Being in charge of a business empire, its balance sheets and staff, certainly had its downsides – Luna knew that more than anybody. But to have denied himself so much, all his adult life, so many simple pleasures … and, most damaging of all, almost missing his only daughter grow up – that was a terrible loss that she could tell he felt keenly. He could never get those years back but she was determined that things would be different from now on. Maybe, he might be able to have a more hands-on, carefree relationship with his grandchildren, she mused, and she found herself growing warm inside at the thought.
She went over to him and he put an arm around her waist. ‘Ah Luna, you’ve got one heck of a Spanish family here,’ he said, smiling broadly. ‘I no longer have the slightest worry about your living here. Not if you have this lot to watch your back.’
‘Oh, we will most certainly look after her,’ said Salvador graciously, his English impeccable, though with a strong accent. ‘In fact, you won’t be able to keep Alexandra and Luz away if you’re not careful, Luna. They’re fearful meddlers.’ This was said with a wink at Luz, who had just walked over to their group.
‘Papá, that is really not true,’ said Luz, laughing. ‘Don’t believe it, Luna. He’s just teasing.’
Montgomery Ward broke in now, hugging Luna close and giving her a resounding kiss on the cheek. ‘Well, all I know is what I see,’ he said, with a wink at Salvador. ‘Just look over there, Luna – your husband can hardly bear to have you out of his sight. I don’t think your in-laws will get much of a look-in, to be frank. Ruy will want you all to himself.’
‘I’ve no complaints about that,’ remarked Luna contentedly.
She looked over at Ruy, standing with his grandmother, Alexandra, and Chico, who were helping themselves to food from a trestle table under the plane trees. As if sensing her eyes upon him, he looked up and locked gazes with Luna. Then he raised an enquiring eyebrow, as if to say, I hope they’re behaving themselves. She gave a happy flash of a smile in return.
‘Ah, young love!’ Andrés spoke now. Luna reflected that his gypsy good looks must barely have weathered in all the years since he had met Luz. One could have taken him for Ruy’s older brother, rather than his father.
‘Oh, come on. You’re making me feel old!’ said Luz, laughter lighting up her eyes. She turned to Salvador. ‘As you always so rightly say, Papá, you’re as young as you feel.’
‘Oh yes, there’s plenty of life in this old goat yet,’ Salvador grinned. Luz laid a hand on her father’s arm and he bent his head to receive a feather-light peck on his cheek.
‘You will always be eternally young in my eyes, querida,’ Andrés said graciously. ‘You look as ravishing as you did when I first laid eyes on you.’
Luz dimpled, accepting the compliment happily. ‘Still, I can’t believe our little Ruy has just got married,’ she sighed. ‘It only seems like yesterday that he was making almendrados with Carmela at the kitchen table, creating all that mess. She was always so patient with him.’
For a moment her eyes wore a far-off look of nostalgia as she glanced across at her former housekeeper, who was deep in conversation with Morena. ‘Excuse me a moment, I’m going to join them. To be honest, I’m somewhat intrigued. Carmela’s never been entirely polite about our gitano friends, but she seems to be getting along like a house on fire with Morena. I’m so delighted.’
‘There’s nothing like a wedding to bring people together,’ said Montgomery, nodding sagaciously. ‘There’s not a person under the sun who won’t get along, given the right circumstances. Although I’m extremely glad, Luna, you haven’t asked your uncle and aunt Herrera. I never was enamoured of those two.’
Luna nodded. ‘You and me both,’ she said simply.
‘You can take it as read that all of us agree on that,’ Andrés couldn’t help adding. ‘Although I’m not sure Lorenzo Herrera would have been free to come anyway.’
‘Go on,’ said Montgomery, curious to know more.
‘Well, not that I want to spoil the mood of our celebrations, but I heard this morning that Herrera’s been arrested for some rather dubious financial practices. The word on the street is that this time his tax lawyers won’t have a hope in hell of getting him off. He’ll almost certainly do time.’
Luna couldn’t help a snaking feeling of jubilation winding its way through her. Maybe there was such a thing as divine justice after all, she reflected, although she swiftly berated herself for her superstition. No, the man had got his just desserts; it was no more or less than that. Lorenzo had no doubt been the cause of his own undoing, as many a crook before him. ‘Truth will out, and right will prevail’, wasn’t that what Grandma Ward always used to tell her?
Added to that was a feeling of relief, which surged through her suddenly. If her uncle had caused his own downfall, there would be no need for Ruy to get involved in a vendetta. Luna had felt sure that, true to his impulsive gypsy blood, he would conceive of some act of venganza when the occasion presented itself but, as she knew only too well, at the end of the day it wasn’t necessarily the worthy or wronged party who succeeded in coming out on top. All she wanted now was never to have to see or talk of the Herreras ever again. Then, as if everyone else was in perfect accord with her sentiment, the conversation moved smoothly on to other, happier, matters.
Luna moved to join Ruy, drawn to his side with a compulsion that she found so exciting, as if an invisible elastic string joined her to him irrevocably. At her approach he turned, as if he too could sense her presence with that almost supernatural power that bound them together. Alexandra had broken off her conversation at Luna’s approach and the old lady’s eyes twinkled with unrestrained joy as she looked at the bridal pair.
‘Thank you for making my grandson so very happy,’ she said, clasping Luna’s hands in her own. ‘I knew from the moment I saw you in your silver moonlight costume that you were sent, almost by some divine providence, to bring joy into his life.’
‘I’m the fortunate one,’ said Luna simply, locking eyes with her husband, whose azure gaze held a wealth of tenderness. ‘I didn’t know what love or joy was until he showed me.’
‘That is just how I felt when I met Salvador,’ Alexandra happily exclaimed. ‘It is a gift not bestowed on everyone, so we all have a good deal to be thankful for.’
Ruy gave his grandmother an enormous hug that took her breath away.
‘Thank you for receiving Luna into our family with such openheartedness, Abuela. I told her everyone would love her.’
‘Ah, Ruy!’ exclaimed Alexandra, with a tinkling, almost girlish laugh that could not have changed at all over the decades, Luna supposed. ‘Our family may have got itself into various scrapes and blood feuds over the years, but there’s one thing for certain: we’ve always known how to love.’
The festivities were still going strong when, at three in the morning, Luna and Ruy decided it was time to take their leave. As custom required, Ruy had parked his car away from the festivities, in Cádiz; and so the couple clambered into the bridal gig, festooned with flowers and drawn by two beautiful white horses. Followed by gitanas snapping their fingers louder than castanets and gitanos dancing and singing at the top of their lungs, the procession marched down the hill and through the narrow streets of the sleeping town until they reached the decorated vintage Austin.
The convoy of merry gypsies waved them off and, when it was out of sight, Ruy stopped the car. Silently, his eyes met Luna’s, intent and glittering; her glossy lips parted invitingly, her honeybrown gaze hot with desire. He pulled her towards him almost savagely, his strong arms wrapping possessively around her, and took her mouth avidly.
‘I’ve been wanting to do this all evening,’ he murmured finally, his burning lips still against hers. ‘But I’m afraid we’re going to have to wait a little longer, querida. There’s a surprise waiting for you, and unfortunately, it’s three hours’ drive away. Do you mind?’
Luna laughed. ‘A few hours more shouldn’t hurt too m
uch. Haven’t you always told me pleasure is enhanced by anticipation?’
He dragged her back to him, his mouth on fire against hers, his tongue invading the soft wet warmth rapaciously. She moaned and he felt her melt beneath his onslaught.
‘Incredible,’ he muttered as he drew back, shaking his head. ‘What you do to me is unbelievable.’ He looked sheepishly at her kiss-bruised lips and trailed his fingers over them. ‘You turn me into a wild beast, Luna. Forgive me if I’ve hurt you.’
She looked up at him, cheeks fiery, eyes glazed with desire. ‘Do I look like someone who’s hurting?’ She smiled. ‘Let’s go now or we’ll never get to my surprise. Where is it? What is it?’
‘As one of your poets once wisely said, Longfellow, I think it was: “All things come round to him who will but wait.”’
Her eyes sparkled mischievously as her hand went to the back of his neck to stroke it. ‘And as our former President, Woodrow Wilson, said: “All things come to him who waits – provided he knows what he is waiting for,”’ she retorted with a grin, pleased with herself for being so quick off the mark.
Ruy laughed, a deep, hoarse sound tinged with a raw kind of hunger. ‘You’re so bright, so beautiful, so wonderful, so sexy,’ he said. ‘And if you don’t stay still in your seat and go to sleep, we’ll either have an accident or I’ll have to stop the car and put myself out of my misery.’
‘All right, I’ll try to get some sleep, but promise to wake me when we arrive.’
‘Of course!’
Luna took off her veil, undid her hair and pushed her seat back to settle herself comfortably. Though excited, she was nevertheless tired. Perhaps Carmela had been right about her relaxing more before the wedding. The movement of the car rocked her as she let her thoughts wander happily, and she drifted off into a deep sleep.
* * *
As the vintage Austin glided elegantly through the peaceful night towards Jaén the roads were deserted. Sleepy moonlit towns and villages fled by like ghosts, one after the other, under the pearly gaze of the thin, lustrous crescent moon. In the indigo sky, stars trembled, yet their music was strong like the voice of love and passion travelling through darkness from some unknown world.
Ruy drove fast but carefully, lost in thought. It was by a stroke of luck that, shortly after Luna had told him wistfully about her childhood memories of an old mill surrounded by olive trees, he had come across an advertisement in El Periodico de Andalucía, which was offering an olive grove for sale in Jaén. When he had enquired about it, he’d found that it was actually Olivar, the property of which Luna had spoken so longingly.
For some time he’d been thinking of buying an olive grove, but one closer to home. However, when he’d seen the advertisement, because he was already obsessed with Luna, the idea of buying something that had left such an impression on her as a child excited him; it was like owning a little piece of her, he told himself.
So, in the week before little Luis’s christening at the camp, he’d flown down to Jaén to have a look at the property, which nestled peacefully at the edge of a small village on the outskirts of the town. He had been charmed by the quaintness of the place and, though it was slightly neglected, he had at once seen all the possibilities it presented. True, it needed work, but the challenge was part of the attraction. The vendors were foreigners – Australians – and were eager to sell, and when he’d put in his offer, it had been accepted immediately.
His eyes slid across to the woman sleeping soundly beside him. A glow of warmth and pride washed over him and his heart swelled at the thought that one day soon she would bear his children. For him, there was no greater thing in life than having the woman he adored bring the fruits of that love into this world.
Epilogue
They had arrived at the old millhouse just as dawn was breaking. With his usual thoughtfulness, Ruy lifted the halfasleep Luna out of the car, carrying her into the house and up to the bedroom. Gently he relieved her of her clothes and pulled up the covers, making no move to make love to her, even though she would have fought her exhaustion had he done so. She slept all night in his arms, barely stirring.
Now Luna opened her eyes. A pleasant languor suffused her body and she stretched her arms contentedly. Ruy was sitting beside her on the bed, already dressed. He had brought her a cup of coffee.
‘Good morning, Señora Rueda de Calderón,’ he said with a lazy grin.
‘What time is it?’ she asked, smiling sleepily and sitting up to take a sip of the hot brew. Her eyes focused on the warm, exposed-brick walls, oak beams and charming rustic wooden furniture. ‘Where are we?’ she added, putting her cup down on the bedside table.
‘Here, put this on and I’ll show you,’ said Ruy, passing her silk kimono. She could sense that he was barely able to suppress his excitement.
A moment later, he had scooped her up in his arms and was carrying her to the window.
‘See for yourself.’
It was a wonderful, white summer day, the sky clear and cloudless. Clasped in the golden light of morning like the sweetheart of the sun, the millhouse bricks glowed a rich terracotta, kissed by its warm beams. Night dew still clung to the soil and made the plants glisten. Birds called to one another and the butterflies and bees were already at work.
The glorious lamp of heaven washed the roofs and hillsides with clarity, in a kind of dreamy and magical light; the countryside stretched to infinity in all the freshness of a new Eden.
At first, Luna didn’t realize where she was, imagining that Ruy had booked them into a hotel. Yet when she looked outside, she slowly recognized the hilly landscape with its endless olive trees, their boughs black and crooked. The sun streamed down, creating bright patches between the trees, its light streaking across the silver-green groves. She instantly burst into tears.
Olivar. The place of her happy childhood memories.
‘Don’t cry, Luna.’ Ruy gently wiped her cheeks with the back of his hand. ‘I bought it for you, mi amor. For us,’ he told her, with stars lighting his eyes.
How had he remembered? How had he found it? He’d bought it? Ruy was amazing! Life was wonderful.
‘But what if it hadn’t worked out between us?’ she said, sniffing, too stunned to think.
He dropped a kiss on the tip of her nose.
‘That was never an option, querida, you know that. Legends never lie. It worked for my grandparents and, after that, for my parents. I had no reason to think it would not work for us too. I always knew you were my love, my destiny.’
His eyes darkened as his hand went to her hair, which hung loosely around her shoulders, running his fingers through its pale softness. Nuzzling into it, he bent to kiss her throat as his hand sought hers. Luna sighed with pleasure as her pulse accelerated, and she let Ruy lead her to the bed. Her kimono slipped to the ground and she lay back, heat suffusing her body.
He stood there motionless, staring down at her. He could have been a statue but for the gleam of raw desire glittering in his ocean-blue eyes, watching the pink hue flush her naked body as it came to life and bloomed with her need for him. Oh, every inch of her flesh knew that look and was instantly reacting to its fire, each nerve-ending in her body sparking into life.
A ripple of sensation made her shiver and she stared up at him, burning for his lips, desperate for his touch; yet still he made no move, his eyes ranging over her in a sweet, teasing torture, commanding her thighs to quiver and her breasts to harden to aching points, the core of her begging for his possession.
Gazing intently into her eyes as she lay so vulnerable in front of him, her body denuded of all inhibition and pretence, he was ignited by the flames of her desire and, unfastening the buttons of his shirt, proceeded to strip himself of his clothing.
One by one he removed each item, purposely taking his time, his movements slow, erotic, intentionally making her wait. He watched her pupils dilate with excitement until her irises seemed almost black, the amber in them having very nearly disappeared.
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She felt exquisitely feminine under his masterful gaze, a restless urgency to be possessed by him burning between her legs. It was his usual game of anticipation, a most powerful aphrodisiac that worked each and every time.
This would be their first time as man and wife and the thought made Luna almost sigh with joy. How much longer was he going to make her wait? She could see the swell of his arousal rising as expectancy grew stronger in both of them. He was flaunting the stark evidence of his desire for her shamelessly, knowing full well what it was doing to her. She could see that he was hard, so hard; he wanted her just as much as she wanted him and, instinctively, she parted her thighs to receive him.
She was naked and wanting, her eyes pleading. Couldn’t he see that her breathing was accelerating, every limb quivering?
And then suddenly, with a groan, he was near her. ‘Dios, Luna, you drive me insane!’ he rasped silkily. ‘I’m going to touch you, kiss you, taste you, relish every part of you and then, when your need for me is so overpowering and you can’t stand it any more, I will possess you in every way I know until I fulfil your every need and you’re completely saturated with my love.’
The images his words conjured up almost devastated the last vestiges of Luna’s control. She parted her legs, desperate for him to fill her, and he started to move deliciously against her silky wetness with his rigid arousal, driving her wild until she moaned against his mouth, pleading wordlessly for relief.
But Ruy hadn’t finished with her yet. He moved away from her moist feminine curls, tearing a sob of protest from her throat and, with the febrile need of an addict, his lips, tongue and hands began their sensuous and audacious exploration of her lean and graceful body, his touch alternating between tenderness and fierce, demanding passion, sending shivers of agonizing pleasure racing up and down her spine. Drunk with arousal, she surrendered to his voluptuous onslaught, trembling, her amber eyes glazing over with the power of her desire, relishing his caresses; delighting in his love.
Legacy Page 48
