A Wedding at Leopard Tree Lodge / Three Times A Bridesmaid…: A Wedding at Leopard Tree Lodge

‘Miss March, Josie Fowler. Gideon McGrath asked me to call you.’

‘Gideon? Oh, poor guy. How is he?’

In pain. Irritable. About to fire your sorry ass…

‘Concerned. He wants to know—and I’m quoting here—what the hell is going on in Marketing.’

‘Marketing?’

‘I get the feeling that he’s not entirely happy about having the Tal Newman wedding at Leopard Tree Lodge.’

‘Oh, good grief, is that this week?’ she squeaked.

‘I’m afraid so.’

‘Damn! And bother Gideon for taking a sentimental side trip down memory lane this week. If he’d just stuck to his schedule, gone straight to Patagonia as he was supposed to, he’d never have known about it.’

Sentimental? Gideon?

‘You don’t think he would have noticed six weeks of articles in Celebrity?’ Josie enquired, wondering why his staff had conspired to keep this from him.

‘Oh, please. Can you imagine Gideon reading Celebrity? Besides, he’s far too busy hunting down the next challenge to notice things like that. He never changes his schedule, takes a day off…’

‘No?’

‘Look, tell him it’s nothing to do with Marketing, will you. Aunt Serafina called in at the office to drop something off for my mother absolutely yonks ago. She asked me for a brochure and, like an idiot, I gave her one. I had no idea she was looking for somewhere unusual, somewhere off the beaten track for the Newman wedding. And I’m here to testify that she doesn’t understand the word “no”.’

‘Oh.’

‘You’re the woman who Celebrity sent in my aunt’s place, aren’t you?’ she asked.

‘Yes. How is she?’

‘Spitting pips, to be honest, but that’s not your fault. She can be a little overwhelming if you’re not used to her.’

‘So I’ve heard. Her design is amazing, though. Tell her I’ll do my best to deliver.’

‘Actually, I won’t, if you don’t mind. Just the sound of your name is likely to send her off on one. But you can tell Gideon that I’m entirely to blame and he can fire me the minute he gets back if it will make him feel any better.’

‘He won’t, will he?’

Anyone with Serafina March for an aunt deserved all the sympathy they could get.

‘Probably not. Josie…about Gideon. Since he’s there, see if you can persuade him to stay for a while. We’ve all been concerned about him. He really does need a break.’

‘You just wish he’d chosen somewhere else.’

‘I have the feeling that Leopard Tree Lodge might have chosen him,’ she said.

Terrific. Now she was involved in the conspiracy to keep him here. She picked up the printout of the latest guest list, praying for an outbreak of something contagious amongst the guests.

‘All sorted?’ David asked as she joined him in the lounge.

‘Not exactly,’ she said, skimming through Marji’s updates. No one had cried off. On the contrary. ‘We’re going to have to find another room.’

‘How’s it going?’

Gideon McGrath, cool and relaxed as he lay in the shade, removed his sunglasses as Francis set down the lunch tray beside him, giving Josie the kind of glance that made her feel even more hot and frazzled than she already was.

‘How’s your back?’ she shot right back at him. She was in no mood to take prisoners.

‘It’s early days.’ Then, once Francis had gone, ‘The coffee helped, though.’

‘I’m glad to hear it,’ she replied, helping herself to a glass of water from a Thermos jug. ‘And what’s on that tray had better finish the job.’

‘You’re just teasing me with false hope.’

‘It’s chilli,’ she said, in no mood for teasing him or anyone else. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you own this place?’

‘Does it matter?’

He said it lightly enough, but there was a challenge in those dark eyes that suggested it did.

‘It does when the manager feels he can’t ask you to leave, despite the fact that the room has been bought and paid for by a bona fide guest,’ she replied.

‘None of my resort managers would expect a sick guest to leave. You, I take it,’ he said, ‘have no such inhibitions.’

‘Too right. Although, since we both now know that you’re not a guest, you’d better enjoy that chilli while you can.’

‘That sounds like a threat.’

‘I don’t make threats. I make promises. Unless you make your own arrangements to leave, I’ll be ordering up an air ambulance to take you out of here first thing in the morning. You’d better decide where you want it to take you.’

‘Ambulances only have one destination,’ he pointed out. ‘They’re not a taxi service.’

‘Right. Well, that’s an additional incentive because I’m betting they don’t have an la carte menu at the local hospital,’ she replied, refusing to think what that would be like.

He was successful, wealthy. Hospital would be a very different experience for him, she told herself, blocking out the memory of her mother shrinking away to nothing in a bare room.

Gideon McGrath would be in a private suite with the best of everything. Maybe. Would the local hospital have private suites?

‘Is that really chilli?’ he asked gently, as if he genuinely sympathised with her dilemma. And, just like that, all the hard-faced determination leached out of her and she knew that she couldn’t do it.

‘I wanted you in a good mood,’ she admitted. ‘I even phoned your PA and gave her your message.’

‘What did she say?’

‘The exact word was unrepeatable,’ she replied. ‘Have you never heard of Serafina March?’