CHAPTER NINE

T ALK OF THE RIFT between father and son spread like a summer bush fire. Everyone in the two Sydney stores got together in groups, wondering and whispering about what might happen. Through all the years Rupert Blanchard had been the bogeyman, the boss who struck terror into the staff. Some of them had dreadful memories of him stripping pieces off them. Boyd, thank the Lord, was entirely different. The new wave Blanchard, enormously popular with the staff. They were behind him to a man. He already had the female vote. Leona was easily accepted as a great, if surprising choice. No one had picked up on the big romance. The two of them had been extremely quiet about it.

Leona openly wore her ring, accepting a never-ending flow of good wishes from near and far, which for the most part were utterly sincere.

Robbie had been exuberant with joy. “You’re really, really meant for each other. ”

Geraldine had put it a little differently. “About time! ”

“Gosh! ” Sally sighed when Leona showed her the ring. “You have to be the luckiest girl in the whole wide world! ”

“And Boyd is the luckiest man! ” Leona retorted, then they both broke into laughter.

“Seriously, you’re the perfect couple! ” Sally pronounced when she sobered. “Bea says she knew it was going to happen from way back. Yet she never said a word. ”

“Pays not to, ” Leona warned.

Two days after Chloe Compton arrived home from New Zealand, she rang Leona asking her if they could meet for coffee. Chloe had received phone calls when she was in Auckland, telling her to come back as soon as she could—something was wrong. The one thing Chloe hadn’t counted on was losing Boyd to his cousin—or cousin of sorts—Leona Blanchard. Everything she had seen had given her to understand the two were antagonistic. Well, not exactly antagonistic, but that was as far as she could get. They were always sparring anyway.

Leona’s first instinct had been to drop the phone, instead she thought furiously as Chloe was speaking. Meeting Chloe didn’t seem like a good idea, especially as Chloe couldn’t manage her best wishes or at a pinch congratulations when everyone else around Leona was doing so. She didn’t think she could bear Chloe telling her how broken-hearted she was, drowning them both in misery. In the end she told Chloe she was all booked up for at least a fortnight.

“Maybe I could come to your apartment one evening after work, ” Chloe suggested. “I promise I won’t keep you long. ”

“You know where I live? ” Leona asked in surprise. With her Blanchard name, she liked to keep as anonymous as possible—even her telephone number was ex-directory.

“Of course, ” Chloe responded, uncharacteristically sharp. “Boyd pointed out the building to me one evening when we were driving home from dinner. From recollection, I think he said, ‘That’s where my little cousin lives’. ”

Leona found that impossible to believe. Apart from anything else, Boyd would have to have gone right out of his way to drive past the building. “Maybe you’re mistaken about that, Chloe, ” she said, maintaining a friendly voice. “Boyd has never referred to me as his little cousin, even when I was little. Can you tell me over the phone what this is all about? I can understand and I sympathise if you got it wrong about Boyd’s feelings for you. Probably we can’t be friends right now, Chloe, but in time? ”

Chloe hung up on her.

Chloe announced herself at the apartment the very same evening. Obviously she knew Boyd was in Melbourne for a few days.

“Could I come up, Leona? ” she asked, standing squarely in front of the video screen so Leona could see her.

How could she refuse? Chloe was a respectable young woman from an establishment family. It seemed very unkind, even unmannerly to refuse her entry. Not without misgivings, Leona pushed the button to release the security door. Why was Chloe so desperate to see her? Was she about to tell her she and Boyd had actually talked marriage?

That couldn’t be. Just couldn’t. So many things were happening in her life, she felt pounded to a pulp.

Chloe duly arrived at her door, a tall angular young woman, attractive without being eye-catching, good dark hair, chocolate-brown eyes, always beautifully dressed. Her fine skin was blotched with colour. “I’m sorry about this, Leona, ” she apologised, “but I have to talk to you. ” She stepped into the apartment before Leona could even move away from the front door.

“Well, come in, ” Leona invited wryly. “Can I offer you something—tea, coffee, a stiff drink? ” Actually she didn’t have any stiff drinks on hand. Some white wine and beer in the fridge was probably the best she could do.

“White wine, if you have it, ” Chloe said, slumping onto one of the living room sofas. “This is such a mess! ”

“I hope you don’t mean the apartment. ” Leona tried for a little lightness.

“God, no, it’s lovely. Just like you. ” Chloe’s voice was faintly trembling. “I mean what’s happened. ”

Leona stood there, facing the other young woman. “You surely can’t mean our engagement? ”

Chloe began to cry.

“Oh, please don’t cry, Chloe, ” Leona begged. “Here, I’ll get you something to drink. ”

Swiftly she retreated to the galley kitchen to pour them both a glass of wine. A mess? Okay, let’s think. The worst possible scenario—and it did happen frequently in real life—was Chloe about to confound her by telling her she was pregnant with Boyd’s child?

Get a grip. Boyd had told her to trust him. Trust him she would.

Chloe left off drying her eyes. She accepted her drink, then took a hearty gulp. “Are you really certain Boyd is the right man for you, Leona? ” she questioned.

Leona bit her tongue against a sharp answer. “I couldn’t be happier, Chloe. ” Calmly she took a seat on the sofa opposite.

Chloe placed her hands on her hot cheeks. “Why wouldn’t you be? ” she moaned. “You’ve landed a great prize. It’s the very opposite for me. The parents, especially my father, are in a terrible state. It’s like a bomb has been dropped on them. ”

“That seems very extreme, ” Leona said. “I know all the talk was of an alliance between you and Boyd, an arranged marriage in the good old tradition, but that’s what it was, Chloe. Talk. Misinformation put about by Boyd’s father and your father. We both know they’re the kind of men who love running their children’s lives. ”

“Fathers! ” Chloe said bitterly, downing what little was left of her wine. Leona thought it inadvisable to offer her another. “Do you know, for the first time in my life Daddy was actually paying me some attention, ” she said, earning a big twinge of sympathy from Leona. “He’d hoped for a son and he got me. If I’d been a fish he would have thrown me back. I’ve been miserably conscious I’m a nothing person since I was a child. Do you understand that, Leona? ” She shot Leona an appealing agonised glance.

“I do and I’m so sorry, Chloe. ” Leona felt genuine pity for the other woman.

“My big chance was to land Boyd, ” Chloe confided. “That would have made me really someone in Daddy’s eyes. ”

“Maybe you and Daddy set your sights too high? ” Leona suggested. “Women have been chasing Boyd since he left school. ”

Chloe was biting her lip with tension. “Why wouldn’t they? ” she said. “He’s a man to take a woman’s breath away. I love Boyd. We’ve known one another since we were children. I was pretty sure he was falling in love with me. ”

Leona had been prepared for this so it didn’t come as the blow that perhaps was intended. “Could you swear to that, Chloe? ” she asked. “I know Boyd, the man. I’m certain he wouldn’t have given you false hope. ”

“We went lots of places together. ” Chloe lifted her chin. “Daddy thought it was a very good sign. Rupert always made a fuss of me, singled me out. You must know you’re currently in high disfavour? Rupert is absolutely furious with Boyd. ”

“None of which will do you any good, Chloe. ” Leona was becoming tired of this whole conversation. She glanced at her wrist watch, giving a little start. “I don’t like to hurry you, but I’m dining out this evening. ” She had no difficulty telling the white lie.

“But Boyd’s in Melbourne! ” Chloe huffed, as though that was the first step in Leona’s journey to becoming unfaithful.

“I do have friends, Chloe, ” Leona answered mildly enough. “Now, if there’s nothing else I can help you with? ”

Chloe stood up, squaring her shoulders and gathering her very expensive designer bag. “Daddy will never forgive me for losing out on Boyd, ” she said. “It was my one opportunity in life to gain his approval. ”

“I’m sure there will be others, ” Leona replied gently. “Why don’t you try to make a life for yourself, Chloe? Moving out of your parents’ home would be a start. ”

Chloe looked back at Leona with startled eyes. “And lose out on my inheritance? ” she cried. “Sorry, that’s just not on! ”

So much for independence!

After Chloe left Leona was overtaken by a strange loneliness. Women in love were so terribly vulnerable. What she desperately needed was Boyd’s reassuring presence.

At nine-thirty the phone rang.

She flew to it. “Hi, Flower Face. I’ve been tied up in meetings all day. Couldn’t wait to ring you…”

In an instant all Leona’s doubts and fears were blown away.

They were back in place the following day. Immediately she caught sight of Boyd’s face Leona knew something had gone terribly wrong. He had arrived back from Melbourne mid-afternoon. They had dinner planned for this evening. Now he had arrived at the apartment, looking so blazingly handsome, so formidable, the sheer maleness of him made her reel. It was almost as if a big argument was on simmer, waiting to boil.

“Is something wrong? ” she asked, eyeing him tentatively. He hadn’t kissed her. Was it any wonder she felt a black cloud descending?

“Why didn’t you tell me Dad offered you money to break off the engagement, leave town, go overseas? ” he asked, a muscle working along the clean-cut line of his jaw.

She stared back at him, speechless.

“No answer? ” he asked, his blue eyes brilliant with high mettle.

Was she going to have to live with this for ever?

“Who told you? ” she countered. She had never said a word to Boyd about her last conversation with his father. It was too demeaning, not to her but to Rupert. Loving Boyd like she did, she wasn’t about to offer him further upset. Now it seemed that had been a tactical error. The Blanchards dealt in tactics, didn’t they?

“Okay, so it’s true. ” He pulled her to him, locking an arm around her. “What was the final figure? ”

She leaned back against his arm. Fiery sparks of electricity. “What did Rupert tell you? ” Because she was so stung, she spoke in a provocative manner quite unlike her.

“Ten million. ” His tone was tight with disgust.

She broke away with a brittle laugh, moving into the living room. “Pretty cheap, I’d say. You’re worth far more than that, Boyd. ” Her tone was unmistakably contemptuous. “I’m holding out for more. ”

He came after her, fighting down his explosive mood. He’d had a tough agenda and he was nearly dead on his feet. “You won’t get it or anything like it, ” he said. “I don’t believe a bloody word of it anyway. Why didn’t you tell me? Why won’t you trust me, Leo? What can I offer you that will make you love me? ”

She spun so quickly the skirt of her lovely sea-green dress swirled about her legs. “I do love you! ” She was swept by passionate revolt. “But you’re a dreadful lot, you Blanchards. You’re famous for being dreadful. There should be warning placards saying: Don’t get mixed up with this lot! You want to know what’s going on? I’ll tell you. Chloe Compton arrived on my doorstep yesterday, desperate to unburden herself. ”

Boyd groaned aloud. “You didn’t tell me that either. ”

“I didn’t want to upset you, ” she answered hotly. “Now I simply don’t care. Your horrible father did offer to buy me off. I didn’t tell you because I thought it too demeaning to Rupert. Shows what I know about how low Rupert can stoop. As for Chloe, she accepts you don’t love her—”

“Love her? God! ” Boyd’s expression indicated the level of his disgust was sky-high. “Go on. She told you we were lovers. We were trying to have a child together. I’m prepared to believe anything. ” He threw his tall elegant body into an armchair.

“She didn’t go that far, ” Leona told him coldly. “Poor Chloe considers herself a nothing person. Landing you would have been the defining moment of her life. Her father would have been proud of her for the very first time. ”

“Being proud of his only daughter—his only child—is a problem for Compton, ” Boyd said, gritting his fine teeth. “Why doesn’t Chloe have the guts to get out and make a life of her own? Anyway, forget Chloe. Sad for her, she is forgettable. ”

“I think even she realises that. Anyway, I think Chloe believes—maybe a lot of people do—you and Rupert are fighting a duel with me in the middle. ”

Boyd groaned, thrusting a frustrated hand through his crow-black hair. “That’s probably true. We are fighting a duel. But it’s not one I brought on. I’m content to succeed my father in due course. This isn’t about me or you, Leo. It’s about Dad. It’s about how life has warped him. ”

“So it’s a fight to the finish? ” she asked, breathing fast. There was so much emotion in the room it was draining the air out.

“I won’t give you up, Leo, ” he said. “Not for Dad. Not for Blanchards. Not even for you. Are we going out to dinner, or are we just going to go to bed? ” he asked, an unbearably cynical note in his voice.

At his tone Leona angrily pulled the pins out of her beautiful hair and shook it free of its arrangement. “Neither, as it turns out, ” she said in the manner of a young woman who had had enough. “I don’t give a damn about going to bed. This has gone right beyond sex. I won’t be used as a pawn, Boyd. I’m a woman! ”

“My God, aren’t you! ” he said, getting up and coming towards her. He didn’t want half measures. His whole being was crying out for her.

“Don’t you dare kiss me! ” she threatened, tears standing in her eyes. “You didn’t kiss me when you arrived! ” she accused him, every word ringing with intense disappointment.

Boyd took her face between his hands, bringing it closer to his. “Well, I’m kissing you now. ” He bent his head and began to kiss her passionately, like a drowning man clinging to his one hope in life.

“Come to bed with me, Leo, ” he whispered between the most ardent of kisses.

“I won’t. I mean it, ” she cried, her small fists clenched hard. It suddenly seemed immensely important to stand firm. She fought off the familiar waves of desire that were flooding her body. Besides, there was this strange exhilaration in defying him. No matter how much pain she was giving herself, she had her pride. Did he love her or lust for her? Was she the silly sacrificial lamb?

“Okay! ” Abruptly, Boyd threw up his arms in an exaggerated movement of surrender. “I don’t know what else I have to do, Leo. Right now, I’m so bloody tired, I’m fresh out of ideas. I want you so badly I can hardly think of anything else. But I’m not going to tolerate your switching on and off. I’m not going to tolerate your keeping things from me. I understand your motives, but I think you would know I can handle any amount of upset. It’s the keeping things from me I don’t like. I’ve asked you to share my life. Doesn’t that say it all? You’re not some bimbo I lust after. Give me a break. Either we’re together or we’re not together. It’s up to you. ”

The ultimatum delivered, Boyd turned on his heel and strode to the door.

Within seconds her hot raging blood ran cold in her veins. She had to fight the powerful urge to run after him, but her thoughts were all over the place. In the end she let him go, even though he was an inseparable part of her. She had to think this whole thing through. Not only Rupert was trying to drive them apart. It took her a while to realise she was crying silently, the tears sliding down her cheeks. Boyd was prepared to stand up to his father, the most ruthless of men. Rupert couldn’t control their lives. Why was she so afraid? Even her father wasn’t afraid that Rupert might ruin his career with Blanchards. He was prepared to move on. Possibly without Delia at his side.

What, then, should she do? She sat down on the sofa with a box of tissues, folding her legs under her. The surest way to wreck her life was to lose Boyd. He was so much stronger than she was. More equipped by nature and long experience to cope with all this fallout. What she had to do was face up to the demanding job of becoming his wife. Probably if she were a few years older she might be able to cope better. It hadn’t been easy being part of the Blanchard family. But she did owe them a lot. Most of them, as she had so recently found out, were right on side with her. All except the most powerful Blanchard of them all.

Either we’re together or we’re not!

Boyd had challenged her and with good reason. She had to let go of her fears. It wasn’t Rupert who could destroy her dreams.

She realised with a sense of shock it was her own self.

An hour later she rang Boyd at his apartment, judging he would have had ample time to arrive home. She was all ready with her apologies, desperate to make up. What woman in her right mind would risk losing such an extraordinary man? She wasn’t going to have to walk through life alone. She had Boyd.

The phone rang out and his answering service picked up. He hadn’t gone home.

She did her best not to break down. She left her message. “It’s me. I’m so sorry for tonight. I don’t know what gets into me at times. Speak to you tomorrow. ”

It was as much as she could manage without dissolving into a flood of tears.

Leona was not to know it, but Boyd had gone over to his aunt Geraldine, his long time confidante and supporter, to talk through the dark situation his father—her brother—had mired them in. They talked until so late that Geraldine suggested he stay the night, which he did and not for the first time. Geraldine now knew the full story but she would never say a word. Nevertheless she had been ready with plenty of advice.

“Nothing wrong with a man speaking his mind, ” she said. “But you have to remember Leo’s age and her tender heart. Then there’s the fact she’s being beset on all sides. Drat that Chloe. She needs to get herself sorted. Rupert has been responsible for such a lot of hurt. No need to tell you that. You’ll be seeing Leo today, of course. ”

“Of course. ” Boyd bent to kiss his aunt’s cheek.

As it happened Boyd had outside appointments for most of the morning so Leona wasn’t able to get through to him.

“I’ll tell him you called the moment he arrives, Miss Blanchard, ” said Vera Matthews, his secretary. Although Leona had often invited Vera to call her Leona, Vera, a woman of the old school, immensely capable and loyal, stuck to the more formal Miss Blanchard.

She still hadn’t heard from Boyd by lunchtime so she went off in search of a solitary coffee. She had asked Sally to join her but she was so snowed under she said she would have a bite to eat at her desk.

It was as Leona was returning to the office just under an hour later that she saw Rupert and one of the Blanchard Board members in intense discussion outside Stewart Murray’s merchant bank. She couldn’t do as she wished and cross the street to avoid them. She couldn’t get caught jaywalking on top of everything else.

It was Bob Martin who first spotted her, smiling and tipping the brim of his hat. Bob was a nice man. Rupert was at work again; no doubt he would be looking to ensure Bob’s support if any battle was to take place in future. She smiled back, pointing to her watch and quickening her step, miming that she was late back for work. She could have gone over but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She was disgusted with Rupert. She was trying very hard not to be frightened. Rupert was such an intimidating man. Yet men like Rupert had an absolute certainty that they were always in the right.

The pavements were thronged with people, workers coming off or going on their lunch break, tourists, shoppers clutching lots of bags. She wasn’t aware of Rupert until he spoke from directly behind her. “You know exactly what you want, don’t you, my dear? ” His tone was deliberately low but she heard every grim word with unnatural clarity.

“Yes, I do, Rupert, ” she said quietly with clear-headed courage. Her strength had returned. She turned to face him as he came alongside her, a big handsome man, faultlessly groomed, with a palpable aura of power and, it had to be admitted, on this day of days, a frightening aura of violence. “I want your son. I want Boyd. He knows exactly what he wants too. The best thing for us all, Rupert, is to be family. The worst thing would be for you to enter into a losing battle with Boyd. He doesn’t want that. Neither do I. ”

Rupert’s eyes narrowed to slits and his cheeks flushed red. “Such insolence! ” He gave a harsh laugh.

“Please, Rupert, ” she begged, feeling sadness for the man he had become. The worst part was that it seemed impossible for him to change.

They were now close to the junction, facing Blanchards’ main store, hemmed in by the lunchtime crowd. Leona had never felt so uneasy in her life. Yet her own personal safety wasn’t on her mind. The opposing traffic was given the green light at the precise moment that a brutally strong hand moved to shove her in the middle of the back. She let out a cry, closing her eyes as her willowy body, unprepared for the onslaught, bowed forward. She lost balance in her high heels and stumbled onto the road.

People nearby reacted in an instant, filled with alarm, but frozen in position. It was all happening so fast. Others hurrying to catch the lights wondered what was going on. The young woman with the beautiful mane of red-gold hair appeared to have catapulted from the pavement into the direct path of the oncoming cars. One skidded around a corner, avoiding certain trouble. The following car, an SUV unaware of the woman in the road came on. No city driver dared to hold up the steady stream of traffic. A woman with her small daughter standing to the left of where Leona had been standing cried out, terrified.

Leona herself scarcely had time to panic, though she expected to be run over in the next moment. Only Rupert galvanised himself. He scooped her up from behind, all but flinging her slender body back into the crowd without thought for himself and the dangerous proximity of the oncoming SUV. The driver, however, was swiftly to realise in horror that he was going to hit a pedestrian. No comfort at all in the fact that the pedestrian shouldn’t have been on the road with the lights against him.

Rupert’s tall heavy body was picked up and flung down on the road as if he were no weight at all.

The whole world seemed to grind to a stop and Leona fainted for the first time in her life.

The six o’clock news started with a bulletin: Rupert Blanchard dead—although the shocking news had already broken on the street and on the Internet. With sombre faces and subdued voices, anchor men on different television channels relayed the account of how the retail giant, billionaire and philanthropist, one of the richest men in the country, had bravely put his own life on the line to save that of his future daughter-in-law, Leona Blanchard, who had recently become engaged to the Blanchard heir, Boyd Blanchard. Rupert Blanchard had been swiftly transferred from the accident scene to the nearest hospital but tragically he had died en route from a fatal head injury.

Leona, still in shock and detained at the hospital, almost believed it. Rupert had given his life to save her? Let everyone believe it. At the end he did. The rest was best left unsaid. She had given a statement to the police. She had told them she felt dizzy and had stumbled in her high heels. Rupert had been there when he was desperately needed. The tragedy was that he had been unable to save himself. She would never forget his sacrifice.

That would be the family line. She was family. Boyd was now at its head. Responsibility had already fallen heavily on her shoulders. She could bear it. Rupert had punished himself in his own way.

“A terrible, terrible thing! ” the young nurse in her room said, tears standing in her eyes, her voice very gentle. “He must have loved you a great deal. ”

It had taken hours for Boyd to take charge of what was now a tremendous crisis for Blanchards. More was expected of him than most other people. He had grown up with that. Staff all over the building were crying, a sure indication that great wealth alone was enough to bring forth tears, he thought with faint bitterness. His father had not been loved.

Boyd had spoken to everyone he wanted to speak to, needed to speak to. He had given endless instructions thanking God for his personal staff’s cool, calm efficiency in the midst of chaos. All he wanted was to get to the hospital to pick up his beloved Leona and bring her home. He had talked to a doctor—somebody—who had assured him she wasn’t in any way hurt, only in shock, as was to be expected. Much as he longed for it, there was no way he could get to her until he had taken care of everything that needed to be taken care of, which was a great deal. He had heard the story, had spoken to the police, had seen the television news.

Something was being hidden here. His instincts over many long years had been honed razor sharp. He turned the whole thing over and over in his mind. He wouldn’t believe a single thing until he had Leona where she needed to be—safe in his arms. From now on he wouldn’t let her out of his sight.

He parked outside the hospital in a doctor’s reserved spot, not caring. He didn’t pause at reception. He swept on to the room where he knew Leona had been taken. She wasn’t on the bed. She was sitting on a chair, fully dressed, her beautiful hair cascading over her shoulders. It was the only thing that looked vital about her. She was white as milk, fragile as spun glass.

His heart melted with love. “Leo, sweetheart, I came as quickly as I could. ” He went to her, raising her with exquisite gentleness to her feet, keeping his arms protectively around her.

She smiled at him. He had never seen a sweeter, more poignant smile in his life.

“Boyd, ” she said very quietly, reaching up to stroke his cheek. “I’m so sorry. ”

“I know. ” He bent his head to kiss her. It was a kiss that was more a solemn vow—an affirmation that she was his woman, the woman he was to marry. She was looking so traumatised it cut him to the heart. “Are you ready to go home? ” he asked.

“The car is just outside. ” He was desperate to hold her. Comfort her. Help her over her shocking experience. He knew he wouldn’t be able to get over it.

“I go where you go, ” she said, raising her eyes to his. “I love you with all my heart. I’ll love you until my last breath. What if I never had the chance to tell you properly? ” She was suddenly frantic, feeling once more Rupert’s strong ruthless hand at her back. “I can’t possibly imagine life without you. You know that? ”

“I do. I do. Hush now, ” he soothed. “You’ve had a terrible shock. I’m here. We’re together. I’ll never leave you. We’re an invincible team, you and I. Now, let’s get you out of here. We won’t talk about anything until you feel you’re ready. ”

The knowledge that he had guessed what might have happened flashed through her. How could she keep anything from Boyd? He always saw through to the truth. He saw behind the smokescreen, even as part of him mourned the manner of his father’s passing.

“He did save me in the end, ” she said sadly. “No secrets between us, Boyd? ”

“No secrets, ” he confirmed, hugging her to him, trying his hardest to crush the horror he felt at what his father had seriously contemplated in a moment of madness, like some wicked god who demanded sacrifice. It didn’t bear thinking about. Not now, though it would be with him all the days of his life. His whole being was committed to comforting his love, his only love—Leona.

“Only the two of us will ever know, ” she whispered.

He turned her to him. Kissed her. Their first public kiss. More loving kisses would be recorded by the media over the many long years of their public life. Indeed it was to become near impossible for the public to imagine one without the other. They were the Blanchards, not only a symbol of wealth and power, but wonderful humanitarianism and family love.

That early evening, with a momentous day drawing to its close, Boyd and Leona walked arm in arm down the long corridor, each gathering strength from the other. Those of the hospital staff who were about at the time smiled gently, compassionately at them. All were sensible to the fact that they were looking at two young people deeply in love. The real thing was lovely, impossible to miss.

Rupert Blanchard’s unhappy life was over. Theirs had just begun.

EPILOGUE

TIDINGS OF JOY! RARE OLD TIMES!

Daisy Driver.

Aurora Magazine.

Place: Brooklands, the fab Blanchard estate in the beautiful Hunter Valley.

Occasion: The thrillingly spectacular Blanchard wedding.

E XCITEMENT REACHED FEVER pitch at the wedding between the charismatic Boyd Blanchard and his utterly enchanting bride, Leona, who won’t have to bother changing her surname. It was unquestionably the wedding—might I say celebration—of the year. Take it from one who gets invited to these things. The ceremony was held in the most romantic of venues, Brooklands’ famous rose gardens brought to their peak for this wonderful occasion. A dream temple was erected for the moving ceremony—many a tear, me included, a virtual torrent of sobs from someone behind me. For my money, a union of souls—I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life—the open air temple filled with the bride’s favourite flower, you guessed it, the rose in all its beauty and bewitching scent.

The cream of society came from all over the country. Dressed to kill. Lashings of bling. A whole contingent from overseas. The tab, I understand, was picked up by the groom. Generous man!

The bride’s dress made by our leading fashion designer, Liz Campbell, also the bride’s friend, was so ravishing I find it near impossible to describe and I’m not one, as most of you will know, who is usually lost for words. But, for our avid readers, I’ll have a go. Take it for granted it was gorgeous as one would expect with such a gorgeous bride. Oh, that magnificent mane of red-gold hair and the luminous skin! Forgive me, I digress. The gown was strapless, moulded skin tight to the body, dipping into the cleavage, a lustrous silk taffeta the colour of the eye-popping South Sea island pearls around the bride’s throat, hand embroidered with ivory roses, as was a wide band of the marvellously billowing skirt that showcased the bride’s tiny waist. One had to see the exquisite fit, the detailing, that bell of a skirt that became a short train to fully appreciate the effect. An elbow-length tulle veil was held in place by an exquisite head-piece crafted with ivory rose bouquets, decorated with shimmering crystals and tiny pearls, the leaves quivering on tiny gold wires. Swinging from the bride’s ears—wait for it—were the fabulous Blanchard Diamond earrings, part of a suite I was told was acquired way back from a South African billionaire. What a family heirloom! As the light hit them the female guests gave a collective gasp. It took quite a while for me to lose the retinal after-burn. Honestly, girls, there’s nothing like an enormous diamond and when they weigh in at heaven knows how many carats it’s a sight your reporter will never forget.

Our beautiful bride had six bridesmaids in all, all stunning, all sliver-thin so they could get into the form-fitting long strapless gowns that echoed the lovely shades of the roses—porcelain pink, blush pink, gold, soft yellow and an exceptionally beautiful apricot. Such a colour palette perfectly complemented the bride’s radiant colouring. Four little flower girls from the Blanchard family, impossibly pretty, in tulle and taffeta pale gold dresses with satin ribbons for headdresses with long flowing back bows attended the bride, along with two little pageboys, twins of the Blanchard clan, who behaved remarkably well considering what six-year-old tots can be like.

The groom looked absolutely splendid, girls. A fairy tale prince. Alas, now taken! Seriously, why can’t we all have a prince? His attendants had to be a line-up of some of the handsomest and most eligible bachelors in the country. I don’t like to single one out—they all looked terrific—but the bride’s stepbrother, Roberto, who flew home especially from his gap year stay with close relatives in Italy, is going to be a man to look out for. Remember, I was the first to tell you!

The reception was held in Brooklands’ magnificent ballroom. Out of this world! Some of you will recall the groom’s beautiful mother Alexa, holding her famous charity functions there. Maybe we’ll see the like again? Here’s hoping! Anyway, the food and drink—a bubbling fountain of French champagne—were sumptuous. I actually got to dance with man about town, Peter Blanchard, who said nice things to me, and when prompted, about my column. I think he took a fancy to me because I made him laugh.

Back in Sydney again and at my desk trying to calm down after a magnificent over-abundance of everything.

Of course one of these days I’m going to get married too. No register office for me, girls, but a big, BIG, wedding, just like the Blanchards.

How rare and beautiful was that! I seriously doubt if I’ll ever cover such a sublimely romantic wedding again.

ISBN: 978-1-4268-2778-5

THE AUSTRALIAN’S SOCIETY BRIDE

First North American Publication 2009.

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