After putting on a robe, he went to the kitchen to make himself a sandwich. While he ate, he phoned Etienne with an update and told him not to worry, Dominic would continue to cover for him and told him to get better. After hanging up, he needed a distraction. He turned on the TV to watch the news, but nothing helped get his mind off Nathalie Fournier.
She was on some kind of mission. He was certain of it. Though a pharmacist, maybe she had an ambitious streak and did freelancing undercover for a newspaper or a wine industry magazine to make extra money.
He wished his cousin Raoul was home so they could talk. They were closer than brothers and always confided in each other. But Raoul and his father, Matthieu, the comptroller of the company, were in Saint Tropez at a vintners’ conference and they wouldn’t be back until Sunday night.
Any conversation would have to wait until Monday. And then what, Dominic?
Maybe some politician was paying a lot of money for her to get an exclusive on the vineyard. Was it hoped that her digging would turn up something she could expose concerning the migrants who worked at the Fontesquieu vineyard? No one would suspect her under the guise of a pharmacist, of all things.
He supposed anything was possible and didn’t like what he was thinking. Half a dozen ideas of what she might be up to percolated in his mind, as his domineering grandfather was always guarding against trespassers.
Dominic’s thoughts turned to his autocratic grandfather who’d been born with a divine right of kings syndrome. He felt a bleak expression cross over his features. The austere man’s dictatorial personality had forced the whole family to live under his thumb. He’d forced arranged marriages for all his six sons and daughters, and insisted they all live and work together at the massive chateau, determined to keep it all in the family.
Armand had screwed up more lives than Dominic dared count. Under his tutelage, Dominic’s own father and mother, Gaston and Vivienne, had put unbearable pressure on him and his siblings to marry certain moneyed, elite people they’d picked out for them. At eighteen, Dominic had refused to be told what to do.
No one in the family—including his parents—had had a good or happy marriage, souring Dominic’s taste for the institution. Early on he’d made up his mind to study business and carve out his own future. It had been imperative he get away from the family dynamics to survive. His dreams had gone far beyond being a vintner and he’d left home for Paris under the threat of being disinherited, but he hadn’t cared.
He’d begged his brother to go with him, but Etienne had held back, too unsure to challenge their father and grandfather. Their older sister, Quinette, had already been married off.
Ultimately, Etienne stayed and Dominic had left alone, putting himself through college. After graduation he’d studied investment banking in Paris and, in time, he’d worked for a firm there where he’d made a considerable fortune in investments, coming home only for vacations and various events.
He would have stayed there permanently, but four months ago he’d received a frantic call from his mother that his father was seriously ill with pneumonia and might die. Dominic had intended to return to Vence only temporarily but his grandfather immediately insisted Dominic take over his father’s position as funds manager while the older man was ill.
Still hesitant to remain in Vence, it was Raoul, now vice president in charge of marketing and sales for the Fontesquieu Corporation, who’d been the one to beg Dominic to take the job and not go back to Paris.
The two of them had been best friends growing up, always watching out for one another. Over the years they’d always stayed in touch, Raoul visiting Paris when he could. In the end, Dominic hadn’t been able to refuse Raoul and so had stayed on while his father was recovering.
He was no fool though. Ever since his return, he’d known his grandfather had an ulterior motive in wanting Dominic to take over the management of funds. Because of a bad year of frost and rain two years ago, the vineyards in France had suffered severe financial losses and even their family had been impacted despite their assets in other businesses.
Dominic knew his father and grandfather were plotting for him to marry Corinne Herlot, who’d bring the fabulous Herlot industrial fortune with her. She’d been at several family parties, but he could never be interested and had planned to leave for Paris by the time the harvest was over.
At least that was what he’d intended until today when Nathalie Fournier had appeared. Now there was no way in this world could he leave yet...
* * *
Nathalie could hear the sound of jazz outside the swinging doors of what turned out to be the Guinguet bistro. There were people going in and out, enjoying the balmy Friday night air with its hint of fruit from the vineyards. She could well understand the lure this atmosphere had held for her stepsister.
Easing past couples, Nathalie walked inside the crowded establishment filled with small round tables and people slow dancing to the music. In the romantic atmosphere, she realized she hadn’t had a date since breaking up with Guy three months ago.
It had hurt that he wouldn’t want to take on anyone else’s child, whether it was Alain or a child they might adopt after marriage. She couldn’t imagine a childless union, but knew that adoption wasn’t an option for everyone. She’d hoped Guy would be open to it but he couldn’t have made his feelings against it clearer.
She’d learned of her condition at the age of twenty. Nathalie had ovulated only once by then. That was se
ven years ago. Since that time, she’d ovulated only twice. After what had happened with Guy, her natural worry was that any man she would meet in the future might have reservations about adoption, but she couldn’t think about that now. Nathalie knew it had been the right decision to stop seeing Guy and didn’t regret it.
Her mind kept going over what had happened to Antoinette. Her stepsister had fallen madly in love with a man she’d met in this very bistro. She’d loved him so much she’d had his baby.
Today Nathalie felt certain she’d met her stepsister’s lover inside that tent. One look at him and she’d understood the chemistry. Love at first sight, sweeping Antoinette away. But clearly the fire had been only on her stepsister’s part because he’d disappeared on her.
He couldn’t have known he’d left her pregnant, could he? After meeting him, Nathalie knew he was the kind of man who could have any woman he wanted. Antoinette had likely been a dalliance for a month, then nothing more.
Now that Nathalie had met him, she feared that if he was Alain’s father, he wouldn’t want anything to do with a baby he hadn’t intended to sire. Nathalie was beginning to think this had been a terrible idea and she should leave this whole thing alone. Alain had a surfeit of love from her and his grandmother. That would have to be enough.
“Mademoiselle?”
A man’s voice caused Nathalie to turn around. She’d been admiring some of the paintings of the Fontesquieu chateau and gardens adorning the walls.
“Perhaps you remember me?”