When Only Diamonds Will Do by Lindsay Armstrong Page A

magical—gardens full of blooms, flowering creepers and trees, especially jacarandas, a stream that wound under wooden bridges, a thatched wishing well. And there was a natural amphitheatre backed by tall cypress-pines.
    Inside, as well as the wine-tasting area, was the restaurantand a souvenir shop where she now worked several days a week, having given up her teaching job.
    And as she cantered Mattie, then galloped her with their breath steaming in the early morning air as the pale colours of dawn smudged the horizon, it was Balthazar she was forcing herself to concentrate on.
    Some wineries hosted art shows, some were famous for their music festivals. Balthazar held an annual fashion parade that was due in a couple of days. This year Kim had offered the opportunity to debut her spring collection to a new but dynamic Perth designer—the unfortunate Chilli George.
    She grimaced as Mattie’s hooves thudded over the turf. Not that Chilli was unfortunate in any context other than featuring unwittingly in the ongoing battle between Reith and Kimberley Richardson. She was in fact a petite, exquisitely chic blonde in her thirties. Perhaps she was a touch exotic but she certainly designed gorgeous clothes.
    Kim owned some Chilli George clothes and they were fresh and exciting.
    Was there something about Chilli that went beyond being a touch exotic, something she couldn’t put her finger on that bothered her, though? she wondered, then shrugged.
    Really, the designer was the least of her problems, she reminded herself, as she slowed Mattie to a walk as they did a quick tour of the Cellar Door and the winery itself as well as the gardens. Then she turned back towards Saldanha.
    And as they got closer, as always, these days anyway,it pulled at her heart-strings to see her home. Until a few months ago she’d taken Saldanha pretty much for granted. True, she’d always been appreciative of the lovely Cape Dutch architecture, brought from South Africa by a great-great-grandfather.
    But although the sight of Saldanha pulled at her heart-strings, it was the carte blanche Reith had given her to renovate the estate that had saved her sanity in the early days of her loveless marriage. Not only that, it had brought to light skills she hadn’t known she possessed, such as gardening. She was taken by surprise when the head gardener had approached her for instructions but, once the idea that she was in charge settled in, she took to it like the proverbial duck to water.
    She supervised everything that went into the garden and everything that came out of it. She cherished her mother’s and grandmother’s beloved roses. She’d built a Japanese water garden with lilies and carp in the pond and stone benches under a jasmine creeper-covered lattice canopy. In the heat of mid-summer just the sound of water trickling down into the pond would be cooling.
    Then she’d turned her attention to the house and looked around with new eyes. Saldanha homestead was still beautiful, it was still filled with furniture brought from South Africa in different woods—kiaat or teak, stinkwood, yellowwood—but it had got shabby and her parents hadn’t been in the position to remedy that.
    The first thing she did was have the house painted inside and out. She used some of her favourite colours, like chalk and lagoon-blue, mocha, raspberry, mango, mushroom and heritage green and some beautiful wallpapers,although she maintained white for the exterior. Then she’d pulled up all the fitted carpets and replaced them. Fortunately this was restricted to the second floor, as the ground floor and the main rooms had wooden parquet floors that were almost an artwork on their own. And she’d had all the bathrooms upgraded.
    After this major upheaval, her efforts had been less disruptive—she and Mary Hiddens had had a great time modernizing the kitchen as well as replenishing the linen.
    And after all the work and cherishing she’d lavished on it, on top of coming so