The Vineyard. Karen Aldous

to the vineyard. Her mind then flipped, had she done the right thing? Panic and doubt were now creeping in. Had she taken the right action? What she did know, and couldn’t explain, was the extraordinary attraction she had towards him. Not that she invited it. It was just there. Perhaps that was why she trusted him. Perhaps he had the same effect on her mother. Maybe his art was persuasion. His flawless looks and charisma would charm Marilyn Munroe out of her grave! Could it be he set every woman tingling in his presence? And, Anton, how on earth was she going to get rid of him?

       Chapter 4

      For most of the journey Cal hadn’t been able to get Lizzie out of his mind and now sitting in a car in Jez’s vineyard on this glorious spring day was almost equally distracting.

      ‘Lucky man is Jez,’ Cal remarked to his friend Charles as he enviously observed the scene before him. Charles skillfully maneuvered the four-wheel drive around winding hairpins up into rolling Provencal hills clothed in rows of lush vines sucking up the sun’s energy from a Mediterranean blue sky – it was truly a ready-made canvas. Very much, he thought, like Lizzie. Only she was a beauty and a beast all rolled into one. A dichotomy which he considered challenging and, at the same time, endearing. Much like raising vines, she was a vision to behold and admire but so delicate and vulnerable that he believed she would be worth every effort because the rewards could be exponential. The fact that he so adored her beauty but also abhorred her brutality towards her mother gave him a new raison d’être – to discover her complexities and the scars within. Was he smitten he asked himself?

      Charles Pitt-Barker turned the Range Rover onto a wide sweeping entrance adorned with a sign “Domain de Shires” in black with ruby-gold letters.

      ‘Bloody Brits. Have to turn to tack,’ he said, observing Jez’s choice of name and navigating the stones to what was now a long, snaking dirt track. His passenger however was preoccupied gazing out with awe and drew breath at the sight. The sun shimmered on the trellised vines stretching across the landscape. Almost-pink soil radiated heat to warm and sweeten the masses of leaves and abundance of fruit whilst thick hedges offered shelter from the winds and tall cypress trees graced the rolling hills beyond.

      ‘Wow, the leaves on the vines have thickened since I was here a few weeks back. Jez is gonna want some help pruning that lot.’

      ‘Hence the invite then?’ Charles mocked, his head nodding from side to side.

      ‘Oh you know Jez! Any excuse for a piss up.’

      ‘Oh, it’s fine for a day,’ Charles scratched his head, ‘rather be on the sea though, me.’

      ‘Yeah, I know Charlie-boy but – hey – you can’t beat good wine and good company in exchange for a few hours’ work– beats being in the office! And look at this view.’

      ‘Bloody right,’ Charles, who spent his long days practicing French family law grinned. ‘Is Jez still seeing that designer girl, Anna what’s her name?’

      ‘Annatia Wu, yes. Bright, talented and quite a sweet girl actually.’ With those words, Cal’s mind immediately slipped back to his meeting with Lizzie just a short hour ago. She was sweet he was sure, under the bitter coating.

      ‘Well she’s done well focusing her designs on Jez,’ shot Charlie, laughing at his own schoolboy joke.

      ‘I wouldn’t tell her that, Charlie-boy. I should warn you she needs a bit of a humour transplant – you know, she’s bit intense. Good to see Jez happy though.’

      ‘Why do we do this to ourselves?’

      ‘What’s that?’

      ‘Women! They take away our humour and spontaneity.’

      ‘Mmm, they have a habit of getting under our skin I suppose.’ Cal got an image of Lizzie naked getting under his, and swiftly moved the conversation on. ‘Jez could do a lot worse.’

      ‘God yeah, that Tina he was with for years didn’t deserve him. Cheating little bitch! Glad he got rid of her.’

      Cal nodded in agreement but was still distractedly captivated by all the surroundings. The track was winding to an end and Cal’s mouth was figuratively dribbling.

      ‘Jez has really turned this place around. This is fucking amazing,’ he cried. The Range Rover was now facing the villa and the whole scene would have knocked Cal off his feet – had he been standing. In just a few weeks, much work had been done. ‘He must be the luckiest bastard alive I reckon, inheriting this little gem.’

      ‘That depends?’ Charlie slowed the vehicle to drive over a ramp. ‘I mean, I can’t imagine what I would have done with it? Sold it probably.’

      ‘Well, it’s not something that floats your boat is it? If your grandparents left you a pontoon in Cannes, your own wide-berth mooring oh, and a flotilla of yachts, I think we might be on par!’

      ‘Too right – Yeah…if only!’

      ‘And a beautiful woman of course?’ then Cal recoiled at his faux pas. ‘Sorry mate.’

      ‘Cal, I’m done with woman, beautiful or not. Like I said, they knock the life out of you anyway. Well, Kate did. Anyway, don’t worry, I’m better now, though I can’t believe it was nearly two years ago that she died.

      ‘God bless her, it is, yes, nearly two years. It was after I came out of the navy and set up the first vines. God, how time flies. Kate was one of the best Charley-boy.’

      ‘Yeah…And no one I’ve met or am likely to will come up to her standard. No one can or will replace Kate. Bloody unfair! Bloody bike ride to work!’

      ‘Yeah. So sudden.’

      ‘We’d probably have had kids by now. Kate had wanted to start a family, last year.’

      ‘That’s sad mate,’ Cal’s voice was sympathetic, ‘you’d make a great dad. I reckon Alana did me a favour. I’d have been gutted to have started a family only for her to decide she was too busy with her career and to never see her child.’

      ‘Yes, I agree. Alana never struck me as the maternal type. Must have been good seeing Jack at Easter though?’

      ‘Yes, only a few days but he was good. Sixteen next year.’ Cal couldn’t believe how quickly time had gone. ‘It was pretty devastating not being involved with Jack but once he’s finished high school, he wants to come and stay longer.’

      Cal felt a pang of emotion from a past era and a longing for his child. It had been hard for him to swallow all those years ago, soon after he’d joined the navy, when his girlfriend, who was just eighteen and pregnant with his child, had flown off to New York with a guy twice her age. She even tried to claim the child belonged to Reuben, her new and super rich husband. Cal flew out once she had Jack and persuaded her to tell Reuben the truth, before he did. Fortunately for Kelly, Reuben forgave her and Cal made sure Jack knew who his father was.

      ‘I’m looking forward to that. Hopefully, we’ll see more of each other instead of just twice a year. He’ll be over for Christmas this year.’

      ‘Brilliant, you both deserve some time together,’ Charles said, smiling.

      ‘So, Charley-boy, no romance on the horizon then?’

      ‘Met up with one or two other lawyers, female ones obviously but, I don’t know, it could be me. I don’t really have the energy to play their games or jump to their demands.’

      ‘Maybe it’s too soon? They’re never easy at the best of times,’ Cal consoled his friend.

      ‘Exactly. So bloody complicated, women.’ Charles gently slowed the Range Rover as they approached the villa and drove over the final ramp. Jez appeared from a freshly painted Provencal blue door which matched the shutters.

      ‘There’s our man,’ cheered