The Black Invader

by Rebecca Stratton

  'You think we should go on housing a thief?*

  The condemnation was so harshly said that she felt a shiver flutter along her spine for a moment. Then she recalled his having once told her that he had been obliged to dismiss one of the women for stealing, and how annoyed he had been at her reaction. It seemed he still saw her as condoning the woman's dishonesty.

  'You told me about a woman you'd dismissed for stealing,' she said in a rather small voice. 'Is she the one?' Miguel nodded without turning or speaking, and Kirstie shifted uneasily. 'I—I didn't know that when I promised to do what I could for her.'

  'And who were you going to ask for help, Kirstie?'

  The quietness of his voice stirred alarming responses in her, and she moistened her lips anxiously before she answered him. 'Senor Montafies,' she said, then spoke up hastily in her own defence because she knew how he would blame her for not making him her object of appeal. 'He is the senior partner.'

  'And you'd rather go to the devil himself than ask me for anything, wouldn't you, Kirstie?'

  He still didn't turn and look at her, but the gelding's glossy coat flinched from the hard strokes of the hay-wisp, and she could see how tightly he held it. Her heart was thudding urgently and her eyes had a darkly defensive look as she watched him, but she couldn't let herself be beguiled again, not when she knew how bitterly he could disappoint her.

  'It—it seemed hke the logical thing to do,' she murmured, both *hands clasped around the edge of the wooden partition and her cheek resting on her hands. 'Senor Montaiies is my employer, after all.'

  Miguel ignored her, giving his whole attention to the gelding, and the strained silence eventually became un-

  bearable. The logical thing to have done would have been to leave him and go back to the house, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to do that, and instead stood watching him, her mouth pursed reproachfully.

  Then the stallion on the other side of the partition stamped his feet and snorted impatiently, tired of waiting his turn, and Kirstie reacted with the same impulsiveness she so often did. 'I might as well take care of Hassan,' she said. *At least I can get his saddle off.'

  'No, Kirstie, leave it!'

  The warning was so brusque and authoritative that just for a moment Kirstie heeded it instinctively, and stopped just around the corner of the partition. But there was no reason why she couldn't cope, for she had been taking tack on and off horses for most of her life, and although the stallion was a bit bigger than average there was no reason why she couldn't lift off his saddle.

  Presumably Miguel had assumed she would obey, for after a moment or two of listening silence she again heard the hay-wisp in action and slipped alongside the stallion in his stall. Undoing the buckle of the girth-strap was easy, but reaching up to take off the saddle, she discovered, required more height than she had, and it was heavy. She might have got away with it even so, if the animal hadn't shifted suddenly in his impatience and put her off balance. With a cry of surprise she fell forward and landed face down between the horse's feet, with the saddle wedged uncomfortably underneath her.

  'Kirstie!' Miguel came round the end of the partition and grabbed her swiftly from between the stallion's restless hooves, then pinned her back against the partition and glared at her with fierce dark eyes. 'In the name of all that's holy, what are you trying to do?' he demanded, and added as an afterthought, 'Are you hurt?' Breathlessly Kirstie shook her head, but he thrust a hand under her chin and forced her head up so that he could look into her face. 'Are you sure?'

  'I'm quite sure, thank you.'

  Her voice was husky and shivered with uncertainty, but that had as much to do with his being so close as with being pulled around, and as he peered into her face and frowned, his mouth hovered much too close for comfort. 'He could have trampled all over you, do you realise that?' he asked. 'Why didn't you do as I said and leave him to me?'

  'I—I don't know.'

  Her voice wavered unsteadily and her breast rose and fell with the unevenness of her breathing, and as he leaned towards her his body touched hers with a Hght evocative touch that almost shattered her self-control. 'I do,' Miguel said softly. 'You just don't Hke doing as you're told, do you?'

  'There's no reason why I should,' Kirstie gasped in a last effort to keep control of the situation, but the pressure of his body holding her against the partition teased her unmercifully and she turned her head to avoid the hand under her chin. 'And I'm quite capable of unsaddling a horse, whether you believe it or not!'

  'Not an animal the size and strength of Hassan,' Miguel insisted, and she tried to jerk herself free when he placed his hands on her shoulders and held her firmly. 'Don't let me see you near him again, Kirstie, nor Suli either, they're both too big for you to manage, so stay with something your own size, eh?'

  'I was trying to help,' she insisted, and a faint smile touched his mouth for a moment.

  'I can manage,' he told her.

  'And so could I have done if the silly creature hadn't moved away,' Kirstie retorted. 'And I do wish you'd stop treating me like a sweet, helpless little five-year-old, Don Miguel—I'm getting a Httle tired of it!'

  His fingers pressed into her shoulders hard for a moment until she shrugged in protest and there was a gleam in his eyes that sent shivers all through her body. Still keeping his hold on her, he pulled her away from the proximity of the impatiently snorting stallion and out of the cramped confines of the stall, and she

  gasped when he pushed her roughly against the stone outer wall and kept her there with the pressure of his body.

  His face was so close that every word he spoke breathed warmly against her mouth and teased her senses until she looked up at him in mingled defiance and anticipation. 'Holy Mother,* he declared, 'no one could accuse you of being a sweet little anything! You're the most determinedly aggressive female I've ever met, and I'm tempted to sweeten your temper in a way you won't forget; I'm sure your grandfather would thank me for it! Why do you do it? I don't see you behaving Hke this with ray uncle or Luis!'

  The heat of his body was like a fire that drew her to it irresistibly until she actually felt the rippling muscles under the skin, and the hard, steady beat of his heart. They're—they're different,' she whispered, and widened her eyes in surpise when he laughed suddenly.

  'Would they like that?'

  His eyes had a faintly mocking and infinitely disturbing look and she shook her head, tossing her long black hair back and forth until it flicked across his face. A strand of it caught on the moistness of his lips and his eyes, heavy-lidded and black as jet, looked down at her steadily as he took the straying wisp and pressed it briefly to his mouth before brushing it back with the rest from her neck.

  SHding his hands around her, he drew her away from the wall and into his arms, and the touch of him kindled such a wild exultant joy in her that it forced a cry from her hps as he swept her against him. Just briefly something stirred in her brain that fought against the wild abandon of her response, but the moment Miguel took her mouth it was forgotten, swept away by the tumult of emotion that consumed her as she lifted her arms to encircle his neck.

  The vibrant force of his desire shivered through her and she clung to him, letting herself be swept along, unresisting and eager, burning with the same force that

  fired him. Not even the tread of booted feet on the stone sets outside meant anything for several moments, and then it was Kirstie who first became aware that they were no longer alone. She fought for breath to tell Miguel while he murmured wordless sounds in the muffling softness of her hair.

  * Miguel!' The harsh voice and imperious tone could only belong to Rosa Montaiies and as she heard it Kirstie's heart skipped in sudden panic.

  She used both hands to push Miguel away and looked at the woman standing in the open doorway of the stable, eyes blazing with fury and her hands tightly clenched. His hastily assumed calm would have fooled her if she had not been close enough still to feel the intensity of passion th
at still burned in him and made her tremble, and he put her from him with such obvious reluctance Rosa could not help but have noticed it.

  'Rosa?'

  If he intended questioning her reason for being there Rosa left him in no doubt. She darted quickly forward and grabbed a handful of Kirstie's hair, tugging viciously hard as she swung her round by it and almost brought her to her knees. 'Bitch!' she screamed in a harsh flat voice. 'You murderous, deceitful little bitch!'

  'Rosa, in God's name!'

  Miguel gripped both her hands and hung on, a bruising grip that must have hurt, but which served to make her let go, and his eyes burned as furiously as Rosa's did. Recovering slightly, Kirstie stood with both hands to her tingling scalp, staring in disbelief at the vengeful woman who now stood gripped in Miguel's relentless hold.

  'Kirstie.' He let go the other woman's hands and reached for hers, but Kirstie drew back out of reach.

  'Please don't!'

  How could she have been such a fool as to let herself become involved in a situation that was bound to have repercussions one way or another? She had promised

  herself it would never happen again, but she had succumbed as she had done before to the special kind of power that Miguel seemed to have, and now Rosa Montanes had even more reason to hate her. At the moment she found it very hard to think clearly and all she knew for certain was that she wanted to be as far away as possible from both of them. If she had need of proof that what Luis had said was true, Rosa had just demonstrated it; she meant to marry Miguel and she would fight tooth and nail to get him, and at the moment Kirstie didn't feel equal to the contest. She turned and hurried away, angry, hurt, and tearful.

  The story she told her grandfather was a httle less than the truth, for he knew by now how much Rosa Montanes disliked her, but the shock that awaited her on Monday morning when she reported for work was unexpected. It was Enrique who broke it to her that she was not to be allowed to visit the stables again and take out Scheherazade for their customary rides.

  *Vm very sorry about it, my dear,' Enrique told her, and she could not doubt that his regret was genuine. 'I know how you enjoy your riding, but Miguel agrees with me that it's for the best while my daughter-in-law is here. I'm sure you understand.'

  'Yes, of course I understand,'

  She had made no protest, laid no blame, for she knew just how much pressure would have been put on Enrique to get rid of her altogether, and she could only thank heaven that she at least still had her job. But to be forbidden to see her beloved horse was harsh punishment indeed, and she burned with resentment at the injustice of it. She had responded readily enough to Miguel's kiss, she couldn't deny it, but it had been Miguel who initiated the situation, and now it seemed he was in complete agreement with the decision to ban her from riding for as long as Rosa Montanes was around.

  There was little she felt she could say in her own defence to Enrique, but Miguel was another matter and

  she felt her anger and resentment rise again when she saw him the following morning as she arrived for work. He was on his way round to the stable, and that somehow added insult to injury, so that she glowered at him reproachfully from beneath heavy lashes as she came up.

  'I'm sorry about your riding,' he told her, 'but Tio Enrique was forced to take some kind of action and he couldn't bring himself to dismiss you from your job.'

  'And you were in agreement, of course!' Her indignation swelled to fury at the matter-of-fact way he spoke about it, mostly because it seemed he was to get off scot-free. 'I'm the natural choice for culprit, of course, being the outsider!'

  'In God's name,' Miguel exploded wrathfully, 'don't start feeling sorry for yourself again! You surely don't expect me to be banned from riding, do you, you foolish child, I have to get around, it's my job!'

  'Don't call me childV Kirstie told him furiously, and for a moment she wondered if he was gomg to hit her, he looked so angry.

  Running one hand through his hair, Kirstie realised he was keeping a very tight rein on his temper, and she wondered for the first time just how much blame he had had to take from his uncle, not to mention Luis. For Rosa, she thought, was unHkely to have kept it to herself. 'I understood from my uncle that you'd accepted the decision without fuss,' he said, and only a shghtly rough edge on his voice betrayed how he was feeling. 'He said you were very reasonable about it.' "^

  'You uncle didn't kiss me,' Kirstie declared in a huskily unsteady voice, 'you did! The result is I'm not allowed to take out Scheherazade any more while you can carry on as usual! You said when I came for my interview,' she reminded him,' that I wouldn't have to see you very often, and you don't know how much I wish it was true! I suppose it was because we—we were in the

  Stable your cousin thinks it's our customary meeting place and that's why she's had me banned from riding!'

  'Kirstie!'

  There was an odd roughness in his voice and his eyes gleamed at her darkly, but Kirstie had suddenly thought of an alternative and she couldn't resist letting him know it. 'Fortunately,' she went on, *you only own two of the horses; Suli belongs to Luis and I don't think he'll deny me the use of him if I ask him nicely.'

  'God in heaven,' Miguel breathed harshly, 'you'll do no such thing, you little fool, that damned gelding would break your neck! And if Luis has no more sense than to let you talk him round I'll see he's sorry for it, and you can tell him that! I'm sorry about your riding, but you and Rosa are far more likely to meet around the stable or when you're riding. You've seen what Rosa is capable of, so take my advice and keep out of her way, Kirstie, or I can't answer for the consequences; I may not be around the next time and you could really get hurt. I know you're not very good at accepting the inevitable, but in this instance try and be sensible about it.'

  So as far as he was concerned it was all cut and dried, but he hadn't once mentioned his own part in the incident leading to the ban, and that infuriated her. 'I shall ask Luis to let me have Suli,' she told him, her chin set stubbornly, 'and if you don't want me going round to the stable then Luis can meet me somewhere else. I presume there's no ban on Luis riding your horses, so he can take Scheherazade.'

  'Damn you, Kirstie, will you see reason and do as I say? Rosa can manage the gelding because she has stronger hands, she's stronger altogether than you are, but for God's sake stay away from him.'

  Instead of answering, Kirstie turned and walked towards the house feeling him watching her every inch of the way, her legs oddly unsteady when she considered her triumph. Luis wouldn't deny her the use of his horse; he'd never Hked Rosa much anyway and they didn't have to meet in the stable. She heard the hard tread of

  booted feet walking away as she went into the house, but she didn't turn and look, only wondered why she felt so much Hke crying suddenly.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  It was nearly a week since Kirstie had been able to ride and she missed it even more than she realised she would. She was very disappointed in Luis too, for his expected readiness to let her ride the gelding in defiance of the ban had not materialised, and although he would probably deny it indignantly, she suspected the reason was because he was fearful of deliberately crossing Miguel.

  When he heard of the cause of the ban, initially he had behaved very much like a jealous novio, and for a man who had declared he had no intention of marrying her it wasn't the reaction she looked for. She hoped she had eventually convinced him that the kiss Rosa Mon-tafies had made so much fuss about was nothing like as important as her jealousy made it seem. But still there was a brooding dislike m Luis's dark eyes sometimes when they rested on her, that suggested a small doubt might still Hnger.

  It was because there was less likelihood of their being interrupted that Luis had come down to the barraca during the long lunch break to see her, and although there was less space to lose themselves in, the little patio garden was lush enough to provide privacy. Her grandfather was unlikely to put in an appearance because he still nurtured the hope of a match between them, an
d there was no chance of Miguel coming upon them.

  Their conversation was along the inevitable lines, and in the circumstances Kirstie supposed Luis was very patient. 'Apart from anything else,' he told her as they sat together on a wooden bench just inside the patio gate, 'there's the risk, Kirstie; Suli's a brute and he's no respecter of persons.'

  Never one to let go easily, Kirstie persisted. 'But Rosa still rides him,' she pointed out, to which Luis's reply was dismayingly similar to Miguel's.

  *Rosa is quite different from you. She's stronger and bigger altogether; Suli would toss away a little creature like you and never even notice it.*

  Luis kissed her cheek lightly, then turned her towards him and sought her mouth, but Kirstie had other things in mind and her response was absent. 'You're sure you're not simply afraid of what Miguel will say?' she suggested, and knew she had hit the nail on the head when she saw the way he reacted.

  His head jerked up swiftly and his eyes gleamed with resentment, for he had the Spanish male's traditional sensitivity when his courage was questioned. 'I'm afraid of no one!' he informed her, and Kirstie took him up on it at once.

  'Then let me have Suli!'

  He got to his feet, looking very much like Miguel as he stood there for a moment regarding her steadily and with a trace of exasperation in his eyes. But when she got to her feet as well, he sighed and took her face between his two hands, leaning towards her so that his mouth was tantalisingly close, and his voice was low and slightly husky. 'Why do you plague me so about that damned brute?' he asked. 'Is it just so that you can get the better of Miguel?'

  'Partly.' Kirstie admitted it with a breathless little laugh. 'Although he'd more than likely heave a great sigh of relief if Suli did break my neck, because I'd be out of his hair once and for all.'

  As if she had meant it seriously, Luis considered the suggestion gravely for a moment, then shook his head. 'Miguel doesn't kiss girls he doesn't like, and from the way Rosa described it, Miguel wasn't simply giving you a kindly kiss of consolation this time.' He was frowning again and there was a small flutter of reaction in Kirs-tie's heart that was infinitely disturbing. 'I'd like to know exactly what did happen, Kirstie; I don't like the situation any more than Rosa does, to be honest, and I can't