Diamonds are for Marriage: The Australian's Society Bride

“And so it will,” he said. “So, are you going to wish me luck?” Those blue eyes sparkled a challenge at her.

“Think you’re clever, don’t you?” she muttered. On impulse, she reached up and pulled his shining blue-black head down to her. “Good luck, darling Boyd,” she crooned in a sweet seductive voice, her green eyes alight with malice. With infinite gentleness she cupped his dynamic face in her hands, then she kissed him squarely on his sardonic mouth.

There! Served him right! She never could resist his dares.

On her way back to her chair, Leona ignored the expressions on the faces all around her. Some were soft with astonishment, others hard with calculation. The family was already divided in its opinion of Leona and Boyd as a couple.

“Think you’re a siren, don’t you?” Tonya, frowning fiercely in the grip of jealousy, hissed at her as Leona passed close by. “Don’t get your hopes up. You’ll never lure Boyd.”

“Still, he’s just wonderful to kiss,” Leona pretended to gush, hastening to take her place beside Gerri. The match was due to start.

Robbie, nicely set up by his captain, scored the first two goals.

“Oh, jolly well played!” Geraldine clapped enthusiastically. “Of course it was Boyd, the tactician, who turned the play to offence, but I must say Roberto responded brilliantly. I’m just loving this. Rupert was a darn fine player. But you wouldn’t remember all that well, would you, dear?”

“Of course I do,” Leona said. Rupert, approaching sixty, had been warned off the game by his doctor after a number of bone shattering “bumps” and one crashing fall in his late forties.

“Didn’t have Boyd’s finesse, though,” Geraldine further commented.

As the match progressed it became apparent that it was a duel of wits between Boyd, captain of the Red Team, and Bart Ellory, captain of the Blue Team, the two most experienced players on the field. From time to time Leona found herself with a clenched fist to her mouth, while Geraldine persisted in jumping to her feet at her nephew’s heroic deeds. The crowd was getting a superlative display of horsemanship and polo sense. Given yet another opportunity for scoring by his captain, Robbie got set for a full free swing, his team mate Peter wisely giving him plenty of room. A few seconds more and Robbie put the ball across the goal line, bringing the crowd to its feet. At half-time the score was six-three for the home team. The second half promised to be a cliff-hanger.

“I don’t know that my heart can take it!” Leona said, accepting the cold glass of sparkling lime and lemon that was handed to her. What a day! Just how many people had seen her kiss Boyd? How many more had heard about it since? Rupert was sitting with his cronies some small distance away. Eventually, Leona supposed, it would get to him.

What form would his outrage take? Leona was forced to ask herself the question.

Just minutes before full-time, facing a two-pronged attack, a member of the Blue Team frustrated by Boyd’s superior speedier game, suddenly created a hazardous situation when he crossed the line setting up an inevitable collision and a certain foul that would result in a penalty. Leona didn’t want to look but she couldn’t turn away either. Her heart had jumped into her mouth and a wave of sickness welled up from the pit of her stomach. Even Geraldine gasped in fright and began to wipe away the perspiration that broke out on her face with a lace trimmed handkerchief.

Boyd’s control of himself and his mount was nothing short of superhuman. Somehow, he managed to pull out of what looked like an imminent spill.

“You can breathe again, lovey,” Geraldine instructed Leona, still gasping from the near miss.

Is anyone I love safe? Leona asked herself. Only that day she had called Boyd invincible. Well, she had been made to suffer for it. Boyd was the heart of her. The meaning of everything.

The silent crowd broke out into such applause that it bounced off the hills as the whistle blew, announcing a win for the Red Team. Now for the lavish afternoon tea with all the trimmings. It was Leona’s experience that most people ate everything on offer. Her own stomach was so upset she didn’t think she could touch even a cupcake. A cup of coffee, however, would go down well.

By sundown just about everyone had headed off home, the outside spectators as well as family.

“What about lunch soon?” Robbie asked as they walked to his car.

“What, egg and lettuce sandwiches on a park bench?” she joked.

“The Harbour Master?” Robbie suggested.

“Fine!” She nodded abstractedly.

“So you’ve decided to tough it out?” Robbie studied her face. She looked very pale but resolute.

“Well, I’ve never thought of myself as a coward, Robbie. If Boyd is going to tell his father, I feel I should be here. If he doesn’t want me by his side, at least I can be outside the study door.”

“Leo, sweetie, this isn’t a tragedy!” Robbie tried to comfort her. He had never seen Leo like this before and it bothered him. “I mean, you haven’t been knocked up or anything. Have you?”

She shook her head in utter disbelief. “I’ll pretend you never said that, Robbie.”

“Sorry, sorry,” he apologised. “I know that was totally out of line. I’m only trying to say …”

She cut him off mid-sentence. “I know what you’re trying to say.”

“Then don’t look so sad. Boyd chose you. That says it all, don’t you think? Rupe, wicked old tyrant that he is, won’t be able to sway him. You know Boyd. He’s his own man. Why, any other girl would be over the moon.”

“Why wouldn’t they be?” Leona smiled wanly. So why did she feel as if she had stepped into a minefield?

Boyd was actively searching for her by the time she made her way back into the house.

“Where have you been?” He moved swiftly towards her, blue eyes searing her to the spot so she couldn’t run off. “You wouldn’t have gone without saying goodbye to me, would you?” he asked.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said, straightening her delicate shoulders to confront him. “If you’re going to speak to your father, I feel I should be here.”

His expression lightened, like the sun coming out from behind clouds. “Leo, my love, you’re made of the right stuff.” He bent his dark head to kiss her cheek. Just a kiss on the cheek induced delicious shudders. “But you don’t have to do this. Not yet. This is my father’s house. I have to remember that. We both know he’s always refused to countenance any change to his plans.”

“I’m the very last daughter-in-law Rupert will want or expect.” Even Boyd couldn’t deny it.

Boyd, perhaps fearing they might be overheard, suddenly bundled her into the drawing room. “We’ve been through this before, Leo, and I don’t want to go through it again. It’s you I want. End of story. We had a deal, remember?”

“An indecent deal, some might say,” she said, puffing a few tendrils of hair off her heated forehead.

Boyd muffled an exasperated oath beneath his breath. “So you want to back out?”

“Then I suppose you’ll have Robbie detained before he’s halfway home?” she flared.

“A deal is a deal,” Boyd reminded her, looking every inch the acting CEO of Blanchards. “I don’t want a life without you. If you’re honest with yourself, you don’t want a life without me.”

He was exactly right but, before Leona could say so, they were interrupted. They both spun as Jinty, her sister at her shoulder, sailed into the room. “Tonya is off,” she said, as though Tonya was their very favourite person.

But Tonya was staring at them both as though they were aliens. “What’s going on here?”

“Honestly, Tonya, have you never considered a career in the police force?” Boyd asked.

Tonya’s sharp-featured face clouded over as she studied the striking tableau before her.

“Tonya!” Jinty, who was teetering between anger and embarrassment, cast her socially inept sister a warning glance.

Tonya either missed it or elected to take no notice. “Isn’t this just too thrilling! It is true, isn’t it?”

“I’m afraid so,” Boyd said in mock sympathy.

Tonya stepped around her more substantial sister, who was trying to block her way. “She’s pregnant, is she? I mean, that would be the only way.”

Jinty snorted loudly, wondering what further damage her sister could inflict, but Boyd’s handsome face darkened and his voice, though he didn’t raise it, sounded like a call to war. “Jinty, would you please take your appalling sister out of this house? She could be in some danger.”