months. ’
‘The long and short of it,’ Leo said heavily, ‘was that she was found with a bottle of pills in a hotel room and the baying Australian press decided to go for me.’
‘You mean she tried to commit suicide because you left her?’ Immediately, she could feel herself pull back from him, deeply appalled that his way of life, his cavalier attitude towards women, might have resulted in someone actually attempting to take her own life as a result of being ditched.
Leo read the distaste on her face. Normally, this would not have fazed him.
He never saw the need to launch into explanations for his behaviour or to justify decisions he had taken.
As long as he stuck to his impeccable moral code and recognised his own personal truths, who gave a damn what other people thought?
But, for some reason, he didn’t like the thoughts he knew were churning around in her head.
‘Vivienne Madison was a seriously unstable woman.’ He was unfamiliar with the process of explaining himself and found that his words did not come as easily as usual.
‘When I became involved with her, I discovered that she had a drinking problem. She was also, I later found out, hooked on painkillers. But she was an amazing actress and managed to hide both those dependencies.’ He sighed, his lean, handsome face unusually empathetic, the cold lines temporarily erased.
‘She became dependent on me very quickly, although I had told her from the very beginning that I was not interested in settling down. But she was a highly emotional person and her addictions made her even more irrational than she otherwise might have been. I knew that it had to end but I made sure to get her signed up with an excellent counsellor as well as a rehab centre noted for its success rate. I may not have wanted her in my life but I wasn’t going to cast her aside like a pile of used rubbish.
The truth is that I felt deeply sorry for her. ’
Sammy was impressed. That this formidable and ruthlessly controlled man was capable of compassion for a woman he had no longer wanted in his life was an eye-opener.
It didn’t mean anything, but it certainly afforded her a different take on him.
It was peculiarly complimentary to him because she could tell that he was less than comfortable telling this story and was doubtless only doing so in case it came out and she knew nothing about it.
As his fiancée, it would be surprising if she was ignorant of what had happened.
‘The incident with the overdose was several weeks after we had parted company but that was something the press over here omitted to mention. Later, there was a nondescript apology to me when they discovered that the overdose was in response to a rejection from one of the psychiatrists at the rehab centre. At any rate, my name will be linked to hers forever over here.’
‘And is she still in contact with you?’
‘In no way, shape or form,’ Leo asserted.
That was the end of the conversation. She could see that on his face but it left her thinking that she could almost understand his antipathy towards emotional situations. He had had a substantial amount of experience in dealing with the negative side of them.
‘So we have a schedule here,’ she said, changing the subject.
‘Meetings lined up with lawyers. I expect some sort of compensation will have to be given to Ms Jamieson if custody is awarded to me. It will be a very busy ten days.’
‘Not much time for fun in the sun.’
‘Tut-tut,’ Leo said lazily. ‘Is that the right approach for a newly engaged woman to be taking? I’m sure we’ll find the time to escape and see some of Melbourne’s sights, especially if there are interested parties pursuing us who need to be placated.
Like nosy journalists. If Jamieson is playing hardball, then there’s every chance she’s got in touch with a newspaper and filled them in on what I’m doing over here.
It’s certainly got the ingredients for a good story, especially with my past association with Vivienne.
But don’t worry—’ he reached out and slid his long brown finger along her arm, sending splinters of awareness skittering through her like quicksilver ‘—it’ll be over in no time at all and you can return to your life. ’