Kirstie felt a warm glow of satisfaction as she basked in the blatant invitation she saw in his eyes, and her own eyes smiled teasingly. Flirting was something she could indulge in quite naturally with Luis Montanes, and it seemed too long since she had enjoyed anyone's company as much as she did his. She chose to forget the occasion when Miguel had kissed her because Miguel was not a man one flirted with, he was much too fiery and forceful. Also thinking about Miguel at this particular moment was oddly discomfiting.
'Didn't they tell you there was a new secretary?' she asked, and Luis Montanes pursed a full lower lip before he answered.
'Tio Enrique said you were charming, which is what he says about most women, and Miguel said you were lovely—enchanting, I think was his description of you. But you see, I was judging you on Miguel's usual taste in women and I expected a tall and sophisticated thirty-year-old, not a dainty little creature Hke you.' For a moment his gaze was speculating rather than soulful and it looked quite at odds with the romantic image. 'When I think about it,' he went on, 'it wasn't like Miguel to remark on your looks, you must have impressed him.'
'I hardly think so,' Kirstie denied swiftly, and regretted the way she coloured so readily. 'Your brother and I have never managed to get along together; we treat each other with a kind of mutual—distrust.'
'Really?' He appeared unconcerned. 'Well, it isn't
important as you don't w6rk for him, is it? On the other hand, you'll be seeing quite a lot of me. I'm to work part of the time with Tio Enrique in the office and the rest with Miguel, and I must say I'm looking forward to the office work more than I am to riding around with Miguel.'
His meaning was unmistakable, and Kirstie felt a flutter of anticipation at the idea of working with him. 'I look forward to it too, Don Luis,' she told him, and wondered why he frowned suddenly.
* Before we go any further,' he stated firmly, *I insist you forget that Don Luis nonsense. A title may be all very well for my uncle and Miguel, or Jaime, but we're young enough to dispense with ceremony, eh, Kirstie?'
'If Senor Montanes has no objection,' said Kirstie, 'I don't mind in the least.'
'He won't,' Luis assured her confidently. ^
He had been smiling so self-confidently that Kirstie frowned when she saw the sudden change in his expression, but she had no need to turn and discover the reason when she heard the heavy tread of booted feet coming up behind her. It was typical of Miguel to put in an appearance at a moment like this, she thought, but when she eventually turned and saw how glower-ingly angry he looked, her heart fluttered anxiously. There must be something very wrong for him to look as he did, but her main concern at the moment was whether it was to be herself or his brother who was to take the brunt of his anger.
In a white shirt he looked stunningly dark by contrast, and fawn drill trousers emphasised muscular calves and thighs as he came striding towards them. Even his long legs seemed to express anger, for his gait was taut and stiff and his firm tread had an ominous sound on the hard ground.
He spared no time for pleasantries, but came straight to the point in a harsh, impatient voice. 'Luis, what the devil do you mean by taking my horse? You know I start immediately after breakfast and yet you went
prancing off without a thought, working the damned animal up into a sweat before Tve even started!'
Kirstie was an unwilhng witness, and her sympathy was automatically with the younger brother. Luis had coloured furiously and she knew it was mostly because she had been there to hear Miguel berate him like a thoughtless schoolboy. If she had thought for a moment that she had a chance of slipping away unseen she would have done so, but as it was, from the way Luis was looking at her, uneasily, almost apologetically, she realised she was going to be involved, however unwillingly.
'I thought you'd take the mare,' said Luis. 'I didn't think '
That Senorita Rodriguez would be taking the mare,' Miguel finished for him, and Kirstie stirred uneasily.
She felt bound to go to Luis's rescue, whatever risk she took of bringing Miguel's wrath down on her head. Obviously he had known nothing about her taking Scheherazade and so she felt partly to blame for the position he was in. Also he was good-looking and charming and he made her smile as she hadn't smiled for some time; it seemed a good enough reason to risk incurring Miguel's wrath.
*I didn't realise,' she said, coming in quickly before Luis could speak up for himself. *When I noticed the stallion was gone I automatically assumed you were already out. If I'd known you were going to need Scheherazade, naturally I wouldn't have taken her. But I'll remember in future, Don Miguel, not to take your horses without your specific consent—I'm sorry!'
Her intervention was obviously unexpected, for when Miguel turned to her his eyes were narrowed and gleamingly dark. 'You're as aware as my brother is that the mare isn't any use to me,' he said. 'She's a woman's horse, not a man's; she hasn't the stamina I need for a day's riding.' A deepening of his voice made the rest of his words audible only to her. 'Don't make me responsible for any more sacrifices on your part,
Kirstie, it isn't necessary!'
Kirstie's colour flared hotly and her eyes were bright and angry. She hated him for that jibe about making sacrifices and for the moment did not appreciate that he ha4 made it so that his brother did not overhear. If she had given rein to her temper, heaven knew what the outcome might have been, but in the event it was Luis Montanes who brought a calmer voice to the situation.
'I suppose I should have realised the mare was too light for you,' he said, his eyes on Kirstie. *rm sorry, Miguel, but I just didn't think.'
It was impossible for things not to cool down after that, and Miguel's fierce gaze was already less fearsome as he looked at the contrite face of his brother. He sighed and shook his head, then put a hand on Luis's shoulder. Try and think next time you feel like running my horse into the ground,' he told him, ^that's all I ask.' Luis stood still holding both horses and looking as if he wondered what to do next. 'If you were going to unsaddle for the senorita, you'd better go and do it,' Miguel advised mildly. *And give Hassan a rub down and then resaddle him for me, will you? I'll have to take him, but I'll give him a while to get his breath back first.'
'Yes, of course.' Luis seemed more than willing to do as he said, and a small flutter of rebellion stirred in Kirstie's breast on his behalf. Then he seemed to recall that he still had some unfinished business, and he half-turned, looking at Kirstie over his shoulder. 'I'll see you again, Kirstie?'
She nodded, aware of Miguel's swiftly arched brows when he noted the familiarity of her name, and her response was quite deliberately encouraging. 'Yes, of course, Luis; hasta luegoV
'Hasta luegof The brief look he gave Miguel was slightly but definitely triumphant, then he turned and led the two horses away.
Suddenly aware of the time again, Kirstie yet again found herself unexpectedly under escort by Miguel as
they crossed the stable yard, and she wondered if, now that his brother was gone, he meant to remark on their riding together. 'Unless you had breakfast before you came out,' he said, 'you haven't much time; it's already eight-thirty.'
'I know, but I won't take very long. I'll be back here by nine, Don Miguel, don't worry.'
'It isn't my concern if you're late, it's my uncle's,' he told her. 'I just wondered if you'd realised what the time was, that's all.' They approached the arched gateway into the patio and he moved closer to allow for them to go through together. 'You think I was too hard on Luis?' he asked, and Kirstie jerked her head round quickly and looked up at him. 'I shouldn't have lost my temper with him, eh?'
Kirstie hesitated, unable to resist saying what she thought, but not quite sure how he was going to react. 'I don't think you should have lost your temper with him while I was there to hear it,' she said in a huskily small voice, and to her surprise she realised he was nodding his head.
'It's true. I don't usually let my temper get the better of me, and I can't think why I did on this occasion.
'
It was such an uncharacteristic admission coming from him, that she wasn't sure what to say for a moment. 'I suppose you had a right to be angry when you found both horses gone,' she allowed warily, but again he seemed to accept her opinion and was nodding his head gravely.
'Luis has a lot to learn, but we have high hopes of him,' he observed as they walked through the patio gardens. 'The only problem is having him in such close proximity to you while he's learning the business. He has a penchant for pretty girls, and unfortunately he's all too easily distracted.'
'Then I shall do my best not to distract him!'
Heavy-lidded eyes looked down at her, faintly quizzical. 'Is that possible?' he asked, and Kirstie looked up at him, anxious suddenly and prepared to offer assur-
ance that she wasn't very sure she could keep if she had judged Luis Montanes correctly.
'I take my job seriously, Don Miguel, and I shan't distract Don Luis during working hours, you have my word.'
*And out of working hours?' Miguel asked softly.
She met his eyes with her chin angled in a way there was no mistaking. 'Out of working hours what I do is my own affair, Don Miguel!'
'Ah!'
'You don't like me being frank!' she accused swiftly, but it seemed she was mistaken, for he showed no sign of resentment, even though his eyes gleamed darkly.
'As you say, Sefiorita Rodriguez,' he said in a voice so soft it slid like a velvet finger along her spine, 'what you do in your own time is your own affair. My brother is very good-looking, and you make a handsome pair; your grandfather would be delighted, I'm sure.'
Kirstie had forgotten all about that preposterous idea of her grandfather's until Miguel reminded her, and her colour was high as she stared at him reproachfully. 'I'm talking about normal friendly relationships,' she insisted. 'Whatever you and my grandfather think, Don Miguel, I've no intention of marrying anyone for years yet, and I wish you wouldn't concern yourself with things that are none of your business!'
'But you like Luis?'
'Of course I like him! He's pleasant and—and good-looking and just as gallant as you said he was, but I don't fall in love as easily as that! We met just a few minutes ago!'
'But long enough, it seems, for Luis to be smitten,' he observed dryly, and before she could object further his fingertips touched her arm and they came to a halt where the path split two ways. 'You haven't very much time,' he said, consulting his watch. 'I'll explain to my uncle that you've been delayed.'
'There's no need!' Kirstie didn't understand why it
disturbed her so much that he seemed to share her grandfather's readiness to see her married to Luis, but it did. 'And please—don't say anything about that ridiculous idea of Abuelo's of wanting to see me mai'ried—not to Luis.'
The time was ticking by, but somehow for the moment it didn't seem nearly so important as it had, and she caught her breath when a finger Hfted her hair from her neck and let it fall slowly back again, as if its silky softness fascinated him. 'So Don Jose does hope to see you marry my brother?' he mused, and Kirstie gave a swift upward glance.
'But didn't he tell you?' He was shaking his head slowly, and there was a glitter in the dark depth of his eyes. 'Then how '
'I suggested you should be married, that was all,' Miguel told her quietly. 'It was only when you let slip that Don Jose was of the same mind that it occurred to me Luis would seem an ideal choice to him.'
'Oh!' Her thoughts were running wild, trying to guess who Miguel's own candidate could have been. Not himself, she couldn't believe that, but who? She was still trying to come up with an answer when she heard him give a faint sigh as his hand was withdrawn and he looked at his watch.
'I'd better make your excuses to my uncle after all,' he said, but Kirstie shook her head insistently.
'No, please don't, there's no'need, I can be back here by nine.'
'And you'll do anything rather than be under even the slightest obligation to me,' he observed quietly. 'Very well, Senorita Rodriguez— adiosV
Always a man of swift movement, he had turned and was striding across the patio towards the rear door of the house before Kirstie could draw breath, and she watched him go with an undeniable sense of regret. Not only had he been so sure she was refusing his help because she did not want to be obligated to him, but he had taken it so much to heart that he had
reverted to the formality of a title instead of calling her Kirstie. And she wondered if he realised that by making such a point of a future affair with his brother, he had done a great deal to make her wary of the very idea.
Don Jose wasn't accustomed to spending most of the day alone, but he accepted the necessity of it as he accepted all the other changes in his life, and made up to some degree for his solitariness by listening to Kirstie's account of the happenings at Casa de Rodriguez when she came home.
She had been working for Enrique for two weeks and she now had a routine pretty well established, both at home and in the office. Preparing and cooking meals fitted in quite well with working hours, although she had much less free time than she once had. Her grandfather neither offered nor was expected to make any contribution to the running of the house, but on the whole things worked out very well.
yhile she dished out cod steaks in tomato sauce, Kirstie passed on the latest piece of gossip from Casa de Rodriguez, and Don Jose showed his usual interest. 'Did you know that Seiior Montaiies has his daughter-in-law and his granddaughter coming this evening?' she asked, and her grandfather shook his head, obviously interested. 'They're coming for a month, apparently.'
'I've often wondered if he had a family apart from his nephews,' he observed. 'A daughter-in-law, you say?'
Kirstie nodded. 'His only son was killed three years ago in the same crash that killed Luis's parents and crippled Seiior Montafies himself, and apparently he was his only child. He has the daughter-in-law to stay with him because he likes to see his granddaughter, but I gather from Luis that the daughter-in-law isn't very popular and she won't let the girl come alone.'
'The fact that the mother comes too suggests that she's a dutiful daughter-in-law,' Don Jose suggested, but Kirstie smiled as she handed him his plate.
'According to Luis the attraction is Miguel,' she told him, and noticed the way her grandfather frowned over her flippancy. 'Apparently Rosa Montanes has always— liked Miguel, and since her husband was killed she's made quite a play for him.'
'It seems to me,' Don Jose remarked disapprovingly, 'that Don Luis is being very indiscreet about his family's affairs. Even if it is true that Seiiora Montanes wants to marry again, and would prefer it to be Don Miguel, he shouldn't talk about it to a stranger. I'm quite sure Seiior Montanes wouldn't like it if he knew.'
'Probably he wouldn't.' For a moment Kirstie's eyes gleamed with malicious mischief as she looked across at him. 'I should think Don Miguel would like it even less!'
'Kirstie!'
For once she ignored the rebuke, caught up in the prospect of Seiior Montanes' unpopular daughter-in-law pursuing Miguel with marriage in mind. Not for a moment did she consider that he might be a willing victim, it simply seemed to her a kind of poetic justice after some of the remarks he had made recently about her own marriage plans.
'Unless of course she's tall and thirtyish and sophisticated,' she went on. 'According to Luis that's the type Miguel prefers.' He had also told Luis that she herself was lovely—enchanting was his description, according to his brother, but she kept that strictly to herself. A curiously satisfying secret that she wished Luis did not share.
'That young man gossips too much,' Don Jose insisted, 'and you shouldn't encourage him, my child, it's very wrong.'
'I can't stop him talking,' she objected. 'And incidentally, he's warned me to expect fireworks while she's here; something to do with me being Senor Montanes' secretary, he says, although I can't imagine why it should bother her who her father-in-law's secretary is.'
.Her grandfather was slightly more spec
ulative than
critical, she realised when she looked across at him, and she frowned at him curiously. 'Could it be because there could be a certain amount of—jealousy?' he suggested. *You are, after all, frequently in contact with Don Miguel, my child.'
Despite her efforts, Kirstie knew she coloured furiously. That's most unlikely,' she insisted. 'Firstly because if I'm—friendly with anyone it's Luis, not Miguel, and I don't see Miguel nearly often enough to give even the most jealous lover grounds for suspicion!'
Her grandfather said nothing, but his expression was thoughtful, and she thanked heaven that he knew nothing about those occasions, few as they had been, when there would have been grounds enough for a jealous lover to object. The uneasy thought still lodged in her mind the following morning as she cleared away the breakfast things, although she did her best to dismiss it. Suggestions like that were so much more disconcerting when they involved Miguel rather than Luis.
It was while she washed up their breakfast things that Don Jose reminded her he had an appointment in town. It was a rare enough event for him to go anywhere at all these days, and to Kirstie it was sad that a man who had once led a busy social life to have dropped almost completely out of sight because his pride would not allow him to accept sympathy from his former friends.
'I'm seeing the oculist this morning,' he reminded her, 'but I'll be back in plenty of time for lunch. My appointment is for nine-thirty, and then I have a little personal shopping to do—I shall be back here by one, well before you come in for lunch, my dear.'
'And you'll drive carefully?' Kirstie warned.
'Of course, child! I'm still a competent driver even though I'm nearing my seventy-first birthday.'
A car of some kind had been considered essential even in their present circumstances, but the one they now owned was such a small, ramshackle old thing that Kirstie feared for its survival every time it was on the road; which admittedly was very rarely. Yet somehow.
The Black Invader Page 6
