The Overlord

by Susanna Firth

  And she had taken the other dress that the saleswoman had produced from a nearby rack. This one was in her favourite pink and differently styled. Less daring than the white dress, it had a certain flair to it, nevertheless, and it would be ideal if her father did carry out his intention of doing more entertaining. She could see herself as a gracious hostess, presiding over a table of guests. It was the sort of outfit that gave one confidence, she decided, although the sum total named for the two dresses nearly took her breath away.

  'It will be worth it, seňorita,' the saleswoman assured her. 'You will have pleasure wearing those dresses, and they will be much admired.'

  It was to be hoped so, Verity mused as she collected her parcels together and made her way slowly back to the car. After a rapid calculation she reckoned that she probably had about five pesos left out of what her father had given her—not enough to buy even a handkerchief if she had wanted to. She put her bundles in the back of the car and settled into the driver's seat. Surprisingly, she wasn't tired, and even the prospect of the long drive home did not daunt her. If anything she felt almost exhilarated by her buying spree, sure that she had done well.

  She eased out of her parking place, well pleased with herself. She had done all she had set out to do and she would be home in plenty of time. As the miles flew by she was in a fair way to thinking that the world was not a bad place, and she broke into a song as she made her journey back to Vista Hermosa. Already her mind was going ahead to the evening when she would wear her white dress to stun Ramón. He would see her as a woman then, not as a little girl. He would treat her as he treated his sophisticated girl-friends in the capital. He would admire her. He would forget Isabel, lost in admiration for the new Verity, the girl he had disregarded until now, when she blossomed forth.

  It was an enjoyable daydream. So enjoyable that Verity didn't pay her usual attention to details such as the inner workings of the car. She had meant to stop for petrol just outside Córdoba. She had noticed the fuel gauge this morning as she drove in and had made a mental note to fill up the tank before she set out on the return trip. She had made sure she had left enough in her purse to pay for it. Now, when the car coughed twice and slowed down, then coughed again and coasted to a halt, she did not need to look far to discover the reason.

  She was miles from anywhere, and certainly miles from the nearest petrol pump. It was too far to walk, even if she could remember in which direction the petrol station lay. She had passed one somewhere along this stretch of road, but she didn't know quite where. There was nothing to do except sit back and wait in the hope that a passing car would offer help. Verity looked at her watch and groaned. So much for a speedy journey home, she thought ruefully.

  CHAPTER TEN

  'What's the trouble? Can we do anything for you?' A small blue Volkswagen drew to a halt beside Verity's car and the driver got out and came over to her. The other occupants of his vehicle, obviously the rest of his family, leaned out of their windows and speculated as to what was wrong.

  She was lucky, really—incredibly lucky only to have been waiting for half an hour on this lonely stretch of road before someone came along. She didn't doubt that help would be forthcoming. That was the code in these parts where accidents and breakdowns were commonplace and aid was freely given by fellow travellers who knew that it might be their turn to know misfortune on their next trip.

  'You wouldn't have any petrol to spare, I suppose?' she asked. Thank goodness she had attracted a family man rather than a roadside Lothario! For some men a girl on her own would be considered fair game, and she had dreaded the possibility of having to fight off someone who was over-anxious to press his attentions on her.

  'Only enough to get me to the nearest gasolinera myself. It's about another five miles up the road. But you're welcome to a lift as far as there, if you like.'

  'That would be marvellous,' Verity accepted gratefully. There seemed to be about half a dozen children packed in the car, as well as an immensely plump lady who was probably their mother. It was going to be a tight squeeze. But they made room for her obligingly after she had locked her own car carefully and joined them. In no time at all they were drawing up at a set of petrol pumps and she was able to explain her dilemma to the garage attendant.

  'Can we drive you back?' Refuelled and ready for the road again her rescuer came over to see if she was all right.

  'I'll be a while yet, thanks.' Verity indicated the search that was going on for a suitable container for her to take her petrol back to the car. She only wanted enough to get her back here in order to fill up properly, but, on his own in charge of the place, the attendant had been rather thrown by her request. He thought that he had a suitable container for her, but he wasn't sure where he had put it. 'You'd better not wait. You want to be on your way, I'm sure,' Verity said reluctantly at last.

  The little man looked distressed. He wanted to help, but was equally clearly wanting to be on his way. Finally, after more lengthy protestations, he allowed himself to be persuaded and left, his family waving cheerfully to her as they drove away.

  It was another hour before Verity got back to her car. She asked the garage man to drive her, but he wouldn't. 'Es impossible, seňorita,' he assured her, disappearing to answer a phone that had been ringing continuously for the last ten minutes. He was on his own here, he could not leave the gasolinera unattended. She would have to get a lift.

  She did, and found herself driving back to her car in the cab of a long-distance truck whose driver had wandering hands. Verity was sick with relief when she managed to extract herself unmolested from his company. She sat for a few moments in her car, recovering from the experience. She was certainly sampling life today, she thought, when she finally braced herself to put her key in the ignition and drove off again.

  She frowned when she was finally on her way again, the car filled with petrol and the empty container restored to the garage man. She had certainly set off in plenty of time, but now it was clear she was going to be late home. It would be dark long before she reached Vista Hermosa and she would have to slow down and drive carefully to avoid accidents. Her father might be worried about her. And Ramón would no doubt be furious, assuming that she had done it on purpose, deliberately ignoring what he had said to her.

  Perhaps she should have phoned from the gasolinera and let them know. That would have been the best thing to do. Verity bit her lip anxiously. Why hadn't she thought of that at the time? Well, it was too late now. If there were storms ahead, she would just have to meet them head on and hope that matters weren't too bad. Surely even Ramón would be prepared to' listen to a rational explanation? She would get her oar in first, explain to him what had happened. It would be all right, she thought optimistically.

  When she drove carefully up the unmade track to the estancia and came to a halt by the house she got a fair indication of the trouble ahead of her. The front door opened, letting a blaze of light flood out on to the steps and outlining Ramón's tall figure, dark and strangely menacing as he waited there for her to get out of the car and approach him.

  She could not see the expression on his face, but something about the taut stance that he took told her that he was furious. Verity shivered. It looked as if there was going to be no opportunity for reasonable excuses. She had a feeling that he wasn't in the mood for listening. For a few seconds she sat there, almost scared to stir from the driving seat. Then she pulled herself together. After all, the man couldn't eat her! She turned and collected her parcels from the back seat, then got out. She would brazen it out somehow, she resolved.

  His first words to her were not exactly encouraging.

  'Where the hell have you been?'

  She stood on the second step up to the verandah, able now that she was near him to see the anger in his face. Somehow she did not feel like venturing any farther. 'I've been to Córdoba,' she said. 'You knew that.'

  'I also knew that you were told to get back at a reasonable time.'

  'You
mean you ordered me to!' she flared.

  'All right. So why didn't you obey orders?'

  'Perhaps I didn't choose to,' she said furiously. 'I'm not obliged to. You're not my keeper, you know.' She went up the steps and stood directly in front of him now. 'Would you please let me pass?' she asked him coldly, when he showed no sign of moving aside for her. 'I'm tired and I'm fed up, and the last thing that I want at the moment is a slanging match with you on the front doorstep. Do you mind?'

  'Not at all.' Ramón stood back with exaggerated politeness. 'Come in, Verity. My apologies for keeping you waiting out there.'

  After she had walked past him into the hall, she heard the door slam behind her with a crash that shook the place. She had some notion of retreating to her room and locking the door, but even as she started in that direction she heard rapid steps and felt his rough grasp on her arm, seizing her in a hold that was like an iron band around her.

  'I haven't finished with you yet,' he told her.

  She faced him, her chin raised in defiance of him. 'I don't think there's anything that I want to say to you. So, if you'll excuse me—'

  There was a white line round his mouth as if he was having trouble keeping his anger in check. It was strange that she had never seen him lose control like this before—except when he had wanted to make love to her. And she knew for a certainty that love was far from his mind at the moment.

  'There's plenty I want to say to you,' he told her. 'That's if I don't give way to my first impulse, which is to twist that spoilt little neck of yours.'

  'I don't have to take this sort of behaviour from you!' she raged. Impotently she wrestled with him, trying to free her wrist from his hold. 'Will you let go of me?'

  'No.'

  'Where's my father? Why isn't he here?' If there had been anyone else in the house the sound of two people shouting at the tops of their voices would surely have brought them running to find out what on earth was going on. It must sound as if murder was being done! Perhaps it would be before Ramón was finished with her. He was in a filthy mood.

  'He's not here.'

  'What do you mean? Where is he?' Verity was suddenly worried. 'Has something happened? Is he all right?'

  'Oh, he's fine. It's nice of you to think about him, though,' said Ramón with heavy sarcasm. 'You callous little bitch! Why didn't you ring and let us know you were going to be late? Your father was getting anxious and I was—'

  'I can imagine you shedding tears over my non-appearance,' Verity told him carelessly. 'Don't try and con me into thinking you were upset, for all that you were pacing the floor waiting for my return.'

  'You'd be surprised.' His face was still dark with anger, but he seemed to be less inclined to throttle her as he had threatened. 'I've been wondering whether to ring the police or check the hospitals for you.'

  She should have rung from the gasolinera—she acknowledged it now. Ramón and her father were right to have worried. She was over two hours later than they had expected, much later than she had imagined. Her anger died suddenly. 'I'm sorry,' she began.

  'That's good to hear.' He let her go and she stood there still clutching on to her parcels.

  An explanation had clearly to come now, although she felt that he would probably fly off the handle again when she admitted her stupidity. 'I ran out of petrol,' she muttered, and eyed him warily, expecting another explosion.

  He ran his hand wearily through his dark hair. 'I suppose it was only to be expected. Your father wondered if that could have happened, but I told him I didn't think even you would be that stupid. It seems I was wrong.'

  'Is that where Dad is? Has he gone out to meet me in the other car? Don't say I missed him somewhere on the road!'

  Ramón sighed heavily, whether at her stupidity or at the fact that her father had left him to cope with it she didn't know. He glanced at his watch. 'Your father,' he said distantly, 'is by now sitting at a table at El Caballo Blanco waiting with your dinner guests for you to turn up.'

  'My dinner guests? What are you talking about?'

  'I wanted him to tell you, but he said that it would be better as a surprise. I should have insisted on letting you know. I might have known something like this would have happened!' Ramón looked only faintly annoyed now. Obviously it wasn't all her fault, and his rage was no longer directed full at her. 'Your father arranged a small celebration dinner—mainly to be a birthday surprise for you, but partly to let people know the good news about Vista Hermosa. We invited about twenty people.'

  'Oh!' Verity was taken aback.

  'When there was no sign of you by eight o'clock I sent your father off to greet the guests and explain that we'd be arriving a little later. That reminds me, I'd better ring them now and let them know we're on our way. The restaurant's not far, we should make it by nine-thirty if we hurry.' He moved away from her, his hand going to the phone. 'But—'

  'But what?' he asked her impatiently. 'You'd better go and get changed, hadn't you? I assume that you're not proposing to go dressed as you are?' His scornful glance dismissed her pink outfit as clearly unsuitable for the occasion. '

  She supposed it was. Covered in dust and rather limp after a day in the city, it lacked the clean freshness that it had held this morning. For the first time she noticed that Ramón was wearing evening dress.. He looked devastatingly handsome and confident of himself in an outfit that had many men ill at ease. The dark suit fitted his figure superbly, the white of his silk shirt gleaming under the immaculate folds of his black tie. No man had a right to look that sure of his attraction for women, Verity thought. She wondered if Isabel would be one of the party tonight. She could be proud of her future husband.

  'I'll go and get ready,' she said. 'But—' There were questions she wanted to ask.

  'Well?' His finger ready to dial the number, Ramón turned to her again.

  She shook her head. 'Oh, it doesn't matter,' she said.

  'Good. Now hurry up, for God's sake.'

  The blazing temper had died, but it would leap to life again pretty quickly if she delayed too long over changing. She wouldn't put it past him to come to her room and help her if the mood took him. Verity washed quickly and then reached for clean underwear and tights. Automatically her hand went to the evening outfit that was hanging in her wardrobe.

  And then she remembered her new dress. She sorted feverishly through the pile of parcels that she had dropped heedlessly on the floor for the one bearing the right label and, tearing aside the swathes of tissue paper in which it was encased, she pulled the dress out. She held it up against her, wondering if she had made an expensive mistake. If she had, it was too late now Frantically she drew it over her head and let its graceful folds fall around her. She secured the zip and then studied herself in the mirror.

  No, it was all right. The magic was still there, making her gasp at the picture she made. If Isabel was there tonight, she would not have her usual satisfaction at queening it over Verity. In fact she might almost be put in the shade herself. Verity applied a little makeup and a careful outline of lipstick, not too much, to give her pale, excited face a little colour. Her hair behaved for once, lying in soft waves over her shoulders, the dark chestnut highlighted by the pure white of her dress.

  There—she was ready, and it had taken her only ten minutes. Even Ramón could not complain that she was slow. She thrust her feet into her new sandals and picked up her bag. On the way out of her room she could not resist another peep in the mirror—just to check that everything was all right and that her tights were not laddered, she assured herself. But it was not for that reason at all. She wanted to savour the new Verity. Her face stared back at her, her eyes darker and wider than usual and lit with an awareness that was new to them. She wasn't a scrubby little schoolgirl any more, she was a woman, and she liked the first sight of herself a good deal.

  She expected Ramón to notice the difference in her when she showed herself in the hall where he was waiting, but he made no comment, merely taking her b
y the arm and ushering her out of the door.

  'We'll be there in reasonable time after all,' he told her as he eased himself into the driving seat. 'Dinner's fixed for ten o'clock, so we'll only miss a round or so of aperitifs.'

  'You haven't told me who'll be there yet. Or is that a surprise too?'

  He ran through the list of names. Predictably most of them were neighbours or village folk and more her father's age group than hers, but there were a few young people that Verity knew and she liked them all. All, that was, except Isabel and her parents. She supposed that they had to be invited, it would have been rude to exclude them, but she wished with all her heart that she did not have to watch Ramón with the other girl. It cut like a knife to think of the two of' them together, happy and contented, their future together settled for all time.

  'Is the marriage date fixed yet, or are you still wondering if she's going to turn you down?' she asked abruptly, voicing what was in her mind.

  He gave a keen look and she wondered if he thought she was prying. 'Nothing's decided as yet,' he said briefly, and she had to be satisfied with that.

  She lapsed into silence after that and he seemed quite content to share it, his gaze never once leaving the road ahead to glance in her direction. So much for her big impact on him, Verity thought dismally. Compared with the sort of women he knew, compared with Isabel even, she would always look like a dowdy provincial.

  But if Ramón did not appreciate her, it was clear that other people did. When Verity entered the restaurant just in front of her escort there was an audible intake of breath, and not just from the party that was expecting her arrival. At least two of the men she passed muttered flattering comments as she passed. It was etiquette to pretend that one had not heard them, of course, but Verity felt her spirits lift all the same.

  'You're here at last, love!' Her father got to his feet and embraced her. 'I was beginning to get worried about you, you know, but Vance told me there was no need. He was sure there was a rational explanation.'