out a tissue and blowing her nose. Stupid girl. She had known this day was coming since Christmas and she had promised Amy that she would not get all gooey...but look at the state that she was in!
Of course she understood. That was why she was here now instead of weeping buckets at the departure gate. But it didn’t make it any easier.
It helped if she imagined it was Scott Elstrom’s face at the bottom of the washing-up bowl.
This was entirely his fault!
Her brain had been spinning most of the night, working through the options, over and over again, weighing up the pros and cons, and the more she thought about it, the more obvious the answer had become.
She had to convince Scott that he should sit for a portrait in place of his father.
He was the new head of the company, after all. It was his duty to go ahead with the project that Freya had already paid half in advance. Wasn’t it?
But there was something else which kept whirling around inside her head every time she’d punched her feather pillow to try and find a comfy spot.
Freya had come running to her to ask for help. It had to be a Baldoni. No one else would do!
Surely that had to give her some bargaining power?
Toni scrubbed extra hard on the frying pan. Now all she had to do was pluck up enough courage to insist on it the next time she saw Scott.
Toni’s hands closed around the cool edge of the sink and she closed her eyes for a few seconds.
She didn’t have any choice. That portrait had to be finished, one way or another.
She needed the rest of the money to pay for Amy’s university fees in the autumn.
Girlish laughter broke through her thoughts and Toni smiled as she stacked the cups and plates.
Amy was right.
This was her chance to make a new start and claim her life.
The little girl who she’d promised to take care of the morning their parents died was a young woman now with her own life.
Amy was amazing and was going to go far in life. She knew exactly what she wanted and how she was going to get it. It had been Amy’s idea to talk to the university professors who were going to be teaching her and find out what kind of expedition would suit the coursework. Thinking ahead. Planning her future.
She had taught her sister well.
They had watched the dawn come up together in the garden of their little family house early on New Year’s morning and made promises to one another that could not be broken.
In three months’ time both of their lives would be completely different. Amy would be in Peru and working hard. And she would have finished this portrait, cleared out the clutter from their little house and redecorated every room. All ready for their cute London house to be rented out for the next three years while Amy was at university.
This was her chance to take her photography career to the next level and she was ready to grab it with both hands and do what it took to learn from the best. Travel. Live a little. Maybe even find the time to enjoy herself.
It was scary to think of the transformation that was going to take place but it was make the change now or stay locked in the same groove forever.
She chose now.
By the time she was thirty, her plan was to have the Antonia Baldoni photographic studio up and running. No more working for someone else. No more being taken for granted. No more being used by other people.
Three more years’ experience and training and she would be ready to start out on her own.
Starting with this portrait.
This was not the time to let one man who refused to have his portrait painted get in the way of Amy’s education.
Scott Elstrom was not going to escape that easily. And if she had to become a total pest to make that happen? Then so be it.
Because the new and improved version of Antonia Baldoni had decided to make some changes in her life and it all kicked off today.
Look out, world. Here I come. Bring it on.
* * *
Scott strode down the busy London pavement in the light morning sleet, wincing in pain.
His senses were assaulted by a cacophony of noise which seemed to come from every direction. Cars, buses, taxi cabs and motorcyclists. And people. So many people all crushed together. Jostling and pushing and manoeuvring around one another.
What were they all doing here at this time on a Sunday morning? Strange. He had forgotten what the barrage of noise and bustle of city life was like. Right now, his life in Alaska seemed like a distant dream. A fantasy of calm and quiet and beauty and...
He jumped out of the way as a cycle courier flashed across the path in front of him at high speed with only inches to spare. The light sleet mixed with loose snow that had been falling most of the night had made the pavements treacherous for cyclists.
Control. In Alaska he was in control of where and what and how he lived his life. The climate and the harsh conditions were all part of the job. He respected that. But here? Here, he had to battle very different challenges.
And every one of them was just as tough as climbing a mountain range or crossing sea ice.
But that was what he was here for.
He had promised his father and sister that he would give the family business six months of his life and stay in London until early September.
Six long and arduous months which right at that moment felt like an eternity of living in the city.
It was Freya who’d filled Scott in on the details when they had taken off to the hospital café to leave their father to rest.
The plan was to sell the building to property developers, who would give them a serious amount of money to build apartments in such a prestigious address. Any remaining charts and maps would be snapped up by collectors and specialist museums. With the money from the sales there would enough to pay off the debts and have some left over for their father’s retirement.
Because otherwise? Otherwise, things were going down so fast that it would mean bankruptcy and their father couldn’t tolerate the idea of not paying his bills to the suppliers who had been so loyal for the past few years.
Last resort? They had an amazing offer from a marketing company who wanted to create tacky mapping merchandise using the Elstrom company name.
Freya had been quite shocked at his expletive-laden reply to that suggestion and had to ask him to lower his voice.
No way. He was not going to see two hundred years of his family heritage handed over as a prestige symbol on cheap magnifying glasses and plastic rulers.
Little wonder that Freya had telephoned him to ask him to come home. His baby sister certainly knew what buttons to press to bring on even more guilt.
Lars Elstrom had just handed him the keys to the shop. He would be damned if he was going to be the one turning the lights out on the day they closed for good.
But it was more than that and he knew it.
It had been his decision to walk away and leave the company two years ago when things went off the rails in his life. He could have fought his father’s decision to appoint Travis to run the company through hard evidence and facts.
Instead, he had forced his father to choose between his apparently charming and talented and inspirational new stepson, Travis, and the angry man who Scott had become.
And that one decision had cost the company.
And now the stepson was long gone, the money had run out and suddenly his father needed him to step in and help the company with as much peace and dignity as he could.