Doomed Dynasty Pt. 07

"Madam glanced at the bottle and nodded, almost killing herself in laughter at the poor imitation of a first-class European maitre d'. It was a bottle of Sancerre... went beautifully with our fish."

"From the Loire Valley?"

"Aye," replied Tony, as if Matt had made a normal wine drinker's response. "The bottle was offered to us with the compliments of the hotels, much to the envy of other diners around us who had been watching our little circus with great fascination."

Courtney said nothing, though enjoying the story. She was thinking that Matt's comment about Loire really did indicate that she'd married a late developer.

They lunched on a beach then the two men retreated into the shade aboard the launch.

Noisily the shore party returned almost two hours later.

Almost not surprised, the women noticed a new bottle had been opened, this time French champagne.

"Can we have some?" Raquel asked coyly. "Or is that special occasion stuff only for bored men?"

"It is a special occasion," said Tony grinning. "Matt is taking a half share in the boat, which means we can build that pavilion you're always wanted."

"Oh Matt," cried Raquel, jumping on to his knee and kissing him.

"Why?" asked the astonished Courtney.

"I thought you needed a solid base to paint on," said Matt, pretending to look sheepish.

Actually he was thinking no more bruises to his head because this boat had headroom to spare. He added, "It's also the kind of boat that a women who drives a Mercedes ought to be seen on rather than our miserable little pop-pop boat."

"That's very generous of you, Matt," smiled Courtney.

She chastised herself for wondering if it were Matt's way of getting closer to Raquel. But that reprimand lasted but a second as her next thought was to think that it would be a hideously expensive outlay for a bit of sex on the side. It never occurred to Courtney that big men really do aspire to have big boats.

* * *

Making greater use of Vikki's talents as a property manager had removed a lot of 'rubbishy things' as Matt called them, off his shoulders. He saw himself as being a doer, not a bookkeeper and maintenance man. The mayoralty took a great deal of his time but much of that work involved planning or commissioning works with long-term ramifications.

One morning, with everyone else in the house still asleep, Matt went down to the beach right on sunrise. He found this to be a good time to do his thinking. Several things turned over in his mind, but what emerged at the forefront was a beautiful image of Raquel. Why was she there rather than Courtney, or his mother? Matt was vaguely aware that a healthy sex drive was at the centre of his interest in women, although he also enjoyed their company and especially liked those who didn't mind being teased. He was not what he would describe as being excessively promiscuous in his external relationships. Since his marriage he'd not desired to stray beyond his comfortable relationship with Vikki. That liaison with Elizabeth had, well had been her fault really.

Clearly, the number one female in his life had been his mother. She asked very little from him and never ceased to try to make his daily life comfortable, and to happily influence the way he interacted socially without being intrusive or patronising. She'd always seemed to be ready to listen and contribute when something worried him a role that his father had seemed to ignore.

While Collier had been something of a legend in the district for being a hard man and accomplishing some amazing feats, Matt realised that Patricia had achieved similar status among woman in the community, perhaps also more men than he realised.

She was acknowledged for her leadership, diplomacy and general care-giving. It was she who had revived the farm help relief scheme and provided facilities in her own home to allow Plunket to continue operating its services to mothers and new babies while its premises were being rebuilt after an arson attack.

School provided him with a different sort of relationship with females. He had his share of kiss and giggle encounters.

Whacking Vikki across the mouth was his real introduction into the complexities surrounding relations with the opposite sex. He'd been rather frightened by the group of girls who assisted Vikki to her feet. Most of the cluster had looked at him with contempt. It was a new experience because until that moment he'd enjoyed a high rating in popularity at school. But even more riveting was that image of Vikki that burned into his brain. He remembered the incident well. There she was, blood pouring from the gash along from her mouth, trying to break free from the collective clutches of her friends. Tears streaming Vikki had reached out as if trying to embrace him, crying, "It was an accident, I'm sorry, Matt. I'm sorry."

"Hush, Vikki, you don't know what you are saying," soothed one of the girls holding her as his best friend Merv Higgs led him away. Matt knew he'd lashed out involuntary but also knew that he should have been capable of pulling his swinging arm away from striking Vikki. Had not the cricket coach praised him repeatedly for his great eye-hand coordination?

At home, when attempting to explain his misconduct to his parents, Collier moved to physically strike him. But Patricia stepped in between them, crying, "Oh why, Matt, oh why?" The question confused him. He simply did not know why. And why had Vikki been so desperate to get near him, calling "I'm sorry, Matt. I'm sorry"? He'd felt a great urge to go away and hide. Curtis was already thinking along the same lines, knowing he needed to send Matt away until this embarrassing thing blew over. It would never do to have the Mayor's son being called a girl basher.

It was the Wyoming triad of Milly, Martha and Caitlin that restored his confidence to be his natural charming self when in the presence of women.

Strangely, it was his hard-nosed aunt who influenced him most. He soon was full of admiration and respect for her. Milly, who cussed easily and seemed to be almost manly in the company of males, could switch roles seamlessly. When a woman called on her Milly would quickly prettied herself up and he'd find himself looking a version although a not perfect replica of his mother.

They talked together a great deal, far more that he talked to his mother at home. Gradually he began to get a greater insight of his aunt, perceiving that she was neither as confident as she appeared nor as simple as she made out. He'd accepted the more they talked to each other the better chance he would have of understanding Milly and generally learning about women. He know realised that this had been his introduction to character traits, mood swings and other emotions and also some unidentifiable nuances that Milly had called personal idiosyncrasies that he would have put aside in the too hard basket.

His young aunt awoke him to traits within himself that he'd never bothered to think about. She threw her arms around him in delight one evening when he asked, 'Vikki's strange behaviour; do you think she had a crush on me?"

"Yes, without doubt, Matt," she had replied. "I have been waiting for you to ask me that." He couldn't understand to this day why she seemed to be so pleased about that. It was sort of logical to think that about Vikki. He recalled Milly saying that obviously he was getting to know local females and "should make hay while you can if that's what you're doing because some lovely lady will get her hooks into you and that will be the end of your days of erotic friendships."

That, of course, just goes to prove that even women did not always get it right. It was true that when he met Courtney he thought he'd found the one woman who he could live happily for the rest of his life, requiring no other female... ever. He loved Courtney as much as he have ever loved his mother, perhaps more, and he thought at that point his wandering ways had ended.

The fact that he committed adultery during his Courtney's pregnancy, a selfish, poorly timed liaison that would have earned him a hard time from Milly had she learned about that, was difficult to explain. He certainly did not love Courtney any less after having that liaison with Vikki and continuing it to this day.

Turning into the farm track leading to the stables and sheds, he thought about Martha, a woman who enjoyed absolutely being in the company of couth men as she called them. She had to explain the word couth to him, doing so sweetly without embarrassing him for his lack of knowledge. Over several meetings she display in her sweetness, humour, being a new dimension of womanhood to Matt. She was far more outgoing than his mother or Courtney and much more feminine.

Of course he'd told Courtney during their days together on the Mariposa about assaulting Vikki and they had discussed it in great detail.

Stopping outside the cattle yards, he suddenly thought of Raquel Tancred. In a way she had captured residency in Matt's mind, quite unexpectedly. He was enchanted by the way she moved, the way she looked. He was fascinated by her sensuality. Only once before had Matt met any woman quite like Raquel and that was Martha.

Raquel spoke to him perfectly at ease as if she had known him all her life. Did she have the hots for him? Difficult to know. He knew Raquel had spotted him looking her over. She could scarcely miss looking as him as at 6ft 3in, with broad shoulders, a broad chest and muscular arms he towered over her husband. He was proud of his physique and still tried to stand very erect but was aware that he was ageing.

Raquel was quite beautiful. Would she see that he was handsome? No, not at all. His face was scarred and his hair was neither black nor brown, a mixture of black, brown and grey in fact and pressed almost flat by the variety of hats he wore in carrying out various pursuits. He knew though that Vikki once told him that the memorable thing about his face was the dark green and slightly hooded eyes, eyes that rarely looked other than brooding. He though Raquel, the lovely, beautiful bodied and sexy Raquel whom he'd watched the first time they had met writing down orders in her notebook with the top of her tongue just visible from between her lips. Jeeze! He hoped she wasn't so old she'd lost her interest in sex.

Matt's time for reflection ended abruptly.

"Bloody hell Matt," called his farm manager. "You gone to sleep in there? We need to get a start on drenching and culling."

Getting out of the vehicle, Matt made an unaccustomed resolution, deciding Raquel was off limits. She's become Courtney's best friend after Patricia. He must not harm that friendship in any way.

"Right, Dick," called Matt happily. "Let's get at 'em."

The next day Matt heard from Doc Mackenzie that Matt's biopsy results were basal cell carcinomas that should be burnt off. Matt said he'd call in that evening on the way home. When the Doc had done that he looked at the spot on Matt's arm and said, "I think you ought to go to hospital and have a surgeon remove that. I don't like the look at it but we have the advantage of acting with it early."

"Give me a couple of snorts of whisky and whip it off now Doc."

"I really don't think..."

"Well Doc you won't get me near a hospital."

Doc Mackenzie went off and called his wife in to sterilize some instruments and he went off and returned with the whisky bottle. They all had a shot and then he gave Matt three more.

"Right prepare for a local anaesthetic Matt."

"Just get on with it Doc. I've taken my anaesthetic internally."

CHAPTER 16

Returning to Christchurch to live with Chase, and aware of her expensive demands, Reece made contact with his former contact who was director of distribution for a dealer involved in some unnamed product or products. The guy welcomed Reece back into his operation as Reece being a businessman and looking like a businessman was the perfect courier to deliver 'product' to businessmen.

This sideline business went well, producing good money for Reece and while the risk was high he was hugely rewarded for the small amount of time required to make deliveries.

Then it all came unstuck. Reece's supplier was arrested after a police drug squad sting and Reece came under surveillance because there was suspicion he might also be working for other suppliers. One afternoon Reece was taking three of his employer's digital back-up tapes to an off-site storage centre when he was apprehended and taken to police headquarters where he was searched and questioned.

Of course he denied the suggestion he'd been a drug courier as absurd. He demanded his right to call his lawyer and because the police examination of the tapes indicated they were genuine tapes and not dummy receptacles packed with cocaine or some other drug he was allowed to go.

But when Reece returned to his office he was called to the office of the chief executive where he was grilled intensely. Apparently a disgruntled detective had phoned the company to advise the CEO anonymously that Reece was a suspected drug courier.

Reece described the accusation as absurd but to no avail. He was offered six months' salary in return for his resignation plus normal termination benefits. The company chairman, Ian Owens, was called in and told Reece he was free to go as soon as he had tied up loose ends.

Ian told his CEO, "Reece's father and I became friends from the time we both attended an international investment symposium in Wellington, and we socialised together and combined to work a couple of private joint ventures together so I think we should not hold Reece to serving out his notice."

As Ian owned 75% of the shares in the investment company, his decision was accepted.

That evening Reece phoned his mother. "I'm coming home next week for good. Perhaps dad can find a place for me. He's built up quite a little empire in and around Miranda and I can work on expanding it for him. "

Courtney was over the moon at that news but not so Chase who'd only been told two hours earlier that Reece had fallen out with management and had resigned.

Her face contorted and her charm evaporated. "Bloody hell Reece, what are you playing at? There's no way that you'll ever get me to live in that intellectually barren hole called Miranda. I'd leave you rather than go there to rot."

This wasn't the Chase who'd cooed, "Oh, isn't this lovely, it's so green and so clean," as their arriving jet aircraft flew across Northland and the islands of Hauraki Gulf when coming to New Zealand to land at Auckland with her new husband. She'd soon tired of banal conversations and missed the fast and varied life that she'd become accustomed to in Chicago. Only when she was drinking alcohol or wildly laughing when rafting down rapids or ski to her maximum ability had she found happiness.

Even worse, they had found she could not bear children.

So when she delivered the provocative ultimatum, 'I'd rather leave you than go to live in Miranda', Reece felt a cold determination grip him, a feeling that he'd never experienced before.

Looking at Chase, he said coldly, "Then go. Go to your beloved Chicago or anywhere else. I don't wish to have you around spoiling my life with your whining and extravagant tastes."

Chase was appalled. "You've never spoken to me like this in all the time we have been together," she wailed. "How horrible of you. Why can't you just do something to please me and return to Chicago?"

"Because I am through pleasing you Chase. You are selfish and insensitive and rarely have been appreciative of what I do for you. It's time for us to go our separate ways,"

That night they slept apart, Chase crying herself to sleep, Reece spending several hours working out a future without Chase. A thought never far from the forefront of his mind also returned, the need for a successor. Once the divorce was through he would be free to marry a woman capable of bearing him a son.

The truth was he'd married Chase just before she was due to have breast surgery.

It was the removal of a growth in her left breast, with its legacy of scar tissue that led to Chase terminating her modelling career. Infatuated with her after being reunited when he'd returned to France, Reece soon learned Chase's two secrets: a cancerous growth in her breast, and her growing drug habit. He offered his shattered lover the bolt-hole that she seized, marriage and a new life in New Zealand as Mrs Matt Curtis. Those dark secrets remained hidden from family, friends and the media. Two days after the wedding Chase was in a hospital in Switzerland. Their honeymoon was spent there, with Chase recuperating.

Although a photo of Chase lying in a glass conservatory at a private clinic appeared in some Sunday newspapers she appeared to be a normal, happy international celebrity getting her batteries recharged before the next round of high living.

Well, now he'd had a gutful of her. She was on drugs again and that was pulling them further into debt.

During the next day they remained civil to each other, Reece ignoring Chase's outbursts of tears. They agreed on terms of separation and the sharing of their assets subject to the finalisation of a legal agreement.

"I'll phone our lawyer in the morning. What would a convenient time be for you?"

"The sooner the better," snapped Chase. "I want everything settled before I leave."

Chase was still reeling at the suddenness of this ending of their marriage. She had occasionally thought of returning to Chicago or even Sydney by herself, but having Reece still in the background in case she needed him. Now he'd taken command and told her to go, that their marriage was over. It's unbelievable how he'd changed so suddenly, from being a sophisticated but compliant and doting husband into a hard and quite ruthless bastard. He's suddenly behaving as if he's transformed into Matt, thought Chase, turning to cry into her pillow.

Three days later they sat in their lawyer's office and he briefed them on the steps they needed to take to end their marriage in divorce. Reece agreed to confess to adultery as one of the grounds for securing a divorce in those days.

* * *

Reece arrived home into the welcoming arms of his mother and grandmother and as to be expected he and his father shook hands and immediately berated him for dumping the beautiful, sweet Chase without making any attempt to achieve reconciliation.

"You should try living with her," Reece snapped.

Matt said nothing but thought that was one of the better comments he'd received from his son in recent years.

Horrified at this outburst Courtney said, "Matt, we are low on bread and milk. Could you please..."

"Okay, okay. I know when I'm not wanted in my own house," Matt growled, pretending to storm off but heading in relief to the hotel to herd with his mates, acknowledging his wife was one clever lady. He wouldn't bother buying bread and milk because he knew they'd have plenty in the house.

When he returned for dinner he was told Reece had eaten early and gone to bed because he was stressed.

"What's stress?" Matt asked innocently and listened with a sly smile as his wife and mother dutifully attempted to educate him about an affliction that weighed down mere mortals at times of anxiety.

As they explanations ended he ignited another round by asking, "What the hell would be stressful for Reece when he's dumped his problem? He ought to be out celebrating."

The women sighed in acknowledgement that tension had returned to their hitherto peaceful rural environment. They had reacted differently to the news that the marriage was over. Courtney sobbed that it was a tragedy for a marriage that appeared to have been made in heaven. Although offering sympathy, Patricia was not surprised. She had expected a short marriage as Reece so obviously had married above himself. The girl was vivacious, eloquent, well mannered and appeared to be highly intelligent.