AT the Provence home of Mr Alan James Scott, CVO, CBE, a colourful former Hongkong civil servant and most recently Governor of the Cayman Islands, the telephone finally rang out. ''Nobody is answering,'' the operator announced.
And, as the wife of another retired Hongkong civil servant said later in the day: ''I don't blame him.'' She was referring, of course, to the reasons for the calls, ie, Mr Scott's most recent appearance in the British press, where he has been accused of fathering a love child to a legendary, and married beauty, Ms Juline Lessinsky, 39.
In the published report Ms Lessinsky offered evidence of his love letters, and said that she was threatening to bring a paternity suit against Mr Scott.
Standing alone, the news is sensational, as Ms Lessinsky is a former Miss Cayman Islands, whose other major claim to fame there is her courtship and marriage to English doctor Mike Hetley; a union that produced four children before young Alison entered the world on May 29, 1991.
A general practitioner, Dr Hetley is a very handsome man, who has made his mark among the powerbrokers of the Cayman capital of Georgetown. Athletic and charismatic, he has been the official doctor for the Cayman Islands Olympic team, and is regarded as a progressive doctor who runs a large establishment medical practice in tandem with an alternative medical clinic.
From accounts yesterday, Ms Lessinsky is just as much a celebrity as her husband, who enjoys her life as the mother of five children, and the cachet of being a member of the islands' social elite.