Husbands Of The Outback: Genni's Dilemma / Charlotte's Choice

Weeping inwardly, she realised she had to summon up the strength to wipe Blaine from her mind. Blaine had his own life. His marriage to Sally was coming closer, as Hilary had confided. Genevieve just knew she couldn’t bear to be around when that happened. Blaine was lost to her. The very thought got her moving. An action that had Angel muttering a short prayer of gratitude.

“Party time!” she cried. “I’m not sure if you’re not the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“Some people have all the luck,” Astrid murmured in an aside to Tiffany, which wasn’t exactly the most appropriate response.

“Well, let’s get moving people.” Angel clapped a little sharply. Exquisitely fashioned at a scant five-feet-nothing, Angel was nevertheless temperamental, demanding, something of a bully as Emmy could and did attest. “You look gorgeous, all of you,” she cooed, revelling in her soon to be new status of adored mother-in-law. “One final inspection before you go out the door. I can’t believe the big day has finally arrived.”

Floating down the giant central marble staircase that would have done justice to Scarlett O’Hara, Tiffany wished she’d surrendered to an early desire to talk her friend out of this marriage. “Angel’s euphoria doesn’t appear to have worn off on Genn. She looks like she wants to do a runner,” she whispered to Astrid, who by way of response grabbed Tiffany by her beautiful ballooning sleeve.

“Perfect! If Genn doesn’t want to marry him he can marry me.”

And there was worse to come. Downstairs Blaine Courtland had arrived. He stood in the marble-floored, flower-bedecked entrance hall, peonies, lilac branches, delphinium, roses, perfect carnations, looking upwards with eyes as brilliant as diamonds. He wore the traditional grey frock coat, grey trousers, waistcoat and a sapphire-blue satin cravat with a diamond stickpin, but his stunningly handsome face sported no smile. Indeed it appeared he, too, didn’t feel like a wedding, although it was common knowledge on the grapevine he had paid for the whole thing.

“God, isn’t he brilliant! The cattle baron,” Montana muttered to Penelope. She was thrilled to be moving in such a world of wealth and glamour. “I’m mad about dark smouldering types with a cleft in their chins. Purple passion, you know.” She gave Penelope a rather awful dig in the ribs.

“He’s spoken for, darling,” Penelope reminded her. “Sally Fenwick. Well-known pastoral family. Minor royalty.”

“Wouldn’t we all like to be,” Montana groaned. “But shouldn’t someone remind him it’s a wedding we’re going to. He looks a bit scary. For-mi-dab-leh as the French would say. I tell you, Tiff, there’s something going on.”

It was certainly starting to look like it. Genni didn’t look happy. Neither did her cousin who exactly fitted the picture of the sort of man Genni should have married, Tiffany thought even as she recognised that simply wasn’t on.

For as long as Tiffany had known Genni, coming up twelve years now, Genni had idolized her cousin, although of recent years Genni had confided he had hurt her badly by treating her as though she wasn’t really capable of managing her own affairs. “He can be awfully rough on me!” Tiffany remembered Genni’s exact words. This marriage had to be one of those times. Both young women in their conversations had made extravagant attempts to steer clear of any rapids. It was Angel who had engineered the whole wedding, Tiffany suddenly realised, making glorious lovers out of just good friends.

Her heart labouring in her chest, Genevieve hugged the polished railing as she made her way slowly down the staircase to the magnificent gallery-style entrance hall supported by massive marble columns. Angel was seriously into drama though to Genni’s eyes there was always an over-abundance of everything.

But on this day of all days she didn’t notice the artworks, the soaring fresco ceiling, breathtaking chandelier and grand golden console and mirror with so much ormulu it would have looked a whole lot better at Versailles. She only had eyes for Blaine. Loving him as she now found she did had to be her tragic secret. He looked magnificent but so stern-faced staring up at her, such a glitter to his eyes she felt like she was drowning in a silver lake.

Yet when she finally reached him, as though drawn by a powerful magnet, he bent his crown black head to kiss her cheek. “Hello, cherub,” he murmured. “You look exquisite. I knew you would.” His voice dropped lower, for her ears only. “I want to tell you, Genni, I’ll always be here for you. No matter what happens. I’ll never let anyone hurt you. Or make you unhappy.”

She made a small sound of agony, her violet eyes burning in her pale face. “Oh, Blaine! Why couldn’t I talk to you last night?” she implored.

Instantly his black brows drew together and his lean powerful body radiated a kind of menace. “You wanted to talk to me when you came to the hotel?” he questioned, his voice with an imperative note to it.

Electric tension seemed to be flashing all around them. It was in his face, in his remarkable eyes. She was afraid where it could lead. “It’s all right, Blaine.” Her voice vibrated a little wildly. “All right. It would have been too late anyway.”

“What?” He grasped her two hands and took them firmly in his own. “I need to know what you mean, Genni? Don’t be afraid.”

But I am afraid, she thought passionately. Afraid of you and what you mean to me. Afraid of my own feelings that have grown and grown like some monstrous secret flower.

“All right there, Blaine, Genni?” Angel who had been concentrating on fastening the clasp of her diamond bracelet that matched the sunburst on her shoulder now called, shooting anxious eyes at them. She had always been aware on some deep unprobed level Blaine and her daughter shared an unbreakable bond.

Blaine ignored her, his entire attention focused on Genni. “Genni, you’ve got to tell me the truth.” His voice was low and taut. “Do you love this man?”

There was a moment of rushing silence. It was now or never. Then she remembered Sally. Sally at this year’s celebratory Polo Ball with Blaine’s gorgeous orchid pinned to her evening dress. Sally beaming with pride as people turned to see her and Blaine together. Sally looking for Blaine the moment he moved out of sight, eyes moving rapidly around the room. Sally hugging his arm.

“I must do, Blaine,” Genni answered quietly. “I’m going to marry him.”

“This is something you really want?” Clearly he still didn’t believe her.

“God, Blaine, you’re so unrelenting.” Wanting to punish him as he had punished her, she spoke fiercely, in so much pain, so much pride, it was important she stop him from questioning her further. It was all too late. Colin had pursued and won her. Not Blaine. No matter what, Blaine was lost to her.

“I’m sorry.” He dropped her hands at once, his dark high-mettled face now closed against her. “Forgive me. I wish you all the happiness in the world.”

“I know you don’t,” Genni found herself responding wildly, too far gone to care. They were almost on the verge of one of their monumental arguments.

“Be careful what you say,” Blaine warned, his eyes narrowed to mere slits.

In the entrance hall everyone stood around absolutely enthralled by what was going on between Genni and her commanding cousin. Although no one could make out what was being said, the body language told them heaps. There was grief, anger, and hurt, a raging that looked like antagonism. Genni’s face was still very white but a high colour burned her cheeks. From stillness she had burst into abandoned brilliant life.

It wasn’t looking good. Angel had the dismal feeling the two of them might just up and away. On the point of desperation, concerned for their every move, Angel stepped in. “Photographs people!” She turned swiftly to snap her fingers at the society photographer, Bernard, famous for his designer weddings, who gave no indication whatsoever he saw or heard her. “Then we really should be leaving for the church.”

“There’s time, Angelica.” Blaine glanced briefly at his watch feeling like a lion wanting to protect its young. No one was going to push Genni into marriage. “Anyway, isn’t it fashionable to be late?”

It was unless one had a great deal of worry on one’s mind. Blaine was a man capable of anything, Angel thought, hustling them all into the spectacular formal living room with its breathtaking views of Sydney Harbour.

“You’re over here, Blaine, next to me,” she cooed, hoping to God Blaine would calm down.

Such was the severity of Blaine Courtland’s expression everyone was amazed when he actually crossed the floor to tower over the petite Angel, five-three, and she was wearing high heels.

“I don’t like the way Genni is acting,” he told Angel, staring across the room at her. “If she’s not entirely happy about this marriage, there’s still time to bail out.”

Just when Angel had a horror Genni was about to do just that. “Blaine, darling, you can’t be serious?” A superb actress, she sounded amazed. “Every single day Genni has been telling me how happy she is. How much she loves Colin. They were made for each other. Soul mates!”

“Rubbish!” Blaine corrected very bluntly. “When you’re madly in love with someone you don’t look like Genni does now. I know her too well.”

“But goodness, darling, you’ve never been madly in love with anyone, so how would you know?”

“Simple. You really should take time off to try and understand your daughter. Anyway, any woman I’ve been involved with is still my friend, which is a damned sight more than you can say of your two husbands and assortment of gigolos.”

“You loved saying that, didn’t you, darling?” Angel, unfazed by the hard truth, pulled a little face. “Sometimes, Blaine, you can be absolutely dreadful.”

“When Genni’s happiness and well-being is put on the line, yes,” he acknowledged brusquely. “Look at her, Angel. Forget yourself and your plans. Look at Genni. She’s as white as a snowdrop.” His glittering grey gaze was directed to the centre of the overly grand room where Genni was being posed by Bernard in front of the white marble fireplace. It was adorned with a great abundance of white roses and green tracery topped and outdone by a large portrait of Angel in a deliciously low-cut blue-satin ballgown painted during the halcyon days of her ill-fated first marriage.

“God, I don’t believe this,” Blaine muttered blaming himself for not simply kidnapping the bride. A hundred vivid memories of Genevieve flitted through his head. The adorable two-year-old with her radiant violet eyes and riot of platinum curls.

He’d been ten years old when his father’s favourite cousin, Stephen, had brought his little daughter to Jubilee. A difficult ten-year-old, hard to handle. A boy who already knew despair because his beautiful mother had abandoned him and his father and run off with her lover. An event so unexpected, so out of character, he sometimes thought he was still in a state of shock.

Genni had come into his life at the right time. Over the years he had given her all the love his heart could hold. She was so innocent, so vulnerable, so sweet-sassy intelligent, so generous with her affections.

As Stephen and Angel drifted further and further apart Genni had come to spend more time at Jubilee where she was back with her “cherished” Blaine. How close they had been then. It seemed he had taught her everything. How to swim, how to ride, how to handle a gun, how to find her way around the bush, how to survive. What he hadn’t been able to teach her was how to pick the right men. In fact from about seventeen he’d been in despair about Genni’s choices. Not a one good enough for her.

Certainly not Garrett, though loaded with money and a certain easy charm, he was short on substance. The more he had tried to tighten his hold on her, the more Genni had flown into little wild rages, claiming where he had once loved her now she was always in high disfavour. It wasn’t true. He was hungry in spirit for the old easy relationship, but over the past few years an odd constraint had grown between them neither of them seemed to know how to break. Genni no longer ran to him for advice and comfort. Or did she? What was she doing at the hotel last night? Hilary had told him Genni had paid the visit to her. He should have known better about his stepsister’s wiles. The unfortunate truth was Hilary had a deep-seated jealousy of Genevieve. Everyone in the family knew it, just as they knew Hilary had grown into her own worst enemy.

While Blaine brooded, his eyes like jewels, Angel was saying quite merrily, “Genni looks perfectly happy to me, darling. A touch of bridal jitters, no more.” She reached up to pat Blaine’s lean tanned cheek. “You’re worrying about nothing,” she said softly. “You always did have a powerful urge to keep Genni to yourself.” Angel smiled as she watched Bernard straighten Genni’s long beautiful veil. “Isn’t her bouquet fabulous?” She smiled proudly. “You can’t beat Hughie Rickman for flowers.”

Blaine answered with such terseness it could easily have been interpreted as profound disapproval. “She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, but no one, not even Genni herself, can convince me she’s in love with this guy. I can’t have her marrying a man she doesn’t love.”

At the sweep-all-before it note in his voice, Angel put a trembling hand to her breast. Only for her deep concern for her makeup she would have been in tears. “Blaine, maybe you’ve got a problem,” she suggested. “Genni hasn’t.” She lifted her face to him, despite herself pierced through with his wondrous blue-blooded aura. “You can’t always run her life. You’re here to give her away, my dear. In under a half hour you and Genni are going to do the grand march down to the altar. I know both your lives will change, but look on the bright side. You won’t have to worry about her any more. You won’t have to pick up all the bills.” She said it totally without embarrassment, but Blaine answered with the merest lick of contempt.

“We’re not talking about money. Everything would be fine if only I could believe Genni is marrying the man she loves.”

His radar was working too well. “Blaine, darling,” Angel tried her most convincing voice, tilting back her head so she could look him directly in the eye. “My daughter told me only last night never in her life has she been so happy.” Telling fibs was one of Angel’s lifelong specialities. “And she’ll never want for anything, isn’t that wonderful?”

Apparently that didn’t thrill Blaine at all. “Who the hell cares about that?” he retorted in a low burned-up voice. “She couldn’t be stupid enough to marry just for money?”

Angel was amazed by such a view. “That’s all very well for people who have tons of it,” she responded. “Money is way too good to pass up.”

Blaine gave a weary sigh. “I just hope your outlook hasn’t rubbed off on Genni,” Blaine responded tautly. “There’s much too much to her for the likes of Garrett. I liked him well enough when Genni first brought him to Jubilee but I never thought for one minute he was the man she was seriously considering marrying.”

It was hard indeed to sound nonchalant. “Go on, darling,” Angel teased. “I’m sure Genni tried to tell you. I know you really care about her but you don’t show her much tenderness. The truth is your father’s daunting manner spilled over on you. Genni fell head over heels in love with Colin. The only person who didn’t know about it was you.” Angel gave her tinkling laugh that held quite an edge.

It was Bernard the society photographer who halted Blaine’s searing retort. “Pardon me?” Bernard called, struggling with his own radar. “It’s your turn now, mother of the bride.” He bowed gracefully in Angel’s direction, though he hadn’t taken to her one bit, “and the bride’s very distinguished cousin, the well-known cattle baron, Mr. Blaine Courtland. I can’t let you get away.”

“God!” Blaine muttered beneath his breath, feeling Angel’s small hand sneak into his as though he was too, too dear to her. In a few minutes he would have Genni alone in the car. He would be as gentle as he knew how with her. Angel’s reference to his “lack of tenderness” had really stung. It was deserved. He was desperate now to get Genni to reveal her heart. He knew precisely how he felt. Every atom of his being was steeled against giving her away. If his instincts were correct beneath that exquisite bridal exterior Genni was screaming for help.

Inside the stretch limousine Genni sat very quietly in all her wedding finery, the billowing silk skirt stretched out over the seat, her veil arranged to one side lying in a foaming cloud atop it, looking determinedly out the window. If she dared to chance a look at Blaine sitting opposite her, he would recognise her despair. Even now she was fighting hard to keep the tears from welling into her eyes.

“Blaine,” she said soundlessly over and over, trying to draw strength from just his name “I love you. I’ll always love you.” The knowledge was like a physical blow to the heart. Without food—she hadn’t been able to eat a bite of breakfast—she felt dizzy and disoriented, caught up in a scenario Angel might well have written. I can’t do this to myself. I can’t do this to Colin, Genni agonised. He mightn’t adore the ground I walk on but he deserves better than a wife who doesn’t love him.

She started violently when Blaine suddenly reached over and caught her hand. “God, Genni. You’d think you were a winter bride. Your hands are freezing.” He began to rub them, warming them in no time because her blood caught fire. “Angel took me to task back at the house. She told me a truth about myself I had to hear. I haven’t been terribly kind to you of late, have I? As your mother put it, I haven’t shown you much tenderness.”

The admission nearly annihilated her. There was such a sparkle of tears behind her eyelids. “I haven’t been very nice, either,” she whispered. “The strange thing is, I don’t have a temper with anyone else but you. You make me fly apart.”

“That much, cherub, is obvious,” he said dryly. “I know I’m too high-handed, too dismissive of what seems to me frivolous stuff. You have to make allowances for me. The thing is, Genni, I’m committed to something really important. Your happiness. No, don’t shrink away from me,” he begged as she leaned back and shut her eyes so aware of him she felt he was invading her. Body and soul. “I know you, Genni. I used to know you, anyway,” he added wryly, with that irresistible sparkle in his beautiful eyes she so loved. “Just tell me once more—the last time, I promise—tell me you love Colin. That your dearest wish is to marry him?”

Such was her emotional state Genni had difficulty remembering Colin’s face. “Please, Blaine, can you stop asking me?”

“No.” He shook his dark head. “If you’re frightened you must go through with this, just tell me. I’ll take care of everything,” he told her with that hard masculine authority. “It’ll be a nine-day wonder but there will be life after.”

Will there? Genni’s thoughts went back to Sally Fenwick. “Hilary told me you and Sally are coming around to setting your own wedding date?” Once more she averted her head, looking sightlessly out the window.

Blaine turned her head back to him, loving and hating the sight of her in her glorious wedding dress. “Is that what Hilary said to you last night?” he demanded, his tanned skin lit by anger.

“She might have.” Genni, too, was flushed; upset enough to jump out of the car. “Please, Blaine, don’t torment me. It would mean everything to me if you could respect how I feel.”

“When your heart is racing? When I can gauge what you feel through my palm?” His laugh was low and savage. “If it weren’t so goddam lunatic I’d believe you’re trying to get back at me for kissing you. There’s no one, but no one like you for doing that.”

“Then why did you?” Her breath trembled in her throat. “It shocked me so much I nearly fainted.”

“I remember,” he reminded her bitterly. “I was there.”

“Why, Blaine?” She stared at him with her violet eyes, the urge to know consuming her. “You changed everything in a few moments.” The power and the cruelty of the man!

“Did I?” He put his hands to either side of her, making her a prisoner. “You think about that, Genni. With my mouth on yours it didn’t feel like you didn’t want it.”

Overwhelmed, she looked down. “And you betrayed Sally!”

He made a sound of complete exasperation. “Don’t be so damned silly. Sally is a friend. A good friend, but she’s not a woman I’d dream about. I’ve never cared about anyone like I care about you.”

“Yes, as your little pet. Not a grown-up woman.”

“We’re not back to that again, are we?”

He drew away from her, his luminous eyes pure silver.

“Not ever. You’ve got some idea I can’t live without you. But I’ve got news for you.” Her words shrilled and trembled so, she was grateful for the glass panel that separated them from the chauffeur. “I’m going to marry Colin.” Even as she said it she despised herself.

“And make a mess of your life?”

“You’re so nasty, so…caustic…”

“Sad to say I am, just as you’re so provocative. You know the dark depths in me, Genevieve. You’re as used to my outbursts as I am to yours. I don’t know about the chauffeur, if he can hear us. I haven’t handled you particularly well of recent times. For that I genuinely apologise. It has all come out so badly because I couldn’t seem to reach you. You were dead set on defying me at every turn. In fact you gave me hell.”

There was truth at the heart of it. She could see it clearly now. “Don’t. I love you,” she admitted passionately. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Am I making any sense at all?”

“I’m afraid not.” His answer was crisp. “You’re not happy. That’s obvious. You need a man who can set you alight. Do you think I haven’t seen you incandescent? Women are such strange creatures. I’ll never understand them.” He said it like it might have been a curse.

Forlornly, Genevieve touched the exquisitely decorated bodice of her wedding gown. “Why did you never tell me you were paying for all this?”

He closed his eyes against the surge of hot anger. “I wish to God your mother could keep her mouth shut.”

“I feel seared by shame.”

“How ridiculous!” He sounded thoroughly stirred up. “You’re family.” God, that’s wrong. For a moment he couldn’t speak. Then as he glanced out the window he was shocked to see they had arrived at the church. Media photographers were in attendance, standing slightly apart from the crowd of onlookers that had gathered to see a bride well known to them through the social pages.

The bronze-polished skin on Blaine’s face was stretched taut. “I’m not the kindest person in the world, Genni, but I’m here for you.” His expression suggested only one word. Action. “Unless you’re going happily into this, it would be better, far better, to stop it now.”

For a moment hope glimmered, then she heard the oohs and aahs of the crowd. “For God’s sake, Blaine, I’d be a social outcast. Help me to go through with it.”

“Are you crazy?” He could crush her to him with one arm. Drag her away.

“Yes.” She was finished and she knew it. Her mind reeled as the chauffeur came round to open her door. She could see her old life slide by. People were moving closer, waving and smiling, the photographers already shooting their pictures.

Please God help me, she prayed devoutly. Help me out before it’s too late. I know I deserve this but I truly didn’t understand my own heart.

That same heart bursting, Genevieve found herself standing out on the footpath to much applause while the designer of her gown fussed around her, settling her billowing silk skirt, adjusting her long froth of a veil.

“Isn’t she beautiful!” came time and again from the crowd, but Genni didn’t register the compliments. She felt she had the weight of the world on her shoulders instead of her wedding veil.

“Well?” Blaine gave her his arm, hovering over her inches over six feet, devastatingly handsome, the man who was to give her away, but the expression in his shimmering eyes was anything but family.

I’ll love you always. Had she spoken it or thought it?