'And Miguel put a steadying arm around you, I suppose,' Luis guessed, and Kirstie was of no mind to disillusion him, although Rosa Montanes might see fit to some time. 'He would, but thank heaven he wasn't any more effusive, my lovely; I'd hate to think Rosa had any more serious grounds for being jealous. She's got a wicked temper and she really does mean to marry him eventually.'
Kirstie slipped her fingers under the head of a yellow rose and bent her face to its perfume. 'Does Miguel know that?' she asked.
Luis was frowning, she could tell it even without looking at him. *I imagine so by now,' he said, and hesitated for a moment before he went on. 'Kirstie, you and Miguel have some kind of feud going between you, haven't you? I gathered when I came here first that you weren't exactly on the best of terms, but this thing with Rosa seems to put a rather different complexion on things. Do you still dislike him?'
*Not as much as I did.' She made the admission cautiously, because she feared it might give Luis the wrong impression, but it was quite true, she realised. *It's a bit difficult to—fit him in,' she went on to explain, almost as much for her own benefit as his. 'He isn't old enough to be an avuncular figure like Senor Montaiies, and he isn't as young as you are; he's sort of in-between. He was very kind when I was worried about Abuelo, but most often he treats me rather as if I'm a burden he's obliged to bear, and quite naturally I resent it. I object to his being—overbearing and—and arrogant, and I suppose I show it more than I should in the circumstances.'
'So he isn't your favourite person!' Luis sounded as if the idea suited him admirably, and he was smiling. 'Now tell me what Rosa had been up to last night,' he went on, and Kirstie sighed inwardly at the inevitability of it.
'I told you that she saw me in the hall with Miguel one day last week, and I think she'd been waiting for an opportunity like last night. She said she meant to teach me my place, so she rode off with my horse and left me to walk back. Miguel apparently saw her with Scheherazade and when she told him what she'd done he came for me; although it wasn't the most tactful thing to have done in the circumstances.'
'She's a bitch!' Luis declared vehemently, and when he put an arm around her shoulders his soulful eyes were much less dreamy than malicious. 'I've a good mind not to let her take my gelding out again!'
'You may not need to,' Kirstie remarked ruefully.
*She told me she's going to use Scheherazade, as she isn't really mine.'
Luis pulled a face. 'I don't think she'll get away with that,' he told her. 'Whatever my brother's faults, he's promised you can use the mare whenever you like and he won't let Rosa break his promise.' He eyed her for a moment, then hugged her close in his arm. *What exactly happened when he came back for you last night, Kirstie?'
'We rode back together, naturally,' she said, studiously casual.
At weekends she spent quite a lot more time with Luis. He expected it and so did her grandfather, for he hadn't relinquished his hopes of a match, no matter how much Kirstie objected to his plans. They had covered almost the entire area of the patio, strolling along all the paths and pausing occasionally to sit and talk.
At the moment they were hidden from the house by the bulk of a blue hibiscus, and Luis took both her hands, turning her to face him; his eyes soft and soulful again as he gazed down at her. 'I know it's unlikely in view of what you've told me,' he said, 'but you'd never change your opinion of Miguel to the extent that you'd get to like him too much, would you, Kirstie?'
Startled, she stared up at him, and noted with dismay that her heart was beating much too fast and her cheeks were flushed. 'What exactly is that supposed to mean?' she asked.
'It means that I don't want you to do a complete about-turn where Miguel's concerned,' he told her with every appearance of being serious. 'I know it's very unlikely in view of the way you feel about him and the fact that he's so much older than we are, but I couldn't face it if you let him—well, seduce you. He's experienced enough, and '
'For heaven's sake!' Kirstie interrupted in a breathlessly husky voice. 'You're not being very complimentary either to me or your brother! Miguel will never think of me as anything but a silly Httle girl who feels
more sorry for herself than she has any right to!'
'Ah! That's all I wanted to know.' He slid a hand round under her hair and stroked her neck lightly with his thumb. 'You're so lovely, Kirstie, and I can't help being jealous, even of Miguel. Ever since the fiivst day I saw you I've been dreaming about you; ever since that first moment.'
'Which was not much more than two weeks ago,' Kirstie reminded him gently. She wasn't averse to flirting with Luis, but there was something in his present manner that suggested he wasn't merely flirting.
'Time has nothing to do with it,' he told her. 'Don't you believe in love at first sight, Kirstie?'
'I don't think I do,' she answered cautiously, and Luis frowned.
'I do,' he told her, 'and I'm falling in love with you, Kirstie, whether you believe it's possible or not.'
She was unsure and uneasy. It wouldn't be too difficult, she thought, to fall in love with Luis, because he was good-looking and very attractive and he was undeniably wealthy, which her grandfather considered was another essential quality in a husband. But it was that expressed wish of her grandfather's that deterred her from simply going along with Luis's present mood; it made her suspect her own feelings.
Moving away from him, she half-turned to look at him from a safer distance, then hastily lowered her eyes again, looking for the words she needed. Until she had enlightened Luis she didn't feel she could go on with whatever relationship they already had, and she tried desperately not to make it sound too coldly practical and mercenary.
'Luis ' He came closer and would have taken her
hands, but she put out a hand and kept him at a distance. 'I think you ought to know that—my grandfather is anxious for me to marry and he—he thinks you'll make an ideal husband. More than that,' she went on hurriedly when she noticed his look of stunned surprise, 'Miguel seems to be of the same mind, he said once that
we'd make a handsome pair. I thought you ought to know.'
'Holy Mother of God!' Hot colour flooded into Luis's handsome features and the soulful eyes were no longer dreamy but snapping with anger. 'What right have they, or anyone else, to organise our lives for us? Holy Mother, I won't let them interfere in my affairs; I'll tell Miguel to mind his own business and you'd better do the same with your grandfather! / shall choose who and when I marry, and in my own time!' He took her hands again, and his grip was so fierce that she winced. 'Kirstie, is that why you shy away from me? Is it because you've been told I'm an ideal husband and you feel you might be acting as your grandfather wants instead of how you want? Is it, Kirstie?' She didn't answer, but slowly shook her head, and he bent and peered up into her face, his eyes dark and anxious and with only a trace of indignation left. 'Oh, my lovely Kirstie, don't Hsten to them. I won't pin you down with marriage proposals, please believe me, I won't do anything you don't want me to do.'
'I believe you,' Kirstie told him.
'But I am falling in love with you,' Luis insisted, and when she did not answer, he put a hand under her chin and raised her face, looking down at her flushed cheeks and evasive eyes. Then he bent his head and touched his mouth very lightly to hers. 'Do you believe that too?' he murmured.
Kirstie wasn't sure what to believe. She didn't fool herself that she was the first girl Luis had declared himself in love with, for he was the kind of good-looking and wealthy young man to whom love affairs were a way of life. Whether or not he was more serious about her than he had been before, she didn't stop to consider, but she was wary of allowing herself to get too serious about him.
She looked up, smiling a little uncertainly. 'I don't know,' she confessed. 'If you are in love with me, then in a way I wish you hadn't told me, Luis. After only a
couple of weeks I can't honestly say how I feel about you, except that I like you a lot, and I like being with y
ou.*
Luis's expressive eyes gazed at her sadly for a moment, then he sighed. 'I'd hoped for something more than that,' he said. *But it's that damned scheme of your grandfather's and Miguel's '
'Not Miguel's,' Kirstie hastily corrected him. 'I think he just went along with what my grandfather said, I don't think he really wants it.'
'Well, just forget all that nonsense and act as if the idea had never been put into your head,' Luis advised. He slipped his hands around her waist and drew her close to him, and his eyes glowed darkly as he looked down at her. 'You don't hate me, do you, Kirstie?'
'No, of course I don't!'
Her denial was swift, and Luis cut it short when he touched her mouth with his. It was a long, slow and very ardent kiss and it set her pulse hammering much faster than normal, but she had already decided that Luis was experienced with women despite his youth. The only element of surprise was the fact that she was far less affected by it than she expected to be.
When he eventually released her, he looked down at her for a moment and his expression suggested that her response was rather less than he expected too. Putting a hand under her chin, he looked down at her, smiling but puzzled. 'You should be kissed more often,' he decided, and was obviously about to follow his own advice, when Kirstie shook her head.
'Luis, someone might see us out here.'
'So?' He arched an enquiring brow and for a moment looked disturbingly like Miguel. 'Kiss me again, my pigeon, and never mind who sees us or what they say.'
'Luis '
Next time he kissed her much more passionately so that Kirstie felt a little lightheaded, yet still the magic was missing. And it wasn't because she was worrying
about whether or not someone might see them from the house; it was because she remembered too well the way Miguel had kissed her last night. Luis could undeniably touch her emotions, but Miguel's fierce, hard mouth had driven everything else completely from her mind, and she found it infinitely disturbing to reahse it.
CHAPTER FIVE
KiRSTiE gazed at her grandfather in blank dismay, her eyes wide and unbelieving. There was a cold sensation in her stomach and for several minutes her brain simply refused to accept what he had just told her. *I—I just can't believe it,' she said, and sat down heavily in an armchair. 'They wouldn't—they couldn't, could they, Abuelo?'
Don Jose shrugged. He seemed as resigned to this latest turn of events as he had been to all the other changes in his life during the past few months. 'The house and the estate are theirs now, child,' he reminded her quietly, 'and they may do as they like with it. Although you should bear in mind that it's simply a suggestion at the moment, an idea put forward by one of the family, so I understand, but not yet definite by any means.'
'But it's monstrous!' Kirstie declared. Whether or not anything was definite, it was enough that the suggestion had been made. 'They promised, they promised that the house was in good hands, and Casa de Rodriguez has always been a private home; for over two hundred years it's been—it was the Rodriguez family home, and now this! A couple of rooms turned into offices I could accept, but not this!'
Her grandfather was looking at her and it was clear from the look in his eyes that he was in sympathy with everything she said—how could he be anything else? But he was so much better at facing the harder facts of reality than she was herself. 'Unfortunately, child,' he told her gently, 'it isn't always enough to want something to be a certain way, it is essential that one's finances keep pace with the outlay, and when that's no longer possible then things have to change, as I know very well.'
*Oh, Abuelo, I'm sorry!' Kirstie was close to tears as she looked at him, but indignation still burned behind the misty blueness of her eyes. 'But that can't be the case with the Montanes,' she insisted, *they have plenty of money and they don't need to do it! They have business interests all over the world and all of them thriving, they don't need any more! They bought Casa de Rodriguez as a home and somewhere to run the estate from, not to turn it into a paradoreV
'We really don't know what their original intention was,' Don Jose pointed out quietly, 'and they already own several hotels, you know.'
'Then they don't need to turn our home into one— they can't!'
'My dear, they can.' He reached and patted her head, but although outwardly he appeared resigned to the inevitable, inwardly Kirstie knew he was as appalled and shocked as she was herself, 'There's no use at all upsetting yourself over it,' Don Jose went on. 'If it happens we shall just have to accept it as we have everything else that's happened.'
'But I am upset,' Kirstie insisted, and her blue eyes were dark with anguish at the thought of her beloved Casa de Rodriguez being invaded by casual holiday-makers. 'And I have no doubt at all who's behind this— this money-grubbing scheme.' Don Jose was already shaking his head, instinct telling him where she was placing the blame. 'It's Miguel,' she stated firmly, 'it has to be. It has his mark all over it!'
'Kirstie '
'I'm right!' Kirstie interrupted him bitterly, and she got to her feet because she simply couldn't go on sitting there any longer, feeling as she did. 'Oh, I know you'll defend him, Abuelo, because you look on him as a friend and he comes to see you, but I don't think you really know him like I do! He can be so—so kind when it suits him, and yet he goes and does something like this; you can't trust him!' She shook her head so forcefully that a curtain of black hair swished agitatedly from side to
side. 'Oh, Vm going out before I explode! Thank heaven it's a weekend and I don't have to go up there and work with them!'
'Kirstie, please take care, child!'
Her grandfather's warning turned the knife in the wound because it reminded her of how dependent they were on the generosity of the Montaiies, and Miguel in particular, for what little they still had, and her sudden laughter was short and bitter. 'Don't worry, Abuelo, I won't tackle Miguel right now, I know what harm that could do! I'm just going for a walk, that's all.'
In fact she had gone no more than a couple of hundred yards before some of her tension disappeared and she felt much less emotional. She regretted upsetting her grandfather with her outburst and when she got back she would tell him how sorry she was, and make him a promise to say nothing to Miguel about it. A promise she would do her best to keep, however difficult it proved to be.
Only when she had thought about it for some time did she recognise the bitterness of disappointment as one of the reasons for her being so upset, and the realisation lurked uneasily in the back of her mind as she walked through the orange groves. Miguel Montaiies was a practical man and a forceful one, but this latest proposition concerning the future of Casa de Rodriguez was something she found Iiard to forgive him for. She felt that in some curious way he had let her down, and it was a disconcerting sensation she did not begin to understand, for he owed her neither loyalty nor explanation.
Since she had come to live permanently in Spain Kirstie wasn't an habitual walker, but at times like this it served to work off her anger, and eventually her thoughts drifted on to other things. Luis occupied a great deal of her free time and she was aware that it pleased her grandfather, though she chose to disregard his reason. What did make her rather uneasy was the way Miguel seemed to watch them whenever they were
together. Almost as if he was trying to determine just how far their relationship had progressed, and although she c6uldn't decide whether he approved or not, she found his interest oddly disturbing.
She was so preoccupied that she nearly tripped over a fallen branch lying in her path, and she bent and picked it up automatically, swinging it in one hand as she went on walking. Fortunately her encounters with Rosa Montanes had been brief and infrequent, but so unpleasant that Kirstie did her best to avoid them.
According to Luis his cousin made no secret of the fact that she did not approve of a young and very attractive secretary coming to the house every day, but so far nothing had been said about changing the situation. And she hoped Rosa Montaiies would never a
ttempt to pressure him with that malignant threat of blackmail she had mentioned. Enrique loved his granddaughter.
When she reached the end of the orange grove Kirstie decided it was time to turn back. On foot one's view was much more restricted, but even so it was possible to see some distance in every direction, and it was the sight of something unexpected standing among the twisted grey olive trees across on the other side of the dividing track that caught her eye and made her hesitate, frowning curiously.
She recognised Luis's gelding, a huge and unmistakable brute, but it was the way he stood, riderless and agitated, that drew her attention for as far as she could see there was no other living creature in sight. Even where she stood she could hear the animal's whistling snort of anxiety, and it was that which decided her to go and investigate.
There seemed to be something curiously ominous about the situation that sent little trickles of ice slipping along her spine, and she gripped the broken branch she carried even more tightly as she crossed from one section to the other. Probably it was nothing more than that Luis had dismounted and was checking on something, leaving the gelding to its own devices for a few minutes,
but it was the animaFs behaviour that made her scalp prickle as she approached it, because it was noticeably anxious.
It shifted its feet restlessly, thudding them alternately on to the dusty earth, and its eyes rolled back as she came nearer, its neck arched and nostrils flared and quivering. Knowing its uncertain temper, Kirstie approached it cautiously, but it seemed almost willing to welcome her and she spoke to it softly and reassuringly, venturing to rub a hand over its sleek neck while she looked around for a sign of its absent rider.
'Suli, good boy.' The rein, she noticed, lay across the saddle and was not trailing as it would have been if the rider had simply dismounted and walked away for a few minutes, and again Kirstie shivered slightly. 'Why are you alone?' she whispered, and the animal pricked up its ears. 'Who was '
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