she was not one to relax with

"Thank you, no. I don't smoke." She smoothed her dress. "You're a long way from home, Mr. Hartheim. Have you business in Australia?" He smiled, wondering what she would say if she knew that he was, in effect, the master of Drogheda. But he had no intention of telling her, for he preferred all the Drogheda people to think their welfare lay in the completely impersonal hands of the gentleman he employed to act as his go-between. "Please, Mrs. O'neill, my name is Rainer," he said, giving it the same pronunciation Justine did, while thinking wryly that this woman wouldn't use it spontaneously for some time to come; she was not one to relax with strangers. "No, I don't have any official business in Australia, but I do have a good reason for coming. I wanted to see you." "To see me?" she asked in surprise. As if to cover sudden confusion, she went immediately to a safer subject: "My brothers speak of you often. You were very kind to them while they were in Rome for Dane's ordination." She said Dane's name without distress, as if she used it frequently. "I hope you can stay a few days, and see them." "1 can, Mrs. O'neill;" he answered easily. For Meggie the interview was proving unexpectedly awkward; he was a stranger, he had announced that he had come twelve thousand miles simply to see her, and apparently he was in no hurry to enlighten her as to why. She thought she would end in liking him, but she found him slightly intimidating. Perhaps his kind of man had never come within her ken before, and this was why he threw her off-balance. A very novel conception of Justine entered her mind at that moment: her daughter could actually relate easily to men like Rainer Moerling Hartheim! She thought of Justine as a fellow woman at last. Though aging and white-haired she was still very beautiful, he was thinking while she sat gazing at him politely; he was still surprised that she looked not at all like Justine, as Dane had so strongly resembled the Cardinal. How terribly lonely she must be! Yet he couldn't feel sorry for her in the way he did for Justine; clearly, she had come to terms with herself. "How is Justine?" she asked. He shrugged. "I'm afraid I don't know. I haven't seen her since before Dane died." She didn't display astonishment. "I haven't seen her myself since Dane's funeral," she said, and sighed. "I'd hoped she would come home, but it begins to look as if she never will."