Her next impression was of firm arms lifting her, concerned voices, someone asking what she’d been drinking, had she taken anything, the thump of the band receding, the cool outside air and Marty’s worried voice saying her name. She was aware, in vague snatches, of the inside of the ambulance and arriving at a hospital. Someone poked and prodded and asked her questions she could only answer in gasps. Finally, gratefully, she was disappearing down a long tunnel and she slipped willingly into the pain-free void.

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

“I don’t need a party, Pappou.” Kat swung her head and smiled pleadingly.

“Nonsense. You haven’t been to the River for years. Not since you were a teenager. Now you have returned, a fine young woman. We need to celebrate.” Theo rubbed his hands together. “Anyway it’s not a party, just dinner with a few friends and family.”

Kat shook her head. With Pappou and Yia-yia there was no such thing as ‘just dinner’. There would be at least thirty people with the family alone. Theo’s three sons and their families all lived nearby or further south at the Ocean Dynasty property. Everyone was involved in the family business, from tending the vines to making the wines to selling them.

Only Kat’s immediate family lived interstate. Her mother, Theo’s only daughter, had married a winemaker. Kat had been born and raised in the Yarra Valley in Victoria. Whether you liked it or not there was no escaping the family business whether in eastern Australia or the West. That was her big problem.

“Okay.” There was no point wasting her breath trying to stop him. “I’ll go see what I can do to help Yia-yia. She’s not as young as she used to be you know. You mustn’t work her too hard.” Kat chided him with a smile on her face. She knew Yia-yia would not slow down. The house was her domain and she ran it like clockwork.

“Humph!” he snorted. “That woman is the slave driver. If ever I sit down it’s out of her sight otherwise it’s Theo we need this, or Theo you should do that. I tell you, Katerina, a man is not boss of his own day.”

She smiled. He sounded so henpecked but there wasn’t a word of truth in it. He was a shrewd taskmaster who kept his sons and their families dancing to his tune. He allowed Yia-yia some authority in the house but otherwise his word was law and it was always wise to remember that.